Larger Raft

[Dawson Pate]

Something i think that should be added is a the ability to make a fairly large raft. I know sailboats are in the game but im talking about a floating object that could potentially hold multiple items and possible do a small build on it. I would love to have a slight nomad style of life and that kind of thing would fit so nicely. could have a small shack on it and do things while out on the water like a water home. it would have to be nerfed though like it is slow as all get out since moving something like that which is not very hydrodynamic. also side note for things like sailboats, it would be very interesting to incorporate things like drifting and requiring an anchor to be tossed in order to keep one (or the large raft) from drifting very far.

[LadyWYT]

Welcome to the forums(and the game as well)! I think this kind of idea is best suited to the sailboat, or a larger ship. I recall seeing an idea floated a while back for larger ships that had a proper interior cargo hold/living quarters as a sort of pocket dimension, but I don't know if that will ever be implemented into the game or not. A raft is better suited as the small, somewhat crude watercraft that we have already; convenient for exploration, but not something you want to be relying on long-term for serious water transportation.

[unknown1true]

I somewhat agree, but before anything new is added I would like to see the current watercraft fleshed out a bit more in terms of functionality. Physical collisions with the boat would be nice, I want to be able to set my boat to go a direction, loose the sails and walk about it. Once I can see something like that, bigger rafts, DEFINETLY canoes, and bigger boats would be nice.

[Dawson Pate]

Yeah I definitely want to see the current sailboat fully fleshed out as well before new additions start occupying the same space. This is more of a future thing if it ever even would happen. A massive flat watercraft to do a small build on is not an unrealistic thing and could provide some good opportunities for even things like an ocean survival type thing assuming the underwater gets nicely fleshed out as well and includes things like wrecks or sunken old ruins

[JYAR]

I kind of agree somewhat as it would be nice to have some more variety before working up to the sailboat. Maybe take inspiration from the native americans and introduce canoes or kayaks or you could go the european route and make a skiff. Either way, I feel like there needs to be more fleshing out of the mid-game i.e. once you start using planks. Also, why have a crude oar if I can't make a nomal oar with planks and fat???

[Dawson Pate]

4 hours ago, JYAR said:

I kind of agree somewhat as it would be nice to have some more variety before working up to the sailboat. Maybe take inspiration from the native americans and introduce canoes or kayaks or you could go the european route and make a skiff. Either way, I feel like there needs to be more fleshing out of the mid-game i.e. once you start using planks. Also, why have a crude oar if I can't make a nomal oar with planks and fat???

right. its just this massive leap straight from basic raft that is no better than a boogieboard to a full sailboat . . . some form of middle man would be a solid thing (though for me it would still be a larger raft, u could literally just tie a massive around of logs together and call it a day)

[Nagahiro]

On 6/27/2025 at 5:52 AM, LadyWYT said:

convenient for exploration, but not something you want to be relying on long-term for serious water transportation.

a way to mitigate that is to have it so rafts can be damaged in a way or have a "weight limit", too heavy and it can sink. or have strong waves at sea that could flip your raft

10 hours ago, Dawson Pate said:

right. its just this massive leap straight from basic raft that is no better than a boogieboard to a full sailboat . . . some form of middle man would be a solid thing (though for me it would still be a larger raft, u could literally just tie a massive around of logs together and call it a day)

once you're able to make planks you could make a much sturdier rowboat and better oars that can carry more items, like a couple wooden chests or barrels, and be more stable at sea perhaps

(also, it kind of bothers me that the sailboat doesn't require any waterproofing or caulking on the hull, lol, but that's getting off topic)

[LadyWYT]

5 hours ago, Nagahiro said:

(also, it kind of bothers me that the sailboat doesn't require any waterproofing or caulking on the hull, lol, but that's getting off topic)

Now there's an idea.

 

5 hours ago, Nagahiro said:

once you're able to make planks you could make a much sturdier rowboat and better oars that can carry more items, like a couple wooden chests or barrels, and be more stable at sea perhaps

This sounds better as an intermediate option that just a larger raft, in my option. Plus since it's a rowboat, you can use it regardless of wind speed. Not that wind speed affects the sailboat currently(to my knowledge), but that's something that may be subject to change in the future.

[Thorfinn]

7 hours ago, Nagahiro said:

(also, it kind of bothers me that the sailboat doesn't require any waterproofing or caulking on the hull, lol, but that's getting off topic)

So, just spitballing, you need, 20 oakum, which is flax treated with beeswax, and 30 pitch, which you get by cooking down resin, 4:1.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

2 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

This sounds better as an intermediate option that just a larger raft, in my option. Plus since it's a rowboat, you can use it regardless of wind speed.

There is already code to amplify the boat's speed as well depending on how many player seats are providing forward input into the boat's motion. Now if the boat had more than one control seat you could really zip along the surface in a paddled canoe making it a viable means of transporting several players across a body of water in a relatively short amount of time. There is also a mod for canoes that looks interesting, but I'm not sure I want to try it since my server only has two players on it...