Crylum Posted July 3, 2025 Report Posted July 3, 2025 (edited) For context This thread includes a first concept draft on how traveling with sailboats could be improved upon by making it possible for the player to construct canals, sluices and boat lifts. Please also see: related water mechnics ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Problem Most larger water bodies in the current world gen are rarely interconnected (unless you adjust the world gen setting at the beginning) and like @7embre mentioned: Quote In regards to [...] (the) sailboat canals, I had issue when one water body is higher or lower that the starting point, so my sailboat had to travel both upstream and downstream on it's way to the ocean, lol. Making those connections was both hard and tricky, as I needed to find a way for sailboat to not go aground while crossing each "step". ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Suggestion 1: Canals Requirement: Canal wall and floor will look like horizontally stretched U (see image below) Build area has to at least 2 (deep) by 6 (wide) blocks by 12 (long) * Has to be build in a straight line* Two sluice door need to be placed at the start and end of the canal* Common building material for canals in real life are compacted dirt, brick and concrete. Two of them we already have in the game, so no need for introducing new canal blocks, like I initial had planned. But I am pretty sure player would like to have more option, so I would say all solid blocks should be supported block (with some exceptions maybe)* *I will explain later why, I came up with these limitations, please see: Why all this limitations/requirements? (at the bottom of the comment) How it works: 1. Obviously you need to find a localtion 2. Prepare the building site (please keep size requirement in mind) 3. Place sluice door on both sides (make sure they are closed to keep the water out and that they aligned). I used the 2 by 2 door as a demonstration dummy, the sluice will need to be added as a new creatable item. Either made from wood or metal (Only the ones who are strong enough?) * closed sluice door * sluice door alignment 4. Excavate the entire canal - If case, you accidently open the sluice the water will flow inside using the base game water flow mechanic. It will not create an infinite water source. 5. Add canal wall and floor 6. Sluice need to be synced up (not sure how to do it, I am open for suggestions). This is importent to automatically fill up the canal. Once they are synced the sluice can be open (maybe by a level with gear box,/ pully system?), water will flow in an create pseudo water source block. If any of the sluice gets destroyed the pseudo water source will be removed (canal drys out). Adjacent water block will be able to flow into the canal but only using the base game water mechanic (flow limit of 6 blocks). 7. Have fun, prehaps add some light to make it easier to find you canals in the dark. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Suggestion 2: Sluice Connect two water bodies with different water level The overall setup stay the same, however the canal need to be way deeper Legend: blue = water brown = ground grey = canal wall and floor orange = sluice door * Inner canal chamber get filled. Use lever or some mechanic to in- or decreas water level * Lower sluice would not open unitl water is lowered ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Why all this limitations/requirements? Build area has to be 2 (deep) by 6 (wide) blocks: The sail boat needs at least 4 block (wide) and 1 block (deep) and 10 blocks (long) to function Has to be a straight line and Two sluice need to be placed at the start and end of the canal The game needs to have a way to determine if the canal/sluice it build correctly or not (without any holes) technical a canal should not need sluices, only of the initial setup, but I would like to keep it, as I wanted to prevent any abuse of the new water mechanics (no player made inifite water sources). If the sluice or any of the wall block are broken, the game should fall back to a "save state" -> canal dry out Syncing both sluice to another makes sure that both canal openings are aligned and connect to a none flowing water source block. System will than need to run a final check and fill the canal with water. In case of the sluice, it may fill the chamber to the lowest of the two water level as default Supported block: all solid block I would like to give the player the option color match the canals and sluice to already existing build or local terrain No stair or slaps or any other which you would not work in real life. A water tight building cannot be build out of loose gravel, sand etc. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Open question, problems to be solved Sluice should have some kind of drain (for lowering water level) and some water inlet block and control system Can/should the water in the canal/sluice freeze? Max. canal length @Crylum figure out the min length a sluice need to have to fit one sailboat. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ That all I have so far! Edited July 28, 2025 by Crylum Added missing Limitations 3
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