Space Engineers

Space Engineers

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Nautilus - Civilian Exploration Submarine
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Type: Blueprint
File Size
Posted
Updated
2.094 MB
24 May, 2022 @ 6:45pm
30 May, 2023 @ 7:37am
6 Change Notes ( view )
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Nautilus - Civilian Exploration Submarine

Description
Note 1: Created in and designed to work with Jakaria's Water Mod 3.0. No other scripts or mods are required.

Note 1b: For use outside of Jakaria's Water Mod, replace the remaining atmospheric thrusters with ion thrusters.

Note 1c: In the latest water mod, ion thrusters are forcibly turned off when submerged either partially or in whole. To turn ion thrusters back on, please see the Starlight Aquanautics - water mod patch.

Note 1d: In the latest water mod, crush damage at 400m and below appears to be overly severe. Vulnerable blocks break within seconds of reaching this depth. We do not recommend taking the Nautilus below 350m unless block damage is disabled in your world.

Note 2: Heavily dependant on DLC.

Note 3: Includes nontrivial subgrids. The ship can be operated without them, but you lose some utility.



The Nautilus
A long-range civilian exploration submarine for a crew of two.
Able to carry 300 metric tons of ores, she's more than capable of finding the next big dig - and possibly bringing it all back herself.
Propulsion and life support are fuelled exclusively by the water around you. When operated correctly, she is capable of indefinitely long excursions - both above and below the surface - limited only by your imagination.


Features:
  • Ice collectors, an h2/o2 generator, and two hydrogen engines - unlimited electricity and life support in water
  • An ore detector, a drill, two basic refineries, an assembler, and six small cargo - a full production loop
  • A survival kit for all your recovery needs
  • Spacious and easy-to-navigate interiors
  • An accessible helipad for small visitors
  • An observation deck
  • A mechanical room
  • A cozy mess hall
  • Two fully furnished crew quarters
  • A remotely operated camera

Specs:
  • Large grid, 410 blocks, 18 x 7 x 5 (not including interior turrets or antenna)
  • Surface speed: 24 m/s
  • Underwater speed: 14 m/s
  • Resurfacing speed: 2.65 m/s avg (not including cargo)
  • Diving speed: 1.30 m/s avg (not including cargo)

While designed for a two person crew, the Nautilus can be operated solo. However, the additional player can keep track of any unexpected depth changes, maintain an optimal amount of ice, perform spotting for landing/parking, and perform repairs on the fly while the pilot focuses on keeping the ship in control.

The Nautilus is designed to operate perpetually at sea. Carefully maintaining your ice collection will ensure that your batteries remain charged and your oxygen tank remains ready for repressurizing the main cabin. The hydrogen tanks are primarily meant for left-right balance, as are the interior turrets (via adding or removing their ammo).

In terms of utility, the Nautilus is equipped with a drill on a piston and hinge that can be controlled remotely. It also has a magnetic plate on pistons and a hinge for picking up small objects.

A helipad provides temporary refuge to a small airborne vehicle which can be resupplied with hydrogen and electricity. Powerful runway lights allow the Nautilus to be clearly seen from far away at night and/or in the fog.

In case of log out at sea, I would recommend parking the submarine on the sea floor (with the magnetic plates) to prevent the currents from moving your ship to unexpected locations while you are away.



Usage Notes
The most important part of a submarine is the ability to rise, maintain depth, or dive at will. The Nautilus achieves this with a combination of atmospheric thrusters and a large interior that can quickly change from buoyant chamber to dead weight, simply by opening or closing the hatch door on the roof.

To that end, there are a number of shortcuts available in both bridge seats. All 5 doors aboard the ship can be opened and closed remotely, while the downward thrust can be configured to fire constantly and at precise output levels. Buoyancy ratio is visible on the main dashboard of both bridge seats.

To dive deeper:
You want a buoyancy ratio less than 100% and your downward thrusters turned off.
  • Open the hatch door, left habitation door, and right habitation door
  • Turn off downward thrusters
  • Optionally open the bridge doors, remember to close your helmets tightly
  • Optionally load up on ice via the collectors
  • Point the remote camera downwards and watch for any unexpected sea floor

To maintain depth:
You want a buoyancy ratio close to 100% (but below slightly) and compensate with thrust override at low values.
  • Open the hatch door, close the habitation doors and close the bridge doors if buoyancy is higher than 100%
  • Set downward thrust override to the lowest non-zero setting
  • Increase downward thrust override until your depth is no longer decreasing
  • Optionally fill or empty the hydrogen tanks for precise control of buoyancy

To surface:
You want a buoyancy ratio above 100% and/or your downward thrust at full power.
  • Close the hatch door, optionally open habitation doors to make the cabin breathable
  • Turn off downward thruster override and turn on downward thrusters (at full force)
  • If laden with ores, set the flight deck connector to "throw out" and move excess ice to it - ice negatively impacts buoyancy - remember to turn off "throw out" before reaching the surface

When exiting the craft (on the surface):
Remember to close the hatch door behind you. With the hatch open, the Nautilus immediately loses a large amount of buoyancy.

Do not open habitation doors and hatch doors simultaneously if someone is sleeping in those quarters. :)




Thanks to JackRPG for featuring this ship in his videos!
28 Comments
CrimsonKNight_05 21 Mar, 2023 @ 7:44pm 
@Yokidamaru, Still, Thanks for clarifying things, God Bless to you and your nifty hands of yours!!!:selike::selike::selike:
Yokidamaru  [author] 21 Mar, 2023 @ 3:00pm 
Hey Crimson, apologies for the late reply. Visually, it will look like water is inside the sub; that's how the water mod works. Functionally, there's no water inside if the ship is air tight, and the ship is flooded (up to the planet's visible water surface) when the doors are open. This state updates within 2 seconds of opening or closing doors.

Recent patches to water mod (which I have no control over) have made certain blocks very prone to breaking within seconds when near or under 400m. This might cause functional leaks and break ballast chambers. This behavior is significantly different from when this sub was developed and released. I've reached out to the developer with video proof of this issue and I haven't received any replies.

My recommendation is to turn off block damage in your world until a future water mod patch resolves this issue.
CrimsonKNight_05 4 Mar, 2023 @ 10:30pm 
No water leaking inside the Sub?
DraRex368 21 Feb, 2023 @ 2:29am 
Ok
Yokidamaru  [author] 20 Feb, 2023 @ 9:16pm 
Hey DraRex, thanks for testing the blueprint.

The phrase "dive-tested to 1000m" was written at a time when the water mod crush depth behavior was in flux due to frequent patches.

I took the Nautilus underwater today to confirm your findings and I noticed something odd. Certain non-functional blocks (such as neon tubes, light armor, sci-fi interior walls, armored conveyors) will rapidly take damage and explode around 400m or deeper if they are attached to a Small Hydrogen or Oxygen tank. You can watch the health drop if you have the "build info" mod in your world. But the blocks won't take damage if they are placed on the "top" side of the tank in relation to the boat, only if placed on the other 5 sides.

This only happened on 2 of the 4 dives I tried tonight.

So I think the water mod is unstable again. This is not how the Nautilus behaved in the past. I'll have to see if I can record some conclusive proof of the bug to take to the developer of the water mod.
DraRex368 20 Feb, 2023 @ 12:24pm 
"Dive-tested to 1000m", made a retest the sub can go only to 350m below more than that and starts to crush
Palpatine 9 Dec, 2022 @ 2:08am 
Thank you!
Yokidamaru  [author] 8 Dec, 2022 @ 6:11pm 
Sure, sounds interesting. Give it a go!
Palpatine 8 Dec, 2022 @ 10:44am 
Starter ship and MES.
Yokidamaru  [author] 8 Dec, 2022 @ 10:33am 
A mod? Interesting. What kind of mod is it?