Stormworks: Build and Rescue

Stormworks: Build and Rescue

Safest Catch: The Beluga Crabbing Boat by EINSCHLAG
Excellent ships - Feedback
This (and the tanker) are excellent, feature heavy ships that can do a lot. You've thought out a lot of the needs of the average captain and provided the tools they so often require. However, if I may offer some constructive feedback.

The side thruster jets end up not being terribly useful in a lot of circumstances. They have a tendency to make the ship list significantly, while also not being being very effective at actually moving the ship. The lack of stern thrusters makes maneuvering into a dock or up to a crab pot difficult, as there is often no way to bring the stern around. They also tend to be very slow in response, both to activate and deactivate. The listing makes the magalls difficult to use, as the ship is often at an angle when it contacts the dock, so when it rights itself it pulls the magalls free.

Some of the bridge layout is not very efficient. Too many controls that someone manning the helm may need are not within easy reach. Anchors and docking magalls require leaving the helm and moving in order to operate.

Maybe I'm just doing it wrong, but the remote controls seem to lack the ability to go into reverse, which negates a major advantage of using the remote while docking or doing crab pot work.

Unloading the crab pots is inelegant, at best. Half the crabs seem to spray all over the deck, and the crab pot bucks around violently. I noticed there are some kind of connectors near the unloading hatch, but they don't seem to work (at least, nothing I did could get the crab pots to attach to them).

The hopper on the deck that I presume is also used for selling the crabs at a gantry is virtually impossible to line up with the majority of (admittedly terrible) fish gantries used in vanilla Stormworks. With the awful, incredibly tall fish gantries, you just can't get them low enough to make contact with the hoppers and suck out the crabs. This is where the lack of stern thrusters comes to the fore, as (you need to get the entire ship very snugly up against the pier and perfectly positioned to (I think) get the gantry to work. Even if they did work, getting the pot to line up would be difficult, as getting it to rotate (grabbing the handholds won't move the pot, even if it is swinging) relies on dropping it and raising it and hoping it turns enough to catch the connectors.

All in all, this (and the tanker) are amazing ships
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Reysn  [developer] 21 Jun @ 2:47am 
Thank you for your friendly and constructive feedback and the praise! :ghlol:

I recently added strafing thrusters and improved turning thrusters. I hope that already helps a lot in making maneuvering easier. The mag alls are not that useful unfortunately. I tried adding more, but if the waves become higher while attached to a dock, it led to some damages on the ship. So I opted for just two gimmicky mag alls on either side. You can always add more of course. :')

The bridge layout is not optimal. Maybe I'll rework it someday, but for now we will have to live with its quirks. I hope it's still usable/fun to use.

For remote reverse, you'll have to keep tapping the spacebar. This is because Stormworks makes it impossible to detect if a remote control button is held down. So spacebar activates reverse for a short duration. It's not optimal, but hopefully makes it usable for you.

The hopper/pod ramp is more for roleplay purposes. It should connect to the bottom connectors of a pod (pod and ramp connectors need to be enabled/not released).
But yes, it definetely could be improved. It was my first crabbing vessel and for my next one I know how to design it better and more efficient.

I hope the improved side thrusters will help with the gantry, but it remains challenging. The whole ship was designed as a "actually usable roleplay" ship, that comes with some flaws. Some for roleplaying purposes, some just because I did not know any better at the time.

I hope this information helps and explains some of the weirder decisions that were made.
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