Wind sails would function like propellers, but they are lighter, don't have to be put on the back of the ship, and don't use any coal. However, they would be much slower, and they would catch fire easier and burn faster.
(I have no idea why I drew pump-things in the wind sail rooms. Maybe they're puffing air into the sails? :P)
I like the design of having the sails on the side actually - I had been thinking about sails with masts, going at the top of the ship, but this produced all kinds of subtle problems. If they are on the side, this is less problematic. Mechanics-wise, I'd have to introduce a concept of projectiles damaging the sails and passing through them, but this is possible.
I just realized, instead of sails, they could be wings pushing the ship along, and be driven by sailors just like oars.
Or those could be two completely different modules. "Oars" could fly much faster than propellers and not require fuel, but they could require a bunch of crew to push it, and still get destroyed easily.
The picture I made in the first post could be what the exterior of the "oars" would look like, and sails would looks like square real sails, except they would be attached to a horizontal mast instead of a vertical one.
I think for the hit detection you could get away with making square sails, drawn to look like their on a 45 degree angle and moving forward to 90 degrees (straight on with the camera)
This means you could have small, 1x1 or 1x2 sails, with the whole sail contained within the hit-box of the Module.
And you could also have large 1x4 or 2x4 sails (as we have massively tall blocks, but no massively long yet). Each having some kind of easily flammable effect discounting for the armor?
Like so?
I tried to make the sail all sail-ly, but it just looks a bit messy. And dont mind the yellow box around the top three, just to show the boundary box.
(so bellows pushes air, that powers machine, that moves a sail back and foward on a axle?)
I was just also thinking, what about a water-wheel type thing, but with a sail? and mounded horizontally?
Or, sails could have a different hitbox than the module, and be bigger than it's module. The sail could be destroyed, or it's module could be destroyed. If the module were destroyed the sail could maybe not explode, but be useless. Or it could catch fire if it's module were destroyed. If the sail were bigger than it's module though, it might no-clip through the ground when the ship grounded. Maybe the sail could lift upwards when it's ship grounds? That would do complicated things with it's hitbox though.
The sails look weird because they're crumply. They should be full of wind. Also, I think the sails should be visibly separated from the ship by a horizontal mast, or something like that. The sprites look good otherwise.
I don't think a water wheel would work on an airship, because a real one pushes 50% against water and 50% against air in the opposite direction. On an airship it would push in the air equally in both directions, and the ship wouldn't move anywhere.
If 1/2 of the wheel is contained inside the ship (Horizontally), and is hand or machine turned, then you only have force pushing outwards, then backwards, then into the side of the airship.
@Zarkonnen: Aha! I thought I saw I saw something new in your recent screenshots. (besides prone marines flying up ladder chutes)
Maybe the half-covered waterwheels could be a hand-cranked propellor? To contrast with the propellers in the back/front, and sails on the sides, maybe the "airwheel" could stick out of the bottom, and have a flipped variant that sticks out of the top.
I'm not sure how it's crew/cost/armor/weight would compare to sails and propellers, but having a bunch of different propulsion modules would make for some more varied ship designs in the future.
Maybe it could be the happy median of crew/speed/armor/weight between the sails and propellers. It could require coal, (so the poor crewmembers aren't turning the thing purely with manpower) but not as much coal as the propellers do.
Commodore
Wind Sails (2x2)
Price: $20
Weight: 60
Hp: 120
Generates 200 propulsion
Operators: 1 crew member
Recommended: 2
Small Wind Sails (1x1)
Price: $5
Weight: 15
Hp: 30
Generates 35 propulsion
Operators: 1 crew member
Recommended: 1
(these numbers are open to discussion)
Wind sails would function like propellers, but they are lighter, don't have to be put on the back of the ship, and don't use any coal. However, they would be much slower, and they would catch fire easier and burn faster.
(I have no idea why I drew pump-things in the wind sail rooms. Maybe they're puffing air into the sails? :P)
Aerial Emperor
I like the design of having the sails on the side actually - I had been thinking about sails with masts, going at the top of the ship, but this produced all kinds of subtle problems. If they are on the side, this is less problematic. Mechanics-wise, I'd have to introduce a concept of projectiles damaging the sails and passing through them, but this is possible.
(Last sentence hurts my brain though! :P)
Midshipman
Clearly, the sails are pneumatically driven!
Commodore
If I wanted sails on the top, I could put them on a mock mast like I did with the SS Ozymandias.
Commodore
I just realized, instead of sails, they could be wings pushing the ship along, and be driven by sailors just like oars.
Or those could be two completely different modules. "Oars" could fly much faster than propellers and not require fuel, but they could require a bunch of crew to push it, and still get destroyed easily.
The picture I made in the first post could be what the exterior of the "oars" would look like, and sails would looks like square real sails, except they would be attached to a horizontal mast instead of a vertical one.
Commander, Engineering Corps
I think for the hit detection you could get away with making square sails, drawn to look like their on a 45 degree angle and moving forward to 90 degrees (straight on with the camera)
This means you could have small, 1x1 or 1x2 sails, with the whole sail contained within the hit-box of the Module. And you could also have large 1x4 or 2x4 sails (as we have massively tall blocks, but no massively long yet). Each having some kind of easily flammable effect discounting for the armor?
Like so?
I tried to make the sail all sail-ly, but it just looks a bit messy. And dont mind the yellow box around the top three, just to show the boundary box. (so bellows pushes air, that powers machine, that moves a sail back and foward on a axle?)
I was just also thinking, what about a water-wheel type thing, but with a sail? and mounded horizontally?
also, gifs... (if they work)
Commodore
Or, sails could have a different hitbox than the module, and be bigger than it's module. The sail could be destroyed, or it's module could be destroyed. If the module were destroyed the sail could maybe not explode, but be useless. Or it could catch fire if it's module were destroyed. If the sail were bigger than it's module though, it might no-clip through the ground when the ship grounded. Maybe the sail could lift upwards when it's ship grounds? That would do complicated things with it's hitbox though.
The sails look weird because they're crumply. They should be full of wind. Also, I think the sails should be visibly separated from the ship by a horizontal mast, or something like that. The sprites look good otherwise.
I don't think a water wheel would work on an airship, because a real one pushes 50% against water and 50% against air in the opposite direction. On an airship it would push in the air equally in both directions, and the ship wouldn't move anywhere.
Aerial Emperor
What sails look like in v5:
Right now they have no separate hitbox for the sail itself, only for the module, but it's something I want to look into.
Having aerial oars could work, or maybe a hand-driven propeller? Depends on whether there's a nice for it to go into, design-wise, really. :)
Commander, Engineering Corps
If 1/2 of the wheel is contained inside the ship (Horizontally), and is hand or machine turned, then you only have force pushing outwards, then backwards, then into the side of the airship.
Commodore
@Zarkonnen: Aha! I thought I saw I saw something new in your recent screenshots. (besides prone marines flying up ladder chutes)
Maybe the half-covered waterwheels could be a hand-cranked propellor? To contrast with the propellers in the back/front, and sails on the sides, maybe the "airwheel" could stick out of the bottom, and have a flipped variant that sticks out of the top.
I'm not sure how it's crew/cost/armor/weight would compare to sails and propellers, but having a bunch of different propulsion modules would make for some more varied ship designs in the future.
Maybe it could be the happy median of crew/speed/armor/weight between the sails and propellers. It could require coal, (so the poor crewmembers aren't turning the thing purely with manpower) but not as much coal as the propellers do.