I am not sure how many people know of the Endurance and Sir Ernest Shackleton's place in sailing history. But after 106 years of sitting on the bottom of the Southern Ocean, she has been found in remarkably good shape.
endurance22.org/endurance-is-found I know I have talked about what all builders go through when I mention that a ship is going through "approvals". If you ever wanted a hint as to what entails, we are slowly working through re-writing the code all ships must be built to. The current one was written in 2012 and sorta revised since in 2015..
Ships Code 2021 The only way to truly enjoy a challenge is to know that all players are on an even playing field. By making sure all ships are equal to their class, matters involving cheating and unfairness can be easily dealt with and frustration can be kept to a minimum. This revamp of the Ships Code is a contract between the estates, the captains, and the builders to ensure that all ships are are made as fair as possible so as to make all battles a competition between Captains and Gunners, not between the builders of the ships they sail. As an evolving document, the Ships Code can and should be adjusted and rewritten as needed to accomadate the inevitable progress of Second Life's technology. 1.- Appearance and realism of the ships: All ships shall be based on real wooden ships from late 1600s until the early part of the 1800s. They must retain a realistic draft in the water and be reasonable in their proportions. Appearance is important as the Estates expect and encourage realistic Role Play and ships are an important part of the background environment and the actual game itself. Ships types from that period are mandatory; good looking ships are more a than welcome detail and in some cases this may affect the evaluation. The builder will be held responsible to provide references used to design and build their ship if needed. This will be done to insure all ships accurately fit into the time period as designed. If references are required, the Approval Committees have a reciprocal responsibility that those references are properly checked during the process. 2.- Propulsion: All ships engines have to be developed from the Flying Tako scripts by Kanker Greeacre. These scripts are to use Racewind Mode. Any other winds such as Bwind will not be considered compatible or used. No ship can use any kind of "booster". Ships with Square Sails or other similar methods must include the proper simulation effect. Square Sails can be used for "back sailing" the maximum speed of which depends on ship size and class. Irons angle, turning rate and speed must fit the ship size and rigging; The use of previously approved ships as a reference is permitted. 3.- Battle compatibility: At ships must use SPDII for battle compatibility. Ships using different methods of inflicting or receiving damage are not permitted at this time. 3.a) Damage: With the advantage of Mesh, the vulnerable part of any SPD comptible ship continues to be the Hull or if necessary a Collision prim. It is to always take damage from SPD compible Cannonballs and collisions with land, Collisions with other ships and objects can be turned off or on as needed at the discretion of the Captains in the battle or the Battle Coordinator. The "Health" of the ship is to displayed on a HUD visible to all. Damage is to be displayed on this HUD as Hit Points (HP). Hit Points are dependant on the class of the ship, with speed and agility being reduced as the ship takes damage until becoming incapacited at 3 to 4 HP. At that point the ship will be unable to sail forwards but may continue to have the ability to backsail. At zero Hit Points the ship will sink, removing itself from the battle. 3.b) Repair Depot: If the ship can be repaired, the depot must work only when the ship is moored. An incapacitated ship can not be repaired. Repair speed is to be over 3 seconds per HP. 3.c) Guns: Cannons have to be spaced at least 1 meter apart from each other. Ships are allowed to have a maximum of two bow guns and/or two stern guns, depending on the class. Big ships are not allowed to include bow or stern chasers. Cannonballs speed cannot be over 60 m/s. Cannons range should be about 170-180 meters with a reload time that cannot be less than 15 seconds. Ships with the capacity to fire a "broadside" in which all guns are fired at once will add an additonal 10 seconds to the reload time. Cannons have to be operated using buttons on the ship and/or on a HUD; any other method will be evaluated and discussed. Mouselook aiming is strictly prohibited. 4.- Basic features: As these are sailing ships and not ironclads, they must use their sails for all propulsion, raising them to start moving and lowering to slow or stop. During this time the ship must be vulnerable to all cannonball hits and damage from running aground. Collisions with other ships and objects is dependant on whether Collisions are on or not. All ships must be able to kedge left or right. Small and Medium sized ships are limited to 10 degrees per step and Large ships are not allowed more than 7 degrees. In all cases the time between the steps must be no less than 3 seconds. Ships should only be able to kedge when traveling slower than 2.0 m/s on small and medium ships and 1.5 m/s on big ships. Kedging is to stop when only 1 Hp is left to a ship's health. The ability to lock a ship to keep it safe from damage when the Captain is not aboard is allowed. A locked ship must not be able to sail or fire it's cannons until such time that it is unlocked. 5.- Ship classification: The following classifications are just a guideline in order to ensure a fair and level battle. These classifications are based on Design, Guns, Hit Points, and Size. Using already approved ships to help in classing is encouraged. Turning, Speed, heeling, and leeway must be similar to ships in the same category. Builders are encouraged to add small tweaks and advantages to their individual ships provided they are offset or compensated by comparable disadvantages elsewhere. All cases are be tested and evaluated against their peers and if found reasonable and fair, approved. While some older models may not be completely within this guideline, they can still be used in battle until a declaration is made to disallow such ships from battle. 6. -Description of ship classes Classification will be by size and maximum number of guns. A Gunboat would a small vessel with a single gun, thus being an "S1". By that same token a Sloop would now be called "M6". Ships like the Alert would be moved to "M10" as she has 9 guns, so would need to be moved up a class with the ships with 10 guns. 7. -Ship Classification Remember that these are just guidelines. Builders are encouraged to tweak and add small advantages provided to offset them with a similar disadvantage elsewhere. A ship that is too short may be made wider in beam to compensate. A ship that is faster may turn slower or have less HP or even cannons. As a rough guideline it is up to the approvers to judge what makes a ship even and fair within it's classification. Ship class Max. nr of guns Max. hit pts. Hull Length Hull Width S1 1 8 9 3 S2 2 12 12 3.5 S4 4 14 11 4 M6 6 20 15 4.5 M8 8 23 17 5 M10 10 28 19 4.85 M12 12 23 20 5.5 B16 16 32 25 7 B20 20 35 25 7.25 SoL22 22 40 25 ? SoL36 36 52 30 9.5 (s)=Small Ship, (m)= Medium Ship, (b)= Big Ship (SoL)= Ship of the Line *Note 1* I removed the "junk" class as nobody builds to that 11 gun class and it is far too powerful compared to the other classes. I also eleminated the "Light" classification and incorporated the light class into the "small" ships. *Note 2* In talking to Amanda, I renamed the classes from the arbitrary names to size and max number of guns. Gunboat would be S1 for small with 1 gun and the Xebec is now M12 for Medium 12. I also changed the Frigate to a ship of the line as "SoL22". *Note 3* I did some measurements of ships I owned to get the smallest beam for each class. I do not have the PD Destiny or anything in the 22 gun range. Are there any ships in the size? I enjoy building ships. As those closest to me in SL know, I am constantly torturing prims, teasing them into a shape that approximates that of the ship I am trying to build. While I am not done put things all in "Ship Shape and Bristol Fashion" I have more or less reached the end of the line for one type of ship; the Asian Junk.
They still need to be all meshed up, scripted, and of course, tested, those are all necessary evils in getting an SPD ship from idea to in your hands, but that is secondary to what I am saying here. I have built the last of the Junks. I have gone from Gunboat, to Light Class, to Sloop, Schooner, Brig, and finally to Xebec, Wth the obvious exception of the Gunboat, each class has a stern chaser variant of each. All told Eleven ships have been built and await finishing and testing. I may yet decide to build broadside versions of each, I am not yet sure as they seem very unpopular. But, none-the-less, I offer you Ikazuchi 雷, or "thunder" |
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