Best way to keep a ship balanced

[Salty Slothy]

I'm breaking ground on my first battleship/battle cruiser and I'm running into an interesting issue... my ship has about as much balance as I do after 5 shots of Daniels while riding a skateboard.

[FourGreenFields]

Welcome to an engineering game - there is no "best way".

You can add weight down low (heavy keel), but that also means your ship will be heavier, leading to a higher draft and water crosssection (-> more drag).

You can remove weight from the top, but that will probably reduce the armour there, or limit weaponary.

You can widen the hull (catamarans and rafts use that for stability), but that will make it harder to turn upright once you do keel over.

Or you could add props that are bound to roll angle to keep the ship upright - which will ofcourse cost engine power, can easily be destroyed by below-waterline hits (at least torps comming from below), and will fail once your engine gets shot.

[Salty Slothy]

Originally posted by FourGreenFields:

Welcome to an engineering game - there is no "best way".

You can add weight down low (heavy keel), but that also means your ship will be heavier, leading to a higher draft and water crosssection (-> more drag).

You can remove weight from the top, but that will probably reduce the armour there, or limit weaponary.

You can widen the hull (catamarans and rafts use that for stability), but that will make it harder to turn upright once you do keel over.

Or you could add props that are bound to roll angle to keep the ship upright - which will ofcourse cost engine power, can easily be destroyed by below-waterline hits (at least torps comming from below), and will fail once your engine gets shot.

At the moment I'm going with heavy keel and an oval shape to try and minimize drag and maximize space.

[XenoDragon]

Originally posted by TheOSB:

I'm breaking ground on my first battleship/battle cruiser and I'm running into an interesting issue... my ship has about as much balance as I do after 5 shots of Daniels while riding a skateboard.

Try a PID system but it's going to take some time to get the settings right.

[Salty Slothy]

Originally posted by XenoDragon:

Originally posted by TheOSB:

I'm breaking ground on my first battleship/battle cruiser and I'm running into an interesting issue... my ship has about as much balance as I do after 5 shots of Daniels while riding a skateboard.

Try a PID system but it's going to take some time to get the settings right.

Oh lord that's the scary lua programming thing right?

[FourGreenFields]

Originally posted by TheOSB:

Originally posted by XenoDragon:

Try a PID system but it's going to take some time to get the settings right.

Oh lord that's the scary lua programming thing right?

No, that's just the scary graphs thing.

[XenoDragon]

Originally posted by FourGreenFields:

Originally posted by TheOSB:

Oh lord that's the scary lua programming thing right?

No, that's just the scary graphs thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHikGlMlAxE

[Mortazel]

If the ship is rolling when turning, then likely the rudder(s) are not alligned with the center of drag.

[Richard Dastardly]

Try and make it stable without anything active while the guns are not firing, that way you can keep it upright if you lose all power.

If you're going to use anti-roll props and a PID, do *not* use the integral controller ( the I setting ) - set it to infinite. If you take damage it'll wind up until the repairs are complete & your ship will roll itself for a while, even if the water is completely flat. Just set the overall gain high enough that the system responds quickly.

[death rage]

in one of my designs i built a heavy armor compartment 9 meters wide and 12 meters long that has 2 meters of heavy armor on the front back and sides and 5 meters of free space, it 4 meters high but it was right below the mass center and thats where i put my ammo, it serves as a pretty good keel and keeps the ammo in the most protected and "unlikely to get hit" area...

[An Ning]

Originally posted by death rage:

in one of my designs i built a heavy armor compartment 9 meters wide and 12 meters long that has 2 meters of heavy armor on the front back and sides and 5 meters of free space, it 4 meters high but it was right below the mass center and thats where i put my ammo, it serves as a pretty good keel and keeps the ammo in the most protected and "unlikely to get hit" area...

Unless the enemy uses "Target Center of Mass" missile cams, or laser-guided missiles with aim point selection. Or lasers with aim point selection, or...