Raft Manoeuvrability Factors?

[Summanus]

I've been using a 3x3 standard raft design but it corners horribly, so I'm going to try to experiment a bit with the shape. Does anyone know what factors affect the turning circle of your raft?

Does length have a greater impact than width, or vice-versa? Do the different flotation materials make any difference (other than water clearance)? I assume that the boards on top make no difference.

Or does it all just come down purely to number of raft sections, regardless of where you put them?

Has anyone done much testing on this? Thanks.

Edit: Update for any new players reading this thread - type of raft base material used makes absolutely no difference at all to your raft other than cosmetic. Also, number of sails used makes no difference to the top speed of your raft.

[Graf Schokola]

More sails = better turn. I have 2 sails on my raft. 1 for forward and 1 for backward.

[Summanus]

Yes, I'm aware of that trick thanks, but its not what I was asking. I'm asking what impact raft shape / materials has on the degree of the turning circle? (ie Would a barrel raft 4 sections wide and 1 long turn the same as a buoy raft 1 section wide and 4 long? for example).

Or is the turning circle determined only by the overall number of sections?

[Summanus]

On the subject of sails though... you can actually put 4 sails on your raft, each one facing a different direction, and then use them either separately to travel in all 4 directions, or use 2 at once to travel diagonally.

Obviously you can't use 2 opposing sails at once though, as that just brings you to a standstill.

[fuzzybunnyslippers]

In a recent game; simply because I "just wanted tires"; I had made a 3x1
Container shelf - rudder and sail - container shelf and anchor
Then, behind the Container shelf and anchor (behind right) I added just one more tire base and raft floor--then took off to another isle to find more tires.

Sailing that was really wonky; constantly correcting; so yes, imo placement of the bases do seem to affect how much rudder correction you need to actively do. I couldn't "just set it" and go straight.

Once I "balanced it out", it was much better.

[Punkerich]

I use a catamaran style layout, to get the rudder in a somewhat center position, seems to help with manuevering. Also, i pay attention to height of bases, like, i don't use barrels at all, only tires or bouy balls, even wood if necessary. Barrels are higher than anything and can screw up the layout if mixed in uncontrolled. At least that's what i experienced.

[Summanus]

Interesting... thanks for those observations. Here's what I've noticed so far:

Barrels definitely do have a much higher water level clearance than buoys, sticks or tyres so if you use them in an uneven way it can cause your raft to list, especially when its moving. Agreed on that, yeah. For that reason they are also the best flotation material for keeping your raft's floor above the waterline in stressful load-baring situations. I'm unsure as to how much the other materials actually contribute if used alongside barrels, because often they barely touch the water by comparison, so I tend to keep barrels on the outside edges.

I also started with a basic 3x1 raft and then extended it to an "L" shape when I found more barrels. Anecdotally, this did seem to cause the raft to become harder to steer straight, so having an uneven design might be bad, agreed. However, its hard to know if it was the uneven design or simply just the addition of another section that caused this.

When I converted to 3x3 I still found that it was more difficult to keep the raft straight (although maybe not as difficult) and its turning circle increased quite substantially. So simply adding more sections, even when the raft was symmetrical, caused a big decrease in turning performance. I don't know whether this is because the raft became longer, or simply because it became bigger.

I'm going to experiment with variations on uneven shapes to see what differences it causes. I'll report back if I get any interesting findings.

[thomlovessue]

Oldtimy here, One, the configuration of the bases does definitly affect turning and straight line running. The best advice I can give is symetry. Legth slows turning also. Putting the rudder (working end) in the center (pivot point) of the raft is very important. Myself, I've found that a 3x5 is best as a compromise between manuverability and stability and cargo capacity. Generally, I do not recommend mixing base types; though buoy balls and tyres do not seem to fight each other. A few times, I made a specialty raft for sharks and THE MEG. A 3x2 of barrels with a motor for improved site lines. Though I have only subjective data, it seemed to hold course better than anything else. Good luck, keep trying things, you never know what you'll learn. That's the beauty of Stranded Deep.

[thomlovessue]

That 3x5 had the rudder behind the middle base of the first row. That puts the working end in the middle of the second row middle base (perfect center). You can leave that base unfloored for carrying things or emergency crates, or you can floor it and put a pole hook for a lantern for vision (you cannot use it as configured with a container shelf). Adding the flooring can be tricky; but keep trying, it is white for a fraction of a second. I usually use 4 sails, one backward and three forward. When heavily loaded or in high seas , it turns better and goes faster with multiple sails going forward due to increased torque but speed is capped. All 4 sails and anchor can be operated while holding the rudder this way also.

[Laphria]

I have used catamaran styles and also what I call a deep v style. The catamaran looks nice but doesn't really add any performance boost in this game - a missed opportunity of the developers in my opinion. The deep v does work though. Make a raft, 3 width by 2 length, and use drums for the front and rear middle parts. On the left and right outer portions, use tires. You will notice that the drums sections sit deeper than the tires sections and this allows a more stable raft that also turns more like a skinny 2 by 1. You could also make it a 3 by 3 with the same configuration. For real power and speed, I use the deep v with multiple sails.

Building the deep v can be a bit tricky. It is best to build it in a calm lagoon. If that isn't possible, try using rocks on land to jack one side up for the addition of the tires. Once you have one side completed, move it around and jack up the other side to finish the job.

[Summanus]

Originally posted by thomlovessue:

Myself, I've found that a 3x5 is best as a compromise between manuverability and stability and cargo capacity.

Do you mean 3 width x 5 length, or 3 length x 5 width?

Originally posted by Laphria:

I have used catamaran styles and also what I call a deep v style... Make a raft, 3 width by 2 length, and use drums for the front and rear middle parts. On the left and right outer portions, use tires.

I'm having trouble picturing what you mean here. I don't suppose you have a screenshot of the raft do you?

[Laphria]

2L x 3W - so here is a rough diagram:

OHO
OHO

Birds eye view of raft where O = a tire section and H = a drum section.
A 3L x3W would look like this:

OHO
OHO
OHO

What you want is a middle hull that is deeper than the hull on the sides and making that middle hull out of the drums allows you that. I like tires for the shallower sides but the other materials would work as well. That the design works shows that there are some limited physics at work in the game in regards to how the deeper drums work in relation to the water.

A head on view of the raft would look like this:

^O^

where ^ = tires and O = drums.

[thomlovessue]

I mean 3 long and 5 wide which makes the completed raft almost square. 5 long would make it almost unsteerable. I tried a 5 long and 7 wide. It took the distance (between) of 1 island to do a 180 degree turn. Its (the 3x5) cargo capacity is 135 inventory slots (that's 27 containers) plus room for non-inventory items like the red container panels. A quick look would be:

XXXXX
YYOYY
ZZZZZ

Going left to right: 1st row 1st base = forward sail, 1st row 2nd base = reverse sail, 1st row 3rd base = canopy and rudder in back, 1st row 4th base = forward sail and anchor in back, 1st row 5th base = forward sail; 2nd row 1st base = container shelf, 2nd row 2nd base = container shelf, 2nd row 3rd base = unfloored to help center non inventory items or up to 7 containers with also lantern thrown in for light, 2nd row 4th base = container shelf, 2nd row 5th base = container shelf; all bases in 3rd row = container shelf.

[dm19732787]

if you build BEHIND your rudder, keeping the rudder in the center of your raft, helps drastically in the cornering ability of larger rafts.

That said, I usually make 5x9 rafts. When you build them that big, you plan your turns an island in advance. No joke.

[Summanus]

Originally posted by Laphria:

2L x 3W - so here is a rough diagram:

Originally posted by thomlovessue:

I mean 3 long and 5 wide which makes the completed raft almost square.

Thank you for those answers.

Ok, so here's the results of my arduous testing. This took a good few hours of raft building and reloading, trying out different basic configurations, so I'm pretty confident about the results but its by no means exhaustive:

1) The different flotation methods (sticks, tyres, buoys, barrels) seem to have no impact at all upon speed or turning circle when used exclusively. I didn't try any vessels with mixed materials however, so I can't speak to that.

2) Length vs Width: As thomlovessue said, length is indeed the real Manoeuvrability-killer. A raft 1x section wide and 3x long turns far, far worse than 3x wide and 1x long. So build wide, or at least square in shape if you want to be able to turn well.

3) Dragging sections behind the rudder hurts the turning circle far worse than having them in front. I tried the following shape, with the mast and rudder in the O section:

X_X
XOX

When the mast and rudder were put at the back of the raft, with the 2 X X sections at the front, the craft turned well. When the mast was reversed and rudder placed in the gap between the 2 X X sections (so the raft was moving in the opposite direction) the raft turned poorly. It did not like dragging those 2 sections behind it.

4) Mid-Raft Rudder seems to make no discernible difference to speed or turning circle as far as I could tell. I tried a 3x3 raft with the middle section left empty. I timed how long it took the raft to turn a full 360 degrees from the same starting position. Whether I put the rudder at the back of the raft or in the empty section in the center it made no difference whatsoever to turning - both craft took exactly 30 secs to turn a full 360.

5) A lop-sided design, like an "L" shape did cause the raft to list in the water and made it a bit more difficult to turn, but not by very much. It seems to have a bigger impact upon stability.

Conclusions
So there you have it. I honestly couldn't find any evidence to support the mid-vessel rudder theory which surprised me (and I tried it multiple times) and, in fact, found that the raft didn't like having sections behind the rudder on the smaller configurations. However, I haven't tried it on much larger rafts, so perhaps it changes at that point. I don't know.

I can, however, confirm that length is definitely far worse on steering than width if you're just counting sections. So no more 3x3 rafts for me!

Edit: The really weird thing was the dragging sections. It made quite a big impact on turning when it was just the 2 extra open sections at the back, but when I added another 3 sections on to that to make the raft 3x3 with the center hole that impact disappeared. Strange!

[thomlovessue]

Thank-you for your analysis antilucasexe A major reason for moving the ruddur forward for me was vision past the container shelves. Whhy did you leave a hole for the working end of the rudder? Or did I misunderstand something?