Problem with Gearboxes and RPS

[Sniffr0st]

Hey there, I've been trying to figure this out for several days, and if somebody could provide some assistance, that would be wonderful.

My issue is that gearboxes don't seem to work for me the way they should. I do have them facing the engine to increase RPS and decrease torque, and I have 3 "states" - 1:1, 1:2, and 1:3 (and 1:-1).
On 1:1 I throtle up to 35 rps, and am going at about 40 knots. All is great (except for the fuel economy). When I try to switch to 1:2 however, what happens is my engine rps start going down, and so does my speed. I fall from 40 knots to about 18 knots, and ~15 rps. When I try 1:3 it goes further down.

I've tried pretty much every kind and amount of propellers, but nothing seems to change really. Increasing engine max RPS has no effect, and it only goes up to about 35. I am at a loss and about to give up on this game.

[HardlyLivin]

Yeah I've noticed this myself and have no clue . When I tried lowering the ratio to increase torque my rps and speed stayed the same. However, when I increased the ratio on the same ship my rps increased along with my speed with the gearbox facing the engine, and I also notice my rps would hit a wall at around 2.0 instead of 20 even though it had plenty of power to spare. I think that maybe it's a bug?

[Sniffr0st]

Originally posted by HardlyLivin:

Yeah I've noticed this myself and have no clue . When I tried lowering the ratio to increase torque my rps and speed stayed the same. However, when I increased the ratio on the same ship my rps increased along with my speed with the gearbox facing the engine, and I also notice my rps would hit a wall at around 2.0 instead of 20 even though it had plenty of power to spare. I think that maybe it's a bug?

Well I tried adding 2 medium engines and guess what happened. Now I'm only going 25 knots xD this game just works.

[HardlyLivin]

Yeah I'm thinking it's a bug from one of the recent updates. Cause that's weird to add a second engine only to cut your speed almost in half. I'll have to see if I can replicate that on one of my own crafts.

[Sniffr0st]

Yeah it seems like it. I have a new theory - I went through the extreme pain of removing all of my insides and enlarging the hull to fit Large engine, and it seems to work as it is supposed to. So maybe it's a bug with medium engine?

However I still can't seem to get enough rps, even though I limit it to 100, upon engaging 1:3 gearbox I drop to about 9 rps

[HoboCop]

Originally posted by Sniffr0st:

Yeah it seems like it. I have a new theory - I went through the extreme pain of removing all of my insides and enlarging the hull to fit Large engine, and it seems to work as it is supposed to. So maybe it's a bug with medium engine?

However I still can't seem to get enough rps, even though I limit it to 100, upon engaging 1:3 gearbox I drop to about 9 rps

Have you ever tried pedalling up a steep hill in top gear on a mountain bike?
This is what happens when the engine (in this case YOU) doesn't have the power required to propel the vehicle against the outside forces that are exerted upon it.

When you change up a gear, you are simply giving the engine more too much work and so it struggles - this is what you are experiencing - whether this is modelled realistically in the game or not is another matter of course.

If you could just keep adding gears to increase speed, then every vehicle on earth would have unlimited speed by just adding more gears but this of course is not how it works because increasing speed also increases opposing forces, and with a gear change comes a different ratio of rpm and torque to revolutions. It's all about finding the limit and a good balance depending on your goal (performance or economy).

[Sniffr0st]

Originally posted by HoboCop:

Originally posted by Sniffr0st:

Yeah it seems like it. I have a new theory - I went through the extreme pain of removing all of my insides and enlarging the hull to fit Large engine, and it seems to work as it is supposed to. So maybe it's a bug with medium engine?

However I still can't seem to get enough rps, even though I limit it to 100, upon engaging 1:3 gearbox I drop to about 9 rps

Have you ever tried pedalling up a steep hill in top gear on a mountain bike?
This is what happens when the engine (in this case YOU) doesn't have the power required to propel the vehicle against the outside forces that are exerted upon it.

When you change up a gear, you are simply giving the engine more too much work and so it struggles - this is what you are experiencing - whether this is modelled realistically in the game or not is another matter of course.

If you could just keep adding gears to increase speed, then every vehicle on earth would have unlimited speed by just adding more gears but this of course is not how it works because increasing speed also increases opposing forces, and with a gear change comes a different ratio of rpm and torque to revolutions. It's all about finding the limit and a good balance depending on your goal (performance or economy).

Then how do you explain I added 2 medium engines and the top speed dropped 15 knots?

[HoboCop]

Much more weight? The extra weight then makes the boat sit a lot lower in the water an increases drag. And what size props did you use?

[Sniffr0st]

I tried basically everything, from 1 small prop to 6 small props, from 1 azimuth to 4, and 1 or 2 large propellers. Also tried changing engine max rps, tried 2 small eng, 4 small eng, 1 - 4 medium eng and, a large engine. And tried playing with the gear ratio a lot.

[HardlyLivin]

Yes while increasing the gear ratio will decrease rps and speed if it's over done, I think the issue here is the change in rps and speed isn't predictable. As I said in a previous comment, my ship recently hasn't been performing the way I had it previously set up, along with my small speedboat with twin medium diesels in it. I tried gearing down my Twin large engines in my ship to reduce the strain on them only for my rps and speed to be unchanged. If I flip the gearbox around
( arrows facing engine) and increase the ratio my rps along with my speed increases. I was able to replicate this with both crafts. P.S I also have a hi/low gear button set up on my speed boat which I use to obviously go faster, however when I switch to high gear my speed increases like it should but so does my engines rps.

[HoboCop]

Originally posted by HardlyLivin:

Yes while increasing the gear ratio will decrease rps and speed if it's over done, I think the issue here is the change in rps and speed isn't predictable. As I said in a previous comment, my ship recently hasn't been performing the way I had it previously set up, along with my small speedboat with twin medium diesels in it. I tried gearing down my Twin large engines in my ship to reduce the strain on them only for my rps and speed to be unchanged. If I flip the gearbox around
( arrows facing engine) and increase the ratio my rps along with my speed increases. I was able to replicate this with both crafts. P.S I also have a hi/low gear button set up on my speed boat which I use to obviously go faster, however when I switch to high gear my speed increases like it should but so does my engines rps.

Part of this is probably down to the blue, semi transparent custard stuff they call water in the game

Joking aside, the water in the game is hardly modelled realistically and seems to have far too much resistance against objects. The modelling of water at depth (even shallow) makes it even worse! I did an experiment with a boat with 2 props, 1 a metre deeper than the other and a clutch on each - the lower prop had a lower maximum RPM than the higher one because of how they model the water at depth.

Also, if you for example have a boat with a large and deep hull, and have some ballast tanks - the pumping of fluid between these tanks takes longer than it would at the surface, which again is wrong - they are of equal pressure and the depth below water is a matter of metres, not miles! I understand that at GREAT depth then water is far more dense and so CAN take longer to pump but that depth would be considerable!!

[HardlyLivin]

Originally posted by HoboCop:

Originally posted by HardlyLivin:

Yes while increasing the gear ratio will decrease rps and speed if it's over done, I think the issue here is the change in rps and speed isn't predictable. As I said in a previous comment, my ship recently hasn't been performing the way I had it previously set up, along with my small speedboat with twin medium diesels in it. I tried gearing down my Twin large engines in my ship to reduce the strain on them only for my rps and speed to be unchanged. If I flip the gearbox around
( arrows facing engine) and increase the ratio my rps along with my speed increases. I was able to replicate this with both crafts. P.S I also have a hi/low gear button set up on my speed boat which I use to obviously go faster, however when I switch to high gear my speed increases like it should but so does my engines rps.

Part of this is probably down to the blue, semi transparent custard stuff they call water in the game

Joking aside, the water in the game is hardly modelled realistically and seems to have far too much resistance against objects. The modelling of water at depth (even shallow) makes it even worse! I did an experiment with a boat with 2 props, 1 a metre deeper than the other and a clutch on each - the lower prop had a lower maximum RPM than the higher one because of how they model the water at depth.

Also, if you for example have a boat with a large and deep hull, and have some ballast tanks - the pumping of fluid between these tanks takes longer than it would at the surface, which again is wrong - they are of equal pressure and the depth below water is a matter of metres, not miles! I understand that at GREAT depth then water is far more dense and so CAN take longer to pump but that depth would be considerable!!

I didn't know all of that. I guess that would explain why my 60m tanker is far more fuel efficient with twin large diesels than my speed boat with twin medium diesels. I've also recently found it far more difficult to tune small boats when large ships seem to be much easier, or is that just me?
I personally like making all of my vessels as fast as possible with as few engines as possible. I take it that the waters current physics are whats making it so difficult?

[Sgt. Max Cockburn]

Originally posted by Sniffr0st:

I have a new theory - I went through the extreme pain of removing all of my insides

Now that's what I call a hardcore gamer. Attaboy! :P

[Sniffr0st]

Originally posted by AntonTheNotSoAgreeable:

Now that's what I call a hardcore gamer. Attaboy! :P

What I wouldn't do for a working boat.

[Console]

Originally posted by Sniffr0st:

Hey there, I've been trying to figure this out for several days, and if somebody could provide some assistance, that would be wonderful.

Could you add your ship to the workshop or provide more details about the amount of engines and the mass of the ship please?

[Artyshock]

Originally posted by Sniffr0st:

Then how do you explain I added 2 medium engines and the top speed dropped 15 knots?

I had a similar problem. In my case, the exhaust and air intakes were on the same pipeslines. When I made separate piping for each of the two exhaust ouptuts and each air intake on each engine, the problem gone.
Read this thread.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/573090/discussions/0/2970650017886653152/?tscn=1606387723