Better Boats Mod

[Asher]

Spoiler

I started making a mod that is supposed to make boats better. So far, I've increased health for all arrow and siege ships, increased resistance for arrow, siege, and ram ships. And some more stuff. https://github.com/Jeff-web-sketch/BetterBoats. I am thinking turret-able units would be cool on boats, but is that possible? If you have any input on how boats could be made better, I would be glad to have your input.

So, this is now going to be a PR that adds a turret position to boats

Edited Thursday at 21:33 by Asher

[Asher]

So, I got the turreting working, but they are surviving when the boat is destroyed, and they can walk underwater. Is there a way for them to, um, not survive the boat sinking?

[Stan`]

2 hours ago, Asher said:

So, I got the turreting working, but they are surviving when the boat is destroyed, and they can walk underwater. Is there a way for them to, um, not survive the boat sinking?

IIRC garrisoning has such logic

[Asher]

1 hour ago, Stan` said:

IIRC garrisoning has such logic

But is there a way to do that with turreting?

[Asher]

So, I am trying to make an aura that increases range. How would I do that?         { "value": "Attack/Ranged/Range", "multiply": 2 },

[Stan`]

1 hour ago, Asher said:

But is there a way to do that with turreting?

My point was that if garrisoning does it, then yes it's possible to copy the code and do it.

1 hour ago, Asher said:

So, I am trying to make an aura that increases range. How would I do that?         { "value": "Attack/Ranged/Range", "multiply": 2 },

https://gitea.wildfiregames.com/0ad/0ad/wiki/TechModifications

[Atrik]

12 hours ago, Asher said:

But is there a way to do that with turreting?

Sounds like something that should be handled in vanilla and not require mods to implement the logic. You should open a issue for it, I might pick it up myself. If you do, attach a dummy template of boat with turret point to make the testing easier.
Or if you can't wait next release and you just want to do it yourself, please open a PR on main repo that would be most useful.

[Asher]

6 hours ago, Atrik said:

Sounds like something that should be handled in vanilla and not require mods to implement the logic. You should open a issue for it, I might pick it up myself. If you do, attach a dummy template of boat with turret point to make the testing easier.
Or if you can't wait next release and you just want to do it yourself, please open a PR on main repo that would be most useful.

I was planning to do a PR, but  I couldn't get the game to build on my device. Do you want to help me, @Atrik?

Edited Thursday at 11:29 by Asher

[Atrik]

2 hours ago, Asher said:

I was planning to do a PR, but  I couldn't get the game to build on my device. Do you want to help me, @Atrik?

Post your issue here or another thread, if I know how to help, I will. If not, someone else will probably  

[Asher]

4 hours ago, Atrik said:

Post your issue here or another thread, if I know how to help, I will. If not, someone else will probably  

Would you want to help with adding the script to turretholder.js that ejects units on destory? 

[Asher]

So, how do I make a PR, do I need to be added to a list of editors for the repo?

[guerringuerrin]

50 minutes ago, Asher said:

So, how do I make a PR, do I need to be added to a list of editors for the repo?

Perhaps this basic guide will be helpful

 

[guerringuerrin]

Also read the commit guidelines and you can always check the Wiki.

And this is a very user-friendly guide to the basics of Git. 
The hard data is here: https://git-scm.com/learn

 

[Asher]

Ok thanks @guerringuerrin! Would anybody want to help me with adding the eject units on boat death? Also, the PR is #9211

[guerringuerrin]

2 hours ago, Asher said:

Ok thanks @guerringuerrin! Would anybody want to help me with adding the eject units on boat death? Also, the PR is #9211

I don't have time these days to investigate it, but the first thing I would do is follow @Stan` advice and study how it's implemented in the garrison 

[Atrik]

3 hours ago, Asher said:

Also, the PR is #9211

I like the idea of turret points on boats.

I think it would go well with #8957.
In my opinion we also need some logic to allow shrinking turetable unit model's => When a unit is turreted on a boat, it become 20% smaller. Just for visual consistency with boats being a bit smaller then they should.
Also as you pointed out, units should die when the boat sinks.

[Asher]

8 hours ago, Atrik said:

I like the idea of turret points on boats.

I think it would go well with #8957.
In my opinion we also need some logic to allow shrinking turetable unit model's => When a unit is turreted on a boat, it become 20% smaller. Just for visual consistency with boats being a bit smaller then they should.
Also as you pointed out, units should die when the boat sinks.

Yes, I had been thinking about doing other boat changes, and it looks like you already did them

[Asher]

Also, do you think boats are a little too weak? In my mod, I had increased resistance and health on arrow ships and siege ships, and lowered damage on the ram ship. What do you think?

[Asher]

10 hours ago, guerringuerrin said:

but the first thing I would do is follow @Stan` advice and study how it's implemented in the garrison 

That's what I was planning on doing, I am just not very familiar with JS, and was hoping someone could help with that

[real_tabasco_sauce]

On 08/09/2026 at 6:08 PM, Asher said:

  Hide contents

I started making a mod that is supposed to make boats better. So far, I've increased health for all arrow and siege ships, increased resistance for arrow, siege, and ram ships. And some more stuff. https://github.com/Jeff-web-sketch/BetterBoats. I am thinking turret-able units would be cool on boats, but is that possible? If you have any input on how boats could be made better, I would be glad to have your input.

So, this is now going to be a PR that adds a turret position to boats

I agree with you that turreting units on boats is cool, but I think once the novelty wears off, this won't bring much enhancement to multiplayer. First of all, in the PR, the range of garrisoned units is doubled, which would result in 140m range archers when combined with archery tradition. So by needing to make turreted units stronger to make a difference on water, you risk adding balance exploits when the ships are brought near land.

also, a major complaint of prior navy gameplay was the need to garrison soldiers for ship effectiveness. Needing to garrison much of your total population space on ships to properly fight on water meant a constant labor of garrisoning and ungarrisoning ships to switch between fighting on land vs. sea.

Also the current naval design splits ships into classes with distinct roles. By making a ram ship capable of ranged attacks, the arrow ship would be somewhat redundant.

My opinion is that the proposal is better off as a standalone mod.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

I suppose if you treat it as additional storage capacity (not for fighting, but capable of fighting, so no buffs), it could work out ok. But even still, it would complicate any attempts to scale down ship models to improve ship pathing.

[Nicolaus_von_Kues]

On 09/09/2026 at 5:19 AM, Asher said:

So, I got the turreting working, but they are surviving when the boat is destroyed, and they can walk underwater. Is there a way for them to, um, not survive the boat sinking?

They should swim or die, depending on where they are.

[Asher]

1 hour ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

I suppose if you treat it as additional storage capacity (not for fighting, but capable of fighting, so no buffs), it could work out ok. But even still, it would complicate any attempts to scale down ship models to improve ship pathing.

The only reason they have a range bonus, is when I tested it, it seemed like you had to get really close for the units to actually attack

29 minutes ago, Nicolaus_von_Kues said:

They should swim or die, depending on where they are.

I didn't think about swimming. Maybe if they had like drowning effect, and can't fight, but you can send them to shore, or garrison them on a boat

[Nicolaus_von_Kues]

9 minutes ago, Asher said:

didn't think about swimming. Maybe if they had like drowning effect, and can't fight, but you can send them to shore, or garrison them on a boat

Some games with mechanics like the one you're implementing do this.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/e3-06-rise-and-fall-civilizations-at-war-hands-on-single-player-hero-mode-naval-combat-and-the-ancient-world/1100-6147762/

 

 

Edited 47 minutes ago by Nicolaus_von_Kues