White Marlin dynamics

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[Viscount13]

Hello! The ship White Marlin is behaving strangely in some circumstances.

The main problem is that it turns at a glacial pace when going faster than 12 knots or so. If the engines are at anything other than full ahead the rate of turn is incredibly slow. This is strange as it has water jet propulsion which should make it highly maneuverable at all speeds and at nearly all engine settings.

And speaking of speeds: Just below 700 rpm or so the ship will do approximately 12 knots or so. Just above 700 rpm it will take off like a rocket. This problem is also shared by the Red Jet craft. It seems like either the power curve or the water resistance are wrong.

And finally when cutting engine power the ship takes forever to slow down. It behaves like it's gliding on ice.

I've seen that one of the developers have been very active here and have kindly provided patches and fixes over the years. I don't know if they're still around but I would be very happy indeed if these problems could be fixed or, if fixes for this already exists, if someone could point me in the right direction.

Regards,
Pontus

[LucAtC]

Hello Viscount13,

Sorry for being late, I had a quick look at the behaviour of White Marlin, i.e. Catamaran Ferry, ran some tests without finding the same as you have written two weeks ago.
At 695RPM, she runs at 24 kn or so and at first sight the speed curve seems normal to me, albeit without precise checks, as I would have done in a spreadsheet. Nor can I confirm the glacial yaw speed, as at 17 kn and 15° both rudders, I found a rather short radius of gyration, much less than 2 lengths. So, I think your dynamics files could have been corrupted/obsolete, or something like that, that is why I didn't look further down the investigation.
The White Marlin dynamics remained unchanged since 16/06/2013, RedJet4 since 2011, you can find these in the attachments.
These replacement act files should come into the following default folder
\Vstep\ShipSimExtremes\Projects\ShipSimExtremes\Data\Entities\Dynamics
while the bdg files destinations are, respectively:
for the White Marlin : \Vstep\ShipSimExtremes\Projects\ShipSimExtremes\Data\Entities\Ships\CatamaranFerry
for the RedJet4 :
\Vstep\ShipSimExtremes\Projects\ShipSimExtremes\Data\Entities\Ships\RedJet4

Eventually, if you disagree with the parameters, because you have real data or manoeuvring specifications, I would really appreciate if you published here the values/data, I thank you for that in advance.

Regards,
Luc

[Viscount13]

Hello Luc,

Thanks a lot for your reply! I will install the files you provided and see if that fixes my problems. If not, I will record more precise data for you. I'm not sure if I can find any real world data for you to work with but should my problems persist I will see what I can dig up.

Regards,
Pontus

[Viscount13]

Hello again!

I'm happy to report that replacing the files for the White Marlin seems to have fixed the issues I had. Thanks a lot! I can only assume that replacing the files for the Red Jet will have the same effect.

There are two more things I'd like to tweak for the Marlin.
The first is the positioning of the helmsman camera. I'd like to move it forward a little. As it is it's difficult to see the map and the radar screens without zooming in and the angle of the instrument dials also becomes a problem. I assume this can be done by editing the <Location> string in the cam file so what I'm wondering is which of the three values is forward/back and what unit do the numbers represent? I'd normally figure this out by trial and error but loading Ship Simulator for some reason takes a very long time, so I'd be very grateful if you could share this information with me.

The second thing is the throttle sensitivity when using a keyboard. A small change in rpm means a big change in speed on a ship like the Marlin and I find it difficult to stop the throttle levers at the rpm I'm looking for. I think the change can be quite subtle as I don't want the movement of the levers to become too slow either. If you could point me in the right direction of where I could edit this value I'd really appreciate it. And if the file is encrypted, is there a chance that you could help me with this?

Regards,
Pontus

[LucAtC]

Hello Pontus,

Each camera position is defined like this, measured from a design center :
<Location>-0.25 12.94 10.58</Location>
-0.25 means 25 cm to port side (- is port side, + is to SB)
12.94 means 12.94 m, positive up
10.58 means 10.58 m longitudinal, positive to bow
The cam editor is slightly flawed, there is no other way to edit the values than using a text editor that doesn't insert unwanted characters, so Notepad plus is certainly ok. Also, I think that having edited the file, after saving it, not closing your text editor, leaving your free roam mission and restarting a new one without reloading the game itself will work in any Windows version.
The issue of the keyboard sensitivity is simply done with the keyboard properties repeat delay and repeat rate of windows. Win + R, "Control keyboard". Slowing the keys changes also the arrow keys, I think.

Good luck and good night,
Luc