Small Ships

Medieval-inspired ships for exploration, trade, and naval battles!

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Play with Friends!

Want to play together with your friends? Check out DatHost for the best performance and easy setup!

How to Get Started

1. Go to DatHost using my Link
2. Register your account.
3. Once registered, choose the plan that fits your needs
4. The 30% discount will be applied automatically at checkout. Important: The discount only works if you order your server using this ** my Link** !

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Showcase

My Other Mods

Villager Recruits:
Command your own Villager Army into war! Now with Diplomacy and Factions!

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Villager Workers:
Hire Villagers and let them work for you!

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Siege Weapons:
Prepare for war. Build your siege weapon. Dominate the battlefield!

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Explanation

• Craft a Dockyard and place it next to water.
• Right-click the Dockyard, choose a ship and a wood type and press "Build ship". The materials are taken from your inventory.
• The finished ship is placed in the water near the Dockyard. The water has to be wide and deep enough.
• Right-click the ship to board. The first player gets the helm. Other players get the free seat closest to where they clicked.
• Press R to open/close the sail.
• W / S to increase or decrease the sail.
• A / D to steer.
• The keys for your seat are shown on screen when you board.
• Ships can only be built at the Dockyard. There are no crafting recipes for ships.
• Ships can be lost. A sunken ship can not be recovered.

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Controls

Helm

Key	Action
R	Open / close the sail
W / S	More / less sail (4 steps). With closed sail: move slowly forward / backward
A / D	Steer
W	Row (Galley and Drakkar)
Hold right mouse button	Aim the cannons on the side you are looking at
Right mouse button + mouse wheel	Change ammo
Space	Shoot
E (inventory key)	Open ship inventory
Mouse wheel	Camera distance in third person

Gunner

Key	Action
Hold right mouse button	Aim your cannon
Right mouse button + mouse wheel	Change ammo
Space	Shoot your cannon

Other

• Right-click another spot of the ship with an empty hand to change your seat.
• Right-click a cannon to sit at it as gunner.
• Crouch + right-click to open the inventory from outside of the ship.
• Right-click a mob while sitting in the ship to take it on board.
• Right-click a mob on the ship to dismount it.
• The sail key can be changed in the options. The other keys use your vanilla key binds.

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Dockyard

• Materials are taken from your inventory.
• Every job takes time. In creative mode it is free and instant.
• Nobody can board a ship while the Dockyard works on it.

Build

• Choose the ship and one of the 9 wood types.
• Any planks can be used. The wood type only changes the look of the ship.
• The Dockyard shows the attributes and the wind profile of the ship before you build it.
• Bigger ships need deeper water. The Dockyard tells you if the water is too shallow or if there is not enough room.

Ship	Planks	White Wool	String	Iron	Build time
Galley	96	24	12	18 nuggets	2:00 min
Drakkar	96	24	12	36 nuggets	2:00 min
Dhow	96	48	48	none	2:00 min
Caravel	120	48	24	30 nuggets	2:15 min
Cog	192	24	12	48 nuggets	3:00 min
Brigg	240	48	24	8 ingots	3:30 min
Galleon	336	72	36	12 ingots	4:30 min

Modify

Works on a ship within 16 blocks of the Dockyard.

• Install or remove upgrades.
• Mount or remove cannons.
• Hang shields on the Drakkar.
• Change sail color, mast banner and sail banner.
• Rename the ship.
• Repair hull and sails.

Removed cannons, shields and banners are given back. Removed upgrades give back 30% of the material.

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Ships

These are the default values. All of them can be changed in the config.

Ship	Hull	Speed	Turning	Slots	Cannons	Seats	Water
Cog	400 HP	27 km/h	4.0	108	4	11	cold
Brigg	500 HP	30 km/h	3.0	162	6	17	cold
Galley	200 HP	35 km/h	5.0	54	2	12	warm
Drakkar	200 HP	28 km/h	5.0	54	0	15	cold
Caravel	250 HP	32 km/h	4.75	81	4	10	any
Dhow	200 HP	32 km/h	4.5	135	4	12	warm
Galleon	700 HP	25 km/h	1.5	216	10	34	any

A mounted cannon can take up one seat.

Cog

• Trade ship with one mast (cold water).
• Up to 4 cannons, 2 on each side.
• Best with tail wind.
  

Brigg

• Trade ship with two masts (cold water).
• Up to 6 cannons, 3 on each side.
• Best with tail wind.
  

Galley

• Warship with one sail and oars (warm water).
• Up to 2 cannons, 1 on each side.
• With oars it reaches 85% of its speed in any wind.
• Takes no hull damage when it rams another ship.
• Best with side wind.
  

Drakkar

• Viking ship with one sail and oars (cold water).
• With oars it reaches 75% of its speed in any wind.
• Up to 10 shields, 5 on each side. Each shield reduces the damage to the ship by 3%.
• Breaks ice.
• Best with tail wind.
  

Caravel

• Ship with two masts.
• Up to 4 cannons, 2 on each side.
• Can sail against the wind. Best with head wind and side wind.
• Same speed in every biome.

Dhow

• Trade ship with two masts (warm water).
• Up to 4 cannons, 2 on each side.
• Cargo does not slow it down.
• Best with side wind.

Galleon

• The biggest ship, with three masts.
• Up to 10 cannons, 5 on each side.
• Cannons do not slow it down.
• Same speed in every biome.
• Best with tail wind.

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Detailed Features

Wind

• The wind changes direction and strength every few minutes. It is stronger in rain and thunder.
• White lines on the water show the wind direction while you are on a ship. The banner on the mast shows it too.
• Every ship has its own wind profile. The table shows the speed change at full wind strength with full sail.
• A ship can not get faster than its max speed.
• Oars are not affected by the wind.
• The sail closes when nobody is at the helm.

Ship	Head wind	Side wind	Tail wind
Cog	-70%	+10%	+50%
Brigg	-75%	+20%	+40%
Galley	-30%	+40%	0%
Drakkar	-70%	+10%	+40%
Caravel	+10%	+15%	-20%
Dhow	-40%	+20%	0%
Galleon	-100%	-20%	+50%

Ship Performance

• Cold-water ships → 20% faster in cold biomes, 20% slower in warm.
• Warm-water ships → 20% faster in warm biomes, 20% slower in cold.
• Both are 5% slower in biomes that are neither cold nor warm.
• Each cannon decreases speed by 2.5% (not on the Galleon).
• Cargo can decrease speed by up to 10% (not on the Dhow).
• Torn sails give 25% less speed. Destroyed sails give no speed.

Cannons

• Cannons are mounted at the Dockyard. Each cannon needs one Ship Cannon item.
• Remove a cannon at the Dockyard or in the ship inventory (click and hold).
• At the helm you aim and shoot all cannons on the side you are looking at.
• A gunner aims and shoots only his own cannon. The helm does not shoot cannons that have a gunner.
• While aiming, the camera is on the barrel and a line shows where the shot goes.
• Ammo is taken from the ship inventory first, then from the inventory of the shooter.
• The HUD shows the available ammo while aiming.
• Reloading takes about 4 seconds.
• A hit on the mast damages the sails. A hit on the hull damages the hull.
• Hits on a ship throw wood debris and sail shreds.
• Cannonballs that hit the ground make a small explosion.
• Passengers can not damage their own ship.

Ammo

• Cannon Ball → normal shot, best against the hull.
• Chained Shot → 25% less range and damage, heavy damage to sails.
• Grape Shot → short range, best against the crew.
• Fine-Grain Powder → used up when shooting, +50% range.

Ground Cannon

• Use the Ship Cannon item on the ground to place it.
• Right-click to use it. W / S to move, A / D to turn.
• Hold the right mouse button to aim. Double right-click turns the barrel back to the front.
• Shoot with Space. Ammo is taken from your inventory.

Ramming

• Ships damage each other when they collide at 20 km/h or more.
• More speed means more damage. The smaller ship takes more damage and gets pushed away.
• The crew of both ships takes damage too.
• Hitting land at high speed damages your own ship.
• A sailing ship pushes and damages mobs in its way.

Sinking

• Ships do not repair themselves.
• A ship with no hull HP left sinks with a sinking animation. The crew is thrown into the water.
• A sunken ship is lost. It can not be repaired, boarded or picked up.
• The wreck despawns after 15 minutes and drops its cargo and cannons.

Ship Repairing

• Hull: right-click with an iron nugget while you have planks in your inventory. Works up to 66% hull.
• Sail patching: right-click with string while you have an iron nugget in your inventory. Works up to 33% sail.
• Dockyard: repairs hull and sails completely. Costs 4 planks and 1 iron nugget per 10 hull HP and 1 wool per 5 sail HP.

Ship Upgrades

• Iron Scantlings → +100% hull HP.
• Copper Plating → +20% turning.
• Cotton Sails → +10% speed.
• Upgrades are installed at the Dockyard. Bigger ships need more items:

Ship	Iron Scantlings	Copper Plating	Cotton Sails
Cog	4	4	1
Brigg	12	8	4
Galley	5	4	1
Drakkar	5	5	1
Caravel	5	4	2
Dhow	3	3	2
Galleon	16	12	8

Inventory

• Hoppers can put items into the ship inventory and take them out.
• The ship inventory shows speed and damage of the ship.
• Cannons, banners and shields can be removed in the ship inventory (click and hold).

Sail Coloring

• Right-click with dye to color sails.

Banners

• Right-click with a banner to put it on the mast. Shears remove it.
• A banner pattern can be put on the sail at the Dockyard.

Shields

• Right-click the Drakkar with a shield to hang it up. An axe removes it.
• Shields with banner patterns are supported.
• Epic Knights shields are supported.

Ship Naming

• Use a nametag to name your ship, or rename it at the Dockyard.

Leashing

• Right-click a ship with a lead to pull it.
• Right-click a fence to tie the ship to it.
• A leashed ship can not sail.

Other

• Decks are walkable.
• Mobs can be passengers. NPCs standing on the deck leave onto nearby land when the ship lies still.
• All ships break lily pads.
• Bubble columns do not affect ships.
• Water animals swim away from ships.
• Vanilla boats are 75% slower by default.

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Crafting

Dockyard

Ship Cannon (any log)

Cannon Ball
Gunpowder in the middle, 4 iron nuggets on the sides. Gives 2.

Chained Shot
Chain in the middle, 4 Cannon Balls in the corners. Gives 2.

Grape Shot
Gunpowder in the middle, 8 iron nuggets around it.

Fine-Grain Powder

Iron Scantlings

Copper Plating

Cotton Sails

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Config

Server config (smallships-server.toml, in the serverconfig folder of the world). Server values are synced to the clients.

• Attributes for each ship: hull HP, speed, turning, acceleration, inventory size, water type. Changes apply to existing ships.
• dockyardBuildableShips: ships that can be built at the Dockyard. Empty = all ships.
• Upgrades: enable, cost, time, refund and strength.
• Wind: enable, change interval, minimum strength in rain and thunder.
• Cannon damage, block destruction, sail damage, collision damage, shield damage reduction.
• Speed modifiers for cargo, cannons and biomes.
• mountBlackList: entities that can not mount a ship.
• driverEntities: non-player entities that can take the helm (default: recruits:captain).
• Vanilla boat speed, despawn time of sunken ships, updateCheckerEnable.

Client config (smallships-client.toml, in the config folder)

• Speed unit: km/h, m/s, knots or mph.
• Camera: auto third person, camera centered on the ship, zoom distance.
• Wind particles and banner movement.
• Creative tab, updateCheckerEnable.

Commands

• /smallships wind shows the wind direction and strength.
• /smallships wind setDirection <0-360> sets the wind direction (north = 0, clockwise). Needs OP.
• /smallships wind setStrength <0-1> sets the wind strength. Needs OP.

Update checker

• Shows a chat message with a download link when a new version is available.

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Datapacks and Addons

Dockyard recipes can be changed with a datapack. One file per ship: data/<namespace>/dockyard_recipes/<ship>.json. build_time is in ticks.

{
  "build_time": 3600,
  "ingredients": [
    { "tag": "minecraft:planks", "count": 192 },
    { "item": "minecraft:white_wool", "count": 24 },
    { "item": "minecraft:string", "count": 12 },
    { "item": "minecraft:iron_nugget", "count": 48 }
  ]
}

Addon mods can add their own ships with the ship registry. Registered ships show up in the Dockyard.

ShipRegistry.register(ShipType.builder(new ResourceLocation("myaddon", "longship"), LongshipEntity::summon)
        .buildTime(110 * 20)
        .ingredient(ItemTags.PLANKS, 112)
        .ingredient(Items.WHITE_WOOL, 20)
        .build());

The Fabric version needs Fabric API.

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Modpack Permissions

You are allowed to use the Small Ships Mod in any modpack,
as long as you link back to this page and don’t make money off of it.

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