r/Stormworks

look at him go!

I really do mean it: why is this? What about SW makes thrust far above or below center of mass impossible?

For most aircraft, I just move propulsion to be inline with CoM and I'm fine with it.

When I look at real aircraft, having props well above CoM doesn't seem to be such a big deal.

For sea planes, this is always a big fight because you need to keep props out of the water and water out of intakes. I usually compensate by moving batteries, engines, and anything heavy as high as possible. If I make a boat plane like the PBY, I actually have the tail and rear fuselage higher to raise CoM. With props in front, I move CoM back far enough that it floats significantly nose up and put the props far forward to get clearance. But ultimately, I get the props below CoM so putting on throttle pulls the nose up.

I've been working on a pusher prop seaplane and you have to mount props pretty high. I put the batteries in the float sponsons that spawn down for stability at the dock but lift up to the wingtips.

I do have a mental disorder that makes me refuse to use cyclic pitching helicopter props to correct the pitch induced by thrust because I can't think of a single airplane that uses cyclic pitch for pitch attitude control, so I shouldn't need it. Even something like the V22 Osprey which has cyclic control for pitch and yaw while hovering does not use it for forward flight.

But just look at the tail on this PBY. The elevators are level. When I'm pulling a seaplane out of the water in SW, the tail is fully deflected up - and that's with props in line with CoM. Each seaplane hull I make goes through hours of evolution to get the balance just right so it doesn't nosedive under the waves as it's being pushed through water at takeoff speed. Without noticing, I can easily change the CoM enough that no amount of trim on the tail is enough to keep it flying level in the air.

Why is elevator trim not enough for even mildly out of line propulsion? What is different than real life?

I think it's because drag is so high in SW, the thrust required for flight is higher, so the thrust generated by in game props is unreasonably high.

I put my lifting surfaces and control surfaces well above CoM on these planes so the drag they induce (which should go up with speed^2) should act to pitch up. I move center of lift forward of CoM so increased lift at increased speed should pull the plane up. They just don't scale as quickly as thrust does.

I think if I can understand what it is about Stormworks physics that makes it so sensitive to thrust off axis with CoM, then I can do a better job of working around it, or I can finally accept that I must use heli props on my airplanes.

Basically the heavier a train is using as few wheels as possible it will be able to pull more. On the other hand if you have a lighter engine with its weight spread out over a ton of wheels it won’t be able to pull anything.

Bridges and things like that would also have weight limits. So no more running big boys to the arctic. Perhaps certain areas of track would also be unstable. Meaning you’d need something with a lighter axle load to avoid the rails collapsing under you.

Just something i think would make designing trains more interesting and challenging

What do you guys think?

Steam Workshop::Saab JA37D Viggen F21

PS i am leaving the south and heading to north right now.

I asked about a different problem yesterday, but now that I’ve fixed that problem, a ton of new ones have showed up and no one is responding. So I’m making a new post. The ship runs on steam, and is available for download on steam, under the name RMS Bertha. It’s in three parts, funnel, bow, and stern.
As for the problems, it looses speed slowly after starting up, even though the steam pressure is climbing. When the pressure goes down it slows even faster. The pumps just flat out don’t work. And it leans to the side once I start the boilers. Please walk me through how to fix any of the problems if you find a way to fix them.

Bow: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3725090011&searchtext=RMS+Bertha
Stern: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3725090124&searchtext=RMS+Bertha
Funnel: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3725090238&searchtext=RMS+Bertha

https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormworks/comments/1tadpx6/yugoslavia_ghost_camaro_update/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Feel free to give feedback & suggestions

The best Plane i've made so far

Spent 12 hours building this lovely boat I've dubbed "Gater".

!!Not a vanilla build!! (Thales, Engine sounds, Pistons, Etc)

Featuring way too much horsepower, a sliding crane, landing craft capabilities, and some sexy looks. (Biased opinion)

I started this build in the hopes of simplicity and quickly got lost in "Functinalty Land". Even so the build is exactly perfect. Due to the fact stormworks only calculates floatation for sealed volumes, when stationary, "Gater" appears to be sinking. But fear not, she's only lying in wait for her next meal. Once under power she come right out of the water. Even when full loaded!

If you can think of anything I might add, let me know :)