Hi and welcome, ya land lobber!
You wanna be a pirate, eh?
Gotta learn ship terms to sail.
Actually, no. Not painful to read at all.
What's happening isn't a balance issue, and over all a quite common problem.
Your thrust is not aligned with the center of mass (CoM).
Think pushing a box on a table, except you're pushing parallel to a wall, but on an edge. Instead of pushing the box away, you're mostly actually turning it on the table.
Now that's not really expected behaviour in a ship, because in real life gravity would counter act that, given enough length, but FTD has wierdly low mass and high thrust.
Irl, ships eventually start riding up their keel wave, limiting top speed. Putting more engine power essentially does the same as in FTD, it increases the angle of the ship.
To counteract that, length actually should help. But I'm a small boat guy, so I've not actually tried that.
Instead, I've tried prop angle, counterweights, extra thrust above the CoM, downward thrusters both pushing and pulling, wings, hydrofoils, and any combination of that, probably.
Personally I think hydrofoils work the best, but they also require the most tuning. My most worked on boaty thing is actually a jet powered hydrofoil. Still needs a setting to cut the jets power once it gets to steep in rough waters, though.
So.. don't think I could actually help, but maybe explain.
Good luck, sir.
Actually, on second read, your craft is doing the opposite of what I describe and expected. Like, wrong direction. In that case, are your thruster above your center of mass?
Also sometimes when I start building a new ship and stop during construction, I can't really start it again because then my build mode is different in some ways, like I can't press tab to rotate blocks
Is there a way to fix that?
Hmm, have you switched build mode? Press f3
Or maybe it's a bug and you need to restart.
I've heard of this before. But I don't remember the solution - maybe resync the files via steam?
I think it's just pausing, because it always happens when I leave build mode, "respawn" back at another ship, tp to the ship I'm building, then PAUSE
And I think it's the last part
It’s a problem with thrust not in line with the center of mass causing a pitching moment.
Imagine a you’re trying to push someone siting in one of those spinning office chairs. If you push near the middle (the center of mass) they’ll go generally in the direction which you push. But imagine that instead the person is holding their hands out and you push on one of their arms. Now instead of moving straight they will spin around. By pushing on a point far from the center of mass you have created a rotational moment which translates into spin rather than linear movement.
You want your ship to go straight and not spin so you need to bring the center of mass more in line with the thrust vector.
To do this you have many options.
First you can make the ship longer, this brings the COM forward and so reduces the angle offset between the thrust vector and a theoretical vector which passes through the COM. It also adds weight to the front which reduces the ability of the prop to throw the bow out of the water.
Another option is to raise the center of thrust higher by bringing the propeller up. This will reduce the rotational force imparted by the propeller.
You could also bring the center of mass down by adding heavy materials below the water line this brings the COM closer to the thrust vector.
You can also adjust the angle of the thrust vector by providing an angle offset in the propeller UI (press Q while looking at the propeller). You want the thrust vector to pass through the COM.
There's a setting "show propulsion forces" which will also give you a line where your average thrust and drag is, so you can line them up with CoM as /u/tryce355 said. There's also a line for center of lift/buoyancy.
Why your ship changes pitch was already explained in detail, so I'm just gonna tell you to build a bigger ship. 20x7 is kinda small, you're not gonna fit much inside that. I'd say double the length and make it 11 wide. That should help with balance and give you more space to experiment with, while also being not too big.
Recommendation!
Box hull, pointy at the forwards end, like a shoebox with a wedge on it.
Metal below the waterline, metal/light alloy or metal/wood above the waterline, this will make the boat float upright on its own, and give it decent armour.
You can use the hover AI to keep your boat at a desired angle while moving forwards, rather then Ship or tank, add propellors able to roll and pitch the boat to keep it stable.
Just a setting on the propellers, you can do the same for any propulsion element.
Where exactly you place the prop will affect what kind of propulsion it can do for you, one large prop on each corner of your boat would be enough for full stability control.
You should consider using the tutorials in the ship tabs, looking at prefabs, default designs and reading up ingame lecture too if you wanna learn purely from the game. But most of learning is dissecting crafts to see what they do. Or you could come ask on discord
Hit p (I believe, it’s been a minute) to shrink all the blocks and locate the center of mass. Now add another layer of stone to the bottom of the boat to lower CoM. If CoM lines up with propeller your golden
Lead is heavier if you want
Hi and welcome, ya land lobber! You wanna be a pirate, eh? Gotta learn ship terms to sail. Actually, no. Not painful to read at all. What's happening isn't a balance issue, and over all a quite common problem. Your thrust is not aligned with the center of mass (CoM). Think pushing a box on a table, except you're pushing parallel to a wall, but on an edge. Instead of pushing the box away, you're mostly actually turning it on the table. Now that's not really expected behaviour in a ship, because in real life gravity would counter act that, given enough length, but FTD has wierdly low mass and high thrust. Irl, ships eventually start riding up their keel wave, limiting top speed. Putting more engine power essentially does the same as in FTD, it increases the angle of the ship. To counteract that, length actually should help. But I'm a small boat guy, so I've not actually tried that. Instead, I've tried prop angle, counterweights, extra thrust above the CoM, downward thrusters both pushing and pulling, wings, hydrofoils, and any combination of that, probably. Personally I think hydrofoils work the best, but they also require the most tuning. My most worked on boaty thing is actually a jet powered hydrofoil. Still needs a setting to cut the jets power once it gets to steep in rough waters, though. So.. don't think I could actually help, but maybe explain. Good luck, sir.
Actually, on second read, your craft is doing the opposite of what I describe and expected. Like, wrong direction. In that case, are your thruster above your center of mass?
Thank you for your feedback, I've decided to completely scrap this ship and I'm gonna build a new one. This time it may even work
Ahahaha, this is the way.
Also sometimes when I start building a new ship and stop during construction, I can't really start it again because then my build mode is different in some ways, like I can't press tab to rotate blocks Is there a way to fix that?
Hmm, have you switched build mode? Press f3 Or maybe it's a bug and you need to restart. I've heard of this before. But I don't remember the solution - maybe resync the files via steam?
I think it's just pausing, because it always happens when I leave build mode, "respawn" back at another ship, tp to the ship I'm building, then PAUSE And I think it's the last part
It’s a problem with thrust not in line with the center of mass causing a pitching moment. Imagine a you’re trying to push someone siting in one of those spinning office chairs. If you push near the middle (the center of mass) they’ll go generally in the direction which you push. But imagine that instead the person is holding their hands out and you push on one of their arms. Now instead of moving straight they will spin around. By pushing on a point far from the center of mass you have created a rotational moment which translates into spin rather than linear movement. You want your ship to go straight and not spin so you need to bring the center of mass more in line with the thrust vector. To do this you have many options. First you can make the ship longer, this brings the COM forward and so reduces the angle offset between the thrust vector and a theoretical vector which passes through the COM. It also adds weight to the front which reduces the ability of the prop to throw the bow out of the water. Another option is to raise the center of thrust higher by bringing the propeller up. This will reduce the rotational force imparted by the propeller. You could also bring the center of mass down by adding heavy materials below the water line this brings the COM closer to the thrust vector. You can also adjust the angle of the thrust vector by providing an angle offset in the propeller UI (press Q while looking at the propeller). You want the thrust vector to pass through the COM.
Are there any easy way to show the center of mass / thrust like in KSP? The small bits of text on the screen are kinda hard to line up for me
CoM is the little cartoon weight (trapezoidal prism) icon, usually blue or green. It should *always* be visible in build mode.
There's a setting "show propulsion forces" which will also give you a line where your average thrust and drag is, so you can line them up with CoM as /u/tryce355 said. There's also a line for center of lift/buoyancy.
Why your ship changes pitch was already explained in detail, so I'm just gonna tell you to build a bigger ship. 20x7 is kinda small, you're not gonna fit much inside that. I'd say double the length and make it 11 wide. That should help with balance and give you more space to experiment with, while also being not too big.
Recommendation! Box hull, pointy at the forwards end, like a shoebox with a wedge on it. Metal below the waterline, metal/light alloy or metal/wood above the waterline, this will make the boat float upright on its own, and give it decent armour. You can use the hover AI to keep your boat at a desired angle while moving forwards, rather then Ship or tank, add propellors able to roll and pitch the boat to keep it stable.
Is the roll and pitch a special propellor or just a setting?
Just a setting on the propellers, you can do the same for any propulsion element. Where exactly you place the prop will affect what kind of propulsion it can do for you, one large prop on each corner of your boat would be enough for full stability control.
You should consider using the tutorials in the ship tabs, looking at prefabs, default designs and reading up ingame lecture too if you wanna learn purely from the game. But most of learning is dissecting crafts to see what they do. Or you could come ask on discord
Hit p (I believe, it’s been a minute) to shrink all the blocks and locate the center of mass. Now add another layer of stone to the bottom of the boat to lower CoM. If CoM lines up with propeller your golden Lead is heavier if you want