SubmarBoat (WIP) (Needs help)

Garry's Mod general
#1

I made this, inspired from this. It’s supposed to be a boat that can also submerge like a sub. It’s a pretty basic design using props from PHX.
Uses the following:
Toggable Wire Hoverballs (uses a simple Expression 2 chip. Coding not done by me)
Buoyancy (Wire)
Eight barrels to make it float in boat mode.
Wire Thrusters
Standard Hydraulics for the doors (I fail at Wire Hydraulics)
Four lights on the front to see when in sub mode.

I got tired with the classic “PHX Sub” design and wanted something different.

http://imagedump.beniesbuilds.com/gm_submarine0009.jpg

http://imagedump.beniesbuilds.com/gm_submarine0010.jpg

http://imagedump.beniesbuilds.com/gm_submarine0011.jpg

http://imagedump.beniesbuilds.com/gm_submarine0012.jpg

http://imagedump.beniesbuilds.com/gm_submarine0013.jpg

http://imagedump.beniesbuilds.com/gm_submarine0014.jpg

The back used to have a PHX Propeller (for sub mode). It didn’t do anything except add to the theme. But since it was too heavy (and when lowering the weight to 1 it refused to spin, I replaced it with an XQM thruster)

But it needs help. It needs a Smart Weld and Weight expert to help make this act like both.
It also needs help submerging properly, without rolling over like a dog or feeling like the two doors I’m using as airlocks are weighing it down when going into sub mode.

I tried using an Adv Input for buoyancy, and when it sinks it rolls over. I tried using Wire Weights, and it won’t sink due to buoyancy. Toggable Wire Hoverballs seem to be the only thing that works. But when it sinks, the entire thing tilts left as in the doors are weighing it down.

Also, “Smart” Welder fails to weld it properly. Or maybe I just fail to know how to use it. But twice I had this thing spaz out, and twice it was unrecoverable, losing lots of hours of work (my fault for not saving, but you can’t predict spaz attacks).

Also, there’s some odd bug that keeps breaking the Expression 2 chip, and the Adv Wire tool. I don’t know what the source is (I’m guessing it doesn’t like Save Games?), but it shows the Inputs of the Expression 2, but everything else is blank. Yet it does show with the standard Wiring Tool.

Please don’t tear this thing apart too much with negative opinions. I haven’t played Gmod in months, and all I need is help with it. So if you can help this thing out so it’ll work perfectly, I’ll be grateful.

#2

It’s a revolution in submarine technology

#3

Your thrusters seem to have different angles. It reminds me a bit of a submarine from an old james bond movie.

#4

They do because of the shape of the thing. I never took the time to manually weld them on.
But the thrusters aren’t the problem here. It’s the weight and sinking that needs to be fixed.

#5

and the looks and the function and the build quality

#6

I didn’t come here to be criticized. I came here to help this thing behave like I designed it to.

#7

How about if you made it look a bit better and try something else than hoverballs? Even a good material would make it look fine. (just suggestions to make it better)

#8

He’s obviously new…

Look at join date

Oh shit.

#9

Try explosive barrels to make it float and wire weight to make it sink :slight_smile:

This way if it is hit by a torpedo it will sink.

#10

I’m not going to trash this because we need new blood

So, lets start

Rule #1 When building, try avoiding PHX like the plague, simply use some Hl2 props to construct a similar shape and you’ll be suprised how easy it is to make something great looking; Don’t get me wrong Phx is still essential for building, but try only using it for parts that fuction, where you NEED a flat surface; Otherwise try using like a cabinet instead of a block and a door instead of a plate, these props add texture to you contraption and really help to bring it to the next level.

Rule #2 Don’t use homoballs, I know you probably don’t have the skills to use anything else right now but try making prototype systems and develop them from there.

Rule #3 I think you already figured this one out but NEVER use smart weld unless you are going to dupe it then paste without contraints or R unweld everything. Smartweld attempts to weld every prop to every other props, this causes massive amounts of constraints and lag.

When building, you make a base prop (I normally use an invisible PHX plate) which weighs like 2000 or something, then you make every prop that is there purely for looks weigh 1 or 0.1 etc; Then you weld ONCE and only ONCE from the prop that weighs 1 to the base prop, this makes strong and stable welds. The idea is to seperate aesthetic props and functional props, there is no need for a console prop to weigh anything or even to have collisions.

Edit: so you’d place the thrusters and god forbid homoballs on the base plate, just always remember to seperate function and looks - every single one of my ‘modern’ contraptions can have 90 % of the props removed and will still function EXACTLY the same as before because there are only 10 or less (normally) props that are actually making the contraption function, the rest are just weightless, collisionless, parented props that are ‘tacked’ on the the funtion base.

if you look at my vid on the 2nd to last page (currently) of the WIP thread, that is my chassis base for my warthog I’m building, there are a few things I need to add for the turret but in essence that is the contraption, when I’ve done building the aethetics I’ll ‘weld’ (actually parent but I assume you don’t know what that is or atleast how to do it) the aethetic props to that chassis and then make the chassis invisible, making the warthog look and function appropriatly but keeping them seperate.

Big spiel but I hope you got something from it.

#11

Unless it’s a farm!

No, but seriously, it looks pretty good.

#12

But I must say it’s hideous

and like hunta says, avoid phx.

use phx like the working skeleton for a contraption then parent hl2 props to it and make the phx props invisible to make the looks alot better

#13

I strongly advise not using hoverballs, and puting a bit more work into asthetics. In place of hoberballs, I suggest using e2 or gates in conjunction with wire wieght or boyancy. I use e2 for the math (calculations to make the sub neutrally boyant at a target depth) and apply it with wire boyancy. I even keep my sub from tilting forward or aft when not climbing or diving using the same principle. It functions thousands of times better then hoverballs. If anyone wants to see my code I’ll post it. (it’s pretty simple). It is, however, tailor made to my submarine, it assumes three main sections to govern the boyancy of, taking care of pitch and depth. I stabilized roll with a low center of gravity

#14

I think the simplest way to learn is to just experiment, build and watch other people building. Believe it or not, I still have a dupe of my first sub and it looks almost identical to this :buddy:

#15

Definitely disagreed, however your prop count can get up very high if you don’t know how to use it propperly.
Careful with it indeed, but there is absolutely no need to avoid it.

#16

Exactly, and 90% of builders have no idea how to use it properly, so it should be avoided unitl they can.

#17

Mostly I see 400-prop cars made out of tiny phx props parented together. And yeah it’s terrible.

#18

Make a sealed boat. Put controllable ballast on it. Voila!

#19

I prefer to govern with wire boyancy because it is easier to govern the entire thing evenly in seperate sections, but it could work either way. The real reason I didn’t use setmass with my last sub was because it was wooden, and large mass boyant props increase in floatation as their mass increases, for stability, I decided it would be better to govern the base props directly instead of adding some non-wood ones, or some 0 boyancy wood ones. I tried both and direct governing via wire boyancy proved more stable for my preticular application, But setmass would be great on a primarily plastic or metal sub

#20

When i want something to float, i use the physical properties tool. But that’s just one way of doing it.