Captains,
Today, we're taking you below deck for a first look at some of the ongoing machinery work aboard our Class 4 Mini SOV.
Many of you have been asking to see more of what happens behind the scenes of the vessels in Ships At Sea — not only on the bridge, but also inside the technical spaces that keep a modern ship operating. With Ships At Sea, we're taking another step in that direction.
An Explorable Machinery Space
The Class 4 Mini SOV is a large and technically complex vessel. Rather than treating its machinery spaces as inaccessible scenery, we're building them as part of the vessel itself. Players can make their way down into the machinery spaces, walk between the equipment, use the different access levels and get up close to the systems installed throughout the ship.
The video below gives you an early look at this work in progress.
At the heart of this area are three 6-cylinder generator sets, each approximately 5 meters long. The generator sets are being developed around a dual-fuel concept, capable of operating on methanol or marine diesel. But the generators themselves are only one part of the system.
Just as on a real vessel, an engine requires supporting equipment to operate. We're continuing this work on the marine diesel fuel system and its associated equipment, while additional machinery and technical systems gradually fill these spaces too.
More Than Building a 3D Model
We know that development of Ships At Sea can sometimes feel like it takes a long time, especially when you're waiting for the next major step forward. But creating a vessel at this scale isn't simply about building a detailed 3D model and placing it into the game.
Our goal is to create ships that are explorable, accessible and increasingly interactive, while maintaining the level of visual and technical detail that makes being aboard them immersive. As our vessels become larger, we're therefore continuing to work on the underlying systems and optimization needed to support that — both in single-player and multiplayer.
With multiplayer supporting sessions of up to 16 players, several players may be aboard vessels, exploring interiors and interacting with different systems at the same time. This means that alongside the visible artwork and gameplay, we're also investing considerable development time into performance, stability and the technical solutions required to make increasingly complex vessels possible.
That work isn't always something we can show in a screenshot — but it's an important part of building the foundation for the future of Ships At Sea.
Building the Foundation for the Future
Our work toward Ships At Sea 1.0 isn't the end of development. We're building the foundation that lets Ships At Sea keep growing beyond 1.0. The machinery spaces are part of that foundation. While we're planning deeper machinery interaction and gameplay, we're already designing these spaces and systems with that future in mind. Over time, we want the equipment aboard your vessels to become more than something you simply look at.
At the same time, Ships At Sea should remain approachable. Our goal isn't to require every player to become a marine engineer before they can leave the harbor. We want to find the balance where players looking for an accessible maritime experience can enjoy the game, while those who want to dive deeper into ship systems and simulation have more depth waiting for them below deck.
This is just a glimpse of our ongoing machinery work. There is considerably more to come. ⚙️🌊
— The Misc Games Team
