BlockShips

A Minecraft plugin that lets players create rideable, physics-enabled ships. Build custom ships from blocks or spawn pre-built vessels, then sail the seas or take to the skies. All of this without any client side mods or resource packs!

Download on Modrinth: modrinth.com/plugin/blockships

Other plugins that work nicely with BlockShips:

• DynLight for dynamic lighting -- without this, light emitting blocks on custom ships won't work when the ship is assembled.

the prefab small spruce ship	A small custom ship next to the prefab small spruce ship

WARNING: THIS PROJECT IS IN ALPHA. EXPECT BUGS, MISSING FEATURES, AND BREAKING CHANGES. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, AND BACKUP YOUR WORLD OFTEN. THE DEVELOPER IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED BY THIS PLUGIN.

Features

Build a ship out of allowed blocks, place a Ship's wheel on it and right click, and click "assemble" in the menu. Your blocks are now a mobile ship! Depending on the density (fully configurable) of the blocks in your ship, your ship might float lower or higher in the water. Use enough "lighter than air" blocks like glowstone, and your ship will be a flying airship.

Ships can include:

• Functional blocks - Crafting tables, anvils, enchanting tables work as normal. (furnaces/brewing stands don't fully yet work)
• Storage - Chests, barrels, dispensers, etc remain accessible
• Seats - any stair becomes a passenger seat you can sit on.
• Lead points - Anything leashed to a fence will stay tied to the ship. You can lead things to the ship while its moving. Prefab ships have a single lead point.
• Cannons - a dispenser with a block of obsidian behind it will shoot its contents. fire all through the ship menu, or right click on the obsidian to fire.
• Health & damage - Ships have health, take damage from collisions/attacks, and regenerate over time. When they run out of health, ships will attempt to place themselves back in the world.
• Sounds & effects - Movement and damage come with visual effects and audio.
• Drowned Captain - Rare drowned mobs spawn carrying ship wheels
• Dynamic lighting - Light-emitting blocks (glowstone, lanterns, torches, etc.) on ships emit dynamic light when DynLight is installed (optional)

Custom Ships

1. Build a structure from allowed blocks (see or edit this in blocks.yml)

• generally, wood/metal/functional blocks are allowed, while stone/dirt/other natural blocks are not
• light-giving blocks, like glowstone, end rods, and beacons, serve as floatation aids. enough of these, and you get an airship!

1. Craft a "Ship Wheel"
2. Place the wheel on your structure
3. Right-click the wheel to assemble
4. Right-click again to board and steer
5. Right-click the wheel, or sneak right-click, to open menu and disassemble

Prefab Ships

Spawn ready-to-use ships, with customizable banners/colors/wood types:

• Small Ship - Fast, lightweight water vessel. Two seats and a double chest.
• Large Ship - Larger water vessel with more health. Two double chests, many seats.
• Small Airship - Floats in the air with vertical controls. Also two seats and a double chest.

Command: /blockships give <item> (items: ship_wheel, small_ship, large_ship, small_airship)

Physics System

• Walk on your ships - Players can walk around on deck while sailing/flying. this is still buggy!
• Buoyancy - Ships float based on block weight and density. this is buggy sometimes!
• Movement - Acceleration, drag, and collision response
• Collision detection - Ships interact with terrain and entities (interacting with other ships is buggy)

Controls

Key	Action
W	Move forward
S	Move backward / brake
A	Rotate left
D	Rotate right
Space	Ascend (airships only)
Sprint	Descend (airships only)

Crafting Recipes

Item	Recipe
Ship Wheel
Small Ship Wood type, banner customizable
Large Ship Wood type, banner customizable
Ship Balloon Wool color customizable
Small Airship Wood type, balloon type customizable

Cannons

Cannons Firing	Cannon Menu
	(or, right click obsidian to fire individually)

Commands

Command	Description	Permission
/blockships help	Show help and list all commands	-
/blockships info	Show ship and wheel statistics	-
/blockships dismount	Force-dismount from a ship	blockships.dismount
/blockships reload	Reload configuration	blockships.reload
/blockships give <item>	Give yourself a ship wheel or ship kit	blockships.give
/blockships recipes [player]	Unlock crafting recipes	blockships.recipes
/blockships forcedisassembleall	(DANGEROUS) Disassemble all custom ships	blockships.admin
/blockships killentities	(DANGEROUS) Remove all ship entities	blockships.admin

Installation

1. Download the BlockShips jar file from modrinth: modrinth.com/plugin/blockships
2. IMPORTANT: Download ProtocolLib if using 1.21.2 or below! ProtocolLib is no longer required as of BlockShips 0.0.16
3. Place both jars in your server's plugins folder
4. Restart the server

Configuration

config.yml

Main plugin settings including:

• Ship physics (speed, acceleration, drag)
• Buoyancy values (density, strength)
• Collision settings (mass, response)
• Crafting recipes

blocks.yml

Configure which blocks can be used in custom ships:

• Weight scale - Affects buoyancy
• Collider - Custom collision shapes
• Seat/storage - Special block behaviors

Inspiration

This plugin is inspired by mods which also implement rideable ships, as well as plugins which have attempted similar functionality. I made this plugin because I realized that with the addition of display entities, it might be possible to create a better ship plugin than previously possible, but without requiring any client-side mods. No code from any of other project has been used. In particular, this plugin was inspired by:

• Ships and Movecraft plugins
• Archimedes Ships mod
• Eureka Ships / Valkyrian Skies mods

Although this plugin predates them, you should also check out the extremely cool Create Aeronautics Mod, as well as the similar SimpleShips plugin!

License

You are free to use this plugin only for non-commercial projects and servers. For commercial use, please contact the author for a license. For more details, see the LICENSE.txt file.

Developing

You will need java and gradle installed. Running make build will compile the plugin and create a jar file in bin/.