Request for Maritime logistics

[a13571113]

Space Ages is a Fantastic game but it is missing Maritime logistics that would allow for setting up logistics across oceans without trains or building land bridges.

Shipping ports and and docks that can be connected to railroads and belt logistics.
Shipping time should be adjusted for distance and should be realistically slower than trains.
Shipping logistics that can be set up just like train logistics can.
Ships can be researched and built and everything including quality enhancements including propulsion enhancements for speed and for shipping volumes can also be researched and built. Different ship sizes and classifications such as Frigates, galleons, container ships, etc.
Ships should have a grid like armor and vehicles as well as maritime specific enhancements.
Ships should be able to driven just like tanks and cars and have similar fuel sources as both.
Ships should also have the ability to install tank cannons, missiles and guns so I "soften" enemy positions from the sea. The range of ship weapons should be short enough to require to use within the range of the enemy fire.
Enemy fire could have a stronger damage factor on ships to offset the naval superiority.
A player should be able to make large shipping centers and ships of different sizes should require docks of different sizes.

With this I could set up large scale logistics between distant lands and island maps set ups without building trains or land bridges. I could also sail around and harass biter colonies from the coast like a pirate.

This is my wish list.

Thanks

[fmaw]

I'm a teacher in Logistics and I talked about this with my colleagues (introducing ships into Factorio). But I argued that mechanically, it would be very similar to trains. In your opinion, how would ships differ from trains logistically?

[a13571113]

Mechanically, I agree. The idea of building ports and running container ships from different ports separated by large expanses of water would be an extension of train logistics. In fact it would be possible to incorporate everything a train can do into ship logistics.
Maritime logistics could differ from trains in terms of scale. Ships could start out small and hold a reasonable quantity of goods. At the minimum a ship should be able to carry my toon to a new land mass to explore. Research could unlock larger capacities, engines, hulls, navigation, and other upgrades. This in turn would impact the scale of the ports required for the ships to fit into as well as the scale of the logistics hub required to support it. This again should require port, shipyard, dock scale upgrades etc.
Unlike train logistics, maritime logistics could be subject to enhanced ocean based weather variables that could also scale ideally to some pollution level variable. Storms could be designed to impact ships, damaging ships, and even sink them. Research and mods could be designed to reduce the impact of storms through navigation upgrades, hull strength, carrying capacity, etc. It would be interesting to have storm track right into the path of a tanker ship holding 500,000 units of petroleum gas that is headed for plastics manufacturing facilities on a different island and sink the ship.
Also, I really want to ability sail up a new coast while firing cannons at biter colonies.

[Muche]

Space platforms are also somewhat similar to trains.

Rocket silos (and cargo bays on the platform) affect cargo loading speed onto platform, cargo bays on the platform and the planet affect cargo unloading speed.
There are some asteroids trying to hit the platform, but no random storms. There could be a massive spike of asteroids spawned in a middle of a space connection route to simulate one, but currently it seems to has be hard-coded, so the "storm" is always there. I found the following ideas/requests for dynamic route changes - [Modding] Expose Platform Space Connection to runtime API, and Enabling/disabling space connections at runtime.

[Khazul]

There is a mod, it might have been called Cargo Ships originally, but think it got merged with another mod - Oil rigs or something?

It is basically trains on water. Rails are rendered as a shipping lane (a plain thin line, but placed like rails) and otherwise functions identically, but of course no wagons.

[robot256]

Cargo Ships is alive and well. Oil Rigs are an optional feature in it . Cargo Ships even includes an API so other mods can add new ships that use the same mechanics. All you need are the graphics models.

[a13571113]

I installed the Cargo Ships mod. Lol, deep sea oil platforms are pure comedy and oddly something I did not realize I needed. Thanks robot265 for the info. This will work nicely.