ShipShaper: Falconeer Chronicles allows players to craft custom steam-driven vessels using free-form procedural hull tools and modular mechanical components. Instead of stacking individual voxels or blocks, you pull, stretch, and scale organic hull profiles, then attach industrial steam machinery such as paddle wheels, haystack boilers, and towering smoke stacks. Once constructed, you can take your vessel directly into the open ocean to test its balance and buoyancy under simulated water physics.
Whether you want to build an early industrial ironclad, an armed paddle frigate, or a peaceful commercial freighter, the editor provides the dedicated mechanical props and propulsion settings required to bring steam-age naval architecture to life.
Core Parts for Constructing a Steamship
ShipShaper includes a variety of historical and industrial props specifically tailored to steam-era naval builds. While the creator can combine these with any architectural style, steam builds rely on a distinct set of functional and decorative components:
- Propulsion: Side-mounted paddle wheels and underwater propellers. When placing propulsion elements like paddle wheels, the editor automatically mirrors them on the opposite side of the hull.
- Steam Generators: Sultana pattern deck boilers, haystack boilers, engine pipes, and ventilation cowls.
- Exhaust: Smoke stacks and industrial funnels of varying sizes, which can be scaled up or down and embedded directly into the vessel's deckhouses.
- Steering & Keel: Fin diving rudders, conventional rudders, and ballast keels to establish direction and lower the ship's center of gravity.
- Superstructure & Cabins: Wheelhouses, raised platforms, flying bridges, and conning towers fitted with watertight bulkhead doors, portholes, and wide bridge windows.
- Deck Hardware: Hanging dinghies (lifeboats), cranes, bollards, rope fenders, railings, and operational standing lamps or signal searchlights.
Step-by-Step Steamship Building Workflow
Building a functional steamship in ShipShaper follows an iterative design loop. In player gameplay demonstrations, keeping structural volume balanced is essential to ensure the ship rides properly in the water.
- Shape the Hull Profile: Drag and pull the base hull form along the length and height axes. For steamships carrying heavy machinery and armaments, pull the hull upwards to provide adequate freeboard above the waterline.
- Mount the Propulsion Systems: Select the paddle wheel or propeller from the engine parts category. Adjust the scale so the paddle blades sit partially submerged beneath the intended waterline. The editor automatically duplicates the part on both port and starboard sides.
- Erect the Superstructure: Click the deck to place central deckhouses, such as a high castle, trapezoid castle, or flying bridge. Use the scaling handles to widen or lengthen the cabins, ensuring room for walk-arounds and crew safety railings.
- Install Boilers and Smoke Stacks: Place Sultana pattern deck boilers or haystack boilers behind or inside the wheelhouse structure. Add an industrial smoke stack, scaling its height to balance the visual profile of your ship.
- Add Armaments and Deck Fixtures: If constructing a steam warship, place large or medium gun emplacements onto raised decks. Options include double naval guns, Charles Martel main guns, Brandenburg turrets, carronades, and swivel guns. Finish the deck by wrapping exposed edges with railings, mounting hanging dinghies on davits, and placing standing lamps for deck illumination.
- Assign Materials and Color Schemes: Apply hull planking, rivets, and struts, then select manual paint colors or use the random color theme generator to unify your ship's palette.
Key Building Controls and Shortcuts
The editor uses direct manipulation tools paired with basic keyboard shortcuts to refine item placement:
| Control / Action | Function in Editor |
|---|---|
| Drag Handles | Pull, extend, and scale hull sections or superstructure blocks |
| Q and E Keys | Rotate selected components or orientation |
| Mouse Wheel | Cycle through available part variants and props |
| Ctrl + Z | Undo previous placement or shaping action |
| Mirror Placement | Automatically reflects symmetrical items (paddles, lifeboats, portholes) across the hull centerline |
Testing and Sailing in World View
After saving your design in the editor, clicking World View places your custom steamship into the open sea. ShipShaper runs an automated physical analysis of your creation based on its hull shape, volume, propulsion type, and weight distribution.
In World View, you can test how your design handles realistic ocean swells:
- Steering Controls: Use WASD keys or mouse cursor steering to guide the ship through open water, channels, and rocky reefs.
- Throttle Steps: Adjust engine speeds through Ahead Slow, Full Speed Ahead, Stop, and Astern (reverse).
- Physics Toggles: The game features an "Easy Physics" option alongside realistic water simulation. If a hull has insufficient volume or height relative to the heavy components placed above deck, the vessel may ride low in rough waves or take on water. Returning to Editor View to deepen the hull or widen the beam corrects these buoyancy issues.
- Interactive Lighting: Toggle deck lamps, signal lights, and forward floodlights on and off during night or stormy sailing.
Exporting Your Steamship
ShipShaper includes native export tools for creators who want to use their ships beyond the standalone simulation:
- Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles: Export your custom fleet directly into developer Tomas Sala's oceanic building game.
- 3D Printing and Modding: Export creations as standard 3D files (FBX or STL format). The game includes a free commercial license allowing you to use your exported ship meshes for personal 3D prints, tabletop gaming miniatures, mod projects, or independent game development.
- Steam Workshop: Upload your designs directly to the Steam Workshop to share with other community members.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you build both paddle steamers and propeller-driven ships?
Yes. The parts catalog includes both side-mounted steam paddle wheels and underwater propellers, allowing you to build traditional riverboats, coastal steamships, or ocean-going ironclads.
Why is my steamship sinking or riding too low in World View?
ShipShaper calculates sailing dynamics based on your ship's hull dimensions, displacement, and weight. If you add heavy superstructure towers, multiple gun turrets, and thick boilers without expanding the lower hull, the vessel will sit too deep in the water. Return to Editor View, select the lower hull nodes, and stretch the height and width outwards to increase buoyant volume.
Can you fire the steamship's cannons while sailing?
In the initial Early Access release, sailing mechanics focus strictly on navigation, propulsion response, and sea tests rather than combat simulation. Developer Tomas Sala has stated in official development roadmaps that expanding test-drive mechanics to allow aiming and firing guns is planned during the Early Access period.
