Overview
A quick FAQ regarding sub making and publishing in Barotrauma.
Overview
With the Steam launch I’m happy to see a lot of new people messing with sub creation. However I’ve been seeing (and getting) a lot of the same basic sub development questions. This is a very quick and dirty set of tips to help folks out until someone makes a more detailed guide.
For more advice I suggest the two resources below where you can search up topics (most of these have already been answered in the discord so search first!) and talk to other sub makers.
1. Discord (go to the “baro-subs” section): DISCORD[discordapp.com]
2. Undertow Forum (some advice may be outdated): FORUM [undertowgames.com]
Part 1: Submarine Creation
General tip – Learn by examining working systems:
If you’re struggling to figure out how something works, just load up existing working subs and dissect how they work.
What is a “Hull” and “Gap”?
Hulls are walkable spaces in Barotrauma. Think of them as Air Bubbles that are floodable. Every room of a sub must have a hull.
Gaps are what connect hulls, and it is how the game knows how water and oxygen should flow between the hulls. There should be a gap overlapping every hull-to-hull connection (doors and hatches typically automatically generate gaps).
Flipping assets:
You can flip assets (walls, machines, periscopes, etc.) either vertically or horizontally by pressing the Control + N or Control + M.
Rotating Turrets
You do NOT flip turrets using the above keys, instead you must rotate their base. Click on the turret in sub editor, in its details box there is a separate row called “Base Rotation” or something like that, you need to edit this.
Once the turret base is set you can adjust the turret rotation limits. It’s smart to limit the ability for gunners to shoot their own sub as much as possible. In addition make sure your gun placement allows as close full coverage of the sub as is reasonable. Courtesy of NatCracken on Discord, here is an breakdown of what turret angles you enter should represent:
What is “Linking” and what needs to be linked?
Press and hold the spacebar while clicking 2 items to link them. It tells the game they are connected so resources can travel between the 2. You need to link Oxygen Generators to every Vent on your sub, every room needs a vent. You need to link guns to their ammunition source.
How big should my ballast be?
Switch on “Hulls” so you see their blue outlines. Hold shift and click on all your ballast hulls, in the top left you should get a suggested neutral ballast level.
Click on the navigation computer there is a “neutral ballast level” line in there. Make sure the number matches what you just found.
Ideally your neutral ballast level should be between 4 and 6 – meaning the ballast tanks will sit about half full.
Electrical Advice? I keep getting electrical fires.
Electricity is generated by the reactor, flows through Junction Boxes (and sometimes Relay Components) to all the machines/lights on the sub.
Wiring is probably the most tedious step in sub building, and quite prone to issues (causing junction box fires if done improperly) so save it for the end when you need the least rework. There should be a whole guide on electrical but essentially you are trying to avoid overloading junction boxes. Two ways to avoid this:
- 1) Too much basic power flow – mitigated by having multiple reactors/power grids if truly necessary, or just keeping power use to practical levels (does your small/medium sub really NEED triple Oxy Generators and 8 max charge rate turrets?).
- 2) Power surges (often coming from engine or gun use) – Mitigated by using battery buffers/relay components which can absorb sudden spikes in demand and recharge over time. You can examine how the engine on my ship Capelin MkV is powered as an example. Also having default lower supercapacitor recharge rates (e.g. 50%) helps.
Miscellaneous Tips
- You can copy paste like in MS Word by using the keystrokes Control + c and Control + v
- Add more than one vent in heavily trafficked/populated rooms – even 3 or 4 people can breathe more than a single vent puts out
- Inspect the details in the window that pops up when you click machinery, light, component, etc. There are a ton of things you can adjust.
- For visual cleanness be sure to line up, overlap, and hide wires as makes sense. Note that wires do not need to be centered on (or even touch) the thing they power! So long as the game views them as connected (you see it plugged in when interacting with a machine via screwdriver) it counts. So you can wire things, then just cram the wiring away in the walls.
Part 2: Publishing a Submarine
So you’ve created your sub. First some things to do to keep our level of quality as high as possible (and make people more likely to try your stuff).
- TEST YOUR SUB BEFORE POSTING. As a basic courtesy to anyone who might play your sub, make sure you are able to at least complete a basic cargo mission in single player with your sub.
- Take a screenshot of your sub to add as a custom image when posting so people have a better visual of what to expect than the tiny auto generate image
- If your sub is just a mod/edit of an existing sub, credit that sub by sharing its name/creator’s name
Publishing your sub
Simple as accessing Steam Workshop from the games startup page, select the publish tab and pick the sub to publish.
How do I update a sub?
The published version in Steam Workshop do not automatically update. To update your sub make sure your locally saved updated version has the same name as the original, then from Barotrauma’s launch screen go to Steam Workshop > Publish > click your sub in question. At the bottom right there should be the “Update Item” button