I skimmed through a page or 2 and didn't see this mentioned already...any possibility of getting the signal bouys setup for no collision? This would be in keeping with rail signals which cannot be run over/destroyed (unless one of my other mods is changing that and I don't know it) as well as water mechanics where running into a bouy would push it aside/redirect the boat and not significantly damage/stop/or otherwise affect the individual entities (which you seem to have at least tried to replicate with how long it takes to slow down a boat...I appreciate the detail and not suggesting you change it, but sometimes it is actually a little annoying.)

I also was wondering about getting some sort of barge or dock entity for placing land units on. My thought is specifically for combinators, so maybe a 2x2 platform that can draw power from a neighboring oil platform (for a couple 1x2 combinators) or a 3x3 platform (enough to also have a power pole.) Even more specifically I have LTN and the LTN Combinator mods installed. The LTN integration is working, but I'd like to be able to place the LTN Combinator next to the oil rig ports in a more water based and movable fashion. (Technically I guess I could put in some landfill but that is permanent and not very in keeping with a water based transport system.)

Barges made me think of two other ideas...barges & ferrys

Barges: something smaller capacity , probably a little faster than the cargo ships that configures more like a train with separate driving unit and wagons. The current cargo ships are great, don't get me wrong, but it could add some different flavors.

Ferry: a way of transporting vehicles across the water without mining them first (and sending them as cargo), particularly if you don't have (or don't want to have as is my case currently) one of the mods which allows vehicles to be mined without emptying the inventory.

Thanks

Ferry: a way of transporting vehicles across the water without mining them first (and sending them as cargo), particularly if you don't have (or don't want to have as is my case currently) one of the mods which allows vehicles to be mined without emptying the inventory.

Just an idea: As the ships really are just trains in disguise, perhaps you could give Vehicle Wagons a try? When I worked together with robot256 on making VW compatible with Autodrive/GCKI, I realized how much you have to consider when you make vehicles disappear for a while. Data has to be stored on both ends, other mods have to be notified when a vehicle is removed or restored… VW does all of that already, so why duplicate it? There's only one major problem: VW is based on a train theme.
I guess robot256 wouldn't mind making another entity if he'd get some graphics for disguising the wagon as ferry. If the ferry was something in this style, I guess it would even be possible to load more than one vehicle into it. (The way VW currently works, only one will be loaded per wagon, but ferries usually just move forth and back between only two destinations, so loading/unloading all vehicles at once would still be fitting.)

Styling I wasn't even thinking that big of a ship...more like this one...https://images.app.goo.gl/TyvfeyAWccAgWBGq6

Concept wise, yeah, that's the kind of thing I was thinking. In keeping with the ferry theme I was hoping for something more drive on, but it is probably a game limitation, can't be done, and the VW method works.

Styling I wasn't even thinking that big of a ship...more like this one...https://images.app.goo.gl/TyvfeyAWccAgWBGq6

Yeah, I know, that would look more ferry-like. But with vehicles on the deck, this could be hard to implement (you wouldn't want to have a separate wagon for each vehicle, but just hide all vehicles in one). Perhaps it would even be possible to make a (recolored, perhaps?) copy of the cargo ship? That's even less like a ferry, but there's precedence: If I remember correctly, pretty much at the start of this movie, a crane unloads the Cadillac from a cargo ship. :-)

I have no idea what would be involved with the coding...you're probably right. With VW setup that way already, I would've thought it would be a somewhat simple port to make at least the existing vehicles work for an open deck ferry since you're really only changing the wagon base at that point. I'm no graphic designer and don't know how long it took to build the VW sprites though so...

Using the cargo ship is certainly an option, but aside from being the least ferry like of the options we've discussed I think it is too slow and fuel hungry. I know that can be adjusted mind you...I think the speed should be somewhere between the cargo ship and the boat. Fuel I'm not sure about, but less. I don't think as low as the boat, but at the same time, especially if it gets built for one vehicle, I think something much closer to the boat to keep things proportional as the ferry would ostensibly not have any other cargo capabilities. If it can hold multiple vehicles naturally the fuel use would be higher though.

Using the cargo ship is certainly an option,

Mind you, I meant the graphics only. There already are nice ships, and as long as nobody provides completely new graphics, this would be a good placeholder (if @schnurrebutz would permit this). Things like recipe, fuel consumption, speed etc. are not important at this point -- that would be the easiest part to change when a new entity is created.

the ferry thing is a thing i had on my mind before, but its not really a priority and as it is i am rather inactive right now in regards to this mod.
barges probably wont make into this mod, since i feel there would be little game play changes that would justify the extra work.
i will try to keep the other suggestions in my mind. the whole collision masks thing is kinda hacky though for this mod, because with the vanilla game not being made for placing objects on water, there often isn't a straight way to implement a certain collison behaviour for entities on water. i am not certain if the buoy thing is like that, i d have to look into it again.

Thanks. If you ever decide to do something with the ferry, I look forward to seeing it.

I can respect that for barges. From what little I know, the hard part of creating a barge was done and it would just be separating the drive unit from the "wagon" unit and making new entities to place on the waterways so it seemed like it might be a simple add to me. As for usefulness...that's a matter of opinion I guess and I'll be the first to admit it is mostly aesthetics. The current cargo ships are extremely serviceable, plenty of cargo room though sometimes I actually wish I had less or more customizable room, particularly on the tanker where I can't lock slots. As for barges in the form of platforms, I found an alternative. Not really what I wanted graphically, but I found the mod "platforms" which sort of does what I want. Places it as a tile (which may be the only way to do it) but unlike landfill, it is removable and looks more like a platform.