Are there any plans for an early-game boat alternative, that isn't locked behind Pelagos? In the current version, both the Cargo Ships and the new Galleon added via Distant Shores are moved behind Pelagos. Even the most popular boat alternative, AAI Vehicles Ironclad, gets locked behind Pelagos, leaving the (somewhat outdated) Steamship mod as the only ship-like entity that isn't locked behind Pelagos (and that seems more like an oversight than an intentional design)

Couldn't the Galleon be made a standalone pre-space technology, and then have it as a prerequisite for Pelagos? Otherwise, all of the most popular boat mods will be locked behind two planets before being able to use them.

For additional context, see latest comments on this discussion thread, regarding Pelagos and Cargo Ships

Pelgos was intended as a place to unlock ships there, so adding ship pre planet is kinda against it's design, but it is a thing asked from time to time so let me write a bit more about it:

Ironclad was added per demad of one of players to keep it consistant with how ship progression goes, because getting it early on breaks planet a bit.
Steam boat fills the same role as boat so i left it as is.

Nauvis is not a great place for ships, and while you can technicly use them there it was not designed around it, tried it before.

Wayward seas is technicly playable without ships. It is not intended to be played with Pelagos because it's in some sense opossite idea, but some players will probably try to run these mods togeather, so I made sure they didn't crash. This planet was created as a response to my dissapointment with what's wayward do to gleba. Pelagos embrace gleba instead of changing it.

Planet itself don't tinker with vanilla recipes, is mostly isolated in tech tree and keeps same entities as cargo ships and other ship mods so it can be easly added and removed mid play unless it's forced by other mods as a required dependancy.

If someone intend to use ships before getting there (wayward and nauvis) then should install ships before getting there and add mod mid play. Planet still works, but that's not how i intended to play with it as said before. So This is my first recomendation, and how most players go around it. I am fine with planet beeing optional thing added/removed mid flight.

Regarding linked thread:
I would prefer to keep pelagos as optional, to avoid cases like this. This is compromise. Early ship is something against design, and intended way of playing with mod.
Please also keep in mind that I will think about it so it could change in future.

There is also option to start game with any planet start on Pelagos to get and use ship there and then bit in nauvis, gleba with wayward and aquilo, and aside of adding mod mid play that's second thing that I recomend. This is in line with planet design.

Hmm, I see. I understand the reasoning, though I still think it would be nice to have an optional setting that provides players with an early-game ship if they want it.

In the linked discussion thread, they mention specifically tweaking the terrain generation so that more water appears on Nauvis. It is a situation the player would need to intentionally create in order to make ships useful on Nauvis, so I think it would be nice for those kinds of players to have the option for an early game ship.

I personally don't like the idea of adding mods to a save that is already in progress, that sounds.. dangerous. I know you say that your mod doesn't mess with vanilla, but it's not a situation I would be 100% comfortable with. Is the Distant Shores pirate ship that powerful that it absolutely needs to be locked behind Pelagos?

With all that being said, if you still aren't interested in adding that kind of setting from your end, I could easily do it from my end. I love the concept of Pelagos and personally do not want to make it an optional planet. In fact, I've already got the functionality in place for testing, though I want to see how it feels before making any steps towards publishing it.

Gallen itself is not that powerfull
It's cannonball is. And mod itself unlock all at once, so i splitted it out into 2 parts.

Locking yourself on water map could be an issue, but in that case I am not sure if galleon is enough.

Addtional setting to add galleon recipe to the steel axe research could do the trick.
Are you fine with something like that?

Ahh, that's good to know! But yup, that sounds like a perfect solution to me!

Great i ll try to add it tomorrow, with powerpole fix