FSDS
Self-driving ship autopilot for Valheim with GO-pin navigation, route planning, auto throttle, shore/obstacle/Leviathan avoidance, stuck recovery, arrival stop, HUD, and configurable controls.
About this mod Author’s original text
FSDS
FSDS is a configurable self-driving ship/autopilot mod for Valheim.
Set a map pin named GO, take control of a ship, and toggle autopilot. FSDS plans a navigable water route and handles steering, throttle, obstacle avoidance, shoreline clearance, stuck recovery, and arrival.
Quick Start
- Place a map pin named GO at your destination.
- Take control of your ship.
- Press P to toggle FSDS autopilot.
- FSDS will navigate toward the GO pin.
- On arrival it stops the ship and, by default, removes the GO pin.
The toggle key and major behaviors are configurable through BepInEx Config Manager.
Main Features
- GO map-pin destination system
- Automatic steering
- Automatic paddle / half-sail / full-sail control
- Water-only A* route planning
- Route smoothing and waypoint navigation
- Configurable safe shore distance
- Live shoreline avoidance while sailing
- Ship-aware clearance for small ships and longships
- Turn anticipation for smoother corners
- Spawned-world obstacle avoidance
- Multi-height obstacle sensing for Ashlands ocean spires
- Leviathan/Kraken detection and avoidance
- Wind-aware throttle
- Automatic slowdown near destination
- Full stop on arrival
- Automatic GO-pin deletion on arrival
- Stuck detection
- Reverse / escape-turn / replan recovery
- Optional temporary route visualization
- On-screen FSDS navigation HUD
- Configurable manual steering/throttle cancellation
- Configurable PID steering
Performance
Version 0.3.6 includes a low-lag navigation pass:
- Non-allocating reusable physics sensor buffers
- Reduced shoreline terrain sampling
- Reduced redundant obstacle scans
- Slower default sensor cadence
- Lower default route-node budget
- Runtime obstacle sensing separated from route generation
This keeps the navigation safety systems while reducing CPU and garbage-collection pressure.
Configuration
FSDS exposes its major behavior through BepInEx Config Manager, including:
- Autopilot toggle key
- Destination pin name
- Arrival radius
- Auto throttle
- Wind-aware throttle
- Route planning
- Grid size
- Minimum water depth
- Safe shore distance
- Route smoothing
- Obstacle avoidance
- Leviathan avoidance
- Live shore avoidance
- Sensor scan interval
- Stuck recovery
- Ship-aware clearance
- Route visualization
- HUD
- Debug logging
Compatibility
- Tested with Valheim 1.0.17
- Requires BepInExPack Valheim
- Client-side gameplay mod
- No Jotunn dependency required
Notes
FSDS uses generated terrain for long-range route planning. Spawned structures, rocks, Leviathans, ships, and other runtime objects are handled by the local obstacle-avoidance sensors while sailing.
Very long routes can require more planning work than short routes. If you want maximum performance, keep the route grid reasonably large and avoid unnecessarily high route-node limits.
Installation
Install Mod Manager / r2modman.
For manual installation, place FSDS.dll in:
BepInEx/plugins/FSDS/
Author
Heimlife
Install & use Install: BepInEx plugin
- The archive from playbuff is the mod itself — usually a BepInEx plugin (a .dll or a plugin folder once unzipped).
- Recommended: use a community mod manager (such as r2modman) — pick this game, import the mod, and the manager sets up BepInEx and its dependencies for you.
- Manual route: install the BepInEx loader in the game folder, then drop the unzipped .dll or plugin folder into BepInEx/plugins/.
- Launch the game — the BepInEx console logs every plugin it loads; seeing this mod in the log means it is installed.
Mods with listed dependencies need those installed too, or they will not load. Options are usually changed in-game or in the plugin's config file. In multiplayer, the host and every client need the same mods installed.
Install these first, or the mod will not work: