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Dock Fortress

Dock Fortress brings monumental naval architecture, automated harbor escort, and heavy-lift helicopter dry dock operations to Valheim. Erect towering water gates to secure your coastal haven, navigate by a luminous crimson sky beacon visible across kilometers of ocean, let an autonomous tugboat escort your vessel through the gates, and watch a heavy-lift Sky-Crane Helicopter hoist your ships directly into dry dock berths with full hull repairs!

Features

• Massive Water Gates (dock_gate.glb): Construct monumental stone gatehouses directly in the water. Smoothly animated left and right gates swing open outward to grant passage, then seal tightly shut to guard your harbor from rough seas, storms, and serpents.
• Crimson Ocean Sky Beacon: Inspired by the towering Ashlands charred fortress spire beam and shield generator, this beacon projects a radiant ruby-red light column hundreds of meters into the clouds. Visible through ocean fog and black storms, ensuring you never lose your home port.
• Autonomous Escort Tugboat (tug.glb): A dedicated harbor tugboat stands watch at your fortress gate. When an approaching vessel sails within range (~70m):
  • The tugboat steams out to meet your ship with authentic churning foam wakes.
  • Attaches a glowing tow cable to your vessel's bow.
  • The fortress gates swing open with an echoing rumble.
  • The tug smoothly tows and pilots your vessel straight through the gates into the protected harbor basin.
  • Eases your ship into its mooring berth, detaches the towline, and seals the gates behind you.
• Sky-Crane Helicopter & Helipad (helicopter.glb & landing_pad.glb):
  • Central landing pad acts as the fortress hub and placement pivot.
  • Heavy-lift Sky-Crane Helicopter automatically deploys when ships enter the harbor.
  • Hovers overhead, lowers a high-tension harpoon hoist cable, latches onto the ship, and airlifts it up into the sky to transfer it into an open dry dock berth!
  • Features spinning main and tail rotors, navigation strobes, engine audio, and realistic flight physics.
• Smuggler Pilot Voice Lines:
  • The helicopter pilot features 30 unique, humorous Han Solo-inspired voice lines announced via center screen broadcasts during pickups and dockings.
• Dry Dock Berths with Hull Restoration (drydock.glb / simple_dock.glb):
  • 4 heavy-duty dry dock berths to house your fleet safely above water.
  • Berthed ships automatically undergo active hull repairs over time until fully restored.
• Departure Escort: When ready to set sail, request a departure escort at the ship or gatehouse. The tugboat will hook up, open the gates, and guide your ship safely out into open water before returning to station.
• Real-Time WebGUI Alignment Tool (Port 8793):
  • Access http://127.0.0.1:8793/ in your browser while the game is running.
  • Fine-tune gate scale, gate open/close angles, beacon height and offset, helicopter speeds, tug cruise speed, and berth locations with live visual updates in-game!
• Shared Hammer Category: Seamlessly added to the hammer under the DFG category with balanced crafting requirements.

Crafting & Build Requirements

Found in the Hammer under the DFG tab:

Note: Placement point is centered on the Helipad, allowing you to position the central pad on shore while the gates extend forward into deep water.

Configuration

Settings are saved to BepInEx/config/com.dfg.dockfortress.cfg and can be adjusted via the in-game config or the real-time WebGUI (http://127.0.0.1:8793/):

• Enabled: Toggle the mod on or off.
• AddBuildPiece: Toggle adding the fortress gate to the Hammer.
• DetectionRange: Scanning radius in meters (default 70m) for arriving ships.
• TugSpeed: Cruising speed of the escort tugboat (default 8 m/s).
• AutoEscort: Automatically dispatch the tugboat when sailing into range (default true).
• BeaconHeight: Vertical height of the crimson navigation sky beam (default 280m).

Support

If this mod has made your journey through the Tenth World a little better, consider tossing a coin into my Ko-fi jar: https://ko-fi.com/draugrforgedgaming. Your support keeps the forge hot and the mead flowing! Skål!

Changelog

All notable changes to Dock Fortress will be documented in this file.

[1.0.0] - 2026-10-15

Added

• Monumental Water Gates (dock_gate.glb): Massive stone fortress gatehouse with motorized animated gates that open to grant passage and seal shut during storms.
• Autonomous Escort Tugboat (tug.glb): Automated escort vessel with dynamic water foam wake, towing cables, approach detection, and departure escort routines.
• Sky-Crane Helicopter (helicopter.glb): Heavy-lift twin-rotor helicopter with functional harpoon hoist cable for lifting ships into dry dock berths.
• Smuggler Pilot Voice Bark System: 30 witty smuggler-style pilot voice lines announced during aerial ship transfers.
• Central Helipad Hub (landing_pad.glb): Serves as the primary placement pivot and helicopter landing deck.
• 4 Dry Dock Berths (drydock.glb / simple_dock.glb): Elevated dry docking stations that automatically repair berthed ship hulls.
• Crimson Ocean Sky Beacon: 280-meter ruby navigation beam visible through fog and distant ocean biomes.
• Real-Time WebGUI Alignment Suite: Built-in web editor on port 8793 (http://127.0.0.1:8793/) for live gate, beacon, tug, helicopter, and dock parameter adjustments.
• Shared Hammer Category: Integrated under the DFG build menu tab.