Sledding – down the mountain, or behind you on a rope

Valheim has whole mountains of snow and no way to slide down them. This mod adds sleds: sit on one and ride down a slope, or pull it along behind you on its rope. There are four of them, from a little wooden sled at the workbench to a great sled for two from the artisan table.

Sleds are mostly for fun. The small ones carry a bundle or two, about what fits on a child's sled. Only the great sled carries a real load.

All of them are in the hammer's Misc tab. The later sleds glide better, steer more surely, turn more sharply and take more knocks. The mountain sled, with silver shoes on long runners, is the fastest and nimblest of all.

Riding

Look at a sled and press E to sit down. Then:

Gravity does the rest. On snow and ice a sled runs away with you on even a gentle slope. On grass, earth or moss it needs a real hill. Boards glide a little better, so a ramp of wooden floors works.

Turning is best at a brisk pace. At speed the runners skid when you steer hard: the sled drifts wide instead of spinning round. The sled hisses on snow, scrapes on earth and throws up snow behind it, and anyone nearby hears and sees it.

On the great sled the one in front steers and the one behind just enjoys the ride.

An empty sled left on a slope stays where it is, on any slope you could stand on yourself. A sled lying on its side or back turns itself upright again after a moment.

Pulling

Shift + E takes the tow rope, and the sled follows you through the snow. Pulling it on snow is easy; dragging it uphill or over grass is harder.

You can pull a friend sitting on the sled. Press Shift + E again to let go. Or press E on the sled you are pulling: you let go of the rope and sit down. Pull it up the hill, then ride it down.

The rope slips from your hand if the sled gets stuck far behind you, or when you sit down, travel through a portal or die.

Falls, crashes and steep slopes

A sled is judged the way your legs are: by the speed straight into the ground, not by how far it fell.

• Sliding down a steep mountainside is never a fall. However steep and however fast, as long as the sled runs along the ground, nothing happens. That holds even where you would slip and tumble on foot.
• A real drop onto flat ground is judged by its height. Up to 6 m nothing happens. Between 6 and 15 m the sled takes damage. From 15 m on it breaks apart: the riders are thrown off and hurt, but a sled never kills. Everyone keeps at least 1 health, and a feather cape protects you as usual.
• A jump that lands on a downslope is gentle, just as on skis. The same jump onto flat ground is not.
• Hitting a tree, a rock or a wall at speed damages the sled, and from about 40 km/h on it throws you off.

A broken sled leaves half of its materials behind, and whatever cargo it carried. Taken apart with the hammer, it returns all of them. A damaged sled is repaired with the hammer like any building piece.

The real thing

Sleds are far older than wheels in the north. Runners of sledges from around 7000 BC have been found in Finland and Russia. The Oseberg ship burial in Norway (834 AD) held four richly carved sledges, with posts ending in animal heads. They are the model for the great sled here. People pulled sleds over snow and ice in winter, when the roads were frozen and the bogs could be crossed.

The physics here is simple:

• Snow is slippery. A waxed wooden runner on snow has a friction coefficient around 0.05; metal shoes and good snow bring it lower. On grass it is about five times as much.
• Air drag grows with the square of the speed, so every slope has a top speed where gravity and drag balance. Valheim's gravity is 20 m/s², about twice Earth's, so everything is a bit livelier than at home.
• A rider sits low and leans into the turns. The runners cut into the snow and hold the line until the sideways force is too great, and then they skid.

These are top speeds on an endless slope. A real run is shorter, so a sled seldom gets that fast.

Configuration

BepInEx/config/zap.sledding.cfg. The settings under 1 - Sleds are the server's: on a server they apply to everyone, and only admins can change them in game.

• <Sled>Recipe, <Sled>Station, <Sled>Cargo: build cost, crafting station and cargo size (e.g. 4x2) of each sled
• MaxSpeed (28 m/s ≈ 100 km/h)
• SafeDropHeight (6 m), BreakDropHeight (15 m)
• RiderCanBeHurt, CrashThrowsRider
• PushStamina: stamina per second for kicking off

Under 2 - Client each player sets their own ShowControls (key help when sitting down), ShowRunStats (after a long run: its length, top speed and drop) and Volume of the runners.

Multiplayer and compatibility

• Every player and the server need the mod (same minor version).
• Whoever sits in front, or holds the rope, simulates the sled on their own machine, so it handles without lag. Everyone else sees it ride smoothly with its riders on board.
• While someone rides or pulls a sled, nobody else can open its cargo or take it apart.
• The sleds are new pieces with their own names: nothing of the game's cart is changed.

Deutsch

Schlitten für Valheim. Setz dich drauf und fahr verschneite Berge hinab, oder zieh ihn am Seil hinter dir her. Es gibt vier Stück:

• Holzschlitten (Werkbank, 10 Holz, 4 Lederfetzen): 1 Platz, 2 Ladefelder
• Bronzebeschlagener Schlitten (Schmiede, 10 Feinholz, 2 Bronze, 2 Hirschhaut): 1 Platz, 3 Ladefelder
• Bergschlitten (Schmiede, 12 Feinholz, 4 Silber, 3 Wolfsfell, 4 Lederfetzen): der schnellste und wendigste, 4 Ladefelder
• Großschlitten (Kunsthandwerkstisch, 20 Feinholz, 6 Schwarzmetall, 4 Loxfell, 8 Leinengarn): 2 Plätze, 8 Ladefelder

Alle findest du im Hammer unter Sonstiges.

Fahren: E zum Aufsitzen. A/D lenkt, W stößt ab (kostet Ausdauer), S bremst, Umschalt duckt (weniger Luftwiderstand), Leertaste oder E springt ab. Auf Schnee und Eis geht es schon am sanften Hang los. Auf Gras und Erde braucht es einen richtigen Hügel. Auf dem Großschlitten lenkt, wer vorne sitzt.

Ziehen: Umschalt + E nimmt das Zugseil, noch einmal lässt es los. Ein Freund darf dabei sitzen bleiben. E auf den gezogenen Schlitten: Seil loslassen und aufsitzen. So ziehst du ihn bergauf und fährst bergab.

Stürze: Es zählt nur die Geschwindigkeit senkrecht in den Boden. Einen steilen Berghang hinabzurutschen ist nie ein Sturz, so schnell es auch geht. Ein echter freier Fall auf flachen Boden ist bis 6 m harmlos. Bis 15 m wird der Schlitten beschädigt, darüber bricht er. Dann fliegen die Fahrer herunter und werden verletzt, aber ein Schlitten tötet nie: Mindestens 1 Leben bleibt. Wer mit Tempo gegen Baum, Fels oder Mauer fährt, beschädigt den Schlitten und fliegt ab etwa 40 km/h herunter. Ein zerbrochener Schlitten hinterlässt die Hälfte seiner Materialien und seine Ladung.

Alle Werte stellst du in BepInEx/config/zap.sledding.cfg ein. Auf einem Server gelten die des Servers.

Changelog

1.3.0

• Down steep walls: straights of 50°, 60°, 70° and 80° and the changes of slope between them, in steps of ten. Past 40° a piece is measured along the run (a straight four metres, a change five) and its cross-section stands square on the steep floor, so its banks still stand out from it.
• At the foot of a wall the changes of slope are rounder: a sled caught at 160 km/h is pressed in with about four times its weight and rides on.
• Steep pieces press no bed into the slope (the game's digging would cut into the rock above them).
• The runs of 1.2 keep their shape: nothing up to 40° has changed.
• Fixed: at high speed a rider could be put off the sled (the check for a rider who has gone away allowed only for walking pace, not for the delay of a sled at 150 km/h or of a rider seen through the network).
• Fixed: sleds could not be taken apart with the hammer (the game's cart they are made from cannot). Now they come down like anything built with it and give back their materials, though not while someone sits on them or pulls them; their cargo is left in a crate.
• Fixed: when a sled broke or was taken apart, the crate with its cargo and its materials appeared inside the hull and were flung far away (the crate some thirty metres). They now stay where the sled stood.
• Players and server must update together (1.2 and 1.3 do not mix).

1.2.0

• Two new hammer tabs, Sled runs and Run curves, with 49 pieces for proper sled runs and bobsleigh tracks, also down a whole mountainside. Each is packed snow between curved banks in a plank frame with a log rail, 4 m wide.
• Straights (level to 40°), pieces that turn steeper or flatter, entries from the slope (a wide mouth flush on the ground), side entries, curves of 22.5°, 45°, 67.5° and 90° left and right (level or 10° down), a kicker, an uphill run-out and a straw run-out.
• Bobsleigh pieces: steep 90° curves and 180° hairpins with a 2.4 m outer wall, nearly upright. Two hairpins make a "Kreisel", quick curves to and fro a labyrinth, steep curve, hairpin and steep curve an omega.
• A run is fast: its lining glides far better than open snow, its walls hold the sled at any speed and over a crest it keeps the sled on the lining. Up to about 160 km/h (RunMaxSpeed). Straw ploughs deep: two pieces stop a sled from about 90 km/h, three from about 150 km/h.
• Building on a mountain: a run piece held on a slope points down the fall line; one held near the end of another joins it. A new piece presses its bed into the slope (up to 2 m, never heaped up; RunPressesIntoSlope). Held with the free-placement key, a piece goes exactly where it is put.
• Start and finish gates time a run: the riders see their time and top speed, and the finish gate keeps the track record (who, on which sled). Its builder can clear it.
• Riding into a run's banks, walls or rails is never a crash. Riding on a run counts as being on the ground; the sledding skill grows half again as fast there.
• Sleds ride more steadily: their runners no longer spring back out of a hollow, they lie along the ground over a crest, and a sudden knock in a hollow no longer brakes them hard.
• New settings under 4 - Sled runs (server-synced): RunPieceRecipe, RunPieceStation, RunMaxSpeed, RunPressesIntoSlope.
• Players and server must update together (1.1 and 1.2 do not mix).

1.1.0

• New skill: Sledding, in the skill list with its own icon. You learn it by riding (by the speed), by landing jumps, a little riding behind or pulling. It drops on death like every skill.
• At level 100 the runners grip 25 % better in turns, you steer 15 % quicker, drag is 8 % lower, the safe drop rises from 6 to 9 m and the break height from 15 to 20 m, and the sled takes 30 % less damage. The one in front counts, or the one on the rope.
• New settings under 3 - Skill (server-synced): SkillBonuses and SkillGainRate.
• Sleds ride up onto built edges up to 60 cm high (a roof piece laid as a kicker, a floor, a doorstep) instead of crashing into them, so roof pieces and stairs make chutes and jumps. Walls, trees and higher edges are still a crash.
• Players and server must update together (1.0 and 1.1 do not mix).

1.0.0

• First release: four sleds in the hammer's Misc tab. The wooden sled (workbench), the bronze-shod sled (forge), the mountain sled with silver shoes and a wolf pelt (forge) and the great sled for two with carved bow posts (artisan table).
• Riding: E to sit down. A/D steer, W kicks off, S brakes, Shift ducks, Space or E jumps off. The sled glides on snow and ice and needs a real hill on grass and earth. It drifts wide in hard turns at speed instead of spinning round. Hiss and scrape sounds and snow spray, for everyone nearby.
• Pulling: Shift + E takes the tow rope; a friend may sit on the sled meanwhile. E on the sled you pull lets go and sits you down.
• Falls are judged by the speed straight into the ground. Sliding down a steep mountainside is never a fall. A drop of 6 m onto flat ground is harmless, from 15 m the sled breaks. Riders are hurt then, or when they crash into a tree or rock at speed, but a sled never kills.
• A broken sled leaves half its materials and its cargo. An empty sled holds on any slope a player can stand on, and turns itself upright when it lies on its side.
• Small cargo on the small sleds (2 to 4 slots), a real load on the great sled (8 slots), shown as bundles on the deck.
• Recipes, stations, cargo sizes, top speed and the fall heights can be configured (server-synced). Texts in English and German.