KnotLog – heave the log, count the knots

How fast is your longship really going? Find out the way sailors did for three hundred years: heave a chip log over the stern, turn the sandglass and count the knots that run out through your hand. No magic speedometer: the reading comes from the actual line running off the reel while your ship sails away from a piece of wood floating in the water.

Later in the game, a bronze patent log (taffrail log) does the counting for you: clamp it on the stern rail, stream the rotor astern and watch the needle and the miles.

The chip log (Logge)

Crafted at the workbench: 6 Wood, 4 Leather scraps, 4 Resin.

1. Go aft to the stern (within a few steps of the taffrail) and press L, or use the chip log from your hotbar.
2. Your Viking holds the reel aloft and heaves the chip, a weighted wooden quadrant, over the stern. It floats upright and holds its place in the water.
3. The unmarked stray line runs out first, so that the chip clears the wake. When the red rag runs through your hand, you call "Turn!" and the sandglass on the deck is turned.
4. Now every knot on the line that runs through your fingers is counted (tick, tick…). The knots are 14.4 m apart (the historical 47 ft 3 in), so each knot that runs out while the 28-second glass runs is one knot of speed. Single knots mark the halves.
5. When the sand is through: "Stop!" The line is nipped and the reading is taken. Then the pin pops out of the chip, the chip falls flat and you haul it back in.
6. The reading appears on a small panel with the time it was taken (for 15 s, then it slowly fades), and goes into your logbook. Press K while it fades, or any time later before the next heave, to bring it back for another 5 s.

The physics is real. Valheim's sea has no currents, so the floating chip is a true fixed point in the water. The line paid out divided by the glass time is your speed. Sail in circles and you will see it.

Tips

• Short glass (J): at high speed the line may run out before the glass does. Switch to the 14-second short glass. Every knot then counts double, just like the real thing.
• Line's out! If the whole line runs out, the reading is only a lower bound ("> 17 kn").
• No way on her! If the stray line does not run out, the ship is hardly moving.
• Press L again while the line runs to cancel, or while hauling to haul faster.
• The line is measured at the rail: walking about on deck does not change the reading.
• A dropped chip log or patent log floats, so you can fish it out of the sea.
• Manual counting (config CountingMode = Manual): the panel no longer counts for you. Press K for every knot you hear run through your hand, and the reading uses your count. Miss one and you'll know.

The patent log (Patentlog)

Crafted at the forge (level 2): 4 Bronze, 10 Bronze nails, 2 Fine wood, 6 Leather scraps.

Use it from your hotbar while aboard. The brass register is clamped on the stern rail and the finned rotor is streamed astern on its line. The rotor turns once for every 0.9 m it is towed through the water. The register counts the turns and shows:

• the speed on a dial (0–20 knots), read from the counter over a few seconds, like timing it with a watch;
• the distance run in nautical miles on the odometer. The instrument also remembers its lifetime total.

Like a real one, the rotor does not turn at all below a small starting speed. Use the item again to haul it in. If you leave the ship, you take it with you automatically.

Controls

Key	Action
L	Heave / cancel / haul faster (chip log); without a chip log: stream / haul the patent log
K	Count a knot (manual counting mode); otherwise: show the last reading again
J	Switch long / short glass (before heaving)
Hotbar	Using either item from the hotbar does the same as L

In game, a small hint bar under the log panel shows the keys that do something right now: it appears when something changes, fades after a few seconds, and comes back while you look at the patent log register. The items' tooltips list all controls with your actual key bindings.

All keys can be changed in the config (BepInEx/config/jan.knotlog.cfg) or with the Configuration Manager.

Configuration

Gameplay values (glass times, knot spacing, line length, stray line, haul speed, rotor pitch and slip, recipes) are server-synced. Admins can change them and everyone gets the same instrument. Client settings include the counting mode, the keys, the HUD scale and offset, whether exact and metric values are shown, sound volume, speech bubbles and logbook size.

LineMarkedForSeconds decides the knot spacing (spacing = seconds × 1852 m / 3600 s). Keep it equal to GlassSeconds for the historical instrument.

Compatibility

• Works with all vanilla ships (Raft, Karve, Longship, Drakkar) and with Longship Upgrades.
• Everything is built at runtime from the game's own materials. There are no asset bundles.
• Requires Jötunn. Every player and the server need the mod (items and synced config).
• Multiplayer: everyone nearby sees your reel, the line with its marks, the chip in the water, the sandglass on deck, the patent log register and rotor, your arm movements and your calls (in their own language), and hears the knots tick.

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Deutsch

Logge (Werkbank): Geh nach achtern und drück L. Die Logge fliegt über das Heck, und der Vorlauf läuft aus. Läuft der rote Lappen durch die Hand, rufst du „Glas!“ und die Sanduhr wird gedreht. Jeder Knoten, der ausläuft, bevor der Sand durch ist, ist ein Knoten Fahrt (Knotenabstand 14,4 m bei 28 s). Bei „Stopp!“ wird abgelesen, der Pinn springt heraus, und die Logge wird eingeholt. J wechselt auf das kurze 14-s-Glas (jeder Knoten zählt doppelt). Im manuellen Modus zählst du selbst mit K. Das Ergebnis bleibt 15 s stehen und verblasst dann langsam. Mit K holst du es für weitere 5 s zurück, auch später noch bis zum nächsten Wurf.

Patentlog (Schmiede): Wird am Heckbord festgeklemmt, der Propeller wird nachgeschleppt. Das Zählwerk zeigt Fahrt in Knoten und die gesegelte Strecke in Seemeilen.