ship

I am building a ship, and was wondering if there is any limit to how long it can be. Also, parts of my hull disappear for no reason whatsoever, wondering if I have a limited number of blocks?

Could anyone explain to me how to take my assembly of blocks and make them one object?

If the ship is intended to be a vehicle that passengers can ride in, you are limited for the actual ship itself to a single linked set of 32 prims, minus 1 prim for each passenger. So 31 prims maximum for a single seat boat, 28 for a boat that seats six (including pilot), etc... That is because vehicles in SL are physical objects, and must work with the Physics engine's constraints.

Larger vehicles usually rely on one of two work-arounds: A large attachment that attaches to the pilot (and locks the pilot in the drivig position), or some sort of "temp-on-rez" parts that are projected near the actual vehicle by a script.

If you are making a ship that will not move, like a houseboat to live in, then a single linked set of prims can be up to 256 prims, and you can use as many linked sets and prims as your land will allow (117 prims per 512 M2 of land that you own in that sim).

Your vanishing parts may be because you've extended beyond your property line.

so building a great lakes freighter isn't gonna go too well huh

That depends. If you own a sim that is all water, and it doesn't move, then it should work.
If you were trying to make it move, I would look in to sculpties.

what might a sculptie be?

There is cruise ship that is several sims long. I believe it's the called the Constellation? Constitution? Galaxy? Anyways... it's a gigantic boat.

In is *possible* to build your "Great Lakes Freighter". But it takes some serious scripted work-arounds.

For example, I have a pirate ship which I purchased. When rezzed, it takes up about 250 prims! Yet it is a functioning vehicle that can have a pilot and 5 crew.

The way the maker did that is the actual vehicle is a 27-prim keel for the ship. When you rez the vehicle, it in turn rezzes a 225-prim 'placeholder' that gives the appearance of the rest of the docked, stationary ship. When you step on board to pilot the ship, the pilot gains a similar 225-prim attachment on their pelvis, and the 'placeholder de-rezzes. The pilot is now locked in place at the help of the ship, and additional passengers may now board, taking their places at the gunner's stations. When the pilot stops the ship and detaches himself from the attachment, the hull senses this, and re-rezzes the placeholder.

The big downfall of this method is that if yoiu rez the ship on one parcel, and sail to another parcel that does not have sufficent free prims to allow the placeholder to rez, then if the pilot gets off the ship, the rez fails and he is left with just the keel of his ship sitting by the dock. Furthermore, if the pilot is the owner of the destination parcel, and there are not enough prims, the scripted re-rezzing of the placeholder has been known to cause OTHER prims in that parcel to be returned!

If you want to build a large, movable ship, I would recommend purchasing several such ships that others have made, so you can look them over and learn from their experience. But the scripting to make it all work is something you'll largely have to develop on your own, and the makers would not be likely to "share their secrets".

Wow. This is much more complicated then I could have imagined. Is there anyone that anyone knows of that would help a complete noob like me script a smaller boat I've built?

There are non-physical movement scripts that don't have any prim limit out there. That's how some of these people make giant spaceships that people can live in and fly around.

The problem is how many jerks have access to their land automatically blocked off so if you move into their land your vehicle gets returned and that can screw you up.

Giant ships aren't that practical unless you plan on going in circles in a protected ocean sim!

The scripting tips section has been super helpful to me. Search that forum and you'll probably find some info. You're not the first new guy to build a boat!