Boats cannot be steered by using the "left" and "right" keys

That's because boats cannot be steered by using the left and right keys.

In 1.5.1 they can.

Can't be steered with "backwards" key either.

Most annoying thing ever. I'm afraid to play any of the snapshots on my survival game because of all the anoying bugs.

Confirmed

This is supposed to happen, but it is still really annoying.

This is very annoying

Vincent... Perhaps you mean it is what Mojang intended, but it is not how boats "should" work. Right now there is no way to slow down or make sharper turns. This is not how a rowboat (which is what we have in Minecraft) actually works. If I'm going at speed and put both oars in the water, I slow down.. If I dip the right oar, I turn right, left oar, turn left...

I have read the Minecraft Wiki.
The controls have been switched to the mouse (Where you are looking)

I hate to say this again and again, but the Minecraft Wiki is created by users, who are writing what the game does and not what the game is supposed to do.

So if it is written on the Minecraft Wiki it doesn't mean it's the indented behavior. Mojang AFAIK never said (for example in a changelog), that they disabled steering boats with the ASD keys on purpose.

Using boats anywhere except huge oceans is nearly impossible now, especially because they break easily if you touch anything, so that is clearly a bug.

This is remaining open.

Still not controllable in 13w23b. You can't slow down or when the boat stands still, you can't move left or right (neither with the mouse). Also you can't slowly drive backwards.

Even if the steering of the boat works a s intended, it is shitty. You cannot control the boat accurate. See my comment above. 😞

Works as intended?? Please tell me we're adding SOME way to control boats... craftable oars??

Boats are virtually unusable now 😞

Use the same rule as driving
LOOK WHERE YOU WANT TO GO, AND THEN YOU WILL GO THERE

Sorry Marcus, but even driving doesn't work that way. Try taking your hands off the wheel and see how your "look" method works out. Cars have steering wheels, boats have rudders (or oars). There MUST be a way to maneuver the boats.

Aside from that bit of common sense, there was nothing in the change log about boat control, which means this is likely a bug that occurred when horse mechanics were implemented. see this issue that was fixed in an earlier snapshot: MC-16413 Where boat riders would get tossed as though they were riding a horse.

To call this issue resolved is premature to say the least. It will just get opened up again and again until it is actually addressed.

Oliver: We mods did not resolve the issue. EvilSeph from Mojang marked it Working as Intended. That means this has been treated as an actual change and is now part of Minecraft.

That is unfortunate. So boats are now just horse-skis. Looks like 1.5.2 is where I'll get off.

make horses like the old boats, not the opposite! please mojang! 😛

This is a deeply stupid mechanic.

Make an interesting world, then stop players being able to look at it.

Looking and steering should not be the same thing.

This is terrible. On top of the fact you can't steer your boat, you can't even stop the boat from moving. You have to wait until it runs out of momentum.

I think this is a missunderstanding. I played a bit with the new steering mechanic and it is not so bad.

First, forget the A and D keys. Hop in your boat and look in the direction you want to drive. Then press the W (forward) key. You only can steer when you press the W key else you only drive straight forward. When you want to stop your boat look backward and press the W key again and the boat gets slower and stops in the end.

I hope this clear the steering a bit.

Still, because of MC-2931 and the low boat health (a damage bar would be really nice so the boats don't break that easily) boats are completely unusable currently unless you are crossing huge lakes/oceans. And even there hitting squids or lily pads can destroy your boat unexpectedly, too.

Hubertus, it's not that we can't figure out the meager controls now available. It's that boats worked great until horses were added. Suddenly boats were behaving exactly like horses (I wonder why). They fixed them so that boats no longer toss their riders, but now instead of bothering to fix the controls, Mojang is calling it a feature.

If you think the new boat controls are ANYTHING like real boats, you've probably never set foot in one.

Mojang... I am ashamed

So... Boats control using the mouse and keyboard. Just like when you're walking, aside from momentum, and an inability to strafe. I don't see the problem. I think it's more intuitive and consistent than the previous controls, which usually resulted in me facing one direction, and the view spinning wildly when I tried to go forward, because for some reason, I was always facing the back of the boat upon boarding.

Just not that big a deal though. Boats will be pretty useless until they prevent them from shattering when they bump into something. Not worth quitting over. And if it's really that big a deal to you, just stick with 1.5.2 There's nothing that dictates you have to update – particularly when the new launcher supports multiple versions and lets you choose which one you want to play.

Also posted this, though it hasn't been linked back here.

This bug makes the boat near impossible to navigate a river or canal, and pulling into a harbor safely is also difficult.

Now wait, this works as intended, but boats are now almost impossible to use, and I can't slow down using "S". The mouse is just much harder than the arrow keys. Please re-open it, or I will throw my chair out the window.

The problem is that you cannot turn without accelerating. I have a dock that I leave my boats on, and I cannot get my boat to turn parallel to the dock without going a million blocks a second and crashing into the dock. Navigating rivers is just impossible. I get that this is 'intended', but PLEASE!

I was playing a "Raft" map. It was almost impossible. The boat got to much faster and in EVERY turn it would collide against a rock, because I couldnt use A,S,D (left, slow, right).

Ruined the boat as a useful item.
Please put it back as it was. 😞

No please don't. The previous behaviour was stupid, too, because you couldn't see where the front of the boat was, driving the boat in the direction you are looking makes sense now.

Just enable the ASD keys for better control and/or make the boats more durable.

Can't steer through rivers with these controls.
Why can't we just have the ability ta turn without acceleratin'?!

Rivers can't be navigated, and it's now impossible to exit a boat without sending it flying back into the ocean, or into a wall. The control change has left boats fundamentally broken. I don't see how this bug can be marked as resolved, even if it was an intended feature.

Just made a new ticket about this: MC-25360
https://mojang.atlassian.net/browse/MC-25360?jql=project%20%3D%20MC

I guess a lot of people are not happy, here are my comments...

Some may claim that it was the intent to remove arrow control in the update, sure, but indeed the controls are now bugged...
Users can no longer easily navigate their amazing and sometimes intricate harbors. The mouse does not allow for decent control of a boat near objects - the turn time is horrible. Have you even been in a canoe AFK? - You should be able to spin 360 degrees on the spot.

Also, users can no longer control a boat and enjoy a tasty beverage in the other AFK hand. You basically need 2 hands to operate the boat now. That is quite a shame for those long ocean journeys.

Mouse control should have been removed completely, and just used to view the awesome world you are sailing past. I wanna look one way and go the other

Does that make any sense?

PS

The fact that Mojang has "damaged" many well built harbors, rivers and other water areas with this control change is quite frustrating. I think you may hear more on this, or there'll just be a quiet dismissal of boats as a real mode of transportation in Minecraft.

As this is treated as a feature, further requests to "fix" it will be considered a feature request, which should be submitted at Minecraft Forums: Suggestions, not here.

Really Mojang. C'mon. I've been playing minecraft for a long time and I loved it. Boat racing was one of my favorite things to do. Now, its RUINED. We can't used a,s,d to steer. This really is a bad move. If you were going to try to match the horse steering, then do this: match the boat steering with a,s,d. I think I'm going to stop playing this game if the boat steering isn't fixed. I thought these updates would make the game better. But 1.6 did the opposite.

Works as intended? great, now what... >_<

I honestly see no reason why the controls were changed.
Seriously, how are the new controls BETTER, when with the other controls, ya could turn about whilst goin' forward AND hold n' use an item!
Now ya can't.... and ya should be able to.... even with the horses!
Explain thyself, Mojang!

I agree, now it's harder to control boat. I see only one reason to why they made it like this, for more realism maybe... =(

That still don't make no sense. I've boated before, and was able ta turn about while the dang thing was still.
I was also able ta HOLD THINGS whilst the boat was movin' too!

Boats are now so useless, everyone is trying to tie them down with leashes just for looks.

I mean at the very least give the boat a way to stop!! Horses don't keep on running when you release the w key, they even move in the other directions. I can back-paddle(or reverse the motor) of boats IRL.

If everyone hates it, and it's in a program designed solely for enjoyment...it's not a feature.

Agree with Eric.

Especially when it was never really purported as part of the changes.
Heck, the disability ta maneuver yer horse and yerself seperately is an issue ta begin with.
Why was this change put in in the first place again?

Just sticking my oar in, so to speak:

Can this not be made a feature request? Because manoeuvrable boats would be a really neat feature, and it's not as if real life single-seater rowing boats are unmanoeuvrable. Quite the opposite.

I don't think many people understand the justification for the change, I think it's far more frustrating than the old "underwater boats don't float" change from Beta, which was later amended, but it was at least one that had some justification as "unrealistic" because of the use of boats for elevators. This one is just silly.

For feature suggestions or changes please use the Minecraft Forums: Suggestions

"It's not a bug It's a feature" is a poor way in development.
Boat's steering "Works As Intended" but It works incorrect.

Tweeted by Dinnerbone Today: "Finally got around to fixing the "I can't WASD on boats" bug."
That must mean it wasn't working as intended after all?

OH THANK DINNERBONE!
IT'S BEEN RESOLVED~!
YOU SIR ARE A TRUE GENT!

Not sure if this is intended or not, but since the boat controls have changed in 1.7 pre-release I can only go left or right if I also hold forward or backward. So I can't move my boat by just holding A or D.

@Vaporizer: If I remember correct, that's been like this before the change in 1.6.

You are correct, I never noticed that it changed in 1.6. But I guess this is still a bug since it was possible to move a boat with just the A or D keys in 1.5. It currently seems broken, or at least very counterintuitive (or am I the only one to think this?) to require holding W or S while moving sideways. W should be forward, A left and both at the same time should be in between.

Like Vaporizer, I think boat controls should work at any time, not only when I pressing Forward or Back. I played since old 1.7.3 beta, and there it was perfect. But now in 1.6 it's been changed, for what?

... but making boats turnable only when having speed is more realistic ...

This has nothing to do with speed or realism just the controls that are needed to steer. Holding A should have the same effect as holding both W and A currently does in 1.7.1.