Give us air balloons

[Titanius 30]

It would be neat to be able to construct air balloons.  The basket would be made of wood (naturally), and the balloon out of sheets.  For inflating it, we would simply build a campfire inside the basket (with a stone plate on the bottom to prevent burning the basket), or a special brazier designed specifically for a balloon (the best fuel would be tar).  Gradually, the air inside the balloon would heat up and cause the balloon to rise.  There would be a flap on the side of the balloon with a rope or string that could be opened and closed at will.  Open it to let hot air out to descend.  Close it to accumulate hot air to ascend.  For horizontal movement there would be a propeller-fan which our character would crank by hand or peddle by foot.  We'd get some really beautiful views from up there, and be able to cover large distances across rugged terrain more easily.  There could also be "trade winds" which run east-west, west-east, north-south, and south-north every few blocks of tiles, so we could ride the trade winds like the sea-going explorers did centuries ago.

 

Small balloons for non-premium players.  Large blimps with large cargo capacity for premium players.  Would be capable of crossing servers like boats.

 

No more having to wait for map dumps.  We could get the lay of the land in real-time.  We would also be able to moor the balloon with a long rope to a tree on our deed to prevent it from straying, and attach a rope ladder so we could climb up and down any time we wanted to get another look around.  Though when the fire dies, the balloon would descend back to the ground.  When it's up, it could serve as an aerial watch-post.

 

On PvP servers they could be used to drop incendiary bombs on enemy settlements.  Though they could be shot down using arrows.

 

Balloons would be like row boats and small carts with similar cargo capacity.  (Thus we'd have the equivalents for land, sea and air.)

 

Blimps would be like large carts and wagons, and like sail boats.  But they shouldn't hold as much as a knarr, or sea shipping would quickly become obsolete.

 

War-blimps would have a mounted ballista-type launching device for air-to-air strikes against other blimps, and mounted cannons for air-to-ground bombardments using explosive or incendiary bombs.  Imagine whole fleets of these things from two opposing factions battling in the skies, or launching a surprise night raid on an enemy settlement.  Or flying to the site of a rift and bombing the demons back to hell from whence they came!

 

Special missions would include search-and-rescue operations of NPC characters stranded on some island after a ship wreck, and delivering them to the specified city, upon which we receive 1 silver per NPC rescued (the NPC would disappear as soon as we land).  Other missions could include cartography tasks where the player flies over an area to update the map (which would happen automatically; no cameras in those days).  And fighting forest fires (in a special contained area, of course).

 

Edited February 24, 2019 by Titanius

[Niki 2,278]

i'd like if flying was introduced. +1

 

keep it to fixed speed so it's not OP

[FranktheTank 1,901]

Would be neat to get birds eye views of my deed that are not just the map.

[Titanius 30]

Yup.  No more having to wait for map dumps.  We could get the lay of the land in real-time.  We would also be able to moor the balloon with a long rope to a tree on our deed to prevent it from straying, and attach a rope ladder so we could climb up and down any time we wanted to get another look around.  Though when the fire dies, the balloon would descend back to the ground.  When it's up, it could serve as an aerial watch-post.

Edited February 24, 2019 by Titanius

[Sn00 1,005]

I love the idea.

 

+1

[Finnn 3,316]

I can already imagine devs saying YES to this on 1st april.

[Nomadikhan 2,196]

World War I in wurm, let's do this.   Can we have Fokkers as well?

[Roccandil 959]

6 hours ago, Nomadikhan said:

World War I in wurm, let's do this.   Can we have Fokkers as well?

 

Wyverns, though, wyverns!

[Nomadikhan 2,196]

10 hours ago, Roccandil said:

 

Wyverns, though, wyverns!

Only if we can strap vickors machine guns to them.

[Maiev 62]

Flying sounds good if people cant use it to jump into other people's walled/fenced deeds. 

[Emylyna 26]

+1

[Titanius 30]

Yup, Maiev, that's a good point, which was mentioned in some older threads on this subject going back to 2014.  This is what I came up with to address that concern after thinking about that for a bit.  Maybe other players have better solutions.

 

For PvE, of course, that would not be a problem, since we couldn't bomb anyone or land on their deeds anyway.  If anyone attempted to land on some else's deed, the gods could just blow a huge gust of wind our way and blow us to a tile off deed.

 

For PvP, well, we could do what they do in the real world and have "no fly zones".  So because the game would be played along the z-axis, all deeds would be given unlimited z-axis protection.  In other words, all the space above the deed would be restricted air space through which no one can fly, and here too the gods would blow us away and prevent us from penetrating anyone's restricted air space.

 

Only in the event of an actual war status would the no fly restriction be lifted.  And even then, we could fly through the air space of a declared enemy only.  Declaring war on other players would be done through your token, and the other player/settlement would have to accept the war declaration before their air spaces would be open to each other.

 

Even if all PvP players aren't ready for taking Wurm into the 3rd dimension, it sounds like some PvP players are.  Maybe have a new server (island) with blimps, but leave all existing PvP servers without them.  That way those who want air battles can found a new settlement on the new server, and the players on existing PvP servers would not be disturbed.

 

As for PvE, wow!  It sure would be something spectacular riding around in a balloon.  The scenery from above would look so amazing!  And even from the ground... you're tilling the ground, tending to your crops, and overhead a slow-moving balloon or blimp gently floats across the sky.  Slow moving, silent, with amazing colours.  Awesome!

 

Edited February 25, 2019 by Titanius

[gabars 45]

I kind of hate/love this. It would really have to be well executed to not unbalance everything.

 

I think flying would be too OP unless it's really slow (like 5-10km/h max) and is controlled similarly to IRL : only the wind decides which way to go (wind doesn't blow in the same direction at different altitudes, more detailed explanation here). Limited weight so land and water transport remains relevant and require fuel. Could be a good excuse to use peat? Dry peat into bricks in a kiln for the same amount of energy but half the weight.

 

The reasons I think it could be too OP if not done right are

• Can cross land in water in 1 vehicle
• Can literally cross the map in a straight line, with no regards to natural obstacles such as trees and terrain
• Potentially safe from all mobs?

Potentially interesting numbers from first manned hot air balloon taken from here (in french):

Spoiler

• Balloon height: 70' (21.34 m)
• Diameter: 46'  (14.02 m)
• Capacity: 6000 cubic feet (I think this is ballon capacity, not the basket)
• Weight: 1600 lbs (725.75 kg)
• Max payload: 1600-1700 lbs (725.75 - 771.10 kg)
• Basket diameter: 3' (0.91 m)

IMO what we get should be close to this

 

Seeing a massive shadow on your deed as a balloon passes in front of the sun would be amazing, but TBH I could live without it.

[Roccandil 959]

2 hours ago, gabars said:

Potentially safe from all mobs?

 

Wyverns!

[Seriphina 1,223]

No. This doesn't fit well with the technology of Wurm. We don't even have glass in our windows, how are we supposed to have furnaces so finely tuned that they don't burn down the balloons? 

[Poshy 58]

1 hour ago, Seriphina said:

No. This doesn't fit well with the technology of Wurm. We don't even have glass in our windows, how are we supposed to have furnaces so finely tuned that they don't burn down the balloons? 

 

You are right, we need glassworking to go along with our balloons.

[Roccandil 959]

4 hours ago, Seriphina said:

No. This doesn't fit well with the technology of Wurm. We don't even have glass in our windows, how are we supposed to have furnaces so finely tuned that they don't burn down the balloons? 

 

But we have pizzas.

[Seriphina 1,223]

1 hour ago, Roccandil said:

 

But we have pizzas.

Yeah, but it's not as immersion breaking to grab a slice of pizza that you can't see your character eating as it would be for a big hot air balloon to fly over your castle.

[Roccandil 959]

16 hours ago, Seriphina said:

Yeah, but it's not as immersion breaking to grab a slice of pizza that you can't see your character eating as it would be for a big hot air balloon to fly over your castle.

 

I hear ya, but we also have cows on cliffs and seals and whales that sound like snakes!