Zeppelins

[Chris Johnson]

This has been suggested before, several times in the past (search for balloons - ..yes I know we are talking about powered flight here)

It would not take a great deal of additional programming , most of the boat movement code could be used but with no stopping at water/land boundaries.

They probably would require landing masts to dock and fixed installations where they can be built.

Until free-roaming for land vehicles and people is implemented, fo rthe sake of game balance, I can't see these being able to land anywhere they want or be able to transfer things between ground & sky other than at landing masts.

[WojD]

But this mean, that we can't use Zeppellins to explore new areas...

Small models should have possibility to land in any location accessible to people and move over sea and land. Bigger - surely should have limited options - like galleons...

[formerly known as hf]

It shouldn't be able to land on mountains, swamp, forest or hills - only plains and deserts unless there's a landing point - that'd allow smaller version to explore, but within limits...

Flight would be a great addition - as Wich said, we need faster land transport - in some cases (K-Isle) It's quicker to sail around an island than to travel across it...

[WojD]

It shouldn't be able to land on mountains, swamp, forest or hills - only plains and deserts unless there's a landing point - that'd allow smaller version to explore, but within limits...

Good limitation - maybe except hills - and we should let landing at beach...

[Chris Johnson]

Personally I like the idea of dirigible aircraft such as zeppelins but the implementation has to be thought out very carefully .

What is being proposed in the last two posts is a vehicle which can land in numerous locations and travel freely across all terrain types . This will seriously unbalance the game, other vehicles (boats and many land vehicles) will become obsolete .

I wouldn't like to see their introduction unless there were serious limitations , similar to what I proposed .

[T-shirt]

If it could carry as much and move as fast as a bike or even walking speed and if it could only dock at to be developped docking places, I would like to see this enhancement to the game.

[wichita]

I agree with Chris on this one. As I feel he stated it well enough...I shall not add to muddle the waters.

[WojD]

Dirigibles are:
- expensive
- slow
- can't carry much
- are limited to some terrain types (landing)

If 'Zeppelin' will be expensive (eg. 2000 - 5000g silk cloth, 500 - 1000g aluminium, 1000 g medium rope, 100 g magnesium, 500g steel, 2000 g propan), with speed ~2000 units (less over land perhaps), can carry 2-3 people - and can't land in many locations - this cannot unbalance game.

Boats with high carryon - always will be better for trade or communication between islands. Dirigibles will help to communicate over land. Land vehicles - less expensive and more flexible (can go to every location type) - still will be better...

[Savanik]

2000 - 5000g silk cloth, 500 - 1000g aluminium, 1000 g medium rope, 100 g magnesium, 500g steel, 2000 g propane

There's what you do. Make it use ROPE.

Nobody that I know of has rope. I bet it's more rare than steel and iron.

Sav

[WojD]

Rope machine

* 1000 grams of wood
* 750 grams of iron

Manufacturing thin rope
* 800 grams of thin rope
Required resources
* 800 grams of string

Manufacturing medium rope
* 400 grams of medium rope
Required resources
* 800 grams of thin rope

---------------------------------

Rope is rare because there is no usage for this resource except stone quarry (lack of timber) and Set of hoists and pulleys (??!! for what it is?)

[Savanik]

Rope is rare because there is no usage for this resource except stone quarry (lack of timber) and Set of hoists and pulleys (??!! for what it is?)

I was going to say - it's not rare because we CAN'T make it, it's rare because we DON'T...

I'd put it at around the same rarity as things like copper wire. Nobody makes it except for a single special purpose. It's not something you can just walk into a town and trade for.

Sav

[WojD]

Yeah. And this is reason why dirigibles can't make boats obsolete... Iron and wood for sloop you can find everywhere. For this ammount of rope, cloth and other resources you need cooperation of at least few people. And dirigibles should be slow and can't carry big cargo...

[Pie]

ok, i have to agree, but, THAT WILL MAKE DARIGABLES UNCOMON. And it wont do anything. We have to have a RESON FOR DARIGABLES.

In world war II, and I i think, darigables where used in reconasance, and IT SHOULD BE THE SAME HERE. Just think, its expenciv, but it will help with wars. A RESON FOR TEH DARIGABLES!! WWOOOOooP!!!!

[El_Skwidd]

I like the idea of a small and a large zeppelin, one with a decent amount of docking flexibility like hal. farmer mentioned and one that can only dock at landing masts like Chris said.

I'd imagine that the landing mast would be expensive. I don't know a lot about it, but I know that the big pole on top of the Empire State Building was designed for dirigibles to dock to, and it's on top of a skyscraper. It would have to be tall enough to reach above the trees of a forest.

Now, when you say 2-3 people, do you mean 2-3 people plus cargo space or 2-3 people total cargo capacity? The Hindenburg carried a lot more than 3 people... or, at least it did in that movie.

[WojD]

Yes - but this is Cantr If we make big dirgibles able to carry 10 persons, then 1 person can take huge cargo. If possible is to program diferent flight speed over land and sea - and make our Hindenburg slower than sloob and slower than car - all will be OK.

Small version should be a bit faster than bike or dinghy and carry max 3 people with not very high load.

EDIT:

The LZ 129 Hindenburg and her sister-ship LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II were the two largest aircraft ever built. The Hindenburg was named after the President of Germany, Paul von Hindenburg. It was a brand-new, all-duralumin design: 245 m long (804 ft), 41 m in diameter (135 ft), containing 200,000 m³ (7,060,000 ft³) of gas in 16 bags or cells, with a useful lift of 112.1 metric tons force (1.099 MN), powered by four reversible 1,200 horsepower (890 kW) Daimler-Benz diesel engines, giving it a maximum speed of 135 km/h (84 mph).

To most of the modern world, which only knows about airships from seeing blimps, it is worth pointing out that the average blimp is roughly 1/10 the length of the Hindenburg. The Hindenburg was longer than three Boeing 747s placed end-to-end.

It could carry 72 passengers (50 transatlantic) and had a crew of 61.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster