Steampunk Mobile Bases!

[G Addict]

You\'ll probably need this before you read further.

So, I was messing around with the Ludodyne K101 rigid airship envelope when I had visions of Mortal Engines style flying cities and massive war airships. Sadly, I suck at balancing the things and my computer can\'t handle enormous craft so I turn to you guys to satiate my desire for ridiculous contraptions. No scoring here, other than what impresses me in its ingenuity and style. The bigger the better, and the more gimmicks the better - guns, bombs, the ability to launch a plane, anything. Show me what you can do!

You could also go the other way and build a submarine base using Gaby\'s POC mod (IIRC) which I haven\'t linked because last time I tried it it caused my game to malfunction severely due to submerged debris. I think there\'s already a challenge to launch a spaceplane from one of these, anyway.

I\'ll list my favourites here, with page references, assuming the thread hits more than one page.

EDIT: Eh, lots of views, no replies. Feel free to post what you think I should include which interests you.

Cool airships, in no particular order:

Pg1, post 4 - Semo, with a not-quite-an-airship-actually-a-boat built to recover stranded probes. Uses Damned Robotics in an arm.

Pg1, post 5 - cardgame, with the S.S. 99 Luftbalons. Comes equipped with a pair of individually-firing and targetting railguns, plus a Bumblebee Mk1 escape plane. So heavy it barely gets off the ground!

[tiger336]

when i get back (on my laptop on) i might try this man i\'m lining so man things to do 8)

[cardgame]

Now this sounds like a very fun distraction from some wobbly rocket frustration.

[Semo]

Made this one some time ago for a challange. It almost made it

I was planning something similar to this topic actually.. Built a Goblin air ship!

Might combine this challenge with another one.. to be continued!

[cardgame]

You said warship in the OP, so I delivered.

Meet the S.S. 99 Luftbalons, a completely absurd, over-the-top and state-of-the-art destroyer blimp. Featuring parts from BACE, NovaPunch, JAWRD, Ludo (obv), Probodobodyne, Fixed Camera (including cockpit .cfgs), and Damned Robotics, this warship delivers warheads with near-pinpoint accuracy in almost any direction. Two individually-controlled railguns (railgun 1: rotation, 1-2; hinge, 3-4. railgun 2: rotation, 5-6; hinge, 7-8) and two targeting cameras provide superior firepower. Each railgun has four rounds. Railgun 1 fires first; its targeting camera can be activated with two hits of F8. A further F8 will switch you to railgun 2\'s targeting camera. If this isn\'t your ideal setup, it\'s pretty easy to modify the order the rounds fire in, and you can also fire both at once to ensure area denial. Accurately aiming both railguns simultaneously is theoretically possible but our pilots did not test it.

If you run out of ammo, or are intercepted, you\'re not completely helpless; board the Bumblebee Mk. I situated below the blimp and make a clean getaway. (Would have included the turbojet, but it kept breaking on vessel launch) You will need approximately 500 meters of altitude minimum clearance to perform this maneuver, although skilled pilots could probably do it in about 400 meters. I dropped from 750m and evened out at exactly 300, but there is a response delay in turning on the jet\'s engine that will vary depending on human response time. Alternatively, you can bundle the ignition with the decouplement from the blimp.

Launching this vessel is indeed a bit tricky... fill to 100% gas levels ASAP, and start your engines when you\'re approximately 75-80% full. Then proceed to take off like a completely normal, innocent fighter jet. (You should leave the runway at approximately 20m/s)

RCS tanks and thrusters are included to make maneuvering easier, but it does leave something to be desired. You should note that for modifications purposes, the craft is at ~95% weight capacity already - too much more weight and she won\'t take off (I added two more RCS tanks for a total of 1.8 additional mass units and she never made it off the runway). She hovers at approximately 95-96% gas level.

Decent firing angle - note the distance and feel between the gun and target.

Please note that all numbers as of today are very rough! The pilots were enjoying themselves too much to take accurate notes. Just look, they\'re all smiling.

[G Addict]

Semo, I saw that in the thread you made it for. Not a lot I can say about it other than it\'s crazy awesome and should\'ve worked because of that.

cardgame, that\'s pretty damn impressive! How long did it take you to get the balloon\'s attatch point in the right place? I\'ve never got a horizontal envelope to balance, let alone with a working plane underneath it too!

Suppose I should post my best attempts at this - I have two working airships, both have vertical envelopes so look more like hot air balloons than anything else. Now to go find some screenies.

EDIT: Here they are!

The first one is actually my first working airship, the \'Overhead\' class scout airship. Light and efficient with a relatively high operational ceiling, it can use its rotating engine pods to compensate for tilting caused by their offset from its centre of mass, enabling faster, smoother flight (50m/s at 500m) and altitude control. Its cannons, attached to those engine pods, fire together, up to eight times using 500m/s light rounds - when firing from altitude, the high velocity of larger shells is not needed to allow maximum range. To augment targeting of these cannons and provide backup weaponry once the railgun ammo is spent, each pod has an underslung Sunbeam laser. There are cameras mounted to the front of the main structure and underside of the cockpit, along with a ring of floodlights for better nighttime visibility. The torque applied by the cockpit is sufficient to steer relatively well.

The second, the \'Ominous\' class warship, is my inital foray into multiple canopy airships, and as such has some oversights. The greater lift means a heavier gondola can be used, along with larger engines to compensate for the drag from the other envelope. It has a separate turret, with four instead of two cannons, which can rotate independently of the airship body - necessary for ease of targeting, as its size severely hampers manoeuvrability. A single Sunbeam is mounted under the turret again for targeting. The rotating engine pods make a return for the same reason, allowing a top speed at low altitude of 55m/s. Its dual envelopes are quite underburdened, requiring only about 63% fill in each to lift off to 500m, so there\'s quite a bit of room for modification and addition of ordnance. I suspect I can use a similar mounting method to attach another two envelopes to this hull to increase its lifting ability further.

[cardgame]

First time worked for me, just have to put the right ballast underneath it to sort of balance it out. It does lean backwards quite a bit at launch, but fortunately doesn\'t crash the plane or anything.

[tiger336]

i made this to test what i could get away with...

edit

i\'m making a new one i\'ll post pics when it\'s done