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Balloon "powered" Vehicles


yamamushi

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In the Dual Universe lore story there is mention of people exploring the planet with Balloon powered ships.

 

Even in this devblog there is mention of a Balloon powered vehicle (also food and survival mechanics, but that's a whole other issue):

 

https://devblog.dualthegame.com/2014/08/17/about-the-alpha-gameplay/

 

 

However, I haven't seen much discussion in the way of this type of vehicle, and recent interviews have skipped over mentioning the topic. 

 

I'm wondering if this is still planned for the game, or if Balloon vehicles were dropped from the roadmap.

 

 

We've all seen the various videos released, and it's pretty clear that there is at least one massive ocean on the planet demo'd in them. I think I'd much rather cross an ocean in a Balloon powered vehicle than I would a hovercraft. 

 

 

airships.jpg

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Atleast with a balloon powered vehicle, you'd only need more balloons to carry more weight to cross said ocean. 

The hovercraft is nice, but its going to probably require significant amounts of fuel where as a balloon can run on pretty much nothing, so I'm hoping that the concept above and the balloon idea are a real thing to allow for more fuel efficient travel.

Hell, you could even build a moving base on the damn balloon structure and not have to worry too much about the affects on the fuel consumption. 

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Hell, you could even build a moving base on the damn balloon structure and not have to worry too much about the affects on the fuel consumption.

I like the idea of that...a floating fortress of death! Or supplies for people, who knows :P

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Big balloon craft could be used on Venus, Geoffrey A. Landis a Sf writer who also works at NASA has covered in a scientific paper.
A balloon vehicle is a lot of lightweight voxels and a big slow easy target. It could be done but is it something you would want in Alpha? The soviets used balloon probes in Venus successfully decades ago. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Venus
It is an option if you have that lethal surface, live in the sky world type. Mine with drones. 
Remember we are setting this in 2317 or so maybe even wheels are obsolete let alone balloons.  

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"Explosive high altitude or low altitude balloons could be used to disrupt fleets of attacking aircraft. Balloons like these were used during the Second World War to disrupt bombers from accurately bombing targets. The US and China are considering using zeppelin like crafts that can stay in the air for weeks at a time to act as airborne early warning stations. Whatever way, for recreation, military use or civilian use, balloons are not done with us, yet."

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I'm seeing ballon powered craft as very useful for anything inside an atmosphere but, its a balloon, it pops making it very vulnerable to anyone with a ranged weapon and hostile intent. since you know all they have to do is puncture the hull and you start venting and eventually go down. Though it would also make it feasible to dump excess stuff to lighten the craft to go faster to escape, which could be fun.

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I'm seeing ballon powered craft as very useful for anything inside an atmosphere but, its a balloon, it pops making it very vulnerable to anyone with a ranged weapon and hostile intent. since you know all they have to do is puncture the hull and you start venting and eventually go down. Though it would also make it feasible to dump excess stuff to lighten the craft to go faster to escape, which could be fun.

You build them in rings and in such a way that several of the rings can pop and the ship still be able to stay airborne. several more and it drifts to the ground not crash so the majority of the ship is fine just need to repair the balloon part.

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