Does anyone know how to make an airship?

[a One Man Panini Apocalypse]

I tried with building a sealed box made out of wood beams, and putting in a helium pump. Will that make the airship rise?
I’ve just gotten into the game, not looking to build a dreadnought 10 heavy missile twin laser airship yet, but I am trying to build a basic airship.
Also, how do you make those paddle wheel ships the deepwaterguard have? Specifically the paddle wheel section- not the engine. Just curious- trying to use the info for a basic little boat.

[Supaman]

if you make sure the box is sealed and a large enough volume, it will rise. The DWG use spin blocks (Subobjects) to move, basically slap some on your death raft and set it up to spin continuously.

[Supaman]

underneath water is a "paddle" block, add those to your spinning spin block to get propulsion out of it, and you're basically set. Expand and make it bigger to your heart's content

[Supaman]

to control how fast it's going, you can use Advanced Control Blocks (ACBs) to increase/decrease the spin based on how fast the Primary Drive is set (how fast you are telling the boat to go)

[Supaman]

*Main Drive, not Primary Drive, sorry

[immortal man]

An extremely basic airship can be made using only well-placed, appropriately-sized thrusters and some minor tweaks to the AI/propulsion settings. You can also use spinblocks, dediblades, or CJEs if you are feeling fancy.

To create a basic hovering airship, you can place four upward thrusters in a rectangular-ish shape on different points on your craft--this will automatically act as a force to control roll, pitch, and upwards movement. Then, add left/right strafing thrusters close to the center of mass (CoM) of the aircraft. Similarly, you can add left/right thrusters to control your yaw, but place these far from the CoM. After this you can add forward and reverse thrusters. Lastly, you just place an AI mainframe and configure it for hover movement.

I would generally recommend a thruster or dediblade airship over anything using helium, especially for beginners, as that's fairly easy to poke a hole in and requires more work to prevent such a thing. But if you're set on using helium, it can be a great option for cosmetic builds. Just be sure to compartmentalize the helium part and use alloy/light materials throughout the craft.

[Dunhill]

To keep it short, as practice, you should just try to make a regular water ship fly.

Your total thrust force has a center, so keep it in line with the center of mass to prevent unwanted turning.

As for how much upwards thrust you need, I use weight/6.11*2. One thrust is enough for 6.11 weight and 2 is a safety factor for damage and turning.

Airships don't just turn left and right (yaw), they also pitch and roll. Your upwards thrusters can be used to achieve this pitch and roll, provided you have enough thrusters (at least three, not all in the same line), else you need thrusters dedicated towards turning.

I'm mentioning thrusters because helium sucks. It is simpler, but it isn't viable.

[The man, the myth, the leg]

there are multiple ways to make airships

the worst one is using helium pumps, because it takes up a lot of volume and for that provides very little armor
it is also a fragile design, because breached compartments will stop providing lift

making a helicopter is a solid option
propellers provide a lot of upwards thrust for not that much power and are relatively durable, but they are still a significant weakpoint that has to stay exposed

the best one is making a "thrustercraft"
you make a vehicle, fill the center with thrusters (one piece jets can work, but costom jets(CJEs)are the best)
CJEs provide A LOT of thrust and because they are hidden deep inside they are not likely to get significantly damaged. most of the scary endgame vehicles are some form of thrustecraft

as for paddle boats:
use spinblocks and put paddles(water section) on them

[CEPHY]

As someone with lots of experience in airships, the secret to them is that they don't actually work.

Airships in this game don't fly, you're just preventing them from crashing. And the easiest and most reliable way to do this is with thrusters and General Purpose PIDs.

Usually I'd write a small essay explaining how to set one up at this point but I just can't be bothered, so I'll put it like this: Search the workshop for some recent airships, load them into the designer, and tear them apart.

Reverse engineering is the name of the game here.

EDIT: Here's a few airships you could tear apart and study. They may not be the best examples, but they should teach you the gist of it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3238205719
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3227871231
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3085800980
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2743630234

[a One Man Panini Apocalypse]

Thanks guys! Really thankful for your help! Guess I'll be cooking up a thrustercraft!

[DreamScape]

I still use ACBs with Complex controls lol.
Set up thrusters in middle. some at front some at rear.
ACB will send /\ command when under a set ALT
If ship rolls to far to one side ACB will tell a group to roll it other way.
If ship tilts forward or backward.
Have an ACB to tell thrusts to nose up or down.
ACB 1 If under 300 send Up command.
ACB 2 If roll is -2 - -180 send roll right.
ACB 3 If roll is 2 - 180 send roll left.
ACB 4 If Pitch is -2 - -180 Nose down.
ACB 5 If pitch is 2 - 180 Nose up.
Thruster set up
Front group. Have entire group up arrow green. Rear half have nose up command green.
Rear group. Have entire group up arrow green. Front half have nose down command green.
Side groups. Have entire group up arrow green. Left side right roll set green. Right side left roll set green.
Middle group. Entire group set up to green. Front row nose up green. rear row nose down green. each side of middle thrusts set to match sides for roll control.
On top get a tiny right and left group facing down. Place these on sides to help with roll. Have them set only for roll. Opposite of bottom ones.
ACB 6 If enemy is at 3k to 5k use Broadside 2.0
ACB 7 If enemy is at 0 to 2995 use Circle at a distance.
ACB 8 if no enemy present set to patrol or no movement.
Its the easy breadboard set up done with 8 blocks over 1.

[DreamScape]

For added sfety have your ALT based on where enemy is.
ACB 1a priority 6 if enemy is at 5k be at 300.
ACB 1b priority 5 if enemy is at 4500 be at 200.
ACB 1c priority 4 if enemy is at 4k be at 400.
ACB 1d Priority 3 if enemy is at 3500 be at 150.
ACB 1e Priority 2 if enemy is at 3k be at 250.
ACB 1f Priority 1 if enemy is at 2500 be at 500.
This will keep you not only moving forward at whatever speed you go. But bopping up and down as they approach making direct fire less effective.

[Dunhill]

Originally posted by DreamScape:

I still use ACBs with Complex controls lol.
Set up thrusters in middle. some at front some at rear.
ACB will send /\ command when under a set ALT
If ship rolls to far to one side ACB will tell a group to roll it other way.
If ship tilts forward or backward.
Have an ACB to tell thrusts to nose up or down.
ACB 1 If under 300 send Up command.
ACB 2 If roll is -2 - -180 send roll right.
ACB 3 If roll is 2 - 180 send roll left.
ACB 4 If Pitch is -2 - -180 Nose down.
ACB 5 If pitch is 2 - 180 Nose up.
Thruster set up
Front group. Have entire group up arrow green. Rear half have nose up command green.
Rear group. Have entire group up arrow green. Front half have nose down command green.
Side groups. Have entire group up arrow green. Left side right roll set green. Right side left roll set green.
Middle group. Entire group set up to green. Front row nose up green. rear row nose down green. each side of middle thrusts set to match sides for roll control.
On top get a tiny right and left group facing down. Place these on sides to help with roll. Have them set only for roll. Opposite of bottom ones.
ACB 6 If enemy is at 3k to 5k use Broadside 2.0
ACB 7 If enemy is at 0 to 2995 use Circle at a distance.
ACB 8 if no enemy present set to patrol or no movement.
Its the easy breadboard set up done with 8 blocks over 1.

This is what I used to do years ago when I was still very new. What you have is a relay with a dead zone and it's inferior to PID regulation, so I'd advise against it.

[Quazy]

yeah your often best off using a pid and balancing thrusters (the less your pids need to work the more stable it will be during damage). thruster craft are often more redundant and dont sink just because someone poked a hole in your ship.

you can place them in the middle or higher up in your ship and leave vents out to keep them safe.

as for moving drag and or gravity will change at different elevation and speed. learning to use the breadboard to adjust trim on your thrusters will be important. start with gravity adjustment first. so by 1300m you have no lift at all.

also from personal experience. i would recomend using the basic thrusters because they are easy to armor. where custom jets are effecient they are large, impossible to armor well, and if something damages 1 piece it all breaks.

[DreamScape]

I agree pids are way to go. But the command to Cease movement kills your pids.
If your wanting precise control even when enemies are not present and use pid controls do avoid the Cease movement i posted above.
For best possible control. The ability to Cease and sit stationary or even land. Learn Breadboard.
Its possible to look for terrain to lower landing gears and touchdown at different velocities to avoid damage even without rubber pads to land with.
For control like this Breadboards are way to go.
The From the Depths Discord has tons of Breadboard and LUA pre made scripts and layouts.
These can completely change your game while approaching the learning cliff a little easier.

[Dunhill]

Originally posted by DreamScape:

I agree pids are way to go. But the command to Cease movement kills your pids.
If your wanting precise control even when enemies are not present and use pid controls do avoid the Cease movement i posted above.
For best possible control. The ability to Cease and sit stationary or even land. Learn Breadboard.
Its possible to look for terrain to lower landing gears and touchdown at different velocities to avoid damage even without rubber pads to land with.
For control like this Breadboards are way to go.
The From the Depths Discord has tons of Breadboard and LUA pre made scripts and layouts.
These can completely change your game while approaching the learning cliff a little easier.

That command is not necessary, especially given OP is just trying to get something to fly. I don't play the campaign a lot, but if I'm not wrong, there's not much reason to use the command instead of just pulling the craft out of play.

I don't even remember when's the last time I used a PID block or an ACB that wasn't a volume check, so yeah, I only talk about breadboards