Why airships?

[Gato Blanco]

I'm probably going to get banned for this...

So, why did Gabriel choose to make airships?  Going by developments since WWII, we’ve got bombers, VTOL jets, GOI has planes after all.  Even aircraft carriers.  With treads.  Why not tanks?  It could have been “Guns of Leonidas.”  I know, I know, the he dug through Patrius for 20 years, learning and scavenging things to make the Icarus, but where did the ancients get their inspiration?




Many inventions have been inspired by nature.  Stinging creatures gave people the inspiration for hypodermic needles.  Birds’ wings are the basis of every airplane’s lift.  Who’s to say that the ancients didn’t look to the Skywhales and think “Damn, I’d like to try that.”

In all seriousness, this thread is dedicated to the speculation of Skywhales, and their impact on world.  How do they fly?  What did they use for lift?  For thrust?  What do they eat?  What caused them to evolve (Potentially) lighter than air flight?  Are there multiple species?  What is their niche?  Are they extinct? 

PS; don’t think we didn’t see that whale in your videos, devs.

[Svonn]

I'm going to go ahead and use Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series as a base here and say that they naturally produce Hydrogen to fly. Everything else is beyond me.

[The Churrosaur]

TIM, GET IN HERE!

generations of bloated sea-whales with digestion problems evolved to rise through the water faster and eventually took their bulk to the skies?

also, isn't there that post in the gallery with sky shrimp and sky plankton?

[BdrLineAzn]

I remember when I was a lurker on the old forums about sky whales.

http://gunsoficarus.com/community/forumarchive/discussion/772/sea-monsters

[Mill Wilkinson]

Perhaps the skywhale is not an animal that was originally so huge even a powder-monkey could hit it, but a small fish that evolved huge airbags? after the wrecking that made the Wastes the to-be skywhales noticed that "hey, air is nice" and conquered new ground because there were no seas left for them. The ones that could fly higher got bragging- and mating rights, which in turn made bigger skywhales.

On the question what they eat I think they absorb moisture from the clouds, random birds and occasionally land on unsuspecting people and animals from the sky. Because they are mostly air and lighter gases they do not need that much for nutrition. But, the skywhale skin was the best for boots, air-balloons and other need-to-be-reliable surfaces. Plus, it has the underlayer that is tastier than revenge.

[Keon]

I feel like skywhales deflate naturally and need to rest in the ocean every winter where they use electrolysis to reinflate. They loose the ability to fly and are killed by poachers and sharks alike.

(Also, is it bad that I have a strong suspicion what they use as ballast?)

[JaegerDelta]

no no no no no. you are all wrong, the skywhale's heart is actually a nuclear fusion reaction that produces helium. which is why they dont explode when you shoot them. the reaction is fueled by the populace's belief in skywhales.  there are so few now because, by and large, have stopped believing in them. Only a true believer in the majestic skywhale will ever see a skywhale, the creature will be drawn to the psychic believe energies emitted by the true believer.  The closer the skywhale gets the stronger the psycho-magnetic resonance, leading to increased fusion activity and helium production. This increased helium production leads to the high altitude climb behavior described in almost every skywhale sighting.

come on guys. do your research

[Gato Blanco]

So, to revive skywhales, we need to clap our hands?

EDIT: OH GOD, CLOUD KRAKEN

EDIT 2: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

[Lord Dick Tim]

Well, two things.

You all found the original post, that fateful day when cloud whales turned into sky whales.  It started as a suggestion in the launch video, good times.  Paper plates with "press x for skywhales" got pressed in front of the camera.  I'm sure alcohol was very much involved with its original rise.

Second, I don't have a second, I just wanted to seem like I had more stuff to say.  Cause, like, sky whales, and stuff.
I still like my first idea, giant creatures ships fight to bring down by harpooning the creature to keep it from escaping the map.  It bucks, moves, turns and throws the ships around to try and smack them into each other or the terrain.  Gunners would have to know when to cut the line or get "dragged under" by the whale.  It could be a pretty neat coordination of ship captains, gunners and engineers.

[Gato Blanco]

Game mode: sky whaling.  PVE coordinated effort, using harpoons to grab as well as other weapons to weaken the whale (be careful not to kill it!)

Also, could make a "Capture the Whale" format, where you have whalers and a militant Greenpeace.  The whales wouldn't buck like in Skywhaling, but would slow down ships.  Whalers have to pull the whale to a whale processing ship, defenders have to kill whalers and let the whale fly back to its school.  Whale would be invulnerable because if the whale would die, both teams loose, and that could lead to trolling as a loosing team would just kill the whale to force a draw.

[Sgt. Spoon]

I remember when I was a lurker on the old forums about sky whales.

http://gunsoficarus.com/community/forumarchive/discussion/772/sea-monsters

I wonder if you could tell that I almost went bat-shit crazy at the time that thread came up. Right before this we had a whole lotta threads suggesting stuff like dreadnoughts, bi-planes and carriers for the frigging sixtyeleventh time, massive mechanical cities on tracks, boarding and handheld weapons (for the thousandth time) and other wierd ass suggestion.
..then some random pubber posted this and I was like... I give up... -.-   ...screw reality

[BdrLineAzn]

Just a little  Was it also the same time when all the reality in the original word stories just went and gone out of the window?

[HamsterIV]

Speaking of which why haven't zeppelin carriers come up recently? Certainly there is a component of our community who whats to take off in their own private airplane, do strafing runs on an enemy zeppelin, eventually crash into it, then jump out and start dukeing it out with the other crew mano e mano.

I am joking of course.

[Sgt. Spoon]

Was it also the same time when all the reality in the original word stories just went and gone out of the window?

Nah, by then that shit was all buttered up, out the window and up in the clouds, circling gods head with an RPG, long ago

[Lord Dick Tim]

I finally tipped Sgt. Spoon into crazy, me, I did it.  I feel a little more complete this day.