The Mobula

[RearAdmiralZill]

Engines will always take abuse thanks to pilot tools and lots of tar, lol. I see what you mean though, which will surely be a pain to keep up.

I hope the components aren't spread like that, else I don't see a gunner seeing much use on this boat.

[Queso]

I still don't see how this thing stays in the air. All the forces on the top are pushing down thanks to gravity and all the forces on the bottom are pushing up. It should flip itself over. What you would need is a heavy weight hanging down beneath the balloon and that would just weight the whole ship down. http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5213/5450356439_4d252602fd_z.jpg This thing only works because all the actual weight is down at the bottom and the fake basket at the top is probably cardboard.

[Captain Smollett]

It's going to be really interesting game mechanic when hitting into the ground damages your balloon and not armor. 

My tactician gears are already turning....

[N-Sunderland]

Here are my ideas for builds so far.

Full Brawler

Gatling top left
Gatling top right
Flak lower left
Flak lower right
Banshee centre

The idea here is pretty obvious. There's an enormous angle in which you can land gatflak on the enemy ship, with the banshee adding extra support. I'm assuming that the hull is hidden below deck, which is why the flaks are down below. The gat needs to be firing more often than the flak, so this setup allows the lower gunner to do some hull repairs. It also allows for more trifecta arc.


Alternate Brawler

Lower left flak
Lower right flak
Upper left banshee
Upper right banshee
Centre gatling

The idea here is the same in principle. It's just shifting the use of the gat to the engi who'll be doing less repairs (up top). This allows them to spend more time on the gatling, and they won't have any gun switching to do. Banshees are still there for the trifecta.


Brawler/Utility

Upper left gatling
Lower left flak
Upper right mine launcher
Lower right flare gun
Centre banshee

This one makes only one of the sides be used for fighting with the other meant for utility. Not much else to say.


Sniper

Right side mercs
Left side gatflak
Front Artemis

Simple enough. Mercs and an Artemis for long-range fighting, gatflak when they get close.


I'm not sure if the banshee is the best trifecta gun. With this ship, you'd better be killing as quickly as possible. Maybe an extra flak or gat would do the trick?

[Moo]

It used to be small and medium, but now it's light and heavy.

It's still small and medium in some places, light and heavy in others... #13

What you would need is a heavy weight hanging down beneath the balloon and that would just weight the whole ship down.

Maybe that's the purpose of the weird "nose" and the big plates hanging down? Anyway, plenty of things already don't make any sense, so something else isn't really a problem

[Arthem White]

I still don't see how this thing stays in the air. All the forces on the top are pushing down thanks to gravity and all the forces on the bottom are pushing up. It should flip itself over. What you would need is a heavy weight hanging down beneath the balloon and that would just weight the whole ship down. http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5213/5450356439_4d252602fd_z.jpg This thing only works because all the actual weight is down at the bottom and the fake basket at the top is probably cardboard.

Indeed, stability was my first concern when seeing the ship. There are some possibilities though.

The bare minimum for stability is that the center of mass of the whole metal structure lies below the center of mass of the balloon, right? Looking at the picture, the only way this could be is that the bottom parts of the structure were much heavier than the entire deck above the balloon, which seems unlikely. So there is a chance the ship is stable by itself through having very heavy materials below the level of the balloon, but this would be bad design. Why having unnecessary weight?

Then there's a second theory, one that I find much cooler: Maybe there is some sort of control system to stabilize the structure. The balloon seems to be divided in segments; one way to do it would be to have a mechanism that works as a level sensor. When the ship is leveled it does nothing. When it tilts, the weight displacement opens a steam valve that powers up a pump, so the balloon that is causing the tilt deflates and transfers air to the one on the opposite side.

Of course this would be a bitch to calibrate (by the industrial revolution they were just figuring out the Centrifugal Governor) but it is at least feasible without electricity.

[LordFunPants]

i really love seeing you guys dig deep into this ship. a lot of what you guys are talking about right now about the physics of the ship was well debated at muse. ultimately though, if it interferes with what we are looking for from a gameplay standpoint we sorta have to make a compromise in places. hell the concept of a ship with its balloon on the bottom was apparently considered "never going to happen" at one point for some of the reasons you're pointing out now . . . and trust me, i went through like a hundred designs before the one we have here,. . .  and when i mean hundreds, i mean it literally. . .

[Chrinus]

Perhaps with the extended tail fins, the purpose of those vertical turbines near the front fins is to provide a counter to this toppling effect. The whole idea has me thinking of the old nickname for the F-117: "The Wobblin' Goblin".

[Sgt. Spoon]

What you would need is a heavy weight hanging down beneath the balloon and that would just weight the whole ship down.

Maybe that's the purpose of the weird "nose" and the big plates hanging down? Anyway, plenty of things already don't make any sense, so something else isn't really a problem

Indeed, our current ships shouldn't really be able to fly either. This ship looks "plausible" enough.

[-Muse- Cullen]

It's hard to tell, since the engineer running along the deck is clearly out of proportion (like half the size of a gat, lol). Looking at the size of the other crew members, it definitely looks bigger than the Galleon to me.

....maybe its 5 medium-sized guns?

[N-Sunderland]

It's hard to tell, since the engineer running along the deck is clearly out of proportion (like half the size of a gat, lol). Looking at the size of the other crew members, it definitely looks bigger than the Galleon to me.

....maybe its 5 medium-sized guns?

No, those are definitely light guns. Look at the guy manning the gun on the left side of the picture. It gives a much better idea of the proportions.

[Mattilald Anguisad]

The crew is out of proportions due to an light artistic fail, meaning it's light guns. And since the only way you can even man 3 of the guns it means you have noone piloting or noone on repairs, the 5 front guns setup is not as problematic (especialy ALL the guns are in front, keeping all else a huge blind spot).

[Keon]

Looks like you might be able to get a quintfecta

[Queso]

Yes with that excellent fifth crew member playing the 10th class in tf2.

[N-Sunderland]

Looks like you might be able to get a quintfecta

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