homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Rise of Flight - The First Great Air War Balloon Busting

The DM for balloons should be reevaluated as they bust too fast. They should also be winched down when attacked.

Ground machine gunners would be a great addition to the game. Not just for balloon busting, but for all areas of game.

Machine gunners are there; they simply don't attack when going after balloons because of range or an inability to elevate (not sure which), which is weird.

Winching down isn't such a big feature to me, but I don't understand why the observers don't jump out. Issuing parachutes to balloon observers was pretty standard practice for both sides in 1917-8.

Parachutes for German aircraft in 1918 would be nice too...

RD

...... poor, poor Krumpets. They had no chutes, so sad.

Yes, witching down, mass machine gun protection, Archie and chutes was standard practice around and in balloons. This sim needs a little more spunk added to it.

Hope they do add this at some point .... among all the other things!

Agreed! All my historical readings indicate that they didn't go 'poof ' quite so easily, and in fact, they could be quite difficult at times to destroy. While this doesn't prevent my enjoyment of the sim, it is unrealistic IMO.

The balloons have about as much chance as I do when I'm in front of AI guns! A few rounds from them and it's 'game over' for me!

[quote=womenfly2
Yes, witching down, mass machine gun protection, Archie and chutes was standard practice around and in balloons. This sim needs a little more spunk added to it.

Hope they do add this at some point .... among all the other things! [/quote]

Was this standard practice around Halloween?

I think winching would add quite a bit of excitement . Imagine avoiding an enemy fighter, plus trying to bust a balloon before it gets pulled even closer to the earth. where ground fire would almost certainly chew you up. (if they add that in future versions).

Balloons pop like they did in RB1 and 2/3...
IIRC, from pilot accounts shooting bottom was next to useless because all non-hydrogen would pool there, so you had to dive both to have energy to get out fast and to shoot the hydrogen-filled area. Plus shooting it down with normal bullets took a lot of time.

Maybe the unspecified rounds we have in RoF are incendiary?

I think they're Mad Hatter bullets.

They are precisely what they are meant to be for the given target, no more and no less.



Historical question: When did balloonists get parachutes? One would think they'd of been adopted very early on; after all, the parachute was invented and perfected for egress from a balloon.

Hello,

winching down observation balloons was already there in this old sim Red Baron 3d in 1993 ? Or earlier ? And there were even observers jumping out and gliding down with their parachutes. As well you had incendiary bullets, and normal ones to choose from pre-flight.

Another thing is those obs balloons in RoF are set up much too high. The altitude was indeed much lower, which made balloon busting so dangerous, not only Archie but good old MG fire. And Hydrogenium is not inflammable, until it mixes thoroughly with air. Puncture the gasbag, wait for two to three minutes at least, in a hostile environment trying to evade ground fire, and then re-attack hoping to ignite the built up hydrogen-air mixture, which often enough failed.

And the balloon was now, after 2 minutes, being winched down or losing gas, much more close to the ground, thus closer to MG and Archie fire.


Why the f. do they always have to re-invent the wheel with a new sim ?! It was all there long ago (15 plus years!!), just without the eye candy on steroids. Why not take the old features for granted, and build up from there. People forget too much and quickly, or so it seems.



And yes, german pilot did indeed have and use parachutes in scout planes in World war 1, if only from 1918 on. Some of the pilots did not want to take it along because this would make their planes a bit more heavy, but most did, and it was free decision in the German air service. On the allied side pilots were not allowed to use parachutes, because it was thought that they would give up their crate too early, without trying everything to save it. No comment on this kind of thinking.

Greetings,
Catfish

4-5000ft is about right for late war obsy baloons.

Info

The problem with balloons was rised on the official forum a couple of months ago and it's even in the official Big Wishlist thread.

Google is your friend:

http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-air-support/inflatable.htm

http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviatio...%20Balloons.htm

http://books.google.com/books?id=L3EXBUf...ons&f=false

HT

Peter, you may be the only one who actually has read the "official forum."

If you can navigate it, you're right up there with the explorations Magellan and Cook and Columbus (yes, this is Columbus Day in the US) in the pantheon of great voyages of discovery.

What a hopelessly tangled and confusing mess it is!

Lovely signature you have, by the way.



HT

I agree with balloons needing a few more rounds before they burst into flames...

...but ground-machine gunners are there already, it is up to the mission designer on how many are placed around the balloon locations.