Airship

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An airship is an independently floating platform used to reach heights or move across gaps. An airship consists of a platform for mice to rest on and either balloons and/or runes to lift it. Airships are a fun but not entirely efficient or safe shaman technique. Some mice have been known to enjoy creating different airships, made from the perceptible (boxes) to the crazy (anvil gods). An airship that is not made properly is often called a failship.

Platform[]

Airship3 — This is a common and effective airship.

Every airship relies on a stable platform for mice to stand on so that they can float safely to their destination. The platform is most commonly made out of a plank or multiple planks connected together. Any series of items with physical presence can be attached to each other to form a platform. Depending on the weight and bounciness needed for the airship, different items should be used.

The usage of a single large box, while generally unstable and having a tendency to tip when lifted, is also possible. A single box should have projections on either side to weigh it down long enough to attach balloons or runes to either side.

Containers[]

To prevent mice from falling off the airship, some airships contain walls. Other airships completely trap mice within the airship and use either an exit mechanism or land directly onto the mousehole to allow mice to leave it.

Lifting[]

Cloud Airship — Cloud airship is the best airship, it will never move and stay still. It can be made by attaching a balloon to a rotated cloud (cloud can be unlocked with a skill).

Airships gain height by being pushed up with either balloons or runes. Start lifting the side of the ship on the direction you want to go. Mice tend to start pushing as soon as you achieve liftoff, so if you lift the far side first, you will find yourself drifting away from the cheese. Account for lifts to start rising before you are able to balance it out. Make one side lower, which will rise to level, or weigh it down enough so that the airship does not lift early.

Balloons[]

The Flying Plank — A simple rune-powered plank airship.

Balloons can be attached to the ship or placed under a portion of the ship, thereby lifting it up. Having ballons unattached to the ship can be helpful for making landing gear.

Because balloons have a tendency to quickly lift one side, unbalancing your airship, rotate the balloons before anchoring them so that they are, at first, floating to the side of the ship, and not yet pull it upwards.

Runes[]

Runes are a difficult to use and less commonly used on airships than balloons, but a working rune powered airship can be very interesting and fast. Because the power of a rune intensifies when it is pushing against something, anchoring it by the end can made it stronger, as opposed to anchoring it by its tail.

Runes are hard to work with: they have a tendency of locking to the ground or zooming off-screen. Effective runeships use many up facing runes spread apart evenly. Unlike balloons, runes run in different directions depending on their rotation and can push against each other to cause the airship to malfunction, so they should not be placed overlapping each other.

Control[]

Rune Braker (Up) — An airship utilizing the Rune Brake, set in its Up position.

Controlling the airship is useful and impressive, but not always necessary.

Steering[]

Most airships have a box attached to it, so that the mice can push against it. Alternatively, you can use runes or spirits to steer your airship. Some inventions use movable runes to steer ships.

Landing[]

Landing an airship is not necessary when the airship is open and mice may jump out and into to the mousehole. However, when the airship cages mice or must fly back and forth from two locations, a landing mechanism is a requirement. In all other cases, landing your ship is simply impressive and fun.

The most basic yet least impressive method of landing an airship is simply to weigh the ship down, often with invisible anvils so as to fall as quickly as possible without displacing or trapping mice. This is the most common method of landing the airship that spawns with maps.

One common way to land a ship is to simply remove the lifting mechanism, or part of it. If the lifts are unattached to the platform, they can be pushed out from under the platform with anvils, cannons, or rotating shaman items. These are often anchored to the lift itself.

Runes are a difficult and rarely used item in landing, as their spastic behavior is hard to control. Some runes can be pointed down and attached to a ship, thereby pushing an airship down like a weight. Runes can be utilized in different landing contraptions, such as the rune brake, which lowers or lifts a ship when the runes are pushed either upwards or downwards.

Preventive measures[]

Airships are dangerous at all times. Expect them to fail at any moment.

Preventing tipping[]

Weight and balancing go hand in hand. Make sure mice have a stable, enclosing or flat platform to stand on. Anvils are commonly used to weigh down the airship so that it does not immediately take off after a single balloon is attached to it. This is helpful so that shamans have time to add stabilizing lifts to each end of the airship before it goes up with one, often spinning and tipping.

As a rule of thumb, make sure your ship weighs more below balloon anchors than above, so that the balloons, in an attempt to rise to the top, do not flip the ship over and dump out all of your passengers.

Aircar-ship[]

By attaching balls on a container, the ship can fly, and it can go as a car. When you are in air, put anvils on the Aircar-ship an then fly down, and drive the car.

An Aircar-ship is not very useful, but it's very interesting to see what the mice do with this.

Its also called a mobile airship.

Anti-trolling[]

Lighter airships have a tendency to be pushed off the map by mice. To prevent this, create walls around your workspace. If on a short platform, spawning two ghost planks placed lengthways along the sides of it is effective for creating this wall. When along a longer stretch of wood, use a globally anchored (red) invisible plank along the ground from which to connect your wall to.

In other cases, you may wish to simply weight down your ship temporarily with an anvil or other heavy item to prevent it from being moved. Make sure to have a plan for removing the weight later though.

Overlapping anchored items[]

Overlapping items have a tendency for an item to connect with the item it's anchored with, but continuously push against the third item. This often happens when anchoring three things at one point. Remember that a single anchor can only attach one item to another item, but not one item to two or more items. This is dangerous for an airship and can cause uncontrollable behavior, especially if runes are used to power the airship.

Falling Airships[]

When finished with a balloon airship, the airship tends to rise until the balloons "pop", and the airship falls down. This occasionally traps or displaces mice. Cannoning or otherwise shoving your airship off the side of the screen when finished stops this; if your airship has flown too high to be touched, watching where it floats in fullscreen can help you prepare any mice on the ground for its fall.