How do I deploy balloons?

[mode]

I'm trying to figure it out but not having a lot of luck. Is there a guide/instructions on this?

[kazee]

do it from an opel

[mode]

It never appears as an option for me, just the ammo box etc

[Mosizlak]

Don't waste your time. 

Pilots, on both sides, will destroy them as soon as they see them.  

Takes a bout 1 minute to deploy, and they're gone as soon as the first plane shows up. 

[TR6AL]

I'm going to toughen up the Balloons . Just waiting for some more feedback .
Deploy Opel or Beddy etc , press "Z" and then "backspace" to scroll through the PPO's until you get to the PPo you want to deploy.

On the Opel , Balloons are the 3rd selection .

At the moment they are fairly easy to  destroy but the Pilot doing it has to waste time and ammo to remove them . 

Hope this helps  

[mode]

You have to be on a mission to an objective, not a bridge, within 400m of the target, etc?

[TR6AL]

You don't need to be on a mission . Just deploy a truck and head out to where you want.

You can't be within 1k of an enemy facility.    

[mode]

OK, I just created a mission at Mons-Thulin FB, made sure I was mission leader. Spawned an Opel Blitz from the FB, hit the Z key before I did anything else, can see the ammo cache green/red shadow thing. Drove several hundred meters away into an open field, nothing around me but some bushes...and the only  option I get is the ammo cache or nothing. It does let me build the ammo cache, but the balloon doesn't show up at all. I don't get 'you are too close/far' error, it simply doesn't show up as an option, not even red. Stopped the truck, tried the backspace key to cycle the icons, nothing.

There must be something simple I am missing.

[TR6AL]

Just for the hell of it , try in Offline mode . Just spawn in and press z and backspace . see if it works at least for you that way. 

 

[mode]

AHA! That let me figure out whats wrong, somehow I had remapped the cycle ammo key (which is what you are using for the PPO cycling). Once I cleared that and put it back to Backspace, I was able to cycle the build options. I will go try it in the live game now to be sure.

 

[mode]

LOL well I can cycle through and select them now, but I get a "You are too far from your mission target' message, so I'm guessing I need an area defense mission for the FB I am at.

[TR6AL]

Progress anyway ..lol 

 

[mode]

With an area attack or area defense mission, I can place a balloon now. (happy dance) Of course, I was immediately yelled at for placing the balloon. (/sigh)

[Mosizlak]

1 hour ago, mode said:

With an area attack or area defense mission, I can place a balloon now. (happy dance) Of course, I was immediately yelled at for placing the balloon. (/sigh)

Yeah, people will do that. 

1st time I deployed a balloon, a db-7 actually hit it, spun out and crashed...Then every single balloon I deployed after that the pilots on my team just shot them down as soon as they showed up.   

I don't bother anymore. 

[TR6AL]

As I am going to adjust the Balloons , should I raise or lower them to make them more effective ? .. They will get toughened as well . 

 

[Mosizlak]

50 minutes ago, TR6AL said:

As I am going to adjust the Balloons , should I raise or lower them to make them more effective ? .. They will get toughened as well . 

 

I think the height is OK.  Maybe a bit higher if anything. 

Pilots will be up in arms about making them tougher, though.  I'd assume they would be very easy to destroy being balloons?  

Maybe instead of placing 1 balloon, when you deploy it, it sets up a spread of them?   Dunno if that's able to be coded, but something to think about. 

[TR6AL]

Some Barrage balloons had hoses up to them continuously pumping gas into them so they where able to take a lot of abuse without deflating. Problem with multiple balloons "at one shot" , is spacing and configuration. They are quite big so that wont work. I'll raise them and make them slightly harder to shoot down but easier to place. 

[jwilly]

1 hour ago, Mosizlak said:

I'd assume they would be very easy to destroy being balloons?

Modern toy balloons are thin natural rubber. Their expanded shape comes from the stretching of the rubber due to the significant internal gas pressure. The high force on the thin rubber, and the susceptibility of that rubber film to tearing once a penetration-fault occurs, causes them to easily burst.

Barrage balloons were made of coated thin canvas, and filled with hydrogen gas with no significant internal pressurization and no stretching of the bag-material. Bullets readily penetrated them, of course, but just made small holes in one side and out the other.

A stream of incendiary bullets could ignite hydrogen leaking from a previous penetration, in which case the balloon would rapidly burn to nothing. But because the internal hydrogen wasn't significantly pressurized, the leak rate through bullet holes was minimal, so the fire probability actually was low. The much simpler construction compared to the Hindenburg dirigible resulted in minimal risk of the same kind of fire propagation that occurred with the Hindenburg.

Usually a machine gunned balloon would just slowly settle to the ground due to the leaks, and would have to be repaired before it could be used again.

[mode]

We could do like WW1, and put an observer in a basket under them...

[TR6AL]

2 hours ago, mode said:

We could do like WW1, and put an observer in a basket under them...

Lol , thought about that .. Ive been up there and it is pretty cool but a little awkward to be able to have infantry in a basket .. Besides that ,they would get shot down all the time .

 

[Mosizlak]

15 hours ago, jwilly said:

Modern toy balloons are thin natural rubber. Their expanded shape comes from the stretching of the rubber due to the significant internal gas pressure. The high force on the thin rubber, and the susceptibility of that rubber film to tearing once a penetration-fault occurs, causes them to easily burst.

Barrage balloons were made of coated thin canvas, and filled with hydrogen gas with no significant internal pressurization and no stretching of the bag-material. Bullets readily penetrated them, of course, but just made small holes in one side and out the other.

A stream of incendiary bullets could ignite hydrogen leaking from a previous penetration, in which case the balloon would rapidly burn to nothing. But because the internal hydrogen wasn't significantly pressurized, the leak rate through bullet holes was minimal, so the fire probability actually was low. The much simpler construction compared to the Hindenburg dirigible resulted in minimal risk of the same kind of fire propagation that occurred with the Hindenburg.

Usually a machine gunned balloon would just slowly settle to the ground due to the leaks, and would have to be repaired before it could be used again.

Thanks, m8.

Always appreciate your technical explanations.