For more information you should see this other guide : https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2963905148

That guide goes over the basics of the game, there, you will learn all you need to make your first ships, here however, we will make bigger models, with more complex designs, such as turning a ship by shifting it's weight!

- A few points -

The words "Hovercraft" and "Ship" will be used to indicate that "this design works on basics Ships" Or "This design can work on a large majority of Hovercraft".

So you know that when you see these terms, they mean basic or an all-rounder design that can work on many situations.

A Download for *some ships used in this guide Here[drive.google.com]
- the basic guide will teach you how to download, and upload ships
- This can be usefull for trading ideas at the office water cooler, and teaching/learning new desings for your future engineering jobs.

Controls :
Move: WASD | Jump: SPACE
Build: LMB (M1) | Remove: RMB (M2) | Select hotbar item: 0-9
Scale item: Mouse scroll | Curve item: Shift+scroll | Copy build scale and curvature: Middle mouse
Interact with controller: Mouse scroll

[not shown in game]
Open inventory: TAB
Interact with button: F
Input name in scanner: E
Rotate selected Object R

All of your items :

During your career as an engineer in airships 2, you might have problems thinking of designs with
specific parts, how they can be used, and more.

>Wood

Wood is the light alternative to the Beam, it is less resistant, it can be used for adding a new part to the ship, without modifying the center of gravity as much as a heavy Beam. Wood is however, thinner, so if you want to add more propellers on a single part, it is a better choice to go with the Beam. Wood also seems to have at the moment, a broken mirror effect. so it is best if you want to make a mostly wooden ship, you start with a Beam, and use Wood for the rest of the ship

>Beam

The Beam is the stronger, heavier alternative to the Wood, the Beam should be used as an foundation for the ship, and the parts that should not break off easly, such as pillars that keep the ship up. The Beam, can be used on ships to shift the center of gravity in a good position, such as the cockpit for helicopters, or the center for airships.

>Propeller

Self explanatory, this is what gives you lift and directional speed, foward and sideways. it has a larger alternative. It can be used for weaker movement, in case you want to turn slowly or gently. It turns on and off the fastest

>Propeller Big

The larger alternative to the Propeller. The middle of the spectrumn, it starts up fast enough, and it is powerfull, but not as powerfull as Propeller Huge.

>Propeller Huge

The larger alternative to the Propeller Big, the slowest Propeller to turn on, and off, but the most powerfull. Use it carefully, as it can be too fast, or too slow (to start up) in certain situations. But if you've made an giant ship, it its the most ideal.

>Turn Controller

It is one of the most basic tools in your inventory, allows you to turn your ship as long as your ship has Propellers on it's side, you can also turn your ship by other means that will be touched on later.

>Up Controller

It is one of the most basic tools in your inventory, allows you to change the speed of the Propellers facing up on your ship, meaning that you go up, giving you lift. This controller is meant to give you lift, however, differently from other controllers, it does not have an reverse setting.


>Speed Controller

It is one of the most basic tools in your inventory, allows you to change the speed of the Propellers facing foward or backwards on your ship, you can also gain lift if said Propellers are slightly facing up, or down in case you want to have less lift. This controller is meant to make you go foward or backwards, since it has an positive strenght setting and a negative one, meant for you to go on reverse gear.

>Gatling

One of the 2 weapons you can place on your ship, being activated by buttons or the Range Finder if it's placed on top of the gatling gun, it will auto-fire once the ground, or any object blocks the red beam coming out of the range finder. (you also count).


>Cannon
The second weapon you can place on your ship, just like the gatling gun, it can be activated with a button or range finder. it shoots a slow, bigger, high damage bullet it has a high cooldown beetween shots, so it is best for taking out slow and big targets, aka Airships. for taking out planes or fast helicopters, the gatling gun is the stronger option.


>Radar
[This item requires additional research and testing, take everything said with a grain of salt]

It seems that the Radar tries to guide the ship to an location of it's choosing, it is quite bad at said job, and will most of the time result on the ship doing an 180° turn and crashing into the ground, if placed on top of an Propeller, said Propeller will start slowly spinning, appearing like it's tring to go where the blue beam of the Radar points.


>Range Finder

Touched on an previous item, the Gatling. The range finder can do way more then auto-fire. It can be used for ship alignement, for auto-aim with the joint item (something touched on later), however said function is quite buggy, and not reliable, so it's best you aim the guns.

>Button

Your most usefull tool in making airships, if you want an unique design, this is your best friend. it can be activated by pressing "F", if a button is placed on top of an object with an On/Off state, it will be On during the time when the button is activated (to unactivate it, Press "F" again), If you place a button on something linked to an Rotator, Joint or Propeller, they will activate, so you can make a Door by putting a button on a plank, linked to an Joint.


>Cos
[This item requires additional research and testing, take everything said with a grain of salt]
When activated with F, the Cos ramps up the strenght of whatever it is linked to, and when it reaches max, it will reverse, usefull for spray-n-prey strategies when aiming your mounted gatlinguns. The Cos can be usefull for doors that swing open and closed, it can be usefull for decoration wings, or actual wings, if you want to swing your wings to turn or gain height.

If you are not paying attention. Cos can go out of control.


>Shield
WARNING : IF A SHIP YOU'VE SAVED HAS SHIELDS, THE MIRROR TOOL WILL BREAK, AND ALL THINGS SUCH AS CONTROLLERS AND PROPELLERS WILL BE GONE


The Shield blocks bullets in the range of the circle, from under and from foward.
They can be broken from their side, this will turn off the lights and it will turn into a basic square that does not block bullets.


Damage guns

>Pistol
Fast Fireing, Low Damage, Can scope with M2 (LMB)


>Rifle
Slow Fire, High Damage, Cannot be scoped


Tool Guns
>Scanner
- Allows you to save ships, to spawn ships and to use ships you've downloaded. It is usefull for saving ships while building them so you dont lose progress in case you crash it.

Ships can be categorized by their shape but also their funcion and how they gain momentum.

Helicopters are ships that gain speed by having an heavier front, this means the helicopter tilts foward.

Planes have two wings, and when turning, you tend to lose height.


Airships should not tilt foward, they should be a slow, heavy ship. (or just an slow bowl that goes up well but doesnt go foward that great)


Bathtub Ships

look at the image and you'll figure it out.

If a Button is in a Turn Controller, and it is pressed with F, the turn controller will instantly turn to the right, or left depending on where your Hovercraft's spawn direction is, you can also apply the same to the other leaver-like devices, such as the Speed Controller and Lift Controller, they will instant max out, and when the button is turned off, they will go back to their starting positions.



This can be usefull for faster piloting, keeping everything as close as possible, however, you can accidentally turn on your other controllers while turning your ship.


Radars Can activate Gatling and Cannon
(This is most likely not intentional, as that's the job of the Range Finder, when making the Radar, Landfall seems to have Copy and pasted the Range Finder and added new functions on top of it, without removing this funcionality)

The part you have all been waiting for, Good designs, tips, tricks and more!

Let's begin with something simple that can be used on almost all designs. The Man Catcher!
This revolutionary invention made with only 4 planks, usefull for preventing you from falling off your ship when piloting! extra usefull on planes and helicopters that tend to shake a lot.

Here is an example in-game


The Scafold Design
This allows you to have walls and floor that you wont fall off. while still being light, this design has small holes on walls, or floors to allow you to not fall out, but still be super light compared to an full floor. This design can be used on almost all ships, and it is easy to use, but you would be surprised how many people dont use it.

(This design in the picture allows you to hover mid air when your propeller force mid air)

Do NOT do this

Trust me, i've done this mistake early on my engineering career. if you need more strengh on your propellers, use huge or big ones, just... dont go overboard. This blocks your view while piloting. and that's not good! it also lags your game.

Wings That Turn
It can be made with joints/rotators connecting to the wing, it can be usefull for faster turning/evasive manouvers.
It is a very simple design, simply start with a joint/rotator, then build the wing with the joint as it's support. it can be used in planes and helicopters for realism, and practicality. keep in mind, if you use the rotator, you can easly spin out, but it is easier to use.
(for these examples i used the rotator, but depending on the design, the joint works too)


(The turn controller in this design is pointless, since the rotator can already turn, however, something take makes the joint better is the fact that the rotator cannot rotate back)

Tips for the Mirror tool
Dont make the base of your ship Wooden, because that breaks the mirror tool, make the base made out of Beams, and stuff such as walls, and stairs made out of Wood. Also make the mirror be "Left|Right" instead of "Foward|Backward". because it is better to have your ship slanted foward then have it rotate because it's heavier on one side.


Planes
Planes generally first need to move foward, then you turn the Up Controller so you can gain better lift, and depending on your desing, the plane wont fly at all without first moving foward.

If you want, you can apply the Wings That Turn for faster turning, when you turn with a plane, you will lose height, so keep it in mind. Planes should be light and fast, as it's the main appeal of a plane.

Motherships
A Big/Huge ship that houses other ships or craft. i pulled that out of my dictionary

But motherships can be really good launch platforms for smaller ships, in case they dont quite get the desired speed, you can drop them out of a mothership and gain a lot of momentum, sometimes too much. Motherships however, are very slow... That makes them the perfect landing platform too! if you dont break it that is. They should be mostly, or completly symetrical for a better effect.


Landing "Wheels"
A small contrapition to take the impact damage when going to land. a very simple device.


Sentry Gatling
A usefull thing to include on ships. this can be good for aiming your guns

Use the Rotator on the bottom support so you can have 360° Air coverage, and Joints linking up to the gun so you can aim your Gatling gun, and use Buttons/Cos to move the Joints and fire the gun

Breakoff Mechanism
This can be usefull for an "of frick, i lost control" button, if you need to remove weight from your ship, or if you need an escape pod on your ship.



Autopilot Radar Controllers

In the Radar section, you might have seen what can be done with it, but i saved one thing as a surprise! you can put Radars on controllers, they will Activate randomly, keep in mind you should only use this on the turn controller, because inputs are random, so, if you want to go somewhere, but dont care how, or when, or if you want to see how far you can go before the game breaks, this can be usefull.


(Here you can see the turn controller vibrating)

Remember, Mistakes happens!

you can always fix small problems like this one. even if it would be faster to reload a save you've made, but maybe if you dint do one and were only doing a test drive. a lost wing, maybe a couple of propellers who fell off, it should be easy and fast.

Spinning out!
When losing control of your ship, try turning everything off in hopes the center of gravity figures itself out, it works when the situation has to yet get too out of control, however, when it gets bad, hit reverse, and turn in the other direction you are spinning towards.


Slowdown before landing!
Trust me, i've made the mistake of taking an unsaved prototype on a test run and landing too fast on the ground too many times, so, before landing, slow down your foward speed, and Slooowly turn down your Up Controller strengh.
As you can see in this video :
https://youtu.be/pIxP5saAjmc

1. Make a gatling turret and take out a ship from the sky!
Requirements for the build : Wood/Beam, Gatling, Button or Range Finder, and Joints to move the gatling

Here is an example of it being done.

2. Make a ship with 7 parts and get to the other island (Yes structural support counts as a part, but controls do not)

3. Make a simple Helicopter and do a loop around the main island

4. Make an plane and glide around the two islands twice

5. Make a Mothership and put smaller ships on top of it, fly off of it, and if possible, land back on the mothership.

6. Make a Rocket! and hit an ship with it.


7. Crush a plane or ship, into a wall to stop it
*Touching the ground will invalidate this challenge, so do it again


8. Make a ship you can use to come back from the Void

9. Share a ship with a friend
*Friend Required

10. Shoot down a ship from the sky with a cannon

11. Make at least 5 of the example ships in this guide, and make them fly!

The most widely known bug in the game is the "Soul Leaving body" bug, where your camera leaves your player and goes away to wherever it wants, most of the time, it goes up into the sky, but sometimes it goes underground.
This bug happens when you use too many things in a ship, or if there are too many parts on the map, so dont go overboard, OR Reset the game after you've broken a few ships, so you dont experience this bug, it can be really bad if you havent saved your ship yet.

Double Jump Bug
This is unreliable but usefull, the bug can be triggered by jumping off a ship and after a couple of seconds, you can jump mid air, this can be usefull for not clipping into the ground when falling at high speeds, but the same thing can be achieved by timing a jump when you touch the ground.

Clipping into the ground
If you are going too fast and hit the ground, you will clip into the ground and get stuck, and depending on how fast, instead of getting stuck in the grass, you will shoot straight out of the world and into the void.

Airships 2 is an great sandbox title that deserves a second chance in development. (in case this massive guide dint quite made you understand yet) It is the reason many like me come back to the landfall archives.
Airships 2 Improves on Airships massivly, it is more complex, has better graphics and has better gameplay.
Airships 2 is one of the most unique titles i've seen in a while, i've seen my fair share of ship builders, but never a 3D AIRship builder. The idea could sell a lot, and very fast, it is an untapped market that deserves a day in the spotlight, and there is no other company i would give my trust in making this idea a success then landfall, and their Casual Playerbase. (exept for me, i'm not a casual, i'm a cronic nerd)

Airships 2 could make for a great PvP Title, a Great PvE Title, a good racing game, but the idea that has the most potential is a PvP game where you fight 3 other players making for fun 4 player gameplay.

(i am not 100% happy with this guide, but 94% is close right ?)