1C Questions: The Case of the Dusty Zeppelin and Other Oddeties

[JGr2/J34b_Matthias]

Observations and questions primarily for 1C (but perhaps others who beta tested can shed light):

Scenario 1:  So create a mission with a zeppelin, give it command to move.  Every so often as it moves (WHEN it moves - more on that later) of its own accord it makes a booming noise, releases a massive grey dust cloud around the lower hull that looks like it is shaking dust or soot off itself, and then drifts on idle before picking back up speed.  See picture below.  My first throught was an engine exhaust texture issue, but the engines have their own regular exhaust plumes.

"Dusty Zeppelin" pic for those who want to see the silliness.

This behavior occurs during both straight and level flight as well as continual turns around a point.

1a.  Why does it do this?  Is this some weird take on ballast dumping/gas cell overpressure venting? (if so why grey smoke - it would be water/sand bags/clear hydrogen)

1b.  If not intentional - can we get it fixed please?  It almost looks like maybe it's pretending it's a ground vehicle somehow?

1c.  It would be cool and historical if this behavior occured when a Zeppelin at certain temperatures was descending out of icing temperature conditions into warmer air and the ice forming on the hull literally started melting/sliding off but that would of course be a white plume...

 

Scenario 2: I give one zeppelin at 1000m a command to climb to 6000m,  The climbing zeppelin surges upwards exactly as instructed.  But then give a second zeppelin at 6000m a command to dive to 1000m.    The diving zeppelin starts to turn and descend but then stops moving around 5500m, turns off engines and just hangs there never completing the decent.

 

2a.  Uhhh ok is that intended?

2b.  So lets hypothesize that the zeppelin doesn't have the necessary mechanisms with engine power / hydrogen venting to come down from altitude at a certain point...  I have a hard time believing 1C went to such a length (and actually the zeppelin gas cells should completely pop if thats what we're modeling but ok...)  What then is that max pressure altitude?

2c.  Are each individual gas cells indendently modeled and bouancy volumes being tracked?

 

Scenario 3:  I give 4 zeppelins at 2/3/4/5k on 4 separate waypoints at their own altitudes following the same course instructions to proceed 50km in a straight race to compare their actual speed vs indicated max airspeed and test for engine failure issues at altitude.  The zeppelins start moving at the same time and then about 10km into the race, all four just stop moving entirely - all at the same time.

 

3a.  Have 1C literally built not so random "random" engine failures into the zeppelin flight mechanics?  Again, historically zeppelins were notorious for finicky engines, allthough R class was pretty solid overall.... IMHO this would be way over-punative.as it would be more likely an engine issue here or there, not an "all engine" issue...

Waypoint Behavior Notes (not an "issue", an FYI to others)

4a.  I have noticed these behavioral oddities with Low, Medium, and High priority waypoint settings.

4b.  "High" waypoint priority confirmed to turn off the defensive MGs
4c.  The fuel setting seems to maybe have something to do with this? 1 Fuel zeppelin travels maybe ~10km then fails, 0.5 Fuel zeppelin stops after just a few 100 meters with the same waypoint settings.

 

Scenario 5: The Crispy Floater
Killed zeppelin at 2000m, zeppelin burns and falls about 1000m exactly and then fires go out and she becomes a stationary crispy black floater in the sky.  Pic attached of that one too.
 

Edited yesterday at 01:58 AM by JGr2/J34b_Matthias
More test results added

[ArgonV]

It sounds like to me you have some invisible object above the terrain almost. That dust cloud happens when it crash lands in my experience, and the stationary wreckage confirms it hit some "invisible mountain" ?

[Regingrave-]

What map is this?

[Flashy]

I reported issue 1 last week - the game thinks the zeppelin is hitting the ground when it goes over some object (in my case, when it went over the coast on the normandy map), so that is where the dust and crashing noise comes from.  In some cases the zep actually becomes beached up in the sky after the crash with none of the propellers moving anymore

Edited 17 hours ago by Flashy

[LukeFF]

Yes, this should be fixed in the next update, thanks for the report. 🙂

[JGr2/J34b_Matthias]

On 11/18/2025 at 3:43 AM, Regingrave- said:

What map is this?

Normandy/Channel