Poggy's Balloon

The Hot Air Balloon System RedM Deserves

Ever watched a player climb into a balloon basket and immediately ragdoll into a crumpled heap? Or seen a captain just... stand there, motionless, while somehow piloting a balloon across the map?

Yeah. We fixed that.

Intuitive Flight Demonstration:

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Hail a Balloon Like a Victorian Uber

Here's what makes Poggy's Balloon different: NPC-piloted taxi service.

Set a waypoint anywhere on the map. Walk up to one of eight balloon stations scattered across the frontier. Talk to the operator. Climb aboard. Press B when you're ready.

Then sit back and watch the world drift by beneath you.

Your AI pilot handles everything — smooth ascents, cruising altitude, terrain avoidance around mountains, and a gentle descent right to your destination. You're not wrestling with controls. You're a passenger. You're enjoying the view. You're immersed.

In-flight options when you want them:

• Changed your mind? Press R to reroute to a new waypoint

• Need to land early? Q drops you at your current position

• Running late? Hit A and tell the pilot to step on it — watch your speed jump from 26 m/s to 42 m/s

• Want a better view? C cycles through four different seats

Eight stations across the map: Strawberry, Rhodes, Valentine, Annesburg, Saint Denis, Blackwater, Armadillo, and Tumbleweed. Your players have options.

Rent One. Fly It Yourself.

Sometimes you don't want a chauffeur. You want the stick.

The rental system lets players grab a balloon for a full hour and take it anywhere. Timer warnings keep them informed. The balloon is theirs until time runs out.

Same stations. Same operators. Different experience.

Animations That Actually Work

This was the part that bothered us most about existing balloon scripts. Passengers T-posing. Captains frozen in place. It broke the illusion.

Poggy's Balloon includes a complete animation system:

For captains: A realistic burner-pull animation with visible rope. You're not just pressing buttons — you're flying this thing.

For passengers: Proper sitting animations in designated basket positions. Up to four players can ride together without anyone clipping through the floor or launching themselves into the stratosphere.

For AI pilots: Idle burner animations during taxi flights. They look like they're doing their job because, visually, they are.

An invisible safety floor prevents ragdolling inside the basket. Server-side synchronization means everyone sees the same thing. No desync. No weirdness.

The Controls Feel Right

Camera-relative movement makes flying intuitive. You push forward, the balloon goes forward relative to where you're looking.

Altitude lock lets you hold a steady height for horizontal navigation. Boost and brake give you fine speed control when you need it. The prompt system keeps new players informed without cluttering the screen for veterans.

It just works the way you'd expect it to.

Built for Your Server

Multi-language support out of the box — English, French, Spanish, and German. Adding more languages takes minutes in a single config file.

VORP integration handles all money transactions cleanly. Taxi rides, rentals, everything runs through your existing economy.

Fully configurable pricing, speeds, altitudes, rental durations, and warning timers. The config file is documented and readable.

Debug commands for when you need them. Check balloon occupancy, ride states, animation sync — everything has a diagnostic tool.

What's Included

• NPC-piloted taxi service with intelligent pathfinding

• Player-controlled rental system with timer warnings

• Complete captain and passenger animation systems

• Four-player basket capacity with synced positions

• Eight pre-configured balloon stations

• Four languages with easy expansion

• VORP menu and economy integration

• Terrain avoidance and smooth flight physics

• Full documentation and debug tools

Installation

Drop it in your resources folder. Add one line to server.cfg. Configure your prices. Done.

Dependencies: vorp_core, vorp_menu, uiprompt (standard VORP setup).

Your players are going to find these balloon stations. They're going to set waypoints to places they've never explored on foot. They're going to watch the sun set over the Grizzlies from a thousand feet up.

And nobody's going to ragdoll.