Poggy's Balloon Taxi

Overview#

Balloon operators stand at eight stations across the map. A player sets a waypoint, talks to an operator, pays the fare, and an NPC pilot flies them there. The pilot climbs over hills, slows on approach and lands gently. Players can also rent a balloon and fly it themselves for a set time.

Up to four passengers ride in the basket with sitting animations and an invisible floor, so nobody ragdolls or falls through. Everyone on the server sees the same seats and animations.

• Taxi rides to any waypoint, with in-flight options: stop here, change destination, "Step On It!" (faster), change seat and disembark.
• Rentals for a set time (1 hour by default), with a warning before the time runs out. Turn rentals on or off per station.
• Captain controls: move, climb, descend, boost, brake and altitude lock, with camera-relative or compass steering.
• Eight stations with map blips: Strawberry, Rhodes, Valentine, Annesburg, Saint Denis, Blackwater, Armadillo and Tumbleweed. Add your own from /poggy.
• English, French, Spanish and German included.
• No menu resource needed: the station menu comes from poggy_core.

Requirements#

No database tables and no items. Fares and rentals are paid in cash.

Installation#

1. Download poggy_balloon from your Cfx portal and put the folder in your server's resources folder.
2. In server.cfg, start it after poggy_core:

   ensure poggy_core
   ensure poggy_balloon

3. If staff should be able to spawn balloons, set up the permission (see Permissions).
4. Restart the server.

Configuration#

Every setting can be changed in game in the /poggy settings hub under Poggy Balloon, or by hand in config.lua and translations.lua. Restart the script after a change. The hub also has two help pages: Adding a balloon station and Tuning taxi flights and rentals.

Services and prices

Taxi flights (Config.BalloonTaxi)

Rentals and captain controls

Stations (Config.BalloonTaxi.Locations)

Each station has an operator position and heading, the operator's ped model (the same model flies the taxi), a balloon spawn point and heading, a map blip, and whether rentals are offered there. In /poggy → Locations → Balloon stations, press Add station, stand where the operator should be and use Use my position, then do the same on the balloon spot. Pick open, flat ground with nothing overhead for the balloon.

The shipped stations are Strawberry, Rhodes, Valentine, Annesburg, Saint Denis, Blackwater, Armadillo and Tumbleweed, all with rentals on. An operator appears when a player is within 100 metres.

Language and keys

Shipped taxi keys: Talk G, Take Off B, Change Destination R. The other prompts show their key on screen. In the shipped config Stop here and Disembark use the same control hash; give one its own key in Advanced → Taxi keys if they clash on your server. If you change the take-off key, also edit the "Press [B]" message under Text & language.

Commands#

The spawn command's name is fixed at /spawnballoon; the Name setting next to it is not used.

Permissions#

Riding and renting need no permission: anyone with the cash can use a station.

/spawnballoon is controlled by Config.Commands.SpawnBalloon and checked in this order:

1. Enabled = false: nobody can use it.
2. AdminOnly = false: everyone can use it, and /spawnballoon_local appears too.
3. Otherwise (the default) the player needs the ACE named in AcePermission, if you set one, or must be an admin in your framework.

# with AcePermission = "command.spawnballoon" in config.lua
add_ace group.admin command.spawnballoon allow

# for /balloon_server_status
add_ace group.admin command.balloon_server_status allow

Using it in game#

Taking a taxi ride

1. Set a waypoint on the map.
2. Walk up to a balloon operator and press Talk (G by default).
3. Pick Take a Ride. The fare is taken from your cash.
4. Board the balloon within 60 seconds, or it leaves without you.
5. Press Take Off (B by default) when you are ready.
6. During the flight use the prompts on screen: Stop Here, Change Destination (set a new waypoint first), Step On It!, Change Seat and Disembark.
7. After landing, get out. The pilot waits (30 seconds by default), then the balloon flies away.

Renting a balloon

1. Talk to an operator at a station with rentals on.
2. Pick Rent a Balloon. The price is taken from your cash.
3. Get in as the pilot and fly anywhere until the rental ends. You are warned before it runs out.

Flying as captain

The key for each prompt is shown on screen.

Riding as a passenger

Walk up to a balloon and hold the Enter as Passenger prompt. Up to four passengers fit in the basket.

Troubleshooting#

"Please set a waypoint on your map first."

Taxi rides fly to your waypoint. Set one before talking to the operator.

"You are already on a balloon ride." but I am not

A ride did not close properly. In the server console run balloon_taxi_server_debug clear <playerId>.

No operators or blips

Check that the taxi or rentals are turned on. An operator only appears when a player is within 100 metres of the station.

The captain cannot climb

Keep Scripted climb on (Config.Flight.ScriptedAscent = true). The game's own burner key does not register on current game builds.

A rental balloon has no controls

The captain controls only work on the hotairballoon01 model. Keep Config.BalloonRental.BalloonModel set to it.

The ready message says "1 hour" but rentals are shorter

That line is plain text: edit rental_ready in translations.lua or under Text & language.

/spawnballoon says I have no permission

With admins only on, you need the ACE set in AcePermission or to be an admin in your framework. See Permissions.

Updating#

poggy_core's updater keeps it up to date, and your config.lua and translations.lua settings are kept: see Updates.

Coming from the old poggy-balloon? The folder was renamed to poggy_balloon in 1.5.1. Delete the old folder, add the new one, and change ensure poggy-balloon to ensure poggy_balloon in server.cfg. The settings are the same, so copy across any values you changed.