Besiege – Building Guide to an Easy to Use Flying Machine

If you think building a flying machine in Besiege is difficult, you are absolutely correct.

There are a number of problems you run into when building aircraft that you don’t have to deal with when building something meant to stay on the ground. This is because you must balance your machine, give it the right amount of lift in the right places, ensure it can maneuver, and keep it stable. It’s tough.

The flying machine I’ve built here is more simple than most others I’ve seen around, but it is relatively stable. This design makes the most use of Flying Spirals, which are used to not only lift, but also turn and tilt the machine mid-flight.

This design is not completely stable, but most flying machines I’ve seen and given a test drive aren’t 100% there yet either. There could certainly be some optimization in this design, let’s just put it that way.

The parts used in this machine are as follows:

• Wooden Blocks and Small Wooden Blocks – Building blocks for the body.
• Flying Spiral – Pulls the machine in the direction they’re pointed, allowing for flight and control.
• Steering Hinge – Used here to control two Flying Spirals to adjust the front and back tilt of the machine mid-flight.
• Wing Panel – Can be used to steer when used with a Steering Hinge or Steering, but here they are used to help maintain air mid-flight.

Do keep in mind this design takes some getting used to, as with all currently made flying machines. If you just want the bsg, you can download two versions of it here (lots of parameter adjustments) and here (minimal parameter changes). See the important note below on the differences between the two.

The controls are purposefully easy to manage for new players (or those that just aren’t great at managing several keys at once). They are as follows:

• Up to tilt the Flying Spirals on the Steering Hinges backward to gain air.
• Down to tilt the Flying Spirals on the Steering Hinges forward to dip down.
• Left to turn left using the Flying Spirals on the right side of the machine.
• Right to turn right using the Flying Spirals on the left side of the machine.
• ‘O’ to fly.

You can take off from either a flying or grounded position. While taking off, you may need to tap down and then up to gain air initially and to get stable. Test it out for yourself and see what works best for you.

You can adjust the lift on various areas of the machine by changing the speed of any of the Flying Spirals, though their speeds as I’ve adjusted have worked best for me in testing.

Important note

It is possible to use this design with minimal parameter changing. Both variations are relatively easy to fly, only the one with the adjustments mentioned here is faster and more maneuverable. It has the downside of being harder to control.

The parameter changes required for the full thing are listed in each step; however, you can get away with only doing the following:

• Set the Flying Spirals at the sides of the machine meant to turn to use the left and right keys (right on the left and left on the right).
• Set the Steering Hinges so that ‘Left’ is the down key and ‘Right’ is the up key.

Anyway, onto how to build this flying machine!

Building a relatively stable flying machine

First up is the body, which is in a simple ‘T’ shape using Wooden Blocks. Two are used on either side of the front and four are used in the back.

Next you place the Steering Hinges on both sides of the front. Ensure they are rotated so they will be going back and forth instead of side to side. You can change their rotation before putting them down by pressing the ‘R’ key.

Change both of their keys using the Key Mapper and Parameter Tuning tool so that ‘Left’ is the down key and ‘Right’ is the up key. Set their speeds to 1.50.

And now for the last part of the basic body: Place a Small Wooden Block on the both sides of the tail.

This is the end of the basic body. The rest is all Flying Swirls and a pair of Wing Panels — but you can’t just slap them anywhere and you should adjust their speeds using the Key Mapper and Parameter Tuning Tool. We’ll go over the speed adjustments with each step moving forward.

Place your first five Flying Swirls at the front of the machine. These are used to propel you forward. Set their speeds to 1.25.

Now place two Flying Swirls atop the Steering Hinges at the front. These will be used to tilt the machine up and down mid-flight. The speed for these is set to 0.90.

Place two Flying Spirals in the locations seen in the image below. These are used to keep the machine from flipping backward too often. Leave their speeds at the default 1.00.

Next add two Flying Spirals on each side of the body as seen in the image below. These are used to turn left and right. Set their speeds to 1.25.

Now add the machine’s only two Wing Panels to both sides, between the Flying Spirals you just put down. These are used to maintain air as opposed to steering. Press ‘R’ to rotate them if they are not at the right rotation by default.

Next add two Flying Spirals to the top of the front of the machine. These are used for lifting. Set their speeds to 1.25.

Place four Flying Spirals on the top of the machine. These are your primary lift. Set the speeds of the two in the middle to 1.25. Leave the outer two at their default 1.00.

Lastly, add two Flying Spirals to the tail of the machine. These are used to keep the machine from getting too much air at the front and toppling backward. Leave their speeds at the default 1.00.

As mentioned before, many of the parameter changes can be skipped if they make you wary. Hopefully these instructions (or the downloads provided near the start of the article) help you better understand building simple flying machines in Besiege.