Updraft: Parachutes, Gliders & Balloons

Updraft

Climb a mountain, read the wind, take a few running steps and leap. Updraft adds parachutes, wingsuits, hang
gliders, paragliders, a paramotor and hot-air balloons, all flown in a living wind with thermals, ridge lift and
gusts. Each piece of gear flies its own way, and each has a skill worth mastering: a flared landing, a thermal climb, a
proximity line along a cliff, a bullseye on the landing target.

🪂 Parachutes

• Four rigs: a forgiving Round Parachute that opens by itself if you forget, a steerable Sport Rig with a
  reserve, a BASE Rig that opens almost instantly for low cliffs, and a fast, unforgiving Swoop Rig.
• A real opening: the pilot chute pulls out the bag, the lines stretch, the canopy fills with a tug.
• Steer, brake, dive on the front risers, and flare just before touchdown to land on your feet. A PULL!
  warning, worked out from your speed and gear, tells you when it’s the last moment to open.
• Rare malfunctions: kick out of line twists, or cut away a spiralling main and open the reserve.

🦅 Wingsuits

Step off a cliff and press Jump to spread your wings. A few seconds later you’re gliding, and a 150-block mountain
gives a flight of several hundred blocks. Look down to dive and build speed, up to slow down. Fly close to the terrain
for proximity points, and thread narrow gaps for a bonus. You can’t land a wingsuit: open your parachute in time.

🪁 Hang gliders, paragliders and the paramotor

• Hang gliders in bamboo, canvas and breeze rods, from a gentle 7:1 glide up to a fast 13:1 cross-country
  machine. Run off a high place, or press Jump while falling.
• Paragliders launch from a slope: lay the wing out, raise it overhead and run. Climb in thermals for as long as
  the sun shines, pull big ears to come down fast, and swing into wingovers.
• The Paramotor takes off from flat ground and climbs on coal, charcoal, blaze powder or dried kelp you carry.

🎈 Hot-air balloons

Set one up, fuel it and climb in. Up to four people fly together: the pilot fires the burner and opens the vent, and
everyone else gets the view. Heat lifts slowly, so a good pilot burns before the climb is needed. A balloon can’t
steer, but the wind turns with height, and the balloon panel shows the wind above and below you. There is no ceiling
but thin air, around y=1560. It’s also the perfect jump platform: climb out with a rig on and you’re skydiving.
Dye the envelope in two colours and six patterns.

🌬️ A living wind

• Thermals rise over sunny, dry ground and drift downwind; circle in them to climb. Campfires and lava make small,
  strong ones.
• Ridge lift rises up the windward face of hills; the lee side sinks.
• The wind is calm near the ground, stronger higher up, and it veers with height. Rain and storms make it gusty.
• A Wind Sock shows the wind at a spot, the HUD arrow shows it where you fly, and the Variometer beeps in
  rising air.

🧰 Gear and blocks

• The Rigging Table packs canopies perfectly, sews in a new main after a cutaway, repairs gear, switches a rig’s
  auto-open on or off, and dyes any canopy, sail, suit or balloon envelope with two dyes and six patterns.
• Altimeter (height, climb rate, and a beep when it’s time to pull), Variometer, Landing Target (land on it
  for a score) and the Jump Logbook, which records every jump and holds a Flight Manual written with your own key
  bindings.
• The Harness Kit builds a rig into any chestplate, so you can fly in armour.
• Gear wears with use (Unbreaking and Mending work) but never breaks in flight; worn gear just malfunctions more often.
  Gear that lands in water is wet and heavy until it dries.

🗺️ Out in the world

• Abandoned Drop Zones: rare fenced decks on high mountain peaks, with a wind sock at the open edge, a Rigging
  Table and a chest of gear.
• Twenty-one advancements walk you from your First Jump to Hop and Pop, Perfect Flare, Bullseye, Thermal Rider,
  Thread the Needle, Cross-Country, Balloon Pilot and Jump From the Balloon.

🎮 Controls

Every key can be changed in Options → Controls → Updraft, and tooltips show your real keys.

📦 Installing

• Minecraft 26.3, Fabric: Fabric Loader 0.19.5 or newer and Fabric API.
• Minecraft 1.21.1, Fabric: Fabric Loader 0.16 or newer and Fabric API 0.116.0 or newer.
• Minecraft 1.21.1, NeoForge: NeoForge 21.1.197 or newer, and nothing else.
• Every version is the same mod, with the same gear and tuning.
• Optional on Fabric: Mod Menu, for a settings button in the mod list (NeoForge’s mod list has one built in).
• Install on both the client and the server.

⚙️ Settings

/updraft config (or the settings button in the mod list) opens the settings. Players choose HUD position, scale and units, camera roll, FOV and
shake, and a Reduced Motion mode. Server owners choose a realism preset (Arcade, Balanced or
Realistic), malfunctions, landing damage, wind and thermal strength, gear wear, phantoms and the dimensions where
flying is allowed. Every wing and the balloon are data-driven, so a data pack can retune how each one flies.

MIT license

Designed and playtested by Mebb