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Dawn of the Jet Age - BDAc AI Dogfight Tournament With the release of BDAc for KSP 1.7, it's time for a new BDA tournament. Like the previous BAD-T's I've run, this will consist of 2v2 dogfights featuring vintage aircraft. While this isn't an official BAD-T, its ruleset will be similar, if less strict, with some experimental additions, and is a way to have some fun until the next official BAD-T comes along. Contestants will submit a craft, which will then be pitted against other submitted craft in a standard tournament ladder format, with fights recorded and posted to YouTube. Defeat means a craft is out of the running, success means it moves up to the next bracket. depending on the number of entries, a second-tier ladder may also be run, featuring craft that lost their first bout. To enter, simply create a post WWII-ish (~1946-1952) themed first/second generation jet. Replicas of real world aircraft are permitted, but not required. Craft design, AI configuration and armament are entirely up to you. As long as it follows the rules and looks like it could have been a real aircraft from around that era, it's a valid entry. The following mods are required: FAR 0.15.10.1 "Lungren" for KSP 1.7 Aviator Arsenal AA also requires a compatibility patch for KSP 1.2+. The one I'm using can be found here. BDAc 1.3.SI, with DMG_MULTIPLIER = 300 in the GameData/BDArmory/Settings.cfg. Stock BDAc 1.3 is also acceptable, if you don't want want to keep track of a modded version. BAD-T Jet pack Additionally, the following mods are permitted, but optional: B9 Proc wings Procedural parts Adjustable landing Gear using the 1.7 recompile for KSPWheel Brackets Aircraft Classes: Entries will fall into one of two categories, Fighters and Heavy Fighters. Fighters are single engine aircraft. They have one engine. They must have a dry mass of at least 2500 kg*. They can use up to 100 points worth of engine and armament. Heavy fighters are heavy twin engine aircraft. They have 2 engines. They must have a dry mass of at least 5250 kg*. They can use up to 150 points worth of engines and armament. *Dry mass is the empty weight of the craft, wet mass is the loaded weight of the craft with fuel and ammunition. Resources like Monoprop and Ore which aren't used as fuel or ammo can be used as ballast and count towards dry mass. Points: Weapons cost their diameter in mm, rounding down. -7mm weapons were obsolete by this point in time, and will only cost 5 points each. Engine price is listed in their part name and description. (J-C32 G "Goblin" is worth 32 points, etc.) Ammo is free, carry as much or as little as desired. However, if your planes run out of ammo during a match, it will be considered a loss by default. Rules: -Craft should have no more than 60 parts, please. -Part Armor is remain at default values. -Only Aviator Arsenal weapons permitted, with the exception of the Ball Turret. No more than 6 ShKAS per plane. -Only BAD-T Jets allowed (Gremlin, Kobold, Nibelung, Goblin, Geist, Spectre, Phantom, Warlock) -Airbrakes are fine, A.I.R.B.R.A.K.E.s are not. No aerospace grade parts permitted– A.I.R.B.R.A.K.E.S, radiators, RCS, heatshields, etc. -No reaction wheels. Cockpit reaction wheels must be disabled. -Craft must have at least 1 Kerbal, either in a cockpit, or a constructed open cockpit using a command seat. Stock cockpits are heavy; using a stock cockpit part grants a +20 point bonus to your weapon/engine budget if building a single engine Fighter. -Part clipping is allowed, within reason. No clipping resource containing parts into other resource containing parts please. Fully clipping ballast parts into other stuff is fine. -No text editing. -The Edihill Clause: While cheesy Min-Maxed designs that take advantage of loopholes or game exploits may be technically legal, I ask that contestants respect the spirit of the competition, not just Rules As Written. Recommendations - Optional, but might be a good idea: -Use the AA Communications antenna - it's a combination Weapon Manager/AI pilot. Saves on part count, also stylish. -If using a constructed cockpit, consider making it enclosed – it will generate less drag, and minimize the risk of your pilot being hit or killed by incoming fire (unsurprisingly, if the pilot dies, the plane will crash) -Try to have at least 15 minutes of fuel. -AI min alt should probably be above 300m. -Test your plane against the Dummy. if nothing else, this certifies that your craft possesses basic flight-worthiness. Paintball mode may be useful here. Submissions: Submit craft by the the deadline, 11:59 PM, Tuesday, July 9th. To submit, upload your craft to KerbalX or similar, and send me the download link via PM. Sharing links to your crafts in the thread is fine, but only craft I've been sent via PM will count as entries. (This is mainly to make sure that entries don't get accidentally skipped or lost in the thread.) F.A.Q. Can I submit more than one craft? -Yes. In the interest of getting enough planes to have a decently sized roster, you may submit up to 2 aircraft I submitted my craft already, but it (accidentally) breaks the rules, what happens now? -If your craft is an illegal design, I will PM you, and give you the chance to correct the design and re-submit. I've updated my craft after submitting it, can I resubmit? -No, simply to keep the logistics of managing entries simple, one submission per aircraft per person. You can edit your submission's KerbalX upload or similar as long as it retains the same name before the deadline, but no submitting multiple craft (i.e. you submit a plane, then resubmit a mk2 version later, then a tweaked mk3 after that...) I'm bad at building craft in FAR, should I still submit something? -Yes. Sure, there will be some entries that are hyper-competitive, but for the most part, this tournament is aimed at having fun, watching submitted craft fight bravely and die gloriously.A FAR tutorial will be posted, and either myself or other FAR vets in the thread will probably be happy to help should you have questions. The rules said something about constructed cockpits? - Take an External Command Seat and use parts to build a cockpit for the Kerbal. Or don't. Just keep in mind strapping Jeb to the top of a plane is going to generate a lot of drag, and Kerbals have a low tolerance for hot lead poisoning. What's up with the custom BDAc the tournament will be using? -BADc 1.3.SI is a custom re-compile of BDAc1.3 for the tournament, and adds in stuff that previous tourney participants felt were missing. Includes the ability to have multiple engagement ranges for weapons in a group, some new advanced AI tweakable settings, and an experimental Reckless AI personality that places less focus on evasion; should help it retain more energy and stay on target, at the cost of nigh-suicidal disregard for safety in some instances. Also includes paintball mode for craft testing. If you already have a copy of the latest BDA and/or don't want to keep track of a modded version, the vanilla version will still work, you'll just not have quite as many options for craft tuning. Tips & Tricks

The Tournament With @tetryds permission, BAD-T returns with BADT the Third. Like the last two BAD-T tournaments, this will consist of 2v2 dogfights featuring WWII-vintage aircraft battling around and above sites scattered all over Kerbin. Contestants will submit a craft, which will then be pitted against other submitted craft in a standard tournament ladder format, with fights recorded and posted to Youtube. Defeat means a craft is out of the running, success means it moves up to the next bracket. Depending on the number of entries, a second-tier ladder may also be run, featuring craft that lost during the first round of fights. To enter, simply create a WWII themed aircraft. Replicas of real-world craft are permitted, but not required. Craft design, AI configuration and armament are entirely up to you. As long as it follows the rules and looks like it could have been a real WWII-era fighter, it's a valid entry. The following mods are required: FAR 0.15.9 "Leibe" Aviator Arsenal Due to changes in BDA, AA requires a MM compatibility patch. The one I'm using can be found here. BDAc 3.0.0 BAD-T Prop pack ,which requires the FireSpitter .dll Additionally, the following mods are permitted, but optional: B9 Proc wings Procedural parts Take Command (for planes using constructed open cockpits) Adjustable landing Gear DCK Tier 1 Tournament Brackets Lost the first match? No worries; craft that lost the first match move to the second tier Tier 2 Tournament Brackets Aircraft Classes: Entries will fall into one of two categories, Fighters and Heavy Fighters. Fighters are single engine monoplanes. They have one engine. They must have a dry mass of at least 2.5 tons*. They can use up to 100 points worth of engine and armament. Heavy fighters are heavy twin engine monoplanes. They have 2 engines. They must have a dry mass of at least 5.5 tons*. They can use up to 150 points worth of engines and armament. *Dry mass is the empty weight of the craft, wet mass is the loaded weight of the craft with fuel and ammunition. Resources like Oxidizer and Ore which aren't used as fuel or ammo can be used as ballast and count towards dry mass. Points: Weapons cost their diameter in mm*. Engines cost twice their static thrust in kN*. Armor from DCK costs 2 points per 50 kg of armor, rounded up. Ammo is free, carry as much or as little as desired. *This includes decimals – 12.7mm MGs cost 12.7 points each, etc. Rules: - Craft must have no more than 60 parts. -Only Aviator Arsenal weapons permitted, with the exception of the Ball Turret. -No more than six of any one type of weapon. Multiple different weapons is allowed. -Only BADT engines allowed (Widshed, Brutus, Gazelle, Wizard, Buzzer, Foxhound, Falcon, & Jaeger). -No aerospace grade parts allowed; (Ore/RCS tanks allowed as ballast, but not as structural components). -No reaction wheels. Cockpit reaction wheels must be disabled. -Craft must have at least 1 Kerbal, either in a cockpit, or a constructed open cockpit using a command seat. -Constructed cockpits must be safe, something that a sane pilot would want to sit in. -Part clipping is allowed, within reason. No clipping resource containing parts into other resource containing parts please. Clipping ballast parts into ballast parts is permitted. -If using P wings, keep wing thickness for main wing pieces at least 0.120. -FAR wing strength must be above 0.25 and below 1.5. -Craft must include a visible Communications Antenna – this is AA's combination AI pilot and weapon manager. -AI min altitude must be at least 500m. -Craft should have at least 15 minutes of fuel. -Armor, if used, must follow craft contours. No building an invisible armor bubble around the craft. -All entrants will be required to shoot down a Test Dummy craft to certify flight-worthiness in FAR – this is basically to ensure your craft can take off and do maneuvers without a RUD. Submissions: Craft must be submitted by the deadline, 11:59 PM, Saturday, October 14th. One entry per person. If something goes wrong during submission, or you realize your craft is not rules compliant and needs some changes, contact me via PM. Otherwise, all submissions are final. To submit, upload your craft to KerbalX or similar, and sent me the download link via PM. Sharing links to your crafts in the thread is fine, but only craft I've been sent via PM will count as entries. F.A.Q. Can i submit more than one craft? -No. Entering more than one craft runs the possibility of your entry fighting another of your entries, and the purpose if this tournament is to see how your craft do against other entries, not your own. I submitted my craft already, but it (accidentally) breaks the rules, what happens now? -If your craft is an illegal design, I will PM you, and give you the chance to correct the design and re-submit. I've updated my craft after submitting it, can I resubmit? -No, simply to keep the logistics of managing entries simple, one submission per person. You can edit your submission's KerbalX upload or similar as long as it retains the same name before the deadline, but no submitting multiple craft. Can I submit a biplane? -No. Biplanes were mostly obsolete by 1940, and the spirit of the tournament is modern WWII era designs. Can I submit a jet? Yes, as long as it follows the construction rules, you can enter one, but keep in mind precision-tuned prop planes will probably out-perform it. I'm bad at building craft in FAR, should I still submit something? -Yes. Sure, there will be some entries that are hyper-competitive, but for the most part, this tournament is aimed at having fun, watching submitted craft fight bravely and die gloriously. The rules said something about constructed cockpits? - Take an External Command Seat and use parts to build an open cockpit around the Kerbal. Just make sure it's a cockpit someone other than Jebediah would be comfortable sitting in.

THE TOURNAMENT: After the success of the first BAD-T, it was decided that the tournament should go one step further. On the purpose of this tournament, the mod Aviator Arsenal was created, FAR and BDArmory received several features and tweaks and new Kerbin-Side battleground maps were made, all of that thanks to @VintageXP, @ferram4, @BahamutoD and @SuicidalInsanity. Also thanks to @Lack for allowing the distribution of SXT prop engines with tweaked settings. The second version of this tournament consists on 2x2 World War 2 themed airplanes battling on unique custom made airfields and natural locations spread across the Kerbin planet. On this tournament you can submit either a Fighter or Heavy fighter airplane, which will then fight against other airplanes on battles ran by me. They will then be available on youtube, just like on the first BAD-T. When an entry loses a battle, it's out of the main competition branch. Since a high number of entries is expected these airplanes will only have the chance to fight again if a member of our community volunteers to run these battles. If the number of entries is not as great, these battles may be run by me but will not be recorded. Creating the vehicle and setting up its AI characteristics are entirely up to you, rules are applied to keep the competition fair and must be strictly followed, no exceptions will be made BATTLE BRACKETS Lost the first battle? No problem! TIER 2 BATTLE BRACKETS MODS: The following mods are required: FAR v15.5.7 Aviator Arsenal v1.1.1 BDArmory v10.4.1 BAD-T SXT Propellers pack The following mods are allowed: B9 Pwings v0.40 Procedural Parts v1.1.11 Adjustable Landing Gear v1.2.0 CLASSES AND POINTS: There are two classes, Fighter and Heavy Fighter. Fighter: You can spend up to 100 points however you wish. Your airplane must weight more than 2.5 tons* and have one single propeller engine. Heavy Fighter: You can spend up to 150 points however you wish. Your airplane must weight more than 6 tons* and have two propeller engines. *measured at the map view during simulation *dry weight, empty of any resource that the aircraft utilizes such as ammo and liquid fuel, oxidizer and ore are examples of not useful resources that can be used as ballast. Point Costs: -Engines cost their stationary thrust in kN. -Weapons cost their caliber in millimeters. Points including decimals of the engine/weapon stats. Check Craft rules for details. RULES: Craft: - Your craft must contain no more than 60 parts. - Only Aviator Arsenal stationary weapons are allowed. - Maximum of 6 weapons of a single type on your airplane. - Open cockpits must be safe, that means that the Kerbal must not be too exposed nor sit on extreme parts of the craft. - It must fly with FAR and be able to take down the test dummy on it's own (just to make sure you have the right mods and that you or I didn't mess up somewhere). - The craft must contain at least one Kerbal and only one Communications Antenna, which must be visible (this part contains both a weapons manager and AI module). - It must not contain rocket grade parts (ore or RCS ballasts are fine, as long as not structurally important). - Scientific instruments are allowed for aesthetic purposes. - When present, the cockpit reaction wheels must be turned off. - Parts can be freely clipped, as long there is no abuse and no resource stacking. (fuel tank inside fuselage is ok, fuel tank inside fuel tank is not) - Procedural wings thickness must be greater than 0.120 for any reasonably sized wing part to prevent glitches. - FAR's wings Mass-Strength must be between 0.25 and 1.5. Submitting: - The deadline is March 13th (deadline is over). - Your craft must be available to download through kerbalx or dropbox ONLY, no other hosting platform is allowed. - You must not submit more than one airplane*, if something goes wrong please contact me via PM. - Your submission must be done through this private google form: -snip- - Sharing crafts on this thread, being that your submission or not, is allowed, but that is entirely up to you and will not count as a valid entry, only the google form submissions will be valid. - You are free to cooperate with your friends to build an airplane together but remember that any sort of roleplaying is strictly forbidden by the forum rules. *I am studying the possibility of submitting two different airplanes to battle together on a future version of the tournament, but for now only one airplane per submission will be accepted. FAQ: Until when can I submit my airplane? Until March 13th (deadline is over, you cannot submit anymore). Can I submit both a Fighter and Heavy Fighter? Not right now, it would stop being a matter of which airplane is the best and would be a matter of which pair fights the best, and that is much more complex for the players to handle. Maybe on the next version of BAD-T. Why not KAX? KAX is an amazing mod, but SXT had enough propellers to fulfill the desired roles. I messed up on my submission, what to do? You must send me a private message explaining what went wrong. I updated my plane after submitting, can I resubmit it? No. It would be very chaotic for me to dig through several submissions of the same person to figure out which one is the latest. My airplane breaks some/any of the rules by accident, what can I do? If an airplane breaks one of the rules or does not beat the dummy plane you will receive a PM and will have the chance to resubmit once. See? I am not a bad person, I think. How do I make an airplane fly on FAR? I am working on a FAR video tutorial specially for this challenge right now, don't mind my accent. My airplane is really bad, should I submit it anyway? Hell, yes. The main purpose of this challenge is having fun, not everybody in here is that eager to win. Can I create a fake cockpit using a chair and some other parts? Yes, of course you can, just make sure the kerbal is not too exposed nor sitting on extreme parts of the craft like stated on the rules.