Combat Drone Inititative - Trial 1 Complete - Round 3 Videos Posted

[SasquatchM]

SUBMISSIONS CLOSED - TESTING IN PROGRESS - 1ST AND 2ND ROUND RESULTS BELOW

We at SMA are accepting applicants for the destructive testing phase of our Combat Drone Initiative. Concerns over high cost and potential loss of Kerbal life required us to move on to a short range, low altitude unmanned aircraft for base defense. As such we are testing outside contractor developed drones against each other as well as our in house "Doppelganger" drone in 2 on 2 tournament style elimination tests.  Applicant craft orientation during set up will be semi-random based on whatever amuses SMA staff at any given moment.

Applicant craft are expected to meet certain requirements:

Applicant craft must be unmanned.

Applicant craft must use no more than 1 of any variety of stock probe core.

Applicant craft must have at least 600 Battery life.

Applicant craft must mass less than 5 tons armed and fueled.

Applicant craft must cost less than 20,000 funds.

Applicant craft must use the BD Armory combat systems.

• All weaponry in the BD Armory system is acceptable; however, all weaponry must be forward facing and any turret mounted system must be locked.
• All counter measures are acceptable.

Applicant craft must have "Minimum Altitude" set to 150m, these are expected to be fast take-off and engagement craft.

Applicant craft must have detection range and angle set to maximum, because why would you want less?

Applicant craft must be assembled from only BD Armory and Stock components.

Applicant craft must be submitted via link and include a hanger photo displaying mass and cost.

Applicant craft must have the BD Armory AI Toggle hot-keyed to the '1' key.

Only 1 craft per contractor will be accepted for submission and submissions can not be altered once made.

Only 7 Applicant craft in total will be accepted for this trial.

Submissions are due by 1/1/2016.

Trials are planned to start 1/2/2016.

Trials will begin as soon as the requisite number of submissions is met.

Video results will be posted.  Crying is unacceptable.

 

Good luck.
 

If we missed something obvious please let us know.

 

 

1ST ROUND RESULTS

Doppelganger vs. QF-1

Spoiler

 

 

The Bat vs. Jester

Spoiler

 

 

Scrappy Doo vs. Dawson's Christian

Spoiler

 

 

ROUND 2 RESULTS - Jester and Scrappy Doo tied

Scrappy Doo

Spoiler

 

Jester

Spoiler

 

 

ROUND 3 RESULTS

Spoiler

 

Scrappy Doo is the winner of the close-in defense phase of the Combat Drone initiative trials. Congratulations DoctorDavinci on the win, and thank you to everyone else who participated.  The Scrappy Doo drone will be as an opposition drone in the next phase of the CDI.

 

Edited January 24, 2016 by SasquatchM
Round 3 Results.

[Hodo]

Is it going to be with FAR? 

 

I personally think it is to easy to build cheese machines in the stock aerodynamic model.  But if that is what people want it is cool.

[BlueCanary]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mqqsr63jce9kgmr/QF-1.craft?dl=0

Very quickly developed entry, just cuts under the weight and cost limits with a partial fuel load.

Weapons:

Quote

 

1x 50cal turret (forward locked)

2x AIM-9 Sidewinder

1x flares, 1x chaff

 

My PC is a big pile of useless and KSP is crashing whenever I take a screenshot, so this is the best I could do:

[Navy Airforce]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zm02m377qepw0is/Jester.craft?dl=0

Also just under cost and weight limits, but has redundant engines

Weapons

• 1x Vulcan (Hidden) 20MM (1300 rounds on board)
• 1x Sidewinder Missile
• 1x Chaff

 

Edited December 29, 2015 by Navy Airforce

[SasquatchM]

9 hours ago, Hodo said:

Is it going to be with FAR? 

 

I personally think it is to easy to build cheese machines in the stock aerodynamic model.  But if that is what people want it is cool.

Sorry, no FAR.

[BlueCanary]

You did a really good job choosing those weight and cost limits, every new design I've tried has been just above at least one of them.

[Triop]

Things I don't want to hear in 2016:

" Is it going to be with FAR? "

 

[SasquatchM]

3 hours ago, BlueCanary said:

You did a really good job choosing those weight and cost limits, every new design I've tried has been just above at least one of them.

The goal was to pick limits that would take a little bit of work to stay within and hopefully force some compromises.  More thrust or weapons? Maneuverability or speed?  I actually think the budget may be a bit too high, but it does still force some sacrifice and thinking outside the box - hopefully at least.

[Wjolcz]

Ahhh too bad it's only 'til 1/1/2016, because I won't have time to participate in this. Do you plan to extend the submission time if there is insufficient amount of participants?

[Triop]

MultiMicroDrone:

It has room for a kerbal so also great for short range resque missions.

[SasquatchM]

3 hours ago, Veeltch said:

Ahhh too bad it's only 'til 1/1/2016, because I won't have time to participate in this. Do you plan to extend the submission time if there is insufficient amount of participants?

Probably, or at least run another tournament

[SasquatchM]

10 hours ago, Triop said:

MultiMicroDrone:

It has room for a kerbal so also great for short range resque missions.

So are you going to arm it and submit it?

[Hodo]

18 hours ago, Triop said:

Things I don't want to hear in 2016:

" Is it going to be with FAR? "

 

It is a valid question?  FAR = better flight and more realistic looking, acting, and flying aircraft.  Stock = put an engine on anything and it will fly.

[Navy Airforce]

I had to trade off more missiles (literally limited to one missile) for the ability to have multiple small engines in both funds and weight. I even had to watch part choice for my wings.

[Wjolcz]

Ok, here is my entry: http://kerbalx.com/Wilcz/The-Bat

 

Edited January 1, 2016 by Veeltch

[Pds314]

On 12/30/2015 at 3:33 PM, Triop said:

Things I don't want to hear in 2016:

" Is it going to be with FAR? "

 

I don't want to hear it either, for the same reason I don't want to hear "the reason there's still monkeys is.."

FAR is a much better aerodynamic model. And nowadays, it's not even substantially harder to design anything sane in it. Esp. If aerdisintegration is disabled.

 

The two reasonable settings for FAR are "stated as optional" and "stated as mandatory."

Edited January 1, 2016 by Pds314

[DoctorDavinci]

So I am just in final testing of my entry but would like to suggest something for the OP ... This being that you should also add 'activate engine' for all your engines as well as 'toggle guard mode' for your weapon manager to hotkey 1
The reason I suggest this is suppose someone puts an ECM pod on their drone or uses boosters for a quicker takeoff ... It allows you to add any other part/weapon that you want to activate at the point of launch

Anyways, here's some pics of my DD-39 Scrappy Doo ... Craft file to follow shortly

 

[Aslad]

I have a very capable drone, but sadly it uses parts from Kerbal Aircraft Expansion so is rendered invalid (also it might be outside some other of your regulations I'd have to check) - nonetheless, have some pictures!

I present my MQ-31 Hunter combat drone.

 

 

http://imgur.com/a/YW5fV

 

 

Edited January 2, 2016 by Aslad

[BlueCanary]

16 minutes ago, Aslad said:

I have a very capable drone, but sadly it uses parts from Kerbal Aircraft Expansion so is rendered invalid (also it might be outside some other of your regulations I'd have to check) - nonetheless, have some pictures!

I present my MQ-31 Hunter combat drone.

Maybe try swapping out the prop for duel Junos in pods on the sides? You'd probably still have to make some pretty extensive cost cutting decisions though.

[DoctorDavinci]

So testing is complete ... Here is the craft file: CANUKWorks DD-39 Scrappy Doo

FINAL STATS
Cost:     $19 861
Weight: 5.0 tons
Length: 8.8m
Width: 8.4m
Height: 3.6m
Armament: 20mm Vulcan x1, AMRAAM x2

NOTE:
3 sepratrons, AI Pilot toggle, Guard Mode toggle and Activate Engine are all linked to Hotkey 1 as well as the drone having been saved as Team B ... All you have to do is set it up in its launch position, point it in the right direction and press 1 (the sepratrons are staged last so they do not go off when you start the main engine, however as soon as you press 1 they will go off)

 

Edited January 3, 2016 by DoctorDavinci

[SasquatchM]

1 hour ago, Aslad said:

I have a very capable drone, but sadly it uses parts from Kerbal Aircraft Expansion so is rendered invalid (also it might be outside some other of your regulations I'd have to check) - nonetheless, have some pictures!

I present my MQ-31 Hunter combat drone.

 

 

http://imgur.com/a/YW5fV

 

 

I really like that prop setup

[Aslad]

3 minutes ago, SasquatchM said:

I really like that prop setup

Thanks!

58 minutes ago, BlueCanary said:

Maybe try swapping out the prop for duel Junos in pods on the sides? You'd probably still have to make some pretty extensive cost cutting decisions though.

Maybe

[CreativeCombat]

I don't see any rules against part clipping, is that intentional?  I don't think that's a good idea if it is. 

Edited January 4, 2016 by CreativeCombat

[SasquatchM]

You only have 20000 funds, there is only so much you can get away with.  You are quite often required to make sacrifices in lifting surfaces, load out and fuel.  I am hoping that naturally limits some of the more abusive ideas.

 

 

[CreativeCombat]

Limiting the number of parts and of which type one can attach does not really prevent one from placing those parts inside of each other to make the plane as a whole a smaller target, and thus more effective than a non-clipped plane, though.  The cost limit is certainly a more interesting idea than the points limited used in Top Gun AI but there's no reason for a designer to not put all his wings inside the fuselage and thus make them impossible to shoot off (without going through the fuselage first which would kill the plane anyway if the wings weren't clipped) as it's currently written. 

Edited January 4, 2016 by CreativeCombat
ttt