(W.I.P) How to build the most competitive BDArmory fighter aircraft! Suggestions welcome!

[Box of Stardust]

A minor history note, Gunbrick came first to 'correctly' exploit the gun spam, which was fully designed in all aspects as a gun-based craft. TFD 2.1 was a response to that, which only proved that a huge amount of guns was a valid solution to almost anything in BDA 1.0.

Basilisk wasn't really intended as a gun spam competitor, but just simply a plane with heavier gun armament than PEGASys at the time (though the Basilisk-D5 was intended to compete with 2.5km gun range to partake in the gun meta, but that was replaced with the full-on gun design, Gunbrick). That's why it's still around in BDA 1.2- because weight of fire is still valid... and why the new meta is mounting gun numbers higher than 4 guns. Do remember, standard gun armament in BDA 1.0 was 3 or 4. Because tagging a plane for half a second with one gun was good enough to make it explode. Not anymore though.

In a weird sense, I've been building my craft for BDA 1.2's damage model even back in BDA 1.0. Basilisk-C3 from BDA 1.0 is... almost near-identical to Basilisk-C4 in terms of construction. Funny enough, BDA 1.0's heat damage model actually caused internal structures to kind of work against me. 

 

Okay, enough of that. You should probably link the BD Armory wiki page somewhere (I didn't see it anywhere). The entire page on AI tuning is still incredibly helpful. 

I should mention that my AI tuning method has always been to tune Damping first. With some experimentation, I finally understood what the BDA page concerning rotational input. Lower damping is 'looser' control by the AI, letting the plane rotate more in its axes more freely. Higher damping 'restricts' rotation. To have a plane that tends to act more super-maneuverable, lower the damping like nuts, and the plane will alwya flip over.

It's difficult to find the right Steer Factor setting without knowing how much Damper is needed first, at least in my opinion. Damping defines how the plane will turn and maneuver. Steer Factor only influences how it'll make that turn.

Also, 1 Sidewinder is actually perfectly fine, since it really all depends on if the AI  sees a missile and launches countermeasures. In the majority of cases, firing two ends up wasting two. I still recommend having the setting on 2, but for craft with less missiles, 1 is a perfectly fine value. (Funny side note, in BDA 1.0, I had it set to 3 because the AI was dumb with using missiles.) A single Sidewinder's damage can absolutely wreck a plane as long as it hits right; you don't need two to do it. Just luck.

[Guest]

Also, here is an updated Du-11, with a MLRS and 2 sidewinders. 

https://kerbalx.com/dundun92/Du-11B-Blk-10

[VirtuallyFloofy]

I have a plane right now that I've made a few days after installing BD Armory and despite being less manuverable and has default AI settings, it still merked my newer fighter made after reading a forum on competitive fighters. 

My new fighter could turn 180 within half a second burning a lot speed but can accelerate back up to 200+ m/s within 3-4 seconds. But the AI is set so that the AoA remains at 15 so that it burns less energy when manuvering. Is this limiting it? 

 

 

 

[The_Stinky_Broccoli]

i created a jet using the mk1 parts that flew under the two r&d bridges and landed on the VAB heli pad

 

it could fly almost as fast as a sidewinder. sadly the world got corrupted.