Box of Stardust

Hey guys, tentative rule adjustment. So, we have a 'no text-editing' rule, but who thinks it would be fine to text-edit engine thrust limiters? Heat rating scales with thrust, so giving an engine higher thrust balances out by being easier to heat-lock.

I felt like filming one more battle, but I'm really quite tired of missile salvos being thrown at each other or massive amounts of gun fire, so here's the start of the next Tier 2 series. @GillyMonster's quite conventional Dart II is up. In many BDA competitions, it probably wouldn't look too far out of place, but here in ASC, it is a stranger in a strange land indeed, facing off against a very unique assortment of aircraft- drones, actually. And what better aircraft to exemplify that than @ZLM-Master's wiry V-TEK.

Next Tier 1 series: @dundun92's Du-5Rs starts off against Gunbrick. While impressive and scary-looking, honestly lol, I'm not sure how much difference the missile spread makes. It's like the RWR only detects the initial launch. Maybe the missile angles do something, maybe they don't, I never really determined it through the many, many tests I did. I just kept it just in case it did though. We were told by the BDA team to replace all BDA parts, or at the minimum, the weapons, so I recommend doing so. Sidewinders actually got adjusted (larger default proximity detonation range), so that's kind of important, plus maybe some other hidden values.

Okay, so the next plane in the Tier 1 queue is Vampire Squirrel B. I'm going to make an executive decision and just replace Vampire Squirrel in the leaderboard with VS B because it's literally just part angle changes. That's hardly worth the effort of a full combat test again... plus I don't want to have to deal with the probability that a variant doesn't make it far enough to face itself... since I'm not sure if there's an established rule for that situation yet.

Basilisk continues its leadboard climb, going up against PEGASys.

@goduranus's Vampire Squirrel Re-Advancement match against PEGASys-D3:

We're doing the queue in order, so we have to finish up the 1.3.1 + BDA 1.0 queue first. You could do some Tier 2 leaderboard battles, since I haven't started the next series for that.

Well, build a plane that can kick down Gunbrick and we'll be good. I don't have anything else in the queue that's really going to make it anywhere fast. CShRAID is just an entry for fun, I don't expect it to get pasf TFD 2.1. I was thinking limiting turret traverse, but a lot has also changed with BDA since then, so maybe it's worth trying it all out again before we rule it out. But maybe we should test it all ourselves first, before we decide on setting up a separate competition for unhinged craziness.

Basilisk goes on the offensive against ASC meme machine @dundun93's TFD 2.1. We'll start things off with a preview for the theme of the battle.

Continuing the Tier 1 series, Basilisk faces off against Gunbrick. Well, I was thinking about the rule from TFD 2.1's perspective when it was first revealed a month and a half ago. To have 16 guns, you'd need a 15.4t plane to begin with (if tonnage is inclusive). Sure, that's still not the mass of some 'normal' KSP fighters, like a lot of the PFC fighters we see; I'd bet most of the 'normal'-sized PFC aircraft are floating somewhere between 12-20t as set up. But that's still quite a large aircraft to shove around. It requires a little more engineering to do, plus makes it inherently more vulnerable. Gunbrick wouldn't pass under that rule either; it weighs in at around 7t, but has 10 guns. Basilisk interestingly does pass though, at just about 6t for the 1t : 1Vulcan idea. I'll hold off until we start doing fights in 1.4.2 to make the decision. I want this to remain as 'unlimited' as a challenge as possible. As well, the hitpoint system of BDA 1.2 might either make or break the whole gun spam idea (though testing actually indicates to former). If all else fails, I'll figure out some good way to limit guns while still allowing gun spam to an extent, or the even dumber option, turn this into ASC 'Ultimate' and have a new 'Unlimited' where we quite literally allow almost anything, just like the very, very, very first ASC by inigma, and go full circle from having rules that developed starting from that competition. I mean, who doesn't want to see laser spam again... lol. It might be interesting to have turrets again... or at least turrets with incredibly limited traverse (like, say, 5-10 degrees of traverse possible). The thing is, between a lot of the BDA dogfighting competitions around, we're still the least restrictive in terms of rules, which makes for a wider variety of craft. It's possible to make something really cool within a box, but it's a lot easier to think bigger if your box is also bigger and has the top open and allows you to think outside the box more. I like the other competitions with rules, don't get me wrong, but I want to uphold ASC's standing as the one that tries to go the other way. I mean, just look at all the funky stuff we've discovered because of our openness. AI quirks -> Air Jousting and importance of weapon ranges-> the outside of the box Vampire Squirrel MLRS to combat aircraft that can't be radar-locked nor heat-locked in time... So yeah. If I do a gun limit, I feel obligated to find a way to circumvent that limit, in the spirit of an 'Unlimited' competition. And again, maybe the best solution is actually for unlimited guns to just be thrown into a new competition where we restart with almost no rules at all and see what gets un-fun.

In the ongoing quest to clear out the 1.3.1+BDA 1.0 queue, we're back to battles. Meet the heaviest of the ASPEN Platform drones, Basilisk, equipped with its version of the then-latest in ASC tech. We called the VampSquirrel's PRD an MLRS, but now, here's an even more MLRS device- the Multi-Angle Counter-Rockets, Opposition Scatterer System; MACROSS. Bundle of missiles vs Viper:

You're talking to the record holder. Video demonstration on Page 2. We sort of concluded that fuel mass is lost mass, while wing mass is at least carrying its own weight. For that mass of wings, critical speed was about 30m/s. Optimal cruise speed about 37-40m/s. Now, if the slight dive from the additional altitude from the Island can offset any lost takeoff velocity, and perhaps even make 50+ m/s, it might work to get onto the KSC shore with maybe 53 tons. At the weights you'll be working with for 'biggest plane', the issue you start running into is thrust-to-weight to maintain what lift you have, not more mass or lift.

I suggest just going for it and seeing if you can get better results that way. I'm inclined to sat that you won't be able to though, since, in my opinion, the altitude advantage is negligible compared to a longer and smoother runway to build up speed for takeoff.

They have a pretty long backlog to sift through, but I don't think they necessarily do reviews in chronological order.

@dundun92 How did you test HogMaster? I tested it in 1.4.2 + BDA 1.2, with classic Airfield-Island spawns, and they didn't turn in to engage at all.

I suggest you just rebuild them for 1.4.2. Everyone needs to replace the BDA parts when they transfer the craft to BDA 1.2 anyways. I'd really rather move on to KSP 1.4.x as soon as possible, since BDA 1.2 has some nice new improvements.

The X-Fighter is already in the queue for 1.3.1. You can post the 1.4.2 versions though, and if you'd rather just have the X-Fighter fight in 1.4.2 right away instead of 1.3.1. V-TEK can have a second run if you changed things (and give it some variant designation to differentiate it). I haven't decided what to do with changing versions on the board though. I guess I could modify all leaderboard aircraft at the end of the 1.3.1 queue when we switch over to 1.4.2.

@dundun93's TFD 2.1 continues its upward climb, now facing off the bringer of the PRD-era of aircraft, @goduranus's Vampire Squirrel. Can it stop the onslaught of the bloated flying ASC meme?

@dundun93's TFD 2.1 vs Gunbrick.

I mean, it depends on how many of us agree on implementing the gun limitation. I'm also all for it being an Unlimited challenge, but the most important thing is that the battles are fun and enjoyable. Not... slideshow-y and all about how can point their plane at the other guy first from 2km away. I wouldn't be able to say the AI behaviors regarding that in BDA 1.2 since I haven't gotten around to privately testing the HogMaster.

Viper isn't out yet lol. It's still #5. You want the next fight?

I'm still deciding on implementing that Vulcan-to-tonnage ratio rule. Might do it if the trend continues poorly enough. We'll see what happens with HogMaster to see if massive gun spam really is that big of a problem.

We return by starting off the next Tier 1 series. @dundun93's TFD 2.1 vs Viper-ASP MkIIc.

Again? If you fixed the not-firing-missiles problem, sure. Otherwise, I have no reason to re-run it, since I already did it in the previous thread.