Box of Stardust

You guys are in for a treat, because I still have tons of free time. First up is @dundun92 vs himself, with the Du-5R going up against the Du-3. With an even nuttier-looking plane than the original Du-5R that was first posted. And... some crazy-looking MLRS that's slightly derivative of the VS one.

Guhh... I always forget to turn off spawn pilots, because I know your Squirrels can run autonomously. That'll probably be for @exbyde though, since I can't test the VS further. Now that you mention it, I did a lot of testing of my Basilisk against your VS, and it never really killed itself during testing, so it probably was the spawned pilots. TFD 2.1 on the other hand...

Last battle for now: @goduranus's Vampire Squirrel continues the climb up the leaderboard, facing off against my Viper-ASP MkIIc. Current leaderboard: 1 TFD mod A 2 Rabid Squirrel 3 PEGASys-D3 (to be continued) 4 Vampire Squirrel (to be continued) 5 Viper-ASP MkIIc 6 Du-3

The new weapon to surpass Metal Gear.

@goduranus's fan favorite Vampire Squirrel steps up to the plate to bat against #5 spot @dundun92's Du-3. It does have a weakness that people might not be aware of.

Okay, before everyone started replying, there was another battle that just finished up. @prgmTrouble's X-14 goes up against @dundun92's Du-3. This squat little thing packs almost the same armament as the Cookie, so should be interesting, right?

A ridiculous amount. I'd wager it's probably #1 in plane victories (not per battle, just per plane). Its gun-based brute force method is just so effective, coupled with sub-300m/s max speed. Gunbrick takes this ideology and doubles it. It's about to get dethroned though. I'm setting up the next battle as we speak. However, considering the 'replacement rule' that I don't know if I quite understand, I may continue testing against the Du-3 in a #6 spot, as it were.

As far as I've observed, jammers don't necessarily reduce lock distance, but they do decrease lock accuracy which makes dodging AMRAAMs as the missiles close a lot more feasible.

Well, they don't have to be big and meaty or even excessive in amount, but having more than just a few 'standard' elevons at the back is still an improvement.

Up next is @Wolf5698's Jaguar, facing off against #5 spot, @dundun92's Du-3.

Welcome back everyone, to the Air Jousting Competition! I'll be your temporary host for today, filling in the temporary absence of exbyde. This section of the competition will follow the leaderboard progression rules outlined in my previous post. First up, is (finally) @l0kki's Cake, facing off against #5 spot, @dundun92's Du-3.

Alright guys, since @exbyde seems a bit busy right now and I've got some time off from classes, I'll help him out by working through the queue, pitting planes up against @dundun92's Du-3 currently in 5th place, and once something gets through the Du-3, will go up against my Viper ASP MkIIc in #4. And if they beat the Viper, they will sit at #4 with a 'to be continued' status until exbyde can continue testing of the PEGASys-D3 until that settles into a spot. And, naturally, if there's still planes to be tested and I still have time, will be continuing to go through the queue until the #5 spot is taken from the Viper and also receives a 'to be continued' status. Current leaderboard as a quick visualization: 1 TFD mod A 2 Rabid Squirrel 3 PEGASys-D3 (to be continued) 4 Viper ASP MkIIc 5 Du-3 The Unlimited queue, as of right now, is this: @l0kki Cake @Wolf5698 Jaguar @prgmTrouble X-14 Præparet Proelium @goduranus Vampire Squirrel @OvoFox11 DC-3a was submitted, but retracted @dundun92 Du-5R @Mukita12 F-16 @Box of Stardust Gunbrick (replaced Basilisk-D5 in queue) @prgmTrouble X-15 Exoneratis Hirundo @Earthlinger Berzerker 2.1 @ZLM-Master VG-D3.4-PG @53miner53 P-5 Flash @Wolf5698 Lynx @Wolf5698 Cheetah @ZLM-Master Rafale @GillyMonster Dart II @dundun93 TFD 2.1 @Box of Stardust Basilisk -C3 @Box of Stardust CShRAID Wew! Now that's a queue. Battles are being recorded as of this post. And of course, if exbyde or anyone has problems with anything I do in recording... I guess just call it unofficial?

Best I could do with most unimportant mods taken out and other settings reduced to about 1/2 - 1/3 of what they usually are. It's still not 1:1 time, probably something like 75% real-time, but better.

Hey guys Figured I could try contributing to getting through the backlog, so I did some tests to see if my setup is good enough (never really done this before). I'm running additional visual mods and stuff (install isn't just for the BDAc stuff) which might have some performance hits? Mission timer is pretty much always in the yellow, so the physics are always not too happy. Hopefully that means the game is just slowing down so it can calculate everything going on, and that it's not skipping over occasional physics things (because that would probably be unoptimal with all the bullets flying around). Here's a first test, done from a surface observer just because. Here's one in the usual format: Movements feel slower than the normal postings, and that's backed up by the mission timer running about only 50-75% the speed it should. Which might be scatterer and EVE eating CPU. Unless videos are usually sped up in post and everything here is running at the speed they should; idk how the battles are posted here. If you guys are fine with it, I can go ahead and start throwing planes from the queue (that come after the PEGASys... so the Cake, if I can find it) at the Du-3 until one of them beats the Du-3. I won't do PEGASys vs Rabid Squirrel since goduranus mentioned he changed the RS KerbalX page, so I don't know if I have the originally tested version.

I sometimes felt that I needed something like this, but never knew I needed exactly this. Awesome! Amazing how new it is...

Heeyo, got some planes here. @exbyde your queue is growing my dude So, since aircraft-launched MLRS seems to be a (useful) thing now, here's mine: Basilisk -C3. Basilisk returns! (Since I replaced the D5 with Gunbrick.) It seems to fly 'meh', not the most stable gun platform, kinda poor at hitting targets with its guns past 700m. Also acts really dumb in general and seems to drop the ball far too often and make stupid mistakes that ends in an unnecessary loss. But it carries an MLRS, so it's something! (Read: covers its kinda meh design that's probably worse than the PEGASys-D.) Also, lightweight, small drones seem to be in style, so here's that 5 ton drone I mentioned while testing the Micro Fighter, first built all the way back when the MF was first submitted and hasn't been touched much since. I figured it's time again for funky acronym names from me: CShRAID. (Pronounced 'charade'.) So yeah, it comes in at 5.2 tons fully loaded. Fun little thing. And meant for fun, not too serious of an attempt to get far up the leaderboard. Didn't really spend time tuning it, tuned it as I messed around with the MF, but it apparently has some bite!

Saturation of the sky. Throw enough up there and your chances of hitting stuff goes up a lot. Gunbrick was built around this specific strategy, inspired by the behavior of the Du-3. Just wait until I finish my VulcanStar.

It's that thing. I use 'MLRS' for the meaning and mode of operation (multiple launch rocket system), not in reference to the actual objects that they usually are.

Vampire Squirrel. It's not your standard fighter missile boat, in that it carries a device that pretty much operates as an MLRS.

Well, Vulcan boating seems to be an upcoming trend. Gunbrick is now surprisingly on the conservative end, with 10, X-15 has 12, and according to the parts list, TFD 2.1 has 16. So excessive gun spam might be a new problem. Seems like something that might have to be looked into. Maybe after we see how the MLRS pans out. (And after I submit my ultimate thesis to the theory...) In the case that Vulcans do need to be limited per aircraft, 1 Vulcan per ton of the dry weight of the aircraft (no fuel, no missiles, and no additional 'droppable' items) seems reasonable.

I'm not a fan of too many restrictions. I think it ends up pushing a specific kind of competitive meta, which is pretty bland. In this unlimited challenge (barring turrets, which is okay since static weapons promotes engineering a maneuverable fighter and tuning it to be stable and precise), the meta is defined only by the creative solutions everyone has to what planes are on the leaderboard. Plus, I'm not sure a hardpoint restriction would really have much of an effect, given the current plane designs. Missile spam has only returned thanks to the Vampire Squirrel, and that's not even your conventional missile spam, since it's more of a special device. Other than the Vampire Squirrel (and I guess most subsequent fighters carrying the MLRS), recent designs have been only 1-2 Sidewinders (except me, carrying 4) and 3-4 Vulcans. There's not really a 'loaded with weapons' issue here.

My recent testing, at least with the Standard Canard, when set to negative authority, is it seems to work perfectly fine, both for pitch and roll when combined on the same control surface.

Well at least update the queue maybe.

Adding AMRAAMs you mean? yeah probably lol goduranus's MLRS does the job way better @dundun92 Gunbrick has an ECM and has 3km track/lock with the aircraft radomes based off of the BDA RCS tool. The 3km launch range is just farther enough than the 2.7km IR lock range to be somewhat more effective.

Funny enough, ZLM-Master fitting it onto his Rafale actually gave it the ability to 1/3 or even 50/50 the Gunbrick lol. Like, the one edge case where it works. Last thing I was working on was fitting AMRAAMs on the Basilisk and seeing if they could be made to work as routing missiles. They lock onto most aircraft here at 4km, with a few edge cases at 3km (one being Gunbrick), which is slightly longer-ranged than Sidewinder locks against the top of the leaderboard. Of course, goduranus's MLRS kinda just turned that idea on its head, so idk. @dundun92 Du-5R vs Gunbrick: RIP. Gunbrick was made to counter the current meta of Sidewinder routing.