Box of Stardust

Just a little bit of something interesting for ya'll. Current leaderboard alongside one another (and some stuff of mine) for comparisons:

It's just a flight tune. Granted, it's one that kind of removes one of the RS's weaknesses, and it means the RS is going to be clawing its way up the board again, but it's nothing too bad. Also I kind of learned a few things from its TFD-focused tune and applied it accordingly, with interesting results against the TFD. Some discoveries were more useful than others. Setting the minimum altitude to its lowest setting and launching from the KSC causes really interesting AI behavior wherein they circle around before heading towards the enemy, causing extreme variance in formation. Or crashing into the ground. Wasn't very useful to touch this setting. Another setting... changed how the TFD responded with its weapons, which was super interesting. That was pretty useful. So. I tested your craft again, and it still doesn't select any weapons. I even tried setting Guard Mode off in the SPH to see if that would do anything (since it was set to On when it launches). I'm guessing the BD AI just doesn't like having two different types of guns to choose from.

Ah, okay, so any shrouding over/around the engines doesn't reduce ability to be IR locked at all. Previously thought IR locking may have had something to do with the exhaust particles.

Is IR signature directional? I.e., does angle to the engines matter? I'm looking at the debug labels and I'm guessing it's going off of the hottest part, so can I assume that hiding the engines better helps reduce IR signature from certain directions? Or does the IR system simply seek out the hottest part, being able to 'see' through other parts?

I really like the concept! Unfortunately, it doesn't actually seem to select any of the weapons, so it never tries to shoot back... Also, your GAU-8s are set to engage missiles and surface, which is advised against. I would suggest making the range of the GAU-8 not overlap with the Vulcans; that might solve the problem. gaaaahhhhh

It's funny; I know exactly how to beat the TFD, and it's either counterintuitive or makes complete sense: I tune the fighter to be less maneuverable. That's it. It forces the fighter to go wide and gain more distance against the TFD instead of sticking to a close range dogfight. At which point, one of my fighters can properly line up a gun run against a 1v1 or a distracted TFD. Or chuck missiles at one. Unfortunately, that's an absolutely horrible strategy against the rest of the leaderboard. Du-3, RS, and Viper are still fast enough to chase fighters that try to attack and run past.

I never entered the competition then, but I still have fighters designed for it. They're packed with like, 8--10 AMRAAMs along with 4 - 2 Sidewinders. Interesting times. There's a tool in the SPH/VAB that shows BDA's radar cross section calculator. It shows why AMRAAMs aren't that good right now against the top fighters. Radar lock only at 4-5km on some of these, and that's without ECM reduction. The bane of fighting against the top. Now you've given me another fighter to tune against, dammit. I still can't make a tune that's good against the Du-3 and TFD and RS. Oh, and I have to beat the Viper now too. Honestly not sure the PEGASys can make it that far anymore...

I know the gun meta is in full force here, but you mentioned earlier that you don't know anyone here that deliberately lowers their gun range from maximum... mine is actually set to 'only' 1700m on the Viper. PEGASys-D is set even closer... which kind of ironically causes it to have trouble against the Viper. I'm not sure if it's just in my own testing, but I personally like my own aircraft strategy that I'm cultivating. I think I can make it work. 4 Sidewinders are part of my sort of 'aircraft doctrine'. Not sure if it's a definitive winning strategy, but again, I think I can make it work. I just have to figure out if there's a way to influence what the AI does when it flies, like pitching up out of the way, splitting to the sides on final approach during the initial merge, those behaviors. I consider the initial merge to be the most dangerous, so the last piece of my personal puzzle that I'm trying to solve is influencing the AI to do actions that will let them survive it.

I never bragged. I just reported on my testing results, and never explicitly stated full dominance over the other aircraft tested against. The Viper had a fighting chance against the RS; second battle shows it. Unfortunately, that battle was skewed by a teamkill by Sidewinder, so it couldn't push it to a 3rd match. Lastly, most of my testing has gone into the second aircraft, which I'm still working on and is admittedly is getting harder and harder to tune against the leaderboard, given the array of different fighting styles of the top 4. A tune against the TFD could totally work against it, but wouldn't even get past the Du-3.

Those damn Rabid Squirrels lol. It gets hard to tune fighters to fight the top of the leaderboard, and I never spent much time tuning the Viper. TFD and Rabid Squirrel almost require different tunes to beat... and Du-3 in the mix didn't help either. I didn't realize the threat of the Du-3 until fights started again recently and hadn't tested against them much. I've now been tuning the PEGASys-D this entire time, and tuning against the Du-3 usually loses against the TFD, and the RS fight between them always ends up somewhere in between in results; a tune against the TFD will lose against the Du-3 and again, RS results in between. Even worse now, I have to tune to beat the Viper lol. I would've won that second fight if it weren't for the Sidewinder teamkill at the start lol. That happened with somewhat alarming frequency in testing too.

@exbyde Ah, okay, so I assume for the 3v3s, you do the front #1 in the center, then the #2 back to the left (or right), then the #3 behind the #2 and on the other side of #1.

Hey @exbyde, how do you arrange aircraft starting positions on the runways exactly? I've noticed that starting configuration may have some effect on the formation the fighters use when heading towards each other, and that I win with some configurations while lose with others due to the formation they take during flight. Are the three fighters just all in a line behind one another or are they arranged in some triangular manner or whatever? And how close to each other? Or do you not specifically arrange them in any pattern at all?

Huh, you can get the alpha of that? Didn't know. Get this, or wait 10 more months for AC7... hm....

I should have updated the PEGASys with rigid attach turned on for everything in the link. (Current craft in the link is the D2, not the D1, despite the title.) I was going to test wobbliness last night, after temporarily uninstalling KJR, with just rigid attach and no autostruts, but got too tired. I'm thinking rigid attach should be all that I need though; if not, I can autostrut everything as well. Thank goodness for EEX toggles. Like I said, I play with KJR, so I don't experience stock joint wobbliness normally. Oh. Er... advanced stealth features!

Was the Wasp vs Viper battle recorded? Is that going to go up? You released the results, so I'm just wondering.

Not really. Else I'd probably be disqualified by now.

Hm, can you explain what the difference is between a non-BD flying observer and a landed/splashed one? Just curious.

And they do exactly what struts do, right? I've been using KJR for so long, I've never had to worry about parts flopping over the place... @exbyde I've updated the KerbalX pages for both my entries. Thank goodness for EEX 'all rigid' toggle.

Are autostruts / rigid attachment part of stock? They show up as toggles for me, but I'm not sure if they're stock... or if they do what I think they do.

Uhh... nope. I guess this is what happens when I have Kerbal Joint Reinforcement installed, but others don't.

Just you wait... lol. Also hot damn, that 1v3 victory was brutal.

Not sure. Spectator effects on combatants still elude me. I'll use an observer aircraft for assured unbiased testing when I test, if I feel that I need to.

Oh man, I can't wait for Rafale PDF vs Rabid Squirrel Rover. ... lol

Wow was not expecting those.

Just @goduranus holding #2 as the last bastion against complete DunDun superiority, waiting for reinforcement...