Box of Stardust

Surviving against Cookies is really a matter of surviving the initial merge, because it's when they're at their strongest. With the BD AI, since they always start rushing at one another, enemy fighters are always going to be forced to make the assault against a very, very angry thunderstorm.

Donut battle?

I describe it as 'a really angry cloud'. I can still remember my shock at the Cookie when I first tested against it. The drogue chute deployment was the most 'WHAT' moment ever. It all made sense when it started fighting. Kinda sad it didn't place, would've liked to see it sit in #3 for a while.

Well, I guess that's as clear as it can get. Ignore my rambling about that then.

Ah, okay. I wasn't sure if this was, in fact, the correct interpretation of what was stated in the rules about updating fighters.

Hey @exbyde, do you wait until a fighter is going to battle to download it? Or do you download them right away (as in, if it's on the queue list, it's downloaded)? Because I have another AI update to submit to my craft because I just "learned" how to fully use BDA's Weapons Manager. I figure I'd just keep updating the KerbalX page if you don't download them right away. If you do download them right away though... well, I guess I'll post up a new link for you to update (some time later). It's an update for the PEGASys-D, so it's not in any rush since there's quite a queue to get through.

Oh. I guess I didn't read where that happened in the thread.

I should also note that the 'export' folder did appear in the Ships folder. But nothing else about the mod was working.

Wait, so how does the #5 spot work if there's three tied in it? Does the Crusader just fight the other two to move up? Oh yeah, and apparently the Drone Princess link on the leaderboard links to the Pike.

Actually, I tried all of the options. It wouldn't let me just plain export it either. It still told me to just select a vessel.

Yeah, that's the right one. Thanks for the queue update.

Ship Save Splicer doesn't seem to be working for me. I have a vessel selected in the Tracking Station menu, but it just tells me to select a vessel to save to a .craft file when I shift+click the SSS button. ... really need this to work because for some reason, I deleted the craft file from my SPH and now this is the only remaining instance of it. The vessel is landed on Kerbin; would that cause any problems with it? --- Well, I read through the thread and noticed you said KCT could provide the same functionality. Lifesaver! ... also, that was a really helpful note for my actual KCT playthrough, since I didn't know 'recover active vessel' was a feature... derp. Fortunately, I hadn't gotten to the point where I had craft to recover!

I'm not trying to, I'm just reporting on what I test. For the record, as I expected, the Rabid Squirrel did really good (I think better actually) against the Cookie.

I know lol. But on further testing, the results have been... interesting. The Cookie is certainly very unconventional and it can do surprisingly well. It goes against the current trend of maneuverable microfighters by instead being... an angry flying cloud. However, it appears that winning against it isn't impossible at all. It might be a flying turret of a ridiculous hailstorm of 30mm shells, but that seems to put a lot of it up to chance. I'm running test matches going through each of my 'spectating modes' and... I'm winning? Not definitively, but... maybe 50/50? My verdict on the Cookie is that it's the most luck-based match yet. Its going against the trend of maneuverability by not bothering with much maneuvering at all (or rather, doesn't bother with aerodynamics and instead kind of wallows around like it's in zero-g) kind of puts it up to the enemy fighters to dictate how the match goes. The GAU-8 storm is kind of luck-based as well; the Cookie will almost never be on the tail of another fighter like most other conventional fighters here. Not just that, but GAU-8 overheat adds another randomness dynamic. And the GAU-8s don' seem to insta-gib parts as hard as the Vulcans do when a hit lands; my planes have actually survived with parts on 'critical heat'. I think I might chalk that up to the relative inaccuracy of the Cookie's shooting. It seems like the best way to deal with it is energy fighting, boom-and-zooming. Make a run, then get out of range before the Cookie slews onto target. And if the Cookie and your fighter are going head-on... best hope your fighter lands hits first. And really, I think a lot of the match is just surviving the initial merge with at least 2 fighters. I'll do tests with other fighters from the competition and see how their programming and build characteristics holds up.

Sorry, no videos. But I did these tests. Du-3X was sorta tough. Did 2 matches from an observer, 2 from Du-3X, switching only when the aircraft got destroyed and then to another Du-3X, and 2 from PEGASys-D1, same rule. Won 5/6, but each one was still fairly tough. Never got away with all 3, usually won the match only by 1. Cookie. Yeah. Uh. @Eidahlil still being him. You know, I saw the pictures of it when he first announced it, and read the things talked about it, but I still wasn't prepared to actually see it in game. It's too nuts. I've only done 1 match and I think I concede.

Oh, I wasn't suggesting that you do it. But for me, it gives me a more... unbiased feel when I test my fighters? Something like that. Gives me a good idea of where they would stand. I fully get being up and close to get the excitement of the action and I'm not against that either.

3v3, standard rules of aircraft starting from both airfields, meet across the water. I've done so much testing, but haven't kept a victory count. I'm fairly sure it's at least 50/50 chance, but my last few rounds of testing I can remember have been fairly solid victories. At the least, I rarely lose a match without taking 1 or 2 down. Seems to come down to who fairs better out of the initial merge... and if there's no Sidewinder friendly fire incidents on my team lol. Things get a bit weird when I spectate aircraft directly and results get more confusimg; I was told earlier in the thread that it has some sort of effect. So I watch from an observer aircraft (that's the one in the pic, not the drones I actually send to fight; I just like watching in style) that stays above the combat out of their way; combat is typically 3-4km away. I'd go in closer, but I'd probably have to do it in a boat or something that doesn't significant generate heat. oh yeah, I think that's where the confusion came in. The pic isn't of my fighter, that's just the observer. That also reminds me, I should grab the fighters from the queue and test against them; I've only tested against the leaderboard at this point.

Were you trying to fly recon over the battle with an SR-71? Lol.

I've discovered the magic behind the Viper's relatively low thermal signature, and it is the dumbest, stupidest, simplest thing ever. I'm also not telling you guys, in case you don't know. @exbyde have my new apex predator, the PEGASys-D1. (Enter alongside the Viper... would still like to see that thing have a run when it gets its turn.) Also, I've heard that spectating one of the aircraft in a dogfight might have effects on the outcome, so recently I've decided to test them while flying a neutral aircraft. It's less exciting since it's away from the action, but at least I do it in style. (not the PEGASys, just ~80 extra more useless parts in the sky) also i can beat the TFD fairly reliably this way so ya

@exbyde I'm going with my trash-tune MkIIc. It somehow manages to be really effective. Though its effectiveness is diminished in the current format with the long-range format, as I believe it's been mentioned before, since they start a lot lower than their intended altitude. Also, has anyone figured out the heat rating system yet? Because I somehow managed to do the impossible while building my Viper and built the thermal-stealthiest fighter I've seen in the air... I've done a little testing and all it did was put me back to square 0 about any ideas on how it works.

Rabid Squirrel I think is the fighter most like my Viper. Which is interesting since I barely remembered what the RS was while making my Viper; I barely watched its battles. And it was my last fighter to download and test against. Most of my initial testing and experience was against the TFD and Flying Squirrel (where I learned to hate those maneuverable buggers early). Also, so far, it seems to me that I can either tune my flight AI more optimally against the RS and be less optimal against the TFD, or I can fight the TFDs optimally but be even against the RS.

Oh, they're full of them. Which is probably why they don't spin out more often.

Yeah... I found that they weren't aggressive enough though lowering AoA and the steering factor. I'll try it later again, but my previous days of testing tuning them down cost me all my fights against the Du-3, let alone the Rabid Squirrel (which I hate the most actually lol) and the TFD. My original tuning won me those fights fairly handily.

alrighty, so... Derp. So I dunno what I did, but my flight AI re-tunes here actually made them worse at combat than the original. Back to testing. Anyone have any tips to stop planes from spinning out? Not that such flight AI tuning makes a positive difference... my Vipers seem to win more often with tuning that has a chance of spinning them out, rather than fly more stable. Testing indicates occasionally spinning out is better than losing. 'Meh works' AI tuning was apparently much better in combat than 'how do I get this to fly smoothly' tuning. Don't fix what ain't broke! Viper-ASP MkIIc

Okay, so I stopped being lazy and actually tuned the AI better. And shifted some stuff around very slightly. It's pretty vicious now. Updated version of my fighter. MkIIIb with the original gun arrangement and slightly different AI setup. calling @exbyde just in case.