colmo

Another good release. Ground units don't have any countermeasures defence against unguided or GPS bombs, I think? Now for a contract pack which air-spawns incoming bombers with GPS coordinates for the KSC buildings already locked in! Eh,@inigma? We need a guardmode activated air raid siren!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but how about a part that functions as a foundation for immobile structures? The idea is that it would function like a launch clamp in the way it attaches to the ground (and is thus always upright if built using stakes, I think). The difference is that it would be a simple concrete block, which surface (or node?) attaches to the bottom of a structure (say, a simple ground station with tanks, comms and power). Once built, it's going nowhere. It may even need explosive demolition to remove later, if it isn't on Kerbin! It doesn't decouple and it doesn't generate power, because that would be cheating. Its height is dictated exactly as a launch clamp's is, perhaps with a bevel at the cap to make it more accessible to Kerbals on uneven surfaces, which is rather the point of having it. Its area could be fixed, or there might be several different sizes (different scale factors reusing the same model and texture), or it might be procedural. The advantage of such a part is to prevent the explosions caused by terrain clipping, an issue with KAS ground anchors, and it keeps everything nice and level. As it would require a considerable amount of ore, off-world building might take a while, so it's really only for permanent sites. The objects placed atop it can still be removed (using KIS, KAS, docking or explosive means!) and replaced by similar methods should the need arise. It could also serve as the foundation for a regular EPL launchpad. The recipe for it would be simple, some sort of concrete resource made of processed ore and water.

Has anyone spotted the latest test footage? AI bombs are coming. We'll soon be able to have interceptor and ground attack AI contests. https://youtu.be/bueVUpkcofI

Yes, very Kerbal. There's no requirement for any additional parts, they just make picking them up a little more humanely (Kermanely?) than a toy in an arcade crane machine. A small rover with a command seat would do the job. Perhaps a proximity check for a healthy Kerbal or two covers the abstraction of the injured Kerbal being strapped in, closely enough.

Some lenses are more prone than others - quality and complexity (more lens elements causing light to bounce around between them) play a part. I recall the Firefly series director (think it was Singer) actually sent back the lenses his crew were supplied because he wanted cheaper, more flare prone optics. It was a nod to the Western genre. P.S. delighted this now works in Linux. Downside is I may now need to upgrade my GTX 660 card!

The interim patch allows static objects to have concave colliders again. Squad removed the ability for parts to have them in preparation for Unity 5, but it only matters for parts, not statics.

Death would still be a puff of smoke (unless they're in cockpit), but the idea is Kerbals could be immobile through injury, requiring a stretcher part, KAS or some other means of retrieving them. A medical rescue, where time is against you as they fade away, is the dramatic motivation. Could make for exciting, nail biting missions. Permanent disability is a more debatable mechanic. The idea is to leave you with a choice of keeping a skilled but less able Kerbal, or having to let them go.

This started as a paragraph in the previous post but just got longer and longer... The obvious next step for KKS is damage to Kerbals. After a certain point, they just ragdoll and could die (leaking a life signs resource?) unless strapped into a stretcher and treated for injuries. Cue emergency rescue missions, heliambulances etc. You could even spawn injured Kerbals for rescue contracts. This might warrant a new class of Kerbal - Medical. Different ranks and abilities would be akin to Paramedic, Junior Doctor, Doctor etc. with corresponding increase in ability to treat injured Kerbals. A Paramedic can stop them losing life signs resource (stabilise injuries), a Junior Doctor can increase life signs a small amount as well as stabilise, and the top rank can heal a Kerbal enough they can walk. Only a return to the Astronaut Complex completely heals a greviously injured Kerbal. Perhaps some never fully recover, and either must retire or be restricted to safe missions, were they are unlikely to get injured again, as their max life signs resource would be permanently reduced. Their acquired skills might or might not be enough to keep them around despite their disability.

Re: Water damage, I think the issue is there are no specialist pontoons designed to ditch in the water. They would have a very different KKS damage multiplier specifically when impacting water. I fully expect regular parts made of fuel tanks not to do too well ditching in water - this is what I found. A stock structural part would be tougher and should do OK. I was testing KKS in some AI dogfighting and planes ditching in the ocean manage OK, with a good spread of damage which I thought was fair. Cockpits are very tough, we'll probably need a return to the old days where Kerbals can be killed inside an intact, albeit damaged, cockpit by G shock. I'm hoping for a KKS modlet for BD Armory - KKS renders planes nearly immune to missiles, because BDA imparts thermal rather than KKS physical damage.

Hmm, that's not right. Drop tank is a piece of Kerbal Konstructs runway? - Link

I've been thinking about completely AI scenarios for a while. I came up with a few challenges which lend themselves well to a contract. There have been a few military contracts which spawn an aggressor you have to eliminate, but it might be possible to E.g. - spawn bombers en route to obliterate the KSC, and your job is to intercept them, either using AI or manned flight, - A Wild Weasel mission, to take out a defended radar installation, http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/116352-discussion-thread-bd-armory-ai-tournaments/

As I understand it, damage is to the visual mesh only, not the collider. All KKS does is distort the existing vertices. I'd imagine the KKS mod will add scorch decals down the line, but details like potholes would surely require some extra textures by the part author? Infinite Dice was the only modder to seriously explore a damage mechanic, but Skillful was just too cumbersome to install and required it's own parts. KKS is and has neither. The most practical parameter change to a floating dock would be to buoyancy - a certain (high) threshold of damage could cause reduced buoyancy and it would sink. That may require a KKS modlet.

Try not to make them too tough. I'd like them, when used with KKS, to acquire 'character' as they accumulate minor damage without ever being in danger of going poof. We can always send out a maintenance crew if the dock gets too tatty.

A dock directly in line with the runway. That can only end well.... Such huge parts would be effectively indestructible like static objects, but you could still surface mount other useful objects to them such as robotics, cranes, simple buildings, gantries, storage tanks etc. without having to use KAS (ie. You do it in the SPH). It's possible that if 1.1 does indeed make better use of multiple cores, this won't be a performance issue even if they get quite complex.

I'm not sure how Boat Parts props only worked in water and not atmosphere, but you could use curves to effectively negate any thrust at >0m altitude.

The Kerbinside mod has several nice marina and dock scenery pieces. With the community fix and a big enough offset from the centre line, you could use them to spawn ships in the water (instead of on the static). Offset a rocket far enough, and it spawns on the grass, as I understand it. Same idea for a dock.

Excellent news, the mod was unusable on Linux/Nvidia.

I'm presuming it's only a matter of time before Big Ships gets a Kerbal Krash System modlet? I think the idea of leaving the bridge open is smart. IVAs are the death of modders, you're as well to give us a blank slate to do our own. Ideally they need some kind of aero occlusion, so stray Kerbals and objects don't get pinned to the back wall with the drag of full steam at x4 physics warp.

I'm wondering about non-military applications of the radar? Along with the AI pilot, it's is the most impressive part of the mod. The ability to trigger AI behaviour, action groups, autopilots, kOS, or whatever on radar parameters has almost limitless application. I've asked about autolanding before - in the interim, the ability to 'cheat' land a plane under AI control (teleport it back to a preset position) when it goes out of physics range would be a handy stopgap. There's also the mod that freezes them in middair. Combine all these, and you could have a veritable air traffic control system...

The OSE Workshop would also have a synergistic relationship with this mod. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/97537-105-ose-workshop-kis-addon-v0121-20151212/

Hi all, When I invented the Top Gun AI format, I wasn't happy with the design constraints the starting positions of planes forced on us. I've created a Kerbal Konstructs arena to remedy that, which allows planes to start about 11km apart. I'll run a tournament on it when I have time. This video is a demo, links and notes are in the description. I'm hopeful that we can develop more arenas which test different design decisions - in testing, I found a mountain arena naturally discouraged a low minimum altitude and high steer factor. Edit: or not, I'm mystified by the complete lack of reaction to a useful innovation to the format?

Nothing to see here

Nothing to see here.

Reserved post - I'll expand on how to design arenas when I have more time! The purpose of different arenas is to test AI setup. In testing, my first arena was a mountain, which greatly inhibited line of sight, and posed a deadly risk to planes with minimum altitude set too low and Steer factor too high. Sooner or later, they'd barrel roll right into it. I'll return to that one later. Shoreside is a more straightforward arena to get things started. In time, we can begin introducing ground elements which take advantage of terrain. Radar positioning becomes important, and equipping planes with the means to take them out becomes a viable strategy. Instead of back-to-back High Noon shootouts, the Top Gun AI format can evolve into a more subtle and elaborate contest, testing a wider set of design criteria.