InfiniteDice

It's a balancing game of hit or miss. Even with the 'rapid and insane' turning, It can still take the missile a few passes to hit. If I restrict that maneuverability then I'll need to make other adjustments to lead the missile in. Again I want a balance here, fun always takes priority over realism, but at the same time I want something somewhat more realistic than not. If I make it too accurate it's no good, if I make it too realistic then it's no good. These are not supposed to be 100% lethal either. A cool excerpt from wiki on the sidewinder: "during the 1982 Falklands War; in this campaign the "Lima" reportedly achieved a kill ratio of around 80%, a dramatic improvement over the 10–15% levels of earlier versions,"... Even though the first sidewinders were works of mechanical genius, they still only downed a target ~10 -15% of the time. (I'm sure more accurate performance info can be found). Lastly the video shows the very first implementation of how it works, meaning it's not done/tuned in any final way. I just thought it was cool enough to include and share for the time being.

Easier said than done Proximity is now in, so with that the missile explodes about ~2m from the target, this should allow for more detonations and less hunting. The missile now also looks in a forward manner, meaning it shouldn't track your own plane, but it has a memory, so if it had aquired a target already in the past it will head for it. Flares will be added - the warning sound I had thought of as well. For the time being dodging does help though it's not guaranteed. Snjo mentioned in a discussion yesterday that even separatrons might do the trick until something official is released - I'm not sure if they run hotter than the average jet engine or not. The seeker just tracks the hottest part for now.

I'd hate to be argumentative but that just isn't the case. Parts IRL are designed to meet certain specifications yes. In reality what they can sustain must be factored by time. Look at wheel bearings on your car or any moving part, friction and heat kills everything given time. Just trying to say... just because a part is rated or has a max heat of 4000 doesn't mean it can't fail at 2000. Maybe it's rated to 4000 for 10 minutes, 2 minutes or 30 seconds. The issue with KSP is that there are stock events that happen at 100% max heat.... part X explodes into nothing. The heat bar seems to be not a 1:1 scale so when I'm intercepting part destruction from heat at 85% or whatever on the bar it's only showing 1/2 way. Skillful now has every part report heat. So you'll be able to accurately keep an eye on that. I really don't know what the issue with overheating is, I've made tons of aircraft and rockets, I had maybe 1 that liked to overheat, so I used a) less throttle till the temps declined or redesigned the rocket slightly to soak more of the heat. With SRBs that's the only way to solve it... redesign it so the engines are not so close, or so they have other parts to cool them. Using Deadly re-entry seems to exacerbate the issue, probably because it's adding more heat to the part, which skillful then tracks.

I haven't, it's strange as it happens whether or not you actually activate any sounds from skillful. Likely all the sound code will need to be checked/changed.

GUYS - Update coming soon... Some major things are now changed, some good some you might think bad. I discovered so many issues with how skillful was saving and loading data that I decided to scrap the whole 9 yards. Gone: 1) part polling to add skillful to every part automatically. 2) per part saving and loading to maintain damage state. Why: Lots of code... most of the time it worked - but when it doesn't it's super annoying. Speed, I find it's causing some slowdowns. Lastly quicksaving and loading, my code didn't support it. The solution: I have included a function in the skillful manager batch file (option #1) this will copy skillful enabled CFGs over all stock KSP parts in the game. Uninstalation isn't needed if you remove skillful the module addition in the CFG won't cause any issues. Snjo has agreed to ship out the next release of Firespitter with support for this change. I'll see what I can do for b9 and I'll post details so other modders know how to add the module. If you guys think it's a mod that would benefit from supporting it you could suggest to them that they add it. The Bad: Parts from other mods will need manual changes to their CFGs to be usable with Skillful. Yes this is a pain in the butt. Much like FAR, but it's really the only way to reliably move forward since we can't use KSPAddon to add a module and maintain that modules persistent data. Play testing has shown much better response, better damage, everything seems to be working better. As I mentioned once I have the time to go over using Module Manager as an option I'll pack it up and update the download. Shouldn't be too much longer. This update doesn't add any new models. It's more of a tweak to coincide with the BoatParts support update. Other Notes: Changed the targeting of both missiles and CIWS - they now track and fire at different parts of the vessel. Looks much better and the hits get spread more randomly over the whole vessel... in the past they were simply always aiming at the vessel center. Thanks! I'll keep you updated.

All Skillful bombs that are HE will throw shrapnel to some degree. For magical effect...... you can load the asteroid with skillful ammo (look at a gun or crate) or add oxy and liquid fuel.... That when penetrated by an HE round/warhead will make it blow biggie time.

Exactly For now that works... What you really want to do would be similar what I did with my old Stealth bomber drop tank. In the part add docking port as well as command module. Why? if you drop it then want to pick it up later it will likely be labeled debris and be unloaded. I made a floating drop tank so I could resupply ships at sea, back when I was using liquid fuel for the first carrier... it was a fuel hog!

This might be what needs to be done. The IFF tags will always be needed for side determination for auto turrets. When testing the BoatParts 4.5 update I'm working on I have discovered a bunch of issues that has made me have to change some stuff around. I'll be able to share more details soon.

No problems I like conversation. If the .mu contains 2 meshes, really that won't increase the footprint much - given that the same texture is used. If you have two separate meshes, you can use a different uvw map for that mesh using the same texture - only the damaged mesh map would use the portion of that texture associated to damage. The drawback is one high res texture, incorporating both damaged and undamaged areas for the part, or two lower res textures. If you use two high res textures for both, then the footprint will be double... In my case I use one texture for both meshes, I think the footprint increase is less than 40k from using 2 meshes instead of one.

I had an implementation of this in skillful 5 months ago. I found the difficulty came in when the bullet hole/damage texture was applied to a non-flat surface, or happened to be spawned at the edge of a mesh. Some complex handling would be needed or a custom shader to make it worth the while. Otherwise it ends up looking cheap. A better thing that could be done would be using a unity projector, to project a damage skin over the default skin. I really haven't had the time to look into this further, but in tests it seems that it would work better as the projector casts onto the damaged part. Still tricky to implement as the damage could overlap other parts that are in the way. The simplest way is what I have already done, basically once in a damaged state, exchange the mesh and 'hopefully' use the same texture. This makes some visual damage appear but unfortunately it's not random in appearance. Unless multiple damage meshes are made and randomly chosen.

Thanks. Bit of a delay, the mini-sub was a hassle to balance in the water, I decided to write some pitch balancing for the subs. I'm 90% done it, but will need testing to ensure it works of course. I'll keep you guys/girls updated.

#1 my back is feeling better. #2 with spring comes more RL stuff I can't avoid, this cuts into modding time. #3 Yes the 4.5 update is nearly balanced. I'm hoping tonight or tomorrow night.

The problem is the vessel code itself is restrictive, you'd essentially need to write code to interact with the stock module and maintain all it's needs, which is a whole mod in itself as mentioned, autopilot/mechjeb type of interaction. If mechjeb can autopilot in-atmosphere (when you are not in control of the vessel) then this would be ideal. But I don't think it can - or ever will.

Simply sets the node connection ball (draw) size. This doesn't have an impact on the strength but signifies what nodes should connect to one another. Because connected parts misbehave if connected to another part that is less than something like 1/10th it's mass. (not sure if this holds true for 0.23.5) The result used to be the wet-noodle connection where the parts would slip and slide on one another excessively. I think squad used those node sizes originally to say.. this part is large connect it to another large part.

Yeah and it's an old one. I'm well aware of it but for some silly reason there was a reason I did this (I think) many boat parts are not symmetrical so I never bothered with it. I can pass you a part... if you want to play with nodes. Here is a taste: // --- ****Lower Ring**** // --- All the Left/Right // --- Center node_stack_right = 4.5, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 node_stack_left = -4.5, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 // ---Forward node_stack_right = 4.5, 0.0, -3.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 node_stack_left = -4.5, 0.0, -3.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 // ---Backward node_stack_right = 4.5, 0.0, 3.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 node_stack_left = -4.5, 0.0, 3.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 // --- All the Front/Back Nodes // --- Center node_stack_back = 0.0, 0.0, 4.5, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 node_stack_front = 0.0, 0.0, -4.5, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 // --- Left node_stack_back = -3.0, 0.0, 4.5, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 node_stack_front = -3.0, 0.0, -4.5, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 // --- Right node_stack_back = 3.0, 0.0, 4.5, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 node_stack_front = 3.0, 0.0, -4.5, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 // --- ****Upper Ring **** // --- All the Left/Right // --- Center node_stack_right = 4.5, 6.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 node_stack_left = -4.5, 6.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 // ---Forward node_stack_right = 4.5, 6.0, -3.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 node_stack_left = -4.5, 6.0, -3.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 // ---Backward node_stack_right = 4.5, 6.0, 3.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 node_stack_left = -4.5, 6.0, 3.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 // --- All the Front/Back Nodes // --- Center node_stack_back = 0.0, 6.0, 4.5, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 node_stack_front = 0.0, 6.0, -4.5, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 // --- Left node_stack_back = -3.0, 6.0, 4.5, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 node_stack_front = -3.0, 6.0, -4.5, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 // --- Right node_stack_back = 3.0, 6.0, 4.5, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 node_stack_front = 3.0, 6.0, -4.5, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3 That is the original R2 carrier center lift.

Mods are more than capable of implementing AI baddies. I don't see any issues stopping it. Many mods just do not have the scope to need it. Skillful is one of those mods that could make use of it and indeed I've pondered it in the past. However I'm only one person, so my idea was more of a very basic target practice AI. Have aircraft fly in to attack the KSC for example, with different modes: The catch is... these wouldn't be KSP vessels made of parts, just gameobjects that would register a hit and fall apart. And they likely wouldn't dogfight, just perhaps launch a few missiles or drop some bombs. In any case I'd love to do it... just a matter of the investment in time.

FYI: I've managed to hurt my back in a minor way... nothing permanent. It makes sitting for more than 30 minutes uncomfortable so I'll likely be taking it easy on modding for the next few weeks. So I don't want to see things like ID hasn't posted in three days! What will happen to his mods! I'm slowly working on BoatParts to get it working and rebalanced. Re-balancing all the parts and re-building all the crafts and then testing them is time consuming. Be assured it will be updated on spaceport soon and I'll make note of the update in this thread. Later guys! Note on the above images. Yes that's the hull. I didn't model it off any battleships but it's the size of a battleship I simply call the parts R5 Warship Hull etc. I suppose based on how you arm it it could be a battleship or a cruiser.

Hi, Thanks for the post. The ammo one I was aware of, one of those things that I just haven't had the time to squash! The CIWS 'shouldn't' be manually aiming. You simply double click a target and it will rotate to the target. I'll be looking into this if you're saying it's moving when pressing keys! One issue with jumping might be the code for KSP connection strengths was changed. The connection strength on the turret is probably now too high, also the turret since it holds so many rounds is very heavy - a common issue is that if mounted to a part that has less than 1/10 it's own mass.. it gets 'attached like a wet noodle' syndrome. I think I may have made a mistake by connecting it to a stock KSP panel. Try a redesign with the breakingForce = 200 and the breakingTorque = 200 - attach it to a heavy part and see if it still behaves strange. Could also be that it attaches in a clipped position. I intended it to clip in a bit on the surface attach. Making a bottom stack attach point and using that might make for an improvement. Yes... Nothing on the turret will move. Unfortunate but that is really a mod in itself in the form of DR or IR (robotics). I simply didn't have the time to see how they managed to do it and implement my own code. I suggest slapping an IR rotatable of the correct size under the turret. It then supports adding items to it as it should! Thanks for the suggestions, I'll look at your node placement for the vehicle tub, as you assumed it's one of the parts that was a placeholder - that was never finished, it's mostly covered in many applications so I cut a corner with that one. Tanya: I'll surely talk to you about ideas. Toss me a pm. Another note: I've managed to hurt my back in a minor way... nothing permanent. It makes sitting for more than 30 minutes uncomfortable so I'll likely be taking it easy on modding for the next few weeks. So I don't want to see things like ID hasn't posted in three days! What will happen to his mods! I'm slowly working on BoatParts to get it working and rebalanced. Re-balancing all the parts and re-building all the crafts and then testing them is time consuming. Be assured it will be updated on spaceport soon and I'll make note of the update in the BoatParts thread. Later guys!

I'm on a live stream, come hang out and ask some questions. http://www.twitch.tv/dirt_merchant

There is no benefit from node sizes at all as far as I know. Node size balls are just indicators. This is why you can attach a size 1 to a size 3. It could be that squad put them there to differentiate between parts that mesh well together, as having parts with too much variation attach to one another causes them sip around something silly. Furthermore I did extensive tests when I made the first BoatParts, didn't see any evidence that a larger node did anything at all. All I know is that there is something seriously different/wrong with the new code in ARM. All my previously strong crafts are pulling themselves apart. I'm getting fluctuation between parts which are causing aircraft on the deck to actually fling off the deck I'll have to look for a way to roll back those changes they made.

Adding a note to this... Expect update soon and support for Skillful as well.

Maybe, maybe not. There are a bunch of issues getting things to behave more realistically. One thing lacking is mass. A lot of KSP crafts are built from aircraft parts, which simply don't have enough mass. If you want something to behave like it's 40 tons, make it 40 tons. Then tune the wheels/tracks to match. Too little torque it's sliding down hills, too much... pop a wheelie. Unity wheels are the root of the problem, a bunch of variables that not too many people know how to tune properly - experienced people usually just avoid it all together and write their own wheel code.

Should be at least half decent since it took me more than 3 months of spare time. Haha... This mod doesn't in any way support multiplayer. What I've striven for is a decent single player experience whereby you take turns between factions. It could easily be used pseudo pbem... trading a file back and forth if people were so determined. I don't think I'd have time to support anything other than an official multiplayer. Not that I dislike KMP in any way I think it's great. I just can't take the time to code for something that might change, I really have no choice with things that are in the base game, as it's there regardless. Then I'd get into supporting two totally different multiplayer variants. Also I haven't really made up my mind if Skillful will ever support stock multiplayer even when it comes out... as I don't know how squad will implement it, or how much of it will be open for change being Skillful bypasses many KSP mechanics.

There are a number of mods that are space based and would do well to have some weapons designed for space, I want to fill that void with Skillful R2. They will be ranging from not very advanced to futuristic. They will all have limits and will keep in-line with other skillful delivery systems. One thing it will do is concentrate more on combat in space. My goal isn't to make anything one shot kill, or so accurate that it hits every single time. If you look at star wars... supposedly advanced but man do they miss a LOT! Star trek is by far more advanced as they never really miss they always hit but many times fail to penetrate shields. I already have code for force-fields - working but not complete. I'll be adding some futuristic space torpedoes reminiscent of photon torpedoes. And blaster type weapons that shoot bolts (like star wars turbo lasers), I'm not doing solid lasers. Being that the kerbals are not very advanced means they will be a bit wonky in looks and likely not very reliable. Don't expect canon items from popular Sci-fi. I haven't made much for space and it's a space game afterall. I'll suggest that if anyone doesn't want to use them, don't But they'll be so cool.. I'm sure you'll like them.