I was wondering why everyone makes I beam missiles instead of conventional cannons

[evader]

so rather than doing the smart thing and asking around the forums, I thought I'd make my own cannon experiment with explosive primers.

My original capital ship is an ion powered/conventional booster hybrid with PB-NUKs producing all the power needed.  I replaced it with the single huge engine for this video because all those PB-NUKs slowed my PC to a crawl.

P.S.: this is a shameless plug to get featured on spacecraft Fridays

Edited February 23, 2016 by evader

[pTrevTrevs]

I was wondering if it was possible...

I'm going to have do something like this myself now.

[Spartwo]

Hoping this isn't a rhetorical question and giving an answer.  Up until 1.1 mass accelerators saw fairly common use amongst players that knew how to use them. For the last 3 years they saw use. They were amazing for close quarters due to the instant acceleration.

The heating update caused rounds to often explode when acted upon making them far too unreliable for use.

 

I beams see so much use because they are thin, light and have a high impact tolerence.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Spartwo

[evader]

2 minutes ago, Spartwo said:

Hoping this isn't a rhetorical question and giving an answer.

Yes it was. 

[Spartwo]

Sorry, I love mass cannons and as far as I know I'm the first to ever militarise them.

 

Oooooh

The acceleration is a result of the explosion. That's really cool. Looks like decent velocity but accuracy must be an issue.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Spartwo

[evader]

1 minute ago, Spartwo said:

Sorry, I love mass cannons and as far as I know I'm the first to ever militarise them.

It's alright, that was just a bait topic to show my 1st weaponized capital ship I've made but yours had way better results.  All cannon-like creations are welcome in this topic.

[Guest]

You know, that second video of yours gave me an idea.

What about making a melee space fighter?

Put two opposing engines in front of the craft or something and charge at other crafts, making the flame hit the parts and explode them.

[evader]

34 minutes ago, Spartwo said:

Sorry, I love mass cannons and as far as I know I'm the first to ever militarise them.

 

Oooooh

The acceleration is a result of the explosion. That's really cool. Looks like decent velocity but accuracy must be an issue.

Its accuracy is horrible.  The MK1 tube leaves too much of a gap with the oscar sized cannon round & results in the shell tumbling with about a 40 degree random horizontal field of fire.  Perhaps a sabot case would increase accuracy.

[selfish_meme]

I use what I call my BFG (Big Friendly Greeting) rounds, they can range up to 6km on the surface accurately, never tried them in space, you can see them and in action in my tank thread, at peak speed they can vaporise structural plate, they are small, light and accurate, you could adapt them into your gun there.

 

[RixKillian]

A very intriguing idea! Are you sure that the acceleration of the projectile comes from the explosion? Tests that I have done seemed to show that part explosions don't actually affect anything around them. The set up you have leads me to believe that the tank explodes due to heat, and the rocket engine just pushes the nosecone out since it has a higher max heat.

You might try angling the rocket engine at 90 degrees to the barrel to check the effectiveness of the tank explosion.

Either way, that's an interesting method and I'd love to see how it evolves!

[evader]

3 hours ago, RixKillian said:

A very intriguing idea! Are you sure that the acceleration of the projectile comes from the explosion? Tests that I have done seemed to show that part explosions don't actually affect anything around them. The set up you have leads me to believe that the tank explodes due to heat, and the rocket engine just pushes the nosecone out since it has a higher max heat.

You might try angling the rocket engine at 90 degrees to the barrel to check the effectiveness of the tank explosion.

Either way, that's an interesting method and I'd love to see how it evolves!

Just realized this is true after testing your claim.  I guess it's more of an air cannon than explosive artillery.  This led me to believe this has no benefits over I beam rockets until I up scaled to an MK3 cannon.

The results were more than satisfying.  Accuracy improved too.

Edited February 23, 2016 by evader

[RixKillian]

16 hours ago, evader said:

Just realized this is true after testing your claim.  I guess it's more of an air cannon than explosive artillery.  This led me to believe this has no benefits over I beam rockets until I up scaled to an MK3 cannon.

The results were more than satisfying.  Accuracy improved too.

That's awesome! Now we have devastating mortars in KSP 

[Heckspress]

On 2/23/2016 at 9:07 PM, Aperture Science said:

What about making a melee space fighter?

Put two opposing engines in front of the craft or something and charge at other crafts, making the flame hit the parts and explode them.

ooohhh yesss

[evader]

Obligatory test of MK3 cannon in space.  I created an over engineered, super laggy "pocket" dreadnought with fighter hanger bays and flak missiles.  It held about 14 of these large shells in a revolver configuration.  The 600+ part monster was warping as it turned and the lag proved too much to bear.  In the end when I finally managed a hit, it bounced off like a harmless nerf ball.

On ‎23‎/‎02‎/‎2016 at 9:43 PM, selfish_meme said:

I use what I call my BFG (Big Friendly Greeting) rounds, they can range up to 6km on the surface accurately, never tried them in space, you can see them and in action in my tank thread, at peak speed they can vaporise structural plate, they are small, light and accurate, you could adapt them into your gun there.

 

I tested those rounds by warping the T-54 to space.  Its rounds have by far the best velocity for their size compared to the anything I made but without guidance ability it was very difficult to hit in space so I got no screenshots to show it.  In the end I managed a hit that stripped the entire front of my destroyer up to the structural plates.  It was still operational, although with damaged primary armament.

After the failure of the MK3 cannon in space, I tried different missiles.  Some with I beam filled flak warheads (they're more like grape shot missiles than flak) that at best got lodged in the barrel of my destroyer and warped it.

On ‎23‎/‎02‎/‎2016 at 9:07 PM, Aperture Science said:

You know, that second video of yours gave me an idea.

What about making a melee space fighter?

Put two opposing engines in front of the craft or something and charge at other crafts, making the flame hit the parts and explode them.

I then tried something to that extent except it was more like a space mine.  Only works at slow, close proximities (or at higher speeds as a kinetic round but it's not practical to store in a ship when a smaller missile will do).  It triggers flames all around, destroying anything unarmoured without a direct hit.  I call it the morning star seeker mine.

In the end though, I've found the target seeking missiles in my 1st video (the side mounted ones on my destroyer) the most practical for space combat.  They're more like semi lock on at longer distances as they need manual compensation to account for orbit distortion.

Edited March 5, 2016 by evader

[Planetfall]

On February 23, 2016 at 8:07 PM, Aperture Science said:

You know, that second video of yours gave me an idea.

What about making a melee space fighter?

Put two opposing engines in front of the craft or something and charge at other crafts, making the flame hit the parts and explode them.

Like a flamethrower!!  that sounds awesome!

I'm totally going to try that when I get home. 

[evader]

 

If you can't beat em, join em!  I gave it another go at saving my failed destroyer capital ship design by adapting the ammo rounds from the T-54 tank for space.  For zero gravity warfare, I had to compact it down in size to store in the ship, added a probe, SAS gyro stabilizer, PB-NUK, and kept the RCS thrusters for remote reloading but this time I used the tiny sized tank and added a docking port jr to snap the ammo into place after reloading.  Reloading is now faster and the ammo flies super stable, able to penetrate armour plating (your success will vary).  Its docking port casing explodes away when the separatrons activate, just like a bullet.  I believe the key was in not using radial decouplers that stay attached on the side after separation which can off balance the round causing it to fly erratically.

The ship was not only up gunned, its barrel length was shortened now that accuracy is no longer dependant on the cannon (which is now more of a rocket launch tube).  Cargo space was slightly increased and it now holds 9 rounds + the 2 long range missiles from before.

The video shows a hit from 1.5km away.

 

Edited February 28, 2016 by evader

[selfish_meme]

1 hour ago, evader said:

 

If you can't beat em, join em!  I gave it another go at saving my failed destroyer capital ship design by adapting the ammo rounds from the T-54 tank for space.  For zero gravity warfare, I had to compact it down in size to store in the ship, added a probe, SAS gyro stabilizer, PB-NUK, and kept the RCS thrusters for remote reloading but this time I used the tiny sized tank and added a docking port jr to snap the ammo into place after reloading.  Reloading is now faster and the ammo flies super stable, able to penetrate armour plating (your success will vary).  Its docking port casing explodes away when the separatrons activate, just like a bullet.  I believe the key was in not using radial decouplers that stay attached on the side after separation which can off balance the round causing it to fly erratically.

The ship was not only up gunned, its barrel length was shortened now that accuracy is no longer dependant on the cannon (which is now more of a rocket launch tube).  Cargo space was slightly increased and it now holds 9 rounds + the 2 long range missiles from before.

The video shows a hit from 1.5km away.

 

A new era of interplanetary warfare has begun! I would like to claim credit for originally developing the BFG round, but it seems I developed it independently after @Mad Rocket Scientist had used something very similar as a mortar round on his Jeep. And now you have expanded upon it again for space warfare! Good stuff.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

2 minutes ago, selfish_meme said:

A new era of interplanetary warfare has begun! I would like to claim credit for originally developing the BFG round, but it seems I developed it independently after @Mad Rocket Scientist had used something very similar as a mortar round on his Jeep. And now you have expanded upon it again for space warfare! Good stuff.

Mine never were especially powerful.  Just compact, and they used 5 sep motors, one to depress the trajectory so that it would hit a reliable distance away from the firing point.

[evader]

Updated with download link and now comes with a launch stage for those who refuse to use hyper edit.

Edited February 29, 2016 by evader

[evader]

But wait there's more!  Now the cannon technology has been improved to cause massive damage.  While it cannot match separatron rounds in terms of velocity, its heavier mass inflicts superior damage to armour plating if its guidance stage is not discarded.  The sabot round carries a longer I beam with the cylindrical fairing aiding in keeping the round oriented in the cannon chamber.

The frigate (which looks more like an ironclad) developed around this armament carries 3 rounds, reloading from a hatch that opens from the top.  The 1st round is fairly accurate at 1km but the rest should be fired at closer range (it has a steeper learning curve than my other ships).

Finally, a working alternative to rocket powered projectiles.  I await my Nobel Peace prize military contract award.

...

 

...

 

* cricket chirping ensues *.

 

Edited March 2, 2016 by evader