The Stock Weapons Challenge

[The_Rocketeer]

On 11/12/2016 at 8:23 PM, DoctorDavinci said:

So I'll just leave this here ........

 

Lolwhut?

[HalcyonSon]

13 hours ago, Krog34 said:

YES! Nice weapon! This is exactly what I want to see!

Very cool design!  The impactor reminds me of TinTin's rocket.  Seems a bit Rube Goldberg though... I was expecting it to hit the VAB at near-orbital speed.  Instead, we get 700 m/s?  Hardly a Rod from God.  It would be the ultimate shock troop delivery weapon.

I'll give this a try tonight.  I'm thinking a bunch of 0.625m fuel tanks and heat-shields offset into each other should be suitably dense to maintain the needed speed.  Maybe make it a MIRV on top of a 2.5m core.  I bet I can carpet bomb the entire KSC from orbit.

Edited December 13, 2016 by HalcyonSon

[Azimech]

On 11-12-2016 at 9:23 PM, DoctorDavinci said:

So I'll just leave this here ........

Save file link can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dg08csiaqi35duj/AADVpyWmfu9n8kw-wJ4ectJfa?dl=0

I might try a catapult next

Out of bubblegum?

[Torquimedes]

I suspect people have rediscovered this periodically through KSP’s history, but it was news to me and helpful for building stock weapons and targets.  This applies to striking craft with weapons rather than buildings.

@moronwrocket built an impact test rig and performed empirical testing, which demonstrated that the “impact tolerance” listed for parts refers to momentum imparted by a collision rather than the speed of collision.  Since a full tank is heavier than an empty one, it takes a lot more momentum to jolt it hard enough to break.  This is counterintuitive to those of us who think of full tanks as thin-skinned barely-contained infernos, instead of solid objects.

For example:

• An orange tank’s impact tolerance is 6m/s, and it masses 36 tons full and 4 tons empty.  
• To break a full orange tank, we need an impactor with a momentum of (36 t x 6 m/s =) 216 tons-meters per second.  
• This could be a Launch Escape System (1.1 t) moving at 200 m/s at the time of impact = 220 tm/s
• This could also be a Large Holding Tank full of ore (17 t) impacting at only 14 m/s = 238 tm/s
• Converselty, to break an empty orange tank, we only need (4 t x 6 m/s =) 24 tm/s
• An X200-32 tank has half the full/empty mass of an orange tank, so its breakpoints are 108 tm/s full and 12 tm/s empty
• Aircraft wings are very fragile (most are <4 tm/s)
• Mk2/Mk3 parts are not (Mk2 14.5 - 228.5 tm/s) (Mk3 89.5 - 2857 tm/s)

@moronwrocket‘s research also demonstrated that the heavy impactor “warhead” should be the first thing that strikes the target.  If you use a nosecone for streamlining, when the nosecone impacts it has a very low chance to damage a heavy target, and a high chance of slowing the warhead behind it, which robs it of momentum.

Once you impact one part of a craft hard enough to break it, that part collides against any parts attached to it with its own momentum, potentially causing secondary explosions.

In a practical application of this research, I constructed a torpedo out of a full 1.25 m ore tank (3.5 t impactor) with two inline stabilizers for torque and a Panther for its gimbal, all offset inside the ore tank for maximum maneuverability.  Then I had to build an attack submarine that fired a torpedo at a guided-missile frigate that fired an ASROC and sank each other.  (No Kerbals were harmed during these operations, all craft are drones.)

KSP Version: 1.2.2 .  Mods EditorExtensionsRedux and HangarGrid were used to construct the vessels, and HyperEdit put them to sea.  No parts were added, altered or resized with mods.  All are pure stock.  Video best viewed fullscreen.

 

Edited December 14, 2016 by Torquimedes

[moronwrocket]

I do it for science!

[Krog34]

A little stock weapon I've been working on! Granted...this particular GIF it happen to inflict exactly zero damage haha!

The Mobile V2 Launcher

 

Edited December 30, 2016 by Krog34

[Torquimedes]

On 12/30/2016 at 2:02 AM, Krog34 said:

The Mobile V2 Launcher

That is an impressive deployment scheme!  I see you test-fired it enough times to know exactly when to deploy the legs.for an immediate launch.

Quote

A little stock weapon I've been working on! Granted...this particular GIF it happen to inflict exactly zero damage haha!

That B-52 fuselage is constructed out of some pretty tough parts.  You hit it with enough force to spin that BUFF  Fling missiles downrange until one of them hits a wing and you should see some damage.  

 

[Kerbal inquisitor]

Wait... A rocket-powered stock railgun is allowed, right?

[RA3236]

Technically, a Intercontinental Ballistic Missile wouldn't count, wouldn't it?

[Rath]

A ICBM Would.

[RA3236]

6 hours ago, Rath said:

A ICBM Would.

So it would count if I launched it, put it into an orbit and deorbited into the KSC2?

[Rath]

I'm sure.

[Krog34]

On 12/31/2016 at 9:08 AM, Torquimedes said:

That is an impressive deployment scheme!  I see you test-fired it enough times to know exactly when to deploy the legs.for an immediate launch.

Yea... I don't want to go into the dozen's of hours of test rigs and rotating joint flop ideas haha. This one seemed to work particularly well, with minimal unwanted explosions!

[Krog34]

When the island attacks using stock weapons what should we do!?

Return fire with MORE stock weapons!!

 

 

[PlonioFludrasco]

Nice challenge and nice crafts everyone!

Just a question, is KOS allowed for guidance scripting or also the control has to be stock (pilot and/or stock SAS)?

[RA3236]

2 minutes ago, PlonioFludrasco said:

Nice challenge and nice crafts everyone!

Just a question, is KOS allowed for guidance scripting or also the control has to be stock (pilot and/or stock SAS)?

That's a good question...

[KandoKris]

Its been a while since stock weapons hit the forum. Its nice but.

 below r some missiles and rockets made up for fighters I created long ago.

 

I expect with all the great new WMD's out there I'll have to update to compete. I'll make a gif for the challenge tonight. 

Edited January 5, 2017 by KandoKris
bad grammer

[Krog34]

8 minutes ago, PlonioFludrasco said:

Nice challenge and nice crafts everyone!

Just a question, is KOS allowed for guidance scripting or also the control has to be stock (pilot and/or stock SAS)?

The control has to be stock too! In my video, the 3 "homing missiles" are all using target-lock to auto follow a target once at launching speeds.

[DoctorDavinci]

17 hours ago, PlonioFludrasco said:

Nice challenge and nice crafts everyone!

Just a question, is KOS allowed for guidance scripting or also the control has to be stock (pilot and/or stock SAS)?

If you use KOS then the game is no longer stock, n'est pas?

[jtsnorwood]

I`m a horrible pilot and my aim is terrible in this video, but I`ve tested its stability and the Webber Air-To-Ground Fighter is more than capable of destroying the VAB (When I`m not recording of course because... I`m cursed?

 

Edited January 7, 2017 by jtsnorwood

[RA3236]

I have a prototype of my ICBM. No pics, but it currently has a problem with the fairing overheating. It also has excess fuel and electrical storage and unfortunately doesn't make a large enough explosion. Technically, if I armed it with a BDA missile warhead it would be easier, but four ore 1.25m tanks don't cut it. My aim is actually fairly good using Trajectories, and I managed at best 20 meters from the KSC 2 dish.

Edited January 7, 2017 by RA3236

[Torquimedes]

12 hours ago, jtsnorwood said:

I`m a horrible pilot and my aim is terrible in this video, but I`ve tested its stability and the Webber Air-To-Ground Fighter is more than capable of destroying the VAB (When I`m not recording of course because... I`m cursed?

Practice makes perfect.  And what could be more fun than practice flying a plane you built to launch weapons you built at buildings you... need?

If you have a joystick, that can make flying planes more intuitive than keyboard controls, but you may have to adjust the per-axis sensitivity to each plane's control authority.

That looks like a proper ground-attack aircraft.  Interesting combo of fast-burning and slow-burning solid rockets on the missiles.

You could launch the missiles via action groups instead of staging by mapping them to 1,2,3,4.  Then it's easy to fire any combo you want without adjusting staging in flight (but props for pulling that off).

You get bonus points in my book for dropping the engines as bombs and then landing that plane afterward!

 

[Servo]

I built a rotary bomb-dropper for my B-52, and I've been carpet bombing the KSP all afternoon. One pass on the RnD section, I managed to blow up the observatory, so I guess that counts. I've yet to be able to knock out the VAB, though better designed bombs will probably be capable of that. My typical bombing run occurs about 1000m altitude, 100m/s. I drop bombs in groups of six 1.5, 1.3, and 1.1km from the target.

The bombs are 2x mk0 nose cone, 2x mk0 LF tank (full), and 4 fins. It's insane watching them impact, typically in groups of two, in a massive streak of fire on the ground.

[panzerknoef]

I've come up with a pretty jet equipped with 2 bombs capable of destroying the VAB, but only if you're moving at a high enough speed, since the bombs aren't exactly heavy duty material. Adding beams to them has significantly improved their performance though

And also some guided bombs, they only work when being dropped fairly vertically though, but their accuracy is surprisingly high! And no I haven't touched anything during the drop of that bomb except for putting it on the target node, it's self guiding.

 

 

Edited January 10, 2017 by panzerknoef

[Krog34]

17 hours ago, panzerknoef said:

I've come up with a pretty jet equipped with 2 bombs capable of destroying the VAB, but only if you're moving at a high enough speed, since the bombs aren't exactly heavy duty material. Adding beams to them has significantly improved their performance though

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Beautiful bombers! This is exactly what I was hoping to see! Love your guided bomb!