Using BDarmory weapons in space

[NoXion]

So I recently installed BDarmory, North Kerbin Dynamics and Future Weapons and have been playing around with them in sandbox mode. I made a missile that could deliver a Tsar Bomba-style weapon to the Kerbin-facing surface of the Mun in five minutes. I played around my own armoured vehicle designs. I tried making a smaller rocket that could deliver a smaller nuclear bomb to a target in Kerbin orbit, but I couldn't get it to work for some reason. All part of the fun.

It was during the testing phases of a trans-atmospheric Attack Ship design that I encountered an oddity. The prototype craft was approaching the periapsis of its Munar orbit, the plan being to release the rail-mounted B-83 nuclear bomb. However, when I selected that bomb in the weapon manager, KSP froze and I had to kill it with the Task Manager. Which was weird, because the aforementioned Silver Death missile had managed to light up a significant chunk of Kerbin's largest natural satellite with no issues.

So while writing this I've loaded up KSP so I can try a different approach.

OK, I'm back. So I managed to successfully impact the bomb on the Mun's surface by using the fire button on the right-click menu to release it while on a trajectory intersecting the Mun, and then using the powerful engines of the craft to regain a higher orbit. It was all going swimmingly, although I was having some concerns about possibly hitting a particularly prominent mountain or crater rim before being able to jet back up to the big black. As it turned out, such concerns were academic.

While I was worrying about the harsh and torturous terrain rushing past in an uncomfortably close fashion given the circumstances, the B-83 had continued its descent and had, so I thought at the time, dropped out of sight behind one of the many grey promontories that criss-crossed the Mun's pitted dustscape. Some seconds later a mighty explosion was heard booming out into the empty vacuum of space, and the mushroom cloud began to take form.

However, no sooner was I celebrating this obvious sign of success when many parts of the Attack Ship prototype (quite possibly all of them - this happened fast) suddenly developed a nasty rash of angry red bars along with a structural integrity crisis, and with a rapid series of loud bangs the surviving fragments of the erstwhile vessel shot off into the Heavens with great celerity.

So I guess space nukes in KSP don't act like Atomic Rockets says they should, eh?

 

I'd be interested in hearing the experiences of others who have BDarmory and other weapon packs in space.

[ARS]

Your craft is still inside detonation range. It might look like your craft is outside the blast radius, but actually it isn't. I've played with north kerbin dynamic nukes in the past and I can say that there's an "invisible" shockwave effect that can destroy the craft even if it looks like flying outside it's detonation radius. For what I can tell, some weapons behaves slightly different in space. I can use regular machine gun as a literal jetpack (they provide around 5/s Dv per shot), while missiles, bombs and other ordnance have a slightly different trajectory or behavior, such as cluster bomb having a much larger spread or missiles have worse maneuverability. I don't know if mun environment affect the nukes, but one thing that I can say, B83 from north kerbin dynamic has a quite massive blast radius. Just because you didn't touch the mushroom cloud doesn't mean you are safe from blast shockwave

[NoXion]

I guessed as much. Still, I had to laugh when I worked out that the Attack Ship had basically fragged itself. I replaced the B-83 with the smaller yield B-61. Preliminary tests are promising!

I think also what got me was the fact that I was expecting the shockwave to be reduced in a vacuum, like in real life.

Edited February 3, 2018 by NoXion