Mod vs. Stock Military Craft...

[Kerbol Prime]

Some stock weapons are actually quite effective, however compared to romfarer and the like, it's stone-age spears and rocks versus 21st century military.

Edited October 31, 2013 by Kerbol Prime

[CpPolar268]

Mod vs Stock dosent matter...

... the Jeb side will always win

[TheDarkStar]

One successful weapon is to drive next to something with a high-thrust engine. Both sides are propelled away (unless you have something to counter that thrust, like an engine on the opposite side). It's the same principle behind Kerbal cannons.

[swiftgates24]

Yeah, we're talking cave-men throwing rocks at multi-nuclear missile launchers and aliens shooting giant death lasers from space. (Pssst, the cave-men lose.)

[NASAFanboy]

You also much know, that I've also made cannons out of mainsails that have fired projectiles at targets up to 70000KM away in space-and have hit their targets. Stock weapons are as good and as effective as mod weapons in many cases...after all, lazors cannot stand much chance against a missile sailing toward them at 56% light speed.

[RocketTurtle]

At 56% lightspeed the missile would clip through the target.

[NASAFanboy]

At 56% lightspeed the missile would clip through the target.

Yes, but on my tests, the speed of the missile would "corrupt" the surronding craft, destroying them or rendering them beyond use.

I go onto 56% while doing 4x physics warp, flicking SAS on and off, turning over and over, which utilizes the space kraken as a weapon.

It's managed to destroy vessels 2,000KM away, and even send EVA Kerbals and landed craft to the hell kraken

Edited November 1, 2013 by NASAFanboy

[Wahgineer]

Yes, but on my tests, the speed of the missile would "corrupt" the surronding craft, destroying them or rendering them beyond use.

I go onto 56% while doing 4x physics warp, flicking SAS on and off, turning over and over, which utilizes the space kraken as a weapon.

This is probably the only case where a stock weapon is superior to a mod weapon.

But in the end, its really just bows and arrows against the lightning. (kudos to whoever gets the reference)

[_Aramchek_]

yeah, really it isn't though, stock weapons can do some real damage too.

[Scrogdog]

This is probably the only case where a stock weapon is superior to a mod weapon.

But in the end, its really just bows and arrows against the lightning. (kudos to whoever gets the reference)

War of the Worlds. Not sure it's in the movie version though.

So, stupid question time. What does one use weapons for, exactly? Debris removal?

[Beachernaut]

What does one use weapons for, exactly? Debris removal?

Some do, but most use them to destroy other ships. I personally use stock weapons. I really like the mod weapons, but it's entirely too easy. Destroying an armored ship with stock weapons provides it's own sense of accomplishment.

[Wahgineer]

Kudos to Scrogdog!

And to answer you question:

Either for a war series on youtube, personal enjoyment, or a war server (using KMP)

[annallia]

War of the Worlds. Not sure it's in the movie version though.

So, stupid question time. What does one use weapons for, exactly? Debris removal?

For giggles. At least that is my use of them. Large debris removal too (I've tried hitting small debris but... well its hard to hit that broken solar panel).

That said as far as stock weapons go (never used mod weapons) they serve the purpose I put them to adequately. I have made ground based missiles that could reach the mun, also made military craft that could perform orbital strikes. 99% of the time their sole purpose is to give me a few giggles taking down a decommissioned space station or when I move my munar bases (easier to launch another than move the current one).

[_Aramchek_]

I built a gun, I'll post a vid later tonight, it's projectiles reach 5km/s in a second and it is super accurate.

[_Aramchek_]

Just a quick proof of concept. I think I can make it a lot more efficient and it can definitely be smaller...and go on a ship, and scaled up or down..

[NASAFanboy]

Just a quick proof of concept. I think I can make it a lot more efficient and it can definitely be smaller...and go on a ship, and scaled up or down..

Does .cfg count as modding?

I have an idea.

So, shall we revisit the concept of a space gun? Maybe a gigantic mainsail that would fire Jeb to Duna, equipped with parts for giant tripods and a lasor mod.

[_Aramchek_]

That would definitely be a mod, and I would very much like to see it.

The explosions in my vid are the decouplers by the way, the actual projectile hits 30km/s and is dead accurate. So a huge version would likely do exactly what you've said.

[Rex3921]

Well If ya want Laser controlled missiles using Stock parts, then use a small fuel tank, engine and unmanned remote pod thingy then shoot it. Press [ or ] key to switch to it,set target and control! It's probably best if you set target before as well to line up!

-Rex3921

[katateochi]

The thing about human ingenuity is; you give us a toothpick and some chewing gum and will find a way to weaponise it. So in that respect stock weapons are fun and more creative. But the mod weapons are also great for different reasons. The sunbeam lazer is so nice (and at 0.5 tons; "weight is sign of reliability").

I recently made a bomber with a kinda stock payload of simple drop bombs (KSPX small fuel tanks released from standard decouplers, could have used oscarB's but it was an aesthetic choice). Attempting to hit a target by dive bombing gave me a new level of respect for what WWII pilots did. Trying to hit my fuel truck took quite a few attempts, fun thou.

[Beachernaut]

(and at 0.5 tons; "weight is sign of reliability")

LOL "If it doesn't work, you can always hit him with it".

[aven17]

Just a quick proof of concept. I think I can make it a lot more efficient and it can definitely be smaller...and go on a ship, and scaled up or down..

Check out some of Danny 2462's videos on youtube. He has at least one video dedicated to cannons like this, requiring you pair each engine with its opposite so your relative position in space doesn't change when you fire it.

[panzer1b]

i have to say both are effective but specialized weapons are more deadly and easy to use as they are designed with the purpose of destroying things and as for missiles, even unguided they tend to have good center of mass, decent drag, and are not unbalanced nor do they tend to spin.

i enjoy both, be they specialized mods or stock weapons, but i tend to like things that are balanced, and i mod most of the weapons out there to not be overpowered in my opinion (like the minigun for example, made a few versions with varying degrees of rof and damage, from very weak rapid fire machine guns to very slowly reloading 1 hit cannons)

sunbeam is one mod that i will say is outright unfair in any competitive combat due to guaranteed hits and ability to completely nullify armor plating unlike most other weapons including the minigun that can and does bounce off and sometimes only push the target (most of my warships and tanks are both sloped and have lots of structural panels/struts, so they are somewhat resistant to conventional kinetic and HE weapons like stock missiles). Sunbeam is used more for clearing debris and precision firing at something i want to cut in half per say (like the orbital cannon i built that i wanted to deorbit but forgot to add a decoupler to the command pod for safe reentry, and ofc i forgot a docking port so i had no way of reliably getting the crew onto another ship)

anyways, miniguns with a slightly lowered rof and damage are mostly what i use for frontally mounted weapons as a backup due to infinite ammo. It may seem cheap to not need refills, but in a somewhat fast paced battle (multiplayer mod), its not exactly fun to have to either ditch/kamikaze, or go down to the surface to refill ammo/refly alltogether (it just takes too long, perhaps if there is a way to reload from say a mothership ect, it'd be a fun mechanic)

also, best conventional stock weapons are made with a basic decoupler rocket, i found liquid fuel is best coupled with a drone core for very basic maneuverability as it is very very hard to hit anything unless you are on top of it with a unguided torpedo (you really dont need anything but the drone core, one small fuel tank, one small rocket motor, and possibly some structural panels or ibeams in front to increase lethality, the built in battery is almost always enough to get you to the target unless its a extremely long range flight in which case you will run out of rocket fuel anyways making the ability to rotate useless,) and the ability to disable the engine or turn around comes in handy more often then not.....perhaps im just not that good at making accurate designs yet.....since my torpedoes seem to leave the ship on a collision course, but for some odd reason have a very low chance of hitting anything that isnt a battleship at ranges past 2 km, though ranged of 500m is semi reliable if the ship was properly stabilized prior to firing.

[_Aramchek_]

Check out some of Danny 2462's videos on youtube. He has at least one video dedicated to cannons like this, requiring you pair each engine with its opposite so your relative position in space doesn't change when you fire it.

Heheh I'll check them out, but I got this, a more refined craft appears in the video below.

i have to say both are effective but specialized weapons are more deadly and easy to use as they are designed with the purpose of destroying things and as for missiles, even unguided they tend to have good center of mass, decent drag, and are not unbalanced nor do they tend to spin.

My stock weapons are made solely with the purpose of destroying things too.

also, best conventional stock weapons are made with a basic decoupler rocket, i found liquid fuel is best coupled with a drone core for very basic maneuverability as it is very very hard to hit anything unless you are on top of it with a unguided torpedo (you really dont need anything but the drone core, one small fuel tank, one small rocket motor, and possibly some structural panels or ibeams in front to increase lethality, the built in battery is almost always enough to get you to the target unless its a extremely long range flight in which case you will run out of rocket fuel anyways making the ability to rotate useless,) and the ability to disable the engine or turn around comes in handy more often then not.....perhaps im just not that good at making accurate designs yet.....since my torpedoes seem to leave the ship on a collision course, but for some odd reason have a very low chance of hitting anything that isnt a battleship at ranges past 2 km, though ranged of 500m is semi reliable if the ship was properly stabilized prior to firing.

Concentrating on making high velocity ballistic weapons negates the advantages of guidance in my opinion.

I have very basic rockets that are very effective within the 2.5km physics range, simply because they have a very high twr and may as well hit instantaneously, and they are small so you can have a fair amount of them.

IF, the physics range were beyond 2.5 kms, the cannon in the following video would also be nearly ideal due to high twr.

A 40KM/S projectile can hit something within twenty - 40 km's nearly instantly, accurately* and with a LOT of kinetic energy.

*distance makes anything harder to hit.

Edited December 2, 2013 by _Aramchek_

[panzerknoef]

Seriously, the only weapon i can come up with for now is a beam with sepratrons attached to it! It fires pretty much straight as an arrow, but gravity on kerbin is serious issue for now, shooting the VAB from the runway requires something like a 30 degree or more angle to fire away! Guess i have to spend so more time engineering weapons!

[Sharpened Alliance]

It would be like early World War I, when people were throwing bricks out of planes, vs. today’s missiles and guns.

I never use mods that add new parts because i think there’s some level of honor from working with all stock, but with that said, if you like mods I will respect your opinion.