[1.1] BDArmory v0.11.0.1 (+compatibility, fixes) - Apr 23

[volcanicshrimp]

I like the idea of diy missiles but they don't seem to have great ground avoidance (they don't a lot of the time). Am I just being a noob again or are they WIP? They do say that they're experimental.

EDIT:

One of the missiles that I made often crashes and both of them miss their target. They are using the cruise missile guidance from the launchpad to a nearby vehicle.

EDIT 2:

I made another missile (with rocket pods as you do) and once it got near to the target it flipped around and started flying away from it before crashing.

Edited July 29, 2015 by volcanicshrimp

[V8jester]

Well as the video shows, the multiple target spam doesn't show as multiple distinct pings, but a spam of pings along all ranges in the general direction of the jammer. I'll go for that look. I'm trying to keep it relatively simple, so I'll just have one type of jammer and try to balance its effectiveness.

---

Progress video on radar features:

You mad genious you!

[sashan]

All this simply cries for RPM support. It is so much more convinient to aim from cockpit, and screens wopuld provide nice interface.

In case HUD is too difficult to implement you can always use "helmet-mounted" indicator.

Also, one suggestion: we need guns to be able to have their separate guard mode. For example, I want to always have tail turret of my BUFF bomber to be on guard mode, while dropping bombs and launching missiles manually. I know yt=ou can switch guard on and off, but that often takes precious time.

And a question: is the AI pilot working well with FAR? And should there be any things that can be done to make it work better, like AoA limiting?

Edited July 29, 2015 by sashan

[volcanicshrimp]

The goalkeeper turret is hard to take down! I've got a team b battleship with a goalkeeper and an oerlikon in the sea next to ksp and its goalkeeper is eating my team a planes and missiles. It doesn't even use the oerlikon which is probably a good thing for my planes! The guard mode also seems to have totally given up on attacking it a lot of the time so I have to attack manually and hope that the autopilot stops me from getting mown down before I can fire anything.

Edited July 29, 2015 by volcanicshrimp

[damowang2]

The goalkeeper turret is hard to take down! I've got a team b battleship with a goalkeeper and an oerlikon in the sea next to ksp and its goalkeeper is eating my team a planes and missiles. It doesn't even use the oerlikon which is probably a good thing for my planes! The guard mode also seems to have totally given up on attacking it a lot of the time so I have to attack manually and hope that the autopilot stops me from getting mown down before I can fire anything.

That's exactly what this 10000 rpm (maybe 8000?) monster made for and responsible of. Use some trick to trick the radar to attack otherwise it is as simple as turkey hunting.

[Themorris]

I've got a problem with the shell ejection, they don't fly away, theay simply wiggle towards the ground.

Also, I think it would be good to have the tracking radar and the detection radar seperated, so you can have multiple tracking radars and one detection radar

[senoiurkabls]

So the fighter radar is a nosecone? is there a side mounted version like the target pod for mk2 and large aircraft? Also how well will the radar work in space?

[Nickvr628]

Will there be a hotkey for switching between targets to lock? Also, RPM support might be a necessity.

Edited July 29, 2015 by Nickvr628

[riddik]

update update update....!!!

[BahamutoD]

And Bahamuto, you're doing a really good job on this mod, I'm really curious about the code you put into this, I'm also studying IT, but I'm stuck with having to use Visual Basic 2008.

Thanks! All the source code is available on Github so you can take a look any time.

First of all, let me say that the updates you are showing off in your videos look fantastic, and that i didn't even dream such things could be achieved in KSP.

I've got a few questions, though.

Will there be different tracking systems for active or semi active radar missiles?

I know you don't have any semi active missiles in your mod right now, but having the code be there for anyone who wants to modell an AIM-7 or R-27 etc would be nice.

The AIM-120 as an active missile should also only need radar lock from its parent vehicle untill it goes pitbull and takes over with its own radar, will this also be modelled?

Yes. There's a field for "activeRadarRange" in the missile config, which is the distance from the target the missile will go pitbull. Outside of that distance, the firing craft or whatever radar it was linked to needs to maintain lock. If you set activeRadarRange to 0, then it will always need a lock (semi-active).

Pretty much the same goes for ground attack weapons, will there be the option to have fire and forget missiles like the Kh-29T and some AGM-65 modells where you only need lock on with the targeting pod to fire them, and won't have to maintain lock untill impact?

Currently, all ground attack missiles are still fire and forget if it had a lock when launched. This may change, but for now thats how it is.

edit: If you manually move the camera/laser reticle while a missile is in flight, the missile will follow it, but if you unlock or the pod reaches gimbal limit, the missile will continue to the last designated target.

With the latest datalink features, will there be dedicated anti radar missiles for destroying targeting radars rendering their datalinked AA pieces unable to fire?

Yes. I plan to make a HARM or something of that type.

Another idea might also be to have radars of different strenght (perhaps a "RadarMaxRange=X" in the part.cfg files for each individual radar)?

A SPAAG with its own onboard radar shouldn't really be able to track targets at the same range as an AWACS (though within the ranges ksp operates with, this might be "realistic enough").

They have a field for "minSignalThreshold" which is the smallest radar cross-section value they can pick up. So this determines their range. It's not just a range value because larger vessels can be picked up at longer distances than smaller vessels.

Once again, thanks a lot for your continued work with one of the unquestionably best mods ksp has to offer.

Now if only squad would get themselves together and give us multiplayer...

Thank you! Squad is working on multiplayer. One day we can meet on the battlefield (hopefully).

They are working on it, dont worry

Also, no AWACS dish Baha?

I will include one, but currently they will have limited use. Without being able to spawn active AI in the air, we're still limited to the ~6-10km landed vessel limit so AI on standby mode will already be well within medium power radar range when airborne.

With the missiles be able to use the data link too? So even if I do not point at the target I launched the missile at it will still track? Also, I can see some remote-tech integration with this data link system. Sending AWACS data through a satellite to tanks on the ground would be awesome.

Yes to the first two questions. As for your idea.. I don't plan to do any third party mod integration while this mod is still incomplete by itself.

I like the idea of diy missiles but they don't seem to have great ground avoidance (they don't a lot of the time). Am I just being a noob again or are they WIP? They do say that they're experimental.

I think you answered your own question there.

All this simply cries for RPM support. It is so much more convinient to aim from cockpit, and screens wopuld provide nice interface.

In case HUD is too difficult to implement you can always use "helmet-mounted" indicator.

Also, one suggestion: we need guns to be able to have their separate guard mode. For example, I want to always have tail turret of my BUFF bomber to be on guard mode, while dropping bombs and launching missiles manually. I know you can switch guard on and off, but that often takes precious time.

And a question: is the AI pilot working well with FAR? And should there be any things that can be done to make it work better, like AoA limiting?

I want to keep working on this mod without having to depend on or support other mods for now. There's still alot more to do here and adding extra load would slow down development considerably. Everything still works in the cockpit though.

I'll see what I can do about assigning certain weapons to the guard later when its time to work on AI.

I've had AI planes fly fine with FAR. You just need to make sure the plane is stable enough to not flip out at full pitch, and set the speed limiter so it can't destroy itself turning.

I will probably add more configurable options like AoA limiter later when I work on AI.

I've got a problem with the shell ejection, they don't fly away, theay simply wiggle towards the ground.

Also, I think it would be good to have the tracking radar and the detection radar seperated, so you can have multiple tracking radars and one detection radar

I don't know what caused this (I noticed it too), but I rewrote shell ejection so it should be fixed in the next update.

Edited July 29, 2015 by BahamutoD

[tetryds]

I will probably add more configurable options like AoA limiter later when I work on AI.

It would be also interesting if there was some code to avoid the craft from losing all of it's energy and stalling, esp. when working with propeller airplanes.

Or just have a max inclination setting.

Well, I am not sure if it already does something like that, but if it does not that would be great.

[BahamutoD]

It would be also interesting if there was some code to avoid the craft from losing all of it's energy and stalling, esp. when working with propeller airplanes.

Or just have a max inclination setting.

Well, I am not sure if it already does something like that, but if it does not that would be great.

Good idea, I'll add it to the AI todo list.

http://media.giphy.com/media/vO8F4fYQd39h6/giphy-facebook_s.jpg

Will there be a hotkey for switching between targets to lock? Also, RPM support might be a necessity.

No hotkeys for now. Once I iron everything out I might add some extra key bindings for certain things.

So the fighter radar is a nosecone? is there a side mounted version like the target pod for mk2 and large aircraft? Also how well will the radar work in space?

Here are what I'll have available initially for the forward facing radars. The inline and small nosecone fit inside a Mk2 small cargo bay just fine (it won't be occluded). Later it might make sense to have an MM config to add built-in radars to certain cockpits.

Edited July 29, 2015 by BahamutoD

[sashan]

Great, just great. What else to say.

By the way, there are also radars that detect ground vehicles. Apache's Longbow, for example, or the one IL-76 cargo plane has, most of modern fighters like Rafale and F-22 have them too. Would be nice to have . They generally use synthetic aperture to create image of environment and then analyze it with computer.

On a side note: After I crash or get shot down, there's a hell lot of debris laying around - damaged crafts lose stability and are usually torn apart by FAR aerodynamic forces. It makes targeting hellishly difficult, and it isn't helped by weapon computer focusing on the piece of debris tha tis the closest to the boresight line.

Oh, as for Goalkeeper: I generally take it out with Mavericks. Two or three of them, launched with 1 second interval while flying at around 30 degrees to the target bearing. Just did it easily 10 minutes ago. Cruise missiles also work well, you might want to have them flying at different altitudes tho, like 100/150/200 meters. Massive missile strike is the key to taking out anti-missile defences.

P.S. We need some kind of ship mod. Preferably with nice graphics. I wonder how bad is it to rip models off other games and break them into parts...

[Peritum]

I am just curious, will this 1.02 version work with KSP 1.04?

[sashan]

Yes, it works without issues. There is very little difference between 1.02 and 1.04

[Space Scumbag]

Already page 420?

Now, I need a useful comment.

I tested a full reinstall of KSP, because of my turret problem, it didn't fixed it. Still no AI battle.

[Scoundrel]

Well as the video shows, the multiple target spam doesn't show as multiple distinct pings, but a spam of pings along all ranges in the general direction of the jammer. I'll go for that look. I'm trying to keep it relatively simple, so I'll just have one type of jammer and try to balance its effectiveness.

A couple of suggestions:

1. If you set up the jammer properly, you'll be able to do two things: create chaff-like mini jammers (like britecloud) that function as false targets (they copy the radar return of the target and beam it to the radar to lure missiles and lock ons away); and you can set chaff to be 20-30 second active jammers of unlimited strength that use 0 electricity.

---(update)---

It just occurred to me that having chaff as a transmitter isn't as smart an idea as I thought. It would probably be easier just to have it block radar in an arc or something based on the size of the chaff cloud(s). Then again, I'm not sure how you've set up radar to work so maybe it would be easier to make it a jammer. Hmmm. Maybe you've got better ideas...

2. A deceptive jammer throws off a lock-on after a few seconds (typically under 2 depending on the power of the radar vs the power of the jammer vs range); since we don't care how it does it, just that it does, can this be added to the radar module? You don't have to build a DJM, but it would be nice to have that option if we want to build one as a part.

3. A radar warning receiver (an antenna part) as well as a missile approach warning radar (a small radial attached part that looks like your flare dispenser) would be nice - they would both use the same threat avoidance ppi (that isn't an ancient delayed phosphor monitor ) for passively picking up active radars - the rule of thumb is that a craft will detect a radar 33% further than the radar's maximum detection range - and for detecting missile launches and approaches so the player knows when and where to deploy countermeasures.

4. AI shouldn't know exactly what countermeasures to spit out (or even when to do so if it doesn't have a RWR/MAW); when AHM goes pitbull, AI with a RWR knows that chaff is the way to go, but until then, AI and player alike should be dropping a mix of chaff and flare if they become aware of the launch.

5. ACM mode and IR UNCAGE: while most radars retain boresight, modern radars have an ACM mode that acts like a very wide angle boresight, locking onto the nearest target (assuming IFF is being built right in) within their field of view. While not all radars should have ACM, it would be nice to have the ability to differentiate between tech levels of radars. Also, is IR UNCAGE (what you called slaving IR to the radar) in the missile module or can we make it so only certain radar sets have it?

6. Will we be able to tweak radar field of view, or will all A2A radar have a 120° arc? Will we be able to tweak peak power and other goodness? And will all radars have track-while-scan or can we determine which radars have it and which don't? I'd really like to be able to make radar parts that allow for a variety of radars with different levels of capability... would this make things too complex?

7. IMHO, the only thing this mod seems to be missing is a dual mode radar-guided IR seeking flying shark with a frikkin' laser!

Edited July 29, 2015 by Scoundrel

[Endersmens]

Wow, that radar looks totally amazing. I can't wait to use it.

Only thing is, I didn't see much effort on the AI's part to avoid the missile. Did you turn that off to always get a hit?

Also, air-spawning AI would be absolutely astonishing. And being able to spawn squadrons at say 20km out would be mind blowing.

Do I remember you saying there would be a wingman mode for AI? If not, can that be a thing? Where it tries to maintain a certain distance to you and such, but in combat will assist you and then return to it's position if able?

[ryanedward]

Also, air-spawning AI would be absolutely astonishing. And being able to spawn squadrons at say 20km out would be mind blowing.

Do I remember you saying there would be a wingman mode for AI? If not, can that be a thing? Where it tries to maintain a certain distance to you and such, but in combat will assist you and then return to it's position if able?

+1, I hate needing to sit through tons of loading screens and manually move each plane off the runway - also I found there are small bumps in the KSC plain that blow my aircraft to smithereens if they do not take off fast enough so I can only make a couple of my aircraft enemies. Also the AI does not seem to dodge missiles at all, let alone make any effort in shooting me down, even WITH guard mode enabled. Then again maybe I am just too good for the AI but I think it is the former.

[harpwner]

Quick question bugging me here

is there a way to make multiple weapon managers with different groups... say a fire group for defending a vessel against projectiles while you attack with other stuff?

again just a quick question, other than that I love this mod!

[calvinho5]

Hi, I need a bit help with using the weapon manager. I'm using the osx version of ksp 1.0.4, the weapon manager is set to armed, weapon is selected to hellfires, and target is in a different team, but the hellfires just won't launch when i try to fire them. They work though if I do it manually one by one though. What might have gone wrong?

[DaMichel]

BahamutoD, i'm a fan of your work

There was a little issue with BDArmory, namely it didn't allow for firing gun turrets from action groups. So yesterday i made a dirty little hack in order to let me fire guns via the fire action of the weapon manager. I made it to fire a lengthy burst since it doesn't seem to recognize when a AG button is held down. Here it is https://github.com/BahamutoD/BDArmory/compare/master...DaMichel:fire-gun-from-wp-man

No pull request because it's such a dirty hack you probably want to do it differently anyway. Is there a chance we could get fire via AG buttons proper?

[Sanguine-Fiend]

Can anyone tell me the range of the missiles, do they all have the same range or do they vary?

[sashan]

They vary, and there's no fixed range, it's all kinetic energy. If the target if much higher than launcher then the range is really small, and vice versa. YOu can test it, just fire them at a target far far away.

[Nickvr628]

Do you think you could change the guard mode system to be turret-specific, so we can right click turrets and toggle guards mode for each of them individually?