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

[zeropositivo]

Hello there. I've looked a lot around for this, but I've never been good at searching well... anyways, BD armory will change target to whatever is closer to the nose of my aircraft... which is really useful in certain situations, but not when it targets random debris or even my own missiles I've just shot

Anyways, is there a way to change this?

(using legacy targeting, as it's the only way to make the missions of the Kerbin on Fire contract pack work)

[JD_Tiger]

Hello there. I've looked a lot around for this, but I've never been good at searching well... anyways, BD armory will change target to whatever is closer to the nose of my aircraft... which is really useful in certain situations, but not when it targets random debris or even my own missiles I've just shot

Anyways, is there a way to change this?

(using legacy targeting, as it's the only way to make the missions of the Kerbin on Fire contract pack work)

Yep, you put Wpnmgr in DISARMED, it will stop targeting for you but guarmode works fine, exept that you have to target the enemys on your own

[Endersmens]

He does some serious editing, i know i've done it myself. You speed up the playback speed for the laggy bit and it normally comes good.

Nope. His timer is green the whole time.

When it's green that means no lag. he may have sped it up to keep the time down, but his game was still lag free.

[RuBisCO]

Suggestion: Could you make the airdropped cruise missiles start their engines only once they slow to a specific airspeed, say 300 m/s? If I drop one from a bomber at 20 km altitude and 1100 m/s then there is no window of operation for them where they don't either run out of fuel or overshoot the target.

[Snidemeister]

Started making a series using this mod as the main focus... though I'm terrible at using it. Feel free to take a look and tell me what you think and give any advice you think may be helpful.

- War of K - Surprise attack.

[JewelShisen]

What does the HE-KV use for lockon as well as the two cruise missiles?

[allmhuran]

Started making a series using this mod as the main focus... though I'm terrible at using it. Feel free to take a look and tell me what you think and give any advice you think may be helpful.

- War of K - Surprise attack.

Your understanding of the physics is good and your editing is also good, good use of cuts and video speed to keep things moving along. Commentary is of a style I prefer (I hate the shouters) and is pretty fluid with very few "ums", "ahs" or breaks in the first half of the video. It's easy to lose focus after that because the plan doesn't ususally extend that far ahead. I'd look for an improved mic if I were you. You've clearly done some prep work, if you can improve that to set up even more entertaining scenarios and, perhaps most importantly, build some more... ahem... "kerbal" craft, your only problem will be getting buoyancy above all of the other let's plays. Youtube is pretty saturated with them.

[theflyingfish]

I saw this too and I thought it might specifically be max effective range... ie, after the config range they do no damage, but I hadn't gotten around to testing that yet.

The main reason I want the bug fixed is because long range artillery just won't exist if all ballistic weapons are capped at 5 kilometers. I want to be able to shell KSP from the Abandoned Island, dang it!

As far as lasers go, I'm not really sure I want them included in the mod at all. In my opinion, their accuracy and instant, unavoidable damage makes for really uninteresting gameplay. They're not really fun to use, not really fun to fight against, and they have the potential to be really unbalanced. They're always going to be either so weak that using them is pointless, or so strong that you can stack a bunch of them around an airbase and make it impenetrable. They're already my go-to choice for missile/air defense, and do the job way better than a Goalkeeper can.

Also, @BahamutoD; are you planning to add "drag" to ballistic weapons? By that, I mean make it so that as bullets fly through the air they slow down and their trajectory steepens? I think it could be useful for capping the ranges of the lighter weapons, as something like a .50 cal will rapidly slow down and lose energy past 2km, making it only useful for short-range engagements.

[Aerolfos]

The main reason I want the bug fixed is because long range artillery just won't exist if all ballistic weapons are capped at 5 kilometers. I want to be able to shell KSP from the Abandoned Island, dang it!

As far as lasers go, I'm not really sure I want them included in the mod at all. In my opinion, their accuracy and instant, unavoidable damage makes for really uninteresting gameplay. They're not really fun to use, not really fun to fight against, and they have the potential to be really unbalanced. They're always going to be either so weak that using them is pointless, or so strong that you can stack a bunch of them around an airbase and make it impenetrable. They're already my go-to choice for missile/air defense, and do the job way better than a Goalkeeper can.

Also, @BahamutoD; are you planning to add "drag" to ballistic weapons? By that, I mean make it so that as bullets fly through the air they slow down and their trajectory steepens? I think it could be useful for capping the ranges of the lighter weapons, as something like a .50 cal will rapidly slow down and lose energy past 2km, making it only useful for short-range engagements.

KSC to Island is pretty exactly 20 km. The current KSP cannot support stuff over 11 something km on the ground, because the terrain unloads. There is no fix from the mod side. Now, conventional artillery at 5-10 km is still relevant, and something I have been trying. MLRS works amazing, but otherwise... few lucky shots here and there, that's it.

Bombarding the island with Cruise missiles is however very effective, because you launch the missile, switch to it, then watch the destruction. Predesignate with GPS tho.

Could you give me a few tips on how to use them then? Can't get mine to effectively shoot down anything. Especially not missiles.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, a question on radar, if I want to add radar to my defenses so that they can shoot beyond the 3.5km visual range, do I slave or not slave turrets?

[Alphasus]

You slave turrets. To use the goalkeeper, you turn on guard mode and switch teams of what is attacking it. This works for everything.

[Yski]

The main reason I want the bug fixed is because long range artillery just won't exist if all ballistic weapons are capped at 5 kilometers. I want to be able to shell KSP from the Abandoned Island, dang it!

I've already fixed this, it's just that the variable is missing from the config file, so it's using the default of 5 km. Try adding MAX_BULLET_RANGE to BDArmory's settings.cfg, that's the one that controls how far bullets and cannon shells can go. MaxEffectiveRange is used by the AI when choosing a weapon, while MaxTargetingRange has something to do with raycasting and sighting, whatever that means.

It's an unfortunate side effect of only the actual dll source code being on the github where I can modify it, if anything else needs to be changed, I just have to ask BahamutoD and hope he notices it, which isn't always guaranteed with the amount of awesome things he's doing, and that's assuming I remember to ask in the first place.

For my own specific purposes it would be nice if max effective range was also applicable to lasers in one way or another (eg, even if the beam continues out to the edge of the bubble, damage drops to zero beyond the specified range). But that's only because I'm using them to make replica battletech technology, where the lasers have different ranges. I doubt most people will be worried.

The damage won't drop to zero, but it will get weaker until you won't even notice it. You can tweak how quickly the damage scales down via the laser's config file (BDArmory/Parts/ABL/ABL.cfg), as well as control at what range the AI will start using it.

laserDamage controls the default damage at point blank range. tanAngle control's how quickly it scales down, though it's missing from the config file, so you'll need to add it yourself - the default value is 0.0001 at the moment, and the higher it is, the faster the damage will drop. Finally, maxEffectiveRange is the range at which the AI will start using the lasers.

In case you are interested in the actual damage formula, it's

p.temperature += laserDamage/(1+Mathf.PI*Mathf.Pow(tanAngle*distance,2))*TimeWarp.fixedDeltaTime;

Or to make it a bit more obvious to non programmers,

Damage (1 second) = laserDamage/(1+PI*(tanAngle*distance)^2)

Edited August 24, 2015 by Yski

[gregolego]

the missiles do not want to rack. they fire the engines, but they do not fly to the target (im using air-to-ground and ground-to-ground)

[EdusacconBR]

Use targeting pods

[Guest]

Here's a video showing some improvements I'm working on for AI Pilot steering when using fixed guns.

That looks excellent. In fact, I think I'll be able to host a Top Gun AI Tournament once these new features have been completed. You're also saving my piston engine designs from having to use gimbaling turrets!

[sashan]

Baha, can you also add angle of attack as well as max pitch and roll angle limiters? Would be good for bomber-type planes.

Also, I quite often use your AI pilot to loiter the plane, even out of combat.

[Stealth17]

Hey BahamutoD,

Thanks very much for making this awesome mod pack! I've had a lot of fun with it .

I'm going to build my own contract pack with more missions for people to enjoy and I have some questions:

1. Does the AI use the (tracking) radars to fire missiles?

2. Does the AI use the datalinks to share information?

3. How do I implement above points into a contract?

4. How do I make sure that Guard Mode is on when a craft is spawned in as a target for a mission?

Hope you can help me out

Cheers,

Stealth

[[ Jeremy ]]

I'm not srue whether this is just my install or it's something else but i'll say this anyway.

For some reason the new targeting system refuses to work for me. The radar can't seem to detect anything and the laser guided weapons outright don't lock.

Is there something I'm missing here or is it an actual bug?

[MatsSanders]

Hey BahamutoD,

Thanks very much for making this awesome mod pack! I've had a lot of fun with it .

I'm going to build my own contract pack with more missions for people to enjoy and I have some questions:

1. Does the AI use the (tracking) radars to fire missiles?

2. Does the AI use the datalinks to share information?

3. How do I implement above points into a contract?

4. How do I make sure that Guard Mode is on when a craft is spawned in as a target for a mission?

Hope you can help me out

Cheers,

Stealth

1. Yes it does

2. It does use it, but you have to set it up yourself first.

The other questions I don't know the answer to

[Stealth17]

Thanks Mats! I've been testing the AI and it performs very nicely. The problem for contracts is that I need a steady take off surface for automated aircraft. They need to take off on autopilot and engage player aircraft (have guard mode active). Once I find out how to do that without manually having them take off it's going to be a nice mission

[FungusForge]

Hey BahamutoD,

Thanks very much for making this awesome mod pack! I've had a lot of fun with it .

I'm going to build my own contract pack with more missions for people to enjoy and I have some questions:

1. Does the AI use the (tracking) radars to fire missiles?

2. Does the AI use the datalinks to share information?

3. How do I implement above points into a contract?

4. How do I make sure that Guard Mode is on when a craft is spawned in as a target for a mission?

Hope you can help me out

Cheers,

Stealth

3. No clue at all, and BDA doesn't come out of the box with contracts, so you should ask one of the guys who makes contracts for BDA (5dim and Kerbin on Fire are contract add-ons for BDA)

4. ^^

[RuBisCO]

* Just want to note not criticizes BDArmory just point out its limitations and making suggestions, to be accepted or rejected.

I made a supersonic long range bomber.

First off all it would be nice if there was a side mounted targeting camera with full 360° hemispherical omni-vision. This one sort of sticks out the top if used as such.

Second it does not make a good gps lock from very far off. It would be nice if there was a long distance camera that could be mounted to a spy satellite or recon aircraft, this camera would not necessarily take pictures rather provide GPS coordinates of targets that could be used by the bomber or other weapon platforms.

Here It is armed it with cruise missiles. Now when I launch those missiles they start the engines up when when already going at ~1100 m/s and 20 km altitude, consuming all their fuel wastefully on the fall down, it would be nice if they only started the engines subsonic.

Here it is armed with JDAMs. The JDAM aiming sight only arms at or below 5 km altitude, would be nice if it could go to say 20 km.

[allmhuran]

The damage won't drop to zero, but it will get weaker until you won't even notice it. You can tweak how quickly the damage scales down via the laser's config file (BDArmory/Parts/ABL/ABL.cfg), as well as control at what range the AI will start using it.

laserDamage controls the default damage at point blank range. tanAngle control's how quickly it scales down, though it's missing from the config file, so you'll need to add it yourself - the default value is 0.0001 at the moment, and the higher it is, the faster the damage will drop. Finally, maxEffectiveRange is the range at which the AI will start using the lasers.

In case you are interested in the actual damage formula, it's

p.temperature += laserDamage/(1+Mathf.PI*Mathf.Pow(tanAngle*distance,2))*TimeWarp.fixedDeltaTime;

Or to make it a bit more obvious to non programmers,

Damage (1 second) = laserDamage/(1+PI*(tanAngle*distance)^2)

ooOOOooh, new properties! Nice

[BahamutoD]

Also, a question on radar, if I want to add radar to my defenses so that they can shoot beyond the 3.5km visual range, do I slave or not slave turrets?

The guards should automatically use the radar and turret slaving if the target is outside of their 'visual range'.

I've already fixed this, it's just that the variable is missing from the config file, so it's using the default of 5 km.

My fault. I'll put the setting in the config file.

;2157530']I'm not srue whether this is just my install or it's something else but i'll say this anyway.

For some reason the new targeting system refuses to work for me. The radar can't seem to detect anything and the laser guided weapons outright don't lock.

Is there something I'm missing here or is it an actual bug?

I can't tell you what you're missing if you don't tell me what you're doing.

The radar only detects airborne vessels. I'm currently trying to put together a how-to video for air-to-ground attacks.

Second it does not make a good gps lock from very far off. It would be nice if there was a long distance camera that could be mounted to a spy satellite or recon aircraft' date=' this camera would not necessarily take pictures rather provide GPS coordinates of targets that could be used by the bomber or other weapon platforms.

[/quote']

The colliders for terrain only load at a certain distance from the active vessel, which is why there's "NO LR" and inaccurate surface detection when trying to target from a long distance. To my knowledge, there's not much I can do about that.

Here It is armed it with cruise missiles. Now when I launch those missiles they start the engines up when when already going at ~1100 m/s and 20 km altitude, consuming all their fuel wastefully on the fall down, it would be nice if they only started the engines subsonic.

I'd just recommend to not launch a cruise missile at 1100m/s at 20km... Don't make me design weapons around your specific requirements.

Here it is armed with JDAMs. The JDAM aiming sight only arms at or below 5 km altitude, would be nice if it could go to say 20 km.

This is also partially due to the limits of what distance the terrain colliders (thus landed vessels) can load. I hate it as much as you do, but at the moment, there's little use for anti-ground attacks from distances beyond 5-10 km.

[RuBisCO]

The colliders for terrain only load at a certain distance from the active vessel, which is why there's "NO LR" and inaccurate surface detection when trying to target from a long distance. To my knowledge, there's not much I can do about that.

Sure fine, now I have not tried this put If I was aim at a craft, would it not lock onto that craft using the coordinates provided by the game its self?

I'd just recommend to not launch a cruise missile at 1100m/s at 20km... Don't make me design weapons around your specific requirements.

It was a suggestion, jeez, I even prefaced kindly saying to take them or leave them at your whim.

This is also partially due to the limits of what distance the terrain colliders (thus landed vessels) can load. I hate it as much as you do, but at the moment, there's little use for anti-ground attacks from distances beyond 5-10 km.

Fine, scratch the supersonic bomber.

[Lee Harvey Teabag]

Here It is armed it with cruise missiles. Now when I launch those missiles they start the engines up when when already going at ~1100 m/s and 20 km altitude, consuming all their fuel wastefully on the fall down, it would be nice if they only started the engines subsonic.

That's a really good idea. Maybe make things so that you select the speed at which the thrusters kick in?

Edit: posted this before Baha replied, my posts have to be approved.

Edited August 25, 2015 by Lee Harvey Teabag