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

[Nickvr628]

In order to get the AI pilot to attack you you must activate the AI pilot, AND the guard mode for the craft. Also make sure you are on separate teams.

[War Eagle 1]

Mobius 1: engage

[curiousepic]

What's the state/plans for AI pilots operating in orbit?

[BahamutoD]

I've updated the v0.8.0 release notes. Give them a look.

Edited May 2, 2015 by BahamutoD

[tetryds]

I've updated the v0.8.0 release notes. Give them a look.

I see the guard mode management going towards radar stuff.

In fact, right now you could just have a part to define weapon manager's angle of view and target distance and it would already work perfectly as a radar system

I would even suggest try it out using the M4435 Narrow-Band-Scanner with that functionality as it can be properly shielded inside of a fairing on the nose.

This just gets better every time.

[Crusher48]

I think that the next thing that needs to be done is an AI for ground battles (so that rovers move around and such during a gunfight).

[Bluejay0013]

I've updated the v0.8.0 release notes. Give them a look.

I don't know if you're aware, or its for some reason my game but the Millinium cannon, dosent fire, when I toggle it or dosent act when an aircraft flies in range of the guard mode.

- - - Updated - - -

I've updated the v0.8.0 release notes. Give them a look.

I don't know if you're aware, or its for some reason my game but the Millinium cannon, dosent fire, when I toggle it or dosent act when an aircraft flies in range of the guard mode.

[BahamutoD]

Very cool update. Are there any plans to improve the pilot AI to enable them to do gunfights as well? At the moment they're kind of dead in the water once you merge on them (despite downgrading my aircraft to only have 60% of the thrust of the AI one).

Just some basic stuff would be cool like: simple merge geometry with the AI trying to pursue one or two circle fights. Vertical offset if AI has greater energy in the neutral. Letting them reverse their turn and control their throttle in the case of scissors. Choosing lead/lag pursuit.

Yes, I'll add new behaviors little by little.

Can anyone help me with the Millinium cannon, it dosent seem to fire or do anything for that matter when its on guard mode

Is it only the Millennium cannon? Did you try it with anything else? Check the log for errors?

Quick suggestion while I am testing this amazing AI:

Have boxes to store countermeasures, and to prevent them from being OP, make them overheat very fastly.

Just like guns, if they overheat you will have to wait for the cooldown, so if you use it wrong there is a window where you are vulnerable.

Also, engines are too sensitive to the explosion, even if you evade the missile and it explodes nearby it's 100% chance that you will lose them.

Would probably be easier to balance countermeasures by simply making them extremely ineffective, as they would be against AIM-120's. (Let's just assume the countermeasures are dropping chaff as well as flares). Meaning you'd have to turn away early to bleed the missile of energy for a bit before attempting to defeat it kinetically, countermeasures would be more of a last ditch attempt if the missile was fired from optimal range.

Against heat seekers, you could again make the flares much less effective. But allow the player to increase the chance of the missile being confused by chopping their engine throttle (reducing the engines IR signature by a little).

The engines being taken out by proximity explosions is honestly pretty realistic, engines don't like being close to High explosive fragmentation warheads.

I think the blast radius of the AIM-120's might be a bit to high, so I'll look into balancing it. I also noticed that detonations of missiles that you dodge can sometimes be too deadly.

As for countermeasures - try lowering the FLARE_CHANCE_FACTOR in settings.cfg. If you find a value that you think is balanced and challenging but not impossible, let me know. If you're tweaking it and it seems like nothing is changing, maybe I have done something wrong.

I do want to have extra countermeasure containers while keeping it balanced so you cant just spam them all the time and not worry, but I'm not sure I like the idea of them overheating.

[Bluejay0013]

Yes, I'll add new behaviors little by little.

Is it only the Millennium cannon? Did you try it with anything else? Check the log for errors?

yes it seems just to just be the millennium cannon, am I supposed to put a box of shells or does it come with ammo automatically? maybe ill try a fresh download soon

[BahamutoD]

yes it seems just to just be the millennium cannon, am I supposed to put a box of shells or does it come with ammo automatically? maybe ill try a fresh download soon

Sorry, it uses 30mm rounds for now. I forgot to mention that I didn't have time for the ammo storage overhaul I wanted to do.

[SlothDemon]

I can't select a weapon to use for guard mode. It just selects None after awhile and it means I can't do awesome air battles

[BahamutoD]

It selects None if it can't find a target, or if it doesn't have weapons that match the target. Check the guard range, field of view, and the types of weapons the guard has.

[tetryds]

I do want to have extra countermeasure containers while keeping it balanced so you cant just spam them all the time and not worry, but I'm not sure I like the idea of them overheating.

What about having them to reload, so every time the pods load a few countermeasures, and takes always the same amount of time to reload to 100%.

This way you would have something similar to battlefield, if the enemy uses countermeasures he has to hide or run away, on this case, evade the next missiles.

[SlothDemon]

I have tried with a .50 cal gun and a Vulcan turret. I have maxed the range and field of view. It switches to None only when it scans. I have a little test plane right in front my plane but it still won't find it. I have tried from further away but still nothing happened

[BahamutoD]

I have tried with a .50 cal gun and a Vulcan turret. I have maxed the range and field of view. It switches to None only when it scans. I have a little test plane right in front my plane but it still won't find it. I have tried from further away but still nothing happened

I set flying guards to only use turrets if the target is <400m away. I should have let it use turrets if thats all it has, but for now just use missiles for air-to-air

[KSP_ftw]

once again, great mod! i love playing the new update!

two things though: all guns (including fixed ones) have a slider, which is also visible while playing showing "MinPitch" ranging from 500-3500. It doesn't really seem to do something, might be some kind of bug...

And more important the reticles of both the vulcan and the Gau are not properly working! sometimes they do not appear at all and sometimes they are displayed exactly on top of the muzzle of the respective gun (i.e. also if viewed from the side). I was able to recreate that in various different scenarios.

Only other mod i use is your improved chasecam mod.

[Hodo]

I love this mod; my KSP aeronautics builds aren't complete without it. However, it can be a little frustrating that many parts are too big for Mk 1 since it's what many of the realistic mod cockpits are designed for. Are you planning on adding TweakScale support at some point?

As an example: two AMRAAM-size missiles fit comfortably in tandem on a real F-15:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/F-15C_AIM-9_AIM-120_m02006120700063.jpg

but in KSP, on an F-15 sized to Quiztech's Eagle cockpit, just one fits in the same space.

http://i.imgur.com/CmpSvWD.png

The problem isn't the missile model, it is the scaling issue. That F-15 is actually smaller than the real F-15. This is the problem.

The real F-15 is almost 20m long, so if you were to get a procedural fuel tank and use that as a measuring stick you will see you are actually about half the size of the F-15.

Like this craft is a little bit bigger than a Mirage III fighter, but I designed it to be a bit larger because it is an SSTO. But the size is about right.

[BahamutoD]

once again, great mod! i love playing the new update!

two things though: all guns (including fixed ones) have a slider, which is also visible while playing showing "MinPitch" ranging from 500-3500. It doesn't really seem to do something, might be some kind of bug...

And more important the reticles of both the vulcan and the Gau are not properly working! sometimes they do not appear at all and sometimes they are displayed exactly on top of the muzzle of the respective gun (i.e. also if viewed from the side). I was able to recreate that in various different scenarios.

Only other mod i use is your improved chasecam mod.

Thanks, I'll take a look at these issues.

MooseCannon - As Hodo said, I modelled the missiles to real world scale, while kerbals are miniature. You can rescale the parts if you want - just change the rescaleFactor in the part's config.

[KSP_ftw]

also i've just realised that if you retract the back landing gears of the bd bomber and then deploy it again it makes the tail break off! ^^

[ShawnPhillips]

My first somewhat successful dogfight with an AI pilot.

for some reason it seems that the AI pilot will only shot back after I have switched to it.

BTW Bahamuto, will you be updating the B.Dynamic mod any time soon. It is my favorite engine mod pack and it is very broken in 1.0.

Edited May 2, 2015 by ShawnPhillips

[Crusher48]

Wow, nice feature. And the dev thinks of everything: when I set up a 2v2 AI battle, a plane got its engines destroyed by a missile but the rest was still intact. It started to angle downwards and I thought it was going to crash, but it actually deployed landing gear at the last second and landed the plane! So not only can planes dogfight, but they can crash land after the dogfight!

[teepee2345]

Wow, nice feature. And the dev thinks of everything: when I set up a 2v2 AI battle, a plane got its engines destroyed by a missile but the rest was still intact. It started to angle downwards and I thought it was going to crash, but it actually deployed landing gear at the last second and landed the plane! So not only can planes dogfight, but they can crash land after the dogfight!

now they might be indestructable! NOO!

[Crusher48]

It did bleed off speed as it went down, so it landed at around 40-50 m/s speed anyways.

[Endersmens]

Thanks, I'll take a look at these issues.

MooseCannon - As Hodo said, I modelled the missiles to real world scale, while kerbals are miniature. You can rescale the parts if you want - just change the rescaleFactor in the part's config.

Have you ever thought of rescaling them for Kerbal size?

Also, are flares...solid? Cause I've been doing dogfights all day, and I can dodge a missile, but it seems to hit a flare right behind me, and thus blows off the back of my plane. What's going on here? Do the missiles have proximity detonation or are flares solid?

Also, I'm a bit confused on something. I was landed and fired an AMRAAM. I was thinking it would blow me up. But it dropped to the ground, and then shot off sliding on the ground for a KM or so and then blew up. Seemed a bit odd.

[Bluejay0013]

Sorry, it uses 30mm rounds for now. I forgot to mention that I didn't have time for the ammo storage overhaul I wanted to do.

Okay lol, thanks for the help. and btw those are some powerful 30mm rounds haha.