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

[DebatedNothing]

Just noticed a weird interaction between BDA and Firespitter where the AI will not produce any thrust using the propeller motors but will increase their RPM. Not sure if this is on your end or firespitter's end so I've posted it in both threads. Really put a damper on my plans to have an epic WW1 themed dogfight.

[Joetech3000]

On 4/29/2016 at 0:44 PM, ckirky said:

same here, works fine for a bit after i start to use the parts on the ship, then crashes for no reason

 

I'm having the same issue, unfortunately unable to post the logs. Next time it happens, I'll post it. Back to 1.0.5 to enjoy the mod, it's awesome!

[Wayland]

Encountering some odd behavior with the Small High Explosive Warhead.

I'm trying to use it in space, which I guess it isn't designed for. But here's what's going on:

 

1) Tried repeatedly to use it in a ship-to-ship setting with some relative velocity with its target in space. Warhead is very close when I set it off. Nothing happens to target, but missile (warhead carrying vessel) is destroyed.

 

2) Figuring maybe it was a lack of warhead power in space thing, I tested it with increasingly crazy power/blast radius settings in the part config... No change in results.

 

3) Okay, maybe it just doesn't work with significant relative velocity? So I park the warhead 5 meters from the target and set it off. Again, target is completely undamaged but warhead vessel is destroyed. Keep in mind this is with a blast radius of 1000 meters and power of like 1200 at this point.

 

4) Maybe it just doesn't work on other vessels at all? So I use RCS to position warhead literally touching the target... but this time when I set it off the target IS destroyed. Debris everywhere.

 

5) Okay, so maybe it only damages things basically touching it? So I set one off on the launchpad... Nope, it destroyed half of the KSC... I guess it behaves differently in air than space?

 

Anyway, maybe it's supposed to work that way, but I wish I had something that worked in space.

[theonegalen]

@Wayland

Yeah, most warheads cause destruction by propagating an overpressure wave against the target (blast damage). Such a wave has to have a medium, or a material to transmit through. No air pressure, no overpressure, no blast damage. Even a nuclear weapon would be quite a bit less effective in space combat, because without the blast wave, all one is left with is a lot of undirected radiation. But when the explosive is actually in contact with it's target, as in your fourth test, it now has material to transmit it's blast wave through.

Of course, most warheads at least have shrapnel caused by the bomb case disintegrating, and many also include shrapnel from additional material packed into the warhead, but armored vehicles could likely defeat such shrapnel, and I'm not sure if BDA models that kind of shrapnel damage anyway.

The kind of weapons that would be effective in actual space combat would be high-velocity kinetic energy weapons (bullets or projectiles without warheads), suicide drones, terawatt lasers, or other directed energy weapons, among others.

Edited May 2, 2016 by theonegalen

[Lui997]

Why it wont shoot rockets. it shoots normally turrets. the guard mode just selects rockets but dont fire them the planes just fly around each other. if i put rockets and a gun on one plane it uses only the gun. why is this happening and how do i fix this ?

[Wayland]

7 hours ago, theonegalen said:

@Wayland

Yeah, most warheads cause destruction by propagating an overpressure wave against the target (blast damage). Such a wave has to have a medium, or a material to transmit through. No air pressure, no overpressure, no blast damage. Even a nuclear weapon would be quite a bit less effective in space combat, because without the blast wave, all one is left with is a lot of undirected radiation. But when the explosive is actually in contact with it's target, as in your fourth test, it now has material to transmit it's blast wave through.

Of course, most warheads at least have shrapnel caused by the bomb case disintegrating, and many also include shrapnel from additional material packed into the warhead, but armored vehicles could likely defeat such shrapnel, and I'm not sure if BDA models that kind of shrapnel damage anyway.

The kind of weapons that would be effective in actual space combat would be high-velocity kinetic energy weapons (bullets or projectiles without warheads), suicide drones, terawatt lasers, or other directed energy weapons, among others.

1) Unless something changed with how damage is simulated, BDArmory causes damage through thermal radiation, overheating parts and causing them to explode. This is a reasonably accurate stand-in for the the high-energy radiation from nuclear weapons used in space... Except for the fact the behavior in space doesn't seem to match what would be expected from inverse square law determined thermal radiation.

 

2) Nuclear weapons would be quite effective in space, due to said high-energy radiation output causing significant thermal and ionizing radiation output, not to mention impulse-shock from the rapidly vaporized material. See:

Nuclear weapons in space.

Physical effects calculator for nuclear weapons in space.

3) Kinetics are great when they hit, but require a direct physical impact. Nukes give you up to several miles of "close enough" which turns misses into kills, and also the potential to destroy multiple targets with a single warhead (especially useful against swarms of kinetic kill vehicles).

 

4) Lasers are quite limited in maximum range for any objective lens size which can be considered practical. They are little more than point defense weapons unless they are absurdly large.

[theonegalen]

1. True. It may not be programmed that way.

2/3. Certainly, but when you consider that any multi-planet civilization's warships would have to be hardened against cosmic radiation, nuclear weapons do lose some effectiveness. The usefulness of KEWs and nukes would probably change depending on the range of the engagement, which would change with the technological level of the combatants.

4. Yes. I didn't know what level of knowledge you had on the subject so I kept my comments brief and basic.

[MarvinCZ]

16 hours ago, Wayland said:

1) Unless something changed with how damage is simulated, BDArmory causes damage through thermal radiation, overheating parts and causing them to explode. This is a reasonably accurate stand-in for the the high-energy radiation from nuclear weapons used in space... Except for the fact the behavior in space doesn't seem to match what would be expected from inverse square law determined thermal radiation.

BDA uses heat as damage for game engine reasons, not because it simulates damage through thermal radiation. Most weapons BDA simulates are HE and would behave the way theonegalen described.

That being said, it may be either a feature or just a "lucky" bug.

Edited May 3, 2016 by MarvinCZ

[Fireheart318]

Hey BD, I'm working on a BD Armor mod using upgraded structural panels, how does this mod work? How's damage work in relation to heat tolerance and impact tolerance? I'm trying to make armor that can withstand a single missile hit and a few bullets after. Should I go for high impact tolerance or heat tolerance? I understand you're probably THE busiest mod maker in the Kommunity and you may just ignore this but if you don't, thanks (;

[siliconworm]

On 7/9/2014 at 1:43 PM, BahamutoD said:

Speaking of which, I'll take suggestions for what to base the laser model on.

At first I was thinking along the lines of a sci-fi type of gun, but I could also do something more realistic like the US airforce ABL:

or the Navy's LaWS:

Thoughts?

The laser system in the current BDArmory looks great, but I found it has several problems:

1. It cannot destroy a simple gas tank on the ground even if I have 14 lasers firing simultaneously. This is unrealistic. 

 

2. The AI is very weak when using this supposedly powerful weapon. Right now, when the target type is set to "ALL VESSELS", the AI operating the laser will still fire at distant vehicles first, regardless of the incoming missiles which are the immediate threat.  

 

 

Here's an airplane with 14 lasers for you to test:

https://kerbalx.com/siliconworm/Doombringer

What I wanted to create was a nuclear airborne laser destroyer that never needs to land and can never be shot down by missiles, but the current weak AI allowed it to be shot down by just one simple missile.

Edited May 3, 2016 by siliconworm

[paul6334]

I checked and confirmed that I was not using Legacy Targeting, and it still fails at being a cruise missile. I am still following the advice of the tutorials.

[gajbooks]

I think this has been mentioned before but not specifically as this.
 When in the BDArmory tab there is some sort of vicious memory leak that causes RAM usage to just go up and up and up and up and then crash the game.

I don't know if this is helpful at all, but the more parts I have installed the faster the RAM usage goes up.

Edited May 5, 2016 by gajbooks

[Hookswords]

I just wanted to drop by to once again thank you for all the hard work you put into modding. I just finished my latest cinematic and I couldnt have done it without you. The amazing mods you've made have really helped my creative visions come together how I'd like them to and I am forever grateful for that. Thank you again and keep up the hard work, knowing that people in the community are happier because of you.

 

[gajbooks]

On 5/3/2016 at 4:43 PM, siliconworm said:

2. The AI is very weak when using this supposedly powerful weapon. Right now, when the target type is set to "ALL VESSELS", the AI operating the laser will still fire at distant vehicles first, regardless of the incoming missiles which are the immediate threat.  
 

Yeah, this is a big problem. I feel that gun turrets/lasers should prioritize missiles.

As an extension to this idea, it would be great if there was a way to order different weapons to fire on different targets simultaneously. Say, each gun/missile individually can be set to "Vessels", "Missiles", "Both", or "User". Guard mode will fire "vessel" weapons at enemy vessels, "missile" weapons at incoming missiles, "both" weapons would act like the current ones (with missile prioritization), and "user" could only be controlled by the user and could also be controlled while guard mode is enabled. As an example, with a tank, you might want the 20 mm vulcans on anti-missile duty, the main cannon on anti-vehicle duty, and some manual g2g missiles that you can focus on while the tank defends itself. Possibly with minimum/maximum range sliders and Air/Ground/Both selectors.

Another thing I definitely want is orbital targeting. This is probably harder than my first idea just because of the math involved. If these modes were implemented in the modular missile guidance then that would probably be better than specific missiles for each purpose.

Ground to Orbit: Calculates an intercept burn, uses as much Delta-V as possible, and uses RCS to fine-tune approach. Some sort of orbital scanning system might be needed for locking targets.

Orbit to Orbit: Like a normal anti-air missile, but predicts target motion orbitally instead of just leading the target and adjusting as needed.

Orbit to Ground: Imagine Mech-Jeb's landing autopilot, but instead of landing nicely it hurtles screaming towards a GPS target on the ground. This is what I really want, because I've always wanted to make a fully armed and operational geostationary battlestation.

 

Along with these a new autopilot mode might be needed:

RCS/Engine thrust dodge, attempts to dodge missiles by swerving last minute using whatever thrust is available. Probably wouldn't work well for large ships but that's the point. It might be a de-orbit hazard, but I don't really see any other way of defeating missiles going at orbital velocities with the limited KSP load distance.

[BF2_Pilot]

Some else weapon

[stickman939]

12 hours ago, Hookswords said:

I just wanted to drop by to once again thank you for all the hard work you put into modding. I just finished my latest cinematic and I couldnt have done it without you. The amazing mods you've made have really helped my creative visions come together how I'd like them to and I am forever grateful for that. Thank you again and keep up the hard work, knowing that people in the community are happier because of you.

 

That's amazing! Teach me senpai lol

[War Eagle 1]

search option is needed.
also everytime i use BDA and open the BDA tab in the SPH/VAB the game slows down. 

 

[Andem]

3 minutes ago, War Eagle 1 said:

search option is needed.
also everytime i use BDA and open the BDA tab in the SPH/VAB the game slows down. 

 

Funny, for me it just crashes the game.

[War Eagle 1]

Just now, Andem said:

Funny, for me it just crashes the game.

That happens too

 

[gajbooks]

11 minutes ago, Andem said:

Funny, for me it just crashes the game.

Yes, this is a definite issue. I wish that KSP had a debugger for plugins so I could find the problem myself, but sadly it does not.

[catmousedog]

I have a problem with the AI, it won't lock onto flying aircraft with any radars or shoot any missiles with the jernas radar (They're opposite teams and guard mode is on)

Does anyone know why this is happening?

 

[ckirky]

8 hours ago, catmousedog said:

I have a problem with the AI, it won't lock onto flying aircraft with any radars or shoot any missiles with the jernas radar (They're opposite teams and guard mode is on)

Does anyone know why this is happening?

 

sorry to be a bit blunt here but most of us are stuck without BDA at all (read above posts) so not much help is available for you.

even without the mod though, i can tell you to check peace mode in the BDA settings (alt+b)

otherwise i can't help, sry

 

[Wrench Head]

KSP / Squad May have a plan to take over thier fav. mods and screw the rest. I have seen many games go south in my 20 plus years of gaming.

 

 

[Combatsmithen]

1 hour ago, BlackHoleSun said:

KSP / Squad May have a plan to take over thier fav. mods and screw the rest. I have seen many games go south in my 20 plus years of gaming.

 

 

 

Why would they do that?

[JebberJones]

Is it possible, currently, to make a tank drive on its own, kind of like planes with the AI pilot part can do?

If not, would it be possible to implement? I think tank battles would be a fun thing to do.