Naval Battle Club

[Sharkman Briton]

Aww, sad news, I wish I had the guts to make something to fight a Vindicator but I honestly don't.

[panzer1b]

Although i know you cant realkly make uber armor this way.....i have a very good reason i like to keep my ships below 300 parts....

Try doing this with dreks or any one of those 600+ part vessels, as soon as you bring 2-3 of them along with fighters and carriers and supply ships into the same spot, you will melt your computer, whereas i can easily run such stuff (although it still gets laggier then stock).

Ohh, and im finally happy with some new craft, in the above pic FK-101 micro-fighters, SK-CRV-Is (a 3rd and 4th generation model), a VK-CV-I micro carrier/supply ship, and a HK-201 SSTL (single stage to laythe that gets ~4600 dV once in LKO) fighter as an escort.

And here is another cinematicish pic of the entire fleet:

Edited August 28, 2015 by panzer1b

[Alphasus]

I have a challenge for you...

split this ship in half with a missile no larger than 1.25m and 7 tons.

Hard mode: split it with a missile no larger than 1.25 m and 3 tons

Extra-hard mode: split it with a .625 m missile under 1.5 tons.

By split, I mean cut in half.

The ship is here:

http://www./download/osbsahczgsml0o4/Avenir-class_Cruiser.craft

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[ScriptKitt3h]

That armouring sounds like the Vindicator Mk-III. We might have to battle here soon. I got my Vindicator back. It's the only ship I have thought because a faulty OS made me have to wipe my Hard Drive.

Sorry to hear. I always try to make cloud backups of my favorite/more unique designs for that risk alone.

As for the armoring, I started doing that quite a long time ago... never stopped unless it made sense not to. (Some light/medium ships I made in the past bounced the shots I expected them to survive well enough.)

[Canberra Gaming]

In light of Alphas newest challenge I've decided to dispatch a Vindicator Mk-III to the Area. One Missile. One Split.

I missed the first time around but due to the missile having extra fuel I could afford to turn around and on the loop around I hit it from topside.

Up for a battle again?

[Alphasus]

Actually, yes. I can bring 2 of those per vindicator. The new missiles they have haven't failed yet, and they have 4.

[Canberra Gaming]

Mind you I have the Ravager with nearly the same loadout and armour design. As well as some new deisgns and tactics I've been toying with.

[Alphasus]

Then let's go. How many ships do you want to fight with? Actually, the avenir is now 141 tons, so yeah. you can take a few fighters if you want.

[panzer1b]

In light of Alphas newest challenge I've decided to dispatch a Vindicator Mk-III to the Area. One Missile. One Split.

http://i.imgur.com/7pCm5sV.png

http://i.imgur.com/nOdR4xl.png

http://i.imgur.com/fQ5XGqO.png

I missed the first time around but due to the missile having extra fuel I could afford to turn around and on the loop around I hit it from topside.

http://i.imgur.com/mvYB0dj.png

http://i.imgur.com/f1NasbK.png

Up for a battle again?

This is more proof of the fact that against competitve missiles, and with good aim, nothing is actually immune to enemy fire.

If i get some time (have alot of builds im working on) ill test it myself using my new Tripedo-S, a small 1 ton missile that ive used multiple times to chop dreks to pieces with some reliability (although to guarantee a 1 shot kill id need to quickload a few times i think). It all boils down to impact velocity, too low and u wont penetrate, too high and u phase through entirely (dont try going in at 10km/s, you wont even interact with the target), and in general ive found around 300-400m/s works best vs most ships, 500 or more for very very thick ones.

[Canberra Gaming]

The newest vindicator is 233. I'll let you know the tonnage and ship cap shortly. I'll set up this time.

[Alphasus]

This is more proof of the fact that against competitve missiles, and with good aim, nothing is actually immune to enemy fire.

If i get some time (have alot of builds im working on) ill test it myself using my new Tripedo-S, a small 1 ton missile that ive used multiple times to chop dreks to pieces with some reliability (although to guarantee a 1 shot kill id need to quickload a few times i think). It all boils down to impact velocity, too low and u wont penetrate, too high and u phase through entirely (dont try going in at 10km/s, you wont even interact with the target), and in general ive found around 300-400m/s works best vs most ships, 500 or more for very very thick ones.

I made a hard mode and extra hard mode for this exact reason as well. A big enough missile will always do the trick, if you build them right. The challenge is to have a little missile that can do it.

[Sharkman Briton]

My Monument-Class was featured on spacecraft fridays!

[Rune]

This is more proof of the fact that against competitve missiles, and with good aim, nothing is actually immune to enemy fire.

If i get some time (have alot of builds im working on) ill test it myself using my new Tripedo-S, a small 1 ton missile that ive used multiple times to chop dreks to pieces with some reliability (although to guarantee a 1 shot kill id need to quickload a few times i think). It all boils down to impact velocity, too low and u wont penetrate, too high and u phase through entirely (dont try going in at 10km/s, you wont even interact with the target), and in general ive found around 300-400m/s works best vs most ships, 500 or more for very very thick ones.

Don't be so sure. I mean, in KSP sword beats shield every time (if the guy building the sword knows his stuff, that is), but you can actually take that into account, and design an ablative, massively redundant ship: whichever part you destroy of this 200 part, 33mT ship, it can do without, since it has at least two of everything, and can in fact subdivide in two ships that do the same thing the original did:

And can you imagine what would happen on the enemy's "radar screen" if you press the "emergency disengage" and break up the ship in its constituent parts? One target suddenly becomes 10.

Rune. I mean, RL is pretty much the same, you assume any decent hit can go through anything.

[Spartwo]

First thought.

[ScriptKitt3h]

Don't be so sure. I mean, in KSP sword beats shield every time (if the guy building the sword knows his stuff, that is), but you can actually take that into account, and design an ablative, massively redundant ship: whichever part you destroy of this 200 part, 33mT ship, it can do without, since it has at least two of everything, and can in fact subdivide in two ships that do the same thing the original did:

http://i.imgur.com/Pgl8aRq.png

And can you imagine what would happen on the enemy's "radar screen" if you press the "emergency disengage" and break up the ship in its constituent parts? One target suddenly becomes 10.

Rune. I mean, RL is pretty much the same, you assume any decent hit can go through anything.

I'm starting to put little 1-2 part disposable probes on my ships that I can jettison as decoys/chaff to confuse guided shots at long range.

Edited August 29, 2015 by ScriptKitt3h

[Sharkman Briton]

Interesting idea! And not as insanely hard to achieve as the concept I come up with.

[panzer1b]

I'm starting to put little 1-2 part disposable probes on my ships that I can jettison as decoys/chaff to confuse guided shots at long range.

That would not work against me, given that all my guided weapons are fired via F2 view (no hud to block my view). But against people who rely on autoaim (ive started using 100% manual aim, despite the ability to aim at target in the new SAS autopilot options), its a great tool to have and it would create a wall of text in front of the enemy making it tough to target teh ship itself in the 1st place.

At the least i will give you that its a very original idea (i never even thought of such an idea, despite oftentimes using debri fields to hide ships behind in my single player campaigns). If i wasnt so paranoid about part count (every non-essential to function part is removed from my craft to cut down those parts), id probably start using this tactic myself at least in DMP where the majority of people ive shot at/been shot at by seem to like autoaim use.

[Spartwo]

So I'm guessing Script is preparing for multiplayer, he's not alone...

Who was it that I got into an argument and ended up making this ship for?

And you should recheck the impact on that warhead, they changed the impact to 70m/s which makes me sad.

[Sharkman Briton]

Spartwo, could you share some of your aesthetic secrets with us (me)?

[Spartwo]

Rebuild anything you don't like from the ground up until you do like it.

[panzer1b]

Rebuild anything you don't like from the ground up until you do like it.

I do it more like make a strong core, and build outward until im happy. That at least doesnt kill ur armor.

Also, what is that weird black striped stuff in your SPH? some kinda grafix bug?

[Spartwo]

PC died, KSP on vista looks that way.

I do it more like make a strong core, and build outward until im happy. That at least doesnt kill ur armor.

How does good armor = built only once

If anything the opposite is true.

[panzer1b]

PC died, KSP on vista looks that way.

How does good armor = built only once

If anything the opposite is true.

I never said built only once, but my designs mostly involve teh following building style:

1: pick skeleton from a few i have availeable.

2: create armor around it in whatever shape i feel like (depends on faction, each one uses its specific building style/shapes/looks).

3: keep rebuilding hull until im happy with both protection and part count.

4: fill internal space with fuel, crew pods, engines, weapons, ect, and if there is not enough room to do so without excessive clipping, go back to (3) and redo the hull until it has the internal space to fit what i need to fit.

5: do exterior (usually add wing panels, i dont know why but 100% structural panel hull doesnt look good for me, i like a nice combination between some panels and some wings).

Also separate from this, i do core/skeleton RnD, in which the only 2 factors i care about is part count and armor. I have a few core layouts ive deemed effective, and i essentially pick one of them when creating a new ship (if i actually care about the armor protection for said ship). Then ofc i develop new core layouts once in a while when i deem old ones have gotten to the point of useless, or i just want to try a completely new hull style for a new ship, ill try to make a core to support that style.

[8bitgammers]

How the hell does 700 + 300 = 1100?

I know it was prolly a typo, but obvious math errors really annoy me for some reason

Also, the vast majority of my fighters are below 50 parts including weapons. Ive actually found MK2 fuselage to be great vs anything less then Ibeam+2 sepatrons, and is even resistant somewhat to those unless its multiple shots hitting you.

Bombers get around 100 parts as they are larger, more complex, and they tend to carry upwards of 10 if not even more missiles.

Capitals are at a minimum 150 parts for the hull, ive yet to come up with a good armor scheme that is below that. 150 is what 2 sections of SK-CRV-IIIg3 style hull end up with, along with around 20 or so missile hardpoints, so technically ~130 parts per hull. That thing is no great armor, but compared to the majority of stuff ive seen its quite resistant, and can actually take hits from all but competitive weapons (if you can split a drek with it, you can split this too with good aim and some luck). Im still happy with the basic hull layout, since its really tough to make something better while limiting yourself to so few parts. My frigate is better, way better, but im still not happy with a 250 part hull, doesnt leave much for guns and fighters (all AKS frigates double up as carrier hybrids).

The only fighter ive actually bothered with thats above 100 parts is the HK-201 and 202, since they are SSTOs that can get to laythe (the 201 can do a roundtrip, the 202 not yet but its upwards of 3.5K dV atm). Anything with that much range is going to have a stacked fuel tank in the weapons bay made of ~20-30 FLT-100s as its the only tank that can fit in there 100% and still let me use missiles (1 missile per side, and a sideways facing FLT-100 between, then ofc more FLTs clipped in front/behind the 1st one), i dont like thsi solution, would prefer clipping say MK1 LF tanks or something, but there isnt much option when i insist on air intake+mk1 adaptor+short mk2 bay+another adaptor+mk1 inline pit+rapier+nuke, there is just no room to fit any other tank in such a design anywhere in the bay such that drag on it is disabled as i cant exactly have all those tanks exposed to teh airflow or outside at all since i insist upon a very particular look and extra tanks externally ruin it. At least these craft are very specialized and tend to operate solo anyways as scouts or strike fighters behind enemy lines, luckily they are too big, heavy, and bulky to work with carriers, and having 1 or 2 in a squadron isnt that bad.

Ohh and 8bit, i think ive found a flaw with ur new fighter, a single good hit to the rear and its toast. Also, no idea what u wanna name it, but the name Hex-Fighter is already taken by AKS, it was a heavy fighter that served alongside the Tri-Fighter line for a short time, although it was retired as it was deemed too complex and overkill back in 0.90 (30 tons pushed by 3 rapiers and 3 turbojets as well as the usual 1 nuke in the center, in atmo that thing would go 2km/s reliably though, owing to its 50 or so ram intakes).

yes, that was a typo.

the fact that you can make a capitol ship with so little parts is not very surprising. it all depends on the size, complexity, armor, and definition of a capitol ship.

lately i have been using a ton of armor on my ships, and this has yielded great success. in all the tests i have preformed i have found armor to be the best way to defend a ship.

as for that small fighter... it was a very rushed design. i do not plan on making it a "important" part of my up to date fleet.

[Alphasus]

Just finished my first lightweight ship. 40 tons, wing armored,and under 220 parts! Pictures soon. Maybe.