Questions about warheads

[Sgtwisky]

Was thinking about how I might effectively weaponize warheads. I understand the basics of setting up torpedoes but I have no idea about the way warheads deal damage. If anyone can answer any of these questions for me I would be grateful.

Do they effect shields?
Do their explosions work similar to missiles?
What is the diameter of their explosion?
Does the diameter change based on the total amount of damage the warhead does?
Does their damage stack the more that are connected?
If so is it linear or exponential?
Does the incoming damage get mitigated by armor HP pool? (I assume yes to this)

 

[Jaaskinal]

1) No, as of current build they bypass shields.
2-3) I don't know, I haven't looked at it, good questions.
4) Yes.
5) Sort of. My friends think the best configuration is five or six warheads in a *star* shape. (one in the center, four adjacent, with an optional one in front)
6) Seemingly severe exponential decrease. It's a really good idea to add another at 2-3, but going from 10-11 is useless.
7) If you hit an armored block, the armor health is an influencing factor in damage.

 

[Winterhome]

Was thinking about how I might effectively weaponize warheads. I understand the basics of setting up torpedoes but I have no idea about the way warheads deal damage. If anyone can answer any of these questions for me I would be grateful.

Do they effect shields?
Do their explosions work similar to missiles?
What is the diameter of their explosion?
Does the diameter change based on the total amount of damage the warhead does?
Does their damage stack the more that are connected?
If so is it linear or exponential?
Does the incoming damage get mitigated by armor HP pool? (I assume yes to this)

The explosions work the same way as very weak missiles, they do 2000 damage per hit, and their maximum radius is 8 - though you'll be hard pressed to get it anywhere near there without multiple impacts.

I think that they do not have damage based on group size, but rather, just cause extra warheads to go kaboom at once. Two to three warheads in a line is *marginally* more powerful than the single warhead at the front, but each warhead exploding does less damage because it's exploding inside an existing crater from a block of further distance.

 

[Sgtwisky]

Thanks for the info guys. It likely has saved me quite some time.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

On my Sandbox game, I modified the block behavior configuration file and buffed the warhead damage level to 500,000 per block. I am now running experiments with cannons, mine launchers and torpedoes.

The torpedoes have good range and are easy to store in repeat fire bays but they are horribly inaccurate. You need to be stationary to fire and won't hit anything short of a capital ship or planet beyond 600 meters. I'm planing to use them on close in torpedo bombers.

The "Mine launcher" is a 95 meter long repeat fire weapon with a 21 round ammo capacity and frightening accuracy. I can hit a (stationary) 2 meter-wide target from several thousand meters away. and the projectile travels at least 4km before coming to a stop. In the future, I plan to mount these to a turret as a wireless logic-controlled manual fire secondary weapon. That way, I'll have an auto aiming super weapon that I remain in total control of.

I'll post pictures of these things later today.

A future experiment will be an AI guided weapon with MIRV warheads.

 

[Sgtwisky]

currently my torpedo's are functioning well on default configs. I realized that what I needed to do in order to get good damage results from each torpedo, was to design it with a multi phase explosion in mind. As far as launching, I use logic push effects on the torpedo. It will travel forever in the direction its fired until ether it explodes (its designed so that when it hits, a warhead kills its logic signals) or is shot down.

As for my launcher, Ive yet to prototype it. My current idea is that I will add a 1 block trigger area, which will trigger the controller, which will start the logic clock for the torpedo. Doing it this way I avoid adding extra lag to the server with tons of logic ticks. This also means that until I'm firing The logic clock will not be active, and if I should need to undock a warhead, it will not fly into anything.

Also planning to have auto doors synced with the logic activation and the rail release. So that its not possible to shoot any of the torpedo's until they are actually out of my ship. I should be able to get the launching to work without much issues. Ive been playing with launching for some time with drones.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Here's my main launcher. It's a 21 round repeat fire unit. The warheads are tweaked (via the block behavior config) to 500,000 damage and a 25 m radius. They load via basic rails with activation modules to stop the extra rounds from bunching up . They are propelled by a push beam(400 beam:400 push) and seem to travel 4km before stopping. They are quite nasty when they hit; an excellent planetary/station siege weapon. If I manage to get this to work on a turret, I might just have a kill-gasm...

 

[Sgtwisky]

cool. Currently my design will blow through 2 layers of advanced armor, and leave a 3x3x5 crater under the armor. They are bigger then yours, but they also require push effects and logic on each one. Will show them off once I find time to build the launcher / torpedo rack.

The damage to that ship is pretty sweet btw. I'm wondering if the actual damage or blast radius should be buffed slightly by default to make them a bit more viable on default settings.

 

[Lidren]

Good questions, awesome responses. This thread makes me a little hot.

 

[Gasboy]

Is there a tutorial on building torpedos somewhere? Is it possible to make launchers that would fit on a fighter.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

To tweak the explosive blocks in windows:
- Find "blockBehaviorConfig.xml" in StarMade\data\config\
- Make a copy of the file as a backup with a slightly different name, (just in case...)
- Using a text editor (I use word pad), open "blockBehaviorConfig.xml"
- On your keyboard, hold your control key and hit "F"; a "find" dialogue box will open.
- Type the word "explosive". The first entry listed will be the warheads
- Modify the damage and blast radius as you see fit.
- Save the file
- Open StarMade and blow crap up...

SB-39E Light torpedo Bomber.

Armament:
- 2 torpedoes
- 1 AP pulse cannon - 2465 damage per shot

The Torpedo consists of a core, 1 warhead, a delay, a NOT logic, a push effect computer, 1 push effect module and a rail docker.
Link the NOT and Delay to each other and then link the NOT to the push computer. Link the push module to the push computer.
I like to put the rail docker on the absolute back of the torpedo facing backwards. This minimizes contact with the parent ship so your torpedo fires somewhat straight and minimizes the likelihood that you'll blow yourself up. You may or may not need to add a power generator to the torpedo. The above setup used power from the bomber to power the torpedo but I have had instances where the torpedo just dropped off the pylon and didn't move. That was embarrassing...

The fighter above is a 2nd generation prototype, designed to fit in one of my cruiser's 3 drop bays for situations where bringing in a small agile target is preferable to a large, high value target. Don't bother trying to use this kind of bomber as AI. It WILL NOT fire the torpedo. In the future I'm going to rework the design to provide to protection for the torpedo by making it extendable/retractable, as right now, it is highly vulnerable to gun fire.

 

[Gasboy]

Thank you for the tutorial. Though I have some questions. I am trying to make effective fighter sized craft. It is (relatively) easy to make effective large craft since you have room, and larger craft can depend more on shields and armor, and less on speed.

How large is that craft? And when you say Ap pulse cannon, do you mean a pulse weapon with a cannon slave?

As for the torpedo, when you launch them, do they just travel in a straight line? If so, is it possible to us an AI to guide them? Can an AI actually ram a target?

 

[StormWing0]

lol now to strip apart some of my bomb drone pirates and rebuild them based on this information.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Thank you for the tutorial. Though I have some questions. I am trying to make effective fighter sized craft. It is (relatively) easy to make effective large craft since you have room, and larger craft can depend more on shields and armor, and less on speed.

How large is that craft? And when you say Ap pulse cannon, do you mean a pulse weapon with a cannon slave?

As for the torpedo, when you launch them, do they just travel in a straight line? If so, is it possible to us an AI to guide them? Can an AI actually ram a target?

Sorry about the mix up. My SB-39 is 11m long by 9m wide by 5m tall. It's a pocket bomber meant to be launched from my cruiser; ASC Challenger. Think of it as the 22nd century equivalent of an A-10 Warthog/Thunderbolt II

By "AP" I mean "armor piercing". By "pulse cannon" I mean a cannon with a pulse slaved to it. Think of it like a small slow fire railgun. It does respectable damage per shot for a craft that size, even against Advanced armor. Since advanced armor has 250 hit points with a 75% reduction in damage received from incoming fire, A block of advanced armor has 1000 'effective hit points'. You must exceed 1000 damage per shot to destroy 1 block with 1 shot. This gun does 2465 damage per shot and will pierce 2 blocks of advanced armor and tear straight through anything without armor. With skillful piloting you could probably take down an Isanth IV with this thing... Unfortunately it doesn't stand up to fighters very well since it has no guided ordnance. ...but that WILL change. :D

The torpedoes are dumbfire and highly inaccurate they will start to deviate from your firing path after about 00-500 meters. You need to be around 500m and stationary for the best chance of a hit but I have made shots from 650m against the federation-type ship above. I recommend using them for attacking space stations or bombing runs against capitals. You will NEVER hit a moving target with one of these, they are just too slow and waaaay too inaccurate. Also, my AI-guided torpedo test showed that AI will NOT ram a target. I will continue to test until I find a way to change that.

All of this is in the prototype stages. (I love R&D. It makes me feel smarter than my past grades reflect.)

My next projects will include the following...
- A fighter with the same dimensions with retractable pylons to protect the warhead until you're ready to launch.
- A self protecting torpedo that uses logic and a blast door block to cover the warhead until impact.
- Torpedo guidance using AI to fire a low power weapon for use as a "target designator". This will keep the the AI pointed at the target and let the push effect carry the weapon forward, possibly resulting in a hit. The deciding factor is the Bobby AI (they're quite dumb) and whether it will obey my 'attack selected target' setting.
- A cluster munition... (Yeah, I'm mean like that...)

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Annnnd I doubled my payload...

The torpedoes deploy and retract via rails and I have crystal armor (invisible force fields?) in front of the warheads when retracted. I also sacrificed some armor for dual missile launchers to defend against fighters.

 

[Gasboy]

I am curious about the blast door idea. Technically the door block is still there when open, it lets people through.. but would it still be in the way, possibly preventing the warhead from hitting the target?

Unless you're talking a rail door?

 

[Dr. Whammy]

I am curious about the blast door idea. Technically the door block is still there when open, it lets people through.. but would it still be in the way, possibly preventing the warhead from hitting the target?

Unless you're talking a rail door?

Nope. My fighters exit the cruiser via a blast door. No collisions are detected when I deploy them. I would imagine I'd get the same result with a torpedo.
[DOUBLEPOST=1442613018,1442612214][/DOUBLEPOST]I tested it and it does work.

 

[Gasboy]

Nope. My fighters exit the cruiser via a blast door. No collisions are detected when I deploy them. I would imagine I'd get the same result with a torpedo.
[DOUBLEPOST=1442613018,1442612214][/DOUBLEPOST]I tested it and it does work.

But the door is part of the ship, and not the fighters. The door (if you mean the blast door/plex door objects) is part of the torpedo, if you are planing to use it to protect the torpedo, right?

 

[Dr. Whammy]

But the door is part of the ship, and not the fighters. The door (if you mean the blast door/plex door objects) is part of the torpedo, if you are planing to use it to protect the torpedo, right?

Try this...

- Build a torpedo using the above specifications. You may need to add a power reactor if you aren't launching from a ship.
- Attach an activation module to the torpedo and place a blast door in front of the warhead. Link the door to the activation module.
- Place a trigger area controller adjacent to the activation module, then place 2 trigger area blocks in front of the blast door and link them to the trigger area controller.

The trigger area controller will cause the door to open just as it impacts the target; leaving the war head exposed. I tested 7 torpedoes using this method. 5 out of 7 of them detonated perfectly using this method, 1 bounced off and 'tried again' using the push effect and one tumbled out of control but eventually blew up on the target.
It's not perfect but it's definitely worth researching.

 

[StormWing0]

hmm wonder what the scariest pirate ship with warheads in use is? It'd be funny to make pirates to do this as well.