Arena Blueprint Contest

[ianh05]

updated my post.

[Venko]

If it takes too much time, we can quit some hazards, all the things in my idea are a subject to change (except for the brick-cars).
So You can suggest some to be replaced with a cloned UFO SFTWs hazard.
Pic :

No one says that it must be the prettiest arena.
In this pic I offer some circumventions of the problem with the crumbled buildings.
You still can make the buildings with a simple geometry and a simple crumbled texture like this - 1
Or You can use a cube and just use an alpha channel TGA texture on it, with a totally translucent crumbled alpha channel - 2
Or You can use the both of these effects - 3
Or don't have a crumbled buildings at all.
For the blocked exits You can use a mesh like this, with a crumbled texture - 4
The same but with an alpha channel translucent crumbled texture - 5
Or just a simple flat sprite with an alpha crumbled texture - 6
You can make the hole square, or square with an alpha crumbled texture, or don't make the hole at all - 7
As for the King Kong, it can be an up-down moving flat sprite on the building - 8
Feel free to discuss ideas with me on making this a more simple.

[70 CUDA]

Yeah it would 3 walls with ice like flooring. Yes I was thinking of that arena when i came up with this, however did that end with the bots fighting? i remember it was a race. but i could be wrong since its years. lol

[Mr. AS]

would something like a conveyer belt be "doable"? im thinking about having a conveyer pull bots into a pit of passive "lava".

[ianh05]

With my gaming experience I would say lava is never passive 

[Trovaner]

1. Perhaps they can teleport in (create same bot in another location and remove original)?
2. By ring apron I mean the area on the ring that is outside of the ropes, I'd just say make the area large enough to hold a HW on there or have a low invisible wall to prevent robots falling off.
3. For the weapon I'd like them to spawn in the neutral corners and setup so that when a robot makes contact with it the object breaks and that robot takes damage.

1. Unfortunately, neither teleporting nor respawning are possible in RA2. I can blink the lights and launch the bots into the arena using a force command but it wouldn't give you the results that you are looking for.
2. Making an invisible wall would be fine but it would look kind of wonky when the second bot tried to get onto the ledge (assuming that both bots on a team are entering the arena from off stage). I was already thinking that we could make the collision mesh for the stairs into a ramp but to give wide bots the ability to turn without touching the ropes, the ramp would need to end quite a bit sooner than the display mesh which would make it look pretty bad whenever something drove on top of it.
3. That would work.

If it takes too much time, we can quit some hazards, all the things in my idea are a subject to change (except for the brick-cars).
So You can suggest some to be replaced with a cloned UFO SFTWs hazard.
Pic :

No one says that it must be the prettiest arena.
In this pic I offer some circumventions of the problem with the crumbled buildings.
You still can make the buildings with a simple geometry and a simple crumbled texture like this - 1
Or You can use a cube and just use an alpha channel TGA texture on it, with a totally translucent crumbled alpha channel - 2
Or You can use the both of these effects - 3
Or don't have a crumbled buildings at all.
For the blocked exits You can use a mesh like this, with a crumbled texture - 4
The same but with an alpha channel translucent crumbled texture - 5
Or just a simple flat sprite with an alpha crumbled texture - 6
You can make the hole square, or square with an alpha crumbled texture, or don't make the hole at all - 7
As for the King Kong, it can be an up-down moving flat sprite on the building - 8
Feel free to discuss ideas with me on making this a more simple.

I can't think of any objects that are already made to look like Figure 1. I could make one but that is a little too advanced for a beginners tutorial.
I was thinking of doing Figure 2 but it would look kind of weird whenever someone looked into the gap.
Figure 3 would have been ideal but it suffers from the issues that I brought up for 1.
Crumbled buildings are one of the features that brings the whole arena together so I really wouldn't want to leave them out. At this point in time, I would probably do option 2 due to the simplicity.

Figure 4 was what I was thinking for the exists just because Figure 5 and 6 would look tacky. Alpha channels are cool when used effectively but having things float unrealistically in them doesn't work well.

I could easily make the pit work like you have in Figure 7 but it wouldn't look pretty from the side and if we allow bots to fall in then it will look even worse. As long as you understand that it won't be pretty, we could make it work.

Your idea for Figure 8 is actually something that I hadn't considered.

[70 CUDA]

would something like a conveyer belt be "doable"? im thinking about having a conveyer pull bots into a pit of passive "lava".

yes and you could have the lava push the in a direction. Mad and I did that with a river. it was a GMF rectangle that was HUGE, he set it up so the bot would get pulled when it drove through it. we had a semi clear skin. I cant remember how but will think on it.

[ianh05]

Updated my entry again.

[Venko]

I was thinking of doing Figure 2 but it would look kind of weird whenever someone looked into the gap.
You can simply fill the gap with a fire and the problem is solved geniusly. 
Crumbled buildings are one of the features that brings the whole arena together so I really wouldn't want to leave them out.
Agreed.
Figure 4 was what I was thinking for the exists just because Figure 5 and 6 would look tacky.
OK then, but use some debris textures.
I could easily make the pit work like you have in Figure 7 but it wouldn't look pretty from the side and if we allow bots to fall in then it will look even worse. As long as you understand that it won't be pretty, we could make it work.
I don't have a problem with the ugliness. As for the pit, my idea was for a very shallow pit, in which bots cannot fall to lose. Just as a slight wedge discomfort or to get stucked.
Your idea for Figure 8 is actually something that I hadn't considered.
Feel free to make the King Kong as you wish.

[Kossokei]

Here's my entry.

Everything is pretty self explanatory as evident in the picture. I had sort of the Sao Paulo Scrapyard from RW:AoD and the stock Bridge Arena and Containment Cube all in mind as I came up with this. The main feature is the Conveyer belt, otherwise the drum and FLAMMENWERFERs are pretty basic hazards and there's a bridge. Again, pretty self explanatory.
Further details are in picture.

This would actually be cool to see made

[Trovaner]

Yeah it would 3 walls with ice like flooring. Yes I was thinking of that arena when i came up with this, however did that end with the bots fighting? i remember it was a race. but i could be wrong since its years. lol
(Image removed from quote.)

In Lu-Tze's arena, the bots would fight after they both got into the center of the arena (an uncommon event especially for the version that was used in DSL2 (I added AI support to my version)).

would something like a conveyer belt be "doable"? im thinking about having a conveyer pull bots into a pit of passive "lava".

The best we could do is give the illusion of a conveyor belt.
1. Using a prismatic floor, we could pull the bot across a belt looking surface. This would, however, have problems if you wanted to have bots fall off the end of the conveyor belt (the prismatic object would remain below you at all times and wouldn't circle around). If you put a guide object down that will force bots to turn off of the conveyor belt then you could probably get your lava idea to work.
2. Alternatively, we could make the floor slippery and apply a force on the bot (we could even make an animation out of display meshes but that would increase lag on slower computers). The issue with this one is that the bot would struggle to get off the belt with it being so slippery and it might lag on slower computers.
3. Another idea would be to have a prismatic pushing newly spawned tread objects down a predefined path and either make them disappear before reaching the ledge. Although this idea seems like it would work the best, it suffers from two major flaws. It would be a rather complicated mechanism with many moving parts and it would probably lag.

The one used in the arena that 70 CUDA is talking was a prismatic object that was textured to look like a raging river and acted as a smartzone to determine which bots would receive a force applied to them. It isn't quite what you are looking for but it may give other people ideas.

1. Unfortunately, neither teleporting nor respawning are possible in RA2. I can blink the lights and launch the bots into the arena using a force command but it wouldn't give you the results that you are looking for.
2. Making an invisible wall would be fine but it would look kind of wonky when the second bot tried to get onto the ledge (assuming that both bots on a team are entering the arena from off stage). I was already thinking that we could make the collision mesh for the stairs into a ramp but to give wide bots the ability to turn without touching the ropes, the ramp would need to end quite a bit sooner than the display mesh which would make it look pretty bad whenever something drove on top of it.
3. That would work.

1. Force command thing sounds alright, we just need them to get in and out of the ring anyway possible.
2. An invisible collision mesh all around the ring with a gap for the ring ramp sounds like a good idea. You could make the ramp larger and put it near one of the neutral corners.
3. Would it be possible for the table to break and have parts of the table possibly land on the bot? The ladder could just fall on top of the bot and cause damage.

1. Like I previously mentioned, the force command wouldn't work well for something like this. The bots would get a serious case of whiplash that would probably result in them havoking, getting flipped, and taking damage. It would also be difficult to get the bot to stop moving once we launched it because it lacks any sort of precision.
2. How would the ramp be changed? I'm not sure how this changes anything.
3. Breaking a movable object is much more difficult than creating a stationary object that is breakable. The best I could do is something similar to the computer in the DSL practice arena. As far as the table goes, it would be possible to dump pieces from the rafters but it is unlikely that it will give the effect that you are looking for. As for the ladder, we could identify where the opponent is on a grid and drop a specific set of objects that will appear to be a single ladder until they hit the bot/ground (something that I would consider too tedious if it weren't for the fact that a single ladder can span more than one square on a grid)

Here's my entry.

Everything is pretty self explanatory as evident in the picture. I had sort of the Sao Paulo Scrapyard from RW:AoD and the stock Bridge Arena and Containment Cube all in mind as I came up with this. The main feature is the Conveyer belt, otherwise the drum and FLAMMENWERFERs are pretty basic hazards and there's a bridge. Again, pretty self explanatory.
Further details are in picture.

This would actually be cool to see made

Not a bad concept arena. I really like the incorporation of the drum and conveyor belt. The simplicity of it is also very appealing to me. As far as making it goes, I would probably use the first conveyor belt option that I mentioned at the top of this post. Therefore, everything appears to be doable and valid.

[ianh05]

I love how my idea looks so simple but is tougher to pull off 

[Trovaner]

I had an idea for a tabletop.

Unfortunately, the size of fire objects is not controllable. Also trying to use a bunch of them on top of each other results in serious lag issues. In the Black Hole Arena, I ended up only turning on one flame pit at a time and even then it lagged quite a bit on some computers. It would be very difficult to give the illusion of a larger flame without making the arena unplayable. Therefore, I am forced to label this one as an invalid entry (feel free to make changes to it).

Edit: Just as an idea, you could make small flames that circle around the edges of the arena instead of having a bunch of big ones. I'm not sure what to do about the center flame, though.

[Badger]

I had an idea for a possible arena, probably better for p v ai than ai v ai, but oh well. I make it in the CSGO hammer editor because that's the only 3d mapping/modeling thing that I know how to use, so deal w/ it.

Oh, and the place that the guy is standing in the 1st pic would be a good place for some pop-up spikes, a little like the saws in the battlebox, and a lot like the series 3 RW spikes.

Screenshots:

IDK what to name it, Industrial Zone?

[Kossokei]

Here's my entry.

Everything is pretty self explanatory as evident in the picture. I had sort of the Sao Paulo Scrapyard from RW:AoD and the stock Bridge Arena and Containment Cube all in mind as I came up with this. The main feature is the Conveyer belt, otherwise the drum and FLAMMENWERFERs are pretty basic hazards and there's a bridge. Again, pretty self explanatory.
Further details are in picture.

This would actually be cool to see made

I didn't know we had to name it, so I'll give it a name;

"Bruniikkaal Arena"

[Trovaner]

I had an idea for a possible arena, probably better for p v ai than ai v ai, but oh well. I make it in the CSGO hammer editor because that's the only 3d mapping/modeling thing that I know how to use, so deal w/ it.

Oh, and the place that the guy is standing in the 1st pic would be a good place for some pop-up spikes, a little like the saws in the battlebox, and a lot like the series 3 RW spikes.

Screenshots:

It appears to be doable. Seems like a pretty basic arena layout (saws and spikes). The lava hazard is a nice touch, however.

Here's my entry.

Everything is pretty self explanatory as evident in the picture. I had sort of the Sao Paulo Scrapyard from RW:AoD and the stock Bridge Arena and Containment Cube all in mind as I came up with this. The main feature is the Conveyer belt, otherwise the drum and FLAMMENWERFERs are pretty basic hazards and there's a bridge. Again, pretty self explanatory.
Further details are in picture.

This would actually be cool to see made

I didn't know we had to name it, so I'll give it a name;

"Bruniikkaal Arena"

You didn't have to name it, I've just been grabbing the name whenever possible to make it easier to keep track of who made what.

[Lightning S.]

I had an idea for a tabletop.

Unfortunately, the size of fire objects is not controllable. Also trying to use a bunch of them on top of each other results in serious lag issues. In the Black Hole Arena, I ended up only turning on one flame pit at a time and even then it lagged quite a bit on some computers. It would be very difficult to give the illusion of a larger flame without making the arena unplayable. Therefore, I am forced to label this one as an invalid entry (feel free to make changes to it).

Edit: Just as an idea, you could make small flames that circle around the edges of the arena instead of having a bunch of big ones. I'm not sure what to do about the center flame, though.

Okay, problems mentioned and a few other things updated:

[Jack Daniels]

Still working on mine...  Damn that deadline is coming up fast.  :P

[Trovaner]

I had an idea for a tabletop.

Unfortunately, the size of fire objects is not controllable. Also trying to use a bunch of them on top of each other results in serious lag issues. In the Black Hole Arena, I ended up only turning on one flame pit at a time and even then it lagged quite a bit on some computers. It would be very difficult to give the illusion of a larger flame without making the arena unplayable. Therefore, I am forced to label this one as an invalid entry (feel free to make changes to it).

Edit: Just as an idea, you could make small flames that circle around the edges of the arena instead of having a bunch of big ones. I'm not sure what to do about the center flame, though.

Okay, problems mentioned and a few other things updated:

The one challenge would be getting the floor mesh from the Flextop arena to look like that (there might be an easier mesh to work with but nothing comes to mind ATM). Regardless, I'm sure that we could get it to work.

[Jack Daniels]

Gah.  I can't seem to get enough time to work on this.  Too much going on in life.  I wish everyone good luck and can't wait to see the  progress with this.  :D

You are all awesome for taking time to present designs.