A table for bot type efficiency

[That Robot is a Spy!]

Or we could just get 10 of each bot type, each slightly different and pit them against each other, that would take less time.
All would have to be good though.

[Naryar]

Actually I think my idea would take less time... we just have to observe old tournaments rather than making a new tournament just for stats.

And if we are a sufficient number and we're doing our job well, it will take less time.

[Squirrel_Monkey]

FG>Everything

[Naryar]

FG>Everything

Most certainly, my dear sir. Hammer ? VS ? Yes, of course.

[Squirrel_Monkey]

FG>Everything

Most certainly, my dear sir. Hammer ? VS ? Yes, of course.

If build stable enough. I reckon one could be made at HW level.

[Somebody]

What's FG?

[cephalopod]

^Thought the same until I remembered...
Flying Guillotine.

[Badnik96]

what about a TRFBD?

[Urjak]

FG>Everything

Except well built SnS and VS.

[russian roulette]

I could see this working for amount of wheels on a certain bot type but other than that there are way to many variables for this to be completely accurate, good idea though.

[Badnik96]

agreed but I like Nary's idea.

[Clickbeetle]

If we're making analogies to Pokemon, then popups are the Psychic type in gen 1.  Nothing resists them except other popups and there are no supereffective attacks against them.
 
HS are the Fighting type (gen 2 onwards).  Good coverage, supereffective against a lot of stuff, but weak to Psychic (popups).
 
Flying Guillotines and TRFBD's would be Dark and Steel types, respectively, since they resist popups and are more recent developments.  Also they are weak to HS (or at least weaker than they are to popups).

[Squirrel_Monkey]

FG>Everything

Except well built SnS and VS.

Yeah, the problem with this discussion is the "well built" clause.

[RpJk]

Actually I think my idea would take less time... we just have to observe old tournaments rather than making a new tournament just for stats.

And if we are a sufficient number and we're doing our job well, it will take less time.

Like the idea

[Virus Bomb]

I'm surprised no one mentioned crawlers yet

[Pwnator]

I'm surprised no one mentioned crawlers yet

I don't think there's a Pokemon relatable to that. :P

[Trovaner]

Unlike Pokemon, the types in RA2 are not set in stone. The finite number of types in Pokemon are hard coded into the games and there are no exceptions to the strengths/weaknesses chart (unless looking at some glitches).

RA2 has nothing like this built-in. There are also going to be problems when sub-dividing bot's into specific types. We can't be too vague because of things like spinners (FS, HS, VS, FBS, drills, etc.) but we also can't be too specific (due to sheer numbers and a disproportionate scale). 

Builders usually judge bots by several different and varying factors including but not limited to type, efficiency, quality, and weight class. This combines both categorical and numerical sets of data that people weigh differently on a case-by-case. We would need to quantify the categorical data in order to even consider comparing the bots.

I usually look at these four points:
Offense (based on speed, type of force (linear or angular), direction (vertical or horizontal), concussion, and pierce)
Defense (based on HP and Fracture)
Mobility (based on number of wheels, motors, weight, and invertibility)
Design (based on wedge, combat style, opponent, and build quality) (highly opinionated)

Indiscriminately judging bots in a chart or even a formula would undoubtedly provide faulty information. I've attempted numerous times to do this but, without the human element, the results are never accurate.

[123savethewhales]

Lol this whole post makes no sense.

First of all, what arena are we even talking about?  Open?  Close?  Or one of those Joeblo ones?  Obviously in close arena Crawler is King.

Next it is weight class.  The balance changes greatly from LW MW to HW SHW, especially in DSL.

Third, histories of past tournaments bear little relevance.  Whatever any specific bot type used to be weak again in the long past doesn't matter if the design has since change to deal with the weakness.  So to say Flail Sheck is weak vs popup, or popup is weak vs Flail SnS, is utterly pointless by today's standard.  Historically they are true, but shell nowadays has way more than enough bottom armor to tank popups, and wide popup more or less render Flail SnS obsolete HW and up.