need more stock builders!

[Thyrus]

What MAs says is dumb. This game was supposed to be about IRL building in the first line. Look at the stock bots. look why this game has been made in the first place. it was done in the time when robot wars and battlebots were still on tv. it was made to have a game for your own creations. none of the developers had 36 macespinners and popups in mind when they did it.

also why the would you fore a building style to stop? did I ever say "stop building DSL realism" or "don`t waste your time on  stock standart building"?

[090901]

yea ok i fixed it again.

what we need is for this irl fad to calm down, im fine with some irl bots being built, but OH MY ~ALLAH~ people, this is out-of-hand.

just as a reference, here are the 17 threads that ian posted... BUT with primarily or exclusively IRL showcases highlighted in YELLOW

(Image removed from quote.)

the entire IRL bandwagon is drifting attention away from the ORIGINAL GAME over to "hurr who can make the best skin in paint.net/photoshop/ETC", bar those flippermaker-spammed bots.

Dude does it really matter that much to you how people build? The game has been around for 10 years, we are lucky to have people still build in it. It's a game, let people enjoy it the way they want to.

[Venko]

Perhaps it's due to no more Starcore AI? Maybe INFAI will give it a boost?

There is a reason why I'm stuck all since I started to build with the Starcore pack, it's not the toughest, but with the most variety. Inf AI is more a very-effective-old-school-bots oriented. But where we can find someone that will make a very variable/innovative/freak but effective at the same time builder to make an AI pack like Starcore? So we are stuck for now with what we have.

[Mr. AS]

just saying, i've built wayy more standard bots than irl. and i think everyone knows i cant skin for crap 

dsl standard will pretty much be dead after this though. there will still be a few builders but a lot less than for stock.

*just as a reference, here are the 17 threads that ian posted... BUT with primarily or exclusively IRL showcases (as of late) highlighted in YELLOW
pardon me

MAs

Mas, i could get used to this.

This game was supposed to be about IRL building in the first line. Look at the stock bots. look why this game has been made in the first place. it was done in the time when robot wars and battlebots were still on tv. it was made to have a game for your own creations. none of the developers had 36 macespinners and popups in mind when they did it.

did the developers of RA2 do anything when 36HS or popups were on the rise back on the old forum, back when atari still cared? they didnt do anything. if they truly did care the slightest bit on how the building experience should be they would have had actual quality bugtesting instead of shipping it off with oh so many glitches and building some "realistic" bots to cover it up.

also why the would you fore a building style to stop? did I ever say "stop building DSL realism" or "don`t waste your time on  stock standart building"?

except i did not say to stop entirely, just saying how irl has practically overtaken the showcases like some sort of rampant tumor.

It's a game, let people enjoy it the way they want to.

i want to play stock. too bad theres hardly anyone to play stock with anymore.
on the other hand IRL has at least half the building populous to compete (or not since its a skinning competition) with.

[Thyrus]

your argument doesnt make sense. why would a developer come in and say: "stop! that's not what I had in mind when i created the game. Do what I wanted to see!"

[Wolfsbane]

We can practice our building for BBEANS7.

[Scrap Daddy]

The way I see it, IRL is the way the game was supposed to be played. I've always had a fascination with the replicas and the only way to fairly fight them is with IRL style bots. DSL has just devolved into stock with flashier parts, but not nearly as fun, and the main reason I don't play it anymore. I've always wanted to build actual fighting robots without being held back by the cost and IRL is as good as it gets aside from using a CAD program(but fighting them is way more fun then looking at them). I'm using ideas that I would actually want to build in real life instead of thinking how I am going to get as many razors as possible or creating the best bottom protection; if I want that bullsh**, I'll go play stock.

As far as stock goes, you are talking a totally different animal. For me at least, the time building a stock bot is at least twice as much as DSL or IRL(including the skin), due to all the snapper loading and other glitches that are involved. Even then, time can be wasted when you get a bot that havoks and is completely unusable. Coming up with ideas with stock is harder too since there are so few usable components.

Really I don't even understand what you think these thread is going to accomplish; it's not going to inspire people to start building. I build stock when I have a good idea, even then that idea may take months to form into an actual killing machine. I can't force myselff to play stock, I absolutely need inspiration first.

[Virus Bomb]

Outside of the how the game was meant to be played in stuff Scrap hit it right on the head for me. Outside of real life stuff the main reason I barely play stock now is because I pretty much have no good ideas, and IRL in DSL way more fun for me than regular DSL building. Also IRL in stock is pointless IMO.

[infiniteinertia]

People are building less stock because fewer builders have learned how to properly build in recent years.....and a lot of builders have left.....simple as that

[Merrick]

I don't build very much stock purely because I don't really enjoy it.

I mean, it's a game, the whole point is to enjoy yourself. If I'm not enjoying myself while building, what's the point? I'm not going to force myself to build robots just because the forum doesn't have enough.

[MassimoV]

Man y'all take this way too seriously. It's a friggin' video game. Build what you want, it's a hobby/recreation.

[RedSawn]

I wouldn't say I am dominantly DSL IRL, it's just in the last while I've had to build IRL (Badnik's AI pack I failed to get a team ready for, RA2 Olympics, Battlebots 6) But I digress.

There's two problems plaguing stock: The inflexibility of the metagame (Only select weapons are of any use, use shiny wheels, snapper load Ztek HP spinners in almost all cases, etc) and the fact stock itself has not changed since it's creation 10 years ago (Naturally, but there could of been balance patches, new standardised, non-cheat components, etc). Eventually we're going to run out of possibilities. And that I believe we are, if we haven't already.

[123savethewhales]

Stock just doesn't interest me.  I build a few popups, HSes, and FSnSes, and I ran out of stuff I want to do with it.

[RpJk]

To me the game just got boring and I cant be arsed playing plus I've been playing so many other games recently like Luigis mansion 2, virtues last reward, Metal gear solid 2 etc.

The only time I will play RA2 again is if there is some big Replica pack out but apart from that the fun is lost to the point in which its hard to play for few minutes.

So in short the fun of Stock is gone.

[Venko]

What! 9 people build stock only! Where, show them to me!
Stock is not "played out" yet, look at my posted "innovations/new bot types" and these, that I'm about to release.
As I told before, some people just don't have an imagination.

[RedSawn]

No imagination? This is true.

But do you atleast accept that any creativity is hampered by by the fact that 50% of the components available are effectively useless in almost all situations? (Redbird, powered steering, axles, all wheels except shinies and rubber wheels, all weapons except razor, iron, mace and perhaps axe heads, pointy tip, single sided pick and 30cm pole spike, square extenders, T, Y and angle connectors, forklift arm, ballast might as well be, all actual armor options with exception to plastic for sub-LWs)

So which weapons are the best? The "Big Three" in standard stock building are iron spikes, maces, and razor tips. At least 95% of all bots you will see use these three exclusively.

When you realize how people must conform to a very specific ideal to build anything combat effective in stock, you may appreciate how much more broad the options in DSL are, and thus why people play it more. It's true that in some regards DSL2 was similar (Hypno wheels are abundant for instance) but unlike stock there is an active and universally accepted movement to change things, called DSL3.

[ianh05]

New designs don't need new weapons.

[Trovaner]

A component's shape and ease of use also influences its effectiveness in a design. For this reason, you see spike strips, blades, battle axes, and mower blades used for protection. The components that you listing are merely guidelines that are based solely on HP and damage. You would be hard pressed not to use any of those components but people should not be restricting themselves to them when a design could work better with different ones.

Progress is being made on DSL but it will always have some of the same issues as stock.

Personally, I don't care which version of the game people choose to play. I enjoy playing stock more but DSL is not without its own merits.

[RedSawn]

It is true new designs don't need new weapons, but it'd also help if you can distinguish one design from another. How many times can you snapper load however many Ztek HPs with tribars with irons or maces and call it a new HS? Is it a new design just because you knocked one pixel of chassis space off but could still stack the same old setup? I realize other classes are a lot less monotonous, but those too boil down to the same or similar vices.

Perhaps I just have disdain for stock. I don't want to sit around all day trying to bend the laws of physics to make something remotely competitive. It would explain why I've hovered at SC2, SC3 level for 3, 4 years.

[Venko]

One solution, is if we force the stock back to inefficient noobot levels.
This will bring the never-used-exotic-components back in the game, but I'm agree with Trov, that some of them just have a different use now (for protection), and I like that.
But however I'm not offering this, I'm happy with what is stock now (exept the 140 extenders  and the 0910910190 uberstack  , I mean, the earth spins around for years without them, BBEANS, Starcore AI).

How many times can you snapper load however many Ztek HPs with tribars with irons or maces and call it a new HS? Is it a new design just because you knocked one pixel of chassis space off but could still stack the same old setup?

I have at least 3 very new setups for HSs, but they went so good, so I put them in the secret folder and no showcasing for now, I have something similar with a popup setup too. But I just assume, that there are not much people like me around to innovate.