Robot Arena 3

[Gauche Suede]

What will the RA3 standard style of build be like though?

Time will tell. Pretty sure popups will still be very good

Not if the physics avtually work this time

[Badger]

What will the RA3 standard style of build be like though?

Time will tell. Pretty sure popups will still be very good

Not if the physics avtually work this time

It's not to do with the physics, it's to do with the damage model.

[Gauche Suede]

What will the RA3 standard style of build be like though?

Time will tell. Pretty sure popups will still be very good

Not if the physics actually work this time

It's not to do with the physics, it's to do with the damage model.

Again, unless the team goes out of their way to mimic RA2's damage model then I don't think popups will be any good since modern damage calculations have at least a basic concept of force/area.

[RedSawn]

Maybe I'm overlooking something but I'm not sure why that'd change anything, it's like a hammer hidden in the chassis.

[TDS]

Maybe I'm overlooking something but I'm not sure why that'd change anything, it's like a hammer hidden in the chassis.

You hit the chasis with a weapon going 10mph, it does 10 damage
but...
You hit the chasis with ten weapons going 10mph, total weight/energy is the same, it does 100 damage because each weapon does individual damage based on speed

In real life it would deal /less/ damage since you have the same amount of force being distributed across a greater area.

[Somebody]

Maybe I'm overlooking something but I'm not sure why that'd change anything, it's like a hammer hidden in the chassis.

You hit the chasis with a weapon going 10mph, it does 10 damage
but...
You hit the chasis with ten weapons going 10mph, total weight/energy is the same, it does 100 damage because each weapon does individual damage based on speed

In real life it would deal /less/ damage since you have the same amount of force being distributed across a greater area.

This to me is the true difference between RA2 HD and RA3. It's fairly important that this is done right in my opinion.

[RedSawn]

Right, definitely did forgot about that, yeah

[Squirrel_Monkey]

Please tell me we're talking 1x10kg weapon should do more damage than 10x1kg weapons, not more damage than 10x10kg weapons?

[Somebody]

Please tell me we're talking 1x10kg weapon should do more damage than 10x1kg weapons, not more damage than 10x10kg weapons?

As far as I understood it, we were saying that 1x10kg weapon should do more damage than 10x10kg weapons. But the dream is to have it calculated by contact patch and forces and all that, meaning that a 1x10kg weapon would do more damage then the bigger contact surfaces of 10x1kg weapons.

[Squirrel_Monkey]

As far as I understood it, we were saying that 1x10kg weapon should do more damage than 10x10kg weapons.

This makes no sense from a concussive viewpoint. 100kg should do a lot more damage than 10kg.

But the dream is to have it calculated by contact patch and forces and all that, meaning that a 1x10kg weapon would do more damage then the bigger contact surfaces of 10x1kg weapons.

This is what I'm hoping for.

[TDS]

Please tell me we're talking 1x10kg weapon should do more damage than 10x1kg weapons, not more damage than 10x10kg weapons?

We're talking about exactly what I posted

if I have a 90 pound bar with 10 little 1 pound teeth at the end, it would actually do less damage than a 100 pound bar in real life because the impact is spread out between 5 little spots instead of one little spot.

In robot arena 2, dealing maximum damage was all about getting as many small weapon tips to impact at the same time as possible, which makes absolutely no sense.  Yes a 30kg weapon did more damage than a 10kg weapon, but it did dramatically less than 3 10kg weapons. or a handful of even smaller ones, its compounded by a bunch of things.  Like if you go weapon to weapon and hit eachother equally, a small weapon might hit for 1000 but it only has 100hp, then snap off, basically giving you 900 "free" damage that didnt count weightwise,  a larger one is not going to be able to frontload anywhere near as well.

[Clickbeetle]

What will the RA3 standard style of build be like though?

Time will tell. Pretty sure popups will still be very good

Not if the physics actually work this time

It's not to do with the physics, it's to do with the damage model.

Again, unless the team goes out of their way to mimic RA2's damage model then I don't think popups will be any good since modern damage calculations have at least a basic concept of force/area.

Popups will still be good even if they improve the damage model, it will just be that instead of having 8 razors popping out of a wedge you have 1 sledgehammer popping out.

Nerfing popups would require calculating how much force goes into lifting the other bot and then subtracting that from damage somehow, which might be possible but I'm not going to hold my breath for it.

[Gauche Suede]

What will the RA3 standard style of build be like though?

Time will tell. Pretty sure popups will still be very good

Not if the physics actually work this time

It's not to do with the physics, it's to do with the damage model.

Again, unless the team goes out of their way to mimic RA2's damage model then I don't think popups will be any good since modern damage calculations have at least a basic concept of force/area.

Popups will still be good even if they improve the damage model, it will just be that instead of having 8 razors popping out of a wedge you have 1 sledgehammer popping out.

Nerfing popups would require calculating how much force goes into lifting the other bot and then subtracting that from damage somehow, which might be possible but I'm not going to hold my breath for it.

Maybe reduce the damage weapons do the longer it contacts with weapon/chassis ? It wouldn't affect power-based spinners and make gutrippers useless since usually they need prolonged contact with the chassis to do anything.

[TDS]

Maybe reduce the damage weapons do the longer it contacts with weapon/chassis ? It wouldn't affect power-based spinners and make gutrippers useless since usually they need prolonged contact with the chassis to do anything.

Proper damage modeling is tough, I think a better way of doing it is to not actually do it, and let the physics engine do the heavy lifting (lets go ahead and admit the phyx guys are likely better at their profession than outsourced programmers)

so on impact, you dont immediately apply damage, you wait a fraction of a second, then the game looks back simply put: "well the impact happened, now the chassis is traveling at X speed upwards, the lifter is traveling at Y speed still, the difference between the two is energy imparted, calculate that into damage.  It would also really turn angled armor into a thing, since deflecting the force of a hit would result in less damage (not more damage like ra2, where if the weapon keeps spinning it's going to hit you more times and do more and more damage (see DA))

But you're right, crushing/rigidity of the structure wont work (but really, there has only been one "good" hydraulic crusher EVER) the minimum entry for doing damage should be a little higher than ra2, "well I have a weapon on the front and i'm sort of pinning a guy" shouldn't be a free ticket for infinite damage until the weapon breaks off.  You really don't do much damage spinning your wheels against someone with a spike on the front in real life.

simply put, what if instead of having tremendously higher HP, bigger, tougher components had higher amounts of damage reduction.  I have a big half inch thick steel wedge, the first 200 damage of a hit, just doesn't happen, ex: if you do 220 damage, I take 20, if you do 1000, I take 800, ect.  this pushes people more towards bigger weapons and not a million small ones, but would require tighter balance.

[09090901]

Q&A Round 4 is up
http://steamcommunity.com/games/363530/announcements/detail/868441862308212786

[DeadGenocide]

WILL THERE BE AGOD?

[The Red Blur]

I wonder if bot file editing/ component editing will still be possible in RA3 without having to be a computer genius.

[Gauche Suede]

I wonder if bot file editing/ component editing will still be possible in RA3 without having to be a computer genius.

That depends on the file format, if RA3 decides to make the .not file locked permanently into hexadecimal format then we're screwed.

[TDS]

Did they skip QA 3 ?

[cephalopod]

Did they skip QA 3 ?

No