Robot Arena 3

[09090901]

those point pop-ups are absolutely disgusting.

Looks like hitboxes are off on some of the weapons. That one sawblade bot scores points before the blade even touches anything.

[Resetti's Replicas]

I sure hope the stock AI looks better than the bots we saw in that trailer.

[RedSawn]

We're talking about this trailer posted in the mess of the Unity/Steam comments, uploaded but not yet announced

Huh, okay, but it basically looks the same. Bummer.

Serge makes a mental note to develop a RAIII spiritual successor when he's bored of his current line of work.

Yeah, I'm disappointed just how much footage they reused but I guess we're the ones watching the development like hawks

Still concerned with where the bot lab really is and chassis texturing at the moment too

[HX_]

Even if it is more of a port (not calling it one, still holding out for release), if it has a modern multiplayer with no lag then it should satisfy.

[Vincent]

It seem to me that they want to play safe by focusing on game mechanic to get the fun hook on all of us.  Once they start seeing income from early sales and see the projected growth, they might have better idea how much budget they can push onto graphic side and improve it as they go.

I saw animated texture of the crowds applied on a flat slope surface in one of those in-door arena. Then actual people models in other map in the background.   It's a sign of limited content resources they had at the time of development in between those few maps.

This is literally a prototype game.

[Tygron]

From what I see here, it looks like it might be a tad slower than RA2, but the physics improvement of wheels seeming to loose traction and things looks really nice. Not really a fan of the spike plates since we could just do that ourselves HOWEVER they might weigh less than an equivalent extender and pole spike array. Also more tightly packed together maybe, if that matters. But at the same time it's cool to see some weapons from the original make a comeback.

I don't really see how it looks like RA1 though, the bots hitting each other and not moving isn't the same as it was back in the day. Back then the physics just stopped and now it looks like it's still trying to do something.

One thing though, on the bot that gets the cynderblocks dumped on it around :45 looks like a weird texture on there. Like the top is fine and then it sort of bleeds to the rest of the chassis it seems. I'll assume they did that on purpose thinking it looked cool but i just thought i'd call it out.

Also the red thing on the bot in the subway looks like an airhorn. Because why not? Maybe they also put the cameras from the first game in here. First person bot fighting was kinda fun, and in a game where there's physics would make that even more fun. Not practical but hey, options. Fun. Things like that.

[Somebody]

I agree with Tygron. If I want a spike wall, I think I'd rather just build myself a dang spike wall. Also, that trailer would have me absolutely hyped if not for the knowledge that this is releasing in three weeks. It doesn't look ready for a release in three weeks. Also gonna echo the points comment. I'd almost rather they just not be there, and have some other kind of feedback that damage is being done (sparks, noise, etc.)

[Tygron]

Hopefully the point popup is disableable like I think it was in RA2. I could be wrong, it's been a while since i've messed with the options.

[Thyrus]

The spike plate is what made me say it looks like ra1. Could work as a dekoration item tough

[Jules]

This honestly ruined my night.

Looks pretty cruddy.
 - 4x wall of spikes (I mean, look at the concept art. They know what bots are supposed to look like...)
 - That spinning disc collision
 - Big pop-up numbers
 - That flipper that seems to fly off for no good reason
 
Those are the best action shots they could find to give us?

Blaahhhh.
I'm still purchasing it day one. I will try to be optimistic.

[Sage]

my bet is the devs just blow at actually building robots

points thing looks bad, agreed. i'd say put it off to the corner and make it smaller (like a continually and visually updating score underneath the bot name) and make the sparks more apparent.

tbh the arenas look like the best part so far, very pretty. probably the easiest part for devs since it's the most similar to creating maps and stuff in other games

[HX_]

I think some of y'all are too used to playing DSL and the like. The stock bots in RA2 were nothing to brag about either. They left the bot building up to us as that's the point of the game. The stock AI is only there to give you an extremely brief idea of what you can do. As far as I know these people are computer programmers, not real life bot builders or even robot warfare enthusiasts. Making the game work properly should be the main focus, not creating insane bot designs. This is or was a children's game after all.

EDIT: agreed Sage . Wrote this before your post popped up.

[Badnik96]

I feel like most of these were built quickly to test parts and robot functions and not to look decent. The flipper going to space still worries me though, especially considering how small the forks are.

[Tygron]

I feel like most of these were built quickly to test parts and robot functions and not to look decent.

Somewhere between that for a few of them and the developers being proud of their creation. The axe bot that has those protective panels on the top and the wheel in the top on the back looks like the guy was going for a more realistic looking in a sort of stock "ironforge" concept. And looking at that bot actually looks like the spike panels aren't as large as they look and are actually a few strips of spikes put together in a more modular way.

[RedSawn]

Well good thing still is we know modding should be easier/accessible, and as long as the physics are on point, we can work with this. I might actually be able to pitch in off the bat since I've been using Unity and all. Should help me be a better modeller too

[Badnik96]

Oh I would totally be down for modelling components for mods if it's possible to export models from Rhino. Heck, I could probably do an entire AI pack of bots like that.

[TDS]

my bet is the devs just blow at actually building robots

No, they want the standard point of entry very, low, so that people that are bad can win some matches.

I wonder if is it possible to have a single component, that in game is actually multiple components behind the scenes?  The intended use would be "I add a weapon bar" but the weapon bar is actually five or six chunks of weapon bar (in odd, broken like shapes) attached to eachother, each with its own hp, as it takes damage, those pieces fall off and you get something vaguely like battle damage without this everything popping off in full chunks thing.

[NeighImACarrot]

my bet is the devs just blow at actually building robots

No, they want the standard point of entry very, low, so that people that are bad can win some matches.

I wonder if is it possible to have a single component, that in game is actually multiple components behind the scenes?  The intended use would be "I add a weapon bar" but the weapon bar is actually five or six chunks of weapon bar (in odd, broken like shapes) attached to eachother, each with its own hp, as it takes damage, those pieces fall off and you get something vaguely like battle damage without this everything popping off in full chunks thing.

So kinda like a chainsaw where the teeth on it can come off after taking damage?

[TDS]

So kinda like a chainsaw where the teeth on it can come off after taking damage?

sure! but depending on how far you want to take it (wheels in chunks and then a hub in chunks, ect) you could get quite a lot of "sort of realistic" damage.

Like in your example, you could have a chainsaw where the teeth take damage, the outer sections break off in a few chunks revealing the chain and inner supports, then finally if those inner supports were broken (where all these parts are "attached" to behind the scenes) the whole thing falls off.  If you got unlucky you could lose a teeth then get hit directly in that main support, but it wouldnt be the norm.

That is if its possible, It probably isn't, but It might be with some modding since motors have "child objects" in their motors shafts, ect.

[kill343gs]

tl;dr you want complicated components to be made up of multiple individual components? That would be rad.