Robot Arena 3

[SkullKid2000]

My two wishes for this game is the following: A boxed version, and that, if possible, somebody makes the house robots (all 8, excluding Refbot, and maybe Shove) for the game. If not, maybe I could somehow get my not-yet-existing models into the game, once they're modeled to 100% of course

[Tygron]

Isn't that a moot point anyway, since we would just end up doing stuff like-
-snip-
Unless parts would still collide in this sort of manner, in which case, it would make bot building incredibly obnoxious.

Well I was thinking more along the lines of putting armored plates over places where hammers and the like swing as either a lazy way of making more armor or if there isn't a more elegant way of using smaller pieces. But yes you're right people just end up making crazy tribar contraptions. And yes, parts colliding together would make it more obnoxious to build a bot, but we already do that with the arbitrary rules on IRL designs and the like. Sure it's all guidelines and not hardcoded into the game, but it's still a point.

This is what I meant on the fun factor, making it harder to quickly make a bot without "oh no my everything collides with itself" being a thing over a little more realism. I'd like both, but balancing that in a way that works is kinda hard. It's kinda either or after a point.

[courthousedoc]

My two wishes for this game is the following: A boxed version, and that, if possible, somebody makes the house robots (all 8, excluding Refbot, and maybe Shove) for the game. If not, maybe I could somehow get my not-yet-existing models into the game, once they're modeled to 100% of course

Seeing how budget games are mostly digital now I doubt a boxed version of Robot Arena 3 will be made, especially since it seems to be closely tied with Steam Workshop. Although with the new chassis design system I think all the house bots could be possible.

[RedSawn]

They just made a official RA3 facebook, literally in the last 20 or so minutes. Nothing to see right now - just the up-to-date logo and that old bot lab pic of the bot with the tribar battleaxes we've seen before as the header.
https://www.facebook.com/Robot-Arena-III-1753638211549065/

[cephalopod]

if possible, somebody makes the house robots (all 8, excluding Refbot, and maybe Shove) for the game.

Which versions though?

[Joelu Of Eagleland]

if possible, somebody makes the house robots (all 8, excluding Refbot, and maybe Shove) for the game.

Which versions though?

Probably the old ones as we have better pictures of those. Although I assume people will try to make both.

[SkullKid2000]

I made an unofficial Robot Wars group on Facebook for anyone to join, if you wish

[cephalopod]

I'm one of the admins of a large fb group literally called Unofficial Robot Wars. :P

On a more relevant note, I have been informed of the existence of/r/robotarena3 which could be fun :L

[Mr. AS]

/r/robotarena3 probably isn't going to take off then GTM already exists as a forum of discussion for robot arena. Plus showcasing on reddit would be terrible due to forum sliding.

Had a look at /u/NinteenFortyFive's (the guy who made the sub) profile for laughs and found that he also moderates /r/robotarena2 (that has a grand total of 3 posts in it, all related to RA3), /r/MensLib (some nu-male feminist sub), and /r/HealthyGirls (a sub for pictures of fat chicks, which has 0 posts in it whatsoever). What a guy.

[cephalopod]

NinteenFortyFive is Sys32 who dropped the mods a message about it a day or so ago.

[WeN]

I think Robot Arena 3 has gitch.

I think you can create Mecha or walking Robot.

[SkullKid2000]

I'm one of the admins of a large fb group literally called Unofficial Robot Wars. :P

On a more relevant note, I have been informed of the existence of/r/robotarena3 which could be fun :L

Darn it...! Well, mine is more focused on the pullbacks. I think I'll rename my group to Skull Kid's Robot Wars instead

[RedSawn]

Q&A, Round 6
http://steamcommunity.com/games/363530/announcements/detail/8538083937994165

Hello, Robot Arena III fans!

Sorry it has been so long since our last Q&A post. We’ve been extremely busy getting the game finished and exhibiting at shows like PAX East, Vex Worlds, Wizard World and MSP ComiCon. There’s still a lot to do before release, but we’ve managed to find some time to answer another round of questions. We hope to continue to put out another post like this weekly up to and beyond release.

With that, on with the questions!

>Can you tell me more about judges scoring? Will it be like the TV show, or will it be like RA2? I feel like the RA2 scoring is unfair to flip bots and wedges that do not score damage like a spinner for example

The scoring will be similar to how it was done in RA2, and will be primarily based on damage. Bots such as flippers or wedges should rely on other scoring/victory possibilities, such as immobilizing their opponent’s robot, or using the arena’s hazards (spikes, saws, pits, flames, grinders, etc.) in combination with their fighting style to inflict maximum damage on their opponents or to quickly eliminate their opponent from the match. Wedge bots, spinners and flipper bots can cause damage based upon impact just like other bots.

>Will we finally be able to add fur to our robots?

Why the do robots need fur? Do they get a chill in the middle of winter? Right now we aren’t anticipating Fur covered robots, though we should consider some Robot Arena 3 Snuggies for human players, so they can feel warm and snuggly while they sit by the fire, drinking their warm cocoa and playing a rousing game of RA3. But seriously, fur might be considered as a post release item, perhaps as part of an animal-themed expansion pack.
By the way, that’s not confirmation of DLC, we’re just thinking out loud!

>Will this game support Linux?

Not at launch, but we may add a Linux version at some point. The game is built in Unity, so it should be doable.

>I'd like to ask about the framerate of the game, if it will be locked and what kinda of hardware the game is designed to run to an acceptable level on.

The framerate is not locked. The game should run well on modest hardware, but some arenas are more detailed than others. We aspire to the highest possible interactive frame rates on the lowest common denominator hardware that supports the bare minimum game requirements. This is typically at least 30 frames/second and ideally we want to achieve 60 fps.

> I'd also like to ask if any modding tools will be supplied by Octopus Tree

Not at initial release. Between us, Unity games are HIGHLY MODDABLE without any support required on the Dev side. Clever folks can actually hook right into the C# mono code.

> What would everyone think to such of an idea of an official Tournament by Octopus Tree?

It’s a great idea. It may require specialized backend support. We’ve done products with prize giveaways before and it can really encourage play. It’s not a trivial task to include an automated system, but we’re looking into backend providers.

> I've had this thought since MP is going to be a real thing this time and not laggy as hell Gamespy crap, anyway a spectator mode for people doing online MP events. Also a Record your battle option so you can easily edit it on WMM, Sony Vegas or whichever video software you may use.

Right now we’ve yet to be able to control Internet latency as much as we’d like to. We’ve worked to make the online multiplayer experience as robust as possible, however poor latency, as with all games, result in a less than optimal player experience. There isn’t a spectator mode supported as of yet thought that could be considered as one of the prioritized post release features. As for recording, that should be doable at release thanks to third-party tools.

> My two wishes for this game is the following: A boxed version, and that, if possible, somebody makes the house robots (all 8, excluding Refbot, and maybe Shove) for the game. If not, maybe I could somehow get my not-yet-existing models into the game, once they're modeled to 100% of course

As for boxed copies, we can say “maybe.” As everyone probably knows, the market for boxed retail PC software is very small in most countries these days. But we are exploring partnerships with distributers around the world, some of which are in territories that still have decent retail sales. So a boxed version is possible, but perhaps not where you live.

As for uploading your own models, the Steam Workshop capability in RA3 should allow for players to upload their own bot creations for each other’s use.

> Another question I don't remember I have seen answered: will the robots have self-collision? (meaning we cannot overlay components anymore)

We hope to prevent people from overlaying components of the same type on top of one another to prohibit that type of “cheating”.

That’s it for now! We’ll see you back here for another Q&A post in a week – hopefully! ; )

[Joelu Of Eagleland]

"We hope to prevent people from overlaying components of the same type on top of one another to prohibit that type of “cheating”".

That's a burn of the highest caliber for the Stock building community right there.

[09090901]

With the way they worded it, it sounds more like they're talking more about baseplate stacking than component overlapping. That one scorpion bot had intersecting claws, so I don't think they're going full realistic with ra3.

this might explain why this month's BOTM is standard and not unrealistic though...

[RedSawn]

Huh.. overlooked the Scorpion bot intersecting, yeah. Well we do know even now a lot of the stuff they have in the trailers isn't finished, if it's all old footage or they're working right to the deadline we won't know for another 9 days. The fact it's old WIP footage is key - it shows they're not afraid to showcase a visibly unfinished product in their promotional material, as close as 3 weeks to the release date. In reality they could be further ahead then we've seen. The bots could have self-collision contrary to the combat seen in the trailer, the bot lab could be all tidy and working, and chassis skinning for that matter too, we don't know yet.

The best indication of how the game looks right now is probably either going to be from the supposed beta testers or from the booth they did at shows.

[TDS]

That's a burn of the highest caliber for the Stock building community right there.

Poor baby!

[Meganerdbomb]

>Right now we’ve yet to be able to control Internet latency as much as we’d like to. We’ve worked to make the online multiplayer experience as robust as possible, however poor latency, as with all games, result in a less than optimal player experience. There isn’t a spectator mode supported as of yet thought that could be considered as one of the prioritized post release features. As for recording, that should be doable at release thanks to third-party tools.
>Yfw Multiplayer is gonna blow just as hard as RA2.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎

[DeadGenocide]

>Right now we’ve yet to be able to control Internet latency as much as we’d like to. We’ve worked to make the online multiplayer experience as robust as possible, however poor latency, as with all games, result in a less than optimal player experience. There isn’t a spectator mode supported as of yet thought that could be considered as one of the prioritized post release features. As for recording, that should be doable at release thanks to third-party tools.
>Yfw Multiplayer is gonna blow just as hard as RA2.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎

Well about AI tournaments for RA3

[Vincent]

>Right now we’ve yet to be able to control Internet latency as much as we’d like to. We’ve worked to make the online multiplayer experience as robust as possible, however poor latency, as with all games, result in a less than optimal player experience. There isn’t a spectator mode supported as of yet thought that could be considered as one of the prioritized post release features. As for recording, that should be doable at release thanks to third-party tools.
>Yfw Multiplayer is gonna blow just as hard as RA2.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎

Pretty sure you read that wrong. What he is saying that they haven't worked out the Vector/MathF LERP+Angle function to the fullest in Unity or that they haven't looked into 3rd party Network system such as Photon Networking package from Unity's Asset Store. :)

It's bad to assume Unity version going to work like RA2 just because the PR guy tried to avoid speak programming stuff to bunch of players like yourself. :)