Pleiades' Showcase

[Pleiades]

May as well bring my robots over here too...

My robots are not too elaborate, becuase I dont know all the tricks of the trade in DSL. My robots are very 'original' in that they dont have very complex weapons and they are very basic.

Stormwind 6 is my main robot, it was the first DSL robot I created. It can flip a lot out of the arena and can keep going for a 20 minute battle. Not much weakness, but the motors can die easily sometimes.

Backspin is next in line and was quite hard to refine, but now its at the point where its doing good and its hard to take out becuase its not easy to get access to. Wekaness is that it is very vulnerable to axe attack. It is double sided.

Hellcrasher is my pushing robot and to the day has not lost a push based fight, it can however loose its front weapons leaving it very vulnerable. The good thing about this robot is that its drives are so powerful, it can cause robots to slam out of the arena and cause major damage when slamming against arena hazards, capable of causing full armour death with sheer brute pushinjg power. It can run upside down in a very limiting manner.

Cladhammer is a whole new story. Basically, this robot took the longest to refine and has been through about 8 versions rather than 2. The problem with Cladhammer was the height of the body had to be perfect to make it work, otherwise it ended up causing havoc explosions all the time. The hammer is now stronger than beta and its very quick across the floor as well. A point about Cladhammer is that this is the first time I relied on the physics of the game, the hammer has a counterweight, seen at the front of the hammer arm, this makes the hammer a LOT more powerful than it used to be, before it took ages for the hammer to lumber over the body, and it had difficulty righting itself.

NOTE: Notice my love of Tazbot wheels.

[somestrangeguy]

They all look nice for first robots.
Can we see the insides too?

[Naryar]

Its not really first bots. He's doing a ton of rebuilds of the same bot, like me.

Yep, we would like to see the insides too.

By the way im pretty sure Hellcrasher is not only a push bot. What's the Beta burst for?

[Pleiades]

Correct, these robots are later generations of the same basic build.

Thanks also.

Stormwind has a lot of batteries, as it is one of two robots I made to last an entire 20 minutes battle. (flipper frenzies last ages). Stormwind has had its batteries rearranged a good few times. I am well aware that there are loads of them, but when it is performing, it tends to drain quickly if I am flipping stuff continually


Backspin is the second robot designed to last a 20 minute battle, normally, they wouldnt last that long anyway, I either get whacked by axes or the robot destroys everything, but for now I like it how it is, its well balanced, and replacing bateries with ballasts would be rather pointless.


Hellcrasher drains its batteries VERY fast, it cannot last a 10 minute battle, and after a few flips (Yes Hellcrasher can flip, but thats more used as a self righting device than a lifter, due to the scoop angle).


As viewed from the back end, Cladhammer has a good few ballasts, this is becuase the hammer makes the robot go a little mental if it is lighter, hence why its is so small but heavy. The power of the hammers still outdo the weight of the body, but it has great speed, so I wont weigh it down more nor go over 800.

[Naryar]

Im pretty sure you dont need a srimech on Hellcrasher if you dont use the Beta burst for a weapon. Or perhaps not such a powerful srimech.

But think to be invertible. If you change wheels (yes, it is difficult if you love Tazbot wheels, im having this problem too with iron spikes and ramplates, theyre soooo cool), or just get off the beta, it could be invertible.

Then you could use the beta for a hammer, or just dispose of it and make a pure rammer. Because you haven't got a lot of weapons on your bot and a push bot need something to make damage. Because if you're facing against a thing like Grog or Shogun... it hurts.

I think the counterweight is a good idea. If I make a DSL hammer, ill use that, i guess...

[infiniteinertia]

whats the weapon motor on backspin?

[pyscolone]

and what exactly is a robot that lasts 10 minutes gonna do for you.

[RA2lover]

yay, your back in gametechmods(lol)
i used your "bump goooooooooaaaaaaallllll!!!!!!!111111" often xD
with 6 T74 drive, it may work quite well as rammer(add more pointy tips in it)
batt power is shorter than Stock batts. may last about 5 minutes. i love the hammer counterweight! nice idea.

[Sage]

thats why most people use 3 minute matches. ive seen bots that win in 2 seconds.

[70 CUDA]

ya but it might come in handy if you play the no time matchs to the death.

[Pleiades]

pyscolone - and what exactly is a robot that lasts 10 minutes gonna do for you.

Nothing, I don't go on multiplayer I am not in with all of this (I AM well aware of not heavys on multiplayer). I use a 10 minute robot becuase if I have a battle full of flippers in a boxed arena they can last for ages, so please, as much expereince as you may have, try to be less patronising please, perhaps you are not, but thats what its coming across as.

70 CUDA - ya but it might come in handy if you play the no time matchs to the death.

Exactly

@ Naryar: I will replace the slipper on Hellcrasher with a possible spinner? Perhaps a saw, becuase if robots get trapped under the front spikes, the saw will do significant damage?

@ infiniteinertia: 6 mag gearbox.

The RA2 Wizard - thats why most people use 3 minute matches. ive seen bots that win in 2 seconds.

As I said, I aint really into it to get a robot that wins in such a match in 2 seconds, I am looking for fun in the game and a challenge using origional designs rather than uber robots with ultima designs that win in flat times. I'd get bored real fast if I won at everything.

@ RA 2 Lover: Thanks, I do hope to build a few smaller robots medium weights that use more of the games physics reliance. I like the challenge of using the engine to a potential without using its glithces and explosions for an advantage. Cladhammer was designed as a real plausible basis for a hammer design, and the counterweight idea took me quite a while to figure out. Unfortunatly, that motor is the only motar which has reasonable power and is controllable, the high powered motor is poor and really rubbish as anything to use.

[70 CUDA]

psy can be that way but he is a good builder. he just has a problem with how he writes. listen to him and you can learn a ton

[Pleiades]

I am trying to design a robot which will launch robots forward rather than miles upwards. Stormwind projects robots upwards unless its going forwards. Storemwind will stay as my main robot though.

[Naryar]

I am trying to design a robot which will launch robots forward rather than miles upwards. Stormwind projects robots upwards unless its going forwards. Storemwind will stay as my main robot though.

This is called a popup. There's plenty here, and its a pretty succesful design.

[Sorrow]

Firestorm is probably the best Real-Life example of this design.

[Naryar]

Exactly. But the popups we do include weapons, for damaging purposes. Firestorm does not makes damage (and i think his flipper arm is slower than the RA2 average popup)

[Cooker]

You should add a polycarbonate skirt to the front of Stormwind. It will go under others easy, and you have still some weight left for this.
I would suggest to make another version of this one, with a 4 motors drive. More speed and more power, for going under. Just get rid of some batteries for this. Battle packs stack 4 in 1 quite easy. You need about 16 to 20 for two betas and 4 NPCs. All depends on how deadly your bot is. If it is very deadly, it can work well, even it has not the amount batteries needed.
For doing just a bit of damage, a static weapon on a hinge like Critical Emergency has, would come in handy too, without to eat up to much weight.

I have never seen the idea with the counter weight on the hammer. Well done!
Maybe you want to try to get rid of the weight blocks and add some kind of a counterbalance arm at the back of the bot. Maybe even power it by a small snapper, in order to tip the bot slightly forward down, when the hammer fires.

[Pleiades]

You should add a polycarbonate skirt to the front of Stormwind. It will go under others easy, and you have still some weight left for this.
I would suggest to make another version of this one, with a 4 motors drive. More speed and more power, for going under. Just get rid of some batteries for this. Battle packs stack 4 in 1 quite easy. You need about 16 to 20 for two betas and 4 NPCs. All depends on how deadly your bot is. If it is very deadly, it can work well, even it has not the amount batteries needed.
For doing just a bit of damage, a static weapon on a hinge like Critical Emergency has, would come in handy too, without to eat up to much weight.

I have never seen the idea with the counter weight on the hammer. Well done!
Maybe you want to try to get rid of the weight blocks and add some kind of a counterbalance arm at the back of the bot. Maybe even power it by a small snapper, in order to tip the bot slightly forward down, when the hammer fires.

Stormwind 4 had the skirts on the front but they became an inconvenience for self righting. This version has a shallower slope angle.

I tested Stormwind for ground clearance against Second Sentinal and it gets under that quite comfortably usually.

Issues I have are: C.Emergency, Bulldog Breed.

Those are the only two which cant be taken head on by Stormwind without becoming on top of them.

The counter balance arm is a really good Idea, I like that. The problem is, the counterbalnce arm needs to be forceful, the only controllable motar around is that High Power servo type thing (7amps). Thats too weak tp keep Cladhammer on a down point.

I am constantly improving stormwind, but I cannot add more motars in without risking the flippers or the power in the robot (which as I said, dies quickly if i'm flipping a lot).

Any suggestions for Cladhammer/Stormwind?

[Naryar]

You have some ballasts on Cladhammer. These are strictly weight lost.

I would add rear skirts for stability (use polycarbonate, you dont really need some armor there), and perhaps side skirts for the same reason.You can always use the weight for something. Ballats are weight used passively, excepted in stability.

PS: I agree partly with you on the time of the match. A 2 second kill isnt funny at all. For me, a good match lasts 30 seconds in Starcore 3 (Starcore 3 matches are invariably fast and furious unless the two bots lose a wheel) and 1-2 minutes in DSL. A 3-minute match begins to be boring an a 10-minute match would be horrible.

[Pleiades]

I suppose so, but then again, it depends on how patient and willing you are to wait out the fights. Sometimes I enjoy fights that last a long time, others, I want them to be over and done with FAST.

 Currently I am building my conest robot.