I was looking back at one of my AI packs known as "DSL Reborn AI" where I basically remade the original Stock AI from DSL into a more IRL fashion. It was actually rather alright as it allowed more options for IRL buiders other than the replicas which use custom parts that aren't quite allowed in most IRL tournaments. I was tempted to remake some of them using the new IRL parts by DSC, but I felt that would be rather tedious and in the end, it probably would require another separate download ahead of time. I looked back and feel I should fix some of the AI errors that harmed them, like Sentinel is perfectly capable of being invertible, but I used Flipper2.py which doesn't work, so that will be fixed in the future. But I also noticed that some bots I ignored at the time that, really weren't made with DSL 2.2 in mind. So I decided to complete the other two teams to create a sense of consistency and make them feel like they belong. I tried my hardest to make them IRL and at the same time, try to approach the style of the original design.
First up was
Gammaraze III. Gammaraze was a rather fast and aggressive design, but at the cost of low damaging weaponry. I mostly tried to approach this from the perspective of the third version rather than the first and second. Fun to drive around and it's perfectly invertible
Topknot II is next in line. An all-around attacker with no real strengths or weaknesses. The quad-axe design wasn't exactly too approachable for an IRL design but I found a way to replicate the style as best as possible. The good news is that I made the bot a turret-axe bot so it has the "all-around" features still in it's spirit.
Some sacrifices needed to be made when I was creating
ScootOrDie. I doubt I would be able to make an IRL Poker/Hammer Hybrid. I decided to approach the more IRL-esque perspective with the Hammer idea and create horns as an alternative to the poking mechanic. In return I added a srimech since not a lot of bots in the pack really have one.
Aquarius 2 wasn't an easy one to make as you might first think. I wasn't sure of the approach to go through with this one. Aquarius was a nimble glass cannon and something that can pierce armor of you weren't careful. Replicating that in an IRL style would be tough as I went through several redesigns. The most complete previous design was a wammer/flammer thing with some horns, but it didn't fit the style and it didn't even look all that good. Here, I decided to approach a Rammstein approach with one wedge instead of two. The Vlad Spear was something I also wanted to use for this as I never usually see it.
I knew from the start that remaking these bots would be harder and harder to do, and I was afraid of how I was gonna approach
Pon2n since it's a hover bot. I don't think there is an IRL HW hovercraft as far as I'm aware. So I didn't really go for that with this, but I did want to take the Pontoon approach with the propeller in the back and that Pontoon in RA1 didn't really fly in the air either. I am rather proud of the outcome of this, but I didn't think there would be another alternative or idea with this one.
Last but not least:
Triclops v2.0. One of the hardest bots in RA1 and a rather dangerous threat in DSL. I wanted to approach a style with both but mostly the DSL side due to creating multiple hammers would look weird for an IRL bot. The tail in the back is to not only create the beast effect and also prevent the bot from jumping like crazy.
Now it may look complete, but I said two teams. What's the other you may ask?
Yep. It's the entire
Arthrobotics team. A team of two AW's and four BW's. Most were all pretty IRL from the start and talking individual notes about each would just be less than a full sentence anyway, so there isn't much of a point with that. I did update them to feel more in style with some parts of 2.2, so there's that.
I was planning on releasing them today, but I was rather packed in my week so it might be a bit tough, but AI'ing theoretically take too long to do, so I might be able to make it. At the worst, it'll be delayed to the end of the year.
Merry Christmas everyone!