Author Topic: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL  (Read 4231 times)

Offline FaceBagman

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That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« on: October 05, 2016, 09:25:29 AM »
First, a major thank you to all of you for inspiring me to join and get back into this game. I'm fairly sure I have negative artistic/creative talent, but I enjoy giving this stuff a shot anyways and I'm always looking for advice and ways to improve what I'm building technically and aesthetically.

So since my joining this site kicked off with entering a tournament right off the bat, here's the Cruiserweight that will be repping me in GTM Robot Wars, Witching Hour:



Witching Hour
"Ring" Spinner
Weight: 593.00

As far as ways to improve it for the future, I definitely need to get better at extender-work. It also has some trouble maneuvering when cornered, but that may have more to do with the AI I've been playing around with? When I've taken it for a whirl, it's not nearly as sluggish/awkward.

Also, watching it Mauler dance is amazing.  :beer:  My goal was to make a bot that could pull the dance off and still keep on moving when inverted. From that standpoint, I'm incredibly pleased with how it turned out. I think it actually hits a little harder and lower when inverted, oddly enough. Makes it naturally very successful against flippers but it's obvious weakness is to well-timed hammers and any spinner with better mallets that can out-range it.

The full HW version is a complete rebuild with a larger frame, a different drive-setup, and panel-work around the ring. I may enter it in a future Redditbots tournament under the name "Forever Midnight" if the current tourney there is popular enough to guarantee it.

Eager for any advice anyone has!
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Offline F1Krazy

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2016, 09:44:17 AM »
Looks pretty neat. With the DSL bars sticking out of the sides, and the clock face on the top, it kinda looks like a wristwatch.

What kind of armour does it have? If it's tough enough then a few axe blows shouldn't be a problem. Otherwise you'll have to be on the lookout for Deathstalker ;)
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Offline FaceBagman

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2016, 10:01:37 AM »
Looks pretty neat. With the DSL bars sticking out of the sides, and the clock face on the top, it kinda looks like a wristwatch.

What kind of armour does it have? If it's tough enough then a few axe blows shouldn't be a problem. Otherwise you'll have to be on the lookout for Deathstalker ;)

Thanks! That's absolutely what I was going for. :)

Iirc the armor is Titanium, though I can't for the life of me recall which one. It can take some punishment though and it's best defense will obviously be to keep the weapon moving to hopefully deflect an opposing hammerbot when it's smartzone tells the AI to fire the axe/hammer.

In a 1-on-1, I think it could do some work. The qualifiers will be a challenge just because it could get ganged up on or the recoil from landing a big hit could send it into the pit if it's unlucky. Hoping neither of those scenarios occur, but that's just the nature of the game.

Also, Deathstalker's pretty rad. I downloaded and played around with it a bit and it's a quick little sonofagun. Cool use of the Vlad piece as a tail too! :)
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Offline Badnik96

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2016, 10:05:47 AM »
That's really nice for a newcomer. You certainly seem to know what you're doing.

Offline cephalopod

Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2016, 11:02:52 AM »
Definitely one of the most impressive entries from a newcomer, if not the most impressive. I think it should do pretty well. Time will tell!
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Offline FaceBagman

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2016, 11:30:30 AM »
That's really nice for a newcomer. You certainly seem to know what you're doing.

Thanks! It's a design I've been working on, scrapping, and trying again for a long while now.


For reference, here's the abomination that I entered into Redditbots (Bottom Feeder), built in 1 long overnight at work with nothing better to do:



Wicked waste of space and all sorts of flaws, haha. I have a few different options I'm toying around with for a Version 2.0, but I feel like I'm still not quite optimizing the design. Trying to find a build that sacrifices the least while keeping the humongous weapon the main focus. Considering I used a laptop touchpad to build it, I guess it could have turned out worse! :p

Main points of improvement:
-Use the solid disc
-Shorten the chassis, and possibly angle it too
-Either guard the wheels and their extenders better or find a better balance between chassis width and disc radius
-Armor up the front
-Find the best teeth to fit the weapon without slowing it down significantly

So much work in store but it's a start! And it will be fun to watch it get torn apart against Galactic Terror.  :popcorn
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Offline Badnik96

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #6 on: October 05, 2016, 12:06:36 PM »
oh hey that's the robot mine is fighting :V

i'm pretty sure wheels on extenders have no grip value so i would fix that at some point

Offline FaceBagman

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #7 on: October 05, 2016, 12:12:06 PM »
oh hey that's the robot mine is fighting :V

i'm pretty sure wheels on extenders have no grip value so i would fix that at some point

Ah, so that's why it Tokyo drifts like crazy!!
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Offline F1Krazy

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #8 on: October 05, 2016, 01:32:53 PM »
Yeah, you might wanna replace those with axle extenders, it's presumably what they're there for ;) Looks pretty darn powerful though. I'm excited to see how it does; whether it tears its opponents to pieces or loses control and flies around the arena, it should be pretty entertaining either way :D
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Offline 090901

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #9 on: October 05, 2016, 02:18:39 PM »
Even if you used axle extenders it would still do that.

Offline Avalanche

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #10 on: October 05, 2016, 04:12:14 PM »
Yeah, you might wanna replace those with axle extenders, it's presumably what they're there for ;) Looks pretty darn powerful though. I'm excited to see how it does; whether it tears its opponents to pieces or loses control and flies around the arena, it should be pretty entertaining either way :D

I believe axle extenders are mainly meant to be used for adding multiple weapons to a single axle, like a row of saw-blades, etc.
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Offline dragonsteincole

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #11 on: October 05, 2016, 04:23:06 PM »
Even using a smaller wheel as a spacer would cause the same drift. I think the only solution is mounting the engine closer to the edge of the chassis, or using a motor with a longer axle.

Offline FaceBagman

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #12 on: October 06, 2016, 09:23:17 AM »
Even using a smaller wheel as a spacer would cause the same drift. I think the only solution is mounting the engine closer to the edge of the chassis, or using a motor with a longer axle.

Ah, so there's really no trade-off using standard extenders there vs. the axle extenders?

I honestly don't mind the drift too much in this case, it's kind of endearing. >.>

Of all the flaws, it's probably the one I'm least concerned about in the rebuild. This was one of my other approaches to a rebuild:




Still have to do some extender work to guard the wheels. Went from the Tornado Mer box to the 6-Mag, though it didn't seem all that more powerful in practice...? I haven't decided whether I like this concept better than ol' extra wide Bottom Feeder.

In terms of things I'm unsure about:

-Is there any benefit to adding the 2 Typhoon teeth along with the Rippers? Are there pros or cons to either? If I add 4 teeth I feel like it A: slows the spin down, and B: minimizes the impact when it does connect.

-Should I trade out the current disc for a DSL one? Didn't realize it until after I built this, but the DSL discs all seem statistically better than the "shell-spinner" ones in every way. Are there any drawbacks?

-What would you guys recommend to guard the front of the chassis? Extender work instead of the armor plates?
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Offline Avalanche

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #13 on: October 06, 2016, 10:17:24 AM »
Shell spinner disks allow you to attach a larger amount of weapons that the DSL discs. I am at school, and the image isn't showing, so I will get back to you in a bit. Extender work tends to be less successful at protecting than armour plates, as if the first extender in a chain gets hit, the rest fly off at once. Armour plates tend to only have itself there and nothing major attached to them.
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Offline kill343gs

Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #14 on: October 06, 2016, 04:17:44 PM »
Some extender work in the front certainly has the potential to look cooler, depending on how you do it.


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Offline FaceBagman

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #15 on: October 09, 2016, 09:17:44 AM »
Shell spinner disks allow you to attach a larger amount of weapons that the DSL discs. I am at school, and the image isn't showing, so I will get back to you in a bit. Extender work tends to be less successful at protecting than armour plates, as if the first extender in a chain gets hit, the rest fly off at once. Armour plates tend to only have itself there and nothing major attached to them.

Cheers! I decided for now to buff up the base armor and spend weight guarding the wheels for the time being. Not sure how I'll settle on doing so, but it's in my thoughts.

I feel a lot better about the look of the new build. Hopefully it's nearing completion of a true Version 2.0

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Offline kill343gs

Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #16 on: October 09, 2016, 10:30:35 AM »
Wheelguards and interesting chassis shape make it infinitely better.


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Offline FaceBagman

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #17 on: October 18, 2016, 10:36:27 PM »
Wheelguards and interesting chassis shape make it infinitely better.

I'd hoped so :) Coming up with some interesting ideas for it as I start to learn how to skin. Maybe some seaweed-esque graphics on the sloped face of the bot, name on top, and a graphic on the back?

Anyways, I practiced a bit on what will eventually be Witching Hour's full heavyweight "big brother", so to speak.

Working name is "Forever Midnight" (793.00):



Ignore that I totally botched the skinning on the first attempt. I'll have to go back to the drawing board on that one and make sure it's orientation is correct. -_-

Entirely new build, from the ground up. Still the same principle of a ring spinner with a long reach. However, it runs on four wheels, spread between the top and bottom of the bot. Gone are the hammers and in are those gnarly teeth and some added protection around the body. Also, the panels around the ring allow me to offset the two bars so Mr. Midnight can deal hits down low and up high no matter what side it's running on.

I may begin working on modular designs for this one, using the same basic setup but changing the weaponry around the ring. Perhaps one setup will use the panels to form a dome over the top, sacrificing the ability to run inverted but offering protection from hammers? I've been racking my brain trying to envision a setup that makes the ring's attachments form more concave or convex shapes. It's definitely a long way from complete, but I'm very much devoted to making it work.

Other things in the work:
-A light/middleweight follow-up to Bottom Feeder, 2-wheel setup with extenders keeping it from slashing the floor.
-An egg-beater design
-A lightweight 2-disc that looks a bit unconventional and I've yet to refine
-And someday, I'll figure out how to make a decent flipper. >.<
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Offline F1Krazy

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #18 on: October 19, 2016, 05:05:19 AM »
Forever Midnight looks pretty cool so far. I love the idea where you put two wheels on the top and two on the bottom, but can it drive properly like that? I assume so otherwise you wouldn't have done it :P

For the light/middleweight Bottom Feeder, I have a suggestion. I find that four-toothed discs (as used in Dentophobia and my own undercutter, Bluebird) are extremely stable if spun fast enough, so if you can fit four teeth onto the disc and spin it fast enough, you might not need extenders to stop the disc hitting the floor; the disc will do the work for you.

And good luck with the lightweight 2-disc bot, especially if it's IRL. I can barely make an IRL lightweight with one disc, as both Kurt and Rob will testify :P
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Offline FaceBagman

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Re: That Time FaceBagman Tried DSL
« Reply #19 on: October 21, 2016, 07:36:19 AM »
Forever Midnight looks pretty cool so far. I love the idea where you put two wheels on the top and two on the bottom, but can it drive properly like that? I assume so otherwise you wouldn't have done it :P

Yep, it does have a little trouble getting around once in a while, but like Witching Hour, I chalk that up to AI issues I'm trying to sort out. I was actually inspired by a bot in the Exchange that I checked out a while back (called "Lord of the Locusts", I think). The drive setup is offset like that.

Quote
For the light/middleweight Bottom Feeder, I have a suggestion. I find that four-toothed discs (as used in Dentophobia and my own undercutter, Bluebird) are extremely stable if spun fast enough, so if you can fit four teeth onto the disc and spin it fast enough, you might not need extenders to stop the disc hitting the floor; the disc will do the work for you.

Thanks for the tip! Yeah, the extenders serve the 2nd purpose of guarding the wheels too, but I'll give it a shot & see what looks better :)

Quote
And good luck with the lightweight 2-disc bot, especially if it's IRL. I can barely make an IRL lightweight with one disc, as both Kurt and Rob will testify :P

I'll definitely need the luck! It looks too junky to post here atm, gonna have to do a few rebuilds before I'm satisfied with the aesthetics.
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