The Fallen's Carousel of DSL Crap

[TheFallen]

Here is my crappy DSL robot Snake's Head 2. Its a wedge-shaped middleweight robot with two small razor-tipped tribars on the wedge. It's a good gut-ripper, with an anti-axe snowplow and a polycarb
srimech, but the plastic armour is its weakness. Btw the version in screenshot 8 has static spikes instead of a srimech.

[KOS]

Instead of baseplate anchors, use the multi-extender. I'm not very good at dsl, so i'm sure other members will help you with wheel choices etc.

[helloface]

The tribars intersect with A LOT of components. No tournaments allow that in DSL. Make the chassis smaller. Instead of those red batteries, use 4-6 ant batteries. Due to a glitch in the game's exe, all SPIN motors only require 10 amps to run, thus 1 or 2 ants are perfect for it.

Read these if you haven't already, and definitely lurk showcases to get the feel of building.
https://gametechmods.com/forums/index.php?topic=14050.msg592697#msg59269
https://gametechmods.com/forums/index.php?topic=5739.0

Plus, it helps to provide the weight and armour choice.

[Kossokei]

Adding onto that, don't get too cozy with the DSL AI. Grog, which is easily the most fearsome in that pack, could get wrecked by any horizontal spinner of the same weightclass in NarAI, and even those bots are a little dated in comparison to bots of today.

You got a few things right. Blue Control boards like the ones you have are a must and smaller green ones are only used as a last resort, and a very last resort at that. In addition, you understand what 'building to the weight limit' is (unlike some new members whose first few bots are either 100kg overweight or underweight in the same way.) And finally, though your execution was poor, you have the right idea using razors as weapons. Razor Tips are the prime rib choice for spinners. Maybe not gut rippers, but for horizontal spinners especially when mounted on 180 degree anglers (which we call flails) are deadly.

As for your bot, the realism of it is the first major issue. In Stock, we don't really care about weapons passing through each other (and we often encourage the use of glitching) but in DSL, we have some realism rules. For moving parts such as that we have a slot rule- basically if you can cut a slot or hole into it in real life without affecting the bot, then it's fine. That means, moving parts like wheels, other spinning parts, batteries, control boards, *maybe* baseplate anchors and ME's and motors cannot be intersected, while you can get away with intersecting the chassis, extenders and extras like that plow on the top there.

A lot to stomach, I'm sure.

Edit: We sort of have a language that we speak here in GTM (aka ME's and CB's, HS, SnS, SS, VS and all that good stuff) and this should help you decipher some of it. That being said, just keep calm and we'll assist you in building. (protip: Colored member names (like Purple for Veteran, Gold for Advanced User, Blue for Global Mod, Red for admins and possibly even the roboteer brown names) usually mean someone is experienced and you can learn quite a bit from them)

[Mr. AS]

^ME's are totally fine to pass through motors/batteries/ETC. And razors are A-OK for almost any bot type.

but yes. you would be better off with 2 hexplates on the piglets with razors on them, and ditching the two ramming razors.
The plow isn't useful at all on the top like that either. Hammers (or "axes") aren't built too commonly, and thus aren't as big as of a threat compared to things like horizontal spinners (Tempest) or popups (Slashback). I would suggest removing it entirely.

If you want your wedge to be more effective, you could invest in a metal hinge, and then attach a long sheet of polycarbonate or aluminum/titanium (odds are that you can't afford steel skirts), or you can get a titanium halfsheet (in extras), and/or attach a small wedge to it. I would suggest a poly skirt personally.

underlined some words to avoid TL;DR.

[Naryar]

Lol, Stock building in DSL. Heh, you rarely see that.

Kinda pointless to make a wedge shaped bot if you don't use the wedge potential with a HS like that.

DSL tribars are kinda bad, though they have their occasional uses.

Try to make the bot so it can run inverted as well.

Protective plow is pointless. Use the weight on something else.

If you want your wedge to be more effective, you could invest in a metal hinge, and then attach a long sheet of polycarbonate or aluminum/titanium (odds are that you can't afford steel skirts), or you can get a titanium halfsheet (in extras), and/or attach a small wedge to it.

He means more effective in battle.

Also yes, MOAR WEDGES !!!1!1one!!

[TheFallen]

Thanks for all the tips, I've got a few new robots which are more realistic

[TheFallen]

Are there any tournaments around anymore? Maybe once I improve my robots i can enter




btw How do you use skirt hinges? Very stuck

[cephalopod]

Just a quick housekeeping tip to go along with their advice, it's pretty cool if you can crop your screenshots down when you save them as a png - we've all seen the botlab many times :P

And to answer your questions, skirt hinges are used like burst motors, except they won't flip/move, they are set as bursts so that you can move them to your desired position - there's no need to wire them.

As for tournaments, check out whatever's in Multi-Entry Signups and Discussion right now - there may be something around you wish to enter :)