MW dump. If another MW Centauri happens, and I have time to enter it, I'll be ready.
in IF you can totally get away with less weapon power with more weapons unlike DSL. you could probably use just a yellow ztek and not see much difference. might let you get a better setup for selfrighting too.
2 light plows in a V on the front might be better too with the higher fracture and all.
Problem: Ironforge servos are not strong enough to lift the saw arm without the motor in the back acting as counterweight.
Problem 2: I am well aware that Perms are way too powerful for this application, but there are no other belt-drive motors.
So I need a counterweight, but I want it to be a
functional counterweight. Not a wasteofweight. What can I use besides a weapon motor?
My first idea was to make the chassis rotate as part of the saw arm and use my free ballasts as counterweight. I'm confident that it WOULD work, except that it becomes a Havok bomb as soon as I put wheels on the servo.
My second idea was this:
With the arm in the up position, the Ban Hammer protects the arm and deals some passive damage. In the down position, it deals fire damage in conjunction with the ninja stars, hastening the rate at which I can deplete chassis HP. It's also heavy enough for the arm to move up and down with absolutely no lag time.
Other upgrades from Falling Star 2:
- MOAR PLOWS for better spinner defense.
- No need for a rear kickstop on the weapon arm, so it can easily self-right and immediately get the weapon back in position.
- If the ninja stars break, it still has a rotary flamethrower and strong defense to win by points.
- Better drive and uses all four ballasts for improved control. It is much easier to maneuver around the Octagon without clipping the flippers with this bot.
- Bonus: It drives perfectly straight in reverse!
I really wish I could upgrade some of those light components to dark (particularly the plows and the weapon arm) but I'm extremely strapped for weight. I did try using the lighter, non-hammer flamethrower, but that doesn't protect the arm, which it turns out is pretty necessary.
(Also yes I totally ripped off SawBlaze's logo. This might as well be the Ironforge version of SawBlaze.)
In the vein of "unique designs that are hard to AI", I also made this thing:
Obvious inspiration from 2016 Bombshell's horizontal spinner module.
Actually, this is truly impossible to AI effectively. The decision to run in undercutter or overcutter mode is entirely subjective and beyond the abilities of AI. (The best you could do would be some sort of adaptive-AI thing where it changes tactics if it loses, like Seism 13.)
It's cool, but not really that great. Much like Bombshell, it is a hard counter for about 2-3 very specific designs, and mediocre against everything else. It could possibly be improved.
Finally, I've seen a few HUGE designs in Ironforge, but they all use the transparent discs for wheels, or even vertical treads. Why not try those 200 cm motorcycle wheels that are quite honestly NEVER going to be used for anything else? 12,000 HP ain't bad!
Problem/actually sort of not a problem depending on how you look at it: The torque of the weapon spinning up actually causes the hammer to swing around, so it's sort of a cross between HUGE and the original concept of Axe Backwards. By throttling the weapon back and forth, it can even become a thwackbot like Gabriel. The downside is that the hammer is always in front of the bot, so it's kind of hard to hit things with the main weapon. (Unless you turn around, but then the weapon will be spinning downward.)
Could possibly be improved. Maybe lighter spinner, heavier hammer?