Messages

201

Real Robotics Discussion / Re: Robot Wars 2016 Discussion Thread

« on: August 28, 2016, 03:14:49 PM »

APOLLO HYPE!

YES!

Good final match, good thing it wasn't one of those where the link gets knocked out 3 seconds into it. However this showed why the round robin system can be complete garbage:

Carbide destroyed a lot of bots, and once you were destroyed by it you'd have a half working bot. Thor got destroyed, Apollo luckily lost the link earlier but I think was one of the only bots to hold up against it, and TR2 got some heavy damage in it's match(which was the last one for them) as well. The result of Thor vs Apollo was clear, even if they got a judges decision they would've gone to the finals, really the only chance for Thor to win would've been if Apollo stopped working for some reason.

Full Battle reviews:

Pulsar vs Thor vs TR2
Obvious result, Pulsar was a really nice team and it's sad that their bot didn't work properly, a bit of a funny start with only Thor moving to the middle. Also it was clear that Thor would get the wildcard, all of it's fights were great and it lost the heat final because of the link.

Carbide vs Shockwave vs Apollo
2 of my favorites against the strongest spinner, ugh this isn't going to go well, especially after how they talk about Shockwave having weak armor...
They did start well, Shockwave even keeping Carbide's blade up into the air, then the Arena side wall was gone... Series7 flashbacks, you can have strong armor plates but if only glue is holding them together you won't get far, hope they get that stuff fixed for Series 2.

At this point I felt that Shockwave got a bit robbed, they got stuck? or stopped because of what happened, took them a good bit to stop the match and Shockwave sadly got a sideways hit from Carbide. Looked like the drive would now have problems(still looked like it would work but some of the bent armor might be blocking the wheel) but after they took a closer look the damage was worse than expected. At least they gave the roboteers time to repair.

Carbide vs Thor
Thor's front anti spinner pannel always looked small, it worked for the first few hits, but because both robots would be launched across the arena there was no opportunity to hit with the hammer, a few hits later and the wheel guards got attacked, anti spinner pannel ripped off and just destroyed, similar to what Hypnodisc was able to do, minus sending bots across the arena. They did do one final hit to end it after Thor's drive link got lose or it's wheels weren't touching the ground anymore, but as far as I know they did say they were ok with it.

TR2 vs Apollo
While I'd like Apollo to go far(and together with TR2 they were the only ones that could really take on Carbide, at least I'd think so) I wasn't really too confident in their reliability, they did have a easier time to get under TR2 and almost got them out of the arena. TR2's flipper then got stuck(out of gas) and they were stuck on their back.

Carbide vs Apollo
Apollo started good but quickly lost the link, after that, the fight was over and Carbide got two cheap hits in, not too happy about those...

Thor vs TR2
I don't remember too much happening in this fight, TR2 flipped over Thor a lot and their Co2 system got locked up because of that, later on Carbide didn't seem to have enough power to flip

Carbide vs TR2
Carbide started strong, somehow knocking away a top pannel off of TR2 as well as doing a lot of damage to that wedge, suddenly it wasn't as strong as expected, they still kept on fighting and Carbide's reliability issues from Heat A returned, stopping the blade, TR2 didn't have much flipping power left(their Co2 sure went down fast) and couldn't OOTA Carbide, but pushed them against Shunt instead.

Apollo vs Thor
Thor didn't have much of a chance here, it was nice seeing Dara watch the battle together with TR2, but shouldn't they have been fixing their robot in that time? Apollo got a good flip in which made Thor lose it's back side, which is apparently where the safety link is.

Final: Apollo vs Carbide
I somewhat expected this one to happen as Thor getting a win seemed impossible(a judges decision would give Apollo enough points already, since they won the match against TR2 they would go through), Apollo started strong but also got some of it's pannels ripped off, the bottom one near the Co2 canister and the top one where the link would be, after Carbide's blade stopped I hoped that they wouldn't break down. This time the Blade most likely stopped from all the flipping it got from Apollo. The battle went on, Apollo sadly doesn't have that much Co2 gas because it uses up so much per flip and the flipper started to get stuck. They used Shunt to get it down again and then flip Carbide around more, Carbide did manage to push them a bit but it was still Apollo that did a lot. Funny enough, the flipper also got closed over Carbide at times, making it look like a Clampbot.

Apollo then won the judges decision which they definitely deserved, and I'm happy to see them win this and have the reliability issues fixed(apparently Apollo is a evolution of Kronic?), Carbide getting second place is good enough, would've found it a bit disappointing if we had Carbide slashing everything apart.

JP had some good commentary moments this episode but did say some garbage again. Hope they can just get rid of those fake drama moments for the show and be more accurate(also acknowledge the old series instead of always saying "this never happened before").

202

Real Robotics Discussion / Re: BattleBots Season 2 Discussion Thread

« on: August 28, 2016, 01:59:38 PM »

Saw Chomp vs Biteforce, if it wasn't for Biteforce getting stuck on it's own chain, then it would've been way close fight and another judged wrong fight in this season as Chomp wouldn't have got in other hits than the one at the beginning and the entire match was then controlled by Biteforce. With how it happened however, it was a win for Chomp althrough the judges decision should've been split.

The better question, I think, is whether this is the kind of judging we want in BattleBots.

Now I dont know the answer to that.. but I know exactly why battlebots did these rules for this year..

Tombstone was the main drawcard / poster child for season 1 (2015) only for it to fall to a virtually (in comparison) weaponless robot, not that I am picking on biteforce here, most of us diehards accept this as a strategy but the bulk of viewers / casual fans would raise an eyebrow to this and they need the ratings to have the show survive.

I've heard some people say that before and can see why they think that way, in a way ABC didn't want wedgebots, yet they still get wedgebots which "bypass" the rules. It's like Urjak mentioned, a question if we want to have judging like that or not, and it's a definite no for me.

Since not everyone knows the Season 2 rules:
In Season 1 you needed to have an active weapon, for season 2 this was changed in the following way:
-Only your Primary Weapon counts for this(so Disk-o's lifter isn't a weapon to them)
-Pushing a bot around and not using your weapon removes aggression points.
Judging is scored by giving points for aggression(2), damage(1), control(1) and I think maybe another factor? Not exactly sure.

Personally I find that system garbage, can't tell me that a rammer isn't aggressive, also yes, it's a good idea to slam your weapon into a fully running spinning blade, won't break it at all and there's totally not a reason why spinner killer wedges use simple shapes. Rammers and wedgebots are just part of roboteering, just like helping other teams is for most of them, but apparently producers just want drama(because yes, all those roboteers hate eachother) action(spinner vs spinner colliding) and destruction(because a match is so BOORRRIIING if parts don't start flying around), hey that sounds familiar, but look, in the end bots need those wedges against spinners and their system just won't work out at all, and if they really dislike pushing matches that much then they could stop a battle once the first weapon breaks- no wait there's still destruction after that- as soon as both weapons break.

The fact that they need the ratings to survive doesn't help it, but they aren't helping it either by being like that, just make sure that you have enough different bot types and show people that wedgebots and rammers can be powerful too and need good driving, instead they're just going for destruction.
Honestly this just smells like Robot Wars Series 7, you're having sentences like "enough technical talk, who wants to see the action?" from the presenter and now the two moderators are starting to talk down bots(see Biteforce, unless all that stuff was true but I doubt it) as well, I don't see this lasting too long and am honestly happy that they got way less ratings this time around, happens when you start treating a show like that. It's quite disappointing to see them go that direction after a very promising Season 1.

Doubt that they will change much about that, the people that they're trying to reach for views sadly don't have much intelligence to care about other stuff and with certain builders(so far Tombstone, Warhead and Chomp, all because it helps their bot) supporting the rules, they will probably say "see, they're ok with it as well, why change?" expecting to see more spinners now.

203

General Support / Re: DSL 2.2 Obstacle Course Crash

« on: August 28, 2016, 08:08:16 AM »

Looks like all Freestyle events crash the game for some reason.

204

General Support / Re: DSL 2.2 Startup Freeze & Crash (SOLVED)

« on: August 28, 2016, 07:55:37 AM »

The Teams.txt is a file that loves to be corrupt and break the game, most likely that. Try to port parts over until it breaks again to see which part is broken.

205

Tutorials and Tips / Re: AI-ing (.py files, coding, nose-orienting R+D, and help)

« on: August 27, 2016, 06:31:13 PM »

I think I've found out the issue I had with my bot not turning.
Basically both bots would end up in a situation where one is pinned to the wall, countdown starts and the bot that's pinning drives away. Because the other bot couldn't move that much now, the countdown is still going on for it while it starts driving forwards. In the meantime the other bot that drived away stopped driving in a rotated position(because the code tells it to not move if the other bot is getting counted out before it), giving the pinned bot a free hit.
Guess I'll just have to remove the "do nothing when other bot gets counted out" part.

206

Modifications / Re: *NEW ARENA* The VaporZone

« on: August 27, 2016, 11:45:01 AM »

Lovely.

207

General Support / Re: DSL 2.2 and RW+RA2 crash

« on: August 27, 2016, 08:10:59 AM »

Apparently, mine does not have the Windows 2000 option, only XP (and Windows 7 and 8/8.1). Tried that and played a good couple of minutes with compatibility mode... then crash, as always. I guess its come to the point where the game can run flawless for the many yet when it comes to mine, it becomes crash-happy, making it difficult to run the game for hours without getting the constant crashes.

Make one post for your issue not like 3 different ones.
What's your Pc System? I haven't seen one that doesn't have the Win2k option, even Windows 10 has it. I did set up a guide for compatibility mode here:
https://gametechmods.com/forums/index.php?topic=19225.0

The game can randomly crash and on some days really just wants to crash to no end, however with the above mentioned settings I've managed to reduce the amount of crashes where only a few rare ones happen, tabbing out of the game window(via the windows key) also works well.

208

Creativity Showcase / Re: RA2 DSL Fanart

« on: August 27, 2016, 07:57:11 AM »

I like it(also not only DSL, has some normal RA2 bots as well), reminds me of a race.
It might not be your HD "almost real life looking" picture, but I can see that you put effort into it and like it because of that, good work.

209

DSL TC Showcases / Re: ALKaboom's DSL Showcase

« on: August 26, 2016, 06:45:03 PM »

Hey, use the:

Code: [Select]

[img][/img]tag to embed your bot pictures, it's best to do the descriptions and all here.

Bots look good for a beginner level, take a look at the other showcases to see how others build their bots and to get new ideas, also try out the skinning option and different chassis shapes(still try to not waste weight) to add more visual look to your bots.

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: A brief history and showcase of Team Amphib and the Newt series

« on: August 26, 2016, 06:17:42 PM »

Hey, not too bad, chassis space needs to be a bit small and spinners generally don't have that strong drive, so I'd downgrade to the TWM Drive 1's.
Unless you're playing DSL 2.1 you shouldn't use ant batteries, use battlepacks or the long batteries instead(big ones work as well but don't really give more power per kg)
Would upgrade the perm as well as use the single wedge connectors(so you don't have those black bits sticking out to the sides)

You still have in insane amount of empty space there. Try making the chassis small enough to only fit the control board and batteries, and put everything else on extenders outside of the bot. Also, those wedges aren't really long enough to do much, although I guess they're OK to stop you from getting outwedged by a gutripper or something. I think the drive is overkill as well for a MW HS.

It's a lot better than your "joke" bots, put some more time into it and it'll actually be good!

It depends on how you want to build it, if you want to go for a stock like efficiency guide then you will want a small chassis, however it can be of advantage to take a hit to the chassis instead of losing the drive.
Wedges are most likely there to act as a popup killer, it will drive up to the point where the wedge will be hit by the spinner.

211

Off-Topic Discussion / Re: Tried to remake the classic Robot Wars theme as loyally as I could. Enjoy!

« on: August 26, 2016, 11:24:08 AM »

Nice, think the intro bit is missing some instruments, but reminds me of the games which used this theme.

That's cool!

I made a version of the song they play during fights in the 1016 reboot:

At first, I was like "Well, where is it?"

...It look me 5 minutes to get the joke. Bravo. 

Is the joke that they weren't airing the show one thousand years ago?

In case you're serious and haven't seen it yet, the 2016 reboot has no music during the fights at all. There's a show intro/outro but it's so generic.

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Real Robotics Discussion / Re: BattleBots Season 2 Discussion Thread

« on: August 25, 2016, 11:05:12 AM »

it's gonna be witch doctor and tombstone. Bronco was taken out for some reason

Was it? Page mentions that it and Tombstone will be in the Arena set. Really hope they do a biteforce(even if it's difficult because far more complex weapon) and that they upgraded the Witch Doctor plastic thickness, during testing Tombstone once managed to break a piece apparently.

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Mad-man 3's DSL showcase

« on: August 24, 2016, 01:39:51 PM »

(Image removed from quote.)
Double Torque Reaction Hammer. Firing the weapon sends the heavy spike forwards and the sledges back, and then the swing back brings the sledges back forwards. Sadly AGOD as always restricts the use of this one

Is that the next banned bot type?

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Tournament Archives / Re: Stock Scramble: Discussion

« on: August 24, 2016, 01:36:01 PM »

So would the MW's be upgraded to HW's as well? Would be kinda difficult with bots like Backlash.

All bots would be rebuilt as HW's. Space isn't an issue as all of the bots are large enough to fit at least a black and a snapper at minimum.

You can always find creative ways to build your bot if you don't want to use snappers:
(Image removed from quote.)
This was built by Sage for doomkiller's stock revenge and was built using dsl's realistic rules. Shouldn't be too hard with the stock ruleset

I was thinking about something like that, but wouldn't that cause issues with the no wedge rule? Unless Backlash gets them allowed of course.

Also are skin modifications(still trying to keep the skin close to the original) allowed?

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General Support / Re: select dsl 2.2 robots not working

« on: August 24, 2016, 01:34:00 PM »

Hey, all the AI replica bots are in the designs folder and it's best to use the updated DSL2.2 ones instead of importing the old replicas. Most of those parts are AI/cheatbot2 ones, so they won't be visible normally and a lot of stuff is done via bot file editing, so even with the parts you wouldn't always be able to recreate those bots.
Pasting the Vlad components into the folder most likely broke the copy to a point where I recommend redownloading DSL 2.2 instead.

For me it crashes on the DSL Obstacle Course as well(already compared the files and couldn't find any difference) haven't tried out the other fun maps but I think that's a glitch(DSL 2.2.1 when?)

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Tournament Archives / Re: Stock Scramble: Discussion

« on: August 24, 2016, 12:50:28 PM »

So would the MW's be upgraded to HW's as well? Would be kinda difficult with bots like Backlash.

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Tournament Archives / Re: Chassis Swap-Up

« on: August 24, 2016, 11:54:21 AM »

Guess I'll enter, agree that the bot type thing would be limiting, but at the same time it would make sure that we don't have SNS/Popups/HS only.

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: The Collins DSL Showcase

« on: August 24, 2016, 11:30:40 AM »

Congratulations and good luck.

219

Tournament Archives / Re: Waifu/Husbando Deathmatch 2 - Signups

« on: August 23, 2016, 01:12:59 PM »

Silverfish, RedAce, Thrackerzod, and Badger all accepted, however due Silverfishes bot basically being Un-AIable due to the nature of the bot he has to send another bot, but his spot will be saved because his bot is legal and it really isn't his fault.

If it's the bot that he has shown with the two weapon wheels, wouldn't a usual ai file(like for a pusher)work?

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: DemonOfTomorrow's Deadly(ish) DSL Showcase

« on: August 23, 2016, 01:03:51 PM »

Do the "eyes" really give off that much light? the front picture makes it look like it has extra polycarbonate armor.

Liking the PP3D bot, but you should add a reversed wedge, like this: / so that the blade doesn't hit the floor if running upside down. Would be even nicer if the npc's were not visible and if the bot used a full disc(maybe reduce the extenders or armor for that)