I was going to post this in Sage's showcase... but I didn't want to derail his thread or encourage people to talk about this subject because it would be rude to fill his showcase with anything but comments about his bots.
Anyways:
It really is kinda too bad that the collective "powers that be" had not made an official rule set for DSL back when the game was fresh and new. Nowadays, the popularity is just not strong enough to justify making a specific realistic rule-set for every builder to use as a guide. (kinda like how Battlebots has specific builders rules)
Plus with the upcoming release of a new DSL... it makes it not worth it to establish ground rules now.
However, since there is a new DSL in the works, should we make a point to establish rules on building for realistic tournaments when the release hits? Those rules can evolve and change as we learn more... They can be established by collective vote or something.
Some rules that come to mind would be:
-Weight limits of what you can attach to certain weak material extenders.
-Valid uses of hinges/skirts/etc
-Possibility of "Judge panels" that can reject bots that are submitted based on how much the bot sways from being IRL realistic vs exploiting game mechanics.
-Having separate rule-sets that govern tournaments.
- DSL "anything goes" ruleset
- DSL "must look and be built based on IRL physics" ruleset
- DSL "????" ruleset etc etc
I, personally, would like to see stock as being like a builders playground. Anything goes. But DSL is really, fundamentally, designed to give us a more realistic experience. I think it is valuable to try to tame the realism factor for DSL or at least establish a fixed set of rules for the future when the new DSL version is released. If we work with Click on this... the "official rules" could be posted on the website for reference.
I realize that making such "rules" would not please everyone, which is why I encourage that we make two separate rule sets for future installments of DSL that lean in either direction. "Ultra Realistic" rules and "Not-so Realistic" rules.
Thoughts? Input? ideas?
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