Messages

2821

DSL TC Showcases / Naryar's DSL freaks

« on: November 15, 2008, 11:16:54 PM »

Grog the Warlord isn't bad for a joke bot.  How does it do in battle?

2822

DSL TC Showcases / R0B0SH4RK's DSL Showcase

« on: November 15, 2008, 10:42:10 PM »

Great bot.  The only thing DOAM has over that bot is that it has a bigger weapon and fast NPC's (though with shiny hub wheels, it probably ends up being the same speed).

Honestly I don't know where you found the weight.

2823

Discussion / Race Track Arena

« on: November 15, 2008, 10:18:58 PM »

I'm seriously considering making an official Race mode in the next DSL patch.  If so, it might turn into a DSL 3.0 *gasp*

Because FB has the AI code almost all figured out.  Just some minor tweaks left, and making some actual arenas.

2824

Discussion / DSL Realistic Rule

« on: November 15, 2008, 09:43:49 PM »

I agree with everything except this.

Weapons cannot intersect moving components.

-Can intersect power components excepted for weapons.

(referring to static components)

Are you saying that moving components can intersect a ram plate, but not a DSL bar?  I don't get it.

2825

General Support / Well, my game is messed up, or my whole computer.

« on: November 15, 2008, 09:31:02 PM »

Funny.  Exactly the same thing happened to me just a month or so ago.  With RA2 at least, I don't remember any wavy motion.

It was nothing to do with graphics.  It was a memory problem.  I just defragged the computer, and everything was fixed.

2826

General Support / AI tool wont work.

« on: November 15, 2008, 09:27:26 PM »

It's not as good, but you can use apanx's earlier Export AI to find out the ID# and component type (SpinMotor, Weapon, etc.) of a bot's parts, but not the txt file name.

https://gametechmods.com/uploads/files/Export.zip

Just AI a bot with Export and it will create a txt file with the info in it when you do a battle.  (The modified __init__.py included in there is necessary for it to work).

I don't know what could be wrong with your exporter.exe.  It works on my computer.

And Gigafrost, this is a program to find out the ID numbers of components on bots.  Not to upload them on the internet.

2827

Contests / BOTM - December 2008

« on: November 15, 2008, 09:08:23 PM »

I know of two entries that are almost done (not saying whose they are, though, since it's supposed to be secret).

2828

Stock Showcases / Kill343gs's Comeback Tour

« on: November 15, 2008, 09:06:24 PM »

A Supervolt is the maximum power you would need for 2 HP Z-teks, but you can easily get by with a Nifty or even 2 small battery packs if you have to (Brown Wreckluse 2 and many of FB's LW's use 2 small batteries).

That, combined with a smaller chassis and attaching the drive motors off of that first extender (instead of using a second baseplate anchor) will get you weight for more weapons.

Also, since the weapons aren't angled like on FB's Pillar of Fire, they won't all hit at the same time.  The tips will hit first.  So you might consider using iron spikes or axe heads, so the tips don't break as quickly (it would also differentiate it from Pillar of Fire more).

2829

Discussion / Adjustment to stock game

« on: November 15, 2008, 08:13:53 PM »

The burst motors need to be more powerful for flippers too.

You've obviously never seen Jimxorb's Jex Air... probably the most powerful non-rupting flipper ever built.

Most flippers can't flip that high in real life anyway.  There's only been a handful of ceiling flips in the entire history of robot combat.  The burst motors probably don't need to be more powerful... except the Snapper II.  You could make that thing actually usable as a burst motor.

2830

Tournament Archives / ELBITE Super Tournament - Ideas and discussion

« on: November 15, 2008, 07:42:00 PM »

I'll probably enter.  I just need to skin and AI my bots.

2831

Modifications / New Beta GMF Viewer!

« on: November 15, 2008, 06:00:40 PM »

Not having to boot up RA2 every time I compile something to see if my changes worked?  Count me in!

2832

Modifications / New beta GMF compiler!

« on: November 15, 2008, 05:55:00 PM »

I don't know if these have been fixed yet but I found some glitches with the older version you released.  If you've fixed them in the most recent version, just ignore it.

***Decompiler***

Hinges - Node TM's are indented 2 tabs too many.  Like this:

Code: [Select]

*GMID_HAVOK_CONSTRAINTSOLVER
{
*NODE_NAME CSolver01
*THRESHOLD 10.000000
*RB_COLLECTION_NAME RBCollection01
*GMID_HAVOK_CONSTRAINT_LIST
{
*COUNT 1
*GMID_HAVOK_HINGE_CONSTRAINT
{
*NODE_NAME Hinge01
*NODE_TM
{
*NODE_NAME Hinge01
*TM_ROW0 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
*TM_ROW1 0.000000 0.000000 -1.000000
*TM_ROW2 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
*TM_ROW3 0.000000 -0.000000 -0.000000
}
*BODY1 motor
*BODY2 axle
*POINT 0.000000 -0.000000 -0.000000
*SPIN_AXIS 0.000000 0.000000 -1.000000
*IS_LIMITED 0
*FRICTION 0.000000
*ANGLE_LIMITS -1.570796 1.570796
}
}
}
Shiny wheel - *MESH_TVERT 14 in wheel display, last number is decompiled as -1.#QNAM0 (should just be -1)

Shiny wheel - wheel traction geometry proxy is read as x<  But somehow it still compiles and works.  Not sure what's going on there.

Attach points - User Data, ID, and Attach are sometimes all on the same line.

***Both***

Still reads reflection maps as *MAP_DIFFUSE and *MAP_TYPE Other; Additive XP_TYPE as Filter

***Compiler***

Arena lights - won't compile *USE FAR ATTENUATION.  Gives the error message: Expect *USE FAR ATTENUATION, found *USE instead.  Expect close bracket, found FAR instead.



On the plus side, I did successfully compile wheels with this.  I'm going to try the newest version next time I do gmf work.

2833

Discussion / Adjustment to stock game

« on: November 15, 2008, 05:27:44 PM »

I'm not talking Starcore, more like... UBERMOD.

That's what I thought when I first saw this.  Hasn't this mod already been done with UBERMOD, or was that something different?

I've actually thought about making a mod like this before since it wouldn't be too hard, but every time I start brainstorming ways to improve stock, it turns into DSL.  If I was going to use a balanced mod I think I would much prefer DSL...

That said, this mod might still be good to have.  Sort of like a transition step between stock and DSL for people who don't want to switch "all the way".

My input: Remember the damage formula for keeping weapons balanced.  Damage potential (DP) = 183.9P + 100C.  P=piercing, C=concussion.  So piercing does more damage than concussion.  Then you just need to use the same HP*DP/mass for all components (for DSL it's 60000; for stock I think 15000 or 20000 would be a good number).

Armor strength also needs to be doubled, because with DSA it's basically like having only one armor choice.  It takes the whole element of armor out of the game.

Adjusting weapon weights would be cool.  Naryar's got a good list there.  It's not strictly necessary, though, if there's a good reason not to do it.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned motor power yet.  Everyone knows the motors in stock RA2 are WAY underpowered for spinners, so we have to resort to stuff like chaining Z-teks and servo enhancing.  There's an easy solution.  If you change only the first number in the motor's "power" setting and make it higher, the motor will spin faster when there's a disc or something attached, but won't make your bot drive any faster.  Driving power doesn't need to be improved, that's good as it is, but slightly more powerful weapon motors would make heavy weapons like hammers more usable without servo-enhancing.

2834

Discussion / What makes a good wedge?

« on: November 15, 2008, 04:49:08 PM »

Time for another "episode".  This time, I'm investigating what makes a good wedge.  There are a lot of myths about wedges, and I'm pretty sure I didn't test all of them, but this should be useful information in any case.

First up: The myth that Emergency wedges are somehow worse than small wedges.  To test this, I made two identical bots, except one has small wedges and the other has Emergency wedges.  Since Emergency wedges are bigger and heavier than small wedges, though, I put the Emergency wedges on 20 cm extenders while the small wedges are on 60 cm extenders.  This makes the Emergency wedges about the same length and exactly the same weight as the small wedges.

Here are the bots:



To test which has the better wedge, I put them both in the Small Arena (to minimize the distance that one bot could drift off course) and drove them straight forward so they collided head-on, and recorded which bot got under first.

The small wedge got under the Emergency wedge for the first trial.



I'll spare you screenshots of the other trials, since they all look the same.

After 20 trials, the results are:  The small wedge got under 16/20 times or 80%, while the Emergency wedge got under 4/20 times or 20%.

I think it's safe to say that this myth is CONFIRMED.  Small wedges are better than Emergency wedges.



Next up: Weight distribution.  The myth is that if your bot's weight is distributed more to the front, close to the wedges, you'll have better wedges.  I tested this the same way as with the Emergency wedges.   I used the same bots, but one has 80 kgs worth of ballast in the front, while the other has 80 kgs of ballast in the back.



The results: After 40 trials, the front-weighted bot got under 24/40 times or 60%.  The rear-weighted bot got under 16/40 times or 40%.

I did more trials because I noticed that the bot in player slot 1 seemed to have an advantage for some reason (this didn't affect the Emergency wedge test because I alternated which spots the bots started in).  While 60-40 isn't a really significant difference, I'm inclined to call this one CONFIRMED because of the way the bots behaved in different spots.  When the front-weighted bot was in player slot 1, it got under the other bot 80% of the time, and there were almost no draws (where the bots bounce apart and neither gets under the other).  But when the rear-weighted bot was in player slot 1, it only got under 40% of the time, and at least half of the matches I did ended in a draw, probably more.  If I used a greater ballast, I predict the difference would be more pronounced.

So, long story short: Frontal weight distribution makes a better wedge=CONFIRMED.



The next myth I tested was ground clearance.  A lot of people will swear by the rubber wheels, saying they're superior to shiny hubs because they give you lower ground clearance.  Same testing method here: one bot with shiny hubs, the other with rubber wheels.  I added a 10 kg ballast in the shiny hub bot to make up for the extra weight of the rubber wheels.



The rubber wheel bot got under 22/40 times, or 55%.  The shiny hub bot got under 18/40 times, or 45%.

I'm inclined to call this one PLAUSIBLE.  There might be a slight advantage to wedges with lower ground clearance.  I don't think it's enough to justify the extra 5 kgs of the rubber wheels, though.  If you have 10 leftover kgs and nothing to do with it, you might try rubber wheels, but I wouldn't sacrifice anything for a maybe 10% advantage.



Going back to the Emergency wedge myth, let's suppose you have some extra weight.  Are Emergency wedges any good if you just replace small wedges, using the same extenders?

I used the same small wedge test bot as the first myth, and changed the other bot to this:



The results: Emergency wedges are still inferior.  The small wedge got under 14/20 times or 70%, while the Emergency wedge got under 6/20 times or 30%.



Last myth.  Looking at the results for the Emergency wedge, I thought: "Hmm... if the small wedge is narrower than the Emergency wedge and it's better, then is an even narrower wedge better than the small wedge?"  I used spike strip wedges to test this.



The results were overwhelming.  The small wedge got under the spike strips 20/20 times or 100%.  So, this myth is BUSTED.  The reason for the small wedge's effectiveness shall remain a mystery...



To summarize: Factors that make a good wedge include using small wedges rather than some other component, distributing your weight close to the wedges, and possibly having low ground clearance.

This means that using heavier burst motors (DDT's instead of Snapper II's) will also improve your wedges, as more weight will be distributed over the wedges.

2835

Discussion / ATTN: Due to recent discoveries...

« on: November 05, 2008, 11:35:38 PM »

The ant battery was designed for antweights.  In an antweight, you can't fit more than two batteries.  If the ant battery has any less power, a typical antweight will drain its battery dry in under a minute.  Believe me, I tried to make it as weak as possible and still be useful.  Therefore, it's all the rest of the batteries that need improving.  Yet it seems RA2 has some sort of cap on how much power you can have (the reason you can power a dual Perm on less than half the power it says it needs).

I think the batteries are nearly balanced, and some abuse of the ant battery was always expected.  The only way things will change is in the 2.2 patch, if it is released.

2836

General Support / Py Help... Making Claws Change Direction.

« on: November 05, 2008, 11:25:28 PM »

Madiaba has exhausted his very extensive Python knowledge to try and make keyboard inputs work, with no success.  The game just doesn't register the keyboard.

2837

General Support / Statistics of components in dropdown menus

« on: November 05, 2008, 11:20:21 PM »

Batteries in RA2 are really hard to balance.  It seems like no matter what you do, they either drain in under a minute or last forever.  And the motors never drain as many amps as you tell them to (the dual Perm is a case in point).  That's why the electricity stats in DSL are so wonky.

If someone could figure out exactly how electricity works in RA2, that would be awesome.

2838

Custom Components Showcase / Re: Pay Tribute With Replicas

« on: November 05, 2008, 11:03:54 PM »

Nice work.  You really went all-out with Sump Thing.

At this rate you might someday be making replicas for DSL.

2839

Stock Showcases / ShadowArts's Showcase

« on: November 05, 2008, 10:57:54 PM »

Snapper2's are plenty powerful for a MW side hammer.  Instead of DDT's (which would require a new chassis anyway) I would suggest HP Z-tek drive, a Supervolt, and more front armor.  One plow isn't going to cut it against your average HS.  You have a good basic design and weapon arrangement though (except for the spike strips.  Not sure what those are for.)

2840

Stock Showcases / Sage's Showcase

« on: November 05, 2008, 10:45:00 PM »

The 4wd HS/rammer hybrid looks at least decent.  What went wrong there?