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Messages - Talon

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1
DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's IRL bots
« on: October 22, 2015, 07:19:41 AM »
Hi folks!

I put together this bot a little while ago but I thought I'd show it off today. Hazard Ahead is (in my opinion) a somewhat innovative concept for flipper bots - it is what I call a ground-reaction flipper.



Rather than driving at the enemy with a wedge and scooping them up on to the bot's body, this robot inverts itself at the start of the fight via aggressive acceleration, followed by a swift ram underneath the opponent to establish an overlap. The titanium flipper arms themselves are powered by THREE large R/P burst pistons, producing what I consider to be the most powerful flipping action possible in a heavyweight bot in DSL3. To give you some perspective, this robot is capable of an out-of-the-arena finish from any position in the Robot Wars arena. It is utterly devastating.




Usually in a multi-piston flipper bot the arms lack synchronisation, which means only one piston ever delivers its total "true" power - additionally, if the opponent is not over every lifting/flipping arm, it will not receive the full force of the robot's lifters combined. By lifting the entire robot body, this design circumvents that limitation.





I do play this game in multiplayer with friends quite often, and now nobody will fight this robot due to its insane ability to control the fight. An overlap of only one or two centimeters is enough to send a heavyweight robot into multiple rolls thanks to the unbelievable leverage behind the flipping action of this robot.

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's IRL bots
« on: September 09, 2015, 07:26:14 PM »
Idk about anyone else but I can't see any pictures?

I was having a tough time getting them to upload - imgur is quite unstable tonight (possibly hasn't served you the images due to this). They are definitely up so maybe try refreshing without cache? :)

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's IRL bots
« on: September 09, 2015, 06:50:48 PM »
I have my suspicions that you'll all be getting bored of my flippers by now, but I do love OOTA-style finishers so very much.

This is the latest pure flipper I have come up with - a full-body flipper I called "Wheely Cheesy Idea". Inspiration should be obvious!



Twin medium burst pistons mounted aft of the battery box spread two 240mm-long flipping arms apart to a total distance of just under 4 meters. Whichever arm happens to be pointing downwards levers against the arena floor, augmenting the lifting action of the top-mounted flipper - this leads to some pretty spectacular throws for a bot that is only drawing 200 amps to power it's arms!



Twin TWMR2s also provide excellent drive and maneuverability, meaning that unless in a boxed-in arena, this bot is extremely dangerous.



This is also one of the lightest heavyweights I've entered into competition, purely because a large part of one of the flipping arms also has to lift the robot's own weight. This means I've kept the weight down to around 550 units, hence wide use of aluminium in the extender work!



Fun fact: This entire robot is built off a single extender at the rear of the chassis.

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's IRL bots
« on: September 07, 2015, 01:11:43 AM »
Wow, what a warm response to wake up to! Thanks very much everyone!

You, good sir, are one Talon-ted builder!
yes :D

also it amazes me how this guy is this good and won a botm with 14 posts lol

I think you might be thinking of somebody else - I don't remember entering anything! :p

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's IRL bots
« on: September 06, 2015, 08:08:27 PM »
Woah, lots of rapid feedback tonight! Thanks everyone! :)

Looking fairly decent, though how good are the wedges on those flipper bots? I'm skeptical.

. They do the trick IMO!

The angle of the bot thanks to the large wheels means that it only has four points of contact, two of which are the tips of the wedges. Seems to get under everything I throw at it!

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's IRL bots
« on: September 06, 2015, 06:50:33 PM »
Thanks again guys!

This is my latest bot. It took a few scrapped bots to get this right, but finally I have built a properly powerful (and stock DSL3) Front-Hinged True Flipper - Hazard II.



Hazard II is powered by two twin-TWMR2 drive motors, giving it enough pushing power to match anything bar an e-tek drive powered bot out in the arena. Aiding in it's fight-controlling ability is it's incredibly powerful front-hinged flipper, powered by three Medium Burst Pistons on rack & pinions. To deliver the huge 300 amp power burst necessary the chassis is packed with ant cells - and of course, extender anchors to which the entire bot frame is attached.



The large tyres work together with the long wedge panels up front to give the nose of the bot zero ground clearance - in fact I have yet to meet a robot that this wedge cannot defeat - even other lifting bots!



As you can see from the overhead view, the Burst Pistons make up nearly half of the robot's total length. The weight of the robot is 798.7 units despite chassis armour of only 1mm plastic. This is supplemented by polycarbonate panels extending over every surface of the chassis other than the bottom - and the SRIMECH's incredibly powerful launch takes care of protecting that. When this robot self-rights, it normally flies between 12 and 13 of it's own lengths in altitude.



The flipper has two 60x120 panels on each side, straddling a central 40x120 panel. Each is independently powered, but their limits are set identically. Additionally, the center lifting ram has an aluminium pin extending downwards from it which "pops" the nose of the robot up into the air on a lift attempt, delivering additional loft to the throwing action. This is invaluable when attempting to flip an opponent out of the arena.



I'm not sure if anybody clicks these, but I'll put it here anyway.

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Online Battles / DSL3 Multiplayer on GameRanger
« on: August 31, 2015, 07:14:54 AM »
Hi guys!

I'm keeping a DSL3 server running pretty much constantly between about 10AM and 11PM GMT and I'm always up for a fight! Feel free to drop in whenever. It's been up for a few days now :-)

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's bots
« on: August 29, 2015, 07:53:28 PM »
A new bot from me today - my first competitive middleweight! May I present to you - FrostLight!



FrostLight is so named because of an older sibling, Frostbite, who was cannibalized in her design. All steel panels from the latter robot were stripped and replaced with lexan, and extender work was modified to aluminium to keep weight down and mobility up!



FrostLight gets underneath competitors and holds one or more wheels/treads off the ground just at the bottom of her frontal slope. At this point the icepick swings down, powered with 100 amps and a Medium burst piston! The pick is extremely damaging in middleweight competitions - I have had individual hits worth over 1000 DMG points!



This design makes fairly good use of the space within the bot, stacking batteries forwards of the drive axles to keep the nose low and able to get underneath opponents. Interesting anecdote - FrostLight began life as a flipper bot, but due to the lackluster performance* of the system in Middleweight tests it was decided that the piston would be reversed and an axe would take the place of the flipper in the ventral configuration.



So far in 30 games FrostLight has not been flipped once, partly due to this very light but equally smart pointed "tail" mounted high on the rear hull. This leaves the bot unable to sit on it's vertical surface and allows one of the two cambered drive wheels to gain purchase and level out the bot.



I've never really been much of a man for middleweights but this little bot really suckered me in! Fighting weight is 398.4 units with Titanium 3, which has so far proved to be enough!



*I was expecting a flipper to do very well with lighter robots but it takes so much weight to build an effective one that you soon leave middleweight!

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's bots
« on: August 20, 2015, 07:14:28 AM »
you know there are other batteries than ant batteries right ?

Yes, but I don't know why anybody would use them.

The ant has a better power to weight ratio than any other battery by a wide margin in DSL 3, and due to its small size is much easier to fit inside the bot - car batteries can't be folded around weapons and drive motors.

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's bots
« on: August 20, 2015, 07:03:28 AM »
I've really been enjoying this frontal prow design - it's fantastic for getting under opponent's bots, especially when paired with the pure torque of the E-Tek Drives. It's for that reason that I bring to you my next bot: Lift.



Lift is a standard flipper bot in the vein of Bigger Brother. It has one of the most powerful flipping actions I believe it's possible to make in the game, with a dual-bladed flipper on 120mm titanium lever arms back to not one but two Large Burst Pistons mounted centrally in the chassis. When both sides of the scoop get under the opposition, the effect is devastating.



In addition to the flipper the bot has two small spikes mounted on the top of the arms, for digging and ripping at the bottom of any bots that it is able to lift.



The bot has an almost circular shape which lends itself to the high-speed maneuver warfare tactics that it has to implement to get around and behind the opposition due to its thin plastic armour. It is extremely maneuverable and is able to utilise the angled shape to slice around opponents at close range and bounce them backwards with a fast ram!



The hardest part of this bot was being able to deal with the astronomical power requirements of the two Large Burst Pistons. Each of them is powered by 14 Ant Cell batteries to overcome their tremendous amperage cost, leading to a total Ant Cell count of 32 - that's nearly 200 weight units of battery power in Ant Cells alone! As a result, the chassis armour on this bot is very light, and the appliqué armour around the hull is not as extensive as I would like towards the back of the top, and across the rear.








If you are interested in seeing the flipper in action, there is a . It is extremely effective in arenas that can be escaped!

It is worth noting that the entire back third of Lift was rebuilt from the prototype in the video to the bot I have posted today, as well as all the extender work being redone from Steel to Titanium for weight saving purposes. The lifter's maximum height was also increased by 50%, due to better weight distribution keeping the bot grounded in the newer version.

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's bots
« on: August 20, 2015, 05:13:34 AM »
Thanks very much everyone!

Maybe call the bot Antifreeze and give it a ice skin

I like this idea a lot but as with many of my designs, the skin isn't really visible under the armour plating! I do like the name though, I'll change that in my game :-)

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's bots
« on: August 19, 2015, 03:25:28 PM »
Hi All!

I wanted to share with you the evolution of the inappropriately-named Blade - Icepick

Yeah the name sucks. When I'm developing a bot I name them all after their weapons and sometimes I just can't think of a new one!



Icepick is a heavyweight with thin titanium chassis surrounded by a steel armoured framework of form-fitting panels, and fronted by a split prow. The prow allows the icepick weapon to come down on the opposition with huge force, but also provides two points of contact for pushing around opponents when the ramp is not able to get underneath them. This rarely happens however, as the ramp is extremely effective and defeats all but the lowest of wedge bots.



The ramp itself is flanked by steel armour leading back to the front of the N1 wheels - and mounted on these are six medium beater bars - a surprisingly effective weapon! The inclusion of two E-Tek Drives for the powertrain give this bot absolutely unparalleled pushing power and speed, and so far none of its opponents have been able to keep up with it or counter it's extremely potent flanking ability.



The rear is as heavily armoured as the front to protect from overhead or kinetic attacks, though I do wish I had some armour panels that were able to fit in better with the top shell. This was the best I could do considering that almost all the armour on this bot is mounted to the chassis by only 3 attachment bolts and nearly every armour panel is the 7th item in an extender chain.



The top armour has been carefully surrounded with steel extenders upon which most of the forward superstructure is attached, and the weapon fires from just underneath their attach points.



This image shows just how little space has been "wasted" inside the hull - the E-Teks are right up against four interior walls of the bot per side which left very few options for mounting armour. Ant cells are stacked 5-high on either side of the weapon to provide it's full load of 92 amps, and an additional 4 ant cells are stacked ahead of the motors to allow the robot to maintain it's high agility for the duration of battle.

You can see Icepick duking it out with another player in Multiplayer here.

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's bots
« on: August 19, 2015, 03:42:18 AM »
why is it called blade when it doesn't have a blade

Fair point! It started life with a fire axe but it was modified!

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's bots
« on: August 18, 2015, 05:57:46 PM »
Thanks very much to all so far!

I'd like to share with you my current favourite bot, if I may, simply named Blade.



Blade is a hammer bot, again protected almost entirely by extender-mounted armour panels. The split double panel nose has a ground clearance of 0, and it wins roughly half of the "wedge wars" that it encounters, however due to the two E-Tek Drive motors this bot has enough maneuverability to access the vulnerable sides of nearly any opponent.



While Blade does sacrifice some damage output by using the Icepick instead of a Razor Tip, the length of the weapon head actually functions as a self-righting mechanism should the bot fall onto its near-vertical rear armour plates. Thanks to the double-headed icepick, Blade does not fear flipper or wedge bots!



Internally, Blade is tightly packed thanks to the inclusion of a Wide Medium burst piston and the two huge E-Tek Drives. Most of the other internal space is taken up by batteries, and fitting in extender mounting bolts was quite a challenge! Eventually I was able to get a good armour layout mounted on the chassis however and the result is an almost indestructible bot that packs a mean punch, with the power to push almost any other bot around the arena.

If you're interested, you can see Blade take on Paranoia's AI bot "Crop Circles" in a matchup here

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's bots
« on: August 18, 2015, 03:06:47 PM »
These bots are really cool, although the third bot worries me a bit, because if the discs are touching the ground, the bot will move very slowly.

Please stick around! I would love to see more of what you come up with.

It's not very clear in the pictures but all three bot designs have runners that touch the ground on both sides of the disc to prevent contact.

Glad you like them! :)

EDIT: Do you mean the disc armour on the wheels? I guess I don't read so good!!

Yeah the bot was a bit wobbly thanks to those which is one of the reasons why Cutting Edge IV dropped them and went back to regular armoured motorcycle wheels!

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's bots
« on: August 18, 2015, 02:35:06 PM »
You should start a showcase by posting bots, not merely posting your intent to post bots...

Although you are new and there are much, much worse misbehavings there.

Anyways, expect advice and criticism.

Sorry, I had the next post written in a Notepad file ready to go but it froze up thanks to a concurrent RA2 window and I had to rewrite it from scratch!

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DSL TC Showcases / Re: Talon's bots
« on: August 18, 2015, 02:34:29 PM »
This is my first uber-successful bot, able to win all 9 tournaments in a year against Paranioa's AI pack: Cutting Edge IV

Three-quarter view



Top-down view showing the motor used for the circular saw weapon



Side view shows the drive wheels and runners above and below the disc used to stop it snarling on the arena floor. These have surprisingly little friction!



Cutaway view with top armour removed so you can see the internals. The chassis is deliberately wider than necessary for more leverage in turns - I found it helps for getting alongside other bots and out of their weapon's range.



The bot itself is extremely lightly armoured, but because of the perfect panel fit this doesn't really matter. So far I've not come up against any enemy bots that are able to penetrate the extender armour panels before they themselves are cut apart by the saw.

I also have some pictures of Cutting Edge IV's older siblings:





The original Cutting Edge started life as a vertical blade weapon, but I realised the efficiency of the disc over a lawnmower blade at applying constant damage in a ramming situation. I heavily armoured the bot with steel which also helped weigh the blade down, and the set-back runners allowed enemy flippers and wedge bots to get under the blade where they would then sustain heavy damage. I also used discs to armour the wheels though this isn't hugely effective - I found wider set wheels in the 2nd version helped evade damage better than armouring and sustaining in this version.

Cutting Edge relied on chassis armour, for which it used 10mm of Steel. Later experience has shown me that this is not necessarily the ideal armour for a bot, so from this point on most of my designs switched to applique armour panels on extender bars!





Cutting Edge II was the first version with the new hull and the angled armour plating, however a lot of it was armoured with thin polycarbonate skirts and the disc itself was over-armoured. The motor was also quite vulnerable which I fixed with an additional rectangular armour plate, however I couldn't bear the way it looked. Cutting Edge III was very much an incremental update, rearmouring the disc slightly and switching the motor from the left to the right - all of the AI kinetic weapons in Paranioa's AI pack spin their blades/flywheels anticlockwise, and the motor on the left of my bot was taking the brunt of the force if the armour failed.

I hope you enjoy this bot and will post more shortly!

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DSL TC Showcases / Talon's IRL bots
« on: August 18, 2015, 02:15:17 PM »
Hey guys!

I'm fairly new to the RA2 scene but I'm loving it so far. I've been using DSL 3 Beta 1 and have come up with a few designs I thought I'd share with you!

I'll post them all in seperate posts so they can be permalinked to if necessary!

Bot List:


Cutting Edge IV

Blade

Icepick

Lift

FrostLight

Hazard II

Wheely Cheesy Idea


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