This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Topics - cephalopod
21
« on: September 21, 2016, 02:02:54 PM »
 This is Robot Wars!
And this tournament will sort the best from the rest, in search of the GTM Robot Wars Champion.Battles will take place in the bulletproof terror-dome that is the Robot Wars Arena  Featuring the Pit, the Flipper, the Spikes and the Fire. And that's not the only thing contestants will have to deal with! Each fight will feature one of our House Robots, controlled by a human, which the contestants have been programmed to ignore. For more on the House Robots themselves, keep reading to the bottom of the post! The format is as follows. There will be 6 heats of 6 robots, for a total of 36 entrants. The heat will consist of 2 3-way melees, followed by a round robin between the 4 that qualify - 3 points for a KO and 2 for a Judge's Decision. The 2 robots with the most points will go into the Heat Final. The Heat Winners will progress to the Final episode, where the same format from the heats will take place. Want to read up on more about GTM:RW? Try the Wiki Page!Let the wars begin! BUILDING RULES:-DSL 2.2 -Strict IRL Building Style -CW Weight Limit - up to 600kg -No Clusterbots -CF and BFE allowed for enhanced realism, as long as IRL guidelines are still adhered to. -No cheatbot2, no custom components aside from DSC's IRL Components Pack (Extender reskins). -A maximum of 1 of ANY of these components, total. Mechavore disc, Microvore disc, Moros blade, Frenzy hammer, Minion disc, Overkill blade -Skinned components permitted as long as you submit a separate style for the component - DSC's IRL Components pack is installed and permitted. -Interchangeable weapons are not permitted due to the nature of the episodic format -No weaponized wheels. Discs may be allowed for wheels as long as no weapons are attached to the edges. To help this tournament be a true event to remember, please, consider entering a robot never seen in any other tournament, whether the robot is a CW by design or an upgraded MW/downgraded HW. When I gave a 2500kg weight limit for the House Robots, I received some amazing, unique designs. Let's do the same in the CW category :D A nice theme is also encouraged! Skin your bot, give it some real personality, then we can make the episodes something not only RA2 fans will enjoy, but Robot Combat fans in general, and show the entire community how great GTM is. Thank you so much, let's make this tournament a real special occasion! <3 ENTERING REGULATIONS:-Entries rejected due to non-adherence to rules will not be guaranteed a place if the tournament is filled before a fix is sent. You have 1 chance to update a rejected entry, even if signups are not filled after the second failure. -I reserve the right to decline any robot for any reason, including if I don't think your bot is 'IRL' enough. -No updates -36 entries, maximum. -Any robots sent before signups open will be rejected and must be resent when signups open. If skirts are utilised flat to the ground (eg, not mounted higher like Panic Attack) they should be straight not angled and only stick out a very short distance from the chassis. Exceptions to this are dustpans, where the flat sheet is 'supported' on both sides by extender frames or actual chassis.
Supported axles are a must. In most cases, the re-inforced Perm will not suffice and require extra supports. You could use, for example, extenders or armour plates to make this support. -Matches will be 3 minutes in length in the Robot Wars 2016 Arena. -The bracket will be largely similar to Robot Wars 2016, with 6 heats of 6 robots instead of 5 heats of 8. - Round 1 - 2 3-way melees 4 bots go through - Round 2 - Round Robin between all 4 qualified entrants. 3 points for a KO, 2 for a Judge's Decision. - Heat Final - The top 2 bots in the league table go into the Heat Final, and the winner of this progresses into the Final Episode. -Each match will contain a House Robot. The House Robot, controlled by myself, will not stray outside of CPZ's to attack AI unless the AI are in another CPZ. I will not be entering due to controlling the House Robots. The AI have been programmed not to attack the House Robot unless the other opponent has been defeated. -I will be judging based on criteria used in Robot Wars 2016, with weightings 3:2:1 to Aggression, Damage and Control. HOUSE ROBOTSHAVOXSTRATTONINFRAREDMEGALODONCORPORAL PUNISHMENTKROCODILSPECIAL GUEST - DEAD METALENTRANTS1. Rob Collins - Scratch 2. TommyProductionsInc - Darlene 3. Firestorm999 - Bullet Bot 4. DemonOfTomorrow - Fusion Reactor 5. Kix Mrox - Duke 6. Tourdeforce - Ginger Step-Child 7. Badnik96 - Evil Art Project 8. Thrackerzod - Gadreel 9. Mole55 - Smaug 10. Wakkydude - Galaxy 11. Dragonsteincole - inVAsion 12. RedAce - Agent Orange 13. Botomatic1000 - Metrocide 14. wrhysj - Hurt sanwich 15. Baconus_Yum - HaMMaTiMe 16. qwertythe300th - UnderCut 17. R01 - Hypershocked 18. R1885 - Zlammer 19. Guldenflame - Terrazone 20. Ty4er - Industry 5 21. Kurt - Lobsteriffic! 22. COOLRUNNER87 - Flood XL-C 23. Pressure - Billet 9 24. Cathalised - A Piece of Rake 25. WenXiangLee - Cridine 26. Plazmic inferno - Phobos 27. Qo-- - Duck Fury 28. F1Krazy - Deathstalker 29. Kill343gs - Maelstrom 30. Mr. AS - Gamma 31. FaceBagman - Witching Hour 32. Tashic - F30 33. Bobyasianboy - Reaper 34. Lightning S - Toxic Slash 2 35. Squirrel_Monkey - 31V15 36. 090901 - Plane Bot Thing Black = Accepted Green = AIed
22
« on: July 19, 2016, 01:37:47 PM »
23
« on: July 19, 2016, 01:37:27 PM »
24
« on: July 15, 2016, 10:48:57 AM »
25
« on: May 25, 2016, 04:55:06 PM »
Right, RedAce rightly said the other thread isn't right for this and I know FOTEPX had his own thread on it for his own stream but just so everyone can put their names and URLs down, advertise away in here.
26
« on: May 13, 2016, 05:35:33 AM »
27
« on: May 12, 2016, 04:37:04 PM »
Compiling all the Dev Q&A's here for ease of access and quoting. Not my content, obviously  Q&A 1, 19th MarchHey everyone,
We're overwhelmed by the response to the early work in progress screenshots and video and are really appreciative of all of your feedback and questions. The announcement just went live this week with some early details and video of what the Robot Arena team has been working on for the past several months. We thought we would take some time from our development schedule to answer some of the more frequently asked questions.
This may sound a bit like a marketing statement, but the truth is we do need your support. One of the easiest ways to support the success of RA III is to select the Follow button on our RA III Steam page and subscribe to our mailing list on robotarena.com. If you already subscribe through robotarena.com you may have noticed we have answered other questions that were posed to us before we launched our Steam page.
We would like to try and make this a regular weekly post in the Steam community forums with an update on our progress and answers to your questions. While we would like to answer all of the questions, please don't take it personally if we don't answer yours. It doesn't mean it isn't a good question, it just means we may have missed it or may not have a good answer for you just yet.
Here goes!
>Will there be mod support?
Yes, our initial mod support will be through Steam Workshop, for bot blueprints. Bot blueprints are what you create in the botlab, be it a full blown bot, just a chassis, or a partial bot for others to add on to. We know that access to modifying components, arenas, sounds, physics, and UI are important to the mod community as well, but we want to be careful about how we introduce them as some of those changes may break the balance of the game. While these are not part of our initial plans for Steam Workshop, we have built the components/weapons and arenas in such a way that they can be modified and new ones created. Without the dedication of the mod community for RA 2 we wouldn't have an RA III.
>What engine are you using?
We're using using Unity 5. We looked at other engines, and while they all could have done the job nicely, Unity 5 gave us the best balance today.
>Why DirectX 9.0c in the system requirements?
We want to make RA III compatible for the widest amount of hardware out there that we can. We know not everyone has a DirectX 11 or 12 compatible GPU so the DirectX 9.0c requirement is to reach as wide an audience of fans of RA 2 as possible. RA 2 was never a visual tour de force in its day but it did what it needed to. That's not to say RA III is going to slack in the visual department, it just means that we want to spend more of our energy on other areas, at least at first!
>What physics are you using?
With Unity 5 we have PhysX. Apologies to the Havok fans, we know that it's a great solution and was our solution for RA 2 in the early days of physics solutions. Physics is important and tricky to get right and we believe that PhysX is the right solution for us. There have been some really great physics based games created in Unity and while it is always a challenge to get physics just right, the tools in Unity give us good access to what we need.
>Will there be multiplayer?
Yes. We will have 4 player online multiplayer, that's our current plan.
Thank you for your questions. We are truly thankful that you are supporting us. We're a small team of Robot Arena enthusiasts that know there are high expectations for RA III. We also know we won't please everyone, but we certainly want to try.
-Robot Arena III team Hi Everyone,
Thank you for your continued questions and support! You have definitely kept us busy this week reviewing feedback from the Steam community, the Gametechmods forums, Youtube, and questions we received from two members of the mod community who were kind enough to come into our offices.
In going through all the feedback we're finding that it falls into a few basic categories.
1. Bugs
2. Improvements
3. New features
We thought we would take this week to answer questions related to a couple from each category as well as a few miscellaneous ones. Please don't feel that your question wasn't a good one if we don't answer it, we may have missed it or more than likely we just don't have a good answer for you yet.
Bugs -
Your attention to detail is great to see, and sometimes a bit scary as well. Some of you lovingly dissected the early trailer and others vivisected it, either way you found some bugs.
> The connected components are not centered properly. [Insert still image from the video of the rotating mace-windoo-doo bot. That's not the official name of the bot, but maybe it should?]
In this early version we have all sorts of odd misaligned connections, including the ability to place parts in places you shouldn't (ouch). This will be addressed for release. As we discover misalignments we bug them. We can't promise every misalignment will be fixed given the millions of combinations, but we will do our best to get to them all!
> The wheel physics look messed up dude.
Yes they do. Initially we were using the basic Unity vehicle physics. We thought that would work. We quickly found that when you made a bot using the vehicle physics and the default shock-absorber system that is included it wouldn't work when a bot was flipped over. Essentially the default Unity vehicle physics would behave like a car upside down, shocks and all, without a downward force on the wheels. We had to scrap that system and start a new one that allowed for upside down bots to drive around as you would expect. Unity by default also has weird rubbery physics when objects are connected so things weren't actually rigid the way you'd expect them to be, which also meant taking a different approach for connecting items together.
With that being said, we knew the physics would be a tough one to conquer from the start and while we've made some good progress I'm sure there will be plenty of day-one videos of bots flying all over the place, falling apart fantastically and flinging themselves into some type of planetary orbit or the bowels of hell. We like to laugh to, but not so much that it hurts or makes us cry.
Improvements-
There were several things you saw in the videos, screenshots or in the copy that were missing or we could do better.
>Why just the stock Robot Arena 2 components?
The truth is we had to start somewhere with the components and we felt the easiest would be with the RA2 components. We do plan on having many more components than the ones in RA2 for launch. In future videos you'll see some new ones.
>Why do all the bots in the video have the same white/silver color?
When we made the video and took the screenshots we didn't have the bot lab paint shop hooked up yet. The bot lab will have a paint shop with familiar features to RA2. We'll have more to share in future videos.
>The chassis creation in the video looks different than in RA2. Where did the old method go?
There is much, much more flexibility in chassis creation than in RA2. That does sound like a bit of hyperbole but the truth is there are lots of ways to create chassis in RA III. The RA 2 method, which we call the extrusion method, still exists in RA III, but we didn't show it in the video as the UI was still coming on line. The video shows the new primitive shape approach where you pick a shape from many base shapes, and like a block of clay you can mold and shape the chassis by pulling vertexes in each layer to get what you want.
New Features-
> Will I be able to import my stock Robot Arena 2 bot into RA III.
This is a big one for many folks and is something we have talked about a lot. We don't think this will be possible to do before the launch, but the format we are saving the RA III bots in is very mod friendly so it certainly could be possible in the future.
> Since you are using Unity what about Mac and Linux?
Using Unity does give us options to go to Mac and Linux. We are carefully considering each as they have some challenges even with Unity. Presently we don't want to get distracted by those challenges however so we're focusing on Windows now. We're hoping that the challenges for Mac and Linux are minimal however as we would very much like to see Robot Arena on both.
>Can you rupture or puncture the chassis?
We agree that this would be really cool. As we balance all of the development tasks this one is a bit more technically challenging than we have plans for today. It's not off the table it's just not something we'll have initially.
Miscellaneous-
To everyone that suggested we reach out to Nerd³ or reached out to them on our behalf it looks like it worked, thank you! We appreciate @DanNerdCubed for the tweet letting people know that we're on Steam. We would be happy to share an early version for them to take a look at!
To those who asked how much the game will cost, it actually depends on what part of the world you are in. The science of pricing on Steam is a whole other topic, involving fluctuating currencies and market pricing realities for games in each region. With that being said we are asking $19.99 for RA III in the US and will do our very best to make the game reasonably priced throughout the world.
Like most folks who create games we would like to have enough financial success so we can continue to add new features and make more significant improvements beyond our launch. We know that many folks downloaded Robot Arena 2 for free because it wasn't readily available for purchase. We would like to try and make it as easy as possible for those people to justify purchasing.
Thank you again for the questions, please keep them coming - we'll be back next week to answer them!
-Robot Arena III Team Hello Everyone,
Lots going on this week on the development side and some great questions from everyone. Thank you to those of you that have put RA III on their Steam wishlist. Thank you for keeping our Steam Community and the Gametechmods forums active with questions and lively debate.
Let's get to this weeks' Q&A.
>Are you planning on DLC?
One of the more popular debates the past couple weeks has been DLC, downloadable content. Paid or free, it seems that DLC is a bit of a third rail subject with lots of opinions on both sides. We haven't closed the door on having paid DLC as part of Robot Arena III down the road but we know it would have to be something special and not take the focus off the core RA III gameplay balance.
Our initial thought about any possible free DLC is that it should not be a separate thing and just be an update to the core game so it doesn't affect balance. Keeping the door open for paid DLC gives us flexibility to work with content creators who may have unique content that we can only obtain at an extra cost. We don't have plans for paid DLC today, but we don't want to close the door on it completely in cases where there's a cool piece of content that we can only obtain by supporting paid DLC.
>Do we know if there are going to be weight classes other than the old lite weight, middle weight, and heavy weight?
We are currently sticking with the LW, MW, and HW formats to keep things simple for new RA folks. Having 7 weight classes from the start can get pretty confusing for folks who are new to RA.
On our wish list we would like to add flexibility in the weight classes, and we have discussed a few approaches for that including allowing you to set an arbitrary weight class for your own single/multiplayer purposes. This is not something we will have for launch, but the game is being built in such a way that we could support multiple classes.
>Is there a limit to chaining components together, a rule of 7 components chained in a row?
There is no limit currently defined, nor do we intend to provide a limit initially. Testing every permutation and combination of components would take quite a long time and we don't want to set an arbitrary limit. We want the user to be able to experiment with the bot creation as much as possible and discover what inherent limitations there are. What does that mean? Well let's say you chain 100 components together and it works, that's awesome, if you add the 101st component and the physics fail and things fly apart, well "The more you know".
>Will there be belts or chains?
The short answer is no. The longer answer is that while we don't intend to have belts or chains for the aesthetic side of bot creation, we will have smaller motors that will attach to the end of extenders that can accomplish things similar to what a belt and chain might.
>How many bots can we have on a team, and how many teams can we have?
In RA III the player will not have multiple teams but they can have a large number (TBD) of bots under their profile. For single player mode, events will have the concept of "teams". A single player profile will be limited to one team.
We realize that this might not be the answer that some want to hear, but it's something we struggled with managing in the user interface. We felt the best approach would be to offer one profile (essentially team), with the ability to have a large number of bots of various classes.
>In the chassis shaping, can you overlap corner-points? Create a pyramid? Or do all bots have to have a flat top like RA 2?
Currently every layer has to have the same number of vertices but they can be very close together, giving the appearance of fewer vertices. As we work through the bot lab paint shop, we're trying to strike a balance between more control in customizing the look of the chassis with the flexibility to stack vertices or bring them very close together.
>Will there be elastic components that bend or are they static like RA 2?
We have looked at springy joints, but initially we are going to focus on rigid joints to start. Springy joints are possible with Physx, we just don't have the ability to get them implemented and tested properly while we are working on the rigid physics.
>Will players be able to skin components in the bot lab or will people have to apply a new skin outside of the bot lab?
Currently there are no plans to include the ability to skin components in the bot lab. We have heard this idea from a number of people however, and know that it is something that many of you would like to see in future updates if possible.
>What's in the box?
The crushed dreams of the RA III supporters if we don't get things right...the pressure.
>Will there be more screenshots and video prior to release?
Yes. What type of things would you like to see in the next batch of screenshots and video?
As you can probably tell from the responses to your questions there will be a lot of things we would like to do, but realistically won't be able to do for the launch. In our dream scenario we hope that RA III does the community proud at launch and is successful enough for us to continue to invest in larger improvements and features. We know we won't launch with all of the features that you've been asking for, but we have put a lot of thought into making a highly mod friendly game that we hope lives on as long as RA 2.
-The Robot Arena III Team
Hello Everyone,
Thank you again for supporting RA III by adding us to your wishlist and Following our Steam page. We're six short weeks away from our launch date and things are extremely busy, so our apologies for being late with our update this week.
We're gearing up to show RA III at PAX East, April 22-24. Sorry for the last minute notice, it was touch and go whether we'd make it or not. While the event is sold out the folks at Octopus Tree will be sending out posts and pictures throughout the weekend through the @OctopusTreeGame Twitter account and Octopus Tree Facebook page if you're into that kind of thing.
We're also hoping to have RA III at other events in April which will be announced by Octopus Tree as well as right here when they are finalized.
On to the questions of the week.
>Do you think walkerbots would be possible?
Yes. We can't say they are the best combat robots out there yet, they haven't gotten their sea legs, but they are possible and I'm sure in the right hands they could be a pretty solid foe. It isn't a priority for us to have them easy to build initially, but they are possible.
>Have the parts from RA 2 been directly imported or have they been modified?
They may look like the parts from RA 2 but everything under the hood will change with the new physics and also from the feedback we have received. We know some of the RA 2 components didn't quite behave in an ideal way, so we're trying to rectify that, but we realize it will be an ongoing process to strike the right balance. We know some parts felt under powered and couldn't do the job you might expect. "Fix the !@$* flippers" has been heard loud and clear. With that being said it won't be perfect out of the box.
>Have you created any enemy bots yet?
Yes, we have created some enemy bots that have very rudimentary AI. Our plan is to create base AI for a variety of bot types. Modifiable AI is important to us as well. We'll have more to share later regarding how that will be possible.
>We would like to see screenshots of how damage works, and point scoring.
Absolutely. Once those elements come on line at a level that is worth sharing we will post those screenshots.
Thank you again for your questions! Please continue to post them to the Steam community, right here, or on Gametechmods forums.
-The Robot Arena III Team Hi Everyone,
Thank you again for all of the questions and well wishes as we head into the home stretch. We've been extra busy this week preparing builds for PAX East for the 22nd-24th and also a new event, VEX Worlds in Louisville, Kentucky at the Kentucky Exposition Center. We're proud to be the first game at this robotics competition event and look forward to sharing the game with competitors and VEX fans April 20th through the 23rd.
On to the questions of the week!
>Will there be an open or closed beta?
We have a handful of folks providing us feedback from the RA2 community. The truth is we'd love to have more folks involved in an open beta, but managing a larger group would take more time and we have a limited amount of that remaining. With that being said we have been getting great feedback from the handful of people who have agreed to help and we are extremely appreciative of their time.
>Will objects and wheels that stick out of the chassis have an opening for them or will they stick out of the chassis's if it wasn't solid like in RA 2?
Objects that stick out of the chassis do not create negative space on the chassis itself, so we are similar to RA 2 in that regard. We totally like the idea of creating a negative space for objects that pass through the chassis, but we won't be doing that for RA III.
>What are you using for multiplayer?
We're using Unity's multiplayer solution UNET. After researching other solutions we felt this had the best potential for what we were trying to achieve with RA III.
>I wonder if bot file editing/ component editing will still be possible in RA3 without having to be a computer genius.
>Bot file editing will be simple, it's a json file you can open with notepad or notepad++. Your bots are stored in your My Documents folder. Component editing is trickier than that and currently takes some knowledge of Unity and CAD, but it should be easier than RA 2. We have no formal plans yet to release the details on customizing components - but it's on our wishlist to do for sure.
>Can you edit the chassis during building?
Yes. You can edit the chassis after you have placed components. We're trying to make building much easier, and we believe this is a big step in the right direction.
>Will there be copy, paste and radial/array or mirroring of components to make it easier to build your bot?
Copy/Paste and radial array/mirroring are not currently in the works, though we hear you loud and clear that it is something that you would like. As bot builders ourselves we know these would be time savers. On top of all the other elements of the game these seem trivial to add, but there is a good bit of user interface work and testing that would take additional time. Undo is another big one we would have liked to have, but that is also sadly not in the plans at this time.
That wraps up the questions for this week! Thank you all again for your continued support. If you're attending PAX or VEX, please stop by and say hello and let us know you're part of the Steam or Gametechmods community.
-The Robot Arena III Team
28
« on: March 31, 2016, 07:52:52 AM »
Figured I'd make a page for us, lol. Sure most of you know already but setting this up for future posts and stuff... Team Nebula is a partnership between myself as captain, Tweedy (Plazmic Inferno), Adam (HereticBlue) and Matt who isn't on GTM. :P As of a few weeks time we will fully own Tanto, the long-running heavyweight bot historically known for it's association with Team Danby who have been running different versions under the same name for many years, even being a reserve at RW Series 7. When RW came around, Team Danby graciously lent us the Tanto platform as they had applied with other machines and we built a new disc setup on it and took part in the unaired pilot episode. We have really grown fond of the machine and hence have now come together to buy the bot and run it ourselves :)  So yeah. We'll post up our endeavors into this thread when applicable. We'll definitely be at the Portsmouth Robot Wars and Burgess Hill Robots Live events in May though, even if Tanto doesn't run, so come say hi. :)
29
« on: January 13, 2016, 05:49:11 AM »
30
« on: January 01, 2016, 10:23:10 AM »
GTM AWARDS 2015
The votes are in and counted, here are your winners! Congratulations to them all!
A massive thank you to the 16 people (not including myself) who voted - you'll all be receiving a grateful +rep from me in the coming hour or so. CATEGORIESRA2 Wizard (Most Knowledgeable) -Sage GTM Unsung Hero Tie - 123savethewhales and Naryar Best Profile -toAst Most Missed -Madiaba Most Sly and Sneaky -Naryar Best Advice Tie - Reier and Sage Most Likely To Be Online -Mechadino Funniest -Reier Kindest and Friendliest Tie - Craaig and Redace Least Friendly and Kind -NeighImACarrot Most likely to stay on topic Tie - Craaig and Redace Least likely to stay on topic -The Red Blur Most Enthusiastic Tie - Ecolusian and Silverfish Most Unintentionally Annoying -The Red Blur Most Improved Member -Playzooki Most Promising Member -Tashic Best Newcomer -Silverfish Favourite Real Robot Builder -MikeNCR Favourite GTM-built Real Robot -Mr Snappy (you guys are too kind) Favourite GTM Staff Member -Craaig (Thank you <3) Building AwardsMost Unique Bots -Domanating Best Bot Designer -Reier Best Bot Skinner -Lemonism GTM's Favourite DSL Builder -madman3 GTM's Favourite Stock Builder -Sage GTM's Favourite Ironforge Builder -Reier GTM's Favourite IRL Builder -Mazakari Tournament AwardsBest Tournament -THE GREATEST TOURNAMENT OF ALL TIME Best New Tournament Host -Thrackerzod Best BOTM Winner -Mr Bones' Wild Winter Wonderland - Thrackerzod - December winner Modding AwardsBest Innovation -Robot Wars RA2 Mod Best Skinner -HereticBlue Best Overall Modder -HereticBlue and the RWRA2 Team Thanks again to all who voted. Here's to another great year!
31
« on: December 20, 2015, 01:53:03 PM »
GTM AWARDS 2015
That time is here again. Let's do this!
In the last year I've run this on a point system allowing honorable mentions to count for something, but this year, only 1 vote per category.
Votes are to be PMed to myself. You can vote for as many awards as you wish, it'd be great if you could vote for all.
No self-voting, and any obvious 'troll' votes in any field will result in the entire ballot being void, as per my own discretion.
Voting closes at 1PM UTC on 1st January 2016 - Closed!
17 Votes Received. CATEGORIESRA2 Wizard (Most Knowledgeable) GTM Unsung Hero Best Profile Most Missed Most Sly and Sneaky Best Advice Most Likely To Be Online Funniest Kindest and Friendliest Least Friendly and Kind Most likely to stay on topic Least likely to stay on topic Most Enthusiastic Most Unintentionally Annoying Most Improved Member Most Promising Member Best Newcomer* Favourite Real Robot Builder Favourite GTM-built Real Robot Favourite GTM Staff Member Building AwardsMost Unique Bots Best Bot Designer Best Bot Skinner GTM's Favourite DSL Builder GTM's Favourite Stock Builder GTM's Favourite Ironforge Builder GTM's Favourite IRL Builder Tournament AwardsBest Tournament Best New Tournament Host Best BOTM Winner Modding AwardsBest Innovation Best Skinner Best Overall Modder *Limited to members who joined in the past year. Members with 20 posts or more from the past year, if you need help: Zyro_Falcon
Silverfish
The Red Blur
Hero of War
Tashic
Cody Furlong
b0w7ie
Maka
ecolusian
32
« on: December 18, 2015, 06:43:13 AM »
Sorry this is so late guys, been pretty busy recently. I will be putting the voting thread up on Sunday with all the regular instructions (don't vote now!). I've already made a few changes to the categories this year to make it a little more positive but I'd like to hear some feedback over the next day or 2 :) CATEGORIESRA2 Wizard (Most Knowledgeable) GTM Unsung Hero Best Profile Most Missed Most Sly and Sneaky Best Advice Most Likely To Be Online Funniest Kindest and Friendliest Least Friendly and Kind Most likely to stay on topic Least likely to stay on topic Most Enthusiastic Most Unintentionally Annoying Most Improved Member Most Promising Member Best Newcomer* Favourite Real Robot Builder Favourite GTM-built Real Robot Favourite GTM Staff Member Building AwardsMost Unique Bots Best Bot Designer Best Bot Skinner GTM's Favourite DSL Builder GTM's Favourite Stock Builder GTM's Favourite Ironforge Builder GTM's Favourite IRL Builder Tournament AwardsBest Tournament Best New Tournament Host Best BOTM Winner Modding AwardsBest Innovation Best Skinner Best Overall Modder *Limited to members who joined in the past year. Members with 20 posts or more from the past year, if you need help: Zyro_Falcon
Silverfish
The Red Blur
Hero of War
Tashic
Cody Furlong
b0w7ie
Maka
ecolusian
33
« on: November 07, 2015, 05:01:05 AM »
ACAMS is quite right, this section was very heavily spammed with AMA threads. These have all been moved to the Forum Games sub-section of GTM. You may need to enable the section in your Board Membership preferences to see it. Please don't post any more here.
34
« on: August 09, 2015, 05:49:30 PM »
Well, this is a big one, and definitely one I need contributions for. Any help fleshing out especially the weapons section with better information than I provide would be massively beneficial. Feel free to post in here or drop me bits via PM. That said, shall we start at the beginning? 1) What Is Ironforge?Ironforge (downloadable here) is a Total-Conversion mod for Robot Arena 2 developed by 123savethewhales, with a whole roster of new and/or optimized components and a few unusual rules. This said, when it comes to building styles, it is not dissimilar to DSL, with the prominent building styles consisting of Standard and IRL ( Click here for a guide as to what these mean) and therefore, once the basic changes are gripped, it's very easy to play and build effective bots. 2) Ironforge WeightclassesThe main change to Ironforge from Stock or DSL are the weightclasses. These have been lowered, along with component weight, to provide more exciting matches. The weightclass changes are self-imposed (due to being unable to edit the games source code), which mean that you cannot rely on the games weightclass indicator to provide the correct weightclass.AW (Antweight): 70kg BW (Beetleweight): 90kg LW (Lightweight): 125kg MW (Middleweight): 200kg HW (Heavyweight): 400kg SHW (Superheavyweight): 600kg As a general, easy to remember rule for the main LW-SHW classes, the weight limit is half of the Stock/DSL limit. On top of this, for any weightclass, you are permitted to add 4 ballasts (found in the extras section of the botlab) for no weight cost. 3) Changing Weightclasses for In-Game TournamentsThe lowering of the above weightclasses means that many bots will not read as their weightclass in game (for example a HW with no ballasts will read in-game as a MW, and a LW with 3 or more ballasts will read as a MW, etc). This means that if you want to play the in-game tournaments, you won't face the correct opponents. This can be corrected by manually changing the bots weightclass. You will need to follow these instructions carefully as not to ruin your bots file. i) Export your bot from the Team HQ ii) Locate your bot file in the Robot Designs folder of your Ironforge directory, and open it using Notepad++ (Freely available software) iii) After the file indicates your bots name, it will show Class: and then a single digit. You need to change the digit accordingly - for LW (including AW/BW), 0. For MW, 1. For HW, 2. For SHW and above, 19658784 (a strange quirk of RA2). iv) Save the .bot file (Not save as, as this may save it as a .txt file!) and re-import into RA2. 4) ArmourArmour has been changed in this mod from Stock/DSL and every armour is now a viable choice aside from the default armour, DSA, which weighs more than most armours and provides a lot less protection. 5) Building Style RulesThere are 3 main building styles, Unlimited, Standard and Realistic. ================== I. Unlimited Rules ================== 1. Zero Collision - Components with collision may not stack with each other on the baseplate. **Reason** - Distinguishing baseplate stacking in game from cheat is impossible. If I want something to be placed anywhere, I will have given it no collision (e.g. baseplate anchor) 2. Botlab Only - every placement must be possible in the botlab. 3. Ironforge Weight Limit AW - 70kg BW - 90kg LW - 125kg MW- 200kg HW- 400kg SHW - 600kg 4. 4 Free Ballast - first 4 ballast do not count toward your weight limit. ================== II. Standard Rules ================== 1. All rules included in Unlimited 2. Realistically Plausible - a real life model must be hypothetically plausible in real life. However, a standard bot do not have to consider the effectiveness of it's hypothetical real life model, only that it can be build. ================== III. Realistic Rules ================== 1. All rules included in Unlimited 2. Realistically Practical - a real life model bot must be hypothetically practical in real life. A Realistic bot may no exceed it's hypothetical real life model in effectiveness. 3. Realistic Minimum Chassis Height - 0.24 *Botlab Only Exception* - height below 0.338182 may only be achieved through BFE. 6) Component Guide (under construction) i) PowerI will only talk about the choices you need to know about here, so disregarding the control board, air tank and smartzones. -Duracell Batteries2.5kg, 10 amps, 5000 total powerEnough to power any spin motor in terms of amps, however the capacity will be an issue for robots with higher power motors. Very good for LW and lower. -Energizer Batteries5kg, 15 amps, 15000 total powerA good balanced battery for many applications. -DieHard Batteries10kg, 20 amps, 40000 total power.The most power for the weight, even if you can get more amps. Great for powering high amp burst motors. ii) ExtendersMost of this section is very self-explanatory, however I will mention: You will find many components in Extenders and Extras that come in Light and Dark variants - this isn't just aesthetic. Light components weigh a lot less than Dark, however provide a lot less protection. If you need the strength and you have the weight, the obvious choice is to go for the Dark, but if you have little weight, or a non-exposed extender, Light is a good option. iii) MotorsThese are well described in terms of needs in-game. Make sure each motors needs are fulfilled and you can't go too far wrong. Just remember drive motors are for wheels, locked motors for treads, and Z-Teks/Perms/Firebirds for weapons. With the reduced weight of components/bots in Ironforge but higher motor power, it is often the case that you don't need the highest drive you can afford as your bot may end up too fast. Test, test and test again. In terms of burst motors, Betas are great for flippers and hammers, while the others are great for faster needs, such as popups. Pistons have been massively buffed in Ironforge and are now very powerful, with capability not to just push bots but fire them. iv) WheelsWheels now come in 3 variants, Slim, Normal and Wide, offering higher grip and HP for each wheel but for a higher weight. As with every other component, wheels are balanced so there are no real better wheels than others, however it is worth knowing Mini Wheels are the smallest wheels you can get a bot invertible with. Treads have very high HP and can be just as fast as wheels if used correctly. Plus they look awesome :) v) WeaponsWill try to go into each weapon in some detail, describing their traits and best usage. All weapons are again balanced - nothing is more powerful than anything else, but there are weapons more suited to certain situations. If you're unsure of what normals are in the following guide, they basically mean the weapon only causes damage with certain parts of the geometry - face the weapons so the normal will hit the opponent! Razor -------------------- Damage Type: 100% Piercing Normal: None Special: 50% HP Suggested Use: FS, Juggler Pole Spike -------------------- Damage Type: 100% Piercing Normal: Tip only Special: 2x Damage Suggested Use: Hammers, Pokers Steel Blade -------------------- Damage Type: 100% Piercing Normals: both sides and tip Special: Extended Reach Suggested Use: Popups, Flails Sickle -------------------- Damage Type: 100% Piercing Normals: both sides and tip Special: Unusual shape Suggested Use: Traps Cutting Edge -------------------- Damage Type: 67% Piercing, 33% Concussion Normals: Single side and tip Special: Extended Reach Suggested Use: Popups, HS, VS Axe -------------------- Damage Type: 50% Piercing, 50% Concussion Normal: Both sides and tip Special: Short and Compact Suggested Use: VS Hammer ------------------ Damage Type: 100% Concussion Normal: None Special: Pseudo Extender Suggested Use: Rams, Poker, drums, extenders Ninja Star ------------------ Damage Type: 50% Piercing, 50% Concussion Normal: All Bladed Side Special: Frequency, Circular hit box (allowing it to lift things much better). Suggested Use: Saw Bot DSL Bars ------------------ Damage Type: 50% Piercing, 50% Concussion Normal: 2 Bladed Side Suggested Use: Extender Ice Cannon ------------------ Damage Type: None Normal: None Special: Flame Thrower Suggested Use: Pusher Ban Hammer ------------------ Damage Type: 100% Concussion Normal: None Special: Flame Thrower, -17kg efficiency Suggested Use: Pusher vi) Extras-BallastYou can use 4 of these 50kg ballasts without them counting towards your weight in any class. -Skirt HingeUseful for all sorts of mounting. -SkirtsGood for getting under stuff on a flipper or as a wedge on a skirt hinge. Comes in Light, Dark and Heater (even stronger) variants. -ArmorsLight and Dark protective panels. Don't underestimate how useful they are. -Snow PlowLike you'd expect, a plow. Comes in Light, Dark and Heater (even stronger) variants.
35
« on: July 28, 2015, 02:22:12 PM »
No meme tournament for now, sorry :) Building Rules-Ironforge v1.1 -Middleweight (up to 200kg, with 4 ballasts allowed on top of this for no cost) -Standard (DSL-S) realism (You can enter an IRL bot but you will more than likely be at a large disadvantage) -Multibots allowed to a maximum of 2. -No cheatbot2 or custom components. -No out of botlab editing whatsoever. -Bots must show controlled movement. -No SnS or bots utilizing meltybrain. Tournament Guidelines-Unlimited slots, but 1 entry per person. -Signups will be open for 1 week and no longer. Entries sent before signups open will be rejected. -Entries cannot be updated, unless they are rejected for breaking rules, in which case they have 1 chance to fix before disqualification. -I can AI for you but it will be the most basic line - it will move in the right way and use it's weapons, nothing more. Battle Rules-3 minute matches in the -------- arena (TBD) -Single elimination bracket -1 restart per bot per match for any match-affecting Havok explosion - any more and the bot will be disqualified. -I will enter. Entry TBD. Thoughts?
36
« on: April 30, 2015, 05:50:45 PM »
The time has come for an awesome Robot Wars RA2 Mod competition! What's the prize, I hear you cry? Your design, made as realistically as possible, implemented into the mod. Forever, and for everyone. Sound like a good prize? Well. Don't let me put you off, but the rules of entry are VERY tough... he lied through his teeth. All you have to do is send your robot idea, along with a quick sketch, your name and whether it's a feather- or heavyweight, to RobotWarsRA2@outlook.com by July 3rd. That's it. Each person can send 1 FW and 1 HW design only. 'A quick sketch' can be a picture of ANYTHING - RA2 built, hand drawn, MS Paint, Photoshop, Sketchup/CAD, handmade model, whatever. We're not marking on the quality of sketches, but the originality of ideas.Please send each entry in a different picture and write the descriptions/names in the email. We'll then pick our favourite and announce it on this thread on July 6th. There will be 2 heavyweight winners and 1 featherweight winner. We will also pick an ultimate winner from these 3 to win a 3D printed model of their entry and a Robot Wars keyring!Good luck!We'll need to get in touch with you afterwards to make sure we're on the right track with your design. Your design cannot be too much like any robot that already exists. You know especially what that refers to. All designs will be voted on by the mod team (anonymously - apart from me, nobody will know who entered what). We suggest not revealing who you are in the sketch or in the thread for bias reasons. You can enter if you're not a GTM member, the same way as everyone else (via email). Finally, the quality of your sketches don't matter - don't panic if you're not the best CAD designer in the land, and if you are, you won't be getting bonus points for it. We're looking for originality and great ideas, not a nicely drawn Chaos 3
37
« on: January 26, 2015, 09:10:47 AM »
1) Introduction: Hello there!Chances are, if you're reading this, you're new to the community of Gametechmods. First off, welcome! I'm cephalopod and I'm a Global Moderator here at GTM. We are a primarily English-speaking forum devoted to the robot combat series Robot Arena and it's modifications; If you've made it this far, you probably know at least something about this series. If you are yet to get hold of RA2 and wish to get a copy, all our mods can be found in the Downloads section of the menu bar. Some will require an extra program such as WinRAR or 7zip to open, but the original copy of the game can be opened by any computer. If you need a tutorial on obtaining the game, we have your back! - Downloading RA22) Rules and EtiquetteAt GTM we do have some rules which you should read before you start posting - these can be found here.As such, we do also have a warning system in place for any infringements on these rules. If you get to 70%, you will not be able to post. More specifics on the warning system can be found hereDo not hesitate to get in touch with myself or another moderator if you have any queries about the rules or warning system - I promise we don't bite. 3) User RanksAs you may probably have already noticed, lots of people have many different coloured names on GTM. To avoid confusion, here's a quick overview to them all and what they mean.  and other red titles are the people at the top who run the site day-to-day. Our main Admins are Geese, 090901 and Apanx  and other blue titles are the forum's Global Moderators. The main mods who can help you around are Pwnator and Plerco.  - Veterans are people who have earned their title mainly from being around in the community for a very long period of time.  - Tech Advisor is a title allocated to those extremely talented in coding and technical support.  - Advanced Users are members who have contributed significantly in one way or another to the development of the game or community.  - Roboteers are the real robot builders of the forum. The other smaller grey titles are allocated on how many posts you have made - details on these can be found on the Post Rank wiki page.4) Forum SectionsFirst off, here's a quick explanation of the top navigation bar you see around GTM.  Home - This link will take you to the GTM Homepage, which includes details of your profile, this month's Bot of the Month and the Chatbox, a small instant message widget. Also found here it many user's favourite button - Recent Unread Topics. This will give you a list of all the topics that have been posted in since your last visit to those topics. Forum - The takes you to the main forum page, more on this later. RA2WIKI - This will drop you over at the RA2 Wiki, a community made database of all things RA2 and GTM. Downloads - Your resource centre for all things RA2! Profile - In this area, you can customise your profile, including your Avatar and Signature. My Messages - This is your inbox for Personal Messages. If you have any messages, the number of messages will be placed in brackets beside this. Search - This handy function is for - you guessed it - searching the forum. Very useful if you have technical issues and want to find out if the question has been previously answered. Members - A complete memberlist - useful for getting in contact with people. Rules - This was previously covered, make sure you've read them! Logout - Logs you out of your account. Now I'll briefly go over each section of the forum and what goes there. -Site Information As you can see, this is the bulk of the forum, and is again largely self explanatory. The Tutorials and Tips area is an excellent way to hone your skills quickly, and we have a complete index of all our tutorials here.If you have technical issues, the Tech Support area should get you a quick response and, hopefully, a fix. Showcases are where we all show off our bots - more on this in a bit. -Robot Arena Matches If you want to see how your bots do in combat against other people, Tournaments should be your first port of call. Check the Signups area for any tournaments accepting entries. Don't know how to enter? Use this guide!The Bot of the Month tournament is also held in this area, with the winning robot getting pride of place on the homepage! -Off Topic Everyone needs a break from RA2 once in a while. Come here to chat about other stuff. The Off Topic Discussion section also holds the Introduce Yourself thread, the perfect place to help the community get to know you! 5) ShowcasesShowcases are a particularly busy part of the forum, and for good reason. If you want advice on your bot, or just to show it off, here's where to go! Showcases can be made for any of the mods RA2 has, as well as RA3. All you need to start up your showcase is a screenshot of your bot - this can be done through RA2's inbuilt screenshot system (press F11 and a .bmp screenshot will be placed in the Screenshots folder in the RA2 directory - which must be converted to png or jpg) or through Print Screen and Paint or an external program such as Gyazo. A much more detailed tutorial on good screenshots can be found here, courtesy of Scrap Daddy. A guide on RA2's many robot building styles - as well as examples - can be found here, while browsing other showcases is an awesome way to get inspiration. If anyone has anything to add to this, drop me a message or a post here and we'll see what we can do :)
38
« on: January 20, 2015, 09:42:36 AM »
Lots of terms get thrown around here when talking about building styles, and realising there was no page outlining the details of this I know of, here's a quick guide. Examples are posted with credit to the builder and a link to their showcase. This can be updated and added to whenever with more in depth descriptions, but to get us going... 1) Unrealistic (Most popular in: Stock)Anything goes - stacking, weapons going through each other, etc. BFE is most commonly outlawed here, however. Examples | Virus Bomb
This bot, a popup, is clearly unrealistic due to it's use of caster armour and popup rack going straight through the entirety of the casters. |  | Sage
This multiple Horizontal Spinner has many unrealistic intersecting components, put together using the eFFe Glitch. |
2) DSL Standard/DSL-S (Most popular in: DSL, Ironforge)There is a barebones realism rule here - most well defined by the following -No moving parts can intersect anything where a slot cannot be cut (eg not through batteries or motors, but through armour is fine as long as it could be done) -No moving parts can intersect other moving parts, even if they are not intersecting when built. -No stacking Naryar wrote up a full ruleset hereExamples | Martymidget (DSL)
A good example of a DSL-S Juggler here. As is evident, nothing cuts through anything else as you would expect on an Unrealistic bot. These rotating spinners could never intersect in any position, meaning they comply to DSL-S. |  | RedAce (DSL)
This Beetleweight (125-175kg) Shell Spinner utilizes the enhancing properties of flails in a way that wouldn't be considered IRL. |  | Urjak (DSL)
This Vertical Spinner utilizes cool armour as well as it's deadly Perm-powered weapon. As you can see, the axle of the Perm is unsupported and so is 'floating', hence would not be possible IRL. |
3) IRL (Most popular in: DSL, Ironforge)Everything done has to be possible in real life, right down to weapon supports for axles. Often subjective, and BFE etc is often allowed if it helps the realism of the robot. Component Freedom generally accepted and often encouraged. Some tournament hosts also allow skin packs, such as DSC's IRL Packs. Examples | Geese (DSL)
This IRL Hammer shows great colour and extenderwork. This is the sort of machine you could easily envisage on TV! |  | Lemonism (DSL)
This IRL Dustpan is entirely possible in real life - note the support rig for the dustpan arm, motor and axle. This showcases you can still use RA2 chassis as part of your IRL build. |  | Hobo Drew (DSL)
This IRL vertical spinner shows how DSL extenders and panels can be used to create intricate realistic shapes. |
4) Ironforge Unrealistic (Most popular in: Ironforge)As Stock unrealism, but no stacking permitted.
39
« on: January 12, 2015, 02:29:52 PM »
 So, where are us Brits going? Will definitely be at Portsmouth, hoping to get to Newport and Guildford too. Maidstone... possibly. (Note this list doesn't include any Robots Live events - I'll be at at least Burgess Hill of theirs)
40
« on: January 01, 2015, 07:38:57 PM »
Evening all, and happy new year. Here's the results for this years GTM Awards, going from 1st to 3rd place in all categories (stopping if there is more than a 3-way tie for any position) Profile AwardsBest Username1) MR BONESTRIPPER 2) Cock_Diesel 3) Somebody Best Avatar1) Kill343gs 2) Craaig and Kurt Wylde Best Signature1) Reier 2) Kill343gs and Kurt Wylde Best Personal Text1) toAst Best Profile Overall1) J Forum AwardsRA2 Wizard (Most Knowledgeable)1) 123savethewhales 2) Sage and Trovaner 3) Clickbeetle GTM Unsung Hero1) 123savethewhales 2) HurricaneAndrew 3) Lemonism Most Missed1) R0B0SH4RK Most Crafty1) MegaNerdBomb 2) 090901 3) Clickbeetle and HereticBlue Best Advice1) Naryar 2) Lemonism Most Likely To Be Online1) Naryar 2) Mr AS 3) HurricaneAndrew Funniest1) MassimoV 2) SKBT Kindest and Friendliest1) RedAce 2) Craaig 3) toAst Least Friendly and Kind1) Kurt Wylde and Naryar 2) NeighImACarrot 3) That Robot Is A Spy Most likely to stay on topic1) Craaig 2) Lemonism Least likely to stay on topic1) NeighImACarrot 2) HurricaneAndrew and Playzooki 3) Jonzu95 Most Enthusiastic1) Jaydee99 Biggest Show-Off1) Naryar 2) Avalanche and KOS 3) Mr AS Most Annoying1) Playzooki 2) HurricaneAndrew and NeighImACarrot 3) Avalanche Most Bizarre 1) davidyamy and TommyProductionsInc 2) Mr AS 3) AlexGRFan and CourtHouseDoc Most Controversial1) Jonzu95 and Naryar Most Improved Member1) Helloface199 Favourite Real Robot Builder1) MikeNCR 2) SKBT 3) Badnik96 Favourite GTM-built Real Robot1) Nyx Favourite GTM Staff Member1) Craaig (seriously? You guys are crazy, but thanks :P) 2) Trovaner 3) Kill343gs Building AwardsMost Unique Bots1) Domanating Best Bot Designer1) Domanating Best Bot Skinner1) Lemonism 2) MassimoV 3) Sonny_Resetti Best IRL Builder1) Scrap Daddy 2) Lemonism 3) RedAce Worst Bot Builder1) Playzooki GTM's Favourite DSL Builder1) Scrap Daddy 2) Naryar 3) Lemonism, MikeNCR and Thyrus GTM's Favourite Stock Builder1) KOS and Mr AS 2) Clickbeetle and RedAce GTM's Favourite Ironforge Builder1) Craaig 2) 123savethewhales 3) TBD Devastator Tournament AwardsBest Tournament1) Maximum Overkill 2) Scrapheap Challenge 3) Battlebots, Dynamic Duos and RIP4 Best New Tournament Host1) yugitom 2) RedAce 3) Kurt Wylde and nicsan2009 Favourite Champion Bot1) Des Devious and Low Hanging Fruit 2) Heavy Metal and Ryu: Hellfire Favourite Tournament Entry1) Jeremy Clarkson Modding AwardsBest Innovation1) 123savethewhales (Ironforge) 2) sic (Scrapmatch) and HereticBlue (Robot Wars Mod) 3) dezox (Component Skinning), I Like Tacos (Components and Arenas), shedRift (Many interesting mods) Best Skinner1) Lemonism 2) HereticBlue and Sonny_Resetti 3) 123savethewhales and MassimoV Best Overall Modder1) 123savethewhales 2) HereticBlue and Sonny_Resetti 3) dezox Newcomer Awards
Limited to members who joined in 2014Agaton
DaPika
El Chickenado
Garfie489
Graystripe01
Jarvis_Rapture
Knight
Kungfooey242
MR. BONESTRIPPER
Meeko011
Natster-104
Puppy
TK Kenta
TheFallen
TommyProductionsInc
bigbiggerbiggest
jaydee99
microminer100
shedRift
taylorgang85
thesnowingsteak
tmccreight25
yugitom TommyProductionsInc 2) Agaton Best Modder1) shedRift 2) TommyProductionsInc Best Forums Contributor1) yugitom 2) TommyProductionsInc Best Overall Newcomer1) yugitom 2) Natster-104 and TommyProductionsInc
|
Show Posts
