Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development

[kill343gs]

Looks like it runs really well on mobile.

[mjstone]

I've just downloaded the linux version and this is what I get.

[cjbruce]

I've just downloaded the linux version and this is what I get.
 [ Quoting of attachment images from other messages is not allowed ]

Thanks for trying this!

I might have to create my own linux machine to test it.  Apparently the crash details are buried somewhere in a log file:

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/LogFiles.html

[Asbestosstar]

Maybe i can try to test it.
Or you can use VM

[Impossible343]

Wow, This is really cool! I had a lot of fun throwing carbide around the arena
However, am I the only one experiencing severe input lag? It seems to take about a second for the game to register my inputs. Idk if its just my low spec laptop or whether it was an intended feature to simulate IRL robot controls maybe?

[yugitom]

It's been a while but I don't remember input lag. I imagine it's your laptop.

[cjbruce]

Wow, This is really cool! I had a lot of fun throwing carbide around the arena
However, am I the only one experiencing severe input lag? It seems to take about a second for the game to register my inputs. Idk if its just my low spec laptop or whether it was an intended feature to simulate IRL robot controls maybe?

We haven't included any input lag in the simulation.  What are the specs for your laptop?  Are you using keyboard controls?

The game works great on my 2013 11" MacBook Air, but I am curious to see how low we can go with acceptable performance.  I am hoping to target midrange phones and WebGL.  Phones will probably be okay, but I'm struggling to get WebGL working, not sure why at this point.  We might have to wait for the Steam launch before looking into the WebGL version again.

[kill343gs]

I didn't experience input lag but I'm on a mid-range machine

[Impossible343]

Wow, This is really cool! I had a lot of fun throwing carbide around the arena
However, am I the only one experiencing severe input lag? It seems to take about a second for the game to register my inputs. Idk if its just my low spec laptop or whether it was an intended feature to simulate IRL robot controls maybe?

We haven't included any input lag in the simulation.  What are the specs for your laptop?  Are you using keyboard controls?

The game works great on my 2013 11" MacBook Air, but I am curious to see how low we can go with acceptable performance.  I am hoping to target midrange phones and WebGL.  Phones will probably be okay, but I'm struggling to get WebGL working, not sure why at this point.  We might have to wait for the Steam launch before looking into the WebGL version again.

After testing on my beefier desktop PC, the input lag seemed to disappear, so it seems it was just my laptop not being powerful enough.

My laptop specs are:
AMD Quad-Core Processor A6-6310 2.4GHz
6GB RAM
AMD Radeon R4 Graphics

It turns out the game only runs at 15fps on this (even on the fastest graphic setting), which is probably what was causing input issues. It was a lot smoother on my desktop

[F1Krazy]

Seems cjbruce hasn't posted about it here yet but there's a new build out, with breakable components, new components for the bot lab, and a prototype version of the arena builder, among other things. I'm only posting about it because I want to offer some feedback:

• The new immobility countdown flickers a lot, which is irritating, and if multiple robots aren't moving then it switches between them rather than each robot having an individual countdown
• The text is wonky on some of the buttons (esp. in the arena builder). Dunno if that's just coz I'm playing in 720p windowed mode though.
• The sound balance feels off - some sounds are too loud, others are too quiet. Dunno if it's just me.
• Eruption's flipper apparently has a limited amount of CO2 but I don't see that indicated anywhere in the UI - if the blue gauge is CO2, then it's not depleting
• If you click "Help" in the Robot Lab, it spawns a fully-finished robot that then sinks through the table. You can spawn them indefinitely and fill the lab with them. Amusing, but probably not intended?

Still looks great and feels great, though. Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say. Keep up the good work!

[cjbruce]

Seems cjbruce hasn't posted about it here yet but there's a new build out, with breakable components, new components for the bot lab, and a prototype version of the arena builder, among other things. I'm only posting about it because I want to offer some feedback:

• The new immobility countdown flickers a lot, which is irritating, and if multiple robots aren't moving then it switches between them rather than each robot having an individual countdown
• The text is wonky on some of the buttons (esp. in the arena builder). Dunno if that's just coz I'm playing in 720p windowed mode though.
• The sound balance feels off - some sounds are too loud, others are too quiet. Dunno if it's just me.
• Eruption's flipper apparently has a limited amount of CO2 but I don't see that indicated anywhere in the UI - if the blue gauge is CO2, then it's not depleting
• If you click "Help" in the Robot Lab, it spawns a fully-finished robot that then sinks through the table. You can spawn them indefinitely and fill the lab with them. Amusing, but probably not intended?

Still looks great and feels great, though. Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say. Keep up the good work!

You beat me to the punch!

I was trying to concurrently wrap up this build and manage our high school's robot combat club.  Here a little taste of the last three days' festivities:



This new build has a lot going on behind the scenes.  I have been doing a ton of experimentation with driving, AI, and physics.  I also put in place the immobility timer.  There is also a component damage system, and Eruption is built with the new CO2 gas system.  Most of this stuff doesn't include any user feedback yet, so you won't know that a wheel is taking damage until it falls off, and you won't know if you are out of gas until the pneumatics stop working.  It is all there, we just need to add sound and particle effects so that there is an indication that something is wrong before it just stops working.

@tashic has been really busy with the BotLab.  It still isn't ready to make a complete robot, but a rudimentary saving system exists.  You can see the save files as robot.txt in one of the game directories.  At a minimum, we would like to get to the point where you can manually share robot files around like you do with RA2.   If we have time, we might be able to automate the process, but this is more of an aspirational goal at this point, and it is more important to nail down the basic functionality.

@anarchy_fox has been working hard on the Arena Builder.  A lot of the stuff from the BotLab should be reusable in here, but we are still very early in the development.

To everyone who has tested it already, thank you!

[Badger]

Gave the newest build a shot, it's starting to look like a very solid base for a full game. I've found some bugs and I have some suggestions.

Bugs:
Some z-fighting with the dummy bot, particularly on the warehouse stage. At one point the mesh floor on the warehouse briefly displayed over the dummy bot's decal.

Suggestions/Compaints:
Eruption's flipper feels super anaemic.
Carbide's spinner feels like it's very slow, but with a ton of torque.
Everything feels like it has way too much HP. Except once an AI Carbide's blade fell off just by hitting my Eruption, with no non-HP damage being cause to my Eruption.
It's difficult to figure out what's doing damage when Original Sin's opponent is taking damage. Is it impact with the arena wall? Contact with the wedge arm things? It feels inconsistent.
What does the bar under the HP bar represent? Would be useful for it to show CO2 levels on Eruption or spinner speed on Carbide
Eruption's limited CO2 supply is realistic, but not very fun at all, especially with how weak its flipper is. Maybe give a debug option to allow unlimited flips?
Part of what made RA2 so long-lasting was the fact that component data was stored in a user-editable format, allowing for customization. Would it be possible to read robot data from text files, allowing the user to edit carbine's spinner speed or eruption's flipper power, for example?

I had a couple more bugs and inconsistencies but I've forgotten them now. Oh well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edit: I also managed to flip the DB out of the sumo arena without the DB being killed or the round ending

[Thyrus]

where can I find the latest build?

[kix]

Link to the latest build:
https://robot-rumble.itch.io/

[WeN]

Link to the latest build:
https://robot-rumble.itch.io/builds

fixed

[Tashic]

About that help button spawning a robot, that was really for testing the script for recreating from the bot file.

What I want to eventually do with the help button is, well, give the player some idea on what things in the botlab do, that I fully understand isn't clear at all.

[Impossible343]

What badger said.
Also the start points seem a bit odd. Like robots often start facing away from each other but sometimes not. I tried a match with original sin in the sumo ring and the physics pushed me out right when I spawned. I could also see the path that AI was planning to take. I assume that's just a debug feature that isn't normally supposed to be visible.

But other than that, great work. I'm looking forward to seeing the robot and arena editors in a more developed form. Looks very promising

[Badger]

What badger said.
Also the start points seem a bit odd. Like robots often start facing away from each other but sometimes not. I tried a match with original sin in the sumo ring and the physics pushed me out right when I spawned. I could also see the path that AI was planning to take. I assume that's just a debug feature that isn't normally supposed to be visible.

But other than that, great work. I'm looking forward to seeing the robot and arena editors in a more developed form. Looks very promising

Oh yeah, that was one of the bugs I forgot, Eruption always spawns facing backward.

Also might be nice if the dummy bot was invertible, so it can better serve its purpose as a punching bag. Just my personal opinion

[F1Krazy]

What does the bar under the HP bar represent? Would be useful for it to show CO2 levels on Eruption or spinner speed on Carbide

On Carbide, at least, it appears to represent motor temperature or something. If you have the weapon spinning for too long, the bar starts to fill with red, and you have to release the weapon button to get it to lower again. I don't know what happens if the bar fills all the way up but I'm guessing the weapon just stops working.

Heck yeah, 500 posts

[cjbruce]

Gave the newest build a shot, it's starting to look like a very solid base for a full game. I've found some bugs and I have some suggestions.

Bugs:
Some z-fighting with the dummy bot, particularly on the warehouse stage. At one point the mesh floor on the warehouse briefly displayed over the dummy bot's decal.

Suggestions/Compaints:
Eruption's flipper feels super anaemic.
Carbide's spinner feels like it's very slow, but with a ton of torque.
Everything feels like it has way too much HP. Except once an AI Carbide's blade fell off just by hitting my Eruption, with no non-HP damage being cause to my Eruption.
It's difficult to figure out what's doing damage when Original Sin's opponent is taking damage. Is it impact with the arena wall? Contact with the wedge arm things? It feels inconsistent.
What does the bar under the HP bar represent? Would be useful for it to show CO2 levels on Eruption or spinner speed on Carbide
Eruption's limited CO2 supply is realistic, but not very fun at all, especially with how weak its flipper is. Maybe give a debug option to allow unlimited flips?
Part of what made RA2 so long-lasting was the fact that component data was stored in a user-editable format, allowing for customization. Would it be possible to read robot data from text files, allowing the user to edit carbine's spinner speed or eruption's flipper power, for example?

I had a couple more bugs and inconsistencies but I've forgotten them now. Oh well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edit: I also managed to flip the DB out of the sumo arena without the DB being killed or the round ending
(Image removed from quote.)

Nice catch on the z-fighting.  I need to get smart on Unity decals.  All of the robots were modeled in 3DS Max, rather than using the in-game BotLab, so we will need to revisit this when the BotLab is ready for production.

Carbide’s spinner is actually spinning very quickly, but the on-screen representation of its speed is poor.  The game only shows its position every 1/60th of a second rather than as the continuous blur that you would see in real life.  I was hoping that I could avoid addressing this, as it is a more difficult problem to create cylindrical blur for the arbitrary spinning objects that people will create in the BotLab.  I have a few ideas on how to do this, but it might take an iteration or two to get it to look right.

Thanks for the feedback on Eruption’s flipper.  It used to be insanely powerful, so I toned it way down. Increasing the force is an easy fix.  For those of you who are curious, the flipper has the following exposed variables, all of which will be adjustable in the BotLab:
piston diameter
piston stroke length
high pressure cylinder CO2 capacity
buffer tank volume

The lack of Hit Point indication is big problem.  I would like to avoid damage numbers appearing above the robots, like in RA2.  Ideally, a player will see sparks, smoke, damage decals, and hear sound to indicate how much damage has occurred to a particular component.  I would like to reserve damage numbers as a last resort.

The hit point bar shows damage only to the body of the robot.  Original Sin is surrounded by parts that take damage separately from the body (wheels and wedgelets).  You have to knock off these parts before you can start damaging the body of the robot easily.

The heat bar is pretty much nonfunctional at the moment.  The intent is to have heat dissipation, heat generation, and environmental heat sources (lava pit or flames).  When a motor overheats, it shuts down, and if temperature gets too high, components take damage.

I agree that there needs to be some indication of remaining CO2.  There also needs to be sn indication (venting gas) that a CO2 leak has occurred, and whether it is a slow leak or a catastrophic leak.

I like the idea of user-editable components. @tashic, is this something we can put into the BotLab directly?

I will take a look at the OOTA volumes for the Sumo Basho arena.  It should be a simple fix to add more volumes.

Thanks for all of the great feedback!  I’m pretty swamped with another project right now, but I hope to have another release out by the end of March.

Also, for those of you who are curious, we are planning to have public releases like these until the first Alpha release.  The first Alpha release will be the first “Vertical Slice” and contain all of the basic functionality for the game (BotLab fully integrated with the arena and arena builder).  After that, we will do closed Beta releases, so if you are interested in the closed Betas, be sure to sign up to be a beta-tester on www.robot-rumble.com!