Poll

What do you like doing most in RA2/RA3/robot combat games?

Building robots
Local single player battles with manually-controlled robots
Local multiplayer battles  with manually-controlled robots (PvP with controllers or a shared keyboard)
AI-only tournament battles
Other?  Please comment below.

Author Topic: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development  (Read 187631 times)

Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #160 on: February 25, 2018, 03:24:31 PM »
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

This was a problem with the way models were imported from 3DS Max, and shouldn’t be an issue for things created in the BotLab.  Unless a miracle occurs and we can get permission to use Eruption in the released game, the problem will go away with the Eruption model.

Something is wrong with the Sumo Basho arena physics, but I haven’t been able to find the problem.  We might need to rebuild the arena when the Arena Builder is ready.

I kind of like seeing the AI path line.  You are probably right that we should turn it off though.  :smile:

Thanks for the support and feedback!

Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #161 on: February 25, 2018, 03:27:02 PM »
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

Agreed!  We have D.B. Mk II coming in the next build, so it will be an easy change to make.

Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #162 on: February 25, 2018, 03:28:10 PM »
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

You are correct on all counts!  Nice detective work!  (and a little bit scary) :smile:

Offline F1Krazy

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #163 on: February 26, 2018, 05:04:35 PM »
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

You are correct on all counts!  Nice detective work!  (and a little bit scary) :smile:
It was just something I happened to notice while playing the latest build. What clinched it was when I started turning and the bar started filling up faster, because I had three motors running instead of one. Controlling overheating sounds like an interesting game mechanic (and should make it harder for people to make unrealistic bots with tonnes of weapon/drive motors ;) )
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Offline kill343gs

Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #164 on: March 01, 2018, 07:36:46 PM »
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

You are correct on all counts!  Nice detective work!  (and a little bit scary) :smile:
It was just something I happened to notice while playing the latest build. What clinched it was when I started turning and the bar started filling up faster, because I had three motors running instead of one. Controlling overheating sounds like an interesting game mechanic (and should make it harder for people to make unrealistic bots with tonnes of weapon/drive motors ;) )

Yeah that's pretty great


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Offline Ra2Winner999

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #165 on: March 18, 2018, 01:11:26 PM »
Good game, but fix and simplify the bot lab. Make a mobile port too please! I would love to play on the go.
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Offline Ra2Winner999

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #166 on: March 18, 2018, 01:13:24 PM »
What does D.B. stand for
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Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #167 on: March 18, 2018, 02:43:04 PM »
What does D.B. stand for

  :bigsmile:

No one is quite sure, but we are open to suggestions.

Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #168 on: March 18, 2018, 02:47:42 PM »
Good game, but fix and simplify the bot lab. Make a mobile port too please! I would love to play on the go.

The BotLab is our biggest push right now, in addition to cleaning up the physics for each robots.  We are tuning dynamics, and once with have dialed things in we will need to figure out how to translate all of the hand-built stuff into the BotLab.

A mobile port is firmly in the "nice to have" category until we can get a solid version up an running for Windows/Mac/Linux.  Rethinking everything for mobile will take some work, and our team is pretty small.

That being said, here's a video of me fighting an AI robot on an iPhone 7 Plus:


Offline Ra2Winner999

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #169 on: March 18, 2018, 02:53:39 PM »
Which is the latest version, the one here, or the one on the official website
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Offline Ra2Winner999

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #170 on: March 18, 2018, 02:55:07 PM »
What does D.B. stand for

  :bigsmile:

No one is quite sure, but we are open to suggestions.



Dummy Bot, Dumb Box, Dummy box, or Dumb Bot
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Offline Ra2Winner999

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #171 on: March 18, 2018, 02:56:38 PM »
Good game, but fix and simplify the bot lab. Make a mobile port too please! I would love to play on the go.

The BotLab is our biggest push right now, in addition to cleaning up the physics for each robots.  We are tuning dynamics, and once with have dialed things in we will need to figure out how to translate all of the hand-built stuff into the BotLab.

A mobile port is firmly in the "nice to have" category until we can get a solid version up an running for Windows/Mac/Linux.  Rethinking everything for mobile will take some work, and our team is pretty small.

That being said, here's a video of me fighting an AI robot on an iPhone 7 Plus:




If possible, can you make is w/o the xbox controller thing?
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Offline Badger

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #172 on: March 18, 2018, 10:27:13 PM »
@Ra2Winner999
Please don't make multiple posts in a row. Instead, edit your previous post and add whatever you want to say onto it.

@cjbruce
I don't mean to be pushy, but is there an ETA for the next build's release? I'm really looking forward to it.
also lol at most toxic guy around calling others out on this sh**
Google Drive with my newer bots

Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #173 on: March 19, 2018, 05:41:58 AM »
@Ra2Winner999
Please don't make multiple posts in a row. Instead, edit your previous post and add whatever you want to say onto it.

@cjbruce
I don't mean to be pushy, but is there an ETA for the next build's release? I'm really looking forward to it.

Our school is on spring break next week, so I'm hoping to have a good solid chunk of development time in the mornings and to release a new development build sometime during the week. 

In the past few weeks @tashic has been working on putting together the beginnings of a help menu, and I have been cleaning up the driving dynamics.  @Anarchy_Fox modeled up D.B. Mk II, a thwackbot with a chain flail that should be really exciting to drive ("spin to win!"), and I have been trying to get its spin speed up to the point where the 2 kg metal cudgel at the end does damage.  Right now all it does is bounce off its opponents without doing much.  It should be more like a cheaper, less effective version of carbide with a much larger effective radius.

The latest and greatest build will always be available on itch.io at https://robot-rumble.itch.io/builds

Offline Badger

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #174 on: March 19, 2018, 05:56:10 AM »
Good to hear, will there be any tweaks to Eruption's flipper in the next build? That's what I'm really looking forward to!
also lol at most toxic guy around calling others out on this sh**
Google Drive with my newer bots

Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #175 on: March 19, 2018, 06:17:46 AM »
Good to hear, will there be any tweaks to Eruption's flipper in the next build? That's what I'm really looking forward to!

Yup!  Way more powerful, with a much improved range of motion.   :smile:

Please keep in mind that Carbide, Original Sin, and Eruption only exist in these early development builds.  We don't have permission to use them in the final game.  Right now we are using them to prove out the physics and AI tactics, and we have the goal of being able to build and test a solid functional replica of a wide range of real-life robots in the BotLab.  All of the parameters for a CO2 flipper should be tweakable in the BotLab, such as hinge range of motion, piston diameter, stroke length, buffer tank volume, etc.

Offline Badger

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #176 on: March 19, 2018, 06:27:34 AM »
Good to hear, will there be any tweaks to Eruption's flipper in the next build? That's what I'm really looking forward to!

Yup!  Way more powerful, with a much improved range of motion.   :smile:

Please keep in mind that Carbide, Original Sin, and Eruption only exist in these early development builds.  We don't have permission to use them in the final game.  Right now we are using them to prove out the physics and AI tactics, and we have the goal of being able to build and test a solid functional replica of a wide range of real-life robots in the BotLab.  All of the parameters for a CO2 flipper should be tweakable in the BotLab, such as hinge range of motion, piston diameter, stroke length, buffer tank volume, etc.
Great to hear! Another question, are you planning on having AI bots be part of the .exe of the game (like how it is now) or separated out into their own files, like how RA2 does it?

Since RW is dead now, if you ask nicely you might be able to get permission from the builders of at least Eruption and Carbide to use their bots, maybe after a rename/recolour to avoid copyright issues w/ Mentorn. I know the builder of Eruption used to post on GTM pretty regularly so I'd be surprised if he were against the idea. Just thinking since it would be a shame for the work that's gone into modelling and implementing these bots to go to waste.
also lol at most toxic guy around calling others out on this sh**
Google Drive with my newer bots

Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #177 on: March 19, 2018, 02:48:59 PM »
Good to hear, will there be any tweaks to Eruption's flipper in the next build? That's what I'm really looking forward to!

Yup!  Way more powerful, with a much improved range of motion.   :smile:

Please keep in mind that Carbide, Original Sin, and Eruption only exist in these early development builds.  We don't have permission to use them in the final game.  Right now we are using them to prove out the physics and AI tactics, and we have the goal of being able to build and test a solid functional replica of a wide range of real-life robots in the BotLab.  All of the parameters for a CO2 flipper should be tweakable in the BotLab, such as hinge range of motion, piston diameter, stroke length, buffer tank volume, etc.
Great to hear! Another question, are you planning on having AI bots be part of the .exe of the game (like how it is now) or separated out into their own files, like how RA2 does it?

Since RW is dead now, if you ask nicely you might be able to get permission from the builders of at least Eruption and Carbide to use their bots, maybe after a rename/recolour to avoid copyright issues w/ Mentorn. I know the builder of Eruption used to post on GTM pretty regularly so I'd be surprised if he were against the idea. Just thinking since it would be a shame for the work that's gone into modelling and implementing these bots to go to waste.

@tashic has a preliminary format worked out for saving robot designs to a text file.  Right now it is just the shapes, but eventually will need to be expanded to include things like textures and AI.  The file is all human-readable, but much of it is vertex positions, so not particularly interesting.  I'll let him give more details. :)

We haven't nailed down an architecture for saving everything about a robot yet.  I am hoping to make each robot atomic, with a file describing the robot + another few files for textures.  We haven't talked this through, and there is a ton of work left to do to make this happen.

Wow!  I had no idea about Robot Wars!  This is what I get for living on the wrong side of the pond.  I think you are right though -- if we are going to keep the interest in robot combat going, we need to make a concerted effort to engage the most successful teams.

Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #178 on: March 28, 2018, 10:54:14 AM »
We have a new build coming sometime in the next day or so!  One of the biggest things in this build is a completely revamped UI.  We are still frantically trying to squash bugs before we put it out to the public, but will get it to you guys as soon as we can.

While I have some time this morning, I wanted to put together a detailed list of things that are coming in the next build:

[Additions]
New UI - We are in the early stages of a complete UI overhaul.  So far we have touched the “Battle” menu and the in-game "Pause" menu.  Nothing is final yet, as this is the first iteration and we are having a lot of internal discussions about what needs to go where.
BotLab Help Menu - We now have a working help menu.  If you are stuck and can’t figure out what to do next, please give the help menu a try!
New Sumo Basho Arena - The old arena suffered from some bizarre physics bugs and z-fighting.  The new one is a lot cleaner.
D.B. Mk II - This robot is a thwackbot with a chain flail.  We are having trouble with the chain physics.  If we can’t figure out how to make the chain simulation more stable, it is highly likely that it will be removed from the game.  We included it here because it is fun and funky and would be a shame if it didn’t see the light of day at least as a prototype!
Arena Spinner (currently in the Warehouse arena) - The arena spinner is deadly!  One hard hit will send a robot flying out of the Warehouse.
Individual Immobility Timers - Timers now hover over individual robots.
Sparks! - Carbide and the arena spinner both emit sparks on impact.

[Changes]
Physics - We have done extensive tweaking of physics in order to increase the turning and spinning speed of robots.  Angular velocity of robots is no longer capped at 7 radians/second (a little over 1 revolution per second).  This has caused some instability issues that we will need to iron out through testing.
Deferred Rendering Pipeline (Graphics) - We switched all game cameras from Forward Rendering to Deferred Rendering.  This should allow for more lights in the scene, but comes at the cost of lack of compatibility with older devices.  Since we are targeting desktop, this should not be an issue.  The change has also allowed for much more consistent HDR lighting across scenes.
Bloom (Graphics) - Toned down the bloom effect in the postprocessing stack.  If it is still too “bloomy”, please let us know!
Motion Blur (Graphics) - Removed motion blur entirely.  We included motion blur in an attempt to provide an indication of how fast Carbide’s blade is actually spinning, as it is currently subject to the “wagon wheel effect”.  Unfortunately, motion blur made everything else look grainy and terrible, and it induces nausea for some players, so it was removed.
Lighting - After switching to deferred rendering, it was necessary to recalibrate lighting for every scene.

[Removals]
Old Sumo Basho Arena - The old Sumo Basho arena has been removed.
Over-The-Shoulder Camera - “Over the shoulder” cameras have been entirely removed.  Because robots move so quickly, it was nauseating trying to drive a robot with the over-the-should camera.

Here's a shot of the arena spinner in action!

Offline Badger

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #179 on: March 28, 2018, 10:56:55 AM »
Looking very interesting! Any tweaks to weaponry (Eruption's flipper power, carbide's spinner speed etc)?
also lol at most toxic guy around calling others out on this sh**
Google Drive with my newer bots