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 187572 times)

Offline Merrick

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #600 on: May 28, 2019, 04:30:39 PM »
Is there a building tutorial knocking about somewhere that I'm missing? Can't get my head around the workshop at times.

Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #601 on: May 28, 2019, 04:54:34 PM »
Not really.  Its mostly tribal knowledge right now, as we have been actively changing a lot of things for the past year.

In general:

1. Design a chassis.
2. Add motors.
3. Stick stuff onto motors.
4. Set up your controls for the motors.  You probably need to have at least one "Left" and at least one "Right".  The other thing that we've found is that you need to click the "Reverse Direction" on each motor.  This is something we still need to sort out.

What are you trying to build?

Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #602 on: May 28, 2019, 05:13:20 PM »
Is there anyone here who has judged a robot combat event?  We just had our post-Bugglebots debrief and we were talking about how to do scoring in game.

Damage - Already done, we just need to display it
Aggression - Compute dot product of velocity vector and normalized displacement to other robot.  The result should give the amount of time that a robot is driving toward its opponent.
Control - ???

How does one measure "control"?  This one is super-duper subjective.  Any thoughts?

Offline Hoppin

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #603 on: May 28, 2019, 05:17:28 PM »
Sup guys, just tried to build a ?BW? in the new build.

Some issues I have is with component vs chassis scaling vs movement on the grid scaling. They all seem to want to not co-operate. Right now I'm thinking the wheels & batteries are the issue with component scaling and making something on the grid that is small enough and detailed enough is proving quite difficult, even with the scaling tool.

Other things I had an issue with is the drive. Now it just is sluggish, not sure if thats a change you've made to the beefier motors to accommodate for the BW motors but it seems to lack torque and results in poor turning speed.

Damage itself is really whacky. I've had bumping into spinners only to have the spinning disc fall of on the spinning bot. Quite funny ngl

Here's the attemped BW in reference to my scaling concern
 
Scaling.PNG
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Offline Hoppin

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #604 on: May 28, 2019, 05:21:05 PM »
Is there anyone here who has judged a robot combat event?  We just had our post-Bugglebots debrief and we were talking about how to do scoring in game.

Damage - Already done, we just need to display it
Aggression - Compute dot product of velocity vector and normalized displacement to other robot.  The result should give the amount of time that a robot is driving toward its opponent.
Control - ???

How does one measure "control"?  This one is super-duper subjective.  Any thoughts?

A lot of the people here have ran Ra2 tournaments (Like Apex: Elite Series heck).

For myself I'd suggest looking at the time one bot has been underneath or at the side/rear of the opponent. Providing a delay before giving the points to prevent stuff like turning oddly, etc.
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Offline F1Krazy

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #605 on: May 28, 2019, 05:22:24 PM »
For Control, I'd say something like:

a) You gain Control points for pushing your opponent across the arena, especially if you push them into hazards.
b) You lose Control points for every X milliseconds that your wheels aren't touching the ground. So things like getting flipped, recoiling backwards from a big spinner hit, Mauler-dancing, or getting lifted by a Complete Control-style clampbot would lose you points.
c) You lose Control points for driving into hazards. That's obviously bad driving.
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Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #606 on: May 28, 2019, 05:24:38 PM »
Getting the smaller weight classes feeling good is going to be my focus over the next week or so.  In the current build, we are using the same drive system that has worked okay for heavyweights.  It doesn’t work for beetleweights.  I have a new drive system in mind that should be super smooth and responsive for all weight classes.  I tested an early prototype a few months ago that showed promise.  I’m confident I can get it working.  It will just take a little time.

@tashic is on the scaling issues.

Also, we don’t have small batteries or ESCs yet.  I have been leaving those out when I build a robot in game.  They will come!  I promise!  My target date for these is the beginning of September, as that is when I need to explain to my students what an ESC is, and why you need them in your robot.

Offline Tashic

Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #607 on: May 28, 2019, 05:35:41 PM »
@Hoppin, what exactly is giving you problems with scaling?
 I can look into it if you can give me more details.

Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #608 on: May 28, 2019, 05:41:09 PM »
*sheepish*

Thank you for the reminder about the RA2 tournaments.  I feel like a dunce. 🙂

Good suggestions regarding control.  They should be easy enough to implement.  Should a control score start at zero and be able to go negative?

Offline CodeSilver23

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #609 on: May 28, 2019, 06:03:22 PM »
Yes, it should be able to go into the negatives, but I would put a limit on how far into the negatives it can go.
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Offline Hoppin

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #610 on: May 28, 2019, 06:06:04 PM »
@Hoppin, what exactly is giving you problems with scaling?
 I can look into it if you can give me more details.

Yea, absolutely.
Given how small the BWs tend to be to build. I've found the grid lacks the support for these small sizes. Often rounding up to the nearest number. It results in it being really difficult imo to make detailed and accurate bots. This, on top of the lack of wheel & battery support makes building at the weightclass really awkward and overall lacking
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Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #611 on: May 28, 2019, 06:12:32 PM »
One thought is to do something like a sideways stacked bar graph that is constantly updated throughout the fight.  Image that there were 4 robots, "A", "B", "C", "D"

Damage: AABBBBBBBBBBBCCCDDDD
Control:  AAAAAAAAAAAABBCCCDDD
Aggression: AAAAAAAABBBBBCCCDDDD

In this case, B did the most damage, but A wins on control and aggression.

Too complicated?

The original "Robot Rumble" AirConsole game just had a pip for each robot.  Whoever's pip was on the top had the current highest score, and the pips would constantly swap throughout the fight.

Offline CodeSilver23

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #612 on: May 28, 2019, 06:14:26 PM »
@Hoppin, what exactly is giving you problems with scaling?
 I can look into it if you can give me more details.

Yea, absolutely.
Given how small the BWs tend to be to build. I've found the grid lacks the support for these small sizes. Often rounding up to the nearest number. It results in it being really difficult imo to make detailed and accurate bots. This, on top of the lack of wheel & battery support makes building at the weightclass really awkward and overall lacking
You are able to adjust the grid size on the left hand side.
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Offline Thyrus

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #613 on: May 28, 2019, 06:17:20 PM »
If you choose to judge controll by tge time wheels have touched the ground keep in mind that there are walkers also no wheels at all. Also bots like pussycat have wheels not touching the ground on purpose

Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #614 on: May 28, 2019, 06:22:12 PM »
If you choose to judge controll by tge time wheels have touched the ground keep in mind that there are walkers also no wheels at all. Also bots like pussycat have wheels not touching the ground on purpose

Perhaps a robot is "being controlled" if it is losing a driving battle:

The "controlling robot" is giving driving inputs in a direction, and the "controlled robot" is moving in that direction instead of the direction it is trying to move in.

"Driving Direction" = the direction the robot is facing * its "drive" signal

Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #615 on: May 28, 2019, 06:26:13 PM »
Or even simpler: A robot gains control points by moving in the same or opposite direction it is facing, and loses points by moving in a direction perpendicular to the direction it is facing.

A stationary robot doesn't gain or lose control points.

This approach would favor driving at an enemy or away from an enemy, and would penalized getting shoved sideways.

Offline Billy5545

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #616 on: May 28, 2019, 06:29:28 PM »
Idk what to feel about the in built JD system in game tbh
 I think I still prefer the one where people made it themself as on any other robot combat game before RR2. Also for aggression, is it basically tied with control, or will you take other factor into consideration, like the controlled bot trying to force itself against the opponent even if being controlled, or trying to use their weapon, like bringing down their saw into the opponent?

Offline cjbruce

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #617 on: May 28, 2019, 06:33:09 PM »
Idk what to feel about the in built JD system in game tbh
 I think I still prefer the one where people made it themself as on any other robot combat game before RR2. Also for aggression, is it basically tied with control, or will you take other factor into consideration, like the controlled bot trying to force itself against the opponent even if being controlled, or trying to use their weapon, like bringing down their saw into the opponent?

Pardon my ignorance, but what does "JD" stand for?

Offline CodeSilver23

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #618 on: May 28, 2019, 06:33:50 PM »
Judges decision
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Offline CodeSilver23

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Re: Robot Rumble 2.0 - Robot Combat Simulator - Under Development
« Reply #619 on: May 28, 2019, 06:37:00 PM »
Should we have a BOTM for rr2?
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