Calmarius' stock showcase

[Calmarius]

My first robot that can have some chance against Starcore V3 when I'm driving it is FWOD (Fast Wedge of Death).



This is a garden variety popup bot. Although it took me quite some time to research so I get the numbers right. Fairly simple design and straightforward (I guess I'm not alone who already built very much like this). The construction doesn't use any glitches.

If I counted correctly the 4 black batteries should be enough to strike all the DDTs on full power during the entire course of the match. The armor is DSA.

Pros:

- Fast. Always capable to flank two wheeled HW bots.
- High pushing power.
- The emergency wedge tend to peel off many other opponents from the ground with ease.
- The 4 DDTs with the razor cause massive amounts of damage (1000-2000 per hit when all razors hit).
- Fastest win: 5 seconds.

Cons:

- Problems with self righting, if it lands on it's side, it will be counted out.
- Weak against full body horizontal spinners. Vortex CE regularly beats me. Tough it's performs better against the Borg Queen, and other HSes with large chassis.
- Cannot KO Mome Rath and Alien Queen (nevertheless he can win against them by score ).
- Low ground clearance makes it stuck on ramps an detached bot components, very careful driving needed.
- Requires lot of skill to drive it (hard to aim, easy to lose the razors if you hit a weapon with them)

I was too lazy to apply proper paintwork. So I just painted the entire chassis to lime green.

I upload a video to Youtube every day where play at least 5 rounds against a Starcore robot on weekdays.
Then I upload a longer vid of me playing a whole season of events on Sundays:

The playlist is here:



Future plans with this:

- Improving the self righting ability.
- Adding armor to the wedge without losing the wedging ability. (So far I have no good ideas how could I place them).
- Building a middleweight and lightweight versions.

[R1885]

Few pointers:
You can stack the black batteries to save space, that way you can lower the chassis height.
Change the wheels to rubbers to improve wedging ability
You can easily have more weapons, you have about 130 kilos of weight left to work with
Use small wedges over emergency wedges, they are superior in every way
Snapper 2 burst motors mounted perpendicular to the chassis produces the best wedges with the longest extenders.
If you have some weight leftover, stick some ballasts to the front edge of the chassis wedge to further improve the wedge

[Reier]

welcome to the forums bud

you're on the right track, ribbs covered most of what you should probably work on. Main things are more weapons + be more space efficient with your chassis. always build to the weight limit. anything below like 790 is not good. don't be afraid to rebuilt it.
you may have already read this but it's basically RA2 101 and very helpful: http://beetlebros.gametechmods.com/ra2techs.htm

[Mr. AS]

Pretty good for a first bot, most people don't tend to even know what a popup is when they start out.

You'll be able to win against HS more often if you put some armor on the front. Most robots use ramplates, but other components such as snowplows, battle axes, and bracket wedges are usable as well. Ramplates are the easiest to use, but snowplows and bracket wedges are the most efficient. You probably still won\t be able to win against robots like Mome Rath though, because that bot was specifically made to beat popups.

It's better to have 3-4 razors on fewer burst motors than to have 4 burst motors with 1 razor on them, you'll have a lot more weight to use. In fact, you can just put another 2 or 3 razors on each burst motor you have now and your offensive potential will last longer since you have more weapons. 

Probably the best thing you can do for yourself as an RA2 builder is read up on the link Reier posted, then import some of the robots in starcore into your botlab and try to figure out what's going on in them.

edit: movepixel is really useful for stacking and editing your chassis.

[Sage]

Awesome first bot. You did your homework for sure.

[Silverfish]

Use small wedges over emergency wedges, they are superior in every way

Usually, this is true, but sometimes I have found emergency wedges better. Depends on the wedge. I would recommend testing out both if you actually care. :P

[Sage]

Use small wedges over emergency wedges, they are superior in every way

Usually, this is true, but sometimes I have found emergency wedges better. Depends on the wedge. I would recommend testing out both if you actually care. :P

Show me a video of you getting under NWB with an emergency wedge and I'll believe you

[090901]

Use small wedges over emergency wedges, they are superior in every way

Usually, this is true, but sometimes I have found emergency wedges better. Depends on the wedge. I would recommend testing out both if you actually care. :P

Show me a video of you getting under NWB with an emergency wedge and I'll believe you

my 3wd chained vs with e-wedges on blue snappers seems to be able to get under NWB, if you guys want to test it out i can throw it on the exchange.

[Reier]

pretty sure E wedges are just worse because they're wider



in DSL skirts are "less wedgy" the further you get away from the center of the wedge, I'm sure the same is true in stock. the one on the bottom will win basically every time

[Virus Bomb]

that one big ass hw vs/juggler hybrid in mras' ai pack had e-wedges iirc and was wedgy af so there's always exceptions to the rule, especially with wedges

[09090901]

i don't find e wedges to be that bad, they're definitely more inconsistent with wedge-locking though

[Calmarius]

Change the wheels to rubbers to improve wedging ability

Rubber wheels are 5 units heavier than shiny wheels, also I'm using the wedge for wedging, not the chassis.
Also rubbers made me get stuck on the slightest ramp on any non-flat arena. Not good...

Use small wedges over emergency wedges, they are superior in every way

I don't know which physics engine used by the game. I have some experience with ODE. Where the ground penetration was a function of the force on the wedge, it's also a function on the joints connecting it to the main body. Regular contacts are static joints while contacts to burst motors are elastic joints. Probably that plays a great role. The actual shape doesn't matter I remember the one of heavy weight starcore robots have a tripod design with 2 wheels an one emergency wedge with 45 degrees angle to the floor. That bot's wedge was the better.

Snapper 2 burst motors mounted perpendicular to the chassis produces the best wedges with the longest extenders.

Other sources claim that DDTs produce better wedges.

You'll be able to win against HS more often if you put some armor on the front.

Thought of that. 2 small ramplates fit on the top of the wedge better that nothing... But not all HS-es strike on the same level. Probably I won't have enough weight to cover the entire wedge with ram plates.

It's better to have 3-4 razors on fewer burst motors than to have 4 burst motors with 1 razor on them, you'll have a lot more weight to use. In fact, you can just put another 2 or 3 razors on each burst motor you have now and your offensive potential will last longer since you have more weapons. 

That's probably something I'm going to experiment with.
Others suggest the damage is calculated based on the penetration depth, which is a function of the velocity.

You can stack the black batteries to save space, that way you can lower the chassis height.

I tried to stack batteries then gave up after 15 minutes, I didn't managed to do it. I also don't feel doing it is fair. While I think the lack of self collisions is intentional. The stacking, effes and axle loading glitches are probably not intended by the devs. It's almost like hacking the game and turning off collision detection altogether when building.

[Kossokei]

You can stack the black batteries to save space, that way you can lower the chassis height.

I tried to stack batteries then gave up after 15 minutes, I didn't managed to do it. I also don't feel doing it is fair. While I think the lack of self collisions is intentional. The stacking, effes and axle loading glitches are probably not intended by the devs. It's almost like hacking the game and turning off collision detection altogether when building.

Not using glitches is equally unfair. Against you.

Glitching is an integral part of stock. I don't doubt with the research you've done that you could be competitive in stock without glitching, but it will only get you so far before seriously built bots chew you up.

[Thrackerzod]

Rubber wheels are 5 units heavier than shiny wheels, also I'm using the wedge for wedging, not the chassis.
Also rubbers made me get stuck on the slightest ramp on any non-flat arena. Not good...

No tournament ever (except for maybe some wacky gimmick ones) uses sloped arenas, so that's actually not a problem.  Also, the chassis being lower to the ground makes the wedge wedge better.  That said, usually it's not necessary, so most people only go for rubber wheels if there's literally nothing else they can spend 10 kg on.

Nice jorb for your first bot, though!  And glad to see you're actually reading and considering these suggestions!

[Sage]

i knew i liked this guy. puts so much thought into building. reminds me of 123STW

glitching is what has kept stock fun and relevant for so long. other mods focus on the other aspects of building (realistic, less weapons, etc) that you may find interesting. Check out the Modifications section, specifically DSL  and Ironforge.

[Reier]

I tried to stack batteries then gave up after 15 minutes, I didn't managed to do it. I also don't feel doing it is fair. While I think the lack of self collisions is intentional. The stacking, effes and axle loading glitches are probably not intended by the devs. It's almost like hacking the game and turning off collision detection altogether when building.

come to the ironforge camp that stuff is banned there 

[Gauche Suede]

Snapper 2 burst motors mounted perpendicular to the chassis produces the best wedges with the longest extenders.

Other sources claim that DDTs produce better wedges.

You see, as long as the bot's near the weight limit it won't really matter what burst motor you use, in this game the only thing that really affects wedginess is the height of the burst motor relative to the wedge's current position, the flatter the better (Which is why Snapper2's seem like the best burst motor to use). However, if you put the burst motor back enough you can negate the height difference SnapperII/DDTs have and make a better wedge than if you slapped a Snapper2 on the front of the bot.

You'll be able to win against HS more often if you put some armor on the front.

Thought of that. 2 small ramplates fit on the top of the wedge better that nothing... But not all HS-es strike on the same level. Probably I won't have enough weight to cover the entire wedge with ram plates.

Ramplates are not the only protective item in this game, lawnmowers, snowplows, casters, and bracket wedges work too. Get creative and figure out how to create maximum protection with the least amount of parts, it's the fundamental skill you need to learn to be good at this game.

[Silverfish]

I tried to stack batteries then gave up after 15 minutes, I didn't managed to do it. I also don't feel doing it is fair. While I think the lack of self collisions is intentional. The stacking, effes and axle loading glitches are probably not intended by the devs. It's almost like hacking the game and turning off collision detection altogether when building.

come to the ironforge camp that stuff is banned there 

This is true about if, but the reason that so many glitches are allowed in stock is because look at the other packs. More components, more armor, more everything. If it weren't for glitches, stock would be a dead game. (and besides, they're fun sometimes too.  ) One of my friends once asked me "Why would you want to have a bot that one-shots everything? Where is the fun in that?" my reply was and is "Because it's necessary."

And yes, I know I'm pretty much quoting sage. :P

[Badger]

I tried to stack batteries then gave up after 15 minutes, I didn't managed to do it. I also don't feel doing it is fair. While I think the lack of self collisions is intentional. The stacking, effes and axle loading glitches are probably not intended by the devs. It's almost like hacking the game and turning off collision detection altogether when building.

come to the ironforge camp that stuff is banned there 

+1, ironforge ftw.

I think it's pretty annoying how the base, unmodded game is played in a way that's so hostile to beginners, DSL and especially Ironforge are so much easier to learn, and the fundamentals learnt from those mods can be then applied to stock, on top of the glitches etc.

As for the bot, I think the consensus is that wider wedges (as in the 2 wedges are further apart) are, for the most part, better, so making your bot wider would be a good thing. You could put your 4 drive motors on the blue snappers, which would help you shrink the chassis a LOT if you managed to stack those blacks, as you would only need room for the blue snappers in the chassis instead of 4 HP Z-tecs. Using rubber wheels also helps the wedges a lot.

Stock is all about squeezing the most efficiency out of a bot design as possible, so rebuilding the chassis a lot to minimize empty space (and therefore chassis weight) is essentials on nearly all stock bots. If you're feeling lost, I would recommend downloading some famous bots build by other people (I think R4 is a good example of a popup, and is relatively simple, though I could be wrong) and see how they are made.

[Calmarius]

So far I just rearrenged the batteries and added more weapons and put the wedge holder burst motor to the farthest back into the chassis:

You could put your 4 drive motors on the blue snappers

Hmmm, so then I can just fold it inside. Never thought of that.

You see, as long as the bot's near the weight limit it won't really matter what burst motor you use

Funny, that even I said that only the weight matters (if the physics engine works like the ODE), then I said DDTs. Gonna replace that with lighter motor in the next iteration.

Ramplates are not the only protective item in this game, lawnmowers, snowplows, casters, and bracket wedges work too

Probably I will try to add lawnmowers... Eventually my bot will look like the "3-2-1 Blastoff" from Starcore. I just imported that bot to look under the hood. That robot is just ingenious. It just uses snapper2s but it's deadly, can self right and protected from front... But it's slow, an my wedge is better so I can just slide under it an rip out its guts.

You probably still won\t be able to win against robots like Mome Rath though, because that bot was specifically made to beat popups.

(of course probably I will never be able to make an AI that can do this again.)