Author Topic: Jestahead's garage (Read 4325 times)

Jestahead · « **on:** November 23, 2011, 09:16:10 AM »

Hey there. It's time to start my bot showcase. Since I've just starting playing again casually with RL friends, I'll be doing themed teams. Many of the designs I post will be suboptimal or just for lulz. However, feedback and build advice is always appreciated, especially if it results in an even more lulzy bot. Unfortunately after reading the GTM Constitution I had to censor this first bot, but here it is to get the ball rolling. This is @#$% 'Em Up from Team Ragequit.

This was an attempt to see how fast I could make a bot with stock components. It has 14 HP Z-Teks. I CBF'd calculating how much power output that would need so I AAM'd in 12 black batteries. This bot is unbelievably fast and powerful in a straight line, but has the cornering of a goldfish on dry land. Also, the motors are vulnerable to being broken off, even the ones behind the spikes. Sometimes this causes victory through havok explosions.

Naryar · « **Reply #1 on:** November 23, 2011, 09:20:31 AM »

12 blacks is completely overkill for 14HPZ... unless you play for 10 minutes of course. Go with 4 to 6 blacks.

Maybe you should put all the motors in the chassis via snappers. Also if you want it to be efficient, needs more irons and less motors.

NFX · « **Reply #2 on:** November 23, 2011, 09:23:45 AM »

That's quite an interesting first bot there. AAM's normally frowned upon for competitive bot building, but it is possible to Stack 3 Blackvolts into each other (albeit very tricky). The general rule is that one BlackVolt can power 4 HPZ's for 3 minutes. If you were to slim it down to a HW, you'd only need two BlackVolts.

If you take a look around some of the showcases for some more traditional rammers, you'll see that they don't have the drive motors that close to the weaponry, because once the weaponry gets knocked off (and it will), the motors are cannon fodder. Move them back, inside the chassis preferably, but give some space between the drive motors and the weaponry.

I'd also advise against using different wheels, unless you're going for looks. You want the same wheels, so the bot is balanced and not faster in one place than everywhere else.

Skin's not too bad, though, you've done a decent job with that. It's also nice to see a newcomer with a good amount of existing skill every once in a while. Hopefully you'll stick around. =)

Mr. AS · « **Reply #3 on:** November 23, 2011, 09:26:22 AM »

14WD is completely overkill, even for a SHW, 6 or 8 (at the most) would be fine. You might even get it down under the 1200kg SHW limit. Anything above that is ultraheavyweight.

Jestahead · « **Reply #4 on:** November 23, 2011, 09:32:45 AM »

Thanks for the feedback so far. As you may have guessed, this was a "just for lulz" bot. The wheels are different because the external motors are higher than the internal ones, if I made them all the same then 8 of the motors would never touch the ground. Now that you guys have mentioned it, I'm going to see if I can make a bot with even more power through snapper loading. A couple of middleweights are also incoming.

ty4er · « **Reply #5 on:** November 23, 2011, 11:14:27 AM »

nice overkill there :P

But it isn't that bad actually for someone new.
And the thing with the wheels is if you get flipped then not all the wheels hit the floor.

If that were to be a sns...

J · « **Reply #6 on:** November 23, 2011, 12:42:47 PM »

Nice to see more people playing RA2.
Also, I get the feeling everyone from teach Rage-Quit is going to be a SHW.

Naryar · « **Reply #7 on:** November 23, 2011, 12:53:36 PM »

Quote from: ty4er on November 23, 2011, 11:14:27 AM

But it isn't that bad actually for someone new.

Do you people read ? He's not new, he's an oldfag from the beginnings of RA2 !

ty4er · « **Reply #8 on:** November 23, 2011, 12:54:45 PM »

oh

well i guess i need to read more.

'not bad for a lulzy bot for someone who has been here since forever' is what i meant to say

J · « **Reply #9 on:** November 23, 2011, 12:58:36 PM »

Quote from: Naryar on November 23, 2011, 12:53:36 PM

Do you people read ? He's not new, he's an oldfag from the beginnings of RA2 !

And shortly after, he becomes an Advanced User.

Jestahead · « **Reply #10 on:** November 23, 2011, 01:48:59 PM »

In all honesty, the amount of time I've been away I've missed enough that I may as well be new. Hell, I started playing this game when I was 12. I'm now 18 with a job, car and plans for university. A lot has changed.

Anyway, I have a sequel in the works for @#$% 'Em Up which will have 108 HP Z-teks, if I can work around a couple of issues. I'm having trouble using the eFFe glitch with snapperII's - the first motor attaches fine, but even after clicking another tab the snapper continues trying to pull the rest of the motor rack to its original position, which is never going to happen, but it keeps moving fractionally and I can't stop it short of garage and back, and then I can't take advantage of the eFFe glitch. Is there a solution to this?

The other thing I'm keen to know is, is there an upper limit to the resolution of a bot skin? The last one was 512x512 and looked good but it could still be better.

Cheers guys.

Naryar · « **Reply #11 on:** November 23, 2011, 01:52:18 PM »

Quote from: Jestahead on November 23, 2011, 01:48:59 PM

108 HP Z-teks

LOL WUT

You sure you can actually pull this off before RA2 crashes or lags to death ?

Jestahead · « **Reply #12 on:** November 23, 2011, 01:54:51 PM »

There's only one way to find out!

NFX · « **Reply #13 on:** November 23, 2011, 01:56:03 PM »

108 HPZ's is serious overkill. You'd have trouble running that on Deep Blue.

And what you want to do is fire the SnapperII, then press the Pause/Break button while it's still extended. The audio will stop, and the game will freeze, but you can still move around and attach components.

Not entirely sure what the highest resolution bot skin you could have is. I think it would need to go up in powers of two, so maybe try 1024x1024 next.

Jestahead · « **Reply #14 on:** November 23, 2011, 01:57:15 PM »

You mean that Pause Break button on my keyboard? The one that up until now has been completely and utterly useless in every conceivable situation?

NFX · « **Reply #15 on:** November 23, 2011, 01:59:14 PM »

Correct. I didn't even know I had one until I used it in RA2.

But it is very helpful for eFFe glitching, Snapper Loading, Axle Loading and the like. You can even use it for eFFeing stuff on pistons.

Jestahead · « **Reply #16 on:** November 23, 2011, 02:02:06 PM »

Thanks, works very nicely. The 108 Zteks thing was a theoretical figure, I managed to get 9 Zteks onto a snapper, I can fit 12 snappers in my bot as well as batteries, 9x12 = 108. It'll be interesting to see how far I can go before crashes or extreme lag.

Conraaa · « **Reply #17 on:** November 23, 2011, 02:03:14 PM »

Quote from: NFX on November 23, 2011, 01:56:03 PM

Not entirely sure what the highest resolution bot skin you could have is. I think it would need to go up in powers of two, so maybe try 1024x1024 next.

Highest i've ever gone to is 4,096. Made the .bot file huge though.

Jestahead · « **Reply #18 on:** November 23, 2011, 02:49:52 PM »

Time for a new bot, from a different themed team.

Metal Apocalypse
"Yeah! Skulls and flames and stuff! SLAYER!"

General-as-anything MW popup. 2 HP Ztek drive, 3 DDTs, 2 supervolts. Weapons are triple stacked razors. Yes the supervolts are AAM'ed but it would easily fit without, life is too short for battery placement.

And its namesake...

NFX · « **Reply #19 on:** November 23, 2011, 02:52:46 PM »

Stacking's not too difficult if you're patient with it. Shouldn't take much more than a minute or so to get 2 Blackvolts together, if that.

It's a decent build, though. Nothing too special, and generic as anything, as you said. But it's not bad. If the chassis was shrunk a little, you could get this to be a Pyscolone Popup with a slightly different weaponry extender setup.