Competitor: You see Punisher Mk. 2 propels Punisher Jr 1 through 30 out of this tube. Each independent robot is controlled separately until they are incapacitated by battle damage.
Judge: It looks like you've strapped an assault rifle to your robot.
Competitor: It looks like that, but I've actually made a small hollow inside each projectile and placed a small blinking LED attached to a small watch battery, so they're actually separate robots.
Seal on
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
My biggest problem with traps and house robots was always the subjectivity of their operators. Sometimes they wouldn't activate the spikes or the blade or hammer or Matilda, sometimes they would, and it always seemed to punish the rookie or less decorated robot.
What's the difference between a multibot and a robot that fires projectiles?
For one, you cannot normally control a bullet, so as soon as they stopped moving its weight would begin to count toward something rather unfortunate for you (more on that later).
Second, the only projectiles capable of piercing what's frequently 1/2" of aluminum, 1/4" of treated stainless steel or titanium, or some similar thickness of spring steel clad composite would require a serious amount of chemical explosives (as are found in most modern projectile weapons). It is therefore convenient that chemical explosives are not permitted in the competition (along with EMP weapons, inert gasses, electric arcs, and oil slicks). To further dampen that vein of thought, all projectiles must be tethered (so you could make an air gun, but it would have to have a tether that cannot break instantly upon firing attached to the projectile). However...
Competitor: You see Punisher Mk. 2 propels Punisher Jr 1 through 30 out of this tube. Each independent robot is controlled separately until they are incapacitated by battle damage.
Judge: It looks like you've strapped an assault rifle to your robot.
Competitor: It looks like that, but I've actually made a small hollow inside each projectile and placed a small blinking LED attached to a small watch battery, so they're actually separate robots.
There is no ground speed limit for robots, so you could make a large robot that functions like a baseball pitching machine with little 5 lb slug robots that can be driven to return to the launcher. Odds are good though that you couldn't get them moving fast enough to make it worth the trouble. And as I had alluded to earlier, there's a penalty if your multibots are rendered inoperable: if 50% of your robots' total combined weight or more is rendered incapacitated, that's it, you're done. Instant KO. That's also why most people don't make more than one or two additional secondary robots, and one always weighs more than 50% of the total weight.
Plus as I had mentioned earlier: the determination of operability is "can your robot move when we ask you to make it move?" If having functioning electronics was the only factor, the battles would be between who can keep their LEDs blinking longer. This is a considerable degree worse than even wedge fights.
edit: and further still, the motion required of a robot is motion that can be controlled to at least some degree. Even if half your drive system has been torn out, if you can half spin-shuffle over to a desired spot in the arena, that's enough.
I'm ok with traps in general but only if they're automatic. I like to think it opens up possible variation in robots good a direct fighting vs those better at pushing.
I'm ok with traps in general but only if they're automatic. I like to think it opens up possible variation in robots good a direct fighting vs those better and pushing.
I'm kind of the opposite opinion.
I'm ok with traps, but I'd like them to be controlled by the competitors. Both teams get control over activating the weapons. You don't get control to prevent them from activating, so no playing "hide and go get smashed by the giant hammer" under the hammer.
You want to make a gentleman's agreement to not use the traps during your match? Great. You want to go hog wild punching the "Giant Hammer" button? Great, you do you.
But having a third party with such a potentially game changing influence always kind of rankled a bit as a viewer. The Nightmare vs Whyachi match really seems to optimize this.
It wasn't battlebots, but I greatly enjoyed Razor (sp?) from one of the other leagues. Basically was a combination of a wedge and a crushing beak. There is a youtube floating around of it ruinating a house robot and it's hilarious.
edit: the counter to spinner robots is anything more durable than it is, be it another spinner or an armored section of your own robot. The second robot in Tested's video interviews, Bite Force, mentioned specifically having armor they could swap into place to combat robots with very destructive spinning weapons. This phenomenon was also the basis of the Brick vs Spinning Weapon arms race for a few years.
I'm not sure if its within the rules, but I've always thought the counter should be some kind of chain. The spinner hits the chain with its spinning arms and pulls the rope/chain into its own gears, gumming up its offensive weapon. The controller could even put a gear that would allow the rope/chain slack while its going into the gears and then lock and retract to pull the disable spinner into a drum or disk blade. With non spinners the chain could just be a generic impact weapon. With spinners maybe you pad the first few feet to make it more likely to wrap on the arms/gears.
edit: the counter to spinner robots is anything more durable than it is, be it another spinner or an armored section of your own robot. The second robot in Tested's video interviews, Bite Force, mentioned specifically having armor they could swap into place to combat robots with very destructive spinning weapons. This phenomenon was also the basis of the Brick vs Spinning Weapon arms race for a few years.
I'm not sure if its within the rules, but I've always thought the counter should be some kind of chain. The spinner hits the chain with its spinning arms and pulls the rope/chain into its own gears, gumming up its offensive weapon. The controller could even put a gear that would allow the rope/chain slack while its going into the gears and then lock and retract to pull the disable spinner into a drum or disk blade. With non spinners the chain could just be a generic impact weapon. With spinners maybe you pad the first few feet to make it more likely to wrap on the arms/gears.
That would work really well, but the general class of "entanglement weapons" are just too effective to make for a good competition so they were cut early on as well. Its also part of why flying competitions have had trouble figuring out how to make things interesting: in the latest Still Untitled podcast (from Tested), Adam Savage commented all it takes to bring down an RC helicopter is about six feet of ribbon.
edit: New interview with Fast Company and the creators of Battlebots on the new incarnation of the show. I particularly like the mention of totally random arena hazard deployment. And in another vein, if the show can capture the full experience of the competition - particularly the frantic repairs between rounds in the pits - it could be really great to watch and sidestep a lot of the "fake drama" a lot of shows seem compelled to try to come up with. No fake drama beats "oh shit, we just broke our last bearing for our drive system on the right side; one group, start working on a pile of temporary bushings, everyone else hunt down a supplier in two hours!"
edit: the counter to spinner robots is anything more durable than it is, be it another spinner or an armored section of your own robot. The second robot in Tested's video interviews, Bite Force, mentioned specifically having armor they could swap into place to combat robots with very destructive spinning weapons. This phenomenon was also the basis of the Brick vs Spinning Weapon arms race for a few years.
I'm not sure if its within the rules, but I've always thought the counter should be some kind of chain. The spinner hits the chain with its spinning arms and pulls the rope/chain into its own gears, gumming up its offensive weapon. The controller could even put a gear that would allow the rope/chain slack while its going into the gears and then lock and retract to pull the disable spinner into a drum or disk blade. With non spinners the chain could just be a generic impact weapon. With spinners maybe you pad the first few feet to make it more likely to wrap on the arms/gears.
That would work really well, but the general class of "entanglement weapons" are just too effective to make for a good competition so they were cut early on as well. Its also part of why flying competitions have had trouble figuring out how to make things interesting: in the latest Still Untitled podcast (from Tested), Adam Savage commented all it takes to bring down an RC helicopter is about six feet of ribbon.
edit: New interview with Fast Company and the creators of Battlebots on the new incarnation of the show. I particularly like the mention of totally random arena hazard deployment. And in another vein, if the show can capture the full experience of the competition - particularly the frantic repairs between rounds in the pits - it could be really great to watch and sidestep a lot of the "fake drama" a lot of shows seem compelled to try to come up with. No fake drama beats "oh shit, we just broke our last bearing for our drive system on the right side; one group, start working on a pile of temporary bushings, everyone else hunt down a supplier in two hours!"
Sponsored by Same-day Amazon Prime that delivers the part via drone!
edit: the counter to spinner robots is anything more durable than it is, be it another spinner or an armored section of your own robot. The second robot in Tested's video interviews, Bite Force, mentioned specifically having armor they could swap into place to combat robots with very destructive spinning weapons. This phenomenon was also the basis of the Brick vs Spinning Weapon arms race for a few years.
I'm not sure if its within the rules, but I've always thought the counter should be some kind of chain. The spinner hits the chain with its spinning arms and pulls the rope/chain into its own gears, gumming up its offensive weapon. The controller could even put a gear that would allow the rope/chain slack while its going into the gears and then lock and retract to pull the disable spinner into a drum or disk blade. With non spinners the chain could just be a generic impact weapon. With spinners maybe you pad the first few feet to make it more likely to wrap on the arms/gears.
That would work really well, but the general class of "entanglement weapons" are just too effective to make for a good competition so they were cut early on as well. Its also part of why flying competitions have had trouble figuring out how to make things interesting: in the latest Still Untitled podcast (from Tested), Adam Savage commented all it takes to bring down an RC helicopter is about six feet of ribbon.
edit: New interview with Fast Company and the creators of Battlebots on the new incarnation of the show. I particularly like the mention of totally random arena hazard deployment. And in another vein, if the show can capture the full experience of the competition - particularly the frantic repairs between rounds in the pits - it could be really great to watch and sidestep a lot of the "fake drama" a lot of shows seem compelled to try to come up with. No fake drama beats "oh shit, we just broke our last bearing for our drive system on the right side; one group, start working on a pile of temporary bushings, everyone else hunt down a supplier in two hours!"
Sponsored by Same-day Amazon Prime that delivers the part via drone!
Heh, I hadn't thought of that but it would be a kickass way for them to sponsor the tournament. It's already been revealed that DJI was flying a quadcopter with a camera inside the arena for closeups during matches, so there's at least one drone-related tie-in.
In other news: I've put in the list of competitors and their robots in Page 1's second post, it's a nearly even split of Old and New teams. Check and see if your old favorites are there!
Icewave's lead, Marc, is one of the builders I know who attended the tournament. We'll have to see how he handled that battery fire at the end there in later rounds, but I bet he's got the compartment pretty well isolated from other sensitive components.
Minutes 0 to 3: ludicrous overselling, dude wearing cat ears for some reason, pretty lady pretending battlebots wasn't a comedy central show, I assume the robots will fight at some point.
3 to 10: MMA guy and other guy talks a bunch, bunch of other people no one cares about, the ring tries to give everyone a seizure, no robots smashing each other
9 to 12: ROBOTS SMASHING THE SHIT OUT OF EACHOTHER FUCK YES
12 to 19: lot of talking, kind of nodded off but I assume they kept talking
19 to 22: some sort of robot Paralympic thing going on...interesting design on the spinny one, some good smashing
blah blah blah
27 to 30: robot with wings cannot fly, also has ineffective spinning disk
blah cows? blah blah
37 to 39: NIGHTMARE IS BACK BITCHES, MINIBOT EXPLODING and...it still can't self-right. God damnit.
So we got 5 minutes of amazing action and 7 minutes of meh action out of an hour long program. I really hope they trim the fat in the episodes to come because there were moments when I found Battlebots ridiculously entertaining and the rest if just nothing. Nobody watches hockey for the off-ice interviews with players and coaches, no one will watch Battlebots for their builders.
Minutes 0 to 3: ludicrous overselling, dude wearing cat ears for some reason, pretty lady pretending battlebots wasn't a comedy central show, I assume the robots will fight at some point.
3 to 10: MMA guy and other guy talks a bunch, bunch of other people no one cares about, the ring tries to give everyone a seizure, no robots smashing each other
9 to 12: ROBOTS SMASHING THE SHIT OUT OF EACHOTHER FUCK YES
12 to 19: lot of talking, kind of nodded off but I assume they kept talking
19 to 22: some sort of robot Paralympic thing going on...interesting design on the spinny one, some good smashing
blah blah blah
27 to 30: robot with wings cannot fly, also has ineffective spinning disk
blah cows? blah blah
37 to 39: NIGHTMARE IS BACK BITCHES, MINIBOT EXPLODING and...it still can't self-right. God damnit.
So we got 5 minutes of amazing action and 7 minutes of meh action out of an hour long program. I really hope they trim the fat in the episodes to come because there were moments when I found Battlebots ridiculously entertaining and the rest if just nothing. Nobody watches hockey for the off-ice interviews with players and coaches, no one will watch Battlebots for their builders.
...I would. But then, I like watching shows about people designing and building stuff. Junkyard wars, Monster Garage, custom motorcycle shop of the week, that kind of thing.
Up until they decide to inject some interpersonal drama to appeal to people who aren't me (or cancel the shows), these are hugely entertaining to me.
Really though, if you cut out all the fluff and just shaved the show down to just the bot fights, you'd have an hour, maybe an hour and a half of film. Unless you're wanting to watch a half dozen slow motion replays of every match, that's gonna make for a very short season.
I dont mind learning about the builders, but i wish they would avoid all the "typical reality show" tv tropes and shoddy paint-by-numbers video style.
I also could really do without the fake drama rock show lighting that's 45 seconds before every match. Spend that time to tell us about the bots, the engineering, tactics, technique...whatever. Treat it like a sport not American Idol
If Nightmare doesn't get a wild card there is no justice in this world. I hope next time the do the getting to know you stuff better so its not obvious who's about to win the match, aside from the complete failure that was warhead? I think, basically the brits who lose to a really basic pusher.
Also cool for that Nasa dude to be there, I knew him from the mohawk.
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
If Nightmare doesn't get a wild card there is no justice in this world. I hope next time the do the getting to know you stuff better so its not obvious who's about to win the match, aside from the complete failure that was warhead? I think, basically the brits who lose to a really basic pusher.
Also cool for that Nasa dude to be there, I knew him from the mohawk.
I was like, whoa, they've got Ken Flo, whoa they've got Nasa dude. And that was most of my excitement -- listening to Adam Savage and the tested guys talk about battlebots was way better than actual battlebots IMO but I'll definitely be back next week.
Man that ICEwave bot is a man killer kinda curious how bad it was damaged by the fire. I loved the interview um pardon me but my bot is appears to be on fire can we like hurry this up so I can save my bot.
Yeah Icewave "won" that match but if his motor burnt out he might be completely out of it anyway. Rex was just a dumb design I don't even know what that guy was thinking, Shepard was really disappointed in that showing.
It was an entertaining show and I don't have shit to do on sunday at 9 anyway.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Yup the icewave design is incredibly vicious but its I think almost as damaging to its own motor driving its blade as it is opponents going from full speed to dead stop with that much power has got to put some incredible stresses on it. Who knows though may be something they figured would be an issue and brought a bunch of spares for swapping out a motor should not be to bad.
It would be interesting and maybe they'll show it next episode, but I want to see people having to fix their bots between matches, I want to see as much as they are willing to show, the triage to get a bot back in the action.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Yup the icewave design is incredibly vicious but its I think almost as damaging to its own motor driving its blade as it is opponents going from full speed to dead stop with that much power has got to put some incredible stresses on it. Who knows though may be something they figured would be an issue and brought a bunch of spares for swapping out a motor should not be to bad.
Yeah, that's typically the death of powerful spinners. Can kill other bots good, but they tend to kill themselves at the same time.
Turns out that Sir Isaac Newton is not only the deadliest son of a bitch in space, he's also a total asshole in the battle box.
Also, really have to give props to the Whyachi team. Putting a flame thrower in a mini-bot made for a really visually impressive shot when the minibot predictably got mangled and thrown across the box.
Their response when asked how that would affect them? "We brought spares".
I dunno if I'm cool with mini bots, that seems an advantage that some people have over others, unless there is some kind of weight limit the whole kit has to be under.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
I dunno if I'm cool with mini bots, that seems an advantage that some people have over others, unless there is some kind of weight limit the whole kit has to be under.
Yeah there's a weight limit. The best use for minibots seems to be having them carry sensitive, low-mass weaponry. It would be interesting to see a bot that pins an opponent down, then a minibot comes over with a blowtorch.
I dunno if I'm cool with mini bots, that seems an advantage that some people have over others, unless there is some kind of weight limit the whole kit has to be under.
Yeah there's a weight limit. The best use for minibots seems to be having them carry sensitive, low-mass weaponry. It would be interesting to see a bot that pins an opponent down, then a minibot comes over with a blowtorch.
Are the build rules available anywhere? I checked on the website, but the "Rules" link just says they'll put them up when they announce the next tournament.
I'm curious as to what the limits on pyrotechnic gases are. Cause I'd think a nice little MAPP gas torch on a minibot would be more effective when used on tires (though less visually impressive) than the flame throwers they're using. Just curious as to what is and isn't allowed.
Also curious as to the minibot rules, and walker rules.
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
I was under the impression no wedges meant no lifts, what a kick in the nuts that was to find out.
They need to streamline the show, make it half hour or put more fights in. Don't care about the people building robots, don't care that the one lady host in a dress seems to be doing this more for her highlight reel than actually caring about the show, the commentators are fine but I don't need the other interview duo of hipsters at all, the announcer is trying way too hard, there's just too many people. Show the bots, show their stats, fight. Also FFS Diana Allers shouldn't be a judge, anyone else from the Nerdist, get Hardwick's girlfriend or an intern instead.
As for the actual fights, whole bunch of meh outside of Icewave and Nightmare. Nightmare was cool and should have still won because it actually did stuff and killed two little bots, Plan X looks stupid and feels like the most "made for audience TV drama" than it should (the other robot with no wheels actually did stuff), really hated the wedgebot that broke Warhead.
I was under the impression no wedges meant no lifts, what a kick in the nuts that was to find out.
They need to streamline the show, make it half hour or put more fights in. Don't care about the people building robots, don't care that the one lady host in a dress seems to be doing this more for her highlight reel than actually caring about the show, the commentators are fine but I don't need the other interview duo of hipsters at all, the announcer is trying way too hard, there's just too many people. Show the bots, show their stats, fight. Also FFS Diana Allers shouldn't be a judge, anyone else from the Nerdist, get Hardwick's girlfriend or an intern instead.
As for the actual fights, whole bunch of meh outside of Icewave and Nightmare. Nightmare was cool and should have still won because it actually did stuff and killed two little bots, Plan X looks stupid and feels like the most "made for audience TV drama" than it should (the other robot with no wheels actually did stuff), really hated the wedgebot that broke Warhead.
I was annoyed at that as well. It was pretty skillful driving to get that wedge right on the left wheel and flip, though.
I think Biteforce is the most impressive bot so far. They've got a modular design with attachments to deal with all types of opponents. I love the magnets on their tracks designed to basically "cheat" the weight class. I think they'll be able to beat that dumb wedgebot with ease.
edit: just realized I was thinking about the wedge that flipped that huge spinner bot.
I think Biteforce is fine. Its not a pure wedge bot. The only reason it had that front wedge on it was because it was the chosen modular piece they used to counter spinners. Their usual weapon is a grabber/crusher but they didn't have to use it because they countered the spinner with their dozer attachment.
Yup the icewave design is incredibly vicious but its I think almost as damaging to its own motor driving its blade as it is opponents going from full speed to dead stop with that much power has got to put some incredible stresses on it. Who knows though may be something they figured would be an issue and brought a bunch of spares for swapping out a motor should not be to bad.
Yeah, that's typically the death of powerful spinners. Can kill other bots good, but they tend to kill themselves at the same time.
Turns out that Sir Isaac Newton is not only the deadliest son of a bitch in space, he's also a total asshole in the battle box.
Also, really have to give props to the Whyachi team. Putting a flame thrower in a mini-bot made for a really visually impressive shot when the minibot predictably got mangled and thrown across the box.
Their response when asked how that would affect them? "We brought spares".
Yes that was pretty hilarious that thing exploded when it got hit by the saw which was pretty predictable but visually pretty amazing and great for TV to add some HOLY CRAP to the show. The talking parts were a bit longer than I cared for yesterday but that said the matches were all pretty good and impressive lots of robot doom.
wedge bots don't bother me that much, as long as it isn't a wedge vs. wedge fight. Then it just get a bit boring, but when you have wedge/flippers vs. bots with spinning weapons you get a lot of aggression and damage both ways.
Rules stuff I've been able to dig up, so it might not be completely accurate:
minibots: the reason most teams have them is that for all the other bot battling leagues out there the weight limit is 220lbs for heavyweight, for battlebots it's 250lbs, so you can just throw a couple of 15lbs mini-bots in if you don't want to modify your main one.
Walkers usually get a weight limit bonus, so that might be why some teams are trying it out, but they usually aren't that successful. But I don't think battlebots is giving the bonus, they really should or teams won't want to try.
And I'm pretty sure flamethrowers are limited to butane or propane at a specific max flow rate, so you can't get much of a cutting torch going.
Posts
Competitor: You see Punisher Mk. 2 propels Punisher Jr 1 through 30 out of this tube. Each independent robot is controlled separately until they are incapacitated by battle damage.
Judge: It looks like you've strapped an assault rifle to your robot.
Competitor: It looks like that, but I've actually made a small hollow inside each projectile and placed a small blinking LED attached to a small watch battery, so they're actually separate robots.
For one, you cannot normally control a bullet, so as soon as they stopped moving its weight would begin to count toward something rather unfortunate for you (more on that later).
Second, the only projectiles capable of piercing what's frequently 1/2" of aluminum, 1/4" of treated stainless steel or titanium, or some similar thickness of spring steel clad composite would require a serious amount of chemical explosives (as are found in most modern projectile weapons). It is therefore convenient that chemical explosives are not permitted in the competition (along with EMP weapons, inert gasses, electric arcs, and oil slicks). To further dampen that vein of thought, all projectiles must be tethered (so you could make an air gun, but it would have to have a tether that cannot break instantly upon firing attached to the projectile). However...
There is no ground speed limit for robots, so you could make a large robot that functions like a baseball pitching machine with little 5 lb slug robots that can be driven to return to the launcher. Odds are good though that you couldn't get them moving fast enough to make it worth the trouble. And as I had alluded to earlier, there's a penalty if your multibots are rendered inoperable: if 50% of your robots' total combined weight or more is rendered incapacitated, that's it, you're done. Instant KO. That's also why most people don't make more than one or two additional secondary robots, and one always weighs more than 50% of the total weight.
Plus as I had mentioned earlier: the determination of operability is "can your robot move when we ask you to make it move?" If having functioning electronics was the only factor, the battles would be between who can keep their LEDs blinking longer. This is a considerable degree worse than even wedge fights.
edit: and further still, the motion required of a robot is motion that can be controlled to at least some degree. Even if half your drive system has been torn out, if you can half spin-shuffle over to a desired spot in the arena, that's enough.
I'm ok with traps, but I'd like them to be controlled by the competitors. Both teams get control over activating the weapons. You don't get control to prevent them from activating, so no playing "hide and go get smashed by the giant hammer" under the hammer.
You want to make a gentleman's agreement to not use the traps during your match? Great. You want to go hog wild punching the "Giant Hammer" button? Great, you do you.
But having a third party with such a potentially game changing influence always kind of rankled a bit as a viewer. The Nightmare vs Whyachi match really seems to optimize this.
Falls under oil slicks/sand/etc: you can't intentionally make a mess that halts the tournament, even if it's not particularly dangerous.
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I'm not sure if its within the rules, but I've always thought the counter should be some kind of chain. The spinner hits the chain with its spinning arms and pulls the rope/chain into its own gears, gumming up its offensive weapon. The controller could even put a gear that would allow the rope/chain slack while its going into the gears and then lock and retract to pull the disable spinner into a drum or disk blade. With non spinners the chain could just be a generic impact weapon. With spinners maybe you pad the first few feet to make it more likely to wrap on the arms/gears.
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
That would work really well, but the general class of "entanglement weapons" are just too effective to make for a good competition so they were cut early on as well. Its also part of why flying competitions have had trouble figuring out how to make things interesting: in the latest Still Untitled podcast (from Tested), Adam Savage commented all it takes to bring down an RC helicopter is about six feet of ribbon.
edit: New interview with Fast Company and the creators of Battlebots on the new incarnation of the show. I particularly like the mention of totally random arena hazard deployment. And in another vein, if the show can capture the full experience of the competition - particularly the frantic repairs between rounds in the pits - it could be really great to watch and sidestep a lot of the "fake drama" a lot of shows seem compelled to try to come up with. No fake drama beats "oh shit, we just broke our last bearing for our drive system on the right side; one group, start working on a pile of temporary bushings, everyone else hunt down a supplier in two hours!"
Sponsored by Same-day Amazon Prime that delivers the part via drone!
Heh, I hadn't thought of that but it would be a kickass way for them to sponsor the tournament. It's already been revealed that DJI was flying a quadcopter with a camera inside the arena for closeups during matches, so there's at least one drone-related tie-in.
In other news: I've put in the list of competitors and their robots in Page 1's second post, it's a nearly even split of Old and New teams. Check and see if your old favorites are there!
Some extra flavor post-match:
3 to 10: MMA guy and other guy talks a bunch, bunch of other people no one cares about, the ring tries to give everyone a seizure, no robots smashing each other
9 to 12: ROBOTS SMASHING THE SHIT OUT OF EACHOTHER FUCK YES
12 to 19: lot of talking, kind of nodded off but I assume they kept talking
19 to 22: some sort of robot Paralympic thing going on...interesting design on the spinny one, some good smashing
blah blah blah
27 to 30: robot with wings cannot fly, also has ineffective spinning disk
blah cows? blah blah
37 to 39: NIGHTMARE IS BACK BITCHES, MINIBOT EXPLODING and...it still can't self-right. God damnit.
So we got 5 minutes of amazing action and 7 minutes of meh action out of an hour long program. I really hope they trim the fat in the episodes to come because there were moments when I found Battlebots ridiculously entertaining and the rest if just nothing. Nobody watches hockey for the off-ice interviews with players and coaches, no one will watch Battlebots for their builders.
Up until they decide to inject some interpersonal drama to appeal to people who aren't me (or cancel the shows), these are hugely entertaining to me.
Really though, if you cut out all the fluff and just shaved the show down to just the bot fights, you'd have an hour, maybe an hour and a half of film. Unless you're wanting to watch a half dozen slow motion replays of every match, that's gonna make for a very short season.
I also could really do without the fake drama rock show lighting that's 45 seconds before every match. Spend that time to tell us about the bots, the engineering, tactics, technique...whatever. Treat it like a sport not American Idol
Also cool for that Nasa dude to be there, I knew him from the mohawk.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I was like, whoa, they've got Ken Flo, whoa they've got Nasa dude. And that was most of my excitement -- listening to Adam Savage and the tested guys talk about battlebots was way better than actual battlebots IMO but I'll definitely be back next week.
twitch.tv/tehsloth
It was an entertaining show and I don't have shit to do on sunday at 9 anyway.
pleasepaypreacher.net
pleasepaypreacher.net
Yeah, that's typically the death of powerful spinners. Can kill other bots good, but they tend to kill themselves at the same time.
Turns out that Sir Isaac Newton is not only the deadliest son of a bitch in space, he's also a total asshole in the battle box.
Also, really have to give props to the Whyachi team. Putting a flame thrower in a mini-bot made for a really visually impressive shot when the minibot predictably got mangled and thrown across the box.
Their response when asked how that would affect them? "We brought spares".
pleasepaypreacher.net
Yeah there's a weight limit. The best use for minibots seems to be having them carry sensitive, low-mass weaponry. It would be interesting to see a bot that pins an opponent down, then a minibot comes over with a blowtorch.
Are the build rules available anywhere? I checked on the website, but the "Rules" link just says they'll put them up when they announce the next tournament.
I'm curious as to what the limits on pyrotechnic gases are. Cause I'd think a nice little MAPP gas torch on a minibot would be more effective when used on tires (though less visually impressive) than the flame throwers they're using. Just curious as to what is and isn't allowed.
Also curious as to the minibot rules, and walker rules.
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They need to streamline the show, make it half hour or put more fights in. Don't care about the people building robots, don't care that the one lady host in a dress seems to be doing this more for her highlight reel than actually caring about the show, the commentators are fine but I don't need the other interview duo of hipsters at all, the announcer is trying way too hard, there's just too many people. Show the bots, show their stats, fight. Also FFS Diana Allers shouldn't be a judge, anyone else from the Nerdist, get Hardwick's girlfriend or an intern instead.
As for the actual fights, whole bunch of meh outside of Icewave and Nightmare. Nightmare was cool and should have still won because it actually did stuff and killed two little bots, Plan X looks stupid and feels like the most "made for audience TV drama" than it should (the other robot with no wheels actually did stuff), really hated the wedgebot that broke Warhead.
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I was annoyed at that as well. It was pretty skillful driving to get that wedge right on the left wheel and flip, though.
I think Biteforce is the most impressive bot so far. They've got a modular design with attachments to deal with all types of opponents. I love the magnets on their tracks designed to basically "cheat" the weight class. I think they'll be able to beat that dumb wedgebot with ease.
edit: just realized I was thinking about the wedge that flipped that huge spinner bot.
I think Biteforce is fine. Its not a pure wedge bot. The only reason it had that front wedge on it was because it was the chosen modular piece they used to counter spinners. Their usual weapon is a grabber/crusher but they didn't have to use it because they countered the spinner with their dozer attachment.
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Yes that was pretty hilarious that thing exploded when it got hit by the saw which was pretty predictable but visually pretty amazing and great for TV to add some HOLY CRAP to the show. The talking parts were a bit longer than I cared for yesterday but that said the matches were all pretty good and impressive lots of robot doom.
Rules stuff I've been able to dig up, so it might not be completely accurate:
minibots: the reason most teams have them is that for all the other bot battling leagues out there the weight limit is 220lbs for heavyweight, for battlebots it's 250lbs, so you can just throw a couple of 15lbs mini-bots in if you don't want to modify your main one.
Walkers usually get a weight limit bonus, so that might be why some teams are trying it out, but they usually aren't that successful. But I don't think battlebots is giving the bonus, they really should or teams won't want to try.
And I'm pretty sure flamethrowers are limited to butane or propane at a specific max flow rate, so you can't get much of a cutting torch going.