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[BattleBots] - A New Dawn in the East: King of Bots

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Posts

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    Aioua wrote: »
    unless you figure out a way to anchor your bot to the floor hammers are always going to suck
    it's just physics
    throwing your hammer down throws you up into the air, your force is limited based on your mass

    you're better off turning it upside-down and being a flipper, there you can push as hard as you like

    I know a handful of hammer bots have tried using magnets to give them that extra downforce, but I don't remember how effective that actually was.
    Seems like it'd be as dangerous to your own bot as to the target. Possibly more so. I'd think that you'd have to deal with all that kinetic energy that used to just launch your bot in the air, now it's going into your frame and warping all your stuff out of alignment.

    Granted, I'm no mechanic or designer or any other person who knows the math involved in such things, so I could be wrong there. It just seems like all the energy that used to launch your bot in the air now has to be absorbed by the frame and whatever firing mechanism you've got for your hammer.

  • kaidkaid Registered User regular
    Rius wrote: »
    I like how in the intros the commentators say that Bronco "only" has enough juice for about 15 flips

    Then Bronco uses their first (most powerful?) flip in the pre-fight activations

    If they flip a bot even 10 times and it's still in the fight I'd be amazed

    I am pretty sure the bronco pilots figure if their target survives 14 flips from that beast they likely already won on points anyway.

  • ObiFettObiFett Use the Force As You WishRegistered User regular
    Rius wrote: »
    I don't understand how Tombstone's weapon can be so powerful and yet the bot itself can be so durable at the same time.

    I really don't understand this at all. Its a really fun bot to watch, but it makes no sense to me. Its gotta have some insane materials for the frame and internals compartment

  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    ObiFett wrote: »
    Rius wrote: »
    I don't understand how Tombstone's weapon can be so powerful and yet the bot itself can be so durable at the same time.

    I really don't understand this at all. Its a really fun bot to watch, but it makes no sense to me. Its gotta have some insane materials for the frame and internals compartment

    On the battlebots subreddit there was some discussion about how Tombstone's weapon frame is akin to a giant shock absorber, that it deforms and warps under stress so that the energy from impacts is less delivered to the rest of the body. Makes as much sense as anything else, I guess.

  • SealSeal Registered User regular
    Hammers are great. Bots like Tombstone are basically fancy hammer bots. Just somebody stopped and thought "man hammers are awesome, it's just a shame at some point you have to stop swinging" and then someone said "but what if we just never stopped swinging the hammer and we could keep it going around and around faster and faster?".

  • AiouaAioua Ora Occidens Ora OptimaRegistered User regular
    edited August 2018
    episode 13, typing as I watch:

    Red Devil v Valkyrie
    Devil's saw doesn't do anything (unlike my boy SAWBLAZE) so the weapon advantage is solidly in Valkyrie's hands. That wedge they stuck on the front of Red Devil looks like it can tank a lot of hits. I see this match coming down to driving. Devil need to say on top of it and control the match if they want a win. Valkyrie just needs to not break down and be plenty aggressive. My money is on Valkyrie.

    Result
    Valkyrie
    After seeing Red Devil in several tournaments I figured it was sturdier than it looked.
    It was not.
    Valkyrie put on a pretty weak driving performance and appeared to have issues with one of its wheels. I don't expect them to last through the tourney if they make the cut.

    Brutus v Gigabyte
    Brutus is ok but it's never been the strongest or most sturdy of its class of vertical spinners wedges.
    Gigabyte is terrifying when it works and a self-destructing mess when it doesn't.
    I'm going to put a slight edge on Brutus here, I think its wedge will have Gigabyte flipping itself over until it breaks.

    Result
    Gigabyte
    I wasn't sure which way the judges were going to take that fight, and luckily they didn't have to. Brutus tanked those hits like a champ and I think could have easily gotten the win but being unable to self-right claims another victim. This victory isn't completely hollow on Gigabyte's part, they knocked one of the spikes off the top of Brutus which might have kept it from getting stuck on its head.

    Bombshell v Bite Force
    Sorry Bombshell, you've been all sizzle and no steak this year. Bite Force is just as strong and has been proving itself fight after fight. It's theirs to lose.

    Result
    Bite Force
    RING OUT! Quick, easy, and beautiful.

    Son of Whyachi v End Game
    SOW has a monstrous weapon but can't self-right. End Game is proving their worth as newcomers and I think they're sturdy enough to facetank SOW until it flips. If not... there's going to be some carnage. I think End Game will take it but part of me wants to see SOW turn another bot to shreds.

    Result
    Son of Whyachi
    One hit KO, this episode likes 'em fast and dirty. I guess End Game wasn't as durable as I thought. I might go dig through the reddit and see if End Game showed any of the damage after they took their bot apart, I have to wonder what got knocked loose there.

    Blacksmith v Minotaur
    Blacksmith is fun but they're no juggernaut like Minotaur. You've got a third-class weapon like a hammer against the most terrifying drum in the game, and Minotaur's driver is a legend. Blacksmith is pretty sturdy and I expect them to hold up to a few hits, but eventually something is going to break off and they'll be down for the count.

    Result
    Minotaur
    Couldn't quite get the edge over Blacksmith to do any major damage, but they also weren't using the weapon at full power. But Blacksmith still spent the whole bout getting pushed around, it was an easy decision by the judges I'd think.

    Aioua on
    life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
    fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
    that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
    bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    edited August 2018
    Brutus vs Gigabyte results
    All credit to Gigabyte there for surviving long enough and delivering enough energy in those impacts to shear off one of Brutus' self-righting posts. Or upside-down operation posts, what have you.

    Bombshell vs Bite Force results
    Gotta love that camera angle as Bombshell does a double backflip out of the arena, haha

    Son of Whyachi vs End Game results
    [NFLBlitz]Holy Fucking Shit![/NFLBlitz]

    Rius on
  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    Also I really like the idea behind Blacksmith but man is an overhead blunt hammer not the correct weapon for a competition like this.

  • facetiousfacetious a wit so dry it shits sandRegistered User regular
    Free Shipping vs Warhawk had one of the most unique and amusing moments in a fight I've ever seen.
    Free Shipping's forklift got ripped away and was hanging by a cord, so it started spinning around to try to use it like a medieval flail.

    "I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
    Real strong, facetious.

    Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
  • HandkorHandkor Registered User regular
    facetious wrote: »
    Free Shipping vs Warhawk had one of the most unique and amusing moments in a fight I've ever seen.
    Free Shipping's forklift got ripped away and was hanging by a cord, so it started spinning around to try to use it like a medieval flail.

    That was fun and it essentially turned into an illegal weapon.

  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    That forklift just never survived a hit, did it? If you notice, for this fight he welded a wedge across both forks and to the mast. Net effect was that it was just a bigger hunk of debris after Warhawk ripped it off.

    I read somewhere that Free Shipping was a brickbot spinner breaker and the forklift/flamethrower were bolted on top to meet Battlebots active weapon rule. Which explains how they've bounced back so completely from such visually devastating damage - the only things getting trashed weren't really part of anything important.

    The downside is that those pieces are easy points and without the ability to get KOs they're a spinner breaker with two gigantic crumple zones so spinners can rack up points before they hit anything solid, if they even get that far.

  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    Apparently the show's youtube channel has in-fight videos from little spherical cameras they put on some of the bots

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht8OhG0eMzE

    This is the coolest one I could find; they're not often complete for some inexplicable reason.

  • SealSeal Registered User regular
    Put one of those cameras on Tombstone please.

  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    facetious wrote: »
    Free Shipping vs Warhawk had one of the most unique and amusing moments in a fight I've ever seen.
    Free Shipping's forklift got ripped away and was hanging by a cord, so it started spinning around to try to use it like a medieval flail.

    I don't know that there was a more visually amusing spectacle this season than this fight. Free Shipping just letting that flame blast all over the place, swinging around, driving on it's side, etc.

  • hawkboxhawkbox Registered User regular
    I have to say I love Chomp but it's just not an effective participant. I hope Zoe comes up with something more competitive next year without going boring. I like the creative robots and am rather enjoying how Survivable Warhead has been. Though sad it got flipped.

    I'm a sucker for an underdog though.

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    edited September 2018
    hawkbox wrote: »
    I have to say I love Chomp but it's just not an effective participant. I hope Zoe comes up with something more competitive next year without going boring. I like the creative robots and am rather enjoying how Survivable Warhead has been. Though sad it got flipped.

    I'm a sucker for an underdog though.

    I have to imagine that Chomp would be a great participant in a very different competition.
    I really hope Zoe goes back to the drawing board and just redesigns Chomp 2.0 next iteration from the ground up.

    Edited because I don't remember past robots very good.

    see317 on
  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    edited September 2018
    If anyone ever makes an automation-only robot combat competition, I expect Zoe to dominate the first tournament or two as everybody else gets the engineering figured out, because she's much closer to that than anyone else in the game right now. I could even see her being a vendor/competitor like Team Whyachi is for motor controllers. As long as the sport is basically radio controlled Mad Max I worry she's going to stay where she is.


    Edit: Isn't this already Chomp 2.0? In the 2015 season it actually chomped, and was built low and wide like Blacksmith. Didn't do badly in its first match until it got stuck on the screws, made a wildcard spot in the tournament where it got Icewave'd in round one.

    Hevach on
  • Phoenix-DPhoenix-D Registered User regular
    Chomp's tech on a flipper bot might be interesting. I wonder how much the automation depends on the weapon being a hammer.

  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    edited September 2018
    Probably not too much in the guts. The distance (both on the auto-fire and the maintain-distance features) would need to be recalibrated but actually firing should just be a signal to a controller that handles the actual weapon, I doubt they replaced the controller as part of the software because she has talked about switching both features to full manual control instead of automation for some fights.

    Hevach on
  • SimpsoniaSimpsonia Registered User regular
    I could imagine that they could have two launching modes on the controller. One button fires on demand, another is a 'fire-at-will' trigger that would only fire when whatever range-finder and algorithm hit. Put it on Bronco with the wide-paddle launcher and you've got some fun.

  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    This episode is the end of the regular season, apparently including two rumbles for guaranteed spots. One between Warhawk, Endgame, and Brutus to represent the C-list vertical spinner category, and a "last chance" 6-way involving Gigabyte, Red Devil, Duck, Bombshell, Valkyrie, and whatever's left of Lucky at this point, probably three wheels and that block of wood they put on the flipper when it finally stopped working.

  • XantomasXantomas Registered User regular
    oh my god.. Huge..
    Icewave is fucking lethal this year. 2 bots ripped in literal half!

  • SealSeal Registered User regular
    Glad Duck
    lost, it's a wedge bot doing the bare minimum to not be DQ'd due to being just a wedge bot.

  • LanzLanz ...Za?Registered User regular
    edited September 2018
    not quite battlebots, but anyone know if MegaBots is like... still in operation anymore?

    They kept going a bit after that whole "we ran out of money and also one of the guys left, so now we're going to try and restart this whole thing and not pour all our money into a professionally televised-level documentary series" thing, but their last youtube update was two months back and their twitter hasn't posted since the start of August

    Lanz on
    waNkm4k.jpg?1
  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    Xantomas wrote: »
    oh my god.. Huge..
    Icewave is fucking lethal this year. 2 bots ripped in literal half!

    Been saying it since their first fight: They were winning because they were up against flippers, and aside from Bronco, flippers are spinner food. Icewave is a taste of what they're going to get in the tournament, I think.

  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    Huge got the 14th seed but the more important question is will they be ready to fight again?

  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    edited September 2018
    I imagine they didn't finalize the rankings right there with the remains of Huge still being sweep up. Editing made it look like it all happened in sequence, but I doubt they actually happened that way. They at least made sure Huge had parts on hand before giving them the slot over one of the 2-2 one the edge bots.

    Edit: one of the YouTubers who was at the event also accidentally spoiled a fight between Huge and another of the doomspinners, so there's that.

    Hevach on
  • HandkorHandkor Registered User regular
    The Huge team were interviewed in the pit coming back from the fight and they said they had spare parts for everything. They can probably build another entire robot.

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    Handkor wrote: »
    The Huge team were interviewed in the pit coming back from the fight and they said they had spare parts for everything. They can probably build another entire robot.

    Given the rules change for this season (IE, no more single elimination) and the sheer destructive power of some of the bots, any team that doesn't bring enough parts to build a spare bot and a half are asking for trouble.

  • NobodyNobody Registered User regular
    edited September 2018
    Lanz wrote: »
    not quite battlebots, but anyone know if MegaBots is like... still in operation anymore?

    They kept going a bit after that whole "we ran out of money and also one of the guys left, so now we're going to try and restart this whole thing and not pour all our money into a professionally televised-level documentary series" thing, but their last youtube update was two months back and their twitter hasn't posted since the start of August

    Their Facebook is still active with the latest post from about 4 days ago, but the last thing they've posted that was directly related to the bot was early August (around the same time as their last Twitter update). Their Instagram has a post from August 25th talking about interviewing for sales positions

    So, maybe?

    Nobody on
  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    First night of the tournament: HO-LEE-SHIT everybody's brackets was just ruined forever.
    0-4 only in the tournament because of a controversial last chance win vs the 4-0 demon that haunts the nightmares of everybody in the competition. And Tombstone got buried.

    To make things worse, Bombshell, even after repairing from the Tombstone fight, died in one half-hearted hit from Lockjaw the next fight. It was *that* close to death against Tombstone.

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    Hevach wrote: »
    First night of the tournament: HO-LEE-SHIT everybody's brackets was just ruined forever.
    0-4 only in the tournament because of a controversial last chance win vs the 4-0 demon that haunts the nightmares of everybody in the competition. And Tombstone got buried.

    To make things worse, Bombshell, even after repairing from the Tombstone fight, died in one half-hearted hit from Lockjaw the next fight. It was *that* close to death against Tombstone.
    Bombshell did say they had redesigned the bot specifically with Tombstone in mind.
    I don't think they faced any other big horizontal spinners this year, so , I guess designing for a specific target can work, but over specializing can bite you in the ass.

  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    Duck is also built to be a tombstone for Tombstone, and Tombstone was its worst fight all season.

    In their alternate forms as Whoops and Last Rites, Whoops did break Tombstone, though. There are no guarantees with a blade heavier than two of the Four Horsemen, no matter who you are.

  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    Hevach wrote: »
    First night of the tournament: HO-LEE-SHIT everybody's brackets was just ruined forever.
    0-4 only in the tournament because of a controversial last chance win vs the 4-0 demon that haunts the nightmares of everybody in the competition. And Tombstone got buried.

    To make things worse, Bombshell, even after repairing from the Tombstone fight, died in one half-hearted hit from Lockjaw the next fight. It was *that* close to death against Tombstone.

    I thought this was a spoiler regarding the first fight, not first night, so I opened it after Sawblaze vs Monsoon and now I have a sad

  • SimpsoniaSimpsonia Registered User regular
    Hevach wrote: »
    Duck is also built to be a tombstone for Tombstone, and Tombstone was its worst fight all season.

    In their alternate forms as Whoops and Last Rites, Whoops did break Tombstone, though. There are no guarantees with a blade heavier than two of the Four Horsemen, no matter who you are.
    I think that floating wedge design really defeats a horizontal spinner's big advantage. As soon as it impacts, it pushes the wedge on to the floor, which braces it and then sends the force back into the horizontal spinner. Every time Tombstone hit Bombshell's wedge, he bounced upwards, which is way harder on it than a straight back or side-to-side deflection. Typically though, that doesn't beat Tombstone as he's pretty robust, but it just seemed like one of those 'any given Sunday' moments with that chain breaking off.

  • facetiousfacetious a wit so dry it shits sandRegistered User regular
    Caught up on the last two episodes...
    I think the loss to Monsoon rather validated my previous statements about SawBlaze being overrated. And like, I actually like SawBlaze and the team behind it, I just don't think it's anything more than a wedge bot with a flashy but not particularly effective weapon.

    I have Bronco as the favourite to win. It's looked better than it has in a long time this season, and I think its half of the bracket is laid out in an advantageous manner. I think it beats either Lockjaw or Minotaur in the finals.

    "I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
    Real strong, facetious.

    Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
  • hawkboxhawkbox Registered User regular
    I wonder how many rounds that chain on Tombstone had seen, chains have a rather specific break point and I'm curious if he got lazy or cocky with it.

  • SealSeal Registered User regular
    Next time bigger chain and swap it between matches

  • hawkboxhawkbox Registered User regular
    That would probably be my take away.
    I am still annoyed Duck lost the rumble but I like that Tombstone is no longer a factor, that really opens things up.

  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    I think Bom shell broke it. Tombstone was upside down, with the weapon on the bottom, and Bombshell drove it's wedge under the weapon area right when it broke. Since Bombshell's disk rises above the wedge, I think it slipped in the open A frame and hit the chain or pulley.

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