Robot Bastard Pre Season Predictions

[Siphai]

<big>Lightweight:</big>

1. Microwave

I actually think the whole design would be better without the teeth... they give the blade a lot less range than what it would have otherwise. Another solid design, all else considered.

2. Redline

Fast brick. Will the hinged wedge be effective? Will his armor hold up to the spinners? Might do well just because he's aggressive and stable.

3. Scarab

This is just a really fun design to look at. I really love it, and I love the versitility that the wedge brings. A horizontal spinner will probably tear the damn thing apart but Scarab will look great while its happening.

4. Dr. P

Time to start the quest towards .500 lifetime record lol... Hammer is dangerous, drive stats are average. Can he stand up to the spinners and bully around their vulnerable armor?

5. Zadkiel

Zadkiel's back, with the same useless rear wedge and the same knobby teeth. Can he take a step further in this tournament?

6. No Exit

An interesting little speed bump. Should do fairly well. Not sure how it'll do against spinners at all.

7. O'Malley

Its a powerful design, but frankly I think it's fairly unstable. The two wheels are really close together, making for a thin base. Compare it to Jack Frost or The Windmill or Zadkiel. It's gonna suffer recoil and its going to have some trouble getting its front pointed back at the opponent after a colission. On the other hand, it can do some damage since there are a lot of LW with flat sides.

8. Something Vibrant

Flat Sides are dangerous but lifters are usually effective. He'll need to be cautious around spinners.

9. Speed Buster

Basically Something Vibrant without the lifter. Does that make it better? Or worse? At least he doesn't have fully flat sides, I suppose.

10. Mr. Not Very Nice

Best version of Mr. NVN so far. Unfortunately still has lots of flat sides making him vulnerable to spinners. On the other hand, he's a design that can bum rush you and stay in your face. If playzooki plays his matches correctly, spinners will get in one hit, and never get a chance to spin up again. Wedge might not be super effective but I suppose it can do enough.

11. Conqueror

Typical GF93 front hinged flipper. Nothing special. Something of an outdated design. Has flat sides meaning that undercutters will really hurt it. Can it be effective against other wedges? Great stats, otherwise.

12. Le Mans

A really box design... its fairly well statted but he'll get shredded by any spinner. Is his wedge going to be effective? It's got a very thin lip making it difficult to get purchase.

13. Son of a BOX

Terrible. Flat sides, exposed wheels, no method of attacking the opponent. Is going to lose every match barring forfeits.

<big>Middleweight:</big>

1. Marauder

Still can't get over that side view that shows the wedge hanging on by a paper thin hinge lol. Anyway its a solid spinner killer, no flat sides and high armor make it difficult for any spinner to land blows. Will it be as successful against wedges and other non-spinner designs? Tracks and high torque make it tough to push around so I'll say yes.

2. Square Wave

Can stand up equally well to spinners and wedges. Fast and has the torque to accelerate and shove everyone around without losing any speed. Actually uses all his stat points this time around. Lol.

3. Luna

What can you say about a ring spinner that isn't already apparent lol. In real life they're really cool to watch, but in fic they're uhhh a little boring lol sorry not sorry. Wedge setup might be more effective than Kody thinks.

4. Sarge

A very very solid brickish design with an effective lifter. It'll be tough for anyone to beat. The problem is going to be dealing with spinners, since he has lots of flat sides and places for spinners to grab onto. He does have high armor to help him with that, though.

5. Barrier

Yeah this is a robot I could do without seeign again. Just an annoying design. The lifter itself is fairly thin I guess. Its Barrier.

6. Pterodactyl

Better than the last Pterodactyl. I think the flipper arm sticks too far out between the wedges, and gives spinners a place to hit, though. Will be really cool otherwise.

7. No Patrol

Something a little different from other ring spinners I suppose. Should do okay. I guess the wedge makes it easier to get back up to speed after a collision.

8. Hermes

Standard lifting wedge. Has flat sides though. Going to have to be careful when facing spinners.

9. Millenaire de Souffrance

Shouldn't do bad, but I can't see it being a championship contender. Could make the playoffs if it gets some key wins.

10. Good For It

You know how I feel about Ring Spinners already lol. He's actually got a 7 point weapon armor - armor disparity (his weapon power (15) is 7 points higher than his weapon armor (6 + 2 = 8)) meaning that he'll get 5 hits to do damage. 15 weapon power might not be enough power to do knockout damage to opponents in 5 hits. A big boom or bust design.

11. Janus

Martijn's frog colored cluster bot. They Probably won't survive against any of the spinners in the competition... they're armor is just too low. They'll probably be very annoying for the lifters and rammers in the competition, though.

12. Toothache

Weird flipper/disc hybrid... I think he'll be better off just using the flipper. That disc looks so thin, and those hinged wedges seem like they're getting in the way.

13. JetSet

Eleven speed, NFX should eat his heart out. I'm not sure how effective the wedge will be, but its a very one dimensional robot. The best of James's team at least...

<big>Heavyweight: </big>

1. Snijmachine

Spinner with the most knockout potential. Has to deal with a lot of high armored robots in HW, but can make use of those wedges against designs that rely too much on plows.

2. Station to Station

Really annoying brick lifter multibot. Will do well.

3. Klarinette

This guy looks so cool. I'm a really big fan of this. Should bring Klarinette back to the playoffs after a lackluster season in FRR. Has flat sides but HW only has two spinners so he'll survive.

4. Waterloo Sunset

Eh. He has a heck of a lot of armor, but it'd be easy for any spinner to catch the edge of the plow and rip the whole setup out of the chassis. Otherwise it's just a brick wedge, nothing special. I doubt the effectiveness of the wedge.

5. Arbiter

Maybe this one will be better than the last Arbiter. Just another sloped flipper, I suppose.

6. Tellu

When you said that you took a page from Dr. P I didn't expect that&#33; I'm lovin the rear hinged wedges lol, I'm not sure what they're gonna fend off. Anyway might be decent I suppose, Idk how effective the flipper part is gonna be (Sallad was never very great at actually tossing people around, for example). Might still have trouble with spinners since the weapon bonus doesn't kick in for the lifter. But there's only one horizontal spinner so w/e.

7. Shrek

:dirk:

8. Evil FireBlaze

Okay so that shell is actually the chassis. Still can't self-right I guess. Might do some decent damage if it gets the right matchups.

9. El Chupacabra

Not sure how I feel about this. Definitely ugly as hell. Will probably do okay.

10. Give Way

Might actually do well in this competition, given that there's not a lot of spinners in HW and he can abuse his maneuverability against the rammers and lifters while biting their ankles with the drum.

11. Terrordactyl

VERY box, but I guess if he gets a grip on you he's going to tear you to shreds. Flippers and spinners might boss it around too much.

12. Smash Bros.

Multibots with weapons are always difficult... these guys are kinda slow and they're going to have trouble damaging stuff, and they aren't very well armored. They look cool though, and maybe through quick flanking attacks they can get the upperhand on some wedge or brick.

13. Awkwardbot

Boxy and I'm not sure that thin disc can even reach anything. Has 6 torque for some reason.

<big>Superheavyweight:</big>

1. Jack Frost

This iteration of Jack Frost is my favorite, and hopefully should be doing a lot of damage this time around. Very dangerous.

2. Lethal Injection

Solid lifter brick, sloped sides make it difficult to attack. Gonna be another good year for LI.

3. Parabolic Trajectory

FRR Champion and the first Team Targeted Champ outside of the big four to win a title since uhh I guess Scorpion Bite lmfao. Solid flipper that was looking pretty good in MSNBC until it got shut down. Might have trouble with some spinners.

4. Barracuda

Big hammer. Barracuda has done well in the past so it'll probably do well again.

5. Phantasmic Slammer

It's Phantasmic Slammer again. It will go 1-11, but its one win will be against Lethal Injection and It Will Be Worth It.

6. Teresa

Should be great against spinners, but Jack Frost is the only one lol. Might run into trouble with other designs, like hammers and vertical spinners. Depends on whether Kody can utilize the ramming bar in creative ways.

7. Peppernut

Its Peppernut. What do you want from me.

8. Stabstract

It's Stabstract again. One of those designs that you just don't really notice that still manage to do well. It's just a brick though, so why wouldn't it do well?

9. Chemical Reaction

Decent enough ring spinner. Can hurt something.

10. Pathos

A lot better than the first Pathos.

11. Viluy

I do have a note about the back wedge... uhh it won't work. The piping on the back wedge prevents the wedge from running flush with the ground. Anyone's wedge can get under that. With that said, the disc can do some damage.

12. The Watcher

This design would be insane to watch irl. With 13 speed he can actually do a ton of damage just by sitting and spinning lol. Otoh, when its not spinning, its useless. Plus he has 1 torque so actually GETTING all the way up to 13 speed is going to take forever.

13. Flip This

At least Chaosphere was covered in spikes so when it rolled over someone it'd have a chance to do something. This has 18 speed which I can't actually imagine irl... lol. Can't really do anything to anyone anyway...

[GF93]

First, Second and Fourth, eh? That's very good to see, hopefully I can pull those off. 11th for Conks is not so good (I did have a redesign in mind for it, but it was not finished in time.), but at least with the stats and the relatively small amount of spinners, hopefully there's enough in him for one more good go in its current format.

[playzooki]

not last yay

[British-Robotics]

Maybe I should've had a quick though on Le-Mans weaponry

[NFX]

I'll try to get some predictions up at some point. Alex is probably right, though, my team is clearly not the most effective, and I'm probably going to be lucky to reach the playoffs with anything. I would rather, though, give my bots some kind of personality and character rather than simply entering a giant purple box.

[That Kode Guy]

Lightweights

1. Redline
God damn it this guy is going to be fucking everywhere. Might suffer from control freakouts, but decent armour and pretty much instant max speed guarantees he'll be in your face even after you get a hit. Fucking bricks, man.

2. Dr. P
Surprised, Siph? Haha, I actually like the wedge a lot and, yes, that's kinda where I took inspiration for Tellu's own. But unlike her, Dr. P won't need a gay 1-point lifter to get under shit with it. And also unlike Tellu, Dr. P gives that front wedge a small armour bonus, which will probably be a saving grace against all the damn horizontal spinners. Dunno how he'll deal with fast bricks though.

3. No Exit
Love this little guy. The ramp will help against those horizontal spinners just as much as his body shape. With that shape, though, other wedges could get under him from his side wedges since he's 2WD and the wheels are directly in the middle.

4. Microwave
Agree with Alex on the teeth thing, but also he gets flipped and he's done. Any srimech-pole bot is gonna have a bad time trying to self-right. Otherwise, he's a great spinner.

5. Scarab
It's Agent X with a drum instead of a plow&#33; lol... might do well against the average armour opponents and weak wedges, but any horizontal spinner is gonna destroy him.

6. Mr. Not Very Nice
He's now insanely fast and has a decent thwack and wedge. Average armour might spell his doom though.

7. O'Malley
He just has too small of a wheelbase to really keep his weapon stable, so he's going to suffer when recoiling after a hit. On the other hand, he has enough armour to withstand other weapons and arena hazards.

8. Conqueror
Mixed bag. He probably should have had more torque because it'll take him a while to get to top speed, and then there's his front-hinged flipping capabilities. But he's always sturdy so expect decent things.

9. Zadkiel
He's back and blocky as ever. Thing is, all the other horizontal spinners will make mincemeat of him.

10. Speed Buster
He's nice, but average. When facing competition like this, you don't want to be simply average.

11. Something Vibrant
I like Flick of the Wrist, but... anything that gets around the forks, or damages them, is going to kick his ass. The forks are really his only method of attack.

12. Le Mans
Cool, but design flaws are going to hurt him. Oh, and spinners...

13. Son of a BOX
...seriously?


Middleweights

1. Sarge
That lifter is going to be an absolute pain-in-the-ass for just about everyone. Well armoured, well statted in drive... only thing I'd have done is given the lifter the bonus points and removed the plow. But I guess it is a Josh thing to keep the patented Blood Gulch plow. :D

2. Pterodactyl
Another pain-in-the-ass design, but a lot more effective than last version. He doesn't have many spinners to deal with, so the flat-sided flipper won't take too much punishment.

3. Square Wave
Christ sakes, him again? I probably would have switched torque and weapon points, at least. Then his lifter would be more annoying to deal with. But hey, he'll still do well. At least he doesn't have only 29 stat points this time, lol...

4. Marauder
It's a lifter and it has tracks. I don't think it can stand above Sarge or Square Wave in terms of lifter effectiveness but he'll pretty much demolish any rammer or spinner.

5. The No Patrol
HOLY SHIT, IT'S INFUSION&#33;&#33;&#33; Oh no wait, it's just No Patrol again. But he actually looks pretty boss here.

6. Luna
Take away No Patrol's wedge and this is what you get. Not sure how either set-up is going to be, but the adjacent knocker teeth might stave off other horizontal spinners... maybe.

7. I Can't Believe It's Not Barrier
Always annoying. Unfortunately he has a lot of edges to rip into, and the lifter doesn't get an armour bonus, nor will it work as effectively as others. But hey, it's Barrier...

8. Hermes
Yeah, standard lifter. It's decent I suppose.

9. Toothache
I think the wedge will be most effective, but the disc can probably do some nice damage as well. The problem is that it's simply a competitor. Not a contender.

10. Good For It
Five hits. What can you do in five hits? Well, uh...

11. Janus
...kill this guy, perhaps?

12. Millenaire de Souffrance
Okay this thing is just... weird. He won't work that well as a thwack I don't think, and any spinners will chew him up and spit him out. He best make use out of his flipping capabilities.

13. JetSet
You know that piece of cheese behind the refridgerator that got all radioactive? Well...


Heavyweights

1. Snijmachine
Yeah I put him here, wanna fight about it? He's probably going to kill everything. Klarinette, El Chupacabra, and Waterloo Sunset, three of the only ones that really stand much of a chance, have flat sides/corners. Shrek... lol. playzooki better RP his ass off.

2. Klarinette
Return of the Queen&#33; SHE :P has lots going for her, including that damn lifting plate. Tracks? Yep. Diesector-hammers? Yep. Style? And then some. Probably should have put another point in the weapon but oh well.

3. Tellu
Prob my best chance lol. Cheap-ass 1-power lifter is going to get under almost everything and there's only one or two spinners in HW. The flipper thing was put on as an afterthought and likely won't work, but it won't hurt to try.

4. Station to Station
I like him better here. More armour, more wedging, more annoyingness.

5. Shrek
Hey guys, it's LowDown again.

6. The Arbiter
Ultra-low. In fact, so low that Snijmachine and Evil FireBlaze might not get a good bite on him. But then I don't know how Spatula calculates that. Anyway he'll be tough, tougher than the last Arbiter at least.

7. Waterloo Sunset
I also doubt the effectiveness of his wedges. They look a bit thin, and probably even too shallow. Otherwise he's just got his armour stat. His weapon will hardly be effective either, but hey, he's got torque&#33;

8. El Chupacabra
Edgy. At least he's versatile. Probably wants revenge on Tellu for the mini-tourn loss. Might get it.

9. Super Smash Bros.
They're cool, but won't be too effective. Hopefully they should get a play-off spot. I love them.

10. Evil FireBlaze
I gues he's alright. No srimech though, bad control and not enough power to really do much with in this class.

11. Give Way
You're too slow&#33;

12. Terror-Dactyl
He's really too boxy, anything that knows what it's doing will take him down.

13. Awkwardbot
...this bot doesn't know what it's doing.


Superheavyweights

1. Jack Frost
Yeah I'm giving Josh two titles, what of it? He's a fucking monster.

2. Phantasmic Slammer
Always in the ring. Probably his best version yet. Not much that spinners can do to him.

3. Lethal Injection
I still have a problem with LI's set-ups, but he'll do fine regardless. Not much that can take advantage of him.

4. Parabolic Trajectory
Get flipped, bitch.

5. Teresa
Will rape spinners and rammers/hinged wedges. Other lifters? That's where she'll get destroyed.

6. Barracuda
He could probably do the above but he has only one torque point. Still, not much that can take advantage of his lack of torque.

7. Peppernut
I'm just going to pretend this is Vendetta... no wait, I can't. Fuck you Martijn. :P

8. Stabstract
Pretty much useless when flipped. Problem is, you have to get under him. A decent amount can but... can they flip him?

9. Pathos
See above.

10. Chemical Reaction
I liked his previous version more. He's just another generic ring spinner here. He has good stats but simply not enough spinner power to get the job done.

11. Viluy
I love this bot, really I do. I just don't think the wedge will get under much though. (I'd like to think the piping issue was simply cosmetic however :P ) She just has too much weight at the disc-end for the wedge to be effective anyway. Almost the same issue as No Exit. The disc can do stuff, I guess.

12. The Watcher
What's my refbot doing in here?

13. FLIP THIS&#33;&#33;
So snooker has finally made its way into the ARC Olympics...

[GF93]

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>KodeBreaker</dt><dd>Sep 12 2014, 06:36 PM</dd></dl><div>8. Conqueror
Mixed bag. He probably should have had more torque because it'll take him a while to get to top speed, and then there's his front-hinged flipping capabilities. But he's always sturdy so expect decent things.


[/quote]One minor question- why would it take a while to get to top speed? It's got 8 Traction on it, so it should reach it very quickly. Unless Torque now means Acceleration as well, which would be a bit strange and unnecessary.

[That Kode Guy]

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>GF93</dt><dd>Sep 12 2014, 06:55 PM</dd></dl><div>Unless Torque now means Acceleration[/quote]this, also traction now only dictates turning acceleration

[GF93]

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>KodeBreaker</dt><dd>Sep 12 2014, 06:57 PM</dd></dl><div><blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>GF93</dt><dd>Sep 12 2014, 06:55 PM</dd></dl><div>Unless Torque now means Acceleration[/quote]this, also traction now only dictates turning acceleration[/quote]What a stupid and quite frankly unnecessary rule. So I've got all that speed, but because of that, I can basically do bugger all with it.

[Siphai]

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>GF93</dt><dd>Sep 12 2014, 07:07 PM</dd></dl><div><blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>KodeBreaker</dt><dd>Sep 12 2014, 06:57 PM</dd></dl><div><blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>GF93</dt><dd>Sep 12 2014, 06:55 PM</dd></dl><div>Unless Torque now means Acceleration[/quote]this, also traction now only dictates turning acceleration[/quote]What a stupid and quite frankly unnecessary rule. So I've got all that speed, but because of that, I can basically do bugger all with it.[/quote]What's stupid about it? Why didn't you read the rules?

[GF93]

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Siphai</dt><dd>Sep 12 2014, 07:09 PM</dd></dl><div><blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>GF93</dt><dd>Sep 12 2014, 07:07 PM</dd></dl><div><blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>KodeBreaker</dt><dd>Sep 12 2014, 06:57 PM</dd></dl><div><blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>GF93</dt><dd>Sep 12 2014, 06:55 PM</dd></dl><div>Unless Torque now means Acceleration[/quote]this, also traction now only dictates turning acceleration[/quote]What a stupid and quite frankly unnecessary rule. So I've got all that speed, but because of that, I can basically do bugger all with it.[/quote]What's stupid about it? Why didn't you read the rules?[/quote]I did, but I didn't see that- I thought it mostly focussed on changes to armour, damage, and how Weaponry works. As for why it's daft, I honestly don't see how the measure of how hard you push should govern how quickly your drive gets up to speed, but how much grip your wheels or treads have on the ground does not. You could have the most powerful motors in the competition, but without good traction, you'd just get wheelspin.

[NFX]

From Spatch's ruleset:

Torque: This stat determines not only how pushy your bot is, but also the acceleration that you push another robot at.
Traction: This stat governs acceleration and a bot's ability to have control.

I'm seeing Torque only affecting acceleration when you're pushing an opponent, and Traction dictating acceleration when you're just driving around, in a straight line or turning.

[GF93]

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>NFX</dt><dd>Sep 12 2014, 07:17 PM</dd></dl><div>From Spatch's ruleset:

Torque: This stat determines not only how pushy your bot is, but also the acceleration that you push another robot at.
Traction: This stat governs acceleration and a bot's ability to have control.

I'm seeing Torque only affecting acceleration when you're pushing an opponent, and Traction dictating acceleration when you're just driving around, in a straight line or turning.[/quote]OK, that's alright. I thought for a minute that Torque would govern Acceleration in general without any input from the Traction, which I thought was odd. If it's just pushing, I can see how that'd work.

[NFX]

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>GF93</dt><dd>Sep 12 2014, 07:20 PM</dd></dl><div><blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>NFX</dt><dd>Sep 12 2014, 07:17 PM</dd></dl><div>From Spatch's ruleset:

Torque: This stat determines not only how pushy your bot is, but also the acceleration that you push another robot at.
Traction: This stat governs acceleration and a bot's ability to have control.

I'm seeing Torque only affecting acceleration when you're pushing an opponent, and Traction dictating acceleration when you're just driving around, in a straight line or turning.[/quote]OK, that's alright. I thought for a minute that Torque would govern Acceleration in general without any input from the Traction, which I thought was odd. If it's just pushing, I can see how that'd work.[/quote]It says that later on, though, when discussing the stats individually.

3

[GF93]

Alright. Well, as long as having good Acceleration (Ergo, the ability to use a good Speed stat.) isn't totally defined by having high Torque (Which in turn would completely neuter Flippers.) and a good amount of Traction plays a role as well, I guess it's survivable.