the "let me fix your robot" thread

Post by **Badnik96** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 12:50 am

okay so a ton of people are forfeiting out of FRR right now and i feel like a big reason of that is because the newbies feel like they have no chance at winning and decide to not rp and save some time. the goal of this thread is to help shallow the learning curve to being a strong contender, and hopefully keeping the newbies which joined after hammerfall around a while longer.

basically, this thread is for you guys to post your robot designs, where i will critique them. a few rules/notes first:

1) Please keep your submissions to one robot per 48 hours. not only does this give me enough time to look over your robot, but it keeps people from spamming the thread with robots every time a new one pops into your head.

2) Please also include a description and stats with your picture. you may be Nick when it comes to designing robots, but if your stats/description are lacking then you will struggle.

3) For the first couple of weeks at least I may be slow to reply due to crappy internet. Don't be upset if I don't immediately respond, it just means I'm busy.

4) I will NOT fix every single issue with your robot. I don't want to hand you a perfect robot, I simply want to teach you what to avoid in your designs. Teach a man to fish, etc.

So yeah, please feel free to use this if you want. I'm not expecting it to be huge but I figure if it helps some people to stick around then I've succeeded with this thread.

GF93 · Post by **GF93** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 12:54 am

Alrighty! This sounds like an interesting idea, could be big if it takes off.

Anyway, I'd like to put forward Hypothermia to test it, if that's alright. Same stats and picture as Backlash.

Post by **Badnik96** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 1:08 am

really the only way i can reasonably think of improving the current hypothermia would be some sturdy hinged wedges, maybe convert one of those into a front end you could give an armor bonus to to help fight spinners. other than that there isn't much i can see that's wrong with it.

Post by **Hooray For Lexan** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 1:41 am

So are other people allowed to comment?

If so, then yeah, I definitely agree with Badnik that hinged skirts would be awesome. At the moment, the problem is that due to your lack of an effective wedge, a brick that's strong enough to tank your hammer blows will have a very easy time controlling the match.

The only other thing is that since you have a turret Hypothermia might be able to get away with less speed (kind of like a wheeled version of Mastodon). Going down to 4 speed would improve your control ratio, and you could put that extra point into torque (more pushing against wedgebots), armor (your robot's shape is already inherently a PITA for spinners to get corner damage on, and 10 armor would make it quite difficult for most of them to KO you), or weapon (might give you a slight edge against moderately-armored opponents).

The Monsterworks · Post by **The Monsterworks** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 2:15 am

I'd like to put forward Mastodon in its primary configuration: hammer.

I know that it's a highly competitive design and has already won a minor tournament, but with the walker bonus going down to 34 following PD and CBC, I'm going to have to adjust and obviously I'd like it to remain a top-tier contender. Where do you think I can pull a couple of stat points from, and how might I be able to compensate.

GF93 · Post by **GF93** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 2:26 am

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Badnik96</dt><dd>Jul 24 2016, 01:08 AM</dd></dl><div>really the only way i can reasonably think of improving the current hypothermia would be some sturdy hinged wedges, maybe convert one of those into a front end you could give an armor bonus to to help fight spinners. other than that there isn't much i can see that's wrong with it.[/quote]<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Quote:</dt><dd> </dd></dl><div>So are other people allowed to comment?

If so, then yeah, I definitely agree with Badnik that hinged skirts would be awesome. At the moment, the problem is that due to your lack of an effective wedge, a brick that's strong enough to tank your hammer blows will have a very easy time controlling the match.

The only other thing is that since you have a turret Hypothermia might be able to get away with less speed (kind of like a wheeled version of Mastodon). Going down to 4 speed would improve your control ratio, and you could put that extra point into torque (more pushing against wedgebots), armor (your robot's shape is already inherently a PITA for spinners to get corner damage on, and 10 armor would make it quite difficult for most of them to KO you), or weapon (might give you a slight edge against moderately-armored opponents). [/quote]
Thanks for the advice so far guys, I'll be sure to take that on board for when the time comes to improve it. Like, I feel the foundation and design itself are there, but it got seriously screwed by a couple of big schoolboy errors in terms of statting and wedges and stuff, so it's been a bit of a flop so far. Hopefully though, with the new hinged wedges (And most likely either a stronger weapon or more torque), it should be considerably better than it is at the moment. And actually able to kill stuff.

Hiicantpk · Post by **Hiicantpk** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 3:17 am

So.. Remi. Shes one of my older designs, but I still feel she can be improved for R4/CBC (Depending on if she makes the playoffs in Backlash)

I'm considering dropping a point from armour and putting it in Traction (Meaning the stats will be 5 Speed, 3 Traction, 2 Torque, 8 Armour (+2 Rear plow), 12 weapon), but I'm not really sure what to improve design wise.

patrickrowberry · Post by **patrickrowberry** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 3:34 am

are my micro bot and drone rules good or do the need fixing and are they explained clearly enough?

"micro-bots; think shaman, as a micro bot get stats of 12 and get a 3+ speed boost for being a micro bot
e.g
speed 4 (+ 3 for mirco-bot advantage) this means the micro bot has 7 speed and if it has the 4 speed and 3 traction it it is treated if it has 7 speed and 6 traction to alow the micro-bot to be able to be controlled
traction 3
tourque 2
weapon 0
armour 3

how ever the mane bot must lose 4 stats and con only have a mix stat of 26 for 1 micro-bot, 22 for 2 micro-bots and so on you can have a maximum of 3 micro-bots for both walkers and wheeled robots

for walkers they can have micro-bots and but a micro-bot must still use wheels and get the same micro-bot advantage how ever a walker can only have a max 30 stats for having 1 micro-bot, 26 for 2 micro bots, 22 for 3 micro bots

self damage rule applies to all robots even drones

drone rules:

drones have the same rules of micro-bots but must have a minimum of 5 speed and have 0 torque
drone wings have the same rules as wheels but have half armour and if one is damaged it a high possibility the drone go out of control
drones have no speed bones like micro-bots as the have the bonus of be able to fly and are the hardest to hit bot

e.g.
speed 5
traction 3
toque 0
weapon 2
armour 2

if a drone flies out of the arena it is classified as out and no longer able to take part of the battle"

Mystic2000 · Post by **Mystic2000** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 3:38 am

...i guess i can ask some help here... i'd like to see how i can improve Game Over from my Backlash team, stats, pics, and desc in the FRR7 signups thread...

btw, dunno if it should be put here, but i'm planning to do a brief tutorial on design and statting basics about what to do and what common mistakes should be avoided

Wolf51-50 · Post by **Wolf51-50** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 10:31 am

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>The Monsterworks</dt><dd>Jul 24 2016, 02:15 AM</dd></dl><div>I'd like to put forward Mastodon in its primary configuration: hammer.

I know that it's a highly competitive design and has already won a minor tournament, but with the walker bonus going down to 34 following PD and CBC, I'm going to have to adjust and obviously I'd like it to remain a top-tier contender. Where do you think I can pull a couple of stat points from, and how might I be able to compensate.[/quote]While I can't think of Mastodon's stats off the top of my head, I would think taking a point off speed would be a good place to start (I'm probably going to do the same with Endgame). Walkers aren't meant to be fast to begin with and 1 point less won't make much of a difference. Also, if you use armor bonuses to your advantage, you could probably take one off armor as well.

Post by **Hooray For Lexan** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 3:20 pm

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Quote:</dt><dd> </dd></dl><div>I'd like to put forward Mastodon in its primary configuration: hammer.

I know that it's a highly competitive design and has already won a minor tournament, but with the walker bonus going down to 34 following PD and CBC, I'm going to have to adjust and obviously I'd like it to remain a top-tier contender. Where do you think I can pull a couple of stat points from, and how might I be able to compensate.[/quote]

Kek.

Your hammer has 15 goddamn power. You could take both points out of your weapon and still be a very good robot even without your other configurations. Take a look at how Icepick Lobotomy's 12 power hammer and 11 armor front plow have been doing in Backlash. So far the only robot it's lost to is the most powerful spinner in the division, and it's gotten three KOs (and one FF which would probably have been a KO given Tortoise's armor). You would have a stronger hammer with more reach, and your entire robot would be as sturdy as IL's front plow. Plus, for brickbots that your hammer can't KO you can mount the flipper (13 power flippers are ridiculous too) or spinner (Vorpal Bunny won Bot-O-Rama with 16 weapon and the same drivetrain stats as Mastodon, but it had a directional weapon and less armor).

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Quote:</dt><dd> </dd></dl><div>So.. Remi. Shes one of my older designs, but I still feel she can be improved for R4/CBC (Depending on if she makes the playoffs in Backlash)

I'm considering dropping a point from armour and putting it in Traction (Meaning the stats will be 5 Speed, 3 Traction, 2 Torque, 8 Armour (+2 Rear plow), 12 weapon), but I'm not really sure what to improve design wise. [/quote]

This is somewhat a matter of personal preference, but IMO Remi's core design has a lot of room for improvement. Your drum's bite is limited, and your corners, which are what supports your weapon, only have 7 armor. That leaves you very vulnerable to horizontal spinners. It would be better to put your strongest armor on the same side was your weapon.

British-Robotics · Post by **British-Robotics** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 5:37 pm

Chemical Explosion V2 could do with some little adjustment and Powerdrive Jr

Post by **Hooray For Lexan** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 6:16 pm

Both of those are sound designs, just poorly statted.

Powerdrive Jr: It needs a stronger weapon and the front wedge needs better armor. One more point of armor and an armor bonus of +1 for the front wedge will give it 9 armor, which is the threshold to not risk being 2-shotted by 14-power spinners. If you increase the weapon power to 11, you can still be a fast spinner with 6 speed, 4 traction, 1 torque. I prefer a little more weapon power than that, but it seems like your design objective is to control matches by throwing opponents around, so you might be okay with 11.

Chemical Explosion: Needz moar armor. For an offset spinner your weapon can be 8 points above your armor (14-6 or 15-7) with no problems. A difference of 9 points (14-5 or 15-6) will still function at the end of the match, although it will be less effective... but not that many robots can last 3 minutes against a 15-power spinner. Moving one point from traction to armor will give you a functional and very powerful weapon with decent speed. If you're okay with dropping the weapon power to 14 then you could take the point out of weapon instead and be a little bit more maneuverable.

Wolf51-50 · Post by **Wolf51-50** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 7:18 pm

I've heard some people say that having a three point gap between speed and traction is either ok, or it turns your drivetrain to shits. A little bit of sliding on my bots is ok IMO, but what is the true boundary here?

Post by **Badnik96** » Mon Jul 25, 2016 7:08 am

TBR please choose one of those. You cannot submit more than one at a time.

Honestly i don't think i should be helping with fine-tuning champion robots, so i will be abstaining from helping with Mastodon.

I think Remi would benefit from a larger drum and maybe a point or two more in weapon.

Remove the flat corners from Game Over's wedge and I think it would be solid. Maybe redesign the forks as well.