The Monsterworks: New Monsters

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The Monsterworks
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The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by The Monsterworks » Thu May 26, 2016 4:52 am

Hey, I'm ForceAndFury from Reddit. I'm pretty new here, but as some of you may have guessed, I like to go big on things that I do and I'm a sucker for unconventional designs. Weird is wonderful, even if it doesn't always win.

I've worked out a few different 'teams' for entry in different events. Mostly, I'll go with a prehistoric theme, since paleobiology has been a longtime hobby of mine. Periodic updates will come as I CAD more things.

I'd like to introduce some of my designs:

Superheavyweight: Triceratops

Image

So, it's a 2WD rear-hinged flipper in the vein of Inertia Labs' machines, with a chunky front plow that'll soak damage like a juggernaut in one configuration and wheels near the front of the chassis so that it can always keep its weapon pointed towards its opponents. It has a bit of a longer stroke, however, since that matters in the ARC stat system. Triceratops is probably the most conventional bot on my team, but it may end up being one of the stronger performers.

Speed: 7 | Weapon: 5 | Armour: 11 (optional +2 to the front plow) | Traction: 5 | Torque: 2


Superheavyweight: Ankylosaurus

Image

This is a walker, because I like walkers and because I feel as if an Ankylosaurus should be slow and heavily armoured. A single large tank runs both a gas-powered flipper and a tail that contains a gas-powered spinner similar to The Butcher from Battlebots S5. The tail has a pair of trackball castor wheels that are not motorized but can be made to spin rapidly by the same mechanism that powers the blade, thereby whipping the tail around to attack only when the blade starts spinning. Of course, both weapons cannot operate at the same time. That'd just be cheap. See the linked CADs for more details.

Speed: 5 | Weapon: 15 | Armour: 12 | Traction: 3 | Torque: 1


Superheavyweight: Euphoberia Ferox

Image

I'd like to present the newest nightmare built by The Monsterworks and ready to fight in the Superheavyweight division. Introducing Euphoberia Ferox

Yes, it's a slithering robot, in the same vein as the famous 'Snake' built by Mark Setrakian seventeen years ago. However, slithering technology has come a long way since then. Here are some videos for proof of concept:

One

Two

So, with that cleared up, I'd like to talk about the weapons modules for this serpentine terror. First up, and pictured, are the crushing jaws. The two small teeth at the front are purely ornamental and can easily be removed for fights. The large tooth in the center of the jaw is what bites into enemy machines. While it looks small compared to the robot, keep in mind that this is a superheavyweight that operates under walker+ rules. The tooth is over eight inches long and can sink deep into its victims. It also crushes with a force of 16 weapon power, meaning that it will kill anything that it grabs in a single bite. Second is the bulb spinner, which still needs to be rendered and will be added later on. It also strikes with 16 weapon power, and its recoil is dissipated through Euphoberia's 20 segments, resulting in very little to no knockback.

Coiling, Pressing, and Attacking

Snakes coil, as shown in one of the pictures if you scroll down. Incidentally, by sidewinding, Euphoberia is also able to strafe. However, this robot doesn't need to be particularly fast. For the sake of movement, its entire body is actuated. That means that the flat plate on its tail can be both pressed against the ground and used as a powerful lifter, making it inadvisable to attack. Any segment can also be pressed, so attacking the body will not result in getting beneath it. If you're fortunate, you may get beneath the spines of one segment. Even if you do, Euphoberia has you right where it wants you. Its primary attacking strategy involves coiling around attacking robots, trapping them in its spiny embrace, and bringing its crusher to bear. Its speed across the arena floor has absolutely no bearing on its effectiveness in this regard.

Defense

As previously mentioned, any segment, being actuated, can naturally press, and the head, with the jaws, can swivel. Flipping a robot so large, heavy, and awkward is nearly impossible, especially, since segments can just lift themselves up. In the event that Euphoberia is somehow flipped, it can fairly easily roll itself over. In the event of an OOTA, it should be able to rear up and climb back in unless there is a significant drop involved.

Additionally, one might think to attack the joints between segments. This is definitely a potential weakness. That's why the spikes exist. Rammers will only ride up the lower spikes and impale themselves on the middle spikes should they attempt a high speed run at Euphoberia. The segments can articulate to block incoming axe blows with their spikes, and spinners will be promptly coiled around and smothered.

Stats

So how do you stat a monstrosity like this? You play to its strengths and protect its weaknesses. So the stats look like this:

Speed: 4 | Weapon: 16 | Armour: 13 | Traction: 2 | Torque: 1


Heavyweight: Torosaurus

Image

Additional Renders by Brian

Yes, the name and the robot are blatant homages to Toro, although it's really in the same weight class as The Matador. It's just as tough as its larger cousin, but sacrifices some speed in order to have a really scary flipper. Same deal, though' overall. It's a 2WD rear-hinged flipper with a chunky front plow that'll soak damage like a juggernaut and wheels near the front of the chassis so that it can always keep its weapon pointed towards its opponents. Torosaurus is pretty conventional, but not everything out there has to be a special snowflake, right?

Speed: 6 | Weapon: 8 | Armour: 11 | Traction: 4 | Torque: 1


Heavyweight: Dunkleosteus

Image

This is a wide-faced, invertible plow/crusher, weighted towards the front so that it can pivot effortlessly around its massive plow/mouth. The face is designed so that it <del>is really fucking ugly</del> works either way up (though it works better right side up). For the sake of knockback mitigation, Dunkleosteus is encircled by four large tracks, which ensure both full invertibility using the central joint as a pivot, and that this prehistoric terror's footprint on the ground is huge. Feel like going fishing?

Speed: 8 &#124; Weapon: 1 &#124; Armour: 12 &#124; Traction: 6 &#124; Torque: 3


Heavyweight: Mastodon

Image

I like prehistoric animals, but they're all dead, and I like walkers, but they're slow like Forrest Gump, so unidirectional weaponry is usually a waste of space because they'll never hit anything. I solved this by making a hammer on a turret on a goddamned Mastodon. It also has a nice shield in front that pivots with the turret to provide a second, movable layer of armour because, a) you can never have enough armour, and b) why the fuck not? When mastodon gets really angry he can fling you with either a 15 power, long-stroke turreted flipper or gore you with a nightmarish 18 power, single-toothed spinner: his flailing tusks. The flipper and turret shield while in hammer mode also both press in a gimpy way. Located directly opposite from the face of the turret is a trackball wheel. It applies upward pressure to the back of the turret by pressing against the main chassis, thereby forcing the front downward.

Speed: 4 &#124; Weapon: 18 (+3 to the turret in hammer and flipper configs) &#124; Armour: 11 &#124; Traction: 2 &#124; Torque: 1


Middleweight: Machairoceratops

Image

The third member of the Tricerabot club is Machairoceratops. Just as tough as his big brother, and already decked out in black and blue so you can't see the bruises, this midsized mauler comes ready to fight. The shield is part of the rear-hinged flipper and benefits from a +2 weapon armour bonus as well as +1 taken from other places, meaning that this dinobot has 14 armour up front and ten on the body. Take that, spinners. Oh, and if you thought that hammers might be able to do something against this tank of a battlebot, you'd be wrong. See how the shield extends up a fair bit past the body? Yeah.

Speed: 7 &#124; Weapon: 5 &#124; Armour: 11 &#124; Traction: 5 &#124; Torque: 2


Middleweight: Orthocone

Image

Seriously, wtf is this thing? My best description would be a 'cone spinner'. It's close to being a vertical FBS, but it has a stable footprint on the ground and moves, like Dunkleosteus, on two trackball wheels that allow it to bring its unique weaponry to bear, and especially to whip the light rear portion around really quickly for some fun decimation. Basically, a single shaft, powered via chain drive by a titanic brushless motor, links the spinning head and tail, with a static section in the middle of the robot around the eyes (painted the same as the rear spinning part). Effectively, almost 2/3 of the robot benefits from weapon armour bonuses and you know what, Orthocone just looks cool, okay? I can't think of any other excuses for making something like this.

Speed: 5 &#124; Weapon: 15 &#124; Armour: 6 &#124; Traction: 3 &#124; Torque: 1


Middleweight: Carbonemys

Image

Yeah, it's a giant 4WD omniwheel turtle. <del>No, I didn't make the shell spin because that shit, my friend, is what we call 'predictabure' here in China.</del> Fuck it, I made the shell spin. It's a dome spinner that stores up kinetic energy a la Warrior SKF, but instead of putting that power into a flipper, it powers a truly unique weapon. The front of the robot is its 'head', which possesses a massive, gaping jaw capable of fitting almost any robot inside. "Ahh, so it's a crusher," you might ask? No, my friend, because that shit is what we call... fuck it. Basically, there's only an upper jaw and enough space that it can get that upper jaw over opposing bots. Then it fires 13 stored up weapon power straight downwards into your bot via a pneumatic spike with the floor to brace it, because Carbonemys is too hungry to wait like 2 minutes to nom nom nom bots and crushers are wimpy anyway.

Speed: 6 (pretty fast for a turtle) &#124; Weapon: 13 &#124; Armour: 6 (but 10 really because weapon armour :P) &#124; Traction: 4 &#124; Torque: 1


Lightweight: Spiclypeus (Spicy)

Image

The final, smallest member of the tricerabot quartet, Spiclypeus, nicknamed 'Spicy', is a rear-hinged flipper with a good turn of speed, solid flipping power, and a whole lot of armour. The shield on this little bastard is part of its flipper and benefits from both a +2 weapon armour bonus (yeah, it's less than 1/3 of the surface area) and a +1 armour buff for a total of 12 frontal armour. It also sticks up enough to strand hammers before they can hit the body, and the notch in the middle is great for catching and wrenching them with a quick turn. Keeping the weapon touching the ground as well as keeping it and the shield facing opponents should be a cinch, what with 2D and the wheels located right near the front but just barely behind the centre of gravity. All in all, I'm confident that this hot tamale will prove too hot to handle.

Speed: 8 &#124; Weapon: 6 &#124; Armour: 9 &#124; Traction: 6 &#124; Torque: 1


Lightweight: Anomalocaris

Image Coming Soon&#33;

It just wants to hug you, and then slowly devour you. basically, it's an low, arch-shaped wedge that your bot can get beached on. It has a reverse firing flipper on the back, that comes down instead of going up, so really, it has a clamp. The flipper is linked to a movable plate at the front and they fire at the same time. When the flipper is up, the plate is down and pressed against the ground. When the flipper comes down that usually means that opponents are trapped and about to be nommed, and the plate comes up. Anomalocaris feeds via a super high RPM diamond-tipped circular saw that pops out from its body. Normally, saws are weaksauce, because they just don't have the same kind of motor power that big spinners and stuff do, so they need longer period of contact with their target to damage it significantly. The design of this robot gives its saw that time, by beaching opponents, and then clamping down on them. The saw then gets to slice and dice through the generally weaker armour on robots' underbellies for as long as it feels like. Yum yum.

Speed: 6 &#124; Weapon: 9 (1 flipper and 8 saw) &#124; Armour: 10 &#124; Traction: 4 &#124; Torque: 1


Lightweight: Wiwaxia

Image

Ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? This murderous little spinner is a combination melty-brain and shell with terrifying power, decent speed, and solid armour (especially as it makes use of the FBS bonus). Mostly, it's a shell spinner, but the melty-brain drive, which is geared more for translational motion, can be viewed as augmenting the weapon, giving it about 50% more power than it would otherwise have and turning a pretty average FBS into something terrifying. Due to the superior traction, it also spins up very quickly.

Wiwaxia can spin in either direction, which helps it to torque self-right with the assistance of its summit pole, which guarantees that it will always land on its side when flipped and not come to rest on any one surface, aided by its bottom-heavy weight distribution. However, this system, though it works, is less than ideal, so for fights where it may be flipped often, Wiwaxia can give up one weapon power for a proper srimech as shown in the last two album pictures. Due to its unique weapons system, Wiwaxia effectively hits opposing machines with a horizontal spinning power of 18 and possesses 9 armour over its chassis.

Speed: 6 &#124; Weapon: 12 &#124; Armour: 7 &#124; Traction: 4 &#124; Torque: 1
Last edited by The Monsterworks on Sun Feb 19, 2017 2:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mastodon... Extinction (HW)
Osiris... Armageddon! (MW)
Elrathia... ROBOTS (LW)
Magnolia Pico... Ruination 4 (MW)
RipTide... ROBOT2 (FW)
Black Diamond... Cherry Bomb Classic 3 (HW)
MADSCIENCE... ROBOTS 3 (LW)
Abyss... ROBOTS 3 (MW)


The Monsterworks: 214-57 (.790) ...Probably up to no good.
Cherry Bomb Classic IV: 25-4
Finishing Move: 6-2
Magnolia Pico: 6-1
Magnolia Grande: 6-1
Glacier III: 7-0
ROBOTS 3: 21-6
Sixpounder: 3-4
MADSCIENCE: 9-1 Champion!
Abyss: 9-1 Champion!

MassimoV
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The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by MassimoV » Thu Jun 02, 2016 7:30 pm

Holy shit, this stuff is fuckin good

Toxic
Posts: 531
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The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by Toxic » Sun Jun 19, 2016 4:05 pm

Just saw this thread. Haven't seen a lot of this stuff. I'll agree with Massimo, this shit is crazy.

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The Monsterworks
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The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by The Monsterworks » Wed Jun 22, 2016 4:26 am

Thanks&#33; I try to keep it original and do things that I haven't seen done a lot. I'd rather think outside the box and get roflstomped than be conventional and win, though I definitely try to make my designs competitive. I'm looking hella forward to my first ARC competition, which'll either be Ruination or Showbots.
Mastodon... Extinction (HW)
Osiris... Armageddon! (MW)
Elrathia... ROBOTS (LW)
Magnolia Pico... Ruination 4 (MW)
RipTide... ROBOT2 (FW)
Black Diamond... Cherry Bomb Classic 3 (HW)
MADSCIENCE... ROBOTS 3 (LW)
Abyss... ROBOTS 3 (MW)


The Monsterworks: 214-57 (.790) ...Probably up to no good.
Cherry Bomb Classic IV: 25-4
Finishing Move: 6-2
Magnolia Pico: 6-1
Magnolia Grande: 6-1
Glacier III: 7-0
ROBOTS 3: 21-6
Sixpounder: 3-4
MADSCIENCE: 9-1 Champion!
Abyss: 9-1 Champion!

British-Robotics
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Location: Bolton, Greater Manchester

The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by British-Robotics » Wed Jun 22, 2016 7:10 am

This is going to take some imagination of my mind to try and make these creatures extinct XD, by other than that I really like the creativity here, your team seems to have a prehistoric theme to it :)

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The Monsterworks
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The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by The Monsterworks » Thu Jun 23, 2016 6:40 am

Yep, that's the idea. I've got a theme and I'll stick to it as much as I can. I think there are so many weird, wonderful, and downright deadly creatures that nature has come up with over the past 600 million years or so. I love the idea of giving them a second, robotic life. I also just wanna make showbots - art bots, if you will - but I want them to be competitive. I don't necessarily think that you have to choose form over function. You can have both.

Any ideas which bots you'd like to see in ruination and the showbot tournament?
Last edited by The Monsterworks on Thu Jun 23, 2016 6:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
Mastodon... Extinction (HW)
Osiris... Armageddon! (MW)
Elrathia... ROBOTS (LW)
Magnolia Pico... Ruination 4 (MW)
RipTide... ROBOT2 (FW)
Black Diamond... Cherry Bomb Classic 3 (HW)
MADSCIENCE... ROBOTS 3 (LW)
Abyss... ROBOTS 3 (MW)


The Monsterworks: 214-57 (.790) ...Probably up to no good.
Cherry Bomb Classic IV: 25-4
Finishing Move: 6-2
Magnolia Pico: 6-1
Magnolia Grande: 6-1
Glacier III: 7-0
ROBOTS 3: 21-6
Sixpounder: 3-4
MADSCIENCE: 9-1 Champion!
Abyss: 9-1 Champion!

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The Monsterworks
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The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by The Monsterworks » Thu Jul 07, 2016 11:44 am

<big>Flying Circus&#33;</big>

Image

Is it a...a...uh... six part clusterbot?&#33; Surely Monsterworks hasn't totally lost it, has he?&#33; Joke's on you, buddeh, I lost it ages ago and that is indeed a six part clusterbot. <div class='spoiler_toggle'>Spoiler: click to toggle</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">Gotcha, silly goose&#33; Six part multibots are dumb. They have like...six stat points. What am I supposed to make with that? A waffle iron? Nope, it's a three part clusterbot and the six bots rotate being 'active' for each fight. Seriously, a three pilot squadron is really pathetic or has suffered a lot of attrition, which is depressing, since that means more wives without husbands and children without fathers, and I suppose a few husbands without wives, too. Aaaaannyway...</div>

So how the hell does it work? First, click the spoiler if you were a dear, trusting enough little person to have avoided clicking it before. Did it? We good? Alright. With only eighteen points for each bot to play with, I gave them stats of...

Speed:7 &#124; Weapon: 7 &#124; Armour: 1 &#124; Traction: 2 &#124; Torque: 1

Doesn't look too scary, right? I probably should've put more points into weapon. <div class='spoiler_toggle'>Spoiler: click to toggle</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;"> oh well, 0-5 record inc </div> However, even that wouldn't have been enough to make these bots truly competitive, so I had to get creative. Let's go through this step by step.

1) Each bot is a melty-brain spinner, meaning that they're 'intelligent' thwacks, translating across the arena even as their speed stat determines their weapon power. So the base of each robot is spinning with seven weapon power. Speed for melty-brains is determined by whichever is lower: their speed or their weapon power. However...

2) Each bot is also a full-body spinner, meaning that, mounted on top of the spinning melty-brain base is a a shell spinning with seven weapon power. The effect is to basically add these points to the thwack points. Also, since the weapon stat is the same as the speed stat, each member of the Flying Circus has seven speed and fourteen weapon power and there are three of them.

3) This comes at a price, however. Each robot has only one armour, which means that it should self destruct, right? Wrong&#33; Since they're FBS, they benefit from the shell bonus, which raises their armour to three points each. Given that their weapon power and thwack power are both seven, this is only four points below each. Also, with seven speed and three of them in the arena at once, the Flying Circus will be relying on their mobility and numbers in addition to the fact that there are no sharp angles on their chassis aside from the ornamental plastic appliques that make up the machine gun 'magazines'. Finally, the machine guns, tipped by the orange 'blast' teeth are long enough that the members of the Flying circus will probably be making contact with enemy bots before the enemy bots can make contact with them. Basically, what this all means is that they're not getting killed in one hit.

4) The propellers on top look great and complete the theme, but they're not just for show. They serve the same purpose as Mastodon's and Glacier's self-righting bars. Additionally they can sacrifically block axe blows and do some damage to axes as well, since they'll also be spinning.

5) How about traction? Well, I only have two, which kind of sucks, but melty-brain bots are eligible for a three point bonus while spinning up. The tactic is simple: keep the bonus active by spinning up only partially or slowly until the individual Circus member is where it needs to be. When it goes on the offensive and contact is imminent, finish spinning up. This can also be achieved by hitting opposing machines repeatedly. As soon as one bot hits a target, it loses momentum, is sent backwards two feet, and has to spin back up again. Fortunately, the traction bonus kicks in, and it moves back into position with a nice control ratio of 7:5 while spinning up. The next one hits and goes through the same process, then the third one. Rinse and repeat. Opponents should be kept constantly on the defensive.

Enough technical stuff now. This is primarily an artbot and a labour of love. I'm a huge history buff, and Flying Circus is loosely based upon Jagdstaffel 11, a German fighter squadron from the First World War that was colloquially given the moniker, 'The Flying Circus' by friends and foes alike. Appropriately, it is led by Manfred (named for Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron), who's painted red and black and sporting an Iron Cross. He's supported by Fritz, wearing pastel green and yellow, and adorned with triple lightning bolts; Hans, who's black and white with a skull and crossbones motif; Otto, in orange and black with a black two-headed Austro-Hungarian eagle; Karl, painted in various shades of blue with a howling wolf logo; and Rudolph, who's a little bit eccentric in his bold purple and forest green livery, completed by a seven-headed hydra.

Comprised of six pilots, with three active for any given fight, it mimics the historical squadron's famed mobility, as well as its practice of painting its fighters in bright colours for easy identification and taking to the skies only in small groups. If it can come even close to replicating their stunning successes, I'll be rightly pleased.
Last edited by The Monsterworks on Thu Jul 07, 2016 10:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mastodon... Extinction (HW)
Osiris... Armageddon! (MW)
Elrathia... ROBOTS (LW)
Magnolia Pico... Ruination 4 (MW)
RipTide... ROBOT2 (FW)
Black Diamond... Cherry Bomb Classic 3 (HW)
MADSCIENCE... ROBOTS 3 (LW)
Abyss... ROBOTS 3 (MW)


The Monsterworks: 214-57 (.790) ...Probably up to no good.
Cherry Bomb Classic IV: 25-4
Finishing Move: 6-2
Magnolia Pico: 6-1
Magnolia Grande: 6-1
Glacier III: 7-0
ROBOTS 3: 21-6
Sixpounder: 3-4
MADSCIENCE: 9-1 Champion!
Abyss: 9-1 Champion!

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The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by Venice Queen » Thu Jul 07, 2016 1:23 pm

A few notes: the melty spin-up buff is not yet in the rules, unless you added it to your tournament as well. And if you're using my ruleset, the. Melty brain drivr is subject to the multiple weapons rule (it should be normally anyway, since it is a second weapon) so your shell spins with a power of 5, and you translate at that speed as well
‽ ROBOTICS
CHAMPIONS: Lightweight//Ruination 4//Nick's Fuzzy Rules -- -- Hobbyweight//Bot-o-Rama//Buzzkill -- -- Arbitraryweight//D12//Listen Here, Grandad, This Is America, Everyone Here Eats Ass

Bots that I think are better than my actual champions: Chimera // Venice Queen // Cuddle Time!


V900? Wheres V1-899 ~NickyDustyOwl
fridge ~ V900

Wasn't Ted Bundy physically attractive though? ~Superbomb122
get a room ~Madbull
I will NOT ~Superbomb122



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Venice Queen
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The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by Venice Queen » Thu Jul 07, 2016 1:26 pm

Oh hey its in my tournament... So uh, yeah. Multiple weapons rule :P
‽ ROBOTICS
CHAMPIONS: Lightweight//Ruination 4//Nick's Fuzzy Rules -- -- Hobbyweight//Bot-o-Rama//Buzzkill -- -- Arbitraryweight//D12//Listen Here, Grandad, This Is America, Everyone Here Eats Ass

Bots that I think are better than my actual champions: Chimera // Venice Queen // Cuddle Time!


V900? Wheres V1-899 ~NickyDustyOwl
fridge ~ V900

Wasn't Ted Bundy physically attractive though? ~Superbomb122
get a room ~Madbull
I will NOT ~Superbomb122



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The Monsterworks
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The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by The Monsterworks » Thu Jul 07, 2016 10:06 pm

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>The_Angry_Goat</dt><dd>Jul 7 2016, 01:23 PM</dd></dl><div>A few notes: the melty spin-up buff is not yet in the rules, unless you added it to your tournament as well. And if you're using my ruleset, the. Melty brain drivr is subject to the multiple weapons rule (it should be normally anyway, since it is a second weapon) so your shell spins with a power of 5, and you translate at that speed as well[/quote]I don't really see how something that's not actually using weapon power can count as a second weapon both in terms of stats and realism. I don't think that it did for Golden Blaze before, and I'm assuming that that provision must be in the brand new ruleset you're making. TBH, this feels like a nerf just because the new Melty-FBS system is potentially powerful and you think that a nerf is needed, not for any mechanically sound reason.

Really, a melty-FBS should just be considered a weak shell spinner with strong drives that would already be there and melty software to take advantage of those strong drives. That doesn't really require two separate sets of weapons machinery that lessen the weight available to each and therefore their effectiveness, as is the intent behind the multi-weapons rule. In fact, the multi-weapons rule has already been sidestepped in the case of KE-powered flippers on the same logic, just with a clutch to take one point. There are also numerous bots that have a primary weapon but that can go 'dumb' thwack. Should the ability to go thwack be counted as a separate weapons system and make both of the bot's 'weapons' subject to the multiple weapons rule? At worst, melty-FBS bots should suffer a one point penalty for the 'weight' of the software required to make a melty system work.

It's also not as if melty-FBS designs don't have weaknesses, which I didn't want to have to reveal in the hopes of not giving away obvious methods of attacking my bots. While the split of the weapon power allows them to escape the weapon-armour ratio in terms of self-destructing, to be honest, hitting with that much effective power should still have consequences. However, unlike in a melty, where recoil would be translated straight to the chassis, here, most of it's going into the spinning shell, meaning that it should probably warp and jam after five hits if the weapon-armour ratio is 7+. That's a more legitimate issue than 'suddenly drive points count as a second weapon because OP'.

Additionally, and probably more importantly, imagine spinning up a shell and going melty at the same time? That's a stability nightmare. Because of that, the two parts have to spin up one after the other, resulting in a long spin up time where the melty FBS is vulnerable, and an equally long recovery period after delivering hits where it has to get back up to speed. Essentially, while something like Wiwaxia has a maximum of sixteen total power that it can strike with, in reality, it's rarely going to get the chance to do that, more often hitting with somewhere from 11-15 power.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I'm pretty pissed off, but I think I've remained reasonable and put together a fairly logical argument as to why this nerf doesn't really make sense from both a statistical and reality-based perspective. I've put a helluva lot of work into this project and managed to innovate something that works within the rules as they've been understood in the past, looks legitimately cool, and should be able to function from a mechanical standpoint (although melties and FBS are not easy to get right, they are feasible, and this is fantasy. If it's literally possible, then it's possible here. We get to pretend to be far better engineers than we are irl). It's strong, but it has (significant) weaknesses and is beatable. Instead of figuring out how to beat it, however, the approach seems to be the Jas one: take one look at the experimental design, label it 'broken', and nerf it before fighting it. With said nerf, Flying Circus is grounded before takeoff, even though it really should work, and it'll go into the trash bin, since a 10 power spinner isn't going to do anything at all. I'd strongly ask you to reconsider.
Mastodon... Extinction (HW)
Osiris... Armageddon! (MW)
Elrathia... ROBOTS (LW)
Magnolia Pico... Ruination 4 (MW)
RipTide... ROBOT2 (FW)
Black Diamond... Cherry Bomb Classic 3 (HW)
MADSCIENCE... ROBOTS 3 (LW)
Abyss... ROBOTS 3 (MW)


The Monsterworks: 214-57 (.790) ...Probably up to no good.
Cherry Bomb Classic IV: 25-4
Finishing Move: 6-2
Magnolia Pico: 6-1
Magnolia Grande: 6-1
Glacier III: 7-0
ROBOTS 3: 21-6
Sixpounder: 3-4
MADSCIENCE: 9-1 Champion!
Abyss: 9-1 Champion!

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The Monsterworks
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Location: Canada, for now
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The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by The Monsterworks » Sat Jul 09, 2016 9:54 am

For the full effect, please listen to this song.

Introducing the newest thing churned out by the monsterworks:

<big>Cronos</big>

Image

Wait a sec, is that a FBS?&#33; Has Monsterworks lost it? Making a generic FBS? That's not like him...

<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Spoiler: click to toggle</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">Click the name.</div>

<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Spoiler: click to toggle</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">So, Cronos is a giant sphere. Great. Has Monsterworks really lost it?&#33; How does it work and why is it spherical? There's no practical benefit to that. And yet, there is...</div>

I'll start with an explanation of how it works, and then go into just why I made this newest aberration.

How it Works

1) Cronos functions on principles similar to the Battlebots entrant Psychosprout. However, it is vastly improved. There is a centre of mass inside the sphere that is not connected to the sphere and that uses its wheels to move the sphere. However, instead of an RC car, it is a cage with six motors and their associated batteries and mechanicals powering omniwheels mounted at the six points that delineate the x, y, and z axes of the bot. The inner cage is the single heaviest component of Cronos, so it is able to move the comparatively lighter shell.

2) The shell is basically just an armoured, hollow sphere that is able to move in virtually any direction at the behest of the omniwheels that push it.

3) Mounted outside of the shell but independent of it is the Ring. This is Cronos' weapon system and it is the second heaviest component of the bot. The two smaller golden rings (above and below) are the collars that ensure that the Ring doesn't just fall off of the drivetrain. Their insides, where they contact the large black sphere, use ball bearings so as not to impede its ability to move freely in any direction.

4) So why doesn't Cronos' ring just tip over? There are two reasons. The first is that the large golden ring is the stable mounting on which the weaponized portion spins, powered by several small brushless motors. It also contains balance sensors similar to those used by a segway. On its inside, where it makes contact with the black sphere are four omniwheels, which receive instructions from the balance sensors and kick in when needed to in order to keep the spinning ring from hitting the ground. Aiding this is the second part of the equation: a balanced weight spinning around the z axis is inherently stable. In a sense, it does not want to tip over.

5) Finally, just like a segway, Cronos can lean forward to increase its speed. This also brings the weapon closer to the floor. It's so high up. That's a bit baffling, right?


Why a Sphere?&#33;


1) So, while this all sounds cool and sciencey and maybe you'll take my word for it, there still seems to be no point to the design aside from novelty. Well, to be honest, there is a fair bit of novelty involved. However, there's some strategic reasoning as well.

2) Spinners and wedges have been locked in a battle for leverage for ages, and it's a battle that the spinners, because their weapons simply cannot rest on the ground and be effective, rarely win. Also, due to their generally inferior drivetrains, the spinners are rarely able to get around the sides or rears of their nimbler opponents. This allows the wedges to stack their armour in the front to the detriment of everywhere else. What I'm doing is turning that on its head and opting out of the battle. Cronos will gladly concede the lower ground to the wedges. Why?

3) If you hit something well below its centre of mass, what happens? It tips forward. The lower and harder you hit it, the faster that it tips. As good as the balancing algorithms on Cronos are, they can't compensate for that, nor are they meant to. Tipping Cronos forward brings the teeth of its spinning ring into contact (at an angle) with the upper surface of your bot, bypassing the wedge entirely, and since Cronos literally has no front or back, it works the same way from any direction. If the other bot doesn't hit with enough force, then the omniwheels in the ring mounting simply bring the ring down on purpose. Again, they can do that in any direction.

4) Due to its unique shape, Cronos is almost entirely immune to clampers and crushers. How do you grab onto a colossal sphere unless you have truly gigantic jaws? Flips won't actually flip it. It's more likely to just roll off of a flipper. If it does get flipperd the spherical part will absorb most of the incoming momentum by spinning freely. Hammers? There's no top to hit. Their weapons will either whiff entirely or be forced to hit the spinning ring, which isn't a good idea. Other spinners? The shell will spin freely when hit, absorbing some degree of incoming damage and recoil. Who knows, Cronos might even spinning top around. Basically, it's a big, slippery, roly-poly pain in the ass to actually just flip, or kill, or whatever.

5) There is one other very important tactic that I plan to use that will take this design from annoying and cool novelty to terrifying, but I'd rather not reveal it at present. You'll see it in my RPs.

Stats

How am I statting this ridiculous thing? :)

Speed: 4 &#124; Weapon: 14 &#124; Armour: 9 &#124; Traction: 2 &#124; Torque: 1

These are of course subject to change. I'm thinking of taking a point from armour and dropping it into weapon, but we'll see. I have a potential ace up my sleeve anyway.

Finally, thanks for checking this out. Sorry if TinkerCAD isn't quite up to the task of illustrating omniwheels. I'll get Rhino eventually.

Image
Last edited by The Monsterworks on Sat Jul 09, 2016 10:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
Mastodon... Extinction (HW)
Osiris... Armageddon! (MW)
Elrathia... ROBOTS (LW)
Magnolia Pico... Ruination 4 (MW)
RipTide... ROBOT2 (FW)
Black Diamond... Cherry Bomb Classic 3 (HW)
MADSCIENCE... ROBOTS 3 (LW)
Abyss... ROBOTS 3 (MW)


The Monsterworks: 214-57 (.790) ...Probably up to no good.
Cherry Bomb Classic IV: 25-4
Finishing Move: 6-2
Magnolia Pico: 6-1
Magnolia Grande: 6-1
Glacier III: 7-0
ROBOTS 3: 21-6
Sixpounder: 3-4
MADSCIENCE: 9-1 Champion!
Abyss: 9-1 Champion!

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The Monsterworks
Posts: 1308
Joined: Thu May 26, 2016 12:00 am
Location: Canada, for now
Team: The Monsterworks

The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by The Monsterworks » Fri Jul 15, 2016 10:27 am

One day, Kody's bae, Tellu, dropped some of her weed in my fish tank. My fish, which is a stupid creature, swam up with its little swimmy fins and nommed the fuck outta that weed. Now it looks like this:

Image

<big>Seadevil</big>

It's a FBS that uses KE transfer principles to mount a dual purpose axe/flipper where most FBS would have some sort of direction finder or self-righting pole. This allows it to wield three killer weapons for the price of one. Focus on avoiding one, but you won't be able to avoid all three indefinitely. This is the axe murderer of fish, fittingly named after the Sea Devil, a type of deep sea anglerfish that is known for devouring creatures larger than itself whole. Like its namesake, Sea Devil isn't the fastest thing around. However, partly to counter this, its wheels are Paradoxides-style in that they're hinged and simply drop down if something gets under the bot and lifts its chassis off of the ground. They also ensure that the chassis sits flush with the ground. Nope, this will never be a fish out of water hopelessly flailing around. Also, the eyes light up, just because.

Stats:

Speed: 5 &#124; Weapon: 14 &#124; Armour: 7 + shell bonus &#124; Traction: 3 &#124; Torque: 1
Mastodon... Extinction (HW)
Osiris... Armageddon! (MW)
Elrathia... ROBOTS (LW)
Magnolia Pico... Ruination 4 (MW)
RipTide... ROBOT2 (FW)
Black Diamond... Cherry Bomb Classic 3 (HW)
MADSCIENCE... ROBOTS 3 (LW)
Abyss... ROBOTS 3 (MW)


The Monsterworks: 214-57 (.790) ...Probably up to no good.
Cherry Bomb Classic IV: 25-4
Finishing Move: 6-2
Magnolia Pico: 6-1
Magnolia Grande: 6-1
Glacier III: 7-0
ROBOTS 3: 21-6
Sixpounder: 3-4
MADSCIENCE: 9-1 Champion!
Abyss: 9-1 Champion!

User avatar
The Monsterworks
Posts: 1308
Joined: Thu May 26, 2016 12:00 am
Location: Canada, for now
Team: The Monsterworks

The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by The Monsterworks » Sun Jul 17, 2016 12:21 pm

<big>Bastille</big>

Image

I designed this thing when I was drunk last night and found a description that I wrote which I'll paraphrase now:

Here to drop some Libert
Last edited by The Monsterworks on Mon Jul 18, 2016 11:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
Mastodon... Extinction (HW)
Osiris... Armageddon! (MW)
Elrathia... ROBOTS (LW)
Magnolia Pico... Ruination 4 (MW)
RipTide... ROBOT2 (FW)
Black Diamond... Cherry Bomb Classic 3 (HW)
MADSCIENCE... ROBOTS 3 (LW)
Abyss... ROBOTS 3 (MW)


The Monsterworks: 214-57 (.790) ...Probably up to no good.
Cherry Bomb Classic IV: 25-4
Finishing Move: 6-2
Magnolia Pico: 6-1
Magnolia Grande: 6-1
Glacier III: 7-0
ROBOTS 3: 21-6
Sixpounder: 3-4
MADSCIENCE: 9-1 Champion!
Abyss: 9-1 Champion!

User avatar
The Monsterworks
Posts: 1308
Joined: Thu May 26, 2016 12:00 am
Location: Canada, for now
Team: The Monsterworks

The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by The Monsterworks » Wed Jul 20, 2016 1:00 pm

Featherweight: <big>Howler II</big>

Image

Howler was the very first robot that I designed, preceding Glacier as my PD entry before I was generously given a mulligan because, simply put, it was horrible. I've never quite given up on the idea of a huge-hitting VS, though, but the small attack area was always the main stumbling block. With this design, I think that I've finally overcome that issue. Does this bot have much of a drivetrain? Nope, but it has tracks to mitigate knockback, as well as a good control ratio, solid armour, and a murderous weapon that nearly makes it a vertical FBS and takes advantage of the 4 point weapon armour bonus for blades shorter than the robot. When turned sideways, Howler II can act as an x-axis spinner and pseudo-strafe. As long as the weapon is running, it effectively has 12 armour (weapon armour) along its sides and in front. Also, it's both invertible and a very slippery shape that should be hard to score clean hits on.

Speed: 3 &#124; Weapon: 16 &#124; Armour: 8 &#124; Traction: 2 &#124; Torque: 1
Last edited by The Monsterworks on Tue Apr 04, 2017 1:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mastodon... Extinction (HW)
Osiris... Armageddon! (MW)
Elrathia... ROBOTS (LW)
Magnolia Pico... Ruination 4 (MW)
RipTide... ROBOT2 (FW)
Black Diamond... Cherry Bomb Classic 3 (HW)
MADSCIENCE... ROBOTS 3 (LW)
Abyss... ROBOTS 3 (MW)


The Monsterworks: 214-57 (.790) ...Probably up to no good.
Cherry Bomb Classic IV: 25-4
Finishing Move: 6-2
Magnolia Pico: 6-1
Magnolia Grande: 6-1
Glacier III: 7-0
ROBOTS 3: 21-6
Sixpounder: 3-4
MADSCIENCE: 9-1 Champion!
Abyss: 9-1 Champion!

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That Kode Guy
Posts: 9125
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm
Location: Canada
Team: Dissonance-Tek

The Monsterworks: New Monsters

Post by That Kode Guy » Wed Jul 20, 2016 1:01 pm

Nice.
This account is in a state of dimensional flux

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