Evolution of design

Find all your ARC RPGs and fantasy leagues discussed here. We're good at this stuff.

Moderator: Tournament Hosts

StarlessSoldier
Posts: 1057
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm
Location: Fort Bragg, NC

Evolution of design

Post by StarlessSoldier » Mon Oct 23, 2006 5:09 pm

I think we had a topic like this on ARC or xsorbit. I always liked to look at these.

For my first, my favorite and flagship bot: Adrenaline.

Version 1: This bot was spawned from my admiration of Dun Hudson and my love of my favorite bot, Tazbot. To differentiate from a full on Tazbot clone I made the weapon a short travel pneumatic flipper with two large exposed tanks on the turret. My inexperienced shortcomings in CAD were obvious with this version but later versions would be the biggest developements in my 3D talents.
Image

Version 2: In this version the Tazbot influence seemed to fully take over, even manifesting itself in a much longer tubular flipping arm with thwacking spikes. Like Tazbot, the large shields were replaced with shock absorbed feet. The CAD itself was much more clear and obviously better in quality. This bot actually had an award named after it for the best bot to combine artistic beauty with combat effectiveness in each season.
Image

Version 3: This new Adrenaline finally started to take on a look all its own. The whole design was made much more compact to increase the defensive capabilities. The weapon had a major change, becoming a 4 foot pick axe. This set up took better advantage of the bot's ability to control opponents. The base could opperate strictly in pushing the opponent around while the hammer, although not very powerful, could put points on the damage score. The wedge feet were kept, but the old shields were brought back to compliment them defensively.
Image

Version 4: Adrenaline finally evolved into an entity all its own. The biggest shreds of its Tazbot origins, the signature cambered in wheels, were replaced by an enclosed set of 4 dualie wheels borrowed from its big brother Copperhead. A whole new chassis sets the bot lower than ever before at a mere 6.5" high at the top of the wheels. Like the previous version, this one focused on being compact for defense purposes. Reinforced shields were added in critical areas such as the wheel wells and the front of the turret. On the rear it carries V3's specially designed hinged plow for dealing with spinners and low wedges, while the sides and front are armed with the signature "sawtooth" wedges. Unlike V3, this one's weapon can safely fire in any direction without striking the base, and a new turret design (wide up front) allows the bot to self right with greater success.
Image

Version 4.5: Not really a new build, but recocked with some things I saw that I could improve on. The chassis remains exactly the same, but the armor has been redesigned. The rear plow is slightly larger. The side armor now has a bottom support for increased rigidity. On the front, the 6 small teeth have been traded for two larger and much more stable wedges with metal block inserts at the tips for even better defense. Above them, extending from the chassis are two teeth made to keep opponents from riding all the way up onto the turret and for holding them in place while the axe accomplishes its grisly mission. As for the axe, it is all new and alot longer for increased range. The turret was also redesigned, but not so much for function, but simply for aesthetics (the rounded turret didn't go with the rest of the bot).
Image

User avatar
BEES
Posts: 1857
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm
Location: Durham, NC, USA

Evolution of design

Post by BEES » Tue Oct 24, 2006 1:19 pm

edited in the latest post
Last edited by BEES on Sun Oct 13, 2013 1:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

Area51Escapee
Posts: 2204
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm

Evolution of design

Post by Area51Escapee » Tue Oct 24, 2006 5:01 pm

Well, I don't have some of the old pictures for my bots like CS, Solar Smash, and draco since it was on my old hard drive. Maybe Dylan still has them, but oh well, I'll just describe em.

Celestial Slayer- This bot underwent 3 overall versions in his career. The first version is probably what most don't remember it was a small yet thick vertical bar with no wedge and just 2 back wheels.

The second version I added a plow, and reworked my cutting blade. It got smaller but had sharp tips to help scoop up opponents. I also added nice alien effects on the skin.

The third version was pretty much just a CAD version of the second version except a made a thicker bar.


Solar Smash - SS also went three stages. His version version was the most successful and he it included a power ram on one side and on the back was a ram. There was also a wedge over the pnuematic punch side.

Second version had the wedge on the back at added ram protection for the front, but it only fought once.

The last version included a restylized version of the ram and a hinged wedge with forks.

I'll add more later hopefully...

G-Force
Posts: 341
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm

Evolution of design

Post by G-Force » Tue Oct 24, 2006 9:08 pm

Oh, A topic that I can actually reply to!

Here's my Ring around the Rosie -> Wring -> Gayle (Revolution) evolution.

Ring Around The Rosie (1)

Image

Ring Around the Rosie 2

Image

Wringer (1) (RATR3)

Image

Wringer 2 (RATR4)

Image

Gayle (RATR5)

Image

StarlessSoldier
Posts: 1057
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm
Location: Fort Bragg, NC

Evolution of design

Post by StarlessSoldier » Wed Oct 25, 2006 12:15 am

Damn dude, Gayle looks fucking sweet.

FReAK
Posts: 38
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm
Location: The Internet

Evolution of design

Post by FReAK » Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:07 pm

My favorite is still RATR2.

Minion33088
Posts: 706
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm

Evolution of design

Post by Minion33088 » Sat Oct 28, 2006 7:56 am

Nah, I totally agree with John, Gayle is amazing! Bigger teeth wouldn't hurt though.

Siphai
Posts: 4071
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm

Evolution of design

Post by Siphai » Sat Jul 18, 2009 7:00 am

Windmill has an interesting evolutionary path.

Image

It all started with Pizza Cutter, a robot I made for DRD back in Annihilation. It, of course, is a pretty shitty undercutter. Well, it wouldn't have been so bad had I made the wheels straight; I have no fucking clue what I was thinking.

After that it pretty much branched into two paths. I wanted to keep the circular design, but I also have never made a ring spinner before. A design path that moved into FBSDS, a robot that actually did fairly well in Revolution. But the FBS design branch can only go so far, and it was a boring as fuck design to RP with, so the evolutionary branch stopped there.

Pizza Cutter 2 actually turned out to be a prototype for The Windmill, but I had no idea at the time. When designing the robot I knew two things:

1. I wanted to keep a circular chassis
2. I wanted to keep the blade

So I just moved up the blade a couple of inches, and put some wheel guards in the side, despite the fact that this is probably the least efficient way for this design to be made.

The next step was obviously to color it up. The holding spikes you see were added, as a 'funnel' to push designs towards the blade instead of sweeping around me. Decals were pretty much my favorite part of this robot though.

As most of you know now, my design choices for the new Windmill were pretty simple. The first version suffered from poor turning, exposed wheel guards, and the blade only covering about quarter of the robot, if even that. So I cut it down, made it into a traditional Windmill shape. The bar now covers a vast majority of the robot, and the dual wheels give me a better turning circle, making it even harder to control. At this point, he's probably one of my proudest accomplishments since the Tank/Eurypterus ramming bros.

Ry_Trapp0
Posts: 298
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm
Location: Newark, Ohio

Evolution of design

Post by Ry_Trapp0 » Sat Jul 18, 2009 5:04 pm

the first unlimited limits, which, i must say, was pretty rediculous looking, lol. it was really succesful with the giant spatula and ass dragging design though.
Image

the second version got a shorter and wider spatula flipper for a little more maneuverability and for a little more chassis protection. 2 extra wheels added to increase control, the non-existant wheelbase keeping the turning quick and tight. wheel placement was out of pure lazyness since i still wanted to incorporate the name and mah lame logo on there. the teeth were made to look less 'bozo the clown', lol.
Image

the latest version got an even shorter flipper, again, to increase maneuverability, the wheels were spread to the ends of the chassis(though the wheelbase was hardly affected compared to the track width) so it wouldn't look quite as retarded, the teeth on the flipper were made smaller to help with getting under opponents, though i'm sure it's more asthetics than anything, lol(sons O bitches were a pain in the ass to add to both the top and front views, pixel by pixel. thank god for copy/paste). and, new, cooler color scheme!
Image



the first iteration of spin suicide was a basic 2 wheeled ring spinner with and angled ring and big ol' teeth. in hindsight, the 'knockers' were a great idea that couldn't really work since they area was so small, needed to be longer.
Image

1.5 added 2 more wheels for stability and did away with the angeled ring in favor of a straight vertical ring. this is when having interchangable weapons was the 'in thing' so i figured i would mock(aha, just like my joke bots with the stupid amounts of wheels) some people and list a few that i was sure would never get used.
Image

yea, this one was a bit rediculous. i noticed that the only time i ever seem to lose is when i faced another spinner(the stupid power ones of course, since i always tried to balance mah stats), so i was out to prevent that once and for all. and it turned out pretty retarded, haha.
Image

this one had a much better spinner stopper(though i don't quite understand my own explanation between it and the undercutter blades). i think the hinged wedge block thingers were a bit optimistic. not even sure if i ever used this one.
Image

and the last one was basically a color scheme change. i was planning on entering it in the current tourney, but figured it would just end up with a medocre performance again. i believe ressaisir has more potential, unless i just made SS one of the stupid power bots.
Image

Siphai
Posts: 4071
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm

Evolution of design

Post by Siphai » Sat Jul 18, 2009 5:11 pm

i fucking love well done paint bots

G-Force
Posts: 341
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm

Evolution of design

Post by G-Force » Mon Jul 20, 2009 8:22 pm

Shockwave through time:

Shockwave (Original):
Image

Shockwave 2.0:
Image

Shockwave 3:
Image

Shockwave XL:
Image

Shockwave Beta:
Image

Siphai
Posts: 4071
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm

Evolution of design

Post by Siphai » Tue Jul 21, 2009 4:53 am

It always gets me that the original Shockwave was this thin robot with tracks and just about every version looks more capable than it, but it was the only one to win a title.

Shockwave 3 is fucking crazy though.

succotash_54
Posts: 2819
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm

Evolution of design

Post by succotash_54 » Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:39 pm

Arguably my biggest downfall as a designer is how I don't do a whole lot with evolving a design. Bad-Ass Barnacle is the only one that really has a serious "evolution" to speak of.

NWOWWE
Posts: 6889
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm
Location: E-Town, PA
Team: Team Blood Gulch
Contact:

Evolution of design

Post by NWOWWE » Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:56 pm

Pretty much any bot of mine that I've used seriously for more than one season has undergone some big modifications.
Area51Escapee,Jan 30 2011 wrote:
Spatula,Jan 29 2011 wrote: I should go 3-1 this week but it'll probably be something like 0-4 or 0-5.
It sucks going 0-5. You lose all 4 of your bot fights for the week and you also lose at life.

Siphai
Posts: 4071
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm

Evolution of design

Post by Siphai » Thu Jul 23, 2009 5:12 pm

here's the evolution of my most successful robot, one of the most successful robots of all time, and yet one of the simplest robots: Eurypterus Evolved

Image

I've told this story before, but the concept of Eurypterus was very much tied to Tank. Vengeance was my first ARC competition. In it, I entered a variety of designs (all pretty shitty. Dr. Pepperdine was the first robot to utilize springloaded wedges in ARC competition, the original Flank Attack which had like 3 armor, Drum Roll was a full body drum that couldn't move because I didn't lock the wedge in place). Flank Attack and Drum Roll got absolutely slaughtered by spinners, all of whom had like 15 weapon power. I particularly remember Valkyrie, who had 1 armor, 1 torque, 1 speed, and 19 weapon power, and Scrimshaw, who had similar stats, and never knocked themselves out. It seemed overpowered as shit. I, of course, was like 12-13 years old at the time, and it pissed me off so much that I literally didn't make a robot with a spinning weapon until like ARC Revenge or something.

Regardless, I built Tank specifically to go against this mindset. Eurypterus was more like an afterthought to this kind of thing, playing off of the idea of a brick with a bunch of wheels. Of course, the ironic part to this ideal was that in Tank's 38 career fights, only fought a spinner 3 times (FFs not included). And he lost one of those times. Eurypterus did a little better, and under half of his fights were against spinners. However those fights didn't really happen until the later part of his career. Losses against wedge robots like Primary v3 prompted the next part of the evolution.

Image

Simple but elegant. Of course there's still a lot wrong. It had a Maximus style wedge, but, especially compared to today's wedges, is really shitty. It can't get under shit, it has exposed wheels, etc.

Of course, designs go through some regression before becoming good.

Image

sadfjgaslf;jaisfjiewoajfxvmnxcmnvafjsdalfjiaeja what the fuck was I thinking? Well, for what I remember, I was toying around with tracks. Low turning circle, high traction, etc. tracks were pretty cool. I had an anti-wedge version and an anti-spinner version. So what was wrong with it, other than the oval track wheels? It's a shit wedge, the plow looks like it'd fall off if pushed slightly, it looks ugly, etc. etc. I actually talked to Tony about this before seriously entering it and he, quite rightly, told me it sucked. Eurypterus 1.5 never was entered in any competition, thank god.

Image
Image

This is the version that one the SHW Championship in Redemption. The wedge was thinned down to a Copperhead-esque single point. Wheel-guards were added and pretty much useless structure was put on to make a more secure plow. All in all, I'd say that he was still lucky, getting passed Adreniton in the semis with a FF, but he evolved into something good.

Image

This was the final version. Hinges were added so that we actually knew it was a hinged wedge. Supports were put inbetween the wheels to make the wheelguards pretty much impossible to bend, making them a hell of a lot more effective. Despite not repeating a championship, he had an undefeated regular season and made the semis. Successful as all get out.

Post Reply