Hellhound
If there are two bots that I'm known for, they're Hellhound and Black Dog. The former heralded the modern era of super-minmaxed, high speed, plow stacking bricks. The latter was my answer to that meta, and a true gamechanger during what was becoming a very stale period. However, Hellhound was far from finished and, in success and influence, has arguably outlived its counter. That's not to say that I set out to make an uber-brick. To be perfectly honest, it was kind of something that I lucked into. Here's how:
Hellhound I
This was the very first fantasy bot that I ever designed and there's something gratifying about how far it's come and how well it's done. The original design was a direct response to Alex's Glacier. He was still in China at the time and I made it in a single evening with a bit of help from Jules' imagination and entered it in 2016's REDDIT: Pressure Drop for the sole purpose of pissing him off/knocking Glacier out. The design was janky as hell, but the essential components that would later mature into a multiple-championship hall-of-famer were already present:
- An armoured plow that could soak anything. Glacier hit with a then-unheard-of 17 weapon power without self-destructing, and I needed something that could stand up to that long enough to smother and control it.
- A drivetrain capable of smothering big spinners and flat-out outdriving other control-based designs. In those days, 7 speed was considered fast in the way that 9 speed is now. I went for 9 speed. Back then.
- WEDGE. Hellhound I had this seemingly-pointless actuation on its plow. Part of this was for effective invertibility: I could flatten it against the floor if I was flipped. The greater part was about winning wedge battles. Back then, pressing was loosely considered better than 2WD static by the majority of writers. I wanted my wedge to be damned unbeatable.
There was one problem: I didn't know how to use CAD. I'd never tried so, instead, I hopped on MS Paint and came up with this:
V1
This was the only paint bot that I ever drew. Still one of the cleanest looking paint bots I've ever seen. It had a totally pointless drill configuration. This version never fought, though, since I learned to CAD immediately afterwards.
V2
This was my first ever render in TinkerCAD and I find it sad that it's still better than what a lot of people can do after a solid year using the app. Tutorials matter, noobs. Anyway, a warmup tournament popped up on the subreddit, so it was entered in Reckoning: Extinction in the spring of 2016 and went 2-3 in the group stage, though it probably should've done better. I had no idea how to stat and the weapons were shit.
Let's take a moment to talk about how weird this thing is. So, basically, the idea was to have a low, sleek plow that, combined with my sheer speed, could slide far enough underneath opponents that they'd overbalance and tip into the area behind, becoming high-ended. The arm was 90% for self-righting, though I passed it off as a clampy thing. It mounted a saw and there were some bogus flamethrowers just so I could claim to be using weapons and maybe score a few cheap damage points. Saws weren't viewed seriously as weapons in those days (ditto for flames), and weren't really given points, but I figured that, using weapon splitting, the tiny investment was worth it.
Hellhound II
I was learning CAD pretty quickly at that point, however, designing things that I didn't end up posting (and never will) so, with Adam (the TO's) permission, I decided to rerender Hellhound. I took the time to ditch the vestigial saw and dump the saved point into traction, as a -3 control ratio and attempts to 'drift' had cost me in Reckoning.
This was the Hellhound that took out Glacier, Terminal Velocity, and Popo's Corkscrew and made the semis in Pressure Drop. It was a statement run from a rookie team and helped me build some cachet immediately. However, I actually think the design was a step back, even if the render was cleaner. Better stats and RPs are what helped this thing. Basically, I learned that my core suppositions were right: fast bots with thick frontal armour and good wedges win in ARC, and those lessons were incorporated into future iterations.
Of course, other people had already been doing that to great success. Nick F (NFX/Snap! for those of you who don't know him) had a few bricky things that did the business, and Lian's Klarinette was already a legend. Hellhound minmaxed to a new level, however. It was all speed, all plow, and the weapon was vestigial: solely for pressing. It just didn't really
have bad matchups.
Osiris
Before we get into that, however, an interesting relation to the Hellhound family tree was Osiris. With my blessing (despite the show of public taunting we put on), Alex (The Monsterworks) took the original Hellhound concept and leaned into it, creating this thing that actually won a minor championship. I can't say that I ever bought its wheelbase completely, but the fundamental concept and its use of the armour bonus was clever.
Osiris and its (dubious) success actually gave me the idea for another bot: Bloodhound, which was going to explore the sawbot aspect of the original design more heavily, but with more believable proportions. Sadly, that never materialized. Black Dog and Blood Eagle happened instead, and I can't say that I regret those.
Hellhound III
You may notice that Hellhound III doesn't appear in the competitors lists of any old-timey events. It was supposed to offer dual wedging capability, from either side, acting as a chassis wedge in reverse and pressing head-on. Of course, looking at it now, anyone reasonably good at ARC can easily see what its fatal flaw was.
Thankfully, this version never saw action. I somehow didn't notice while designing it that it would high center itself the moment that it tried to press its wedge. Also, though you can't see them clearly in this render, Hellhound III had cambered wheels, which are dumb, as well as dubious invertibility. It did, however, take another step towards the current stat spread and pioneer the wraparound ABR wedge design that would make Hellhound such a strong contender thereafter, in addition to the Cerberus logo that has become a hallmark of the series. After a couple of PM exchanges from people who wanted to help me improve and probably later wished that they hadn't, it was quickly scrapped in favour of the next version.
Hellhound IV
To many veteran ARC members, this is the 'classic' Hellhound, and was where the design achieved its essential maturity. At the time, I was convinced (along with a couple of others) that it was one of the all-time cleanest and meanest looking bricks on ARC. I may have been a bit biased. Anyways, this was the first 4WD version. I didn't want to have to deal with oversteer. However, with the huge buffer space between plow and body no longer present, I was terrified of eating hits to more vulnerable areas. That was the reason for the comically huge plow. It was an absolute nightmare to get that shape (somewhat reminiscent of an F-117 Nighthawk) and, on top of that, wasn't even close to legal size. People tried to point that out, but they were polite and I wasn't and I got my way. I fudged a hammer blocker in there too just because I could. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
Despite Drew (W0lf/Team Alpha) insisting that it just '[didn't] feel like Hellhound', this version went undefeated in Robot Bastards 2 before that tournament sadly died, and I still don't think there was much that could've prevented it from taking the title. It was pretty far ahead of the game and I knew that I had a winner. It lost a couple of close matches in MonkeyWrench (one I agreed with and one that I really didn't) but was in the semifinals when that tournament also petered out. Overall, it was a solid design, and almost certainly would've been a champion if those events hadn't died, but I saw room for further improvement: Its low ground clearance and side overhangs left it vulnerable to being high-sided. Plus, there was that plow. I was pissing people off. Sometimes, that can be fun, but not when it might cost you wins.
Hellhound V
The fifth version of Hellhound was thrown together pretty hastily for ROBOTS (yes, the first one), and the plow, while a more acceptable size, was janky and I never warmed to it. Other big improvements included loads of ground clearance and no more side overhangs. Hellhound would never be high-sided again. Due to some pretty restrictive speed vs control rules in place for that event, I was also forced to drop a point of speed, which I instead put into torque and have kept there ever since.
This didn't mean, however, that it was unbeatable. In my hurry to finish it before the submission deadline, I omitted the anti-hammer plow in a field stacked with walking death-hammers (those were a regrettable trend at the time). Despite a stellar run to that point, this fatal flaw would cost it in the quarterfinals against eventual champion
beta with 'legs' Coup de Grace. Thankfully, with a bit more time to prepare and submit, I was able to get the anti-hammer attachment finished on time for Pat's New Blood Tournament ('new blodo' for those who know). Despite not really being a rookie, in true Tartarus Robotics fashion, I managed to slip in on a technicality and romp to the title without facing a single serious challenge. Hellhound was now a champion, but it still didn't feel like a
real champ and I was busy riding the wave of Black Dog - the meta's big breakout star - at the time. It was entered in CBC2, which died a horrible death, and I took a break for a few months. Upon returning, I made a Hellhound VI mostly just because the plow annoyed me and I wanted to render something.
Midnight Sun
Before that, however, came Midnight Sun. Basically, it was made for the following reasons:
- So that I could make another Hellhound without the pressure of being tied to that infamous name.
- There was a song that I really liked that I wanted to link in my submission center post.
- I wanted to try a different stat spread that used a 5 point lifter and gamed the armour bonus, and I didn't want to do it under the name of Hellhound.
The graphics were pretty decent on this thing, and it probably would've done alright too, but I never ran it. I took a break from ARC, gave it away to Ethan, IIRC, and it never fought that I'm aware of. It would've been cool to see if the 7/6/2/5/10 (+1 plow) spread would've worked. The torque might've been a bit low. I was honestly toying with just running the usual spread and using this as a way to enter a second Hellhound without being called out on it.
Hellhound VI
Welcome to Square Wave city! If you don't know what 'Square Waving' is, then congrats, you're a noob! Basically, it means 'overbalancing' and, like so much of ARC's jargon, is named after the bot that first and most famously did it. Hellhound VI shares the dubious distinction of having never competed in an event with Hellhound III. It rendered smooth, clean, and sleek in TinkerCAD and, after a few months, in Sketchfab as well. The swoopy, curvy design was an evolution of Hellhound V's softer lines, and I just never liked it. Also, it would've overbalanced like crazy and I don't design bots with exploitable flaws.
Hellhound VI by
Floating Castle Robotics on
Sketchfab
I think it was actually entered in some minor event (I don't remember which), but that either died early or never even got off the ground. In addition, anti-Hellhound sentiment was running high at the time. The older generation or ARCers were making their final push against minmaxing and a lot of them slipped into inactivity and retirement after what they believed to be its failure. It would take us a few more years to get there, but we'd eventually realize that they were right. Anyways, I was never brave enough to use this flawed design in that climate and it was probably a good thing. Hellhound got shelved for a little bit and I won titles with Blood Eagle and Santangelo. It still rankled that Hellhound's only title was the lightly regarded New Blood, though...
Tiny Torque
First, however, I decided to give back. My undercutter, Blood Eagle, had absolutely romped to a lightweight title in CBC3, with its only loss being to Code Red Robotics' (now Code Pink Robotics) mean brick Tiny Torque. I liked and respected that bot, but not Code's then-mediocre rendering skills (he's since improved in a big way). The result was this:
Tiny Torque by
Floating Castle Robotics on
Sketchfab
I don't remember if it ever actually fought after that. I think Code wanted to focus on improving his rendering game, and he did. Either way, it got me hooked on designing a bit more realistically.
Hellcat
Inspired by this new initiative and by the Generix kitbot that Alex had made on our shared TinkerCAD account, I decided to meme on Hellhound and also improve on it under a different but related nameplate. As usual, I also just wanted an excuse to be able to enter a second Hellhound if I felt like it.
Hellcat by
Floating Castle Robotics on
Sketchfab
Hellcat actually didn't see any action until after the later Hellhound VII but, when it did, it was a monster, wrecking house in Thunder Underground before that tournament joined so many others in the great scrapheap in the sky. Someday, Hellcat, someday.
Sixpounder
I wasn't the only one in the Hellhound business, however. Since the design first started grabbing attention, Alex has been trying (with little success) to make his own. Variously, they've been named KillTank, Banana for Scale, and other stuff. He can't RP a brick to save his life, though. This one was named Sixpounder and, in true Alex fashion, he slapped skulls, exhaust pipes, chrome, and whitewalls on it for a visual effect that I'm still on the fence about. It was either badass or needlessly baroque and somewhat grotesque. You be the judge.
Sixpounder by
Floating Castle Robotics on
Sketchfab
Sixpounder entered ROBOT3, just like Hellhound, but did considerably worse. To this day, I think it's his only bot to complete a tournament and have an overall record below .500. I think it goes to show that there's more to Hellhound than optimized stats and design. It still takes skill to win with: a skill that I'd mastered and he hadn't.
Hellhound VII
After four years and seven versions, enter the current iteration and the first one that I was truly satisfied with: Hellhound VII. At the time that I made this, I was pretty sure there would never need to be another. I was
that happy with the design. All of my previous concerns had been ameliorated:
- The plow was a reasonable size, looked clean and well-designed, and offered great coverage.
- The design and dimensions looked badass and realistic. It was basically a better Breaker Box.
- It wasn't going to be high-sided unless tipped to an extreme angle (I was still a bit paranoid about this)
Hellhound VII by
Floating Castle Robotics on
Sketchfab
All that remained was for the right event, in terms of rules and field, to come along. Hellhound VII sat there in my portfolio, poised and pretty and waiting for its moment. Then came ROBOT3. The field looked perfect. I just sat back and watched people swap their bots in and out a half-dozen times, and I did the same with my other entries... but not Hellhound. Alternate configuration rules were also loose for that event, so I ran three different configurations with varying degrees of plow stacking and weapon power. That paid off in a dominant title run and established Hellhound's credentials beyond a doubt. It also led to serious discussions about the virtual unbeatability of the design and changes to the wedge rules for the next event: CBC4. I decided to keep my flagship design away from that meta and see if the changes stuck. Of course, it was inevitable that at least a couple of others would be braver than me.
Boring Gray Wedge
The biggest change for CBC4 was the equalization of hinged wedges with 2WD chassis wedges. Previously, they'd been considered lower in the wedging hierarchy, and only pressing with an actuated wedge could make them equal. That was and had always been the main purpose of Hellhound's lifter from its earliest versions. Code, however, adapted quickly to this new development. Boring Gray Wedge (BGW, for short) was essentially Hellhound without the 360 lifter.
However, it struggled for a number of reasons before Code abandoned it. The first was a mediocre group composition. The second was my victory over it with Blood Eagle. That was a huge matchup and one in which he had such a type advantage that everyone expected him to win without much fuss. I know this kind of design inside-out, however, and I know how Code RPs. I was eager to avenge Blood Eagle's previous loss to him and I was able to leverage these familiarities and maybe a touch of overconfidence on his part to pull out the win. The third, and most important reason, however, was a lack of full invertibility. BGW was a good bot with a fatal flaw: its wedge was useless when flipped. That doomed it. With that one small fix, however, I think it could become a really strong contender, and I hope that he doesn't give up on it.
King Crimson
SIRENS (Team C/D) has great taste in bots and even better taste in music. Unfortunately, at the time that he entered CBC4, he'd convinced himself that he couldn't render for shit and it had largely proven to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. When he wasn't allowed to copy Hellhound VII, he recoloured Hellhound VI with my blessing, named it King Crimson, and said that the lifter worked on a burst system, turning it into a flipper.
He caught a lot of flak for this thing, but he RPed solidly and it nearly held true to Hellhound form, despite losing some fights that it probably should've won. It also Square Waved like crazy - the main reason why I'd never used the bot that it was based on. He's since gone on to improve on this concept with his own series of designs. I wish him luck in that regard.
Thundercaller II
With the pressing lifter now rendered nearly obsolete by rule changes, as well as the multiple hits rule acting as a check on plow stacking of any sort, Hellhound stands at a crossroads. One option is to remove the weapon and embrace being a simple brick. However, Hellhound's weapon has proven to be a lot more than the vestigial pressing thing that I originally conceived of it as. While the option of turning it into a clamp exists, I already have Krakatoa and Talons Out. Instead, something like Thundercaller II may point the way forward.
Thundercaller II by
Floating Castle Robotics on
Sketchfab
A rear-hinged flipper that can run pseudo-front-hinged in reverse a la Bronco, Tartarus Robotics Group's most recent design has competed only once: in the currently dormant Vexed team event, going undefeated. These promising returns are no surprise, especially since Thundercaller incorporates many lessons learned from the Hellhound series and that may very well find their way back into it. Only time - and the metagame - will tell.
