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Evolution of design

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 11:48 am
by That Kode Guy
Bumping this thread because I wanna go through Shadow Zone's evolutionary path; I'm a bored SOB and I have nothing better to do. :/

So back on FRA, I was competing in tournaments like Mechanical Noise 2 (YOU STILL HAVE TO FINISH THAT MARTIJN!!!!!!!) and Fowler Fic War 3.1 and all that. I had an idea, a ridiculous one at that. I wanted a robot with the pushing power of Storm II, but with a secondary weapon that didn't suck. :P So I was looking on Battlebots.com when the site was still displaying bot pics, and I stumbled across Toro, one of my two favourite SHWs.

Thus, this came about:

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Well, how did he do? Well FFW4 had him go out early, but FFW5 had him reach the heat final. There he lost against a fellow flipper, Nitro-Gene.

Now, I saw that Shadow Zone 1 here wasn't the best suited to fighting flippers. Now, do you think I actually did something about it? NO!

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Shadow Zone Returns. More vulnerable to flippers than ever, yet with that big-ass convex scoop withstood quite a bit of damage from horizontal spinners, and drums (ala Paralyzation 2, who I beat). The rear flipper was thinned out and made more leverage, ala Matador. It did the same as Shadow Zone 1. Went 2-2. Achilles just kicked its ass. Yeah, big time.

It was about this time that either Dan S or Joey showed me a video of Hammerhead 3, a British box-wedge flipper where the top along with the front popped up. The difference from other box-wedge flippers was that the ENTIRE front and top panels popped up, AND he could run inverted. The thing I questioned is how well a spinner would be able to handle him.

Thus, Shadow Zone Forever, v1, was born.

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Speed: 9
Torque: 5
Armour: 7
Weapon: 1

This is the version that competed in ARC: Reckoning. Front SCOOP, with the Hammerhead 3-style flipper at the rear. I added spiky wedges to the flipper so I could throw more weight behind one point. The scoop was incredibly thick, so nothing was getting through that.

As you all know, SZF v1 did pretty damn well in Reckoning, lost 40-5 to Riot Control in the semis. But he did have some good success in Joey's Chevron Championship 2 on FRA. CC2 saw him as a good gauntlet and trial runner as he edged out Disco 5 (flipper with a v-disc) in the gauntlet, and manage to drag Dead Metal almost into the pit during tug-o-war (even when Joey magically gave Dead Metal bigger motors :P). As far as combat goes, SZF v1 managed to defeat a previous champion (M.O.R.D. 2) of another tournament (NSBFL 7), and then the almighty real robot Thor. CC2 hasn't been completed as of yet, so SZF v1 still has some action ahead of him. Provided Joey gets on it. :P

Back to ARC, I addressed maybe one or two flaws in SZF v1's design? He was a bit too tall, and the scoop had flat sides, so he could get stuck on them. :P Also what was in my way was that v1 was rendered in 3D Studio Max. Nothing a little export wouldn't fix. :P

So, v2!

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Speed: 10
Traction: 5
Armour: 6 (+1 scoop)
Weapon: 1

Yep. This is the guy that won Carnage HW. Although I still don't know how. :P Much lower, and the sides were undisputedly angled. :P However the move from torque to traction made him really uncontrollable. I had no idea how he was going to do and it was damn surprise he won. This was Shadow Zone Forever at his peak.

Of course, not all good things last...

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ARGH. What the fuck was I thinking? Shadow Zone Forever v3 became a simple boring rammer for whatever fucking reason I had in my head. The Armageddon render is just a re-colour/re-texturing of this Aftermath one. He lost both his first fights against DeadStar and Malaria, and then me leaving Aftermath after the midway point didn't help him out. Armageddon saw SZF v3 get into the play-offs, but then lose his match against Pinpoint who finally managed to beat SZF after 3 tries, lol.

And then it got even worse, though most of you guys haven't seen this version. You see, I wanted to bring SZF back with a flipper again. I didn't want it to be the same as before, though. YEAH, KODY, WHY BRING BACK A WINNING FORMULA? :rolleyes:

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Just... WHY? Why did I make this thing? Even v3 was miles above this crap. SZFm, or SZF v4, went back to the roots of having powerful drive with a flipper. The problem? EVERYTHING. The scoop was ineffective, the flippers was far too long, 6WD meant it wouldn't get the flipper into play much anyway... I could go on and on.

Anyway, that's why I've brought back v2 here, as a re-colour:

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You can call him v5 if you want, but it's really just v2 returned. Anyway he's back, even though I said I've never bring him back several times :P , and ready to kick some ass. :cool:

Evolution of design

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 11:53 am
by GF93
Interesting to see how it's changed so drastically over time, actually- I never knew that it used to be a pure flipper! :P

Evolution of design

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 12:20 pm
by NWOWWE
Hey I can have a bit of a go at this! I don't have all the versions of someone like ToC or Sarge, but since Chris drew all those, it doesn't really count for me. Instead, I'll go into the history of my first self-drawn bot: Tali'Zorah.

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Yikes, and believe it or not it gets worse! The original version I drew (which I never even uploaded) was a treadbot. Basically picture this with the worst-drawn treads you've ever seen.

As far as this goes, yeah you're reading that right. This was originally going to be a hammer-bot. The rounded points on the sides of the arm look absolutly terrible. The only good thing really was the Ginsu-spike caption. :v:

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Next came the CAD. Randomly, the background color is Lavender. This took ages to draw and basically turned me off of planning on doing all my drawing in CAD. Still we lose the goofy hammer concept and make either end into plows. Also the color scheme was changed.


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Back to paint! Design wise, it's pretty similar to the CAD, with few minor alterations to the sides of the arms.

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Cheap alternate wedge version when I relized there weren't going to be as many spinners entered as I thought.

Evolution of design

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 12:24 pm
by That Kode Guy
Dude, I fucking love the CAD regardless of simplicity sakes.

However you do make pretty damn good paint drawings as well. ;)

Evolution of design

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 12:26 pm
by GF93
Definitely quite an interesting design- I always thought that drum was part of a spinning weapon or something.

But an invertible drum-hammer is definitely quite an inspired variation on the classic formulae! :P

Evolution of design

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 2:02 pm
by NWOWWE
<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>KodeBreaker</dt><dd>Feb 6 2013&#44; 12:24 PM</dd></dl><div> Dude, I fucking love the CAD regardless of simplicity sakes.

However you do make pretty damn good paint drawings as well. ;) [/quote]
It's all moot now anyway. I lost Rhino when my old laptop went down.

Of course now I'm stuck with the shit version of Paint that Windows 7 has. There's no winning&#33; :(

Evolution of design

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 2:09 pm
by That Kode Guy
I could direct you to a Rhino 4.0 torrent but bah. =/ Google SketchUp is always a viable option. ;)

And here's something that's probably better than Paint, in regards to 2D.

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Evolution of design

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 2:12 pm
by NWOWWE
I'll have to take a look at that when I get home. As long as it's user-friendly enough for a dope like me I'm good. :lol:

Evolution of design

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 8:25 am
by prince palatine
I think now would be good to discuss The Servant and it's past and evolution.

Flashback to late 2009, just when I was starting out. I was thinking of a new design when I came across Mute for the first time in ages (2009 was when my interest in combat robotics returned) I saw how Jonathon Pearce always said the flipper "Opened the wrong way" And I looked at that and thought to myself, what if the flipper opened the "Right way" Thus, The Servant was born.

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Originally called "The Guardian Of Hell" it was renamed to "The Servant" after a name clash with Mark Elam's Refbot called "The Guardian". As you can see, the bot looked rather good. It had not fought a single match on FRA when he made his ARC debut. His strengths in his debut ARC? Very high armour. Weaknesses? Slow and I was a terrible RP'er back then. However, he went the whole of Aftermath without getting KO'ed and picked up 3 wins from a possible 9. Cause I was still a beginner at the time, that was good for me. Then ARC: Armageddon came about. This time I made him faster. Strengths this time around? Fast and good armour. Weaknesses? The speed/traction disparity and the weapon power was lacking. But he managed to pick up a very good 6-4 winning record, including a win over "Written the the X in the word Sex" and was nominated for most improved robot.

Then, round about the same time Armageddon was running, I made the decision to retire The Servant. Why? I didn't know really, if I brought him into the new stat system now, he'd do great. There would not be many places the spinners could kill him in. But his career ended with a massive high. Winning the EXP League in the LW category was the perfect send-off for The Servant, which won me my first tournament championship. He was then retired afterwards and then The Servant's Assistant took it's place.

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In a sense, TSA took a step back really rather than the step forward I'd have hoped for. He was really good as a low wedge. But then I made him rather boxy. The original stats say that it was just a Mortis shape with a flipping arm in the center, but AJ CADed it like this. To be fair, TSA was gonna be tall regardless of AJ's good CADing skills. But I just wish I made those sides a bit more wedgy or add some skirts to it, cause flat sides were perfect for D-REZ, War Bastard, Psyclone you name it, and they'd smash him up. But little did I know, he was about to become my most successful bot ever....

His first tournament he saw action in was Robot Attack. After being seriously underestimated by Badnik, who entered with Polar Star, The Servant's Assistant delivered a good match and won by a close 23-22 decision. He then met D-REZ in the semi finals, and beat the favourite in a shock KO victory. But then suffered his first taste of defeat in the finals at the hands of DR Robotnik in a 26-19 decision. But that was not the end of the story...

His second tournament was on FRA in Mechanical Maelstrom 3.0. as an unseeded outsider against many tough machines. But in the match, he breezed through to the semi finals after chucking all three of his first round opponents out of the arena&#33;. Which is currently, still a Mechanical Maelstrom record. The next match of the tournament however, he lost after a driving error let Wedga Ennea chuck him out of the arena. He came back in the losers melee to defeat two other bots, including the deadly Gabriel V to reach the next round. He fought Autoism in what became a joint winner for battle of the year. TSA just edged through to finals. He was unfortunately out matched when he fought Kody and Wedginator X, after seeing the face of the pit, TSA came back and claimed 3rd place overall in the tournament. But that was only the second time he'd taste a top 4 finish... (He also won the award for best flipper of the year)

With FRR: Dead Zone announced, TSA made his way into the tournament pretty much an underdog, after losing to War Bastard, it didn't look like TSA was a gonna have a good run. But then, he achieved a massive 8 match winning streak, second only to Kraze 3. He beat D-REZ once more via KO, beat Scarab, squeezed past Pyrite and caused an upset victory against Red Zone. His winning streak however, came to an end when he ran into Dr Robotnik and lost via a 28-17 Judges Decision. But made the top of his group. In the semi finals, he pulled off another upset when he defeated Red Zone once again. But was defeated in the finals against D-REZ via a 26-19 decision.

Then Ruination came about, TSA entered pretty much unchanged, he finally got his revenge on DR Robotnik and finished top of the group once more, but was finally eliminated by the great driving skills of Spatula and Annoying Box Rush in a 29-16 judges decision, to finish joint 3rd with Anti Virus. Now alas, TSA is retired, the redesign came swift, but now I regret it instantly....

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The fuck was I thinking when I designed the Maiden?. When I designed it, I thought it would be a great improvement, but I fucked up big time, it was even taller and a SHW to boot, which went back on it's LW traditions. Thank god I didn't use it and went back to the old drawing board.

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This was MUCH better, was going to be based off Killdozer in it's Battlebots 5.0. guise. But I ventured off and made it into something entirely unique. This version rights the wrongs of TSA 1. He's lower, has a better flipper, has horns to deal with rammers flying over the top. And skirts on the sides to deal with pesky spinners. Hopefully, this year, the working classes will get win tournament they rightfully deserve&#33; (Meant to be read with sarcasm) XD

Evolution of design

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 11:51 am
by Badnik96
Since you did this, I've decided to do something similar for WhipCoil.

WhipCoil started as a really quick design which I whipped up for Sparkey's original "MS PAINT BOT SHOWCASE" thing. I was bored and decided to put together like 10 or so real quick MSP bots just to see how I did. WhipCoil was one of them, basically a really bad version of Razer:
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It never fought in anything, though it was slated to fight in something. Then, soneone on GTM announced a CFL tourney, although it was to be honest really poorly done. I decided to rebuild WhipCoil, give it a better design overall. Thus, WhipCoil the Second was born. That tournament never began either, so it never fought. Until sometime in early January 2011. After going through 4 or 5 middleweight designs for ARC Armageddon, looking for one that could beat both bricks and spinners, I remembered WhipCoil, made some minor tweaks and:
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WhipCoil did well in Armageddon for my first time in a CFL tourney, winning its first 2 battles before losing a close 25-20 decision to No Joy. While this didn't humble me, other losses (especially a surprise loss to Cyclone) made me realize my bot was far from amazing. I was 4-6 by the time the final week came around, and I lost an embarrassing match to Fidchell which knocked me out of playoff contention.

In between Robot Attack and FRR, I decided to redesign WhipCoil again with former MW champ Shockwave in mind. It ended up looking really dang cool:
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After finishing the season 5-5, with an accidental forfeit to Fire&#33; Fire&#33; Fire&#33; keeping me out of the playoffs, I was disappointed that WhipCoil had yet to make a playoff. It returned in a slightly upgraded form as WhipCoil 3.2 in Ruination, but it barely broke even once again, with a lack of speed being a major issue. Another playoff missed...
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Kody rendered it in 3D for me before I retired the design, in favor of the upcoming WhipCoil 4. Hopefully he can make the playoffs this time...

Evolution of design

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 1:41 am
by Sparkey989
Honestly I don't think any of the machines I have designed ever went past one or two iterations and since I basically dropped out of and started over after every tournament I ever entered I never had anything to bother evolving. That and just about everything I ever did was generic as hell anyway.

After Badnik's tournament I plan on trying to get settled with a small group of bots I like that I can hopefully reuse in the future. I also might sketch plans for a new version of the Tread-Whipper name that actually does something.

Evolution of design

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 6:11 am
by Badnik96
You can use that revamped Red Cross I drew for you :D

Evolution of design

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 7:11 am
by NWOWWE
<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Sparkey989</dt><dd>Apr 23 2013&#44; 02:41 AM</dd></dl><div> I also might sketch plans for a new version of the Tread-Whipper name that actually does something. [/quote]
So no more harmless tassels? :v:

Evolution of design

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 10:42 am
by GF93
<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>NWOWWE</dt><dd>Apr 23 2013&#44; 07:11 AM</dd></dl><div> <blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Sparkey989</dt><dd>Apr 23 2013&#44; 02:41 AM</dd></dl><div> I also might sketch plans for a new version of the Tread-Whipper name that actually does something. [/quote]
So no more harmless tassels? :v: [/quote]
Where there's a whip-

*Crack*

- there's a way. :v:

Evolution of design

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 10:45 am
by NWOWWE
<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>GF93</dt><dd>Apr 23 2013&#44; 11:42 AM</dd></dl><div> <blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>NWOWWE</dt><dd>Apr 23 2013&#44; 07:11 AM</dd></dl><div> <blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Sparkey989</dt><dd>Apr 23 2013&#44; 02:41 AM</dd></dl><div> I also might sketch plans for a new version of the Tread-Whipper name that actually does something. [/quote]
So no more harmless tassels? :v: [/quote]
Where there's a whip-

*Crack*

- there's a way. :v: [/quote]
We don't wanna go to war today...