Looking to the future...

StarlessSoldier · Post by **StarlessSoldier** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:00 pm

Ok, you should all expect a thread like this from me at this point, I always do one.

At this point in the season everyone has seen the strengths or weaknesses of their designs, poor stat allocations, and of course all around failures. So what is everyone planning for the next go round?

As for Team Omegaforce, it should be obvious at this point that I'll have a new MW and HW. The X-Combat/JAKT/El Negro Muerte series has run it's course and proved that while a versatile spinner is a cool concept, it can't stand up to a dedicated spinner or rammer. I think it's time to retire the bot that descended from the original MW champion. Dark Star showcased some cool engineering ideas including active suspension systems and semi-omni drive, but a big vertical spinner is getting it's ass kicked in a class full of heavily armored pushers and low horizontal spinners.

I'm not going to show them quite yet, but I already have my new MW and HW done. I'll have a completely fresh design in the MW's and a vastly improved HW design from the past.

As for LW and SHW, only time will tell. Sovereign is still relatively young, and may have another season in it. Copperhead on the other hand is hard to judge. He's been around longer than any of my other designs, making him somewhat dated. At the same time, after 6 generations of improvements, he's as perfect as he's going to get. Only time will tell if these two will be replaced, but if they don't, it will mark the first time I'll have a line-up with no spinners.

Siphai · Post by **Siphai** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:30 pm

Well, first things first, Return of Feedback completely exceeded all of my expectations. His ram has proved extremely effective in its ability to take care of spinners and 'keep them at arms length' as it were. I only fought two spinners this season (AMP and Adrenichrome) and I did only win the matches by 24-21 decisions, but due to his speed and the rams effectiveness, there's not much that could make the match go differently. And on the other hand, he show the ability to deal with wedges pretty effectively, taking down w00t? and some others.

So what to do with him? Well, for starters I want to go ahead and turn the ram 90 degrees so that it's not completely useless whenever I want to hit a wedge, and will also give me the ability to more effectively deal with wedges. I guess I also want to redesign the ram in general because it just looks a little ineffective at being able to push stuff.

The chassis might get an overhaul as well, possibly to make it lower or a little more streamlined.

Eurypterus Evolved has also been enormously successful. At this point it looks as though he has a pretty good shot on having an undefeated regular season (not sure how the playoffs will turn out), depending on how he does against Amoeba. Design-wise, I kinda feel about Eurypterus the same sort of way you feel about Copperhead. It's about as effective as I can make it, and I feel that it's shown that in its dominance this season (despite not yet getting a rematch with Copperhead, or getting a chance to fight the rookie Vendetta). Each iteration added a little something, going from just a plow, to a plow with an interchangeable wedge, to a more effective wedge design, to making the plow more stable, adding wheel guards, making the wheel guards more effective. To get right down to it, the only reason why I'm keeping him around is because a champion needs to defend its title (imo) and that if he doesn't do a repeat its pretty safe to say I'm gonna retire him. I literally have no clue what I'm going to replace him with (if I do replace him) but since SHW has become so rammer heavy I think I might do something a little different.

My other two robots... well. First off, Flank Attack did much better than I expected him to. The worst he can do at this point is 4-6, and compared to MUCH better designs (such as Apocalypse or ENM) I feel I've gotten off comparitvely lucky. Two of the major problems that I've seen with Flank Attack is that

1. He needs superior torque to control a fight
2. He's almost completely ineffective against wedges

I really want this design to work, probably because I'm an idiot, but also because HW is one of the classes that desperately needs variety. SHW too at this point). However I do have a seperate design that I've been working on whom I'm not quite pleased with yet, but perhaps by incorporating the two designs in some way I'll be able to work around it. He definitely needs to get under wedges, and I want to see it build upon his ability to take control of the opponent.

His problem from torque comes from my idiocy at, even after all these years and a championship, not fully understanding the HW class. Unless something drastic changes, I'll probably go in with a stat allocation something like:

Speed: 8
Torque: 8
Armor: 5
Weapon: 1

Let's face it. Riot Control has an armor of 5 and he has had no problem at all. Cupid and Darkstar are basically the only spinners and, while it will be dicey, it shouldn't prove too much of a problem. If worse comes to worse, the claws, plow, and the wheelguards already get a +2 so they're not off too bad. Hell, I couldv'e entered Tank with just the wedge version and I'd basically have the same win/loss ratio. High armor/anti-spinner things just seem somewhat wasted in that division.

The Windmill will come back redesigned and with a slightly different stat allocations. From what I noticed, it was hard for him to bring his weapon to bear in a lot of his fights. This was due a combination of his weapon not having enough reach and area of effect, as well as his poor speed. So he'll end up taking on a more actual Windmill-esque shape, most likely with two wheels (I don't know why I made him a circle lol). This way, his blade will cover more of his front, he can turn better, and he more readily fits the Dutch theme. For his stats I plan to lower his weapon a bit to raise his speed. Thankfully no problems have occured with weapon/armor so I think that can stay where it is.

holy fuck that was a lot

britespark · Post by **britespark** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:49 pm

These are my very brief plans for the next big ARC tournament:

Lightweight

Uplifting Experience has done fantastically in my opinion, especially considering that it was my first EVER render. Next time, UE will return with a new shape and different stat allocation, but will still feature a powerful flipper.

Middleweight

The same can be said about w00t? really: I am shocked that I have 2 machines that are on the verge of making the playoffs, and more importantly 2 machines that are beating seasoned veterans! w00t, like UE, will definately return next time, but under a new guise and possibly in a different weight category...

Heavyweight

Bad Karma is a really old design - its origins going back at least 6 years ago (maybe even more!). The idea behind it was good, but it's weaknesses overshadowed its true potential. A new machine will take its place.

Super-Heavyweight

Panda-Mick.... what can I say? I have ideas in the pipeline, just watch this space... ;)

Siphai · Post by **Siphai** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:52 pm

Bring back Panda-Mick

panicattacky2k · Post by **panicattacky2k** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:56 pm

Cyberdemon is going to get a pretty heavy makeover, and to reference the Doom comic that Dylan keeps mentioning, will be renamed to "Here Comes the Night Train". He'll also be a lot faster.

Shovearound, meh, I'm probably going to make the wedges spring-loaded and sacrifice the armor boost. Color coding the side wedges might help a little, too. Not a whole lot I can do with him.

I was considering bringing a redesigned SUNCUST courtesy of one AJRobotics, but I had trouble finding a half decent stat allocation, so I'll use a slightly modded Aquarius, renamed to "Mister Majestic".

SHW will probably be Novastorm with the stats it has in Fantasy Fury, unless the SHW class suddenly drops in brickyness. For that reason, I'm probably going to wait a while before signing up for the new season, just to see if entering another brick in a brick heavy division is going to do me a whole lot of good.

Ry_Trapp0 · Post by **Ry_Trapp0** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:59 pm

LW:
not quite sure yet, but i want to come up with something interesting and original. 'spin suicide' has never really been succesful, though i dont think its the fault of the design, but its getting retired.

MW:
'unlimited limits' has been slightly modified(im having trouble trying to improve it, it seems about as good as it gets with these last few changes) and will make its return to dominate bitches again.

HW:
not quite sure yet, considering modifying my power axe, 'long shot', or possibly my horizontal disc, 'ice break'(though, i doubt it since HW is so anti spinner).

SHW:
more than likely a redesigned, atleast modified, 'chain linked launcher'. never really got to see how good it could work, though it can definatly use some improvements.

joeychevron · Post by **joeychevron** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 6:02 pm

My plans?

Drive is coming back, needs a touch more speed and I think I could have a real winner here. It has surpassed all my expectations for it so far and although the loss to eurypterus still smarts I think it's done very well.

The rest are all changing. Broken Wings, while cool, suffered from lack of speed badly and the axe/lifter combo just didn't work in a stat based tourney, so that's out. Octavius was an idea that worked well in my head but stat allocation could have been better, although I am impressed with it so far. Stiltskin is an odd case, it's won matches and it's lost matches but the dual layer armour seems to be either being ignored or largely irrelevant, and as it's just a big flipper it loses out in a division with spinners and rammers.

So what's in next time. Lots of petrol engined spinners I think, plus an appearance of one or the other version of The Hurting in ARC. *people who have tried to read its stats duck*
I also want to try and get the Octavius concept going again with better stat allocation, so you may see No Consequences in ARC as well.

Of course, this could all be different by the time the actual thing comes around. Who knows? :P

britespark · Post by **britespark** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:45 am

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Siphai</dt><dd>Feb 27 2009, 05:52 PM</dd></dl><div>Bring back Panda-Mick[/quote]
Your wish has been granted... ish! :P

Area51Escapee · Post by **Area51Escapee** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 12:59 pm

I'm going to bring back at least two all star bots to my team. Overall, though, I've been pretty happy with my squad so far.

Taurus is my favorite and possibly even my brightest spot this season. Except for a hard fought loss to The Thwacking Head, he's been unstoppable and is one of the few bots giving the power rammers/lifters a run for their money.

On a similiar note, The Dark Side of Cupid is doing quite exceptional. At 6-0, he's got a great chance at the title and was also designed to take down all kinds of bots. His speed, I feel, is what's driving his success a lot. Only time will tell if he can keep it up.

Sandman, of course, is a comical story and there's no way I'm going to go with that same goofy experiment twice. Let's just say my next SHW will be the antithesis of what Sandman is.

Red Zone is still very much in the playoff hunt but is still my biggest disappointment. It's not like he's done "bad" persay, but all the really tough throwdown matches have landed him on the wrong side of the fight by REALLY close decisions. Underall, Zombie Killer, Rascal. I guess I can't feel bad about losing those matches but it's tough when they are all playoff bots and they were all so close. The only one of those I won was against Sovereign, so at least I have that.

Well, there you have it. I'll make sure to have a playoff hungry bot in every class next time.

Fish Of Doom · Post by **Fish Of Doom** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:25 pm

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>panicattacky2k</dt><dd>Feb 27 2009, 10:56 PM</dd></dl><div> Cyberdemon is going to get a pretty heavy makeover, and to reference the Doom comic that Dylan keeps mentioning, will be renamed to "Here Comes the Night Train". He'll also be a lot faster. [/quote]
If you do this, I'm naming one of my bots "The Sweet Kiss of Heavy Ordinance". God, the doom comic is so fucking cool.

I'm liking Giant Swan's redesign, and it's a huge improvement from the original that I think got 1 win a few years ago. I may not even change it at all. If it goes down, I'll see what it's flaws are and redesign.

I also like Written like the "O" in the word goodbye, because he's so vastly different from all of the other SHW bots. The SHW class has been fun because it's not long rammers vs. spinners, there's a lot of unique bots.

The MW class is terrible this season. There are a few spinners, but all are doing terribly because 80% of the bots are rammers/flippers. I'm really going to do something crazy for the MW class next season.

The LW class is super competitive, except for Underall who's blowing through everyone. If he wins this season, I might retire him. If he loses in the play offs, he's coming back for revenge.

Toxic · Post by **Toxic** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:14 pm

Well,as I said on another topic, I'm more than likely entering the next tourny since I actually have a reliable internet connection.

For LW's, I'm thinking about bringing something that I've used before back,but I'm also throwing around a couple of ideas that are brand new,atleast for me.

MWs, I'm gunna be lame and probably just bring back Tiki Dude, since thats basically the only MW I've ever used.

And HW and SHW I have no clue.Might do something new, but like with the LW,I'm thinking about bringing something back again.

Since I actually know what will work and what won't(It been like 3 years or so since I last did one of these) I'm really hoping to be competitive this time around.

Area51Escapee · Post by **Area51Escapee** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:46 pm

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Toxic</dt><dd>Mar 1 2009, 04:14 AM</dd></dl><div> Well,as I said on another topic, I'm more than likely entering the next tourny since I actually have a reliable internet connection.

For LW's, I'm thinking about bringing something that I've used before back,but I'm also throwing around a couple of ideas that are brand new,atleast for me.

MWs, I'm gunna be lame and probably just bring back Tiki Dude, since thats basically the only MW I've ever used.

And HW and SHW I have no clue.Might do something new, but like with the LW,I'm thinking about bringing something back again.

Since I actually know what will work and what won't(It been like 3 years or so since I last did one of these) I'm really hoping to be competitive this time around. [/quote]
If you want, you can still use the designs I made for you back in Redemption. I thought they were all pretty good but it's up to you. Too bad you FFed away...you could have been a CONTENDAH!

succotash_54 · Post by **succotash_54** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 1:10 am

He reminds me a lot of me when I was in my prime.

NWOWWE · Post by **NWOWWE** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 12:29 pm

You had a prime? When was this? Then again I'm still waiting for mine.

Siphai · Post by **Siphai** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 12:33 pm

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>NWOWWE</dt><dd>Mar 1 2009, 12:29 PM</dd></dl><div> You had a prime? When was this? Then again I'm still waiting for mine. [/quote]
I think I very faintly recall Philip getting a title in at least one division......