So, this is the return of the callout thread that periodically pops up on ARC. Y'all should know how it works by now. You post a bot. You challenge another bot. No bitch-ass challenges where you put your 2x championship winning brick up against a noob x-axis spinner. That makes you a tryhard and a Laz dick. They're under no obligation to accept, but if it's a fair challenge and they don't, well, they're a bitch. You've got that on them, at least.
Them's the Rules
The rules used will be the same as in ICEcrown, which are mostly just the REDDIT rules with some of the Thunder Underground modifications. That means:
- Clutch-powered secondary weapons will receive half of the main weapon's power. However, they will have the option to increase their power by adding points to the clutch mechanism. They will gain two points for every point invested in the clutch, though a secondary weapon's power may not exceed that of the primary weapon.
- For every point of speed over 9 invested in a robot, traction will receive a -1 penalty. this means that a robot with spd/tra of 10/9 will function as a 10/8. this is to represent the difficulty of controlling a high speed robot - this means that it's pointless to argue that point in an RP against a robot, since it'll already be represented in the stats.
- Modular robots may not transfer any more than 5 stat points from weapon to armor (and vice versa) between different modules. Additionally, body armor and drivetrain stats must stay consistent across all modules.
- Impacts can affect more than just the area directly impacted. Robots with high armor bonuses can still experience damage to the mountings of the bonused area, or have internal components knocked loose. This can never directly cause a KO or catastrophic damage, but may cause things to stop working or parts to fall off with enough hits. It will be equal to half the damage that the weapon would do if directly striking that part (IE a 14 power spinner only does 2 points of damage to a 12 armour plow, but to the 8 armoured mountings it would do 6 divided by 2 for a total of 3 damage).
- The arm on which a circular saw must be mounted will not require a point investment so long as the saw in question has more than five points. The arm will be assumed to move at a speed equivalent to a three point lifter. Points added into it will increase its speed up to an equivalent five point lifter.
- Similar to CBC, saws will have their own damage scale, to better reflect the unique way in which they deal damage. In order to deal damage, a saw will have to cut through its opponent's armour. It will do this at a rate of 1 armour x (power of saw) per ten seconds rounded to the nearest whole or down if it falls halfway. For example, a ten power saw will take six seconds to cut through six armour, while taking twelve to cut through twelve armour. An eight power saw will take ten seconds to cut through eight armour and 12.5 (rounded down to twelve) to cut through ten armour. Once a saw has pierced, it will do a flat rate of 1 corner damage/second.
- Crushing and piercing weapons will receive a +4 weapon armour bonus, just like small diameter spinning weapons. However, they will be subject to the 1/3 rule unlike those spinning weapons. Wedges that are clearly part of separate weapons systems or that clearly do not play an integral part in the functioning of the crusher will not receive the bonus.
- Shell, ring, and overhead spinners will receive their usual +2 armour bonus. However, the allowable Weapon:armour difference before they self-damage will be raised by two points. Basically, they're getting two points of weapon armour in terms of external damage and four points in terms of self-damage. Like melty-brain thwacks, they'll also be able to apply an armour bonus to their weapon teeth.
- flippers will throw opponents one foot for each point invested as opposed to half a foot.
The Works
We're going to pilot a new RP system here which is basically a semi-structured online debate that'll be done on discord. Here's how it works:
- You call someone out by posting a picture of your bot along with its details and its stats. Your opponent accepts the challenge and posts his/her bot and stats (no specifically retailoring an existing bot's stats just for this fight. It's cheap).
- You find an available writer and then pick a time when all three of you can be online. You can arrange it on discord. You go into #callout-room on our discord server and the writer announces the start of the RPs at the appointed time.
- Both combatants will be given ten minutes to post their strategies and respond to points that their opponent makes. The writer will observe and adjudicate, but not participate. Once the ten minutes is up (or if the drivers agree to finish early), they'll call time and no further discussion will be considered.
- Other community members are encouraged to pop into the chat and 'watch' the fights live. However, they may not comment or provide any input in the #callout-room. That's what #general-mostly-robot-chat is for. In the event that the fight's assigned writer isn't able to write it for whatever reason, any of these observers can volunteer to write the fight instead.
- Based upon the quality of the arguments presented during the chat, combined with the stats and designs of the two bots, the writer will write the outcome of the fight sometime within the next day or so.
Meet Me at the Baseball Diamond After School
To avoid confusion and fuckery, here's a couple of rules governing fights and threads:
- The arena used will be the standard battlebots arena from the 2018 series. If you don't know what it looks like, you honesty shouldn't be on here. Go outside and play catch or some shit.
- If you're interested in writing a fight or two, just post on here (either in the same post where you call someone out or by itself) saying that you are. You can also request a specific writer on here or on discord, but they're under no obligation to accept.
- Don't pick too many fights! I know you just wanna take on the world, kiddo, and punch all the things, but writers need time to write shit. If you're already part of two callouts that haven't finished, you can't be part of a third until at least one is cleared.
- Remember, this ARC. It isn't real. If you act like a Laz shit-talking dick or a salty bitch over imaginary online robots fighting, I just won't write or host your fights. It's that simple, so uh... don't be a dick.
- Finally, the most important part of this 'event': The Music
Hobart's flails.
Hobart's vertical bar
