thoughts ???

Hi Craig......you just mosie on up here mate and i will make you a nice cup of tea and biscuits....oh and bring them there plans with you me old pal. :)

been hit, got dents, been flipped out, broke lots of bits. Sometimes we do ok, don't expect to win but always hopeful and sometimes, just sometimes......

I'm sure I remember a time when people helped each other get right way up or unstuck to keep the fight running, better to watch and more fun to drive.

How about a 'kill claxon' that sounds at 30 or 60 seconds - the idea being that before then no ootas or pining and hitting but when the claxon goes so do the restrictions.

It could increase the ratio of fight time to loading time - which must be good for the audience, allow the big flippers to do spectacular ootas but at the same time give all the bots a chance to drive round and try out their weapons.

Blimey Craig whats that then....oxycetaline torch ! :lol:

I understand that i dont own a heavyweight but my thought is, hasnt it always been this way.

Think to the 1st uk championship. Mortis was the favoute, with an axe.

Next series, we got Napalm, Killertron and Mortis in the semi Final. Also worth mentioning Killerhurtz among others.

2nd Uk championship. Cassius (among others) and its flipper/scrimech.

Next series we have Chaos 2, Firestorm, Berserk 2, and Gravedigger. With similar weaponry.

3rd UK championship. Hypno-Disc with the Kinetic Flywheel, and Chaos with the Rearword hinged flipper.

Next series there are no semi finalists who have been inspired by Hypno-disc. But Thermador 2, Wheely Big Cheese, and Steg 2, seem to be inspired by Chaos 2.

However over the next few years we get so many robots based on Hypno- Disc. Fluffy, 259, 13 Black, Typhoon 2, and so on.

So the pont is, theres not really a problem with the show being dominated by one particular robot design. Its really always been that way and always has been. Its just we are currently going through an extended period of no one being able to think of a superior design to the last.

I think its just a case that aslong as every robot in the final isnt similar. Then its fine. At the start of the O2 i would not have put a bet on Envy reaching the final. My bet would have been on Terrorhurtz, then Envy beat Terrorhurtz in the first round in record time.

So kinda what clive said, sure your robot will lose to another every time, but it doesnt mean to robotieer and the robot will lose every time. Like Panic Attack

This might be seen as a very stupid idea but how about a prize to the machine that throws another out of the arena as close to the fight end time as possible per event? :crazy: Doesn't even have to be a good prize.

I'll shut up now. :(

I think the Malice boy has the best idea so far :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by razerdave

I think the Malice boy has the best idea so far :)

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Have to disagree, don't like the idea. All seems to complicated :uhoh:

I know I don't have any heavyweights yet, but I also think that's a good idea, and it might also give enough time for the slightly less well equiped robots to deploy there weapon or tactics efectly before being flipped or pitted, also if you haven't driven your robot for a while, it gives you time to get use to the driving

Hi Guys,

This has been a very interesting discussion, one which myself and Alan have had a few chats about it too.

I€™ve actually come to the conclusion that there€™s no problem what€™s so ever, and that its just the nature of the beast, people develop weapon systems to suit the combat environment.
The RR arena has been adapted to less favour the HP flippers by the fact we now only have 1 flip out side, this has increased the fight lengths !!

In Dublin there were other robots there, axe, LP front hinged flipper, puck, they just got outclassed and the final top 4 ended up being the best of best.

I did sway towards a two tiered system, but have now decided it would be a big mistake led by comments here.

Why should the good robots be penalised for being good? Why should they knock each other out in the first round, and make it harder for them to win?, yet allow lower robots though by keeping them away... that isn€™t allowing the best robots to win the competitions.

It€™s like saying Red Bull aren€™t allowed to do qualifying as they are too dominant....when in fact the rest of the team need to go away and scratch their heads and improve if they want to beat them !

We need to encourage the lower robots to improve, its a sport we are in, its a competition, its not bumper cars, otherwise if we have this €œ Division 2 €œ league, it will allow the Div2 robots to remain Div2 robots ( Hydra not needing an upgrade is a classic example).
Not allowing people to use weapons is not good either !

We cant just make it easy for people to keep the same, they should be trying to get to the top, or... they are content just playing !

So what am I going to do....

There won€™t be a 2 tier system for 2012, but I will keep an eye on diversity etc..
If people don€™t want to fight in the comp, they don€™t have to
I will create more white boards at the RR show, in 2011 we did have a lot of competition fights as we were having a separate competition per show, I will be reducing this to one comp over the two shows which gives us a lot more whiteboard fights.
Encourage people to create their own fights, one fight per show can be a non destructive / HP flipper if requested but it has to be done in time before it gets filled up.

Thank you for your input, i will be interested in peoples thoughts still in the future.

John
Roaming Robots

I just wish people wouldn't be so protective and let Thor, Tiberious and THz hit them and bite them as hard as they like. Thats is whats keeping the latter 2 away...

Fought Thor and Thz many times and suffered plenty of fixable damage.Fought Tiberious quite a few times and lost 2 motors,1 gearbox and 1 speed controller.Even in a whiteboard I guess stop doesn't always mean stop.

Yes thz and Thor , we can all fight ...take damage and repair it ! I dont know any team which won't fight them.

With tiberious it's different, the reputation is ... Doesn't stop and creates £s of damage not just armour !!

If it just put holes in things it would be fine, or it's the champs fine, but local events it's different.

Kan opener was the same, until he stopped killing things then people would fight it !
That's a complete new thread to be created :-)
John

right, im building a heavy, got a fair way atm, hopefully ready for barnsely if you'll have me and to be honest i am not aiming to win anything, in any weight class, i just want to fight these robots, bring it on thor, bring it on Thz, bring it on anybody :x
you want a good sacrifical bot for a fight? im your man :twisted:

It appears that the HW crushers do the serious big £££££ damage, maybe somethig needs to be done about that at local events? Champs it's fair game though :)

Hi John & all EO's

You wish to know how people feel I can only answer for myself, do fp flippers scare us? No you just have to learn to adapt to what will beat them!! It;s a challenge. Scorpion evil learned to adapt to Pillowtorque when that machine ruled the roost (as many others did). We all need a target, a nemesis, something to beat. John, Ripper is top dog, not that long ago Iron Awe was top dog, things change. Your primary question ....... Do I do it to win? Yes! Do I do it for enjoyment? Yes! Does it matter if I don't win? Yes Ican put this last comment into perspective.. you all know Sean .. he's bought himself a motorbike, he wishes to store it in the workshop for now it probably wont fit down our pathway (being very narrow) we will overcome the problem!! For me this is my Spobby without the likes of Ripper, Thor & the Grims where would the challenge be???

I agree, it seems like the last 12 months FP Flippers are dominating, sure there seems to be more flippers than any other type but as so many people have already said on this thread there are a lot of other types and not all flippers are the same. There is a good variety of robots and it will balance itself out even more with all the new robots planned.

I see no reason to create a 2 tier system, at the same time if there is one then we will accept it and carry on as before. We have always had a rule of thumb saying we will enter around one event per month and last year was no exception. I think that it is perceived there are less robots going to events but in my opinion its not the case, its just that there are more events each year, and it just so happens that the people with flippers are the ones who attend more often. Personally my preference is towards the featherweights because costs are less, and oh yeah they allow spinners :proud: . Driving a few hundred miles every other week is a lot more expensive that it used to be.

On the point of avoiding damaging robots, we admit to avoiding certain robots in whiteboards and know many other do, but don't in competition fights. That's what it is a competition, we want the competition its what makes building and fighting fun, even if we don't win (yes I want to). We do expect the roboteers fighting, even in comp fights to show mercy after a robot is dead by at least giving the option to surrender, but not before the fight is lost.

I too also remember a time when once a comp fight was over if robots were stuck then it would be unstuck and the fight carry on, but due to some bad judging some fights were lost by holding back so it doesn't happen as often, but it still does, after all we are there to entertain.

I do find the idea of having a class for the old robots interesting, since we could join them, oh wait is big nipper in the 'super robot class' but over 10 years old! How would that work? :lol:

i dont think you could class big nipper as old :lol:

would be great too see robots like eric, scar, orac and stormforce fighting against bots in their own league :)

Hopefully Eric and Storm Force will happen from that list, Scar would need to be modified to the extent that i'm not sure if it could be classed as one of the old bots, as its a spinner, although I suppose it could be setup as a rotary lifter as the disc only does around 50 rpm anyway... Eric is still pretty original at the moment, everything in it is the same as it was back in the day but we are considering using a Roboteq speed controller, and of course the accumulator has gone.

Its just whether anyone wants to see the nostalgic battles or not really.

people wont care if they are nostalgic battles, they just want battles :)
i am not a fan of flippers but if you think about it its not too bad really, you do get a lot of variation, think of something like ripper, then look at iron awe, they are pretty different machines but still scusessful.
what we need its some more people to build the robochickens and robopigs, the robots that show off the more creative and fun side of things, sure they may be beaten by another serious but they look bloody good doing it.
and anyway, all it takes is a rx to fail or the link to come out or a wire to come out of place, could happen to any machine.