Wooden Robot Class

[Hoppy]

Whilst its true that experienced builders will make better robots than beginners, this fact shows that if the wooden robot class is primarily to bring people, especially youngsters, into the sport at a minimum cost financially, then IMO its not sensible to let them enter wooden bots into existing fight classes, pitted against heavily armoured and heavily armed bots. Even beginners could get hold of a big lump of expensive Oak or old Mahogany, channel it out to build a well protected ram bot which might have a good chance of survival. However, this defeats the purpose for which the wooden class was envisaged. As PJ-27 says: It sort of negates the idea of a level playing field, cheap to build and easy to repair though.

To me it seems pointless to develop this further unless a completely separate class is agreed to, with build rules to provide a level playing field and most importantly, opportunities for regular fight events.

Hoppy

[Max]

If you take it to its extreme a level playing field means you tell people exactly what to do and every robot is exactly the same, leaving only the driver as the way of winning. Do people build robots for the fun of making them or driving them?

[Ellis]

You can get HDPE for the same money as decent wood, and you can use wood tools to work it. It's significantly... well, better, for combat, than wood. A 15-20mm HDPE box will be more or less impenetrable. In the long run it's probably cheaper than wood. Plus, you can compete with the new guys or stick it in with NST and Inertia XL for a laugh. With wood, unless it's crazy thick, you just can't.

For that reason I don't think this class will ever be much more than a novelty. You can't turn your first robot into a full combat machine if it's wood, without literally rebuilding it. It isn't cost effective unless you stick to only competing against other wooden robots, and a 12 year old who is new to the sport will quickly get bored with that.

[Hoppy]

Having a strict set of rules does not detract from having fun and beginners can benefit from this approach in the knowledge that they are well guided and really do have a chance of winning in a level playing field. 'Greenpower' EV racing is an excellent example of this. I personally have fun building EV's but I'm sure there are many others who enjoy driving as much.

Hoppy

[Hoppy]

Relentless wrote: -

For that reason I don't think this class will ever be much more than a novelty. You can't turn your first robot into a full combat machine if it's wood, without literally rebuilding it. It isn't cost effective unless you stick to only competing against other wooden robots, and a 12 year old who is new to the sport will quickly get bored with that.

Good point but when a 12 year old gets bored with building and competing in a 'wooden' starter class, is the time for him to move into the more advanced 'almost anything goes' classes.

Hoppy

[PJ-27]

The class was originally born out of a notion that FWs at non-spinner events are boring (not my thoughts) and that robots armoured up to eye balls knocking into eachother gets dull (yes my thoughts).

I later noticed that, although very inspiring and impressive, seeing some of the other robots that have a fortune spent on them and being built by some very experienced people, to be quite daunting and off putting.
By having a limit on materials, in this case just the one which is readily available and cheap, you can tackle this problem.

This evolved into the class we have now including elements such as, easy/cheap build and fix, encourage people into the sport, easy tool use, level playing field and actually having some destruction.

Indeed HPDE encompasses some of these elements, but it's still much more expensive than MDF and doesn't break as easily.

[PJ-27]

In fact the young persons / new roboteer aspect was just a bi-product idea thanks to the use of easy material, tools, easy on the wallet and the fact that a level playing field encourages entry level participation.

For instance - my Cousin is interested in building a robot with my Uncle since I showed him my robots, but he's very young. My Uncle, although technically minded, hasn't built anything like this before. What do I suggest?

Build with these common materials (HDPE, Drill motors etc), enter at a HW event, be considered boring because it's just a rambot, the robot proves ineffective by comparison and you get wrecked by either another powerful machine (indeed part of the sport) or some arena hazard (floor flipper, house robot).
Sure this may seem awesome for a short while, but it'll soon wear off, worth the cost and time? Maybe, I personally mostly enjoy the building part.

Alternatively you enter into an RC event, there's 1 a year mostly, it's the champs, places are limited the combat is full on. The machine doesn't stand a chance but you have a laugh.

Is there a better alternative? What's that? Some super awesome mega ultra 2000 + turbo fusion wooden robot class!

[Hoppy]

PJ-27,

You hit the nail on the head in your third and fourth paras! As a newcomer to this forum, I really think a fresh approach is needed if the sport has any chance of growing in popularity. Maybe, just maybe, a 'wooden' class with will give the best chance of this happening. However, insofar as the combat robot 'business' is concerned, this may not be so welcomed. A new wooden class would, as has been pointed out require regular events to have any chance of success and there may not be sufficient time slots to fit these in with existing established events that are proven to be financially viable. Hobby wishes and business interests don't always mix well!

Hoppy

[PJ-27]

@Hoppy, cheers!

Unfortunately the final piece in this puzzle requires some external/3rd party influence.
How to go about making that happen I don't know unfortunately.

[typhoon_driver]

You won't get a regular event for this class unless someone has thousands they want to throw away