Arena hazards?

[Retroman]

What’s everyone’s feelings about arena hazards?

Backstory; I was planning to build a battle box for testing purposes, then realised for an extra few quid in materials I could build a full arena, planning on having on edge as full drop-off and a rounded corner “pit” with corner stops to prevent simply ramming and driving along a wall (sketch to follow shortly) but I’ve been looking at turning the other corner into a sort of radius ramp (almost like a quarter pipe) to maybe allow some sort of area to shunt opponents and turn them over/confuse/etc...

Hopefully I can make it removable to make the arena more versatile, and it will be made from offcuts and will only cost some time.

Really I just want to know if anyone would like that sort of thing or would I be wasting my time?

Edit: the current design allows for a 40% drop-off, the rules state 50% but I have seen quite a few mentions of it not being too important anymore, would this be suitable?

[sean retro]

Is the arena for AW or BW?

[Retroman]

This will be for AW, walking before I start to run and all that... although the idea of a BW arena hasn't been discounted yet...

[James Williams]

This sounds good, I especially like the quarter pipe side idea as I think it will suit more unorthodox designs. Regarding the 50% drop off rule I wouldn't worry about it. There was talk about changing it in the rules update vote a few months ago & even now most of the arenas I've fought in are less than 50%.

Now that I think about it an arena with all of the dropout zones behind quarter pipes could be very interesting...

[Ocracoke]

Sounds intriguing, I'd like to see the sketch. The 50% drop off thing I thought only applied to arenas being used for AWS (it is one of the reasons why the BotFest one doesn't meet the criterion for it).

[Retroman]

I’m literally re-sketching the floor plan now, we’ll, once I’ve made coffee...

Good to know it’s only for AWS events though, I’ll leave it as is

Now, coffee is made, I’ll get this sketch finalised and post a pic, see what we all think

[Retroman]

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For some reason I can’t change the orientation on my phone...

So apologies about the quality of the artwork, I’ll spare you all the concept work and present the ‘finished’ design! I still can’t decide whether to use this kind of pyramid shape, or go for something that wraps around the corner however, this may be a decision to be made at the time... or I might make both and try them out.

The battle box will become part of the ramp, and will be 1m square with a fighting area roughly 85x90cm minus pit and ramp.

not shown is the extra level for sumo/games, because I haven’t designed it yet...

[Shakey]

We've not followed the 50% rule for a long time even in AWS arenas, the rules were just never 'fixed' to reflect it.

[Retroman]

I thought I’d read that somewhere, thanks for clearing that up Alex.

Final question (probably) would it be better to use white lighting or colours? Already planning on a red glow for the pit areas, and was thinking of lighting in the corners a la Robot Wars, is plain white too boring?

[Roboteernat]

Remember that too much 'blue' light causes effects in camera sensors and makes everything go violet in the picture.