Roaming Robots, Preston 29th Feb 2004

[teamchip]

Tim: Good points but I dont think the big oooh factor for the audience is just damage. In feathers yes, to make it attractive to the audience damage is good, but in heavies the sheer weight and noise and power is the big oooh factor.

As you know from a public point of view they just dont realise how big and heavy the heavyweight bots are. The noise of Thors, Terrorhurtzs etc axes, and the noise and effects of flippers like Dantomkia and Bulldog Breed (to name just 2) and the actual vibes felt through the air etc is the biggest surprise to seeing them on TV.

I dont think feathers can ever come near this sheer initial impact on the 1st time audience WOW factor.

Thats why I think 2 arenas ...1 for for feathers 1 for heavys would be good ..if the venue is suitable and all the work (and dosh)involved in setting up 2 arenas at events is feasable.

Tom

this is one reason why we are trying to get the middleweights going. The have a similar size to heavys, and still make a bang when hitting each other.

I dont think i have ever seen a feather fight come near to the excitment of a heavy fight, they just dont have the impact on the audience.

[ewan]

issue is money... Id build a middle weight If I could afford it... Most featherweight roboteers are just beginers, and featherweights are their learning curve... Youve got to admit that with the new breed of featherweight here, youll but having great fun at the FWS...

[kaideejee]

Quick question - was everyone in the CREW T-shirts a member of the entertainment company, or a RR crew member, or was it a mix of the two? I ask because I asked someone (at the barrier) for a word with Dominic in the pits and they helpfully said I could go in - just wondering whether it was anyone on here that let me in

-- Kev

This event certainly showed the potential for the future of the sport. We fully enjoyed it, would have liked more fights though. To speed things up maybe you could use a similar idea to Brighton Model world, when the feathers have been loaded in the heavies that are in the next fight could be put in the arena by the door and left unarmed. If it was Mute the feathers could use it as a ramp and after the fight all the feathers are removed and the heavy have only got to be armed up.
With regards to the floor, I wouldnt want to raise Mutes front off the floor, we wounldnt stand a chance of getting under anyone. The main problem we had, besides ripping the floor up, is that we were grounding all over the place. in the last fight we spent most of the fight firing the flipper trying to get of a high spot in the arena.
One thought could be to put a couple of robots in the arena a few hours before the show and let they drive round, this might showwere the problem spots are.

Adam

[blazerbotics]

ewan, with feathers at the current level they are, its cost alots to bo build a decent one. You need; Speedos, NiCads, Poly/Ti etc. Middlewewights can be built in a very similar way in which the heavyweights were built, old wheelchairs, relay control etc. Alot of featherweight builders are at the stage where they want to move on to something else, but cant afford a heavy. Middleweights are a good next step for them.

[robotwars]

yes adam, if your at a venue early, i think it would be a great idea to get mute in the arena before hand to highlight the trouble spots. Then we can go underneath and adjust the leg heights.

Black t-shirt = entertainment company
Red t-shirt = roaming robots
Yellow = me


jonno

[tim_jones]

Tom
Yes surprise at the size/noise of the real thing is a factor at first. It got me the same way at the first real event I attended, but that initial reaction soon wears off. In order to sustain an audience over some years other factors come into play. For a first time spectator its good enough to tear about and bounce off the walls creating loads of noise, later on they will more likely need to see good cliffhanger/well balanced/close fights between well matched machines. I guess that any weight class can produce this to an equal degree, but the lighter weights are of course more spectacular in a lighter arena.

Perhaps the crux of the matter is that if we want to be a travelling circus we need spectacle for spectators but if we want to be a sport it needs to develop to provide good close competition and for the sport to come before the audience. This does of course come back to the question of roboteers maybe needing to pay more in the way of entry fees etc instead of asking the audience to foot the bill. Do we want to be superstars or sportsmen? Do we want to be funded as a circus or as a sport?

Personally I feel that we are a bit unique in having developed almost exclusively as a spectator sport in the first instance. Perhaps we could all gain by taking a step back and spending a few years evolving without so much pressure to put on a good show

Alan

The question regarding middlwweights is basically the same. Should we develop a weight class for the audience? Is there a major cost benefit to the competitors in the middleweight class over evolving straight onto heavies is surely a better question?

Yes I would love to run a bigger machine, but given that I would really like to be able to afford a heavy, do I want to pour money into an intermediate weight class rather than saving pennies to move onto the big boys toys

Most of my questions and concerns come from over 25 years spent watching various motorsports making the very same mistake of putting the live audience/TV companies before the competitors. At present we could very easily replicate all these errors in robotic combat. Why not think about evolving to allow cheap but fun competition in the arena for ourselves and avoid the rather sad spectacle of roboteers competing to see who gets to sign the most autographs

I like the idea of pitting the heavies and feathers in at once (heavies deactivated obviously) as this should help the flow of fights, but... I know how nervous I sometimes am having my machine sitting in the arena for a long time prior to the 321activate, must hark back to old worries of overheating, but if the heavies are willing then it could be good to use them as arena obsacles.

I like that idea, but who said the heavies need to be deactivated ...think of them as a house robot!!