OOTA

[typhoon_driver]

thats wot i was thinking, jst suck urself to the floor so that they cant get under and flip u

[tunna]

We had built about 18 months ago a 100 bore Ram
the internals were a little complex to say the least!!but the old bulldog chassis would not be able to support it ,but after a good kickin
in S7 we decided to build a complete new Bulldog,
it has become a nightmare but is starting to take shape now!!,,,higher walls are not the answer!!
Higher ceilings are the answer!!!!!

[typhoon_driver]

i think they should def get a roof on the arena

[robjones]

Ive been pondering this very question since S7. Good driving is obviously a help but in the 4 way melees you cant always defend yourself. I think back to the days of tornado nets on battleships and think maybe some sort of pseudo-sides or sacrificial-sides might do the trick. ie limit how far the flipper gets under your bot,(maybe by having a slightly flexible dual spine to the machine, from front to back) then when he fires, something goes up/or flying but it aint your robot.

[glen]

well did you think of having hinged sides - i.e 4 wedges around the robot and have a small extractor fan underneath. that way it creates a vacuum which will suck the wedges onto the ground giving a 0 ground clearance. the vacuum wouldnt be to harsh so you could still drive.

[jim]

Just a few ideas - Ive not got much experience in battle so this is all theory...

Use a skirt - a strip of steel attached to hinges on the side of your robot, so that it trails on the floor. If done right this should stop a flipper or wedge from getting underneath your robot, and you can still have high ground clearance for the main body of your robot (= less chance of grounding.)

I belive Panic Attack and a few others have used skirts like these.

If you place the hinges half way up your robot this could work for invertible robots. Also, if you want it to follow the contour of the floor better, you could divide the skirt up into several sections. You would probably want to round of the corners of the skirt so they dont dig into the floor while youre moving.

I think this sort of thing would be easily torn off by spinners, so you would need to consider it an addition to your normal armour. You just need to hope you dont meet a flipper and a spinner in the same match.

[storm]

Skirts are a VERY effective way of dealing with flippers.

[robjones]

I thought tonights heat C final between Dantomkia and IG-88 was a great win and a brilliantly executed flip but disappointing as it was over so quick. Bring in 6ft fences!