How could I Improve pt 2

[corsair_lightning]

I used it because I thought it was an innovative idea. But anyways, I'll remove it now.

[majinb]

If it's unreliable, why did you use it? Poor reliability killed Spawn Again, Razer, and a few others...

I must point out though that going for a complex and on paper (and in practice sometimes) unreliable setup also did Razar lotsa good things, going for a complex and therefor relatively unreliable system over a more simple but less effective system can be worth it if the payoff is big enough.

[RogueTwoRobots]

Something to bear in mind too is; a robot with a complex and unreliable system won't always be a robot with a complex and unreliable system. If you keep going through battles losing because of your unreliability, you're going to look at your system and hone it, improve it, steadily iron out the weaknesses -weaknesses that a lot of the time are highlighted by losing a battle.

So although a complex and unreliable system may fail to shine or live up to potential intially, once you've eradicated the weakpoints, failings and bugs, you're still going to have a complex system, but you will have a reliable complex system that will be highly effective in battle.

Razer, as Martijn has pointed out, is a great example. They suffered mechanical breakdown regularly during the early series', but once they'd improved on the areas that had failed, they went on a great run that took them to the Series 5 title and almost the Series 6 one. That's on a par (with the exception of one battle) with Chaos 2, a machine that has never been branded unreliable.

So if you build a complex and unreliable system, don't just ditch it due to its shortcomings. Stick with it and understand it more, improve it, and then you'll have something that is really quite effective in the arena

[team_orr]

*applauds jamie*

[majinb]

Razer, as Martijn has pointed out, is a great example. They suffered mechanical breakdown regularly during the early series', but once they'd improved on the areas that had failed, they went on a great run that took them to the Series 5 title and almost the Series 6 one. That's on a par (with the exception of one battle) with Chaos 2, a machine that has never been branded unreliable.

well yeah, the Razer boys could have easily said this system is too unreliable, lets build a flipper after Series 4 or so and if they had done that, robotering in general would be a tad less interesting as a whole :P

[knightrous]

Razer also took out the World Champs twice and had a 17 win streak at one point (Think it lost it when beaten by Pussycat in Extreme 2?).

[kodster]

okay okay I'm wrong, jeez

No need to keep throwing facts at me :P

[RogueTwoRobots]

Lol, well you weren't really wrong Kody. You said poor reliability killed Spawn Again and Razer, which is true. Imagine if Razer hadn't broken down in Series 2, 3 and 4; it could have been the 4-time UK champion *drools at the thought*

I guess stating a system is unreliable in vapourbots is less justified though. For real robots, you don't really know whether or not the system is unreliable until that unreliablilty is highlighted through lost battles - then the problem can be rectified to minimise future downfalls. But if a vapourbot loses a battle due to stating its system is unreliable, the builder can easily say 'Ok I've upgraded the system and its no longer unreliable' in which case, there's not much to gain from stating that its unreliable in the first place. If your vapourbot breaks down, you can't take it back to the pits, remove the coverings and trace the component(s) that failed so you don't really learn why that unreliable sytem was unreliable and what you need to change to make it reliable in future fights.

Wow, I don't think reliable/unreliable has ever been typed so much in a post

[corsair_lightning]

The system has now been revised with both a piece of metal with a slot to hold the lever in place, and with electric locking pins which act in a fraction of a second to hold down the lever and prevent it from jumping up and disengaging.

[joey_picus]

...Mark, do you actually know what you are talking about?