Hi everyone,

Needless to say, I havent been on the forum for quite some time, partly because I wasnt as interested in writing as I was previously and partly because I was so busy with uni. But now Ive graduated, and Im taking a year out. I recently got an email from Kody just saying hello (cheers, mate), and I thought that maybe with the increased spare time now available to me, it was time to have another go at the old hobby that I used to really enjoy.

To be honest, Im not that keen on writing hypothetical results for VFT7, for a few reasons. One is that it doesnt really feel like a proper tournament to me if I havent written out proper battles for it. Another is that Im not eager to trawl through pages of stats all at once, not to mention that many of those Vapourbots are probably out of date now. (I will write hypotheticals if there is overwhelming demand for them, however.)

So, if anyones willing to enter, Im going to start with a small comeback tournament - 16 robots, one-on-one, pretty much like VFT1. Hopefully I can now get reacquainted with my old friends and meet anyone whos joined the forum more recently, and see if I can still write some fun battles that people will enjoy!

01. I need 8 people to enter 2 robots each, Vapourbots or real. You cant enter a real robot if someones already entered an earlier or later version of the same robot or series of robots. You are allowed to reserve a place, but if you do, you have a time limit of one week to provide your stats. If you fail to do so, your spot will no longer be reserved, but you can still enter if you provide your stats and there are enough places left.
02. This information is required for Vapourbots (you can give more if you want):
Weight
Shape
Dimensions (l x w x h)
Speed
Locomotion (mention what its made of, eg: if its wheels, are they foam filled?)
Ground Clearance
Armour
Weaponry
Srimech
At least one strength
At least one weakness
03. The weight limits are 100kg for wheeled robots, 110kg for shufflers and tracked robots, and 150kg for walkers.
04. Clusterbots are allowed - there is a 4 part limit for them. A clusterbot is not eliminated unless all parts are immobilised, but the loss of one or more parts will count heavily against the clusterbot in Damage if the match goes to the judges.
05. Robots with passive or no weaponry are allowed, but I dont want too many. Flying robots are banned.
06. Robots with interchangable weaponry are allowed. You must say when you first give your stats that your robot has interchangable weaponry, and what those weapons are. If after giving your stats, you come up with a new interchangable weapon you didnt mention before, or change one you did mention, the new weapon or change cannot be used.
07. Basic Robot Wars rules on what is and isnt allowed apply to anything I havent mentioned.

Since my new arena and my House Robots didnt get much of a chance to be broken in from VFT7, theyll be coming back for this one:

The arena is a large box surrounded by thick Lexan (so no OOTAs) and a non magnetic metal floor.
*In the northeast corner and the southwest corner are the CPZs - enter those, and the House Robots are free to have a go at you!
*In the centre of the west wall is the pit release, which opens the pit in the northwest corner for 10 seconds. The pit is not right up against the two walls, but a short distance away from them. Hopefully this will make pitting a little more difficult.
*In the southeast corner is the trusty horizontal arena disc!
*In the centre of the southern half of the arena is a new arena flipper. This comes into action if a robot is on top of it for more than 5 seconds, or if an immobilised robot is placed on it, for a bit of fun!

ASSASSINATOR
Weight: 125kg
Shape: Box, propelled by tracks, with a domed top. The dome has two glowing red eyes on it.
Armour: 7mm titanium
Weaponry: At both the front and rear are two pneumatic spikes for stabbing at opponents, and connected to the dome is a pickaxe that comes down at the front.

DRILLA KILLA ULTIMATE
Weight: 120kg
Shape: Tornado style invertable box, with a wedge at the front, six wheel drive,and pincers at the front. The front sides each have an eye and the side of a mouth with sharp teeth painted on them, while the rest of the mouth is painted across the wedge.
Armour: 6mm Hardox
Weaponry: At the front are pneumatic pincers that grab and clutch other robots. Inside the wedge at the front are three large diamond tipped retractable drills, that are usually used to poke into a grabbed robot. At the rear is a particularly large cone shaped drill (like the one on the Battlebot Snake) used for ramming into anyone that strays too close.

HORCRUX
Weight: 125kg
Shape: Wedge with rounded back. There is an evil looking face painted on the flipper, with red LED eyes.
Armour: 6mm titanium on top of 5mm polycarbonate
Weaponry: The wedge is a powerful pneumatic flipper. At the rear is a Fluffy style spinning horizontal double axe.

KING COBRA
Weight: 125kg
Shape: Square box with sloping sides, and a threatening cobra head poking out of the top. 3D aesthetic additions to the box make it look like the cobra is coiled around it
Armour: 5mm Hardox
Weaponry: On either side of the cobra head is a pneumatic axe with a Terrorhurtz style blade, both independently controlled and painted to look like snakes.

THE MARTIAN
Weight: 140kg
Shape: Like a Martian tripod machine from The War Of The Worlds* with an egg shaped body, two merciless green eyes at the front and three legs, but unlike the Fighting Machines, its body is hung close to the ground, and its legs are held up off the ground - it uses a 2 wheel drive rather than the legs to move.
Armour: 6mm titanium
Weaponry: Rather than a Heat Ray, The Martian has a flamethrower positioned at the front. Its two front legs (which are static) have vertical steel saw blades attached, and the back leg is an electrically powered lifter.
*I should point out that my primary source on WOTW is the Jeff Wayne musical version and the images provided with it, since I havent read the book or seen the movie. Look up images from Jeff Waynes The War Of The Worlds on Google to get an idea of what The Martian looks like.

ULTIMATE SNAKEBITE
Weight: 135kg
Shape: Most of the robots length consists of a wedge that opens up horizontally down the middle like a jaw - at the rear is a box shape. The two wheels are on either side of the box shape, protected by guards. The wedge is painted to look like a snakes head.
Armour: 4mm Hardox
Weaponry: The wedge opens hydraulically - it can act as a lifter and a clamping jaw. There are steel teeth inside the jaw that fold away when it is closed and come down when it opens, so they can cause damage when it clamps. At the box bit of the rear is a vertical flywheel.

MEGARAPTOR
Weight: 250kg
Shape: Like a Velociraptor in a sitting position, with a static scoop at the front, and two moving arms with claws (similar to Mr Psychos) on either side of the scoop. It moves using four wheels underneath it.
Armour: 6mm titanium on top of 8mm polycarbonate
Weaponry: The arms have hydraulic claws that pick up and crush any unlucky robots that come too close - they are not independently controlled and come down at the same time. The static scoop can shove, and at the rear is a pneumatic axe with a Beta style hammer (supposed to be Megaraptors tail).

A robot is considered KOd if it is not moving for 30 seconds, if it is pitted, or if it is flipped and cannot selfright. If a robot is propped against the wall, it does not count as immobile and if it isnt freed, the match will be paused so it can be.
If two robots are immobilised at the same time by being flipped or being pitted, they will be righted and the match will continue. If one stops moving and the other is flipped or pitted, the flipped/pitted one wins if it is still capable of movement when righted. If both stop moving, a judges decision decides it.

In judges decisions, the robots are marked on Aggression, Damage, Strategy, Style, Control and Dominance. Each robot is marked out of ten for each category, more like RW decisions, rather than the previous decisions where points were shared appropriately. The scores for each category is then multiplied based on how important the category is - Dominance x 6, Damage x 5, Aggression x 4, Control x 3, Strategy x 2, Style x 1. If the score is even, the robot who came higher in more categories wins. If both robots performed equally category-wise, it will be put to the vote amongst readers.