I wish to start this post with the disclaimer that I am a highly inexperienced robot builder to say the least, lol. I€™m currently designing and buying parts for my first ever feather, and will start building it in August.
For starters I would like to say that IMO Storm II was the most exciting robot out of all robots that fought in the last RW New Blood competition. To see how he made his opponents unable to use their active weapons against them due to agility and sheer speed, and the hits he could then deal to his opponents by merely using his entire mass and a simple wedge is pure entertainment in my book. Seeing a good rammer in action, dealing hits with a loud noise is alot more exciting imo than a slow lifter, as banana_man pointed out. And Storm II isn€™t exactly a €œcheap-as-peanuts box on wheels that€™s armoured like a tank and could be built in a weekend€Â, it was probably one of the more expensive and well-build robots that could be seen on the telly.
Myself, I€™m making a 6WD parallellogram shaped invertible rammer. I€™m not doing that because its the cheapest or easiest option for me, but because I wish to build an effective powerful robot that can ram as well as possible. Where other people put effort in making a spinner setup, I put alot of effort in making a drivetrain to power all my 6 wheels. And to build a solid construction to house powerful (and expensive) motors that will give me high end acceleration and therefor allow me to slam myself against my opponent and being an effective as possible rammer, not an as cheap and simple as possible rammer. Reading between the lines in your post, you dont like losing to robots that cost only a fraction of the money your robot costs and that only took 1 day to build. My robot, and several other rambots, do not fit that description at all, my robot is gonna be as expensive as most other bots I see in the RoamingRobots stats bank, and it will take me effort to get the 6WD drivetrain as effective as possible.
If I want to I could invest 15 euro€™s and buy 3 drill from the Aldi, use 2 drill motors to power 2 wheels and the 3rd one to power an electronic lifter, then put some cardboard around it and have a robot that is alot less expensive and alot less exciting than the bot I am planning to build.
I am very enthusiastic about Metal Demons reply though, rammers CAN be dull, and by reflecting this in a bad judges€™ decision its encouraged to make robots that are exciting to watch. Discouraging people to enter robots that are build on a minimum budget and in a minimum timeframe is one thing and from what I read the essence of Jamie€™s plan, its a valid point but I doubt it should be enforced by forcing people to have active weapons.
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