Robo Challenge - Insomnia Gaming festival 26th to the 29th of August

[harry hills]

It was nice meeting you, I definatly remember the hammer. Hope to see you next time!

[Ellis]

I was at Insomnia as a journalist (for those of you wondering - I was the little woman with the red inflatable hammer!) and upon talking to a few of you... well, here I am.

Looking forward to seeing more of you at the next Insomnia I go to... if this becomes a regular thing for yourselves of course. You were very popular.

Hey! Glad you decided to sign up. The show seemed to go down very well, so fingers crossed we're on course for many more events. Look forward to seeing what you come up with.

[EventorizonIan]

My thanks and congratulations to Grant and the Robochallenge team for putting on a fabulous event.
I liked the new format and felt it helped deliver a real spectacle for the audience.
My thanks also to the rest of teams involved for the spirit in which the battles (which involved some series carnage) were conducted.
We look forward to the 'whoop ass' that's undoubtedly going to be handed to us next time round at what I hope will become a regular event.
Well done guys!

[PredictedCyborg]

Uploaded a bunch of the photos I got on my phone during the 27th and 28th.
They're here.

Not the best but if my actual camera hadn't broken they'd have been better, honest! xD

[NKT]

I found out about this forum from a couple of the guys I was chatting to at just after close on the Sunday. Nice poker face from the Team Carbide chap when he said they were off for a viewing party of the Robot Wars final!

The Featherweight bouts were very brutal. Shard was very destructive, as were the eventual winners, who threw one robot up and hit the 10mm polycarbonate wall hard enough that the dent could be felt from the outside, 5 feet up!

Very impressive power, several bouts went to the 2 minute mark, but many were under 10 seconds!

On the one hand, I need to build another robot, on the other, how do you stop a 20,000rpm cutter spinning upwards? Is ablative armour & string allowed?

[R9000]

I found out about this forum from a couple of the guys I was chatting to at just after close on the Sunday. Nice poker face from the Team Carbide chap when he said they were off for a viewing party of the Robot Wars final!

The Featherweight bouts were very brutal. Shard was very destructive, as were the eventual winners, who threw one robot up and hit the 10mm polycarbonate wall hard enough that the dent could be felt from the outside, 5 feet up!

Very impressive power, several bouts went to the 2 minute mark, but many were under 10 seconds!

On the one hand, I need to build another robot, on the other, how do you stop a 20,000rpm cutter spinning upwards? Is ablative armour & string allowed?

String isn't allowed, it's classed as an entanglement weapon, which is illegal as per the build rules. Sacrificial armour is a thing, but it might work against you if it comes to a judge's decision and there's bits of your robot all over the place.

[NKT]

Problem is, that leaves no way to counter a robot with a brutal fast spinning weapon. Shard & Drumroll, & the winning robot Conker 3, are all basically impossible to stop. Watch the videos of Shard throwing other robots out the ring in under 5 seconds, or the poor remains of Loki 2 limping around after the scoop & then lifter arm are ripped off...
There were bits of non - sacrifical armour littering the place!

Yes, it's impressive, but it's going to need rule changes soon. 5 seconds bouts aren't that much fun for the watchers, nor the losing build teams.

[R9000]

Oh I've seen them in action, I know. Heavy enough armour and good driving can counter them though. Omega seems to usually come away relatively unscathed.

[Rapidrory]

Just gotta build something strong enough to take the hits, maneuverable enough to get round the sides, and powerful enough to push them in the pit or get them out of the arena.. There's no perfect design in robot combat. It's like a giant game of rock paper scissors; one design will be great against another design, but may be weak against others. There are ways to beat big spinners, just until now it's not something that has been so dominant, so hasn't been designed against as much. It's still much better than the previous few years of flippers winning every fight in 5 seconds by throwing things out of the arena..

[Liftoff]

Is the arena floor steel? Because if it is, electromagnets might be the way to go...if they are allowed in the build rules - don't remenber there was any mention of them being illegal. It is possible to find electromagnets with a pull of 300kg, so if you build a strong brick type machine which could glue itself to the floor, spinners would be in for a very hard time....

[Rapidrory]

Wasn't doing any testing for this idea yesterday at all... *shifty look*

[higgeh]

Magnetise the whole floor. Now that would be fun :-)

[higgeh]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120Kg-265L...QAAOSw-itXr63I

[overkill]

Problem is, that leaves no way to counter a robot with a brutal fast spinning weapon. Shard & Drumroll, & the winning robot Conker 3, are all basically impossible to stop. Watch the videos of Shard throwing other robots out the ring in under 5 seconds, or the poor remains of Loki 2 limping around after the scoop & then lifter arm are ripped off...
There were bits of non - sacrifical armour littering the place!

Yes, it's impressive, but it's going to need rule changes soon. 5 seconds bouts aren't that much fun for the watchers, nor the losing build teams.

There are plenty of 5 second matches with flippers and they generally win the event too. Changing rules just lowers the challenge and excitement - building a better bot is the solution if you want a longer fight and more even results.

[Liftoff]

Magnetise the whole floor. Now that would be fun :-)

Nah you won't but if you're hit hard enough you might fly off with a piece of the floor attached!