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Katch, I agree with a lot of the reasoning behind what you say, but perhaps not as much the suggested solutions. With regards to the pit, my biggest reason for keeping it, is that it provides a pretty much equal means of winning to all robots, and removing it would massively disadvantage many, such as pushers and grabbers like Storm 2 and Big Nipper (though I know both now have interchangeable spinners). What's more, the pit gives even the most weakened mobile robot the chance to win, and keeps them fighting until the end, even with no weapon. That's why I'd want to keep it.
As for materials, I am certainly no expert in that area, since I haven't really built anything major with anything but HDPE so far. However, not only might it be redundant to limit the expensive tech and armour going into the new bots, I can't imagine it would be easy to police either. You'd have to do almost a full teardown of most bots just to find out whether or not they had illegal components, barring the glaringly obvious. I do see what you're saying though, it's a shame to see otherwise ingenious designs fail because the team doesn't have as much capital and time to invest as the opponents with sponsors and their own metalworking shop. I know there's an element of this 'financial advantage' in all sports, but it'd be nice to at least keep Robot Wars, and combat robotics in general, as accessible and open to newcomers as possible.
As for Maddox's comment about it being the 'job' of the opponents to hand the remains of your machine to you, I'm not sure it's that simple. Yes it's your job to defeat them, and it should never be against the rules to completely destroy your opponent, but I do think a certain amount of chivalry and sportsmanship should come into play if you truly are dominating them. That is to say, if you know you've won, I'd encourage mercy from the victor, and not unwarranted aggression to the opponent's machine. The pit also helps with this, since if your opponent dumps you in there, I'd see it as a fair way to end the fight whilst protecting you from further damage. I think what hurts a lot of competitors most is not the losing, but the fact that they'd have to completely rebuild their machine after so much work.
While I'd like longer fights, I'd have to agree with Maddox and say that the batteries really would drain after that, and I have a feeling most battles that were inconclusive after three minutes, would remain so at five, with both robots tiring equally.
While I agree that RW is a TV show, it's still something of a sport. They've held World Championships before, had a massive cash prize, and honestly I think the closer it gets to a sport, the more respect it will demand. So while entertainment value is still clearly a thing, I do think it needs to maintain the qualities of a sporting atmosphere, as is already in effect between teams in the pits.
Mostly very valid points though, please let's keep the discussion going if people want, it's great to get so many different viewpoints.
As for materials, I am certainly no expert in that area, since I haven't really built anything major with anything but HDPE so far. However, not only might it be redundant to limit the expensive tech and armour going into the new bots, I can't imagine it would be easy to police either. You'd have to do almost a full teardown of most bots just to find out whether or not they had illegal components, barring the glaringly obvious. I do see what you're saying though, it's a shame to see otherwise ingenious designs fail because the team doesn't have as much capital and time to invest as the opponents with sponsors and their own metalworking shop. I know there's an element of this 'financial advantage' in all sports, but it'd be nice to at least keep Robot Wars, and combat robotics in general, as accessible and open to newcomers as possible.
As for Maddox's comment about it being the 'job' of the opponents to hand the remains of your machine to you, I'm not sure it's that simple. Yes it's your job to defeat them, and it should never be against the rules to completely destroy your opponent, but I do think a certain amount of chivalry and sportsmanship should come into play if you truly are dominating them. That is to say, if you know you've won, I'd encourage mercy from the victor, and not unwarranted aggression to the opponent's machine. The pit also helps with this, since if your opponent dumps you in there, I'd see it as a fair way to end the fight whilst protecting you from further damage. I think what hurts a lot of competitors most is not the losing, but the fact that they'd have to completely rebuild their machine after so much work.
While I'd like longer fights, I'd have to agree with Maddox and say that the batteries really would drain after that, and I have a feeling most battles that were inconclusive after three minutes, would remain so at five, with both robots tiring equally.
While I agree that RW is a TV show, it's still something of a sport. They've held World Championships before, had a massive cash prize, and honestly I think the closer it gets to a sport, the more respect it will demand. So while entertainment value is still clearly a thing, I do think it needs to maintain the qualities of a sporting atmosphere, as is already in effect between teams in the pits.
Mostly very valid points though, please let's keep the discussion going if people want, it's great to get so many different viewpoints.
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