BattleBots

Leadsalad

Cis-XYite-Nationalist
5,967
11,932
Icewave is pretty amazing. I don't know how the hell he designed that blade to be so strong and get spinning back up so quickly. Pretty mean fucker.
Gas engine with a clutch I'd assume. Just decouples while the engine keeps spinning.
 

BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
<Silver Donator>
14,441
2,223
I saw that Tombstone uses a roller chain to drive his blade. I wonder if he ever tried it with a belt instead. It seems like if the belt had the ability to slip a little it would keep it from wrenching his own bot so hard when the blade hit something although there would be a slight decrease in power that it hits the other guys with as well.
 

kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,647
1,187
The fact that it has a gasoline engine is also pretty cool. For some reason I still think Tombstone is going to win though, it just seems like a more solidly built machine.

BTW, that first video of Tombstone losing was awesome.
Tombstone is a better design I think simply because it runs fine upside down or right side up. Icewave if something could survive the blade could be incapacitated by being flipped.
 

kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,647
1,187
Yup pretty hilarious one time mod to beat it. The giant stiff arm bar which the design of icewave makes a very effective if silly defense. Once you can push icewave around get it turned over it can't do anything. That is pretty much why tombstone is the better design upside down right side up it does not matter. Although I have to say I did not expect witch doctor to give that much of a fight to tombstone they retrofited a TON of armor onto the front of that thing. Downside is it was to over balanced and so could not perform its normal move to self right itself.
 

BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
<Silver Donator>
14,441
2,223
It seems like the weakness of the horizontal spinners is that their weapon is almost as hard on them as it is on the opponent. If your can build your bot tougher than the spinner bot you can just go head to head and let it destroy itself on your armor. If witch doctor had been able to flip itself back over they would have won and both of the big blades would be out. Tombstone vs. Witch Doctor and Bronco vs. Stinger were both awesome fights. I loved watching stinger do a triple backflip with flame going everywhere. The flame throwers are very cool looking but I haven't really seen any evidence that they are effective. The De-icer was clever and funny and it worked but I will be pretty disappointed if ghost raptor wins.

I think the winner between Bronco and Tombstone will be a strong favorite regardless of who wins the other match. I don't really think Bite Force would have beaten any of the quarterfinal bots except for Overhaul but regardless I am glad to see those MIT d-bags out of there.
 

BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
<Silver Donator>
14,441
2,223
No posts on the finale? I would not have expected Bite Force to come out on top at all but apparently his driver had fought Tombstone multiple times and used that to his advantage. Seems like the formula is to have enough armor to take a few whacks, hit him from the side, and jam up the blade as much as possible to keep it from getting up to full speed. The smoke coming out of his batteries makes me wonder again if he should use a belt or a clutch or something to let things slip when the blade is stuck rather than just letting the motor push as hard as it can with no where to go.

I was disappointed that Bronco didn't do better. I expected more out of him. It was pretty funny though when they baited Tomstone into coming in for the kill shot and then it nearly destroyed his bot.
 

Kedwyn

Silver Squire
3,915
80
I hope they keep showing it. I loved watching although they could do with a tad less filler.

I was rooting for bronco but it wasn't meant to be. Bite force did a great job in the final fight. Great driving skills.

Makes me want to build a dual sided tank with a flipper on one end and a spinning blade on the other. Metal tank like treds top and bottom. Come at me bro!
 

Jait

Molten Core Raider
5,035
5,317
For all their brilliant building abilities and intelligence there are some dumb as fuck drivers.
 

popsicledeath

Potato del Grande
7,449
11,689
Definitely want less filler. Let the filler be consolation matches. That 3 bot rumble was cool.

Bite Force was one of the few bots that rarely seemed out of control and stayed with their plan and very deliberate driving. Some luck, too, of course, but they were about as flashy as a control based bot can get I guess.
 

Araxen

Golden Baronet of the Realm
10,251
7,598
I'm just bummed Tombstone and Icewave lost.

The three way pretty cool. Next season they should just bring back all losers and throw them all in that arena at once. There would be too much destruction and it would get to a point the disabled bots would get in the way so they couldn't do it really.
 

Pizoi

Golden Squire
317
22
They should have a super heavyweight bukkake match with like 4 500lbs+ bots for shits and giggles instead of the shit with the 3 bozos talking about bot stats.
 

BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
<Silver Donator>
14,441
2,223
I don't mind the filler personally, even the corny WWE type stuff. I hope having the show on national TV will bring in more builders though. When half the top guys are the same guys that were doing it 15 years ago when the show was on before it doesn't show much diversity.
 

kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,647
1,187
Definitely want less filler. Let the filler be consolation matches. That 3 bot rumble was cool.

Bite Force was one of the few bots that rarely seemed out of control and stayed with their plan and very deliberate driving. Some luck, too, of course, but they were about as flashy as a control based bot can get I guess.
I have a fairly major problem with the final match. The rules of the tourney were no wedge bots and you must have an active weapon on your bot. Biteforce basically disabled their weapon so they could turn their bot into a wedge for the finale. Why have the prohibition vs pure wedge designs when you allow people to simply "mod" to a weaponless wedge bot in the tourney.
 

popsicledeath

Potato del Grande
7,449
11,689
I think they'd argue it wasn't a defense only wedge, but a flipping plow like several other bots had (by design or the one that their spinner broke so they legitimately had no offensive weapon for several rounds of wins and admitted as much). I wonder if the wedge still technically could rise, and if so was that the difference. They still had the upper arm to as a gripping/flipping weapon, too, so maybe that played into a ruling. I don't completely disagree, though, but if they felt it was against the rules all they had to do was tell them before hand instead of film an entire sequence of them switching everything out.
 

BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
<Silver Donator>
14,441
2,223
Yeah, a lot of bots have a wedge on the front, and they did actually use their arm during the match. I don't see the problem.
 

Sludig

Golden Baronet of the Realm
9,008
9,316
For all their brilliant building abilities and intelligence there are some dumb as fuck drivers.
Ever watch most game devs play their own games? My dad a big name company electrical engineer/programmer, but watch him yet and just browser the internet or anything and its depressing.

Seems like all the really smart creator types in the world just suck at performance when it comes time. The right analogy eludes me, guess you could simplifying it as saying the eggheads lack either coordination or just any warrior spirit. Like that friend you knew that was too scared to engage in a video game with Any authority and just ended up dying pitifully endlessly.