Autonomous Combat League

[MarvinMan]

I would have said that a hover bot with rotors can withstand more damage than something similar using jets. I would expect a quadrotor could survive losing an entire rotor assembly, as long as you don't mind it rotating slowly due to the unbalanced torques.

I did build a simple test platform with pitch/roll control to move away from walls, but I think it needs an extra layer of velocity control as it takes quite a large angle to get moving at a reasonable speed.

[PressureLine]

New Heavyweight competitor!

Cerberus

Weighing in at 75 parts, Cerberus is a heavyweight Plasma Shooter capable of tracking and engaging up to three ground based or aerial opponents simultaneously.

Get Cerberus here.

[MarvinMan]

That's an interesting idea, and it seems to have a decent damage output when attacking a target head on with two turrets firing on it. The round armour on this and the mudslide appears to be very effective too.

I think three turrets may have been pushing it to far with the current parts limit as the bot looks a bit wobbly and the turrets are relatively vulnerable. With a bit more armour on the turrets and some bigger wheels, I would expect it could be tough to beat it multi-bot matches.

I'd be interested to see how the cerberus stands up to a 75 part mudslide-XL with 6+ cannons an a single turret.

[PressureLine]

Yeah the wheelbase is probably the bit about Cerberus that I like the least, because of the relative lack of stability. But space did become a bit of an issue as it is pretty cramped inside the armor.

[z26]

75 parts yet 6 cannons and 3 turrets?
neat.

Edit: Also, i like the color gradient of the armor.

[PressureLine]

With a bit more armour on the turrets and some bigger wheels...

I'd be interested to see how the cerberus stands up to a 75 part mudslide-XL with 6+ cannons an a single turret.

I think that I am going to have a go at doing a version of PressureTank with a lower profile chassis and maybe a quad-cannon turret.

[PressureLine]

'New' middleweight competitor!

Wheelbot

Weighing in at 45 parts, Wheelbot is a middleweight Plasma Shooter capable of tracking and engaging both ground based and aerial opponents. This is a 'rules-compliance' edit of my original entry to the 'Automated Bot Arena' challenge on the old rawbots.net forum.

Get Wheelbot here.

[PressureLine]

New heavyweight competitor!

Scylla

Weighing in at 64 parts, Scylla is a heavyweight Plasma Shooter capable of tracking and engaging both ground based and aerial opponents.

Get Scylla here.

[MarvinMan]

Seeing the wheelbot in action again really shows how much the combat bots have improved since the first generation.

The Scylla is an interesting design, and seems to be a good match for the mudslide, although the two bots seem to lose interest in each other after the first encounter. In my small arena, the better aim and higher rate of fire give the mudslide a bit of an advantage.

It'd be fun to add more cannons on each side to take it up to the parts limit.

Have you thought about putting the cannons inside the cylindrical armour section and letting them fire through it? That should keep the cannons fairly central and well protected.

[PressureLine]

Currently working on a bot with more of a focus on visual impact. I also have a few other ideas for bots with a less conventional layout, that should keep things interesting.

[PressureLine]

New heavyweight competitor!

Scorpion

Weighing in at 61 parts, Scorpion is a heavyweight combination Plasma Shooter & Laser Melee bot capable of tracking and engaging both ground based and aerial opponents.

Get Scorpion here.

[MarvinMan]

It has it's problems, but that bot is absolutely devastating and looks cool too.

The chassis/navigation system doesn't seem to be performing quite as well as some other bots (in my small map at least), but it was still able to disassemble a mudslide and erazer in a few seconds each. The ramming technique combined with the low body make it particularly effective as it tends to get under other bots and put the lasers through the internal structure.

The elevated turret seems like it should be effective if it got a chance to do an real damage, but it has a tendency to hit and remove the lasers when engaging a target.

How much of the tail structure is necessary? It looks like it might be relatively simple to get the part count down enough to enter the middleweight class.

[PressureLine]

It has it's problems, but that bot is absolutely devastating and looks cool too.

...

How much of the tail structure is necessary? It looks like it might be relatively simple to get the part count down enough to enter the middleweight class.

The main point of Scorpion was mostly 'Rule of Cool' anyway, so the fact that it can easily hold it's own in a heavyweight match is more of a bonus really.

The 4 floaters in the tail section can be removed (was designed that way so that combat damage to the tail wouldn't disable the bot) as can the projector between the cannons. Other than that, without structural changes to the chassis (going single-row rather than double-row) I don't think you could wave a 'middleweight' wand at Scorpion and have it be actually effective. Not that a middleweight Scorpion wouldn't be possible, just that it would need to be built as a middleweight from the start imo.

[PressureLine]

TIL: Quadcannon middleweights are pretty tough to beat.

[MarvinMan]

A mutual kill against the scorpion is pretty impressive. I'm guessing the new bot was eventually another victim of the scorpions lasers?

I had been playing with the idea of a a bot armed with a flipper to disable or disorientate its opponents. The basic concept seems to work, but packaging all the autonomous control systems was more of a problem than normal.