AUTONOMOUS BOTS CONFIRMED: Flying robots are explicitly ruled out, but Ground Effect (e.g. Hovercraft) are OK as long as the propellers are completely enclosed. All control must be 2.4GHz DSS, but telemetry on 2.4GHz and 433MHz is allowed.
And for the bad news: applications close before the end of January, and the application form expects you to have a completed/near-complete robot in order to submit it.
Yes! That bloody boring flippy pants malarkey turned me off robot wars completely. It should be a big tournament which bots fighting to the death to get through to the next round.
So in other words, it's pretty much only open to the folk who, for whatever reason, still have their bots from the original series?
thats still just over 2 weeks... it wouldnt be difficult to get a semi-decent design in that time ( a couple of robots were completed in a weekend iirc ) but it does feel somewhat rushed... i think the first 'new' series will just be to test the waters so to speak
Not really as they would be very outdated now. It's more for those teams who've been fighting in other robot fighting leagues.
There must be so many people who watched the show as kids and are now capable of building their own machines. By making it so that basically only people who are ready to go can enter it's just going to be a bore, which would put the prospect of a second season in jeopardy. IMO it would have been much better to have the initial team signups soon, with a second deadline a fair bit later in the year where you need a working bot. Having a low barrier to entry helps get people going.
Trouble with having a low barrier to entry means you will have total sh*te robots like you saw in the first series- basically boxes and wedges with very little weaponry and weak armour/chassis- that would be far more boring compared to seeing what ~15 years of advancement has done to the sport. As stated, the Fighting Robot Association has been around for nearly as long as Robot Wars itself- members there have completely upto date robots with specialised weapon classes, they will be far more entertaining and powerful than anything you saw ~ 10 years ago when Robotwars went off the air. There's nothing to stop normal people building bots for the next series ( almost guaranteed to be one ), but again, they will not stand a chance against designs that have been developed through years of combat and improvements in order to be the best they can be.
I'm not sure about that. One thing that I found fun about the original Robot Wars runs was the disparity between the good and bad bots. Sure it meant we sat through some rubbish matches where two hopeless combatants duked it out, but then we got moments like the first Hypnodisc matches. In fact, I recall the finals being quite boring because of this, you were only left with the good bots that couldn't do much to each other. Tornado is a perfect example of this. It was so dull that it ruined the show, yet they won simply because their plain design allowed them to exploit loads of loopholes. That, right there, is a robot bred to win, not to provide a show. There's something endearing about having a backyard banger competing with the big boys who do it for a living. Makes for a good underdog story st least if they start doing well.
Hypnodisc appeared in series two- a lot of good designs did in fact; series one was boxes and wedges- the only stand-out design was Recyclopse, which had a flipper, and Mortise, with the motor driven axe. I do agree that the well designed bots are more than a match for eachother and it does result in a stalemate half the time- the new series of Battle Bots proved that much, where the best designs were basically ramming bots with a flipper/lifter, and the single, ~20 year old spinner that destroyed everything, all bar the series champion. Trouble is, that's kind of the idea- you don't build a pretty looking, or a basic robot and expect to last even one round, you build to win- you see the same thing in any sport, where the same best players always end up in the finals pretty much, and the final is a long, drawn out affair that goes to stalemate nearly every event, until one of the players gets tired before the other and loses. I'd happily see a few crummy, hastily built robots thrown into the competition just for the lols, but that's like throwing a stolen family pet to fighting dogs and then betting on the outcome; unless the producers are willing to compensate the builders of the sacrificial robot, I can't see too many people with their heads screwed on wanting to go up against the experienced roboteers. Same reason why the robots got better and better each year in the original run of series- people quickly learnt they were wasting their time and money otherwise.
Hypnodisk was series 3 Road block won the first war, Panic attack won the second war and Choas 2 won the the third wars after beating Hypnodisk in the Finals And as for everyone building to win... lets not forget teams like Pluderbird Nemisis / Diotior Sr Chromalot to name but a couple... they didnt care if they won or lost, they were there simply to have FUN the series needed more teams like that, and less Tornado's
Fun isn't cheap though, but if a team can afford to blow a few grand just to be on TV for a few min utes and entertain a crowd, then that's just gravy. Like I said, a few funny robots being thrown in for poops and giggles is fine, but you can't expect the organisers to include a majority of rookies when they know there are so many experienced guys and robots to choose from. Tis a balancing act between competition and spectacle...
dout we will see the return of many orginal bots they are very out of date. The Designer of Razer said it had not been updated for nearly 13 years as its just used as demo purposes. They made a new bot for the American show. The orginal hypnodisk only took around 3 weeks to make the Rose Familly said as much. My guess they will still be a blanket ban on Projectile weapons. And a ban on flight for similar reasons. The orginal arena was struggling at the end of the 7th war to stay together for battles as the power the robots had was causing damage. They showed some work they did during a battle where the entire wall of the arena had collapsed. Bigger brother was always a fun watch, They had a very talented driver behind the wheel, It never broke down in the final fight i saw it in vs hypnodisk despite it been in bits and pieces at the end and some how still won.
The obscenely expensive Mortis was my favourite robot, shame it was unreliable because it kicked ass when it worked. Scouser? He's from Oldham.
