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- Evolution of design
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| Evolution of design | |
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| Topic Started: Oct 23 2006, 05:09 PM (3,003 Views) | |
| StarlessSoldier | Oct 23 2006, 05:09 PM Post #1 |
The Lost Warrior
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I think we had a topic like this on ARC or xsorbit. I always liked to look at these. For my first, my favorite and flagship bot: Adrenaline. Version 1: This bot was spawned from my admiration of Dun Hudson and my love of my favorite bot, Tazbot. To differentiate from a full on Tazbot clone I made the weapon a short travel pneumatic flipper with two large exposed tanks on the turret. My inexperienced shortcomings in CAD were obvious with this version but later versions would be the biggest developements in my 3D talents.  Version 2: In this version the Tazbot influence seemed to fully take over, even manifesting itself in a much longer tubular flipping arm with thwacking spikes. Like Tazbot, the large shields were replaced with shock absorbed feet. The CAD itself was much more clear and obviously better in quality. This bot actually had an award named after it for the best bot to combine artistic beauty with combat effectiveness in each season.  Version 3: This new Adrenaline finally started to take on a look all its own. The whole design was made much more compact to increase the defensive capabilities. The weapon had a major change, becoming a 4 foot pick axe. This set up took better advantage of the bot's ability to control opponents. The base could opperate strictly in pushing the opponent around while the hammer, although not very powerful, could put points on the damage score. The wedge feet were kept, but the old shields were brought back to compliment them defensively.  Version 4: Adrenaline finally evolved into an entity all its own. The biggest shreds of its Tazbot origins, the signature cambered in wheels, were replaced by an enclosed set of 4 dualie wheels borrowed from its big brother Copperhead. A whole new chassis sets the bot lower than ever before at a mere 6.5" high at the top of the wheels. Like the previous version, this one focused on being compact for defense purposes. Reinforced shields were added in critical areas such as the wheel wells and the front of the turret. On the rear it carries V3's specially designed hinged plow for dealing with spinners and low wedges, while the sides and front are armed with the signature "sawtooth" wedges. Unlike V3, this one's weapon can safely fire in any direction without striking the base, and a new turret design (wide up front) allows the bot to self right with greater success.  Version 4.5: Not really a new build, but recocked with some things I saw that I could improve on. The chassis remains exactly the same, but the armor has been redesigned. The rear plow is slightly larger. The side armor now has a bottom support for increased rigidity. On the front, the 6 small teeth have been traded for two larger and much more stable wedges with metal block inserts at the tips for even better defense. Above them, extending from the chassis are two teeth made to keep opponents from riding all the way up onto the turret and for holding them in place while the axe accomplishes its grisly mission. As for the axe, it is all new and alot longer for increased range. The turret was also redesigned, but not so much for function, but simply for aesthetics (the rounded turret didn't go with the rest of the bot). 
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The unforeseen consequences of ABC's Battlebots selection process: 1999: Shadetree tinkerer sees combat robots made from wheelchair parts and old tire rims; says I can do this. Hobby robotic combat is born. 2016: Shadetree tinkerer sees combat robots that look like they were designed by NASA engineers with DARPA funding; says I can't do this. Hobby robotic combat dies. | |
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| BEES | Oct 24 2006, 01:19 PM Post #2 |
I've never lived by anyone's rules but my own.
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edited in the latest post
Edited by BEES, Oct 13 2013, 01:35 AM.
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| Area51Escapee | Oct 24 2006, 05:01 PM Post #3 |
Root Admin Wannabe
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Well, I don't have some of the old pictures for my bots like CS, Solar Smash, and draco since it was on my old hard drive. Maybe Dylan still has them, but oh well, I'll just describe em. Celestial Slayer- This bot underwent 3 overall versions in his career. The first version is probably what most don't remember it was a small yet thick vertical bar with no wedge and just 2 back wheels. The second version I added a plow, and reworked my cutting blade. It got smaller but had sharp tips to help scoop up opponents. I also added nice alien effects on the skin. The third version was pretty much just a CAD version of the second version except a made a thicker bar. Solar Smash - SS also went three stages. His version version was the most successful and he it included a power ram on one side and on the back was a ram. There was also a wedge over the pnuematic punch side. Second version had the wedge on the back at added ram protection for the front, but it only fought once. The last version included a restylized version of the ram and a hinged wedge with forks. I'll add more later hopefully... |
| "If you're talking about time travelling bunnies...then yes." - Ben, LOST | |
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| G-Force | Oct 24 2006, 09:08 PM Post #4 |
Not to be confused with the gerbil movie.
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Oh, A topic that I can actually reply to! Here's my Ring around the Rosie -> Wring -> Gayle (Revolution) evolution. Ring Around The Rosie (1)  Ring Around the Rosie 2  Wringer (1) (RATR3)  Wringer 2 (RATR4)  Gayle (RATR5) 
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G-Force Robotics: 22-17 "Striving for mediocrity since 1989!" Shiver: 4-5 Shockwave: 6-4 DFTB: 9-2 Binary: 3-6 | |
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| StarlessSoldier | Oct 25 2006, 12:15 AM Post #5 |
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The Lost Warrior
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Damn dude, Gayle looks fucking sweet. |
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The unforeseen consequences of ABC's Battlebots selection process: 1999: Shadetree tinkerer sees combat robots made from wheelchair parts and old tire rims; says I can do this. Hobby robotic combat is born. 2016: Shadetree tinkerer sees combat robots that look like they were designed by NASA engineers with DARPA funding; says I can't do this. Hobby robotic combat dies. | |
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| FReAK | Oct 25 2006, 05:07 PM Post #6 |
Soviet Mule
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My favorite is still RATR2. |
| Team Evil Dust Bunnies | |
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| Minion33088 | Oct 28 2006, 07:56 AM Post #7 |
Team AC/DC
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Nah, I totally agree with John, Gayle is amazing! Bigger teeth wouldn't hurt though. |
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| Siphai | Jul 18 2009, 07:00 AM Post #8 |
The Guy
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Windmill has an interesting evolutionary path. It all started with Pizza Cutter, a robot I made for DRD back in Annihilation. It, of course, is a pretty shitty undercutter. Well, it wouldn't have been so bad had I made the wheels straight; I have no fucking clue what I was thinking. After that it pretty much branched into two paths. I wanted to keep the circular design, but I also have never made a ring spinner before. A design path that moved into FBSDS, a robot that actually did fairly well in Revolution. But the FBS design branch can only go so far, and it was a boring as fuck design to RP with, so the evolutionary branch stopped there. Pizza Cutter 2 actually turned out to be a prototype for The Windmill, but I had no idea at the time. When designing the robot I knew two things: 1. I wanted to keep a circular chassis 2. I wanted to keep the blade So I just moved up the blade a couple of inches, and put some wheel guards in the side, despite the fact that this is probably the least efficient way for this design to be made. The next step was obviously to color it up. The holding spikes you see were added, as a 'funnel' to push designs towards the blade instead of sweeping around me. Decals were pretty much my favorite part of this robot though. As most of you know now, my design choices for the new Windmill were pretty simple. The first version suffered from poor turning, exposed wheel guards, and the blade only covering about quarter of the robot, if even that. So I cut it down, made it into a traditional Windmill shape. The bar now covers a vast majority of the robot, and the dual wheels give me a better turning circle, making it even harder to control. At this point, he's probably one of my proudest accomplishments since the Tank/Eurypterus ramming bros. |
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Team Targeted - (36-12) Robot Bastards Dr. P: 4-8 Square Wave: 11-1 Snijmachine: 10-2 Parabolic Trajectory: 11-1 | |
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| Ry_Trapp0 | Jul 18 2009, 05:04 PM Post #9 |
ɹʎ_ʇɹɐdd0
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the first unlimited limits, which, i must say, was pretty rediculous looking, lol. it was really succesful with the giant spatula and ass dragging design though. the second version got a shorter and wider spatula flipper for a little more maneuverability and for a little more chassis protection. 2 extra wheels added to increase control, the non-existant wheelbase keeping the turning quick and tight. wheel placement was out of pure lazyness since i still wanted to incorporate the name and mah lame logo on there. the teeth were made to look less 'bozo the clown', lol.  the latest version got an even shorter flipper, again, to increase maneuverability, the wheels were spread to the ends of the chassis(though the wheelbase was hardly affected compared to the track width) so it wouldn't look quite as retarded, the teeth on the flipper were made smaller to help with getting under opponents, though i'm sure it's more asthetics than anything, lol(sons O bitches were a pain in the ass to add to both the top and front views, pixel by pixel. thank god for copy/paste). and, new, cooler color scheme!  the first iteration of spin suicide was a basic 2 wheeled ring spinner with and angled ring and big ol' teeth. in hindsight, the 'knockers' were a great idea that couldn't really work since they area was so small, needed to be longer.  1.5 added 2 more wheels for stability and did away with the angeled ring in favor of a straight vertical ring. this is when having interchangable weapons was the 'in thing' so i figured i would mock(aha, just like my joke bots with the stupid amounts of wheels) some people and list a few that i was sure would never get used.  yea, this one was a bit rediculous. i noticed that the only time i ever seem to lose is when i faced another spinner(the stupid power ones of course, since i always tried to balance mah stats), so i was out to prevent that once and for all. and it turned out pretty retarded, haha.  this one had a much better spinner stopper(though i don't quite understand my own explanation between it and the undercutter blades). i think the hinged wedge block thingers were a bit optimistic. not even sure if i ever used this one.  and the last one was basically a color scheme change. i was planning on entering it in the current tourney, but figured it would just end up with a medocre performance again. i believe ressaisir has more potential, unless i just made SS one of the stupid power bots. 
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Nothing to see here, people, move along Trapp Engineering Dissociative Identity: (Fantasy Fury) 3-0 and FF Champion! | |
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| Siphai | Jul 18 2009, 05:11 PM Post #10 |
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The Guy
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i fucking love well done paint bots |
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Team Targeted - (36-12) Robot Bastards Dr. P: 4-8 Square Wave: 11-1 Snijmachine: 10-2 Parabolic Trajectory: 11-1 | |
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| G-Force | Jul 20 2009, 08:22 PM Post #11 |
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Not to be confused with the gerbil movie.
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Shockwave through time: Shockwave (Original):  Shockwave 2.0:  Shockwave 3:  Shockwave XL:  Shockwave Beta:  |
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G-Force Robotics: 22-17 "Striving for mediocrity since 1989!" Shiver: 4-5 Shockwave: 6-4 DFTB: 9-2 Binary: 3-6 | |
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| Siphai | Jul 21 2009, 04:53 AM Post #12 |
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The Guy
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It always gets me that the original Shockwave was this thin robot with tracks and just about every version looks more capable than it, but it was the only one to win a title. Shockwave 3 is fucking crazy though. |
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Team Targeted - (36-12) Robot Bastards Dr. P: 4-8 Square Wave: 11-1 Snijmachine: 10-2 Parabolic Trajectory: 11-1 | |
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| succotash_54 | Jul 21 2009, 05:39 PM Post #13 |
Grandmaster Narrator
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Arguably my biggest downfall as a designer is how I don't do a whole lot with evolving a design. Bad-Ass Barnacle is the only one that really has a serious "evolution" to speak of. |
| There are few crimes in our modern society that merit public beating. Interrupting someone's enjoyment of Messiah to request "Jingle Bells" by the Singing Dogs is irrefutably one such offense. | |
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| NWOWWE | Jul 21 2009, 05:56 PM Post #14 |
Team Blood Gulch Motto
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Pretty much any bot of mine that I've used seriously for more than one season has undergone some big modifications. |
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| Siphai | Jul 23 2009, 05:12 PM Post #15 |
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The Guy
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here's the evolution of my most successful robot, one of the most successful robots of all time, and yet one of the simplest robots: Eurypterus Evolved I've told this story before, but the concept of Eurypterus was very much tied to Tank. Vengeance was my first ARC competition. In it, I entered a variety of designs (all pretty shitty. Dr. Pepperdine was the first robot to utilize springloaded wedges in ARC competition, the original Flank Attack which had like 3 armor, Drum Roll was a full body drum that couldn't move because I didn't lock the wedge in place). Flank Attack and Drum Roll got absolutely slaughtered by spinners, all of whom had like 15 weapon power. I particularly remember Valkyrie, who had 1 armor, 1 torque, 1 speed, and 19 weapon power, and Scrimshaw, who had similar stats, and never knocked themselves out. It seemed overpowered as shit. I, of course, was like 12-13 years old at the time, and it pissed me off so much that I literally didn't make a robot with a spinning weapon until like ARC Revenge or something. Regardless, I built Tank specifically to go against this mindset. Eurypterus was more like an afterthought to this kind of thing, playing off of the idea of a brick with a bunch of wheels. Of course, the ironic part to this ideal was that in Tank's 38 career fights, only fought a spinner 3 times (FFs not included). And he lost one of those times. Eurypterus did a little better, and under half of his fights were against spinners. However those fights didn't really happen until the later part of his career. Losses against wedge robots like Primary v3 prompted the next part of the evolution.  Simple but elegant. Of course there's still a lot wrong. It had a Maximus style wedge, but, especially compared to today's wedges, is really shitty. It can't get under shit, it has exposed wheels, etc. Of course, designs go through some regression before becoming good.  sadfjgaslf;jaisfjiewoajfxvmnxcmnvafjsdalfjiaeja what the fuck was I thinking? Well, for what I remember, I was toying around with tracks. Low turning circle, high traction, etc. tracks were pretty cool. I had an anti-wedge version and an anti-spinner version. So what was wrong with it, other than the oval track wheels? It's a shit wedge, the plow looks like it'd fall off if pushed slightly, it looks ugly, etc. etc. I actually talked to Tony about this before seriously entering it and he, quite rightly, told me it sucked. Eurypterus 1.5 never was entered in any competition, thank god.   This is the version that one the SHW Championship in Redemption. The wedge was thinned down to a Copperhead-esque single point. Wheel-guards were added and pretty much useless structure was put on to make a more secure plow. All in all, I'd say that he was still lucky, getting passed Adreniton in the semis with a FF, but he evolved into something good.  This was the final version. Hinges were added so that we actually knew it was a hinged wedge. Supports were put inbetween the wheels to make the wheelguards pretty much impossible to bend, making them a hell of a lot more effective. Despite not repeating a championship, he had an undefeated regular season and made the semis. Successful as all get out. |
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Team Targeted - (36-12) Robot Bastards Dr. P: 4-8 Square Wave: 11-1 Snijmachine: 10-2 Parabolic Trajectory: 11-1 | |
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| That Kode Guy | Feb 6 2013, 11:48 AM Post #16 |
Ruiner of All
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Bumping this thread because I wanna go through Shadow Zone's evolutionary path; I'm a bored SOB and I have nothing better to do. :/ So back on FRA, I was competing in tournaments like Mechanical Noise 2 (YOU STILL HAVE TO FINISH THAT MARTIJN!!!!!!!) and Fowler Fic War 3.1 and all that. I had an idea, a ridiculous one at that. I wanted a robot with the pushing power of Storm II, but with a secondary weapon that didn't suck.  So I was looking on Battlebots.com when the site was still displaying bot pics, and I stumbled across Toro, one of my two favourite SHWs.Thus, this came about:  Well, how did he do? Well FFW4 had him go out early, but FFW5 had him reach the heat final. There he lost against a fellow flipper, Nitro-Gene. Now, I saw that Shadow Zone 1 here wasn't the best suited to fighting flippers. Now, do you think I actually did something about it? NO!  Shadow Zone Returns. More vulnerable to flippers than ever, yet with that big-ass convex scoop withstood quite a bit of damage from horizontal spinners, and drums (ala Paralyzation 2, who I beat). The rear flipper was thinned out and made more leverage, ala Matador. It did the same as Shadow Zone 1. Went 2-2. Achilles just kicked its ass. Yeah, big time. It was about this time that either Dan S or Joey showed me a video of Hammerhead 3, a British box-wedge flipper where the top along with the front popped up. The difference from other box-wedge flippers was that the ENTIRE front and top panels popped up, AND he could run inverted. The thing I questioned is how well a spinner would be able to handle him. Thus, Shadow Zone Forever, v1, was born.   Speed: 9 Torque: 5 Armour: 7 Weapon: 1 This is the version that competed in ARC: Reckoning. Front SCOOP, with the Hammerhead 3-style flipper at the rear. I added spiky wedges to the flipper so I could throw more weight behind one point. The scoop was incredibly thick, so nothing was getting through that. As you all know, SZF v1 did pretty damn well in Reckoning, lost 40-5 to Riot Control in the semis. But he did have some good success in Joey's Chevron Championship 2 on FRA. CC2 saw him as a good gauntlet and trial runner as he edged out Disco 5 (flipper with a v-disc) in the gauntlet, and manage to drag Dead Metal almost into the pit during tug-o-war (even when Joey magically gave Dead Metal bigger motors :P). As far as combat goes, SZF v1 managed to defeat a previous champion (M.O.R.D. 2) of another tournament (NSBFL 7), and then the almighty real robot Thor. CC2 hasn't been completed as of yet, so SZF v1 still has some action ahead of him. Provided Joey gets on it. Back to ARC, I addressed maybe one or two flaws in SZF v1's design? He was a bit too tall, and the scoop had flat sides, so he could get stuck on them. Also what was in my way was that v1 was rendered in 3D Studio Max. Nothing a little export wouldn't fix. So, v2!   Speed: 10 Traction: 5 Armour: 6 (+1 scoop) Weapon: 1 Yep. This is the guy that won Carnage HW. Although I still don't know how. Much lower, and the sides were undisputedly angled. However the move from torque to traction made him really uncontrollable. I had no idea how he was going to do and it was damn surprise he won. This was Shadow Zone Forever at his peak.Of course, not all good things last...  ARGH. What the fuck was I thinking? Shadow Zone Forever v3 became a simple boring rammer for whatever fucking reason I had in my head. The Armageddon render is just a re-colour/re-texturing of this Aftermath one. He lost both his first fights against DeadStar and Malaria, and then me leaving Aftermath after the midway point didn't help him out. Armageddon saw SZF v3 get into the play-offs, but then lose his match against Pinpoint who finally managed to beat SZF after 3 tries, lol. And then it got even worse, though most of you guys haven't seen this version. You see, I wanted to bring SZF back with a flipper again. I didn't want it to be the same as before, though. YEAH, KODY, WHY BRING BACK A WINNING FORMULA? :rolleyes:  Just... WHY? Why did I make this thing? Even v3 was miles above this crap. SZFm, or SZF v4, went back to the roots of having powerful drive with a flipper. The problem? EVERYTHING. The scoop was ineffective, the flippers was far too long, 6WD meant it wouldn't get the flipper into play much anyway... I could go on and on. Anyway, that's why I've brought back v2 here, as a re-colour:  You can call him v5 if you want, but it's really just v2 returned. Anyway he's back, even though I said I've never bring him back several times , and ready to kick some ass. 
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 Team Covenant stuff
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| GF93 | Feb 6 2013, 11:53 AM Post #17 |
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici.
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Interesting to see how it's changed so drastically over time, actually- I never knew that it used to be a pure flipper!
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Ice Cubed Robotics  "I will not die until I achieve something. Even though the ideal is high, I never give in. Therefore, I never die with regrets." Cherry Bomb Classic: Season 2 (8-0) Swiftsure- 2-0 Torque Dirty 2 Me- 2-0 Ayame- 1-0 Dead on Arrival- 1-0 Barley Picker- 1-0 Lethal Injection 3- 1-0 Robot Bastards 2 (5-5) Apathy & Lethargy- 2-1 Trump ex Machina- 0-3 Rainbow in the Dark- 3-1 (6-3) Ruination: The Upheaval (20-8) Ayame- 6-1 Marauder- 6-1 Dreadnought Mk3- 3-4 Lethal Injection 3- 5-2 ALL-TIME RECORD Wins: 347 Losses: 230
Notable Achievements on Advanced Robot Combat for make benefit glorious Team of Ice Cubed Robotics
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| NWOWWE | Feb 6 2013, 12:20 PM Post #18 |
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Team Blood Gulch Motto
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Hey I can have a bit of a go at this! I don't have all the versions of someone like ToC or Sarge, but since Chris drew all those, it doesn't really count for me. Instead, I'll go into the history of my first self-drawn bot: Tali'Zorah. Yikes, and believe it or not it gets worse! The original version I drew (which I never even uploaded) was a treadbot. Basically picture this with the worst-drawn treads you've ever seen. As far as this goes, yeah you're reading that right. This was originally going to be a hammer-bot. The rounded points on the sides of the arm look absolutly terrible. The only good thing really was the Ginsu-spike caption.   Next came the CAD. Randomly, the background color is Lavender. This took ages to draw and basically turned me off of planning on doing all my drawing in CAD. Still we lose the goofy hammer concept and make either end into plows. Also the color scheme was changed.  Back to paint! Design wise, it's pretty similar to the CAD, with few minor alterations to the sides of the arms.  Cheap alternate wedge version when I relized there weren't going to be as many spinners entered as I thought. |
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| That Kode Guy | Feb 6 2013, 12:24 PM Post #19 |
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Ruiner of All
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Dude, I fucking love the CAD regardless of simplicity sakes. However you do make pretty damn good paint drawings as well. 
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Team Covenant stuff
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| GF93 | Feb 6 2013, 12:26 PM Post #20 |
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Vi veri veniversum vivus vici.
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Definitely quite an interesting design- I always thought that drum was part of a spinning weapon or something. But an invertible drum-hammer is definitely quite an inspired variation on the classic formulae!
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Ice Cubed Robotics "I will not die until I achieve something. Even though the ideal is high, I never give in. Therefore, I never die with regrets." Cherry Bomb Classic: Season 2 (8-0) Swiftsure- 2-0 Torque Dirty 2 Me- 2-0 Ayame- 1-0 Dead on Arrival- 1-0 Barley Picker- 1-0 Lethal Injection 3- 1-0 Robot Bastards 2 (5-5) Apathy & Lethargy- 2-1 Trump ex Machina- 0-3 Rainbow in the Dark- 3-1 (6-3) Ruination: The Upheaval (20-8) Ayame- 6-1 Marauder- 6-1 Dreadnought Mk3- 3-4 Lethal Injection 3- 5-2 ALL-TIME RECORD Wins: 347 Losses: 230
Notable Achievements on Advanced Robot Combat for make benefit glorious Team of Ice Cubed Robotics
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