Dominance of pushers at AWS46

A discussion forum for proposed changes to the AWS rules (2014)

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Rapidrory
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Re: Dominance of pushers at AWS46

Post by Rapidrory »

Alternatively, just make the arena floor as big as it can be whilst fitting in the car; Joints or removable surfaces are likely to be more trouble than a slightly smaller arena..
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Remote-Controlled Dave
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Re: Dominance of pushers at AWS46

Post by Remote-Controlled Dave »

I reckon the size of the fighting surface can be slightly smaller if the drop off is decreased. In all the US examples, the drop off parts are like additional units rather than part of the fighting surface like we currently have. Peter's and Scott/Andy's arena all have to have a big enough battlebox to cover the fighting platform AND the drop offs combined. With the US ones this is not the case. The drop off part can be a whole separate module and thus easier to store.
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MikeNCR
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Re: Dominance of pushers at AWS46

Post by MikeNCR »

Seeing as a few of you were interested in my arena I figured I'd link to a post I made about it recently on my site-

http://nearchaos.net/bringing-an-arena- ... etirement/

That post shows a lot of the key features of the box, but doesn't cover everything.

Area: ~6ft square
Floor: Painted MDF
Structure: Steel
Walls: 1/4" lexan

The arena consists of the following major sections:
Floor (Includes combat surface, kick plate, pushout cutouts)
Roof (includes lights, access hatches)
Legs (4x)
Walls (4x)
Pits (2x)
Pit Covers (2x)
Hazard

Setup process is generally as follows:
Attach legs to floor with single massive bolt per leg
slide pits into pit mount holes
insert hazard into hazard cutout in arena floor
slide lexan into wall grooves (brackets welded to legs and upper surface of kick plate)
pin pit covers to walls
drop roof into openings at top of legs
plug in lights/hazard

The whole process takes <15min with two people and outside of the roof, the whole assembly process can be done solo with some careful maneuvering.
Occashokka
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Re: Dominance of pushers at AWS46

Post by Occashokka »

Wow an arena floor flipper as well, ant weight arenas here are nowhere near that fancy.how much would a flipper add to the cost?
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EpicentrE
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Re: Dominance of pushers at AWS46

Post by EpicentrE »

Well we'd want to question whether we want one first. I certainly don't. Never been a fan of non-static arena hazards outside of button-activated pits.

That arena does look really good though, and looks fairly painless to put together.
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Remote-Controlled Dave
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Re: Dominance of pushers at AWS46

Post by Remote-Controlled Dave »

I agree with that. Hate hazards that interfere. That was a TV thing and good if there's a crowd to entertain, but we don't have that. Boring fights are just as valid at our events because its competition. Nowhere in the rules does it say "fights must be interesting" thank goodness.
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Rapidrory
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Re: Dominance of pushers at AWS46

Post by Rapidrory »

Need to be careful about arena size though; having fought ants in the beetle arena, fights can get very boring very quickly as there is just too much space to try and make contact with the opponent, and when you do, trying to flip them or push them anywhere takes for ever and it gets tedious for both competitors rather quickly..
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EpicentrE
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Re: Dominance of pushers at AWS46

Post by EpicentrE »

The fighting surface on mine and Andy's arena is 1.2m square. I think any bigger than that and you'd run into problems like Rory has mentioned, but you could probably afford to go a little smaller if it would be the difference between it getting into someone's car or not. You don't want it too small though or it restricts the driver's options. I guess it comes down to who is going to be transporting it, and what's the largest single piece of arena that they can fit in their car :P.
Scott Fyfe-Jamieson, Captain of Epic Robotics. Champion of AWS38/41/42.
http://www.epicrobotics.co.uk
Rapidrory
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Re: Dominance of pushers at AWS46

Post by Rapidrory »

Yeah, your arena is on the higher end of being the right size; there seems to be a sweet spot between too large and to small, which I'd guess to be somewhere around a 1m square +- ~30cm.. 1m square should fit in the back of most cars with the seats down I would think; I got 6 sheets of 1m square polycarb in the back of my little 106 quite easily :P
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Ellis
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Re: Dominance of pushers at AWS46

Post by Ellis »

Much of why I'm not particularly attracted to antweights is the arenas I see. An arena in which there is room to breathe (drive), a spinner isn't just going to fly out (ditto any high energy bot, spinner, flipper, fast rambot or otherwise), and where a lucky clash in the middle is less likely to line you up with a drop-off, would be much more attractive.

I freely admit I am from the outside so may not fully grasp how fights tend to go down, or be familiar with the different arenas, but that's what I feel I've observed. Fights seem pretty same-y and it would appear that is in part (at least) down to the environment.
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