Morgrugyn Destruction (Non-AWS) - 30 May 2015 - Caerphilly

[Rhys]

Looking at yesterday's event, clearly it was skewed towards spinners and flippers, so I can see why you're worrying about what to build. But the AWS is a whole different kettle of fish. Nothing has really changed since the last AWS. Personally I'm going for 2 spinners, a 4wd pusher with a flipper, and a cluster.

[EpicentrE]

All this debate is good, there is no doubt of that. Of course we're going to get a bit heated now and then, this is our hobby, we're passionate about it, and want it to be the best it possibly can be. This event was a first great step in doing what we should've been doing a long time ago; trying out different things to see what real effect it has on the matches. Lets keep this momentum going and use it to continue to test and evaluate different design decisions. We're never going to have an arena that everyone is 100% happy with, or that is completely even for every robot, but by testing things we increase our shared experience such that we can make the best decisions we can for everyone involved going forwards.

I very much look forward to seeing what Rory decides to do for the AWS .

[Remote-Controlled Dave]

Yeah, its certainly a step in a great direction. I think I might just try build mad things for the AWS, regardless of effectiveness. Crash and burn in round one but with style.

[Rapidrory]

On which note, I need to work out where this AWS's arena is coming from. I don't have the funds to build one at the moment, but Dave offered to fund one, and there was also talk of a community funded one.. we never really came to a set conclusion about it ..

[Remote-Controlled Dave]

My vote would be Scott and Andy's if they're willing and able. Then we could discuss mods to the walls/drop off they could easily make. Maybe we could fire a few quid to help them with van costs and all that too.

For anyone who hasn't seen the arena I mentioned above, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFnnqf4FAO0

I like the lay out and ratios here. It may effect timings as Alex said, but I'd be happy to drop to three robots if it meant we had more interesting fights I think. Though its likely to maybe have less of a turn out than, say, Reading.

[Rapidrory]

Scott and Andy, If you can bring your arena then that'd be awesome; time's a little tight this month so not sure I would have time to build a new one even if I had the funds..

And yeah, I'm aiming to run the same event format as we did at Reading as that seemed to keep things on time rather well.

[Hogi]

watching that spinner annihilator really showed me just how evil the ant spinners of today can actually be. consequently i have been busy piling on more armour onto my robots. Hogi now has 8mm bulkheads on each side!
i kind of agree that low walls do favour flippers and verticle spinners. i have got one over with a grabber before but that was more to do with drive power and grip than it was the actual design of the robot. i like the look of the robogames arena. would really encourage good driving skill and that's always kind of been my forte ( probably a good thing really as i can't build for toffee )

[joey_picus]

I've got all the videos uploaded from the onboard camera, if anyone's interested :3 unfortunately I can't get embedding to work, so have some links instead:

https://youtu.be/6winY_t-tD0 (random driving around - guest starring: Scott's foot and a table leg)
https://youtu.be/p5YpR8zyRVQ (vs. Bullydozer - about 90% blurry mess and 10% upside down)
https://youtu.be/bFmfHjnstgM (vs. Baby Hell - lots of axey goodness and also peoples' faces through polycarb)
https://youtu.be/wQHT7d61eZI (spinner demonstration - I only noticed when previewing that some fluid actually ends up on the lens early on)

It's not bad quality, and there's some really good moments that would make a good montage if I could learn video editing but it's hard to follow a fight and sharp turns just become a blurry mess, so I think it'll remain filed under 'interesting novelty' for now. I'll keep going though - I think I can get a proper camerabot going for the AWS, and it doesn't take that much effort to get the footage so I might as well (that, and Tracy has got me started on the 'Gabriel Television' branding already...)

[Max]

Wow, I'm impressed with the quality.
What camera did you use for that? Do you have a link?

[Rapidrory]

Whilst Alex is doing the main video, I thought I'd stick the Kwijiboom vs Bad Idea fight on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXAtMM6tIjM