arena building

Simon Windisch · Post by **Simon Windisch** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:05 pm

Oops, sorry

Simon

Flippt · Post by **Flippt** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:28 pm

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v450/harje/arena1.jpg

Here you got the real picture

Remote-Controlled Dave · Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:33 am

Yup, that be mine.

Incidently, I've been watching videos from America's Marin Ant Wars and they've got a great arena thats fully enclosed, but with an extra little box jutting out. This has a sliding door that opens when the fight goes on for a long time, so that the drop-off zone is revealed. I think this is a great idea for an arena if anyone can adapt it, because we might get some proper fights as opposed to two robots colliding on initial impact and both richocheting out.

http://www.marinantwars.com/

Rhys · Post by **Rhys** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:12 pm

Yeah, I did mention this a while back. I think fully enclosed arenas would be great for antweights.

Also, while we're on the subject of arenas, I think Oliver's is very good because of the height of the side walls. It means you can do OOTA flipping, which is always a good thing. If it had that kind of wall all around, I think things would be a lot more entertaining and a lot more challenging. But then again, that's a fundamental rule change that's never likely to happen.

Cavecrusher · Post by **Cavecrusher** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:11 am

just making the walls .5" but fully enclosed would mean the weaponless wedges should get creative instead of... well.... staying weaponless.

olivers · Post by **olivers** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:01 pm

Remember we do have younger children doing antweights and active weaponry can be dangerous and even flippers a bit hard to control sometimes.

If I had the money (and a bigger car) I would have made a bigger surround to the arena and made the arena area bigger, about 1m octagonal as oposed to 800mm. The sizes are all based upon the 1020mm size that polycarn comes in, everything else comes from that measurement.

I do like the US arenas, they do have 450g antweights though so bigger arenas are required.

Cavecrusher · Post by **Cavecrusher** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:56 pm

olivers wrote:Remember we do have younger children doing antweights and active weaponry can be dangerous and even flippers a bit hard to control sometimes.

i personaly think thats the wrong attitude towards building combatrobots. The whole challenge is building a robot that can beat other robots, not building a robot that's safe for little children which seem to me like a good description of a toy not a robot.

josh · Post by **josh** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 6:01 pm

im 11 nd im playin with angle grinders and robots with big shiny disks goin at 20000rpm so a flipper cant be that dangeerous

Remote-Controlled Dave · Mon Mar 20, 2006 6:43 pm

i personaly think thats the wrong attitude towards building combatrobots. The whole challenge is building a robot that can beat other robots, not building a robot that's safe for little children which seem to me like a good description of a toy not a robot.

I personally think this is the wrong attitude, so, its down to your opinion, what your fighting for as such. I don't do it to win, or 'beat others', I do it for fun, and it should be open to anyone who wants to have a go. If someone's limits of building can't go beyond a wedge, they should still be allowed a fighting chance. There's nothing wrong with a 'weaponless wedge', you've been beaten by a few Tim, why is there need for more creativity?
And also, we'd never have any comedy robots if everyone took that attitude. You think Eggman was built to beat others, and theres no point it entering?
Thats my opinion anyhow, you're welcome to yours of course.

Rhys · Post by **Rhys** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:58 pm

I can see what you're saying about giving everyone a fighting chance Dave, but surely the rules shouldn't be stacked in their favour? Maybe a pit would give them a good chance, but I think 50% drop-off is a little too much in favour of pushers.

I know we always want to encourage new-comers and youger builders, but this doesn't mean we should be discouraging weapons by making the wedge the perfect robot for ants. If we had an encolsed arena, then people who show initiative by designing clever weapons would have the advantage. Newcomers would still be able to enter simple wedges, but would be encouraged to be more creative with their ant design if they wanted to be more competetive.

As for comedy robots and people who don't compete to win, I don't see how this would disadvantage them... If they're not there to win, then they can still attend with robots they would have brought. It's just the people who put more effort in would have more of an advantage. And as they're not there to win, what's the problem.

Personally I go to events looking to win. I have a lot of fun, and I still attend despite not being too successful. But if you're not there to win, then there's not much point. Surely that's the whole point of a competition? I'm not saying I turn up completely focused on winning, but I always build designs that I think will do well, and that's where I think Tim has a point. I'd say the majority of people build robots not just for fun, but in the hope that they will have an impressive and successful ant. I don't think an enclosed arena would make things any more dangerous, I just think it would make people aspire to build better ants and shy away from weaponless wedges.