Robot Wars Returns - Sunday 8pm BBC2

[Rev]

On 28/07/2016 at 15:35, Weavus said:

 

Yup, Battlebots is so much better and a far more entertaining program. The quality and destructive power of the robots is much higher and they don't have anywhere near as many gimmicks. 

 

 

A higher weight limit and a couple of hundred million potential participants mean it should be better. Robot Wars is good because it's a bit naff though, not in spite of it. That's what losing Craig Charles harms, because he treated it as if it was the sort of standard you get on Battlebots rather than Diotior's goggley eyes catching on fire before it even gets to the opponent. Dara is a bit too self-aware.

[Bazjam]

The Mighty Thor.

[Plissken]

Well...

 

Spoiler

That was a bit of a surprise in the final.

 

[gizmo1990]

There's too many rounds in this now surely? The robots are knackering  themselves out with too many concurrent battles. Thor should have gone through imo.

[Dig Dug]

Thanks Rev for reminding me about Diotoir.

 

[Thwomp]

1 hour ago, Bazjam said:

The Mighty Thor.

 

Do the tor ting!

[Gotters]

Really enjoyed that again - was thinking the format is a bit long now too in terms of number of battles as the test has become more about durability than destructive power.

 

No way the winner last night was the most exciting on show but it outlasted the others, some of which blew themselves out in 1 battle, despite looking great.

 

Think this is getting good viewing numbers so hopefully its back to stay.

[Plissken]

Spoiler

 

Thor lost to a lucky shot - after all, it managed to survive the floor flipper.  Also seems to be the first axe where the owner had a clue about driving it, and it was damn agile as well.  Shockwave was all about ramming the opponent into something solid in order to shake the internals loose.  It didn't work in the H2H, but they got lucky in the final. That's football, Robot Wars, Brian O'Briain.

 

The Speed Squared thing was a case of bad design.  It simply couldn't stand hitting some of the really tough robots and other objects in the arena.  However, given the supposed time they had to prepare for the series, there isn't a lot of time to test and refine these things.

 

 

[gizmo1990]

I think the takeaway with spinners now is that you need a really fast spin up. Otherwise, you're screwed.

 

Vertical spinners seem awesome now. Hope we see some stuff like this!

 

 

[McCoy]

Enjoying the new series although I do sense that the contestants did not have much time to prepare the robots.  Hopefully we'll get more series when some great robots can be created and refined. 

 

Would change a few things, in the current format I think 60 minutes is too long, would prefer a tightly packed 45 minutes. The pit seems to be a cheap way to finish an opponent, we want to see the robots properly battle each other.  Maybe have the pit automatically appear in the last 60 seconds. As others have said, the format may need to be refined.  At the moment it is slightly a battle of attrition.  Plus you feel for the two robots eliminated in each of the starting rounds if they just get unlucky or accidentally drive into the pit. Perhaps replace the free for all with initial knockout rounds of two robots each. 

[Dig Dug]

The pit is a bit too strong in this series, the robots are bigger therefore the pit is bigger but the arena is no bigger than it was back in the day. It's kind of cheap really and when it lowers it no longer has that slow decent and yells of "pit pit pit" from the crowd that was a staple of the old series.

That said in terms of arena design I like the curved walls, it actually made Thor's axe viable.

[deerokus]

Take a leaf from esports, put the robots knocked out in the first round into a loser's path of some sort to try to get back in. All battle royales.

 

 

[JohnC]

Foxic turned out to be pretty rubbish against everyone except the house robots.

[Uncle Mike]

I think the Foxic guy was a right dick, from his video about how great it was just doing it himself and how it meant he could just include all his great ideas. And then the way the lady host interacted with the team during the interviews suggested to me that they also didn't take to him. Plus they were useless.

[deerokus]

Seemed as if he was playing that up, trying to be the heel. Shame his robot was properly shite.

[zuum]

That second episode wasn't the best. I also wish they'd do away with the free for all at the start. It really only benefits passive shovers and to a lesser extent lifters. Grapplebots like Razer that need time to position an opponent just are just made too vulnerable while they're doing their business.

 

The Foxic guy did genuinely come across as a bit of a dick during the contests and afterwards. I suppose it must be embarrassing when your robot is called the dullest ever on tv but, you know, at least try and be a bit gracious.

 

Is there other than living up to its namesake that Thor would go with a blunt hammer rather than something a bit spikey? It seemed like a pretty effective bot and well driven but he must have been able to do more damage by punching through the armour rather than trying to crush it?

 

I see there's a wildcard entry for the grand final; any chance it might just be Razer?

[zuum]

On 29/07/2016 at 18:31, TehStu said:

 

It's immense, I love Battlebots. Watching Poison Arrow (off camber spinning drum at the front) hurl number 2 seed Son of Whyachi across the room last week was fantastic. I mean, look at SOW in this clip:

 

 

He had previously utterly destroyed other opponents at only 50% power to the spinner, but dialed it up to 100% for this one. And yet, the little bot who weighed so little they squeaked in a drone sat steady on the floor while SOW goes for a fly.

 

Brilliant.

Yeah, that is great! The lack of a pit and no house robots really means they can't get lazy and go passive. I also loved the fight with Warhead and Complete Control.

[Dig Dug]

11 hours ago, zuum said:

That second episode wasn't the best. I also wish they'd do away with the free for all at the start. It really only benefits passive shovers and to a lesser extent lifters. Grapplebots like Razer that need time to position an opponent just are just made too vulnerable while they're doing their business.

 

The Foxic guy did genuinely come across as a bit of a dick during the contests and afterwards. I suppose it must be embarrassing when your robot is called the dullest ever on tv but, you know, at least try and be a bit gracious.

 

Is there other than living up to its namesake that Thor would go with a blunt hammer rather than something a bit spikey? It seemed like a pretty effective bot and well driven but he must have been able to do more damage by punching through the armour rather than trying to crush it?

 

I see there's a wildcard entry for the grand final; any chance it might just be Razer?

A sharp ended axe would break easier than a blunt one, also blunt axes can do more damage from impact (impact alone has broken quite a few robots so far, including thor) where's a sharp axe would rely on needing to puncture, not all armour can be punctured easily.

[Uncle Mike]

My conclusions after 2 episodes so far are that the pit seems like a cop-out for robots that can't do damage. And spinners seem devastating, but seem quite likely to destroy themselves as they burn out. I didn't think the robot that ended up pushing Thor into the pit really deserved to win the episode. I'd like a format that was a little better at removing dumb luck.

[Plissken]

To be fair though, it took a couple of series of the original for them to really get a handle on what works and what doesn't.  IIRC, the first winner was Panic Attack, basically a pusher and series 2 was Chaos 2, who did this amazing thing where it self-righted itself.  Something like that, anyway.

[Dig Dug]

Series 1 was won by Road Block, series 2 Panic Attack, 3 and 4 were won by Chaos 2, Razor won 5, Tornado 6 and Typhoon won series 7 and then it ended.

Those were the main series winners anyway.

 

EDIT: Looking at the series 6 final. I can see why so many people are still upset over it, Razor couldn't get in on Tornado because they put a big steel frame around the robot and then when Razor finally managed to lift Tornado they couldn't get it into the pit because the frame was wider than the pit. Not technically cheating (as many claim this to be) but Tornado definitely won using methods no one else had before such as changing the robot according to the opponent and using those modifications to nullify the arena traps, it wouldn't surprise me if this match, along with the weight increase is why the new pit is so big.

 

[wev]

 Lootking at the video above, old Robot Wars just looked so muchy grimier. The new one looks a little clean and sterile.

 

As for tonights show, so glad Domtomkia were beaten, their captain was such an annoying cunt

[cubik]

TR2 were worthy winners, not the flashiest robot but certainly fairly robust.

 

What's with all the "we built it in a couple of days/weeks" or "we haven't tested it" comments from the teams? Was it really rushed this year or is it just a case of this being a reboot so everyone is new to it and hasn't had the advantage of a few previous series to refine their work?

[Plissken]

Bit of both, I reckon.  Several robots have struggled for grip so far, which you don't normally see.

[cubik]

13 minutes ago, Plissken said:

Bit of both, I reckon.  Several robots have struggled for grip so far, which you don't normally see.

That's a good point - I wonder if they've made the floor out of something more slippy, or if it's just the teams' naivety both in the design of the wheels and the driving style.

 

Either way it's been good so far except for each episode being 10 minutes too long. The slo-mo walk to the pits would be the first thing to chop.

[Gotters]

I noticed the slippery floor again last night, I get the arena has obstacles in it to impede the robots but traction makes for a better spectacle so the surface should offer good grip, not be an ice rink.

 

Special marks for the team turning up with the wooden robot - I know nothing about building robots and couldn't have put it together but even I know that was never going to be a good idea, what were they thinking ?

[Azrael]

They need to cut back on the interviews with the contestants, always so awkward and cringey. 

[Dig Dug]

Yeah, they need to go back to having the interviews be brief vox pops when the robot drives into the arena.

[Gotters]

I like the interviews, watching weird aspie nerds look awkward and not making eye contact with the lady, the arrogant blokes who's dreams go up in tatters when their bot gets smashed, I think it needs those little bits of personality to be shown to get you invested in the battles

[Mr Cochese]

Without the awkwardness and personalities it may as well just be the clashing algorithms of rival AIs that Robot James dreams of.