Robot Wars returning to BBC2!

[Gerard]

A spinning drum you might say?

Whether it's a bar, disc, drum. They're all largely similar.

Edited my post,

Yeah its a spinning drum but it didn't have anywhere near the range of something like carbide. There was a few times it was against the side of a robot without inflicting damage, sometimes it seemed to have to be almost underneath a robot for the weapon to do damage. Had it been a bigger drum it could have done more damage, just seemed too flush to the bodyshell of the robot to be really effective.

That and it could only move 5 feet before stopping dead

 

[d_brennen]

Mortis?

That's the one. Always thought they were mad for what they did. Cheap ass simple robots owning them

 

[Shamikebab]

The Mortis team were fun, remember they had that weird harness to hold the controller?

 

[JanM]

I honestly think banning spinners or placing a limit on them would improve it so much. The battle between TR2 and Apollo was incredible, tense driving by both teams.

Next battle? One hit, robot disabled. Boring as ****. The problem with spinners is they either obliterate the other robot or destroy themselves. I can't remember one good battle involving a spinner this series. A good 50% of them just broke themselves. Even Pulsar which seemed to be disabled for about 50% of it's time in the arena got into the final...and then spent the whole time disabled again.

I want even better spinners than carbide the next series if there is one.

I find the flippers boring to be honest.

 

[GhostWKD]

Hope they give this another go with more notice for teams to build their robots etc, felt it had a lot of potential and didn't really deliver for me. Carbide was epic when it worked though, just seemed to break whenever it was thrown in the air.

Impressive how much stronger the Apollo flipper was than TR2 though

 

[this_is_gav]

I honestly think banning spinners or placing a limit on them would improve it so much. The battle between TR2 and Apollo was incredible, tense driving by both teams.

In the current format I agree. It's incredibly harsh if in your first mini-league fight you come up against a lethal spinner and your robot gets ripped to shreds before you've even had a chance to fight the less destructive robots - see Thor.

I don't mind the wrecking of robots, but in the current league format it doesn't work.

I also think there should be a best of 3 or something in the first round. It's a bit harsh if you've spent months designing and building a robot, travelled to the studios and then got in the arena for 3 minutes and then you go home again.

They've plenty of time in the hour-long slot to fit in another few battles, and it would make it more entertaining, as at the moment I felt like they were stretching the episodes to an hour rather than making the most of it.

Overall I thought it was a decent series and I enjoyed it - it could use a bit of tweaking, but it was a decent return. I hope this was a bit of a pilot series and that it's back next year, when teams have more time to build and test their machines.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

I want even better spinners than carbide the next series if there is one.

I find the flippers boring to be honest.

Same here, my goodness they are boring. Literally nothing happens. I want to see destruction which is what the spinners bring. Carbide should have won, it should have finished off Apollo when it could.

 

[nicktay2605]

I too think flippers are boring, they do no damage and it's rare that they manage to flip someone out of the arena. Spinners are great because they are so destructive, and I would guess that's what most people want to see. They do need to change the format though, it is ridiculous to have to fight so many head-to-head fights in quick succession, and I think the pit should be disabled for the opening four robot fight, it's too simple a way to go through.

 

[EvilDreams]

The pit should be disabled full stop. It's a crutch for boring/rubbish bots and Battlebots manages to be awesome without one.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Agreed, the pit puts too much of the battle on luck and not enough on the quality of the robot. As a result we end up with robots going through that really shouldn't.

 

[Shamikebab]

If everyone wants total destruction then why even allow armour? Why not just have every robot allowed to use paper mache or wood. Surely that would be more entertaining?

And claiming the pit involves luck...how exactly? I don't think you understand what luck is.

 

[GhostWKD]

May have missed this being discussed... I'm trying to remember back to the original series and remember the pit being a later in the bout type feature rather than something which could be activated from the off?

 

[hyperseven]

A spinning drum you might say?

Whether it's a bar, disc, drum. They're all largely similar.

How oh you mean they spin round

 

[Armageus]

Agreed, the pit puts too much of the battle on luck and not enough on the quality of the robot. As a result we end up with robots going through that really shouldn't.

How does it involve luck? Surely it rewards good driving if you can avoid being pushed into the Pit, and actually allows "pushing" style robots to be more viable.

Spinners are great because they are so destructive, and I would guess that's what most people want to see. They do need to change the format though, it is ridiculous to have to fight so many head-to-head fights in quick succession

The format needs to change slightly to allow more repair time between matches, otherwise we will see more "boring" matches where robots are non-functional or have to withdraw anyway due to damage.

I assume if a second series gets the go ahead, then it will probably be a bit bigger in scale with more heats spread over at least a couple of days of filming, so will be slightly less of an issue. Bringing back the mini games, or running a second weight class of robots would break things up a bit and allow more repair time.


Overall I enjoyed this series, and look forward to it hopefully coming back with a few minor tweaks.

 

[Mr Jack]

Overall I enjoyed this series, and look forward to it hopefully coming back with a few minor tweaks.

Yeah, that's my take. I think people have a somewhat rose-tinted spectacles view of the old series. Remember that the first series was won by Roadblock, a robot whose attacking capabilities consisted essentially of being a wedge shape.

 

[Shamikebab]

How oh you mean they spin round

...yes exactly

 

[Mr Jack]

Whether it's a bar, disc, drum. They're all largely similar.

I'd say horizontal and vertical spinners behave pretty differently as weapons. Vertical spinners tend to grind or throw opponents and rarely throw the robot using the weapon whereas horizontal spinners are more destructive but also tend to hurl the robot using them across the arena.

 

[413x]

Amazing series. Me and the gf both loved it. 2 that were in final were exactly the two I wanted in.
Didn't think apollo would win it but I knew they could. And they did.

Only real complaints about series I have

that pit should not be instantly activated
I'd also like to see every robot get more than one game.
That damn link problem needs to be sorted!

Other than that we both really enjoyed it.

The power but unreliability of carbide and other spinners vs lack longevity of flippers.
I love that no design is perfect.

I think that massive one with the wheels would have been amazing if it had a circular blade weapon in the middle! It was damn indestructible!

 

[JanM]

Amazing series. Me and the gf both loved it. 2 that were in final were exactly the two I wanted in.
Didn't think apollo would win it but I knew they could. And they did.

Only real complaints about series I have

that pit should not be instantly activated
I'd also like to see every robot get more than one game.
That damn link problem needs to be sorted!

Other than that we both really enjoyed it.

The power but unreliability of carbide and other spinners vs lack longevity of flippers.
I love that no design is perfect.

I think that massive one with the wheels would have been amazing if it had a circular blade weapon in the middle! It was damn indestructible!

The big one would have not lasted more than a few seconds versus carbide.
I think entrants should be requested to bring in enough parts and have enough time for repair should they get smashed up early.

The pit either needs to go or not be allowed to activate till the last minuite. We just loose too many good robots that just happen to fall in accidently sometimes. Its hard to push anyone into it unless they are completely dead anyway. Usually most robots when damaged have a wheel still spin able and they are damn impossible to push in as they just spin away at odd angles etc. Its just pointless having a pit.

 

[Caged]

Axes and circular saws are pointless wastes of time, but if everything were a spinner it would be pretty boring.