amusedWhile two of my robots, Dragon Mk. 6 (Bakel) and Dragon Mk. 9 (Basilisk), lost in the first round (sorry, Bakel and Basilisk! It was a paper-scissors-rock sort of thing... leverbot beats rotorbot.), Dragon Mk. 7 (Delcan) went three rounds. The first round was against only a Nednil- the "filler" robot for all spots in the tournament where there is an uneven number of players. (Several people get Ned in the first round so nobody gets him in the second.) As Nednil costs only 20,000 cred (as opposed to the 40K for competitors) and his AI is nothing but "when the opponent gets close, move my 'hands' (Neddie is designed to look humanoid... really quite comical) to block and shake my head, then die horribly as my opponent touches one of the nine ultravulnerable boxes holding everything together that's sufficient to lose support to my controller." Not a "real" match and if you lose to a Nednil, you have serious issues.
Round Two for Delcan saw last Saturday's tournament winner: Worst Case Scenario.
It was one heck of a match in those 47 seconds; Delcan wasn't getting in WCS' defenses- our shields were just crashing into each other- but Worst Case Scenario's ultralong spinner arm was having no trouble reaching over all of it. Delcan's hammer just barely made it to W.C.S... but with smoke trailing from my bot 47 seconds into the match, my robot in an attempt to avoid getting hit (again) moved forward, put the hammer down (and missed), but then a sensor for "my opponent is too close" triggered.
Without a chance to reset the hammer, my robot drove back.
The hammer gave WCS a wedgie. It was pulled right into the back of his chassis.
Y'know, where Worst Case Scenario stored its controller. The vunerability that, if destroyed, wipes out the robot.
Delcan WINS!
Then it lost next round to "Damp Wire," a spinbot with SERIOUSLY long arms. Oops.
Several things happened at once to cause that surprise victory:
1. The opponent moved forward somewhat, causing your bot's weapon to miss to the back. Worst Case Scenario was still within my target zone, just not actually under the hammer. The hammer dropped.
2. Worst Case Scenario attacked.
3. Worst Case Scenario's attack barely missed, triggering the "Too Close" zone causing Delcan 40K to do a quick retreat- it's in the code to dodge one metre back and go back into the attack in that situation.
4. The hammer was trying to reset at this time. The weapon is very heavy, and the motor's pretty weak; it takes a long time to reset.
5. Delcan 40K's retreat with the hammer down pulled the hammer into the back of WCS- where Worst Case Scenario's controller was.
6. *POW*
So you can beat just about anything with a back-mounted controller.