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dethkruzer
2013-04-08, 11:24 AM
so yeah, pretty much what the title says. I plan on doing a tournament between fighting robots some time soon, and I have some ideas, but I could use a few more. And that's where you, the playground, come into play. I'm not looking for anything super specific, just some rough ideas, designs, weaponry and other gimmickry.

most notably, I'd like to see a few robot ideas that are meant to work in teams of two.

Thanks in advance.

Blightedmarsh
2013-04-08, 12:28 PM
Is this for roleplay or actual real life fighting robots?

If it is for roleplay then I have some other questions about the kinds of robots we are talking about.

What is the general style of the robots?

Terninators style humaniod?
Gundam style fighting mecha?
Battletech style?
Metal gear solid/rising UGs?
Real life drone vehicles?
Robot wars?

What is the battle arena?

Flat
Forest
Open water
Urban
Ariel
Zero gravity
All of the above
None eucladian

What kind of tech level and power sources?

Clockwork
Electric battery
Steam locomotion
Internal combustion
Nuclear fusion
Magitech

Are these robots suppossed to be piloted, remote controlled or AI?

dethkruzer
2013-04-08, 12:36 PM
Is this for roleplay or actual real life fighting robots?

If it is for roleplay then I have some other questions about the kinds of robots we are talking about.

What is the general style of the robots?

Terninators style humaniod?
Gundam style fighting mecha?
Battletech style?
Metal gear solid/rising UGs?
Real life drone vehicles?
Robot wars?

What is the battle arena?

Flat
Forest
Open water
Urban
Ariel (Assuming you mean Aerial)
Zero gravity
All of the above
None eucladian

What kind of tech level and power sources?

Clockwork
Electric battery
Steam locomotion
Internal combustion
Nuclear fusion + a bit of super-advanced alien-tech
Magitech

Are these robots suppossed to be piloted, remote controlled or AI?

Answers bolded.

Blightedmarsh
2013-04-08, 01:27 PM
Vector frame

A transformable robot with a wave rider mode and a humaniod mode.

The vector is a mass produce mecha. It is optimized for speed and maneuverability. To achieve this it sacrifices all most all armor except for the cockpit and the forward facing ablative heat shields. It is capable of reentry in waverider mode. As it was originally designed for luna warfare it is unable to achieve escape velocity unassisted; to that end it usually uses disposable rocket boosters.

It folds its torso back in two at the waste to form the hull of the rider mode. (alternately it brakes in two to form two separate wave riders).

The elongated head is its primary gun camera and raydome system, it hinges down over the torso to form the tail and ruder of the wave rider.

It possess four long spindly limbs. These retract somewhat and sweep back to form the ailerons in flight mode. At the end of each limb is an omni-directional plasma thruster; these are the vector frames primary melee weapons.

The pilot is mounted in a disk shaped cockpit at the center of the torso. Both the cradle and armor rotate; this allows the mecha to spin around the pilot without changing his facing as well as using the weighty armor as a counter rotating fly wheel.

Its primary weapons are swarm missiles though it is armed with a pair of secondary chainguns.

The vectors design production is focused on ease of maintenance and modularity. They are built to be disposable and under ideal circumstances heavily damaged vectors are usually torn apart for spares.

TripleD
2013-04-08, 03:08 PM
Sound & Fury

A tag team of two reptailian themed mechs.

Sound: Big and heavy, this one is designed to take hits. Shaped like a T-Rex, this Mech has a small assortment of missiles, but it's specialty is a "Roar" attack. Rearing its head like the dinosaur it's modelled after, it lets loose a wave of sonic and EMP energy. The idea is to disorient/blind/disable the opponent for a few moments, ideally knocking them to the ground, waiting for fury to come in.

Fury Shaped like a metal axebeak, this mech has shed pretty much everything that isn't related to speed. It's small too; the rider has lie flat on their stomach to pilot it. It lacks any conventional weapons. Instead, it waits for fury to create an opening. It then pounces on the opponent and uses its head, woodpecker style, to try and cut off any limbs of the opposing mech. When the disorientation wears off, Fury retreats and waits for Sound to disable the opponent again.

TripleD
2013-04-08, 03:21 PM
Sound & Fury

A tag team of two reptailian themed mechs.

Sound: Big and heavy, this one is designed to take hits. Shaped like a T-Rex, this Mech has a small assortment of missiles, but it's specialty is a "Roar" attack. Rearing its head like the dinosaur it's modelled after, it lets loose a wave of sonic and EMP energy. The idea is to disorient/blind/disable the opponent for a few moments, ideally knocking them to the ground, waiting for fury to come in.

Fury Shaped like a metal axebeak, this mech has shed pretty much everything that isn't related to speed. It's small too; the rider has lie flat on their stomach to pilot it. It lacks any conventional weapons. Instead, it waits for fury to create an opening. It then pounces on the opponent and uses its head, woodpecker style, to try and cut off any limbs of the opposing mech. When the disorientation wears off, Fury retreats and waits for Sound to disable the opponent again.

dethkruzer
2013-04-09, 02:42 PM
Sound & Fury are a great idea as is, mighty fine job with that.

The Vector Frames are an interesting idea, I don't know if they quite fit the upcoming tournament, but they could make a damn good base for some alien mecha-mooks

TheCountAlucard
2013-04-09, 02:54 PM
Argent Madonna

Composed of a fluid, silvery metal, this terrifying mecha is outright bestial. Its face has a gaping, snarling mouth; its body is protected by natural-looking armor-plates and pointed quills; at the end of its arms are razor-sharp claws, made for ripping and tearing.

Of course, the cunning pilot of this machine has a few fine tricks hidden. For one, it can shoot the quills off, and once the quill sinks into its target, it overwhelms it with electricity. Mounted into one arm is an acid reservoir, which it can spray with remarkable accuracy. It can also vent plasma from its systems while grappling, both to unjam its systems and deal very painful punishment at a very close range.

Due to its alien-metal composition, it can also bounce back VERY quickly from injuries.

Geordnet
2013-04-09, 07:46 PM
Shadowdancers

Two identical 'mechs, with a complex EW/stealth package.

Basically, the two in tandem can create a complex web of holograms and sensor ghosts between them, while masking their own signitures. Their standard tactic is to flank an opponent, surrounding him with false images. They then cripple it with the precision lasers which are their only weapons.

Deffers
2013-04-09, 09:33 PM
A personal point of tradition for me is that I will always suggest that the reigning champion be Hustler One, i.e. Nine Ball.Cookie if you get the reference. If you don't? Imagine a mostly-red mech. It's got a few gimmicks. Gimmick number one is ludicrous speed. Gimmick number two is beam spam. BEEEAAM SPAAAM. Lasers going everywhere. Gimmick number three is the ability to transform into a flying jet engine thingy for even more ludicrous speed, but less maneuverability. Gimmick four is a special beam sword-- it can slash it such that a small disc of plasma projects outward at a slow velocity and then dissipates some ways away.

It appears... that such a robot would be ludicrously, ludicrously overpowered in your game, at least in comparison to the other ideas. But I get the feeling that you could at least use some ideas, or tone it down some, and it'd be a memorable final boss fight. Even comes with its own theme song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF3icXWlTqo).

Blightedmarsh
2013-04-09, 11:47 PM
Type 3 Kappa AKA "Frankenstiner"

The development process has been fraught to say the least. The designers would not leave the type two alone; changing the production run every few months and issuing unstable and unrefined new weapons and equipment. As a result more pilots where killed by poor maintenance and equipment failures than by the enemy. This gave them the reputation for being walking coffins.

The type three was built to be a supper weapon platform, war winning wonder weapons; the reality? Not so much. The so called super weapons where often to powerful, to cumbersome and to ill conceived to be anything but a tombstone around their pilots neck. Ace or not you cant win a race after being shot by the starting gun. By the time the kappa series came along the war was all but lost. Despite this of the thirteen kappas known to have been built almost turned it around.

The kappa series are unique monsters; each one hand crafted from parts and components taken from dozens of robomechas, refined by a brutal Darwinian winnowing process that claimed the lives of hundreds of pilots.

The exact weapons load out for the Kappas was indervidual to their pilots specification. They shared the same mission profile was the same; smash through multiple lines of defense, evade interception battle groups and negate TMD by delivering a nuclear strike directly against multiple civilian and industrial targets in the enemies heartland.

Their mission succeeded beyond any ones wildest dream but by then it was far to late; all it achieved was to make the sack and rape of the homeland after its inevitable fall far more vicious. At wars end the surviving kappas disappeared to a mech. No confirmed sightings have been made though reports of the occasional destroyed patrol or lost frigate makes people worried that they are still out there somewhere.

Mnemophage
2013-04-10, 12:57 AM
Parasite

The Parasite is a small, fast, exceedingly maneuverable robot designed for civilian production out of cheap or scrap materials. Its design was released, for free, onto whatever future version of the Internet you were using; the design is considered open-source and the individual Parasite builders are encouraged to come up with new and inventive modifications on the base design. It is a universally fragile, ugly-looking robot, often cobbled together out of easily-available junk, either painted in personalized colors or decorated with whatever crap the creator could scavenge out of their garage.

The Parasite is barely larger than its pilot. It is a six-legged, insectoid robot maneuvered entirely via its large repulsor "wings", featuring a bulbous head section with a long drilling proboscis. Its four rear legs are tipped with powerful electromagnet pads that enable the Parasite to cling to metal surfaces, such as the hull of another robot. Its two forward legs are in actuality twin cutting torches of surprising efficiency. The drill proboscis is equipped with an injector tube that connects to tanks of a homebrewed irritant - this is most commonly battery acid, although individual builders are encouraged to come up with their own solutions, and great effects have been wrought with solder, lye and saline. Due to the open-source design document and the inventiveness of individual builders, Parasites are often seen in combat with a number of creative modifications, such as magnetron microwave cannons, smokescreens and contact-delivered electric pulses.

The one commonality between every Parasite build is that it is very, very fast, very maneuverable, and very fragile. It is effectively unarmored, meaning that if it is hit it WILL be disabled, and whether or not the pilot survives the contact is a matter of chance, armoring and personal skill. Its main mode of defense is its minuscule size and sheer speed, which renders it almost impossible to maintain a targeting solution and even more difficult to actually hit. Its primary mode of offense is to approach the enemy using a non-standard attack vector, insinuate itself somewhere on the enemy hull where it cannot easily be reached, and disable critical subsystems through a combination of its leg-mounted cutting torches and drill injector. It is not uncommon for a Parasite to burrow its way inside an enemy robot and simply chew its way to victory.

The Parasite is often seen as a cheap, unscrupulous robot, utilized by people who are any combination of poor, crazy, desperate, dishonorable, sadistic or masochistic. Its free and widely-available design document means that anyone dedicated and insane enough can build one in their backyard. Despite its social drawbacks, the Parasite is a remarkably effective robot in combat, a factor often balanced by the remarkably high mortality rate among pilots who fail. Its creator, while not technically a criminal, is nevertheless hiding out in a mobile location somewhere in Scandinavia, and is rumored to survive an average of one assassination attempt per week.

Edit: Also, Pompeii

The Pompeii is a very large, very ponderous robot with no ranged ability. It makes a big and obvious target and its slow movement makes it very easy to hit. Thing is, this is an inherent part of its design: the Pompeii's major offensive ability is also its defense. Built from a series of moveable, modular plates, its entire hull structure serves as an unbelievably effective heatsink that effectively absorbs and redirects damage as heat. Its internal systems are markedly ineffective by design, loosing huge amounts of waste heat which is, in turn, routed to its exterior hull. By the sheer effort of keeping the thing turned on, it is in short order turned into a glowing red mountain of near-molten metal that eats explosions, laughs at lasers, and chews ballistic weapons like tic-tacs.

Its design is that of an augmented humanoid, huge in stature but with a squat, flattened anatomy. It has short legs and a small, integrated, heavily armored head where the pilot's cockpit is located. Two small, triangular "wings" poke out from its shoulders and are easily the most mobile thing about this robot. It has four huge humanoid arms ending in wide, grasping hands, and a massive, slightly concave chestpiece which is easily its largest feature. It features two sets of jump-jets, the main ones in the wings and a secondary set located in the feet, which allow it to engage in sudden, rapid charges designed to close distance quickly and overwhelm its opponent with its incredible momentum and powerful aura of heat.

It has only one means of attack: a huge, crushing bear-hug. This is all it needs. There is nothing which can withstand prolonged contact with a red-hot Pompeii for very long; the sheer heat overwhelms delicate subsystems in a matter of moments and begins to warp and melt the exterior structure of enemy robots with but a few moments more. The brute strength of the Pompeii's bear-hug is a legendary thing: the four arms are designed to lock together at the hands and crush inwards with tremendous force. Damaging the Pompeii is a difficult task: the powerful and energy-absorbing hull easily shields the robot's internal systems from any sort of force, with each blast and beam adding to the incredible heat that pours from its burning skin. Success against the Pompeii comes with patience: given enough time, enough force, its ability to withstand its own burning shell will overcome even its own compensation systems, sending it into an automatic safety shutdown until the shell cools.

Due to its design, the Pompeii is a rare and expensive robot, and one that is impossible to modify: any external weapon or system is almost immediately fried as soon as the machine begins to heat up. In wartime, the Pompeii sees its greatest use as a siege machine - it can wreak incredible destruction and absorb exactly as much before being forced into safety shutdown, and even while immobile and inactive, its sheer size and durability make dismantling or even damaging the thing a difficult task.

Laughingmanlol
2013-04-10, 05:00 AM
For a memorable tournament, I recommend reading this:
http://www.andrewhussie.com/comic.php?sec=archive&auth=Andrew&cid=aids/00000.jpg
Robot rap battles. That is all. I think some of the designs could be intersting, too.

Radar
2013-04-10, 03:06 PM
Weavers: the cat's cradle duo
The main idea is two have two mobile arachnid machines, which are able to weave various kind of wire traps either independently or together. This setup can come in a few flavors:
1. Monofilament wires to cut through stuff - for inspiration on the use of those, see how Walter from Hellsing (warning: quite a bloody anime) fights - he uses a very similar setup. Admitedly, he uses those to stop bullets as well, which is a bit far on the realistic/crazy scale.
2. Tazers - not much to explain here.
3. Tripwire activated mines.
4. Thick ropes used for grappling.

In general they are most useful for more underhanded tactics and short to mid-range combat.

Sword & Board
Board is simple: solid piece of thick armour with engines strong enough to keep it between Sword and harm's way. Whatever space is left should be filled with all possible sensors to anticipate attacks from afar.

Sword is a mobile weapon platform geared for long-range combat. Due to the setup with Board it can forego most of the armour in favor of more deadly toys (guided micro-missile (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzXfVgYCxWI) racks, EMP grenade launchers, gatling goodness or a nice little wave motion cannon with an obligatory charging time) and more efficient heatsinks. I'd recommend mounting point-defense guns just in case. And remember: there is no overkill.

A Song of Ice & Fire (it's late and I have trouble being original here)
Ice & Fire - that's a single robot. It's design started as a heavy plasma cannon with emphasis on overengeneering the power output. This required more extreme cooling systems. The whole exterior looks like a deranged hedgehog which glows while the cannon is firing.
Going with the "anything can be a weapon" conception the designers weaponised the coolant as well, which can now be fired in focused jets at short range, which can have devastating effects on any unprepared machinery (grease solidifies, metals become brittle, water from air forms ice which can clog things up etc.)

Song - a more mobile machine with a vortex cannon (real thing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyAyd4WnvhU)) as it's main weapon. The idea would be, that even if the mech is strudy, the pilot inside is still squishy, so a solid shockwave should reach the human through all the armour. Should make a nice combo with the coolant weapon.

dethkruzer
2013-04-10, 04:14 PM
these ideas are really, really good. It's good to see this kind of creativity. Although at this point I should mention that fatally wounding pilots is something that is preferably avoided, the tournament is purely for sport, and I'm not talking bloodsport.

Radar
2013-04-11, 11:52 AM
these ideas are really, really good. It's good to see this kind of creativity. Although at this point I should mention that fatally wounding pilots is something that is preferably avoided, the tournament is purely for sport, and I'm not talking bloodsport.
Hmm... this means most weapons are out of question. If the pilots have to be kept safe, then it's obvious you can't just go and put a hole through the enemy mech or shove it into a trash compactor or melt it down. The mechs should be reusable as well or at least cheaply rebuilt.

Maybe something like this:
each contestant gets a state-of-art pilot cabin with really good armour, shielding, independent power source and a set of universal I/O ports. Then they have to build their mechs on a thight budget with a set of restrictions (limited power on energy weapons, no nukes etc.). You could even make it an extreme version of Junkyard Wars.

Oh, and make sure the PCs will sign the proper weivers with oddly specific injuries or deaths. :smalltongue:

dethkruzer
2013-04-11, 12:56 PM
mechs pretty much have the ultimate form of an ejection seat, armoered up the wazoo too. Only weapons that directly target the pilot, such as electrocution, are out of the question

QuidEst
2013-04-11, 01:58 PM
Fighting dirty, for robots:
Disable sensors. Snap antennae, punch out the "eyes", match whatever ultrasound frequency the other guy is using, coat cameras/windows in paint.

Disable processors. EMP, conductive microfibers, saline solution.

Exploit structural weaknesses. Use rapid heating and cooling (eg. douse with liquid oxygen, then ignite), chuck a little hydrofluoric acid at it, focus on joints.

Cheat. Use wheels instead of legs.

Other. Block exhaust/heat output.

EDIT: It's impossible to electrocute the pilot. They're in a large, conductive object, so any charge will simply flow around the outside. Targeting the pilot would probably be stuff like poison gas.

Feddlefew
2013-04-11, 02:53 PM
EDIT: It's impossible to electrocute the pilot. They're in a large, conductive object, so any charge will simply flow around the outside. Targeting the pilot would probably be stuff like poison gas.

Electrocution would cause more damage to sensitive equipment then the pilot, unless the pilot was controlling the mech with their nervous system or something.

For a team of mechs, how about a Big teleporter / Small rocket bot combo?

Telebot has very precise teleportation equipment, and can move itself and its partner separately and in quick succession. However, Telebot is bulky and (aside from teleport spam) immobile.

Rocketbot, on the other hand, is basically a heavily shielded dart that attacks by ramming through things. While it can make tight turns if it has to, it mostly lets tellebot "aim" it.

Bulhakov
2013-04-11, 04:04 PM
The topic immediately made me nostalgic for a game I played in my youth - One Must Fall 2097 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GniY4c46yxI

The first idea for a robot duo that popped into my head would be "Ball & Chain" (one would be a giant rolling ball, the other something akin to Flail from OMF2097)

Dr.Epic
2013-04-11, 05:22 PM
Magnets!!!

Considering how common iron and steel is in society and machinery, give on super powerful electromagnets. He can repel robots away or he could have deadly spikes and he could attract them into said spikes.

Radar
2013-04-12, 03:05 AM
Magnets!!!

Considering how common iron and steel is in society and machinery, give on super powerful electromagnets. He can repel robots away or he could have deadly spikes and he could attract them into said spikes.
Hmm... and if you have two of those, can you say mech sandwich? :smallsmile:

dethkruzer
2013-04-12, 03:17 AM
Magnets!!!

Considering how common iron and steel is in society and machinery, give on super powerful electromagnets. He can repel robots away or he could have deadly spikes and he could attract them into said spikes.

Bringing up Magnets, I couldn't help but think of this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_M5ZcdmuR8)

QuidEst
2013-04-12, 09:28 AM
Magnets!!!

Considering how common iron and steel is in society and machinery, give on super powerful electromagnets. He can repel robots away or he could have deadly spikes and he could attract them into said spikes.

Not very common? :smallconfused: At least, not in anything like a giant robot. Steel is way too heavy when carbon fiber is five times stronger at one-third the weight. (And that's not getting into the cutting-edge carbon-based materials.) Titanium and aluminum alloys are also good choices. Magnets only attract iron and steel, not repel it. Unless these are special magnets (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodMagnetism), of course!

Deffers
2013-04-12, 11:17 AM
Then we name the robot MIRACLES and have it attract those things anyway.:smallannoyed:

There is such a thing as a laser based attraction or repulsion system. I'll dig up the link when I'm not on my phone. It might be in the pilot's best interest to simply claim it's magnets and then leave people guessing as to what it actually is.

Radar
2013-04-12, 12:27 PM
Then we name the robot MIRACLES and have it attract those things anyway.:smallannoyed:

There is such a thing as a laser based attraction or repulsion system. I'll dig up the link when I'm not on my phone. It might be in the pilot's best interest to simply claim it's magnets and then leave people guessing as to what it actually is.
Optical tweezers are good for moving very small pieces of matter - those effects won't scale well.

At any rate, we're streaching physics just by thinking about building viablew mechs, so whatever seems cool should work anyway.

Also: constant magnetic field might not attract or repulse paramagnetic or diamagnetic materials, but a sudden change in said magnetic field will have an effect. It's still fairly short-range (which is the biggest problem with utilising magnetic fields for direct combat), but more or less doable.

Deffers
2013-04-12, 01:47 PM
How badly will it scale? I mean, best-case scenario it gives you a reason to strap a huge laser on to your robot. That's not an unworthy endeavor by any means.

What about an optical solenoid or a Bessel beam instead of optical tweezers?

dethkruzer
2013-04-12, 02:04 PM
Let's just cut all the excessive science and say that if it's cool, we can make it work... Which brought to mind this one alien robot I made once that had about a quarter of it's budget shoved into a pair of freeze rays.

Deffers
2013-04-12, 02:14 PM
OK, then. "Miracle"-based laser magnets on our robot it is.

dethkruzer
2013-04-12, 02:23 PM
"POWER OF MAGNETISM!"

Radar
2013-04-12, 04:09 PM
Anyway, have anyone thought about a Mariobot yet?
A heavy chunk of armour with rocket jumps as it's only mode of transportation. Pilot cabin will be obviously equiped with a copious ammount of shock-absorbers. It could be paired with a fast robot specializing in tripping or otherwise pinning opponents (ropes, greas spills, freeze gun or whatever else seems suitable).
Never before the possibility of being sat on was so threatening.

How badly will it scale? I mean, best-case scenario it gives you a reason to strap a huge laser on to your robot. That's not an unworthy endeavor by any means.

What about an optical solenoid or a Bessel beam instead of optical tweezers?
If I understand this correctly, the object has to be comparable with the wavelenght of the laser used, so scaling is rather out of question. On the other hand, I'd really like to see some calculations for radio waves even if we can't create any relevant power output for those. :smallsmile:

I'm not sure about the other two methods, but I wouldn't hold my breath.