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AMERICA FUCK YEAH (Megabots MK II)

15 (18.3%)

GLORIOUS NIPPON (Kuratas)

21 (25.6%)

GIANT ROBOTS WOOOOOOOOOOOOO

46 (56.1%)

Total Members Voted: 81

[Gatleos]

What would you guys like to see in the future along these lines, assuming a non-scripted Battlebots-style mecha bloodsport league ever became feasible?

[Trekkin]

I can see a few ways that it could go, laying aside the improbability of it going anywhere.

First is mecha duelling to first blood-equivalent, probably with literal giant melee weapons. It's not as visceral, I know, but the less it costs to run one of these robot fights the less marketing bullshit will get in the way. That's not going to happen if we insist on catastrophic damage in every fight, but maybe if we can stick some sacrificial armor on them and end the fight when it comes off, we can see fights end with metal on the floor and still be able to cheaply get the bots back into fighting shape within hours rather than days.

Second is mecha wrestling. Given certain constraints on robot size and arena design, we can probably put together a set design of cockpit that we can reasonably expect won't expose the pilot to damaging levels of concussive force during a fall, at which point we could have robots try to pin each other and so on.

If it has to be catastrophic damage, though, the only thing I could see is more of this, unless we took the pilots out of the mecha and just had big expensive disappointing Battlebots.

[RedKing]

Heh...I completely forgot to watch last night. And from the looks of it, that was a wise (if unintentional) choice.

Also, I'm glad to see more people coming around to my "marketers are literally demonic forces" viewpoint.

[SalmonGod]

Ok, if we really really want giant robot battles for real - convince Trump that giant robots are the future of military technology, and if he drives the initiative for them, that it will secure his name in history.  Once these have been developed, USA will funnel them into whatever country is fighting its ideological battles at the time.  Not too long after, that country will be the next rogue nation terrorist threat.  Then there will be giant mech battles.  Free from marketing influence and better than 'big, disappointing Battlebots'.

[Gatleos]

Somehow "robot war crimes" sounds less appealing than "robot fights"

[Trekkin]

Ok, if we really really want giant robot battles for real - convince Trump that giant robots are the future of military technology, and if he drives the initiative for them, that it will secure his name in history.  Once these have been developed, USA will funnel them into whatever country is fighting its ideological battles at the time.  Not too long after, that country will be the next rogue nation terrorist threat.  Then there will be giant mech battles.  Free from marketing influence and better than 'big, disappointing Battlebots'.

Ignoring all the ethical issues with that, that will result in legged, upright tanks in function if not in form. Tanks don't joust, and legged tanks wouldn't engage in melee combat. Your 'giant mech battles' will be gun duels at ranges well beyond the entertainingly gladiatorial.

[Egan_BW]

Being upright is really a pretty big disadvantage in melee fights. What we really want is tanks with arms that hit each other with big hammers.

[NullForceOmega]

So, it was pretty bad honestly.  Clearly scripted from the get-go, they let Suidobashi have their victory over their early 'bot (which as has been noted was extremely top-heavy and more cobbled together than engineered, and it was really not ever going to be effective), then they basically screwed around until it was time to let Megabots win.  Which, I'm going to be honest, wasn't ever really in question from a mechanical standpoint, the Kuratas was built to be a rich person's toy, and the Megabots guys are pretty much exclusively going for "Rule of cool" and "More Power".  Overall not much of an entertainment experience, but it was interesting as a tech demo.

[Mephansteras]

I was amused, at least for the duration of the 30min Duel Only video up on twitch. Certainly made for an interesting tech demo of big robots duking it out, at least.

[Spehss _]

Second is mecha wrestling. Given certain constraints on robot size and arena design, we can probably put together a set design of cockpit that we can reasonably expect won't expose the pilot to damaging levels of concussive force during a fall, at which point we could have robots try to pin each other and so on.

Giant robot wrestling could be neat. Just scale this kind of competition up by around 100 and make the robots piloted and I'd watch it.