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[Aklyon]

I was sorta wondering what you guys would think of friendbot, so I took a picture of it. White blocks are for filling in what I don't have the armor for yet, T5/T4 tracks, T6 nanos (I'd wanted to use more, but the cpu is an issue) Theres also a pair of t4 electroplates on the back. Originally this was a t3 rail hoverwheelbot, but then I wanted to try nanos so it got renamed, and then it was the test platform for tracks too.

Spoiler: Friendbot (click to show/hide)

[Kaitol]

The thing about triangles as armor is you want them connected only to to other triangles as much as possible so that the damage is spread out more shallowly rather than penetrating deeper.

I'm no expert, but looking at your design, if a shot hits a triangle on the side, the only place extra damage has to go is to the triangle above/below it, or inwards, which is less than ideal. You want as little damage going inwards as possible.

If you really want to make durable armor, I suggest reading up on triforce armor, I think there's info about it on the wiki. Its basically carefully constructed formations of triangles designed to optimally funnel damage.

If your guns are so fragile, I suggest making little triangle shields for the block they rest on that don't directly touch said block. Guns are somewhat sturdy but single armor blocks will evaporate quickly

[Aklyon]

Its not really about durable armor, although I suppose that could be a use for it. Mostly it was just 'I have no idea what to attach to the sides of these things, so lets stick armor on it instead', and expanding the bot by like, 4x to fit treads on. it used to have one nano and wooshed about healing the less derpy T3s.

[Sergius]

I've used a lot of triforce armor, but I'm starting to think it's better to use solid blocks EXCEPT around the seat. One problem about triangles is that they're like long lines of blocks that are only connected to each other except on the farthest edges, so one hit on each end and the whole thing goes poof.

So, you just want to protect a few select blocks (like under the seat, a main structure of some sort for wheels) but you don't want lots of armor that will shatter if pricked in a few key points.

[Girlinhat]

I see you've noticed that SMG tanks tend to rip through armor.  There's actually quite a bit of pseudo-science done about this.  http://robocraft.gamepedia.com/The_Science_of_OP

The BASIC thing to take away from this?  Guns get stronger faster than armor.  At T1, a laser destroys 1.1 blocks.  At T10, a laser destroys 4.5 blocks.  This means as tiers get higher up, SMG is going to rip through armor blocks more easily.

Electroplates stay constant though, at every tier it takes 7 SMG hits to deplete a same-tier electroplate.

HOWEVER, Electroplates cost more CPU.  When it comes right down to it, an Electroplate may take 8-9 hits (7 to knock out shields, 1-2 to destroy the block itself) but at T10 that's 56 CPU, which could be used for 56 armor blocks, at ~4.5 a shot that's ~12 shots.  So per-CPU cost, armor ends up being about 150% more tanky than electroplate, at the cost of weight and enormous RP.

What to take away?  Electroplates will give an immediate per-part durability, but armor blocks give you better whole-craft durability.

[Kaitol]

Well that's true for simple triforce armor yeah, But pretty sure you can engineer more complex triforce configurations that sidestep that. Just don't ask me how, I have no real clue how to set up complex triforce armor

Also, it should be taken into account the fact that electroplate shields regenerate after 15 seconds of no damage. Which can be handy between brawls if no medic is to be found.

[TolyK]

Unfortunately, I can't really use electroplates or triforce armor since
a) my craft is (technically) always visible
b) my craft is symmetric, more or less
c) I need to keep as slim a profile as possible to avoid getting hit, esp. by plasma.

I can post a pic later.

[crazysheep]

Eh, triforce armour depends on how liberally you apply it. Works best if used sparingly on areas you expect to take plasma or rail damage.

EDIT: Triforcing doesn't mean you lose symmetry, I think, unless I'm using it wrong.

[Girlinhat]

Triforcing isn't magical...  It works by abusing one important principle - when damage is applied to a block, and the block is destroyed, excess damage is pushed to blocks which touch it.  The ideal use for triforce is when you've got layers of armor, either in 1-thick rows or in whole sheets.  The way that triforce is helpful is because let's say you have a 9x9 sheet of armor over your bot.  You take a rail hit that destroys 5 blocks.  On normal block armor, it'll deal damage in a cross, as it destroys the block at the point of impact, and the 4 blocks which touch it.  With triforce, you just control what blocks touch what other blocks, normally in rows.  So with a row of wedges, instead of taking damage in a cross, you'd take the damage in a row - the only blocks adjacent are in a line.  Even though other blocks are in the next grid tile, they're not touching because you can't attach blocks to the slope side.  It DOES NOT reduce the damage you take, it ONLY determines where that damage is more likely to go.

1: Triforce doesn't make your robot any more durable.
2: It's made to keep rows stable, so you might take damage, but the next row is still alive, so if someone is shooting at your cockpit they're more likely to peel away layers, rather than drill a hole.
3: It can even be substantially WEAKER if set up poorly - it's all about making armor have less attachment points, which means if you take shots from the left and the right, it's possible to lose your entire triforce setup in just a few hits, because all the connecting points were lost.

[SHAD0Wdump]

The other thing that makes triforce good is weight. Building something like this: http://robocraftgame.com/forums/topic/sandwich-armor-triforcespaced-hybrid/ is VERY good because it's basically like what I call 'slab armor', which is pure cubes, but is half as heavy. Just make a one sheet version of what is shown there and weave in enough connection points and you are good. Or go ahead and use his method completely if you want.

[TolyK]

Well, the balance is a forward-backward thing, really (since I basically have a giant flying curved cube...).

[Girlinhat]

The other thing that makes triforce good is weight. Building something like this: http://robocraftgame.com/forums/topic/sandwich-armor-triforcespaced-hybrid/ is VERY good because it's basically like what I call 'slab armor', which is pure cubes, but is half as heavy. Just make a one sheet version of what is shown there and weave in enough connection points and you are good. Or go ahead and use his method completely if you want.

Okay, THAT GUY really knows what triforce is about.  His knowledge on how to separate the core from the armor, and to position the guns away from the armor, really shows what triforce is REALLY for.  It's directing incoming damage in a way that makes you save critical components for longer.

[SHAD0Wdump]

Yeah, I actually use this stuff in a major way on my main tank, which is now a cruiser because it's old-school.

 The annoying thing about the stuff is it's a little bit brain-wracking to give the outer layer a suitable amount of connections while not maiming the inner layer, I think I ended up with a good balance but it's hard to say... The tank is damn near as tough as a proper landship though so I'm proud of it.

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

So, after starting the game up again, I immediately scrapped my weird flying siege engine thing (I completely forgot how it worked, really) and set about making a little weird bot, since I'm still at T2, I thought of making something like a motorcycle, but with wheels that's pretty much impossible since they stick out and can't be placed in the middle, even if that was done, there wouldn't be any balancing unless you made the armour blocks stick out at least a couple of blocks, so instead I decided to try to make a 7 wide 8 long (9 long counting the nose) bot and have the hollow bottom be installed with inward facing wheels.

This actually worked kinda well, granted, with a skeleton 'proof of concept version' with T1 square armour blocks and only one layer present, but the width means that whenever it tips, it gets held up by the edge blocks and I can squeeze in the two wheels pretty efficiently because each wheel takes up approximately 2 1/2 blocks, including the wheels, of course, with the wheels so close together the turning circle is a bit big, but not debilitating, it also helps with my troubles of armouring my wheels with other designs.
It might actually work, still need to see if the extra weight added by the better armour and weapons will tip it over, but it's amusing so far.
Edit: Update on the Skater-Gater, it's going well, well aesthetically, anyway, I have no idea if it'll end up as a robotic weapon of mass destruction or a jolly karaoke machine, who knows, the outside looks slightly like a four legged insect on a white board, so that's interesting, I might see if I can make it a bit less bulky, this always happens with my designs.

Edit2: Now it looks like an ant with four legs because of my odd decision to make the seat at the back of the ROBO and encase it there, of course, as well as making my seat area blindingly obvious and thus trashing the whole idea of making people think it was in the front, it also makes the design drift slightly because of the back weight, which is oddly entertaining to drive with.

[crazysheep]

Oooh bikes. Those can work, actually, and in tiers up to T8, I think. Got oneshotted by a rail bike once, that was interesting.