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[Girlinhat]

anyway to fly stable same thing as ksp applies: center of mass, center of lift and center of thrust should hit the magical places.

Until we actually get information on those things, I'll keep my ass firmly sliding along the ground.

I did want to build a sled.  I figure some forward rockets and some aerofoils pointed upwards, used purely for steering, could create some absurd designs.  If you give it radar jammers on the bottom to act as skid plates, you could probably get some decent results, if hilarious.

[Girlinhat]

More of the Dwarven Sailboat.  It's made of granite and doesn't ever get close to water.  It's also probably on fire and setting other things on fire.

[GrizzlyAdamz]

@girlinhat
I liked this.



Holy crap, just found this, been eating my time since.

Just about to start climbing tiers, have settled on a fast, fragile, 3-sniper hover platform with 2 wheels on the bottom for landed stability.

Plasma is fun, but holy crap are you vulnerable to fliers.
Laser cannons can deal damage at long range with controlled bursts, but require MORE STUFF in all fields; you've gotta be able to tank damage as you're dealing it, (and not get crippled so easily).
Snipers've got that cooldown, but they deal full damage at all ranges. After getting whooped by fliers in my plasma vehicle, this is a nice change of pace.

 
Several hours of trying to make a good, original flier, and I think I'll skip that whole field. Seems in order to make something sound, you've gotta map it out on paper- calculate the center of mass, determine thrust vectors, and make sure you don't go turtle if you fuck up.
And all that for the ability to be picked off by sniper platforms like me from across the map.
Nah.
Therefore,

I think they very intentionally want to keep things vague.  I really get the impression that adding things like HUD damage indicators and minimaps was more out of social pressure than actual desire of design.  The game has, for the longest time, been freehand and loose, just slap a few wheels on and hope you don't fall over.  They seem to want to add more content, but they seem to want it to be intentionally unclear and 'more art than science'.

I don't think they'll be able to keep that up much longer, if it was intentional.

EDIT: And I agree we really need some meta-information on the craft, like mass, center of mass, center of lift, venter of thrust. Actually, just copy that VAB

+1




I saw someone in-game today. Railguns ftw.

[Cheedows]

Well sorry for the slight bump/necro, but this is relevant. It seems Robocraft has made it onto Steam.

[Girlinhat]

Which is a shame.  The most recent update added block durability and forcing you to pay repairs between matches.  The divide between winning and losing was already somewhere along the lines of 200 or 12,000 for a decent loss or win, but now losers have to pay repair while winners have to pay less or no repairs.  The difference in winning and losing is only heightened, and the game has now become zero-sum by design.  The devs actively said "If you want to be in tier 10, you've got to be the best" which pretty much means at least 1/2 of players are totally unable to advance very far - one player has to lose for another player to win, and the loser gets shit rewards while the winner gets heavier and heavier rewards.  You literally either win or you stop playing, not everyone can enjoy playing, and that's by design.

[Aklyon]

Its crap design. I want to play the game, because of the idea. But the lack of rp for playing (unless you win and manage to shoot something significant), and the stratified tech points requiring all the tiers to be played to get to better blocks, makes it not particularly interesting anymore to me.

[Girlinhat]

"If you want to be in tier 10, you've got to be the best"

Well that's only to be expected. Robocraft is the epitome of skill-based gaming after all. The initial appearance of a casual block-based vehicle building game is merely a red herring designed to crush casual players little hearts.

Bwuhuhuhu.

I'm realizing that's becoming more and more true.  The only real way to advance is to be persistent and lucky.  Actual 'skill' doesn't apply much since a large part of the game is simply being fortunate that your teammates aren't utter shit.  In every game, at least 2 players will flip over and be out the entire game, sometimes getting another person to ram them and also be flipped.  At least 1 other player will rush and die within 30 seconds.  The remaining players loiter the map incoherently, or else become one driving force that wipes the field.  It's almost never an even match.

The premise of the game starts out good, 'build a unique tank and take it in team matches' but in practice, it's like xbox live with custom creation.  So you end up with shit tanks driven by shit teammates with zero coordination into one large clusterfuck of 'well that entire match was worthless'.

[Girlinhat]

I remember when people were mass-using ballast blocks because they thought they added armour. I'd go on and see about half my team members all using those grey blocks, all going stupidly slow or tipping up so easily...

Not technically innacurate.  I used a lot of black weight blocks on my rail tank for two important reasons.  With a wide base and a low profile, it became stable as shit, and I could descend any hill safely without tipping.  And with that much weight and like 12 wheels, I could actually come to a complete stop on a small incline and get accuracy from my railguns.  For some reason, robots are made of crisco and slide everywhere, and I overcame that with sheer weight.

But if you load up on ballast blocks, you DO get more mass and thus more armor.  It's technically true.

[Mephansteras]

Finally got around to trying this out.

I don't see myself playing this game forever or sinking lots of money into it to get to the top tiers. But I'm enjoying messing around at lower tiers and seeing what I can do. The vehicle creation is fun and enjoy the fact that I can be silly with stuff, or make awesome looking robots, or go for a nice serious competitive design.

It's a good game. Not a great game by any stretch of the imagination, but a good game. Especially for a F2P.

[alexandertnt]

You seem to be able to get a ton more money now by actually doing things (helping capturing a base, destroying enemies etc can each be worth almost as much as winning the game). Which is nice as it encourages players to do something rather than sit at the base, or just cower behind other people.

The block repair thing is dumb, it makes it harder for bad players and easier for better players. It also encouraging people to avoid combat and play ultra-cautiously, the opposite of what is happening with the money reward.

[GrizzlyAdamz]

The most recent update added block durability and forcing you to pay repairs between matches.

This sounds lame.

[Aklyon]

The most recent update added block durability and forcing you to pay repairs between matches.

This sounds lame.

The block durability is 'so you can see where you get damaged most' (which isn't hugely important due to the previously mentioned lack of focus anytime), the repair costs are a returning feature from the days of the 3 minute timer.

[Girlinhat]

The most recent update added block durability and forcing you to pay repairs between matches.

This sounds lame.

The block durability is 'so you can see where you get damaged most' (which isn't hugely important due to the previously mentioned lack of focus anytime), the repair costs are a returning feature from the days of the 3 minute timer.

I played back then, there weren't any repair costs, just a repair time that may be too long and result in you missing the 3 minute window.  You could pay to speed up.  NOW, when you take damage, blocks are turned black and have 1 durability, and you have to pay to get them back to factory default durability or else one shot will rip through your entire tank.

[LoSboccacc]

They are changing thing fast.

Now you cannot enter combat with a damaged robot.

However system is balanced so only the worst of a defeat actually cause you to end game at a loss. And tier is factored in so you mostly lose money for bad play at t9-10.

Works well to keep jokebot out of high tiers.

[Girlinhat]

Works well to keep jokebot out of high tiers.

Then why am I even playing?  They had a CONTEST built around jokebots.