Robocraft: The Leopard Has Reborn

Hey guys, Garens coming at you with another article today.

So, I have some news. The old Leopard Mk. II, that you can see in my second ever post on the blog, is no more. I have evolved it. It's now the Leopard Mk. III. I'm now going to walk you through how I did it and what I want to do with it in the future.

So, here it what I started with. This is the main body of the leopard stripped of it, getting the tier 6 steering wheels. I need money for one pair only.

This was why I wanted to redesign it. Electroplates. As soon as I saw the Tier 5 EP's I rushed them out. Then I didn't have the money to refit everything. But thanks to the premium days that Freejam gave everyone who was online under the sun I could finally afford the things that I wanted to afford.

This is how it turned out to be. The pilot seat I wanted to put somewhere... let's say not so obvious. That side is not so common in pilot seat placement as maybe in the front or the middle of the tank. Also, you can see the other 2 pairs of EP's on the side. I'm thinking of putting more on, because I'M LOVING THEM! I don't see how I could live without them this long!

And here it is. I LOVE IT! THIS IS MY NEW BEAUTY AND I LOVE EVERY BLOCK OF IT!! I had to put some 'WIP' green blocks in as I had no money left after doing this. Well, I hope you like it because I LOVE IT!

Now, here come some alternate shots to show you how it's all made up.

Front: The two main EP's are put so that every block is on the edge of not being able to be there. It looks good IMO.

Side: This slightly slanted back I kinda don't like. It looks like one of those gunbeds that people drive for free wins. But the agility and the form of the whole thing makes you forget that little point.

Back: This is the part I'm looking at this thing from this perspective all the time, as I'm playing it A LOT, so I had to make this look nice AND fit 6 SMG's. This was hard. But I think I managed well. BTW the nameplate was given with the Promo Code that Freejam gave us, and not one other robot of mine can fit it, so I put that on this robot.

If you enjoyed, please let me know by putting a little comment under this post and following the blog by e-mail.

Anyways, have a wonderful day and have fun out on the battlefield.

Robocraft: Modular Design

Hey guys, Garens doing one more of these things.

Today I want to show you a design I came up with during some lessons. Yea, that's right, some lessons.

So, here we go.

This is the core. This is what I call an 'Engine'. It's a simple structure that almost anyone can do who has Tier 3 and Tier 2 Thrusters.

It's really simple and I've tried a few designs but none of the worked so far. As I'm writing this article I may have found the perfect one, but I won't show you that, as I CAN'T phisically show you. It's not done yet.

As you can see on the picture above it's a 4x4x3 multiblock structure that is simple, easy and gives a lot of thrust. If you want to, you can leave now and experiment with it. If not, then read on.

This picture shows where to put the thrusters. The first one is a Tier 3 and the back one is a Tier 2. The tier 2 is placed 1 block (The slanted one) back from the end and the Tier 3 one is placed on the front, on the slanted block.

Here are what I thought to be the 'Touching Points'. They are where the engine will touch with the body of the flyer. They are quite simple and well placed.

Here's a shot from above and here you can see the placements. They give the thing a good balance. Or not. You may want to readjust those.

So, here you can see a placement that I has come up with. This is a kind of wing that has 2 engines. The thing that came to my mind right now is you can put one more of these on top of this one and mirror it with the body. That may be useful. But that is a LOT OF CPU! Don't try this unless you are at least level 30-ish.

This is what I meant. You can mirror this up and then you have a kind of spaceshuttle that is epic and cool and awesome. It may be fun, I just need to get more CPU to do it. Where you might stick your weapons? That is a different question.

This is the flyer now done. This does not turn out very well. I didn't even test it if I'm right because I was dumb and put it right next to the edge. I wanted 2 Aerofoils on the 2 side engines so that it can get some air, but it couldn't be done. I was dumb. Yes.

This is another one, this time the engines are on top of each other. (BTW I do 4 engined designs cuz I only have the resources for those 4...) This I wanted to fly SO HARD but at last, my CPU got into the game and said: 'FUCK NO! You can't build a flyer that you like! You haven't done that in a while and I WON'T ALLOW YOU!

So here it is. I didn't give other perspectives on the flyers because I didn't want you to copy them and use them. They are quite mediokre and I'm trying hard to make this modular flyer a thing.
Whenever I find a design that works and can win actual games I'll update you all.

If you enjoyed, please let me know by putting a little comment under this post and following the blog by e-mail.

Anyways, have a wonderful day and have fun out on the battlefield.

Robocraft Discussion: Why It's Great

Hey guys Garens coming at you with another post. Today I'll be writing about... Well, read the words on top.

So, the topic: Why is the game so great? I'll tell you my arguments for this. This post was inspired by the fact that the servers are down for maintenance.

If you're a 'veteran' or played before the 'Yogscast Accident'(please don't sue me, I love all the Yogscast...), then let me tell you: I wouldn't be here. I would never have known about this game and I wouldn't sit here typing words about this game. So, if you're an 'old' player, then you may know more about this topic than me. I've just experienced this for the first time. You may have seen bigger maintenance times or more of them, or more frequent ones, but I'll tell you my ideas about it and you can do the same in the comments.

So, firstly: The Yogscast. They did GOOD for the game. There are a few points.

1. So, let me tell you. I've seen the old videos of Robocraft on Youtube. There were unbalanced battles, with tier 10 and tier 1 robots in the same battle. There are MORE PEOPLE! Why would you not want more people to know about this beatuiful and amazing and awesome game? They just opened everyone's eyes to how GREAT the game is. They obviously opened my eyes. The second I watched all their videos on it, I went to my computer (As I was watching on a smartphone) and downloaded the game.There were probably A LOT OF people who did the same and stayed with it for as long as I did.
2. The second thing. They made the developers, who are probably more amazing and awesome then the game, realise that maybe their servers are too unstable. There was obviously an explosion of people coming in with the Steam Greenlight thing and the people that came with the videos made Freejam, one of the best Indie devs realise that maybe they need more servers. Or more stable ones at best.

These two arguments are the ones I could come up with. And I know that this is a touchy subject to most people (It was when I started playing and general chat was a flamewar with people wanting all the Yogscasters going to hell) but I wanted to cover it as this is the biggest achievements the game had after the Steam Greenlight.

So, the point I want to get at is this: Freejam are GREAT AND AWESOME for making this game and in general doing what they do. They work hard, as this maintenance shows. I don't know if you've seen the 'Soon...' posts on the main page of the game, but I fell that the changes they are implementing are great. They are hard at work and if this means a little less of playing robot wars with big boy's future toys, then so be it. I sure hope you don't want me to hell after this post, because I defended the Yogscast. I do hope that you don't do that. If you don't believe me then please just don't read anything about this post, there'll be a new one tomorrow. I'll go now and thirst for more Robocraft, checking the servers every 2 minutes.

If you enjoyed, please let me know by putting a little comment under this post and following the blog by e-mail.

Anyways, have a wonderful day and have fun out on the battlefield.

Robocraft Guide to Playing: Flanking

Hey guys, Garens coming with another article. Sorry for missing yesterday, my school timetable is currently all over the place and I cannot predict wheter I'll be able to do one more this week, or only on the weekend.

So, enough of RL stuff, I've already gotten over that the school system here is fucked and there is no escape, here comes the article.

Flanking. One word. So much behind it. In this guide you will learn how to do it with nice imagery, made in MS Paint.

So, the first thing: What is flanking? Flanking is when you don't directly attack an enemy but go around to their side or rear so that they cannot immediately fight back.

You may have to study this picture to understand, but this is why it's here. So, there are 2 of you (B and C) and there is one enemy (A). Let's say those obsticles on either sides of you are huge hills that you cannot go up to. They give all of you cover from one another. Instead of going up in front and tanking the brunt of the damage, you do the following:

Whenever the enemy or your teammate decides to go for a confrontation, you use your high speed and mobility to go AROUND the enemy and the hill, so that while they are occupied with each other you give a helping hand to your teammate. This way you are opposing the enemy with impossible odds against them.

But what if there are other enemies? What if the enemy you are trying to attack pulls back and notices you?

Here are some ideas I could come up with but something first: Choose your moment PERFECTLY. You may need to do some trial and error to achieve a sense of this, but it is a part of the learning process, and I cannot tell you how you can do that. You can only learn. There are too many possible variables at work here and I cannot tell you what the right thing in EVERY situation is.

But, to make your life easier, here are some ideas that may just help accelerate that learning process.

So, first, what if they turn on you (Just so I don't have to draw another template)

This is the plan. So, you went up to your flanking position, and you notice that the enemy saw you. Maybe their radar told them or they are just smart and look around them before going for a heads on fight.

The first option here is: Your teammate sees your effort and starts attacking on one flank and making the enemy either fall back or die.

The more common one however is that your teammate is just sitting on their butts and making art with their something something ducks. This means that you don't want to go on the enemy. Just fall back (as seen on the picture) and either come back to your teammate to not feel bad about yourself for abandoning them or find another place close by that is good for flanking.

Now, when there are multiple enemies. Disclaimer: These coming pictures might be confusing, but try to go by my explanation.

So, there it is. The 3 things at the top are the enemies. The 3 on the lower side is your team and You. So, here is ONE solution to the problem at hand. BUT: This is what I came up with, your solution may be something different.

The one on the far left is you. So, you get out of there when your teammates decide to go for an attack. BUT the flyer is the problem here. The one enemy on the 'Hill' (that is it on the left where you're going to go).

So, when you are here and your enemies are heads on with battle, you just eliminate the flyer (That is why it's crossed) so the threat at you is out.

Then you just go and let your teammates take damage while you just do free damage. People rarely change targets so it doesn't matter if you are damaged hard.

So, here is what is Flanking. I hope you found that useful and you can learn something.

If you enjoyed, please let me know by putting a little comment under this post and following the blog by e-mail. Also, if you can come up with another solution about the 'more enemies against you' idea, please do share it with me in the comments.

Anyways, have a wonderful day and have fun out on the battlefield.

Something New In Robocraft: Assassin Playstyle

Hey guys, Garens here, and my school has started! yay, joy! I won't be able to do a post tomorrow for this reason and I'll see what I can do the day after. The system is great, as I don't yet know my schedule for that day, but I'll see what can be done.

But that's not the point here. I'm writing about Assassins. So, an assassin is a robo that I 'found out', and I find very good in the current 'Meta'. So let me tell you how you can play as an assassin.

First thing first: Speed is Life. You need as much speed as possible in you GROUND UNIT. You cannot (or I haven't found a way to) do this playstyle in an aircraft. The reason will become apparent soon.
Speed is life. This means you need to use these robots as a kinda 'Hit and Run' vehicle.
You don't want to give the vehicle more armor then neccesairy, as it will just slow you down.

Playstyle is hard, but EXTREMELY rewarding. So, what you do is the following:

1. DO NOT fight face to face. You want to leave that to others, who have more armor.
2. Flank. If you don't know what that means, I'll do a post about that next.
3. If you get damaged, don't worry, you are good and can take on anyone. If not, blame it on server lag.

This is all there is to it. What weapon you use? That is up to you. I'd advise SMG's, but seeing as you want to be as close to the enemy as possible, you may be able to use Plasmas, and the Rails? I don't want you to rage, but you may want to try it if you are a calm person.

Summerising: Don't fight face to face, but use your speed for flanking, kill enemies closely, and most importantly don't ever try fighting 1v1. You want someone else on your team to get the attention of the enemy shooting on you and then go around them and KILL.

One more disclaimer: Choose your moment PERFECTLY. Just as an example, you don't want to go out of a corner with 3 enemies in range of you with no backup clear, but you DO want to go out when the enemy is cornered and in a fight with another teammate.

Ok, this is all there is to it. Watch out for the 'Flanking' tutorial, and an interesting thing coming up, that I don't want to spoil it and my Plane Tutorial either.

If you enjoyed, please let me know by putting a little comment under this post and following the blog by e-mail.

Anyways, have a wonderful day and have fun out on the battlefield.