Little Big Robot Wars: Versus

Inspired by (but not wholly based upon) the BBC TV Series 'Robot Wars', this level places you in the arena, along with our house robot 'Nick Nock'. Try to disarm each other, damage each other for points, or even eliminate your opponent by forcing them into the pit!

http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/...riton_rams.jpg
http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/...nips_acaro.jpg

I wish I could take photos of the arena to show you, but I had to disable all popit controls in the controllinators to help ensure non-bugginess!

I would highly value some detailed constructive criticism as this is my first real attempt at making a good level. I believe all the kinks are worked out, but if you do find any bugs/breaks then please do let me know! I will endeavour to leave return feedback as soon as possible, in your own thread if you have one.

http://lbp.me/v/xk-qh8

I would really like you to review this in multiplayer, as the single player option really doesn't show off the features of the game (yet). If you have trouble getting someone to versus with, feel free to look if I'm online and send me an invite, as Phort was kind enough to do :)

Thanks for playing my level!

I liked the concept. I was expecting something more like an arena shooter, where you have to shoot at the other players to earn points. When I saw the title "Little Big Robot Wars" I didn't think of the show "Robot Wars," but that's what it reminds me of now that I've played it. (I actually thought of "Battlebots," and then I re-read the title.)

The first thing that bugged me was that the 30 second countdown when the players are getting into the robots is not skippable. Rather than having a countdown, why not just build logic that determines when all the players are in robots? That logic is detailed below.

[SPOILER]You could build logic that determines if every player is in a robot by using four player sensors with required player counts of 1, 2, 3, and 4. Then, in each robot, add a tag is activated when a player is in the controlinator. Add tag sensors that require 1, 2, 3, and 4 of that tag. Hook the set of tag sensors and the set of player sensors each into a 4-input selector. Then, hook the first inputs of each selector into a 2 input AND gate, the second inputs into another, etc. Then, hook all four AND gate outputs up to an OR gate, and when that OR gate activates, all the players are in robots.

Make sure the player sensors and tag sensors have a large enough radius that they contain the whole area where players can be, and all the robots.

Summary:
1 player sensor —> Selector 1 input 1
2 player sensor —> Selector 1 input 2
3 player sensor —> Selector 1 input 3
4 player sensor —> Selector 1 input 4

1 active robot tag sensor —> Selector 2 input 1
2 active robot tag sensor —> Selector 2 input 2
3 active robot tag sensor —> Selector 2 input 3
4 active robot tag sensor —> Selector 2 input 4

Selector 1 output 1 —> AND gate 1
Selector 2 output 1 —> AND gate 1

Selector 1 output 2 —> AND gate 2
Selector 2 output 2 —> AND gate 2

Selector 1 output 3 —> AND gate 3
Selector 2 output 3 —> AND gate 3

Selector 1 output 4 —> AND gate 4
Selector 2 output 4 —> AND gate 4

AND gate 1 —> OR gate 1
AND gate 2 —> OR gate 1
AND gate 3 —> OR gate 1
AND gate 4 —> OR gate 1
[/SPOILER]
There didn't seem to be any way to hurt the robot on the left side, is that intentional? I kept trying to attack him from behind (since that was the part that was glowing) and it didn't react at all.

The biggest problem I had when I was first trying it on single player was that the gear robot kept shoving me against the walls so that I had no way to escape. I didn't have enough speed in reverse (or in the case of the red robot, no reverse ability at all) to escape as he pushed me backwards along the wall, while shooting at me. All I could to was wait until I was rotated so that I could try to escape.

In multiplayer, the biggest problem seemed to be that the robots seem built to grind against each other, just stuck in one orientation relative to each other. You might try building in some sort of "bounce," either with bouncy material tweakers or with follower movers set to flee the robot that they just hit.

From what I saw, the fast robots seemed to usually have an advantage over the slower ones since they can run away and run around to the enemies' backs pretty quickly.

Overall it was a pretty fun multiplayer game that could use some tweaking to make it more competitive and interesting. Good job!

Many thanks Phort, some really helpful advice there! And thank you so much for the logic suggestion - I've been a bit iffy about the countdown myself so I'll do my best to implement that and tweak the robots soon. :D

wow good work on it. cant review it on its versus nature because i didnt find anyone to play with :( . but it really showed a lot of potential. my only concern its that the gear robot corner me and it was very diffilcult to escape, even with the reverse. when i find a buddy ill give you feedback on the versus but what i played it was awesome.
btw i updated my level if you wanna check it out :)

awsome but there is no info on 3 of the robots, just letting you know.

also check out my top down shooter Space Blast 3D
http://lbp.me/v/xkrdvp

let me know what you think looking for feedback.

Queued...If I happen to catch you online expect an invite....(you can play my own versus level while were at it!)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by steadler

awsome but there is no info on 3 of the robots, just letting you know.

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Thank you , but I'm not entirely sure I follow you tbh lol. Do you mean information regarding attacks and strengths etc, or control information? I have no idea but I'll have a look around and see what I can find missing :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vastolorde99

(. . .) my only concern its that the gear robot corner me and it was very diffilcult to escape, even with the reverse.

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Yup, Nick Nock's causing some problems no doubt. I'll be looking at getting him balanced shortly as I'd like to use him more, and put some sort of AI mechanic in to enable a basic single player game as well at the versus mode.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FourteenInchGaz

If I happen to catch you online expect an invite....(you can play my own versus level while were at it!)

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Sounds good to me!

Anyhow, have queued appropriate levels and should be on a fair bit tonight if anyone needs me to join them for a playtest :D

Just an update, and dragging across some comments if that's ok.

Jdsfrog said:

Quote:

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Thanks a lot! I played your level, and I must say, I was impressed! (I turned on another controller to see what it was like) From the intro of the robots and the menu to the actual gameplay, I could definately see multiplayer being a blast. Everything played flawlessly for me, so good job! There's really nothing I noticed that needed any reworking. Maybe just make the menu select able to move up as well (not sure how hard that would be though). Awesome level!

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Many thanks Jd, I'll check out the menu again before I update the level this week.

I've been playing about with the house robot's movement but it's hard to get it to a place that feels right. I need him to be stronger than the other robots but also beatable. I have however added points for damage to his 'radiator cog', and I'm working on making him susceptible to some sort of deactivation (thought porbably just fromt he columns on the arena itself. I don't want to make it too easy :P)

Bounciness is a tweak which is truly confusing me. Sometimes it helps, giving the effect of a bumper car ride, and other times it just doesn't appear to do anything! I'm still playing around but I'll try to update soon!

Okay, so I've made a few changes and they have now been published. I've made use of Phort's logic on entry, improved the selection menu, and played about with Nick Nock's movement settings. Hopefully he'll be a little more manageable now, but please tell me if he needs more powering down!

Ok....Having seen your comprehensive review over on my F4F thread, I think it would only be fair to return the compliment and to also say thank you for allowing me to play your level with you....It was, as you said, a blast!

This review is based on the one game I managed to play (with the authors) as it was intended to be.....as a versus game

Initial impressions

First we're treated to a menu with the usual suspects plus the option for a detailed look at the controls and also a quick run down of the Robots competing.

Well, I love a bit of Robot Wars, me. So for a start, it's going to have to look and feel like the real authentic deal to hold my attention, and I'm glad to say, short of Craig Charles kissing his stubby little scouse fingers at me, it didn't disappoint. Everything you would expect from Robot Wars was in there from the off:

-Four varied Robot gladiators to choose from, all with different special abilities (although mine seemed to have only the ability to look green and blow kisses at the giant pincers I kept getting caught in!)
-The House Robot, which, seemed suitably intimidating and all-powerful
-The Pit!....Which opened at a time relative to its real world counterpart
-Lots of crashing, bashing, squeezing and mashing
-Bad driving...;-)

All in all....'twas a great start!

Gameplay

Ok, so were on our trusty metal steeds, the action starts and the first thing I notice is that the robots are very responsive. It doesn't take long to pick up the flow of the game, and within seconds, everyone is smashing straight into each other as is expected of a Robot war. It is here I encounter a (very) small gripe: the scoring system, whilst obviously it is meant to reflect what has and hasn't happened it seems a little arbitrary; points are given and points are taken away without any real reflection on what SEEMS to be shown on screen. I feel, if at all possible, you should try and include a more visual system (pincers falling off, controls going wonky and robots failing). That, of course is a personal opinion, and I can certainly see why you haven't done this, after all, its an MP versus game, it'd be no fun if you found yourself in a dead robot 4 seconds in.

Also there was a SLIGHT problem with the Robots getting stuck together in some sort of death roll style dance, but this certainly didn't detract from the fun and I'm not even sure if this isn't a design choice!

As for rest of it, it was really well executed. Tactics were employed, the Robots were versatile enough for you to tempt them to try push you into the pit and the whole atmosphere of the level captured, in essence, the source material delightfully!

Overall

Well, what can I say, you want a Robot Wars game that does what it's supposed to? Here it is!

It deserves a lot of recognition for being great where you would expect it to be and I hope that it gets the success it merits in future!



FourteenInchGaz

Wow. Thanks so much Gaz!

You are indeed correct that the stickiness is somewhat buggy. It tends to be a problem with the pincer robot, but I'm working on it. (It's going to take a lot of tweaking. I'm just hoping it doesnt turn into a rboto re-design)

I love your idea of damage being shown on the robots themselves. At the moment you only get to see some brief radiator damage but I know what you're getting at. Maybe there's some way I could emit some scar-type stickering on. . . hmm. Will think on that one for sure!

Lots of good points, back to the tweak button I dash!

the info i meant was in the menu you could select about robots, and the 1st robot all info was there but there was none on any of the others.

Hmm. OK thanks for the heads up - I'll double check :)

I played the level with 3 others and it was pretty fun! I think the robots are pretty cool, but only the first robot has information on it's strengths and stuff. The others it is all blank.

Also the grabbing needs to be toned down a bit. You can hold on for what seems like forever. It's a cool feature, but I think adding a cool-down would go a long way. Also, the large robot that seems slower didn't fall into the pit when I was almost completely over it. Is that intended? I was hanging WAY over it and never fell in.

The enemy AI robot is a cool touch. He definitely threw a cool feel into the matches.

I think if you wanted to add another spin into the level, it would be cool if you added power-ups as pick-ups. Guns, missiles, shields, mines, etc. I think that could make this really awesome.

The ring was cool, but how about at the beginning adding a ring choice? It would slide the ring above over and pick another ring. That would be a cool addition.

In any case, as-is we'll be playing this again. I thought it was creative and fun. <3'd and :)'d

Sounds interesting, I'll queue it and post my thoughts later. Might take a while though as I've gone back to LBP1 to try and unlock as much as inhumanly possible. ;)

I loved this show when it was on, and think this is a great concept to work with. I had one unexplained glitch in one of my plays though. i was about to get in the red bot, and the elevator went up unexpectedly without me. it then came back down, and i was able to get into the bot, but it never went back up again. It has done this multiple times now, so you might need to adjust a sensor somewhere(i never actually push triangle yet, it just goes up as i walk past the red bot).

Controls were a bit rough to get used to, they spun much faster than they accelerated/moved, but nothing too major. design is aesthetically pleasing, i like the variety in each bot. Balance between bots doesn't seem bad, I unfortunately didn't get to try vs. or play the red/green bots due to the above glitch though. Fix that glitch and i'll keep it queued up so i can try again later, really want to see the red/green bots attacks.

My level/profile is in sig. Just looking for suggested additions at this point, along with critique. thank you

Oh noez! Not the entry! I'll do my best to get this fixed on the double - it was working fine in multiplayer last night but it seems like it only ever wants to work in one or the other at the moment (single or multi), and can't make it's mind up. So cheers for the heads up on that pooter. I have your level queued and will probably get round to playing it tonight :)

Thanks for the return Viper, I'm glad you enjoyed :) Like the idea about the power ups, but i'll have to play about and see what I can manage with my thermo (and limited knowledge lol)

I'll tweak the robots you mentioned, and see if I can't get that dratted intro vid fixed while I'm at it!

Entry logic is now fixed (again) and playtested.

I figured out the problem with the robot info - something to do with subtitles. I noticed that if I had subtitles turned off the last three robot info's wouldnt show. I tried getting the info to pop up in speechbubbles, but I didn't like how it obscured the screen, and also some of them popped up out of camera. When I turned them back to subtitles, none of them showed (until I turned Subs back on again, obviously, at which point they all worked fine) So this is a weird one really. All info had exactly the same tweak settings, and yet some didn't display.

As a temporary measure I've placed a speechbubble requesting subtitles be turned on, I'll try to figure out a permanent fix in the meantime.

Other edits: Mr Snips has been powered down by a few seconds to allow fairer play. Sir Ramsalot's sensor radius for the pit has been increased, making him fall in just that little bit easier.

That's all for tonight! Thanks soo much for all the feedback so far folks!