Roboforge!

[Olrox]

Man, I was searching for some game that I could design units in a very direct way, but some more elaborate stuff.
I've found one that you can assemble robots with unlimited freedom.

And lets you create your own moves, controlling every joint you've added, with the aid of a stage-by-stage system.
And lets you set up AI for it with an easy, friendly interface, with basic pre-programmed blocks (that even I can fiddle with ).
And lets you put robots against each other in an arena.
Or even join tournaments of various skill levels, up to pro, on which you can even win REAL moneys

Really, this game is definetely the right stuff for those folks who loved LEGO and wanna go some levels up from LEGO system

It's absolutely fun to design your robot, with the aid of connectors (that vary between different parts). Unfortunately, there are just melée weapons, and the game isn't quite balanced (it is really hard to actually *win* a fight - by detroying the enemy robot's controller unit) - also, the combats are always limited to a circular arena, and you can't make your robot make complex leg movements (like jumping, strafing swiftly and stuff like that), mostly because the range of possibilities is so great that it'd be nearly impossible to make complex animations to be automatically generated for each robot.

The AI part also got some standard blocks that can make your robot behave intelligently without too much effort, but supports an infinite range of possibilities to program the behaviour or your creation.

Nevertheless, it is awesome if you're a natural-born designer, I couldn't resist but already spent some 10 hours since yesterday, trying to improve my designs - pretty much like I've done with toribash, but with this last, I've spent some 4 years already improving my techniques and mastering many kinds of moves.

I definetely recommend it to anyone that likes automatized things, or that simply like to design mechanisms. Some bugs do exist, and there are some very annoying crashes, but an autosave feature keeps you from loosing too much work with those. 100% worth taking a look, the download is only 38Mb, and it's completely free also.

Here's a link to the download page for RoboForge
Hope that you find this as amusing as I did

~Olrox

[Zarel]

*looks at watch*

Hmm... it's still April Fool's Day in California.

[Olrox]

*looks at watch*

Hmm... it's still April Fool's Day in California.

Here it isn't anymore
Really, I looked at the game's description and thought "what, probably this is not what it looks like...", and then I've discovered that it was free, and downloaded it!

It's serious, not another april's fool joke, really

I've only realized that most people could think that, now that you've mentioned it

Really, anyone who likes balancing/programming/designing should like it. I has some rough edges, but the core is all fun!

I'll post some screenshots of it later then

~Olrox

[Olrox]

Here are those screenies I've promised!

Assembly.PNG

Moves Configuration.PNG

AI Configuration.PNG

[Olrox]

More screenies

Profile Config.PNG

Fight.PNG

I know that there are many rough edges and much of the artwork looks amateur, but it's all fun once you've grasped the basics (which is fast, either if you know programming, mechanism designing, or simply like robots)

See, it's true
I can send that bot of mine so anyone can take a look at how I've designed it or its moves. I'm not good yet, so that's not extraornidary
But I'm satisfied with it

~Olrox

[Michal]

I tried this out. The AI section is quite simple (you build the program from 'blocks', everything is described, so no 'programming language problems').
But still, making a functional (= at least not 100% dumb ) AI will require some more fiddling, etc.

[Olrox]

I tried this out. The AI section is quite simple (you build the program from 'blocks', everything is described, so no 'programming language problems').
But still, making a functional (= at least not 100% dumb ) AI will require some more fiddling, etc.

True enough, it does take a lot of trial-and-error to achieve a good association of moves/zones/decisions. Some things are very annoying (such as the lack of undo), and that's a pity since it's such a nice idea (and much was already accomplished as well!).

Remember to make a lot of dependencies in your AI structure, such as ones to make your bot move away if it's standing still for too long or it's been some time since the last move (Interrupting moves is essential as that's very frequent, and making a good "take weapons back" stage in every move, or make a "take back weapons" specific move helps a lot). And in top of that, your controller must have a good decisions/sec ratio to make the AI run smoothly

~Olrox

[Saberuneko]

Looks good! I've been trying it a little, but my computer constantly crashes while running it... I have to check if it's a problem on my side.

Besides, I think this one is awesome, I like it!

[Olrox]

Looks good! I've been trying it a little, but my computer constantly crashes while running it... I have to check if it's a problem on my side.

Besides, I think this one is awesome, I like it!

Mine crashes awfully often, especially after the game loads the fight simulation. But the autosave already helps a lot. I'll see if I can somehow find a way to make it more often (saves are very fast, but sometimes the gap is just too large between them )

Glad you've liked it!
I'm attaching my green Gladiator here so you can test your bots against it
See post below

~Olrox

[Olrox]

Hmm, I've improved my gladiator a little. I've got this blue gladiator, which can beat the green one fairly easily (I've improved AI and design )

Anyone got any bots to share? I want to know if I'm good or bad

~Olrox

[Saberuneko]

Looks good! I've been trying it a little, but my computer constantly crashes while running it... I have to check if it's a problem on my side.

Besides, I think this one is awesome, I like it!

Mine crashes awfully often, especially after the game loads the fight simulation. But the autosave already helps a lot. I'll see if I can somehow find a way to make it more often (saves are very fast, but sometimes the gap is just too large between them )

Glad you've liked it!
I'm attaching my green Gladiator here so you can test your bots against it
See post below

~Olrox

Hmm... I found some way that works for me, (the crashes reduced really much! From 10 on half-hour to one!)
Try changing the graphics from DirectX to OpenGL or from OpenGL to DirectX, depending what are you using when more crashes happen.