Fires! PTE! Balance! Oh My!

The issues more so stem from movement characteristics rather than stability.

Mike

I think it would look really sexy if all the bots had more than two legs. Then you can swarm your opponents with armies of insect-like laser death robots >

exactly.

Because these quad bots would be firing at an upward arc, the recoil would be directed downward onto the support structure of the legs, whether moving or not. This makes the "tipping points" of having 3 vs 4 legs matter less. It still matters, of course. However I'll have to agree that I don't see them being that much of a stable AFV with 3 legs.

I would question if it would need to better brace itself for firing due to one less contact patch to support and distribute the pressures from firing, which in turns means stopping or slowing greatly to fire. Maybe it's moving so slow there's no need to really stop.

But then, with that in mind, why not build the same unit with one more leg if all it does is improve its overall usefulness? Now we add a leg, it's as stable, at-least-as capable and faster.

Like I said before..I'd still rather see a wider rear leg or one that splits into two to create a split contact patch...but honestly, for an overall usefulness of an attack bot, I would imagine the 4 legged ones would be the victors in a face-off. Maybe they'll let us have the chance before removing one. I'd be game for that!

Thanks for the update Brad!!

I've seen spiders walk around with odd numbers of legs. They seem to do alright. Three legs might be a little extreme for a spider, since there's more to their lives than just walking around, but I suspect grenadier bots don't need to wrap up prey, make a web, or hang from a thread.

That was a nice update. Thank you Brad the King of Boombots. I like the 3 leg design of the grenadier even though it seems unstable. Three legs makes it stand out from other units.

Thanks, Bot-King Brad!

So is the grendier bot supposed to be like an artillery unit? Looks cool

Gunships are the new bots, haven't you heard?

My point wasn't that 3 legged movement isn't feasible, mearly that it isn't practical, especially in the context of PA and animations.

Mike

New stuff, huh. Big stuff, you say?

I hope to be impressed, the optimist that I am. More to the point, I hope you're able to ignite the enthusiasm of even more people that voice their dissatisfaction, so that they may be brought over to the Cult of the Machine.

Nah. Anchors are.

YES, FIRE FIRE!!!
...
sorry.
As you can see, I want fire. Also really looking forward to the balance changes. Will be interesting indeed.

The pitch for PA has always been about massive armies. Build too much of everything.

I . . . didn't even plan that pun. Damnit, not cheesy enough by half.

Screw realism, this is a video game. But I agree that a three-legged bot with one single leg at its rear, as soon as opens fire, it's gonna tumble upside down with the first shot

A tripod is very stable until you apply a force vertically on all legs at the same time. If you apply a force laterally, (like firing a big gun horizontally) it's gonna fail. Unless two legs are placed on the back and the third one on the front. Try it with any bar table or stood in your neighborhood.

Great update. Thanks, Brad. This kind of post are awesome.

Looks great, besides the 2 new units. they look pardon my english, like a cheap turd( imo, imo)
Edit:
I kinda like the thought that u have 3 races in this game, kind of.. u have bots, tanks and air.
some are camelions tho