RA2 Building Techniques


	RA2 Building Techniques This is a list of all the most useful bot-building tips and tricks known to the RA2 community. Use these techniques, and you'll be on your way to master status in no time. It is recommended you get used to the Basic-level techniques before trying the Advanced level, and mastering that before going on to Expert. Basic Techniques Advanced Techniques Expert Techniques Basic Techniques Selecting alternate attachment points. When you click on a component, in the small preview window by the description you may see several green boxes on the component. These are attachment points. Click on them to attach components in different ways. Build to the maximum. Always utilize all the weight available to you. If you have a killer heavyweight that's only 600 kgs, don't leave it like that, make it bigger and even better! Minimize chassis size. Uncheck the "Snap to grid" box when you are building your chassis to make it fit snugly around your components (rather than trying to fill unused space with unnecessary junk, or worse, leaving it empty). Unused space can waste as much as 100 kgs. This middleweight's chassis is custom-trimmed down to make use of every ounce of weight. Use effective components. Not all the parts in RA2 are balanced. Some are just better than others, and you should make full use of these. Click here for a neat table showing what weapons are really the best. So instead of using a sledgehammer, for example, use 3 iron spikes. The best motors are reversible angle motors (for weight) and HP Z-teks (for power). Redbirds are only a little more powerful than angle motors, and Z-teks are only 5 kgs lighter than the HP versions, but have half the power. So for example, instead of using four Z-tek drive, use two HP Z-tek drive to save weight and space. The best wheels are shiny hub wheels for their light weight. Rarely will you need to use any other kind. If you want really low ground clearance, though, you can stick a rubber wheel on a Z-tek. The best extenders are by far the round ones. You might think the square extenders are stronger because they're heavier, but they're not: both types have the same hitpoints. The only case where you would want to use square extenders is in complicated overlapping arrangements where it just won't let you use a round one. Use wedges. Getting under your opponent is a major advantage in battle, as it allows you to push them around and hit their vulnerable underside. Unless your bot has some other means of getting under bots and/or countering wedges, you should always try to fit a small wedge component or two on your bot. For maximum effectiveness put the wedges on burst or servo motors, and lower them below your chassis to put pressure on the wedge. This will let you slide right under any other wedge. This vertical spinner uses a wedge on a Snapper not as a flipper, but to get under other bots and feed them into the weapon. Advanced Techniques Using extenders effectively. The round extenders are some of the most useful components available to you, because RA2 doesn't calculate damage realistically. If you hit a bot with a double-spiked hammer, for example, you will do twice the damage instead of having the force divided between the two points. Abusing the side connection points on extenders is a lightweight way to take advantage of this. However, the two side connection points are close together, so sometimes it will not let you attach weapons. If this happens, try rotating them at different angles until it works. Use these connection points to make ultra-deadly weapons. This rammer uses a long row of 20cm extenders to make a thick ramming wall of iron spikes. This method is far more effective than using T-connectors, which are each 3kgs heavier and can only have a single weapon attached to them. This spinner uses two 20cm extenders to double up the razor tips on the end of the tribar, making it twice as powerful. Double-strength aluminum armor. This is a handy little glitch that gives you armor as light as aluminum, but stronger than steel. To get it, simply don't apply any armor to your bot. Ignore the Armor menu. The armor the game gives your bot by default is just like aluminum, but it is twice as strong and it isn't shiny (the tell-tale sign of DS Al is to paint your bot black and rotate it around - it won't light up). Stacking batteries and other components. Some components can be overlapped in the same spot if you position them just right. Baseplate anchors are very easily stacked, and so are small battery packs. Supervolt batteries can be overlapped too, although they are a little more difficult. And if you're really skilled, you can overlap a battery or a baseplate anchor on your control board. Many other stacking combinations are possible, but they are not as useful and I won't bother mentioning them. Stacking components can save a lot of space, and thus weight, in your bot, especially if it uses multiple Supervolt batteries. To stack 2 components, place the first one where you want it to be on the baseplate, then hover the other component over the first one until it lets you place it. Usually, they must be perfectly aligned in one dimension and slightly offset in another. It is easier if you get the camera pointing straight down at your baseplate, go to the Overview tab, zoom in all the way, and then go back to the Components tab. This lets you get a higher zoom on your bot as long as you click the "attach" button before moving the mouse onto your bot. Burst- and Servo-overlapping/enhancing. Burst motors and spin motors have the unusual ability to enhance the speed of attached spin motors. Frustrated with even the HP Z-teks being too slow for your weapon? Put the HP Z-tek on a burst or servo motor and there will be a significant increase in speed. Be aware this can also decrease your bot's stability, however. Putting things on burst and servo motors also provides a useful way to overlap components and make your design as compact as possible. An easy 4-step example is given below, in which you overlap a spinner inside your battery. Chaining spin motors. If you want really insane speed for your spinning weapon, you can chain 2 motors in line using an extender and wire them both to spin in the same direction. In this case, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, as the weapon will spin more than twice as fast as it would with a single motor. Even chained Redbird motors are faster than an HP Z-tek. The one weakness of this setup is that your weapon's spinup time will be considerably longer, and it will not be able to spin up if there is anything blocking it. This bot uses a Z-tek chained with an HP Z-tek to get its weapons going at speeds not possible otherwise. Caster armor. It is a strange quirk of RA2's programming that any component directly attached to your baseplate is invincible. This can also be a useful quirk in the case of balance casters - they attach right to your chassis, thus being invincible, and also appear in battle protecting your chassis. Use enough casters in the right spots and you can get a literally impenetrable defense. The trick? Raise the casters up with the Control key like you would any other component. This lets you attach them so they can protect your front, sides, and/or rear, as well as the bottom. Naturally, the thickest casters work best for blocking weapons. However, using a lot of casters eats a lot of weight, so you will usually be limited on what weapons you can use. Hammers and piston rams are usually the only effective weapons that can be used on heavily caster-armored bots. Limit your caster placement to weak spots or strategic positions to save weight and increase weapon possibilities. This bot uses two layers of casters to make its front invulnerable to any sort of horizontal weapon. Project Trinity glitch. The Project Trinity glitch (named after Project Trinity, the first bot to utilize this technique) is a way to make a horizontal spinning weapon keep accelerating and expanding to a larger diameter until it eventually explodes. All it requires is burst pistons attached to something spinning - a tribar, a disc, or your chassis. You don't even need air tanks for the pistons. When you're spinning at full speed, fire the pistons. They will fly out of their normal range and cause your weapon to accelerate continuously. Make sure to put something durable on the pistons, because you will be hitting a lot of walls - hard. But if you're lucky, you can hit your opponent too and kill them before your weapon explodes. A slight modification to this design allows you to make flying bots. Simply angle the pistons downward a little bit. When the glitch is activated, your bot will get pushed up in the air and start flying around like an out-of-control helicopter. This method is a little more stable than a flat weapon, because the glitch will not stop until a lot of stuff breaks off the ends. A milder form of the PT glitch simply keeps the pistons extended to their maximum length while you are spinning, allowing for a greater weapon diameter and slightly increased speed. This more controllable form only works on full body spinners, usually with just one piston attached like a tail. A horizontal spinner demonstrating a flat Project Trinity weapon. Angle the pistons down for increased stability and flying. Chicken glitch. The chicken glitch (named after Wicked Chicken, the first bot to utilize this technique) causes certain weapons attached to small motors to spin at incredible speed - near the limits of what the game can handle. Chickening spikes will slightly increase damage and cause constant damage as the weapon grinds on the opponent. Simply use a small motor such as a Reversible Angle Motor or a Redbird, attach an extender to it, and attach a spike in-line with the motor's axle. Mass is not a factor in getting the glitch to work; however, the spike must have a small diameter and the motor must have enough battery supply. Razor tips, pointy tips, and iron spikes work best. This antweight (125kg) bot uses a typical chicken drill as a weapon. Expert Techniques Triple- and quadruple-stacking weapons. Using the side connection points of extenders, it is possible to stack 2 razor tips or iron spikes in the same spot. Do this once or twice to get a weapon setup that looks just like the double-stacked method mentioned above, but with 3 or 4 spikes instead of just 2. To do it, first attach the extenders as you would for double-stacking. Then attach a third extender on the other connection point of the first one and rotate it so it overlaps the second extender. It will look like 2 extenders, but it's actually 3 and you will be able to attach 3 spikes with a little patience. Quadruple-stacking is a little harder. You need to attach a fourth extender on top of the second or third extender so it overlaps the first one. It will be harder to attach the weapons, and the 7 parts in a row limit will start interfering at this point, but it is possible. In theory, quintuple-stacking is also possible, but getting the spikes to overlap would be a nightmare (unless you combine this technique with the eFFe glitch, described below). Overlap two extenders attached to the first one. Overlap two spikes on the two overlapping extenders. It will take some rotating to get it to fit. Rupt glitch. The Rupt glitch (named after E-Rupt, the first bot to utilize this technique) causes burst motors to snap out of their normal swing arcs and spin wildly around, creating the potential for dramatically increased flipping power. A well-built middleweight Rupt flipper can sometimes toss heavyweights to the ceiling! Using a Rupt flipper will also uncontrollably flip your own bot, however, and it is not recommended for use on anything but a pure flipper or possibly a popup (f.e., don't use it on your vertical spinner). It is also recommended to have at least one non-Rupting flipper on your bot to right it in case it lands upside-down. To activate the glitch, simply use the side connection point of a 60cm extender and make it pointing sideways off a DDT burst motor. Then put something on the end that you want to rupt. Note that the object on the end of the extender can't be too heavy, and can't have too big a diameter or the glitch will not work. Also note that you need ample batteries to get full power (at least 2 Supervolts for a MW). It is also possible to Rupt Snapper 2's, but it is considerably more difficult and much less powerful. Non-Rupting DDT's are probably a better choice. An example of a basic middleweight Rupt flipper with two Rupting flippers and one non-Rupting flipper for a srimech. An example of a Rupting popup wedge with two Rupting flippers and a short Rupting hammer. eFFe glitch. The eFFe glitch (named after eFFeeMMe, the rediscoverer of the lost technique) lets you overlap anything you want, any way you want provided it is mounted on some kind of moving component like a spinner, piston, or hammer. The bigger the movement, the easier it is to do this glitch. Simply hover whatever you want to attach over the moving component (let's say it's a tribar for this example) as if you were going to attach it so it snaps to the connection point, but don't click. Instead, without moving the mouse, rotate the tribar a little ways. Now click to attach the component - it will be attached to a point floating in space! If the arm of the tribar you initially attached the part to has multiple connection points (like if you attached an extender on the end) you can now attach more things on the other connection points without the first part interfering. When you are done, simply enter and exit the test garage, and all the parts you attached will reset to their normal positions and be overlapping in ways not possible otherwise. Axle loading glitch. The axle loading glitch enables you to overlap anything that spins vertically inside anything else. To do it, start out with a Z-tek motor positioned vertically. Spin it in the bot lab and then go to another tab to stop it. Now add a motor - any kind will do. The Z-tek will start spinning a little faster when something with an axle is added. Now quick click on another tab to stop it before it slows down: the goal here is to get the Z-tek spinning so fast, the axle flies off. Keep adding motors and removing them as necessary and stopping the Z-tek until the axle flies off into space, then stop it one more time. When you have the axle frozen out in space, attach something such an extender or a disc onto the Z-tek. It will attach where it normally would, not on the axle. But we don't want that, so you'll need to spin the Z-tek again, this time letting it slow down. The axle will go back to its normal position - but the component you attached will be floating in space! You can now build out in space without the rest of your bot getting in the way, and put stuff in front of the Z-tek that could not normally go there. When you're finished, go into the test garage and back out. The stuff you put on the Z-tek will be back on the axle, and inside whatever is in front of it. A simple demonstration video of axle loading. (10 MB)