yep…but kids using tools could be risky….or you could just have them ready made….and have staff to charge them.
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Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

I could see that the audience didn't really want to watch the ants, except one father who was crying with laughter every time The Tick was fighting. I had a few people asking about what time the next feather fights was scheduled and I told them they could watch the ants while they waited but they decided to go outside instead.
I planned to have the ant finals before the feathers but I am also good at reading the audiance. In fact I also switched the melee and medal ceremony because I could see the audience were disappointed with the quick final. Which is why I was running around yelling "Rumble", so the audience would know there was more. I also knew the audience would bugger off once that was over and we could finish the ants without stupid kids demanding we let them drive.
Putting a smaller beetle arena inside the feather arena won't keep bums in seats.
what we need is more feathers so the rounds are longer and the breaks are shorter.

Why do you think there was such a change was it just because of the lack of focus on Ants this year?

I know in the past we probably had more destrcutive and interesting ant fights and the crowd got right into it. Was there much difference in the viewing?

I guess this year we had less ants and I am guessing quite a few of them were thrown together at the last minute to make up numbers.

From this my opionion would be ditch the ants and while I don't think we have enough robots for a complete sportsman round to run concurrently with proper feathers maybe we could do exhibition matches between the rounds.

From Sydney I remember most people (except for miles and jules with the blowing up drills) had a pretty good run with their sportsmans. Just charge and run which would allow this to happen.

Steve
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Spitballing here,

Run Sportsmens Saturday with their finals on the same day.
Run Feathers Sunday with their finals on the same day, use any available Sportsmens to do whiteboard fights to take up the slack between rounds caused by high attrition in the Feathers.

Also anyone with a Sportsmen could compete with the Feathers if they want (Boosting the Feathers numbers as well!)
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The ant location was not great. They put up the stand just in front of the feather arena so the ants got put behind the stand near the front counter. This I am sure did not help.

I kinda like Aarons idea. I think a little public destruction on the sat could be good as well for the crowd (demon vs the VCR anyone?). As long as most interstate's drive they could probably bring two, build a competitive sportsman or only compete for one day out of two. Biggest concern is if we have a high turn out the number of rounds may be small by the time you add finals
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Remember to trust me, I am an Engineer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp8hvyjZWHs

Good to see a bit of interest in wood bots!
Id be interested in helping make some ply kit bots!

Also for a first timer I really enjoyed the weekend, and I was great to meet so many of you in person! Cant this of any other positives or negatives which haven't already been mentioned.

Massive thanks to everyone who helped me out (which is pretty much everyone) Cant wait for next year!

quote:

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Originally posted by Knightrous:
Spitballing here,

Run Sportsmens Saturday with their finals on the same day.
Run Feathers Sunday with their finals on the same day, use any available Sportsmens to do whiteboard fights to take up the slack between rounds caused by high attrition in the Feathers.

Also anyone with a Sportsmen could compete with the Feathers if they want (Boosting the Feathers numbers as well!)

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cassie couldn't get holidays and it was too expensive and not feeling awesome for me to go by my self (IE it not being a "family holiday" if you will) :-<

@miles&jules, the accommodation offer you guys made made it financially viable but yeah, felt bad leaving the wife to go on holidays and play robots by my self.

wrt sportsman + feather + ants.

I think beetles are big enough that they can hold a crowd, ants are too "toy like" I think for the public. Some of the spinner beetles are pretty dang spiffy and they can probably run in the full sized arena without any particular issue.

They still suffer decent attrition though, so if you can get enough sportsmans to fill out a comp its probably a better idea.

I favor running feathers over both days and filling any holes with sportsmans (or beetles or whatever), the more repair time you have the better the odds of having running feathers.

I wonder about running sportsman, beetles and feathers, its probably too many classes really.
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

Running multiple classes at once is the way Robogames keeps the action going continuously - its a proven formula so I am with Jake and Angus on that.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Multiple classes with one arena is fine. Moving between 2 arenas doesn't work and neither does putting a smaller arena inside of a large arena.
There hasn't been a beetle fight in Australia for 12+ months and I'm doubting there will be enough beetles in another 12 months to worry about. How many could turn up to a competition next month? 4?

Maybe we should wait until next June to see how many robots of different classes are around before worrying about what will be fighting at the nationals. At the moment we'll say the main show will be open feathers and get everyone to focus on that.

Agreed. At the moment I am thinking just feathers with either demo feather sportsmans to go in there in down time same as green ants or exhibition sportsman matches.

Or maybe some other presentations from inside the arena.

Steve
_________________
Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Yeah I would be at ease with just running feathers only to keep things focused. Plenty of semi retired robots that could be thrown in next time
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www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

NATS 2015
Ipswich art gallery are wanting to book us for next year...…Win….they are asking if Sat 10 and Sun 11 October 2015 is good with us. …..so thats the weekend after the school holidays…


….what do we think?
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Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

Great news! I will definitely be there.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Should work for me although I can't commit formally as some of you know I will likely be changing jobs some time in the next year or so and have no idea what sate, company or agency I may be working for if anyone.

Off center to the public holiday, guess it allows them to capitalise the third day without having the arena pulled down. May make getting the numbers for put up and pull down a tad harder.

Long weekend before is just one less excuse for full time working people to turn up without a finished bot (i.e. me as everyone else is far better behaved)[/list]
_________________
Remember to trust me, I am an Engineer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp8hvyjZWHs