u/themaskedrobot77

NHRL war on BORING.

Watching NHRL grow form small tiny events to benign the F2  of robot combat has been interesting but it’s been a bumpy ride and it has a big effect on the Beatleweight scene and how it has allowed it to become as big as it has ever been but in somewhat losing its original identity but has become something very different. 

Chapter 1. Active Weapons only: the banning of weaponless robots may seem simple now but it was a huge deal due to the high influx of D2 KIT BOTS which lead to many think those fight are "boring" it didn’t stop other kit bots being entered but it gave it a usp  it almost impossible to find many events now that don’t have an active weapon rule now in the USA as many try to copy NHRL’S success.

Chapter 2. First wave of flame: NHRL has not been a stranger to some controversies in its history but at the start its “lack of safety” with flame bots caused much concern from the  UK teams and fans. ( all uk events ban fire and are very strict with exposed lipo’s) while fire bots were not serious at this moment of time as most of the items were there to get around the “active weapon rule”  now NHRL is incredibly safe now. 

Chapter 3: Team smee and full court…. rules and robots have a symbiotic relationship, the rules affect what robots can be built but in contrast certain designs and rule get around can force the rules to change, changing other robots by accident or on purpose, both bots have skirted the rules in different regards so much so whether or not they are the robots to lay the whole blame on why…

-Pins got limited to 2 pins (after the 2nd pin every other pin counts agents you in points) 
-minimum active weapons. (all weapons must pass a dummy test and also means if your weapon isn't active in the arena you are forced to forfeit )  
-the removal of control as a judging score and the change to Harm, and Attack.

Whether or not these robots were the reasons for the changing of rules but all i can say is rules and robots are not made in a vacuum and that has been part of the sport since the very beginning. 

Chapter 4:minimum active weapons: on paper this seems like a good rule however this rule has screwed over many wedge bot drivers and builders some of witch i have sadly screen see leave due to the disrespect and sometimes hate wedgebots have been given, but i’m also conflicted because all things need to progress and evolve and sadly some people will get left behind and the fact more and more events want to be NHRL and i can’t blame them.

Chapter 5; second wave flame: PLA has become popular as a cheap and easy to use materials for many small teams especially teams with fewer resources, this is why they are very popular in beatle’s, flame bots don’t just counter them  they single handedly retire robots and teams out of competition petition for months or years and for many this become a final nail in the coffin as the smaller team are trying to fight back their weight class as beetles have slowly become the toughest hardest ot entry weight class in robot combat and this division something NHRL will have to try keep the peace of.

Chapter 5.a. Nate Franklin: Nate is a very well respected and well liked roboter who respectfully tried to call something to be done on matter or at least have a discussion with many robotiers and fans where respectfully having, however some bad eggs purposely destroyed and wrecked the thread, which made Nate shut the thread in embarrassment witch wasn;t just disrespectful to nate but also the robotiers and fans who  were using that thread to have good faith discussion.

Look nobody wants fire bots banned most people want fire bots kept to the same rules as other weapon types.

What’s next? Well NHRL seems to be trying to divide the class in three categories “pro league” the regular league and “xp” and weather this works and helps the midsize team’s and small team’s will only be found in time and i do trust NHRL will make rules with new era fire bots in mind but 1 thing they desperately need to improve is weapon variety at events but that doesn’t happen on a whim.                   

What defines an original bot can sometimes be a bit harder than it may seem as we have seen the rise of the 4 wheel drive vert meta and how the huge clown meta. Although calling them clones is a bit disrespectful right?

I mean someone can should be allowed to be inspired to build something similar but not the same as huge but then it will be called a copied or at worse stolen design and this isn’t anything new either we brit flippers tombstone clowns and so one but what defines a robot being inspired being copied or benign stolen?

And it’s not simple because the old answer used to be, intent. did the robotier intend to build a robot that's similar or identical but even knowing that intent people will not buy it or still call it a copy or stolen design, and i’m very aware some people believe if some has a robot type nobody else should be able to make anything similar as this would improve comps like NHRL and this season of battlebots where most robots look the same but what would define as a original designs and who who own said designs at that point it becomes favoritism.

It is obvious to understand why this is happening. Verts are easy to build, cheap to build and are effective and are the easiest to get accepted and past NHRL rules and the robots most heavily favoured by the rules and the arenas of the usa.

We are going into a new age of huge clones and vert only comps and that can be part of the sport, i mean i remember only a few years ago people complained that uk events where just all brit flippers and while many similar designs where around and people will build what's effective not necessarily what's original and fans will always hate that but that has become a more modern acceptability in the sport as it’s more common knowledge of what does and doesn’t work.

A lot of robots are inspired by other robots in 1 way or another. Many robots can be considered clowns but it can be disrespectful to do so and the hard reality is very few robots have been stolen per say.

Unique interesting and odd designs are out there and people will make them but they do sometimes get drowned out by the clowns and the similar designs but that is modern robot combat now.