Sunday, July 31, 2022

Proposal: Why Doesn’t It Just Fall Off?

Times out 1-3 with 2 unresolved DEFs. Failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 02 Aug 2022 18:49:22 UTC

In the rule “Bouts”, subrule “The Arena”, after “Both turns and rounds start at 1 in a bout. “, append the following:

When a System’s Condition reaches 0%, that System is removed from the bot that had it.

Allows bots to react to destroyed Systems (plus, what’s the point of having a 0% system on your bot?)

Story Post: Bout #21: DuckTank vs Annoy-o-Tron

It’s a rare morning Bout here in Arena Hall D, between two veterans of the sport - DuckTank, the second duck-themed Bot in this contest from SupernovaStarBright, versus Annoy-o-Tron, who has been in the contest since the fourth Bout in the series.

And they’re off!

And… just like that, it’s over!

DuckTank pivoted in place to face the other way, and while Annoy-o-Tron was still fiddling for position, Supernova floored her own bot straight into the Arena gutter!

The LED banner on Annoy-o-Tron flashes to update with SupernovaStarbright’s name, and the crowd has started booing - they suspect collusion - are they right to do so?

In any case, the facts are as they stand - Annoy-o-Tron wins by TKO!

Proposal: Resolving everything

Popular at 5-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 01 Aug 2022 16:31:35 UTC

In BotScript, remove the line “A Reaction is considered Resolvable if: ” and the three bullet points immediately beneath it, and replace them with:

All Reactions are Resolvable, except if that Reaction:
* attempts to use a System the Actor has and the System’s Effect is “No effect.”

This fixes blocking not being in the resolvable reaction list, and simplifies it so you don’t have to add every possible action in there.

Proposal: The Flamethrower Buff Josh Was Asking For

Popular at 5-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 01 Aug 2022 16:29:19 UTC

In the rule “Statuses”, reword “When an Actor is Scorched, whenever it would use a System it takes scratch damage to that system and to its Chassis.” to:

When a Bot is Scorched, any Scratch Damage it would take is multiplied by 5 and it takes Scratch Damage whenever it uses a System.

In the rule “Bot Loadout”, subrule “Systems”, change the Consumption of the System Flamethrower to 200.

Bringing the flamethrower more in line with the axe by giving it more use as a weakening tool

Saturday, July 30, 2022

Call for Judgment: Requesting a recount

Times out 1-3 with 1 unresolved DEF. Failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 01 Aug 2022 21:57:29 UTC

Due to the sudden death rules being applied after 60 turns rather than 60 rounds, bout 20 had a different result than the rules would suggest, both in terms of condition loss and possibly winner.

Recalculate bout 20’s results using the rules that existed at the time the bout was resolved, and correct the publicly tracked variables that were altered by the announcer as a result of the bout, reverting any operator actions that would have been illegal to perform if the new results had been set at the original conclusion of bout 20, and adjusting any that were legal but would have different resulting variables.

Story Post: Announcement #17

And next up: Arena Hall D, please for DuckTank vs Annoy-o-Tron. That’s Arena Hall D for SupernovaStarbright’s DuckTank vs Trapdoorspyder’s Annoy-o-Tron. Thank you…

Please note that Arena Hall D is not compatible with configurations due to building regulations.

Story Post: Bout #20: Hard Hat vs The Dark Lord [SingularByte vs Brendan]

Two feared Operators are facing off against each other for the first time… They’re meeting in the Operator pit, and, yes, they’re greeting each other, Brendan leans in for a hand-shake, SingularByte accepts - Oh! Brendan was wearing a shock pad and gave SingularByte a small jolt. The Hard Hat team leader looks annoyed, but that’s just Brendan being Brendan - what else can we expect of BlogBot’s resident bad boy?

To the left of the arena, it’s Hard Hat - the yellow dome with the sky-high kill-count! And the Hard Hat Army are out in force tonight, cheering the bot on as it runs through its calibration round of manoeuvres.

And to the right, in position 16 - the Dark Lord! That’s a nice touch, Brendan has had red LEDs installed in its eyes so they look like they’re glowing from deep inside its skull. All hail the Dark Lord!

AND THEY’RE OFF!

Already this is a battle of position and attrition. Hard Hat is holding its line, making evasive motions, while Dark Lord leaps threateningly forward to position 6. This triggers a response from Hard Hat, who bypasses around Dark Lord to position 16. Dark Lord turns slowly and then starts creeping forward, one step at a time, from position 6 to position 11, while Hard Hat keeps a watching brief and maintains evasive motions - until Dark Lord moved into square 11 and then that’s it, Hard Hat is off again, bypassing away from Dark Lord back to position 4.

The crowd are split - about a quarter are gripped by this tactical dance of position and counter-position, while the remainder are very bored and want something to get hit by an axe.

A pattern is starting to emerge here - Dark Lord turns around and shuffles forward one step at a time from 11 to 8, which sends Hard Hat back to 16, which in turn prompts Dark Lord to turn around again and creep back to 11, at which point the cycle spins around again!

The crowd have started booing - a chorus of vikings in the front row has started chanting “BLOOOOD, BLOOOOD” in a deep baritone. Hard to tell whether they’re here for Hard Hat or Dark Lord.

...

Well, the pattern has now repeated for three iterations, and we’re about to start the fourth - but at turn 60, that’s the siren for SUDDEN DEATH! It’s immediately clear that neither bot has contingencies that kick in at this exact moment in the bout, so it’s a matter of who the pattern disadvantages most - and Dark Lord, with its relatively central position, looks very safe, as the new changes to the Sudden Death format mean that there are much more explosions to go around at the outer edges. Sure enough, Dark Lord keeps Hard Hat at the margins of the arena as the explosions creep in - and there it is! At turn 67, Hard Hat attempts an evade but there’s no cheating the arena floor!

Dark Lord wins by TKO!

Sunset

Idling myself.  Quorum is still 6.

Friday, July 29, 2022

Proposal: Diverting the bypass

Times out 2-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 31 Jul 2022 23:41:23 UTC

Add a reaction to the list of reactions: “...block”

Reword the sentence “When a Bot Bypasses, it moves in the allocated direction the set number of times, without interacting (bumping/shoving etc) with any Bots in the intervening squares.” to:

When a Bot Bypasses, it moves in the allocated direction the set number of times, without interacting (bumping/shoving etc) with any non-blocking Bots in the intervening squares.

Add a system to the list of Systems in the rule Systems:
| Giant Mitt || ₩900 || 0 || Passive: This bot is always blocking.

This can shut down tactics that rely on extensive bypassing - either by using a system to become an impassible wall, or by doing a surprise block to have a bypassing bot run into you. It’s niche but while I was going through my most recent botscript, I realised it needed some counter-play to avoid someone relying on it turn after turn.

Proposal: Less Predictable Booms

Timed out and enacted, 4-3. Josh

Adminned at 31 Jul 2022 13:36:34 UTC

In the rule Ending a Bout, change the entry for Sudden Death to read as follows:

Sudden Death: In Sudden Death, the Announcer continues to process turns as normal until the Bout ends due to TKO, with the following changes: all Condition losses are doubled, and each turn, every square has a chance to Detonate, with its chance to Detonate being defined as follows: (x+y)*y%, where x is the square’s proximity to the middle of the arena (with square 10 having an x of 1 and squares 1 and 19 having proximities of 10) and where y is how much time has elapsed in Sudden Death (i.e. the current turn number minus 60). Any Bot who is on a square when it Detonates takes 50% Chassis damage.

 

Call for Judgment: Sudden Dearth

Timed out and enacted, 5-1. Josh

Adminned at 31 Jul 2022 13:37:28 UTC

In the bullet point Domination in the rule Ending a Bout, in the text “If, after sixty rounds, one Bot has a Tally that is higher than its Opponent by at least 10% then that Bot is the Winner. If sixty rounds have elapsed without a Bot Winning through Tally then Sudden Death occurs instead”, change both instances of “sixty rounds” to “sixty turns”. Uphold that sudden death has been triggered correctly in every Bout in which it has been triggered prior to the enactment of this CfJ.

For any Operator whose Readiness is Set and whose EVC on this CfJ contains the word “rethink”, change their Readiness to Staging.

Call for Judgment: Loss Of Collision

Times out at 2-5 and fails -SingularByte

Adminned at 31 Jul 2022 08:05:11 UTC

Recalculate Bout #18 using the following rules interpretation and edit the money and condition values accordingly:

The ruleset states that “Until the start of its next Turn, a Bot using an evade Reaction is an evading bot; that evading Bot is not considered to be present in its space for the purposes of checking for whether another Bot can move into or through its space”. It also states the following: “If multiple Bots occupy the same space, they both take Scratch Damage and move one space forwards. ” By this logic, Ducktank should have been able to move into the space that Credit Score: F was occupying, which would have pushed them both forwards.

My counter argument

For reference, here’s the ruleset that was active when the Bout was carried out: https://wiki.blognomic.com/index.php?title=Ruleset&oldid=20373

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Story Post: Bout #19: Sunrise vs Annoy-o-Tron [Jumble vs Trapdoorspyder]

This is a rematch, folks, going all the way back to Game 4 for the current series - where Sunrise just sat there while Annoy-o-Tron reversed hard out of the course - how far have we come, how much skill have these two Operators have picked up?

Arena Hall C, today, which appears to have had flame pits built in at positions 8 and 12, as well as a shock panel way back at position 18.

To the left of the arena it’s Sunrise, largely unchanged over the past few bouts - still sporting a slightly outdated Nitrogen engine, a flipper and an axe, all of these components looking a little worse for wear, especially that X1500 chassis - it’s starting to look like Sunrise could use a component splurge.

To the right is the opposite - Annoy-o-Tron is now powered by a nuclear reactor under that Mound-shaped body, and all the parts look well maintained, if not exactly new off the shelf. But hey, it’s not about the parts, it’s how you use them - so let’s see how this plays out.

The arena lights have dimmed! This is it - they’re off!

Sunrise makes the first move and - oh! A big forward move is made but that takes it right to position 8, a flame trap! Sunrise is looking a little scorches, which will affect System wear and tear, and takes some chassis and engine damage for the trouble. Annoy-o-Tron moves into position in square 10, and Jumble will have to make a move - neither forward nor backwards feel very appetising, but -

Oh! Sunrise shoots out its flipper and puts Annoy-o-Tron straight on its back, but that keeps Sunrise on that flame panel, and as long as it’s over that gout of flame it keeps taking damage! And the flipper doesn’t even work - Annoy-o-Tron’s mound-shaped body may look craggy, but its actually mathematically designed such that it can’t ever be put on its back - so it comes up swinging with a wicked blow of that axe right into Sunrise’s chassis!

Sunrise has another go with the flipper - still on that flame panel, still burning up - to the same effect, an axe surprise from the weeble-bodied Annoy. One more go for the flipper from Sunrise, but no, that’s it - that axe connects for a third time and Sunrise’s brittle chassis shatters. An expensive loss, this one, but the result is what it is:

Annoy-o-Tron wins by TKO!

Story Post: Bout #18: DuckTank vs Credit Score: F [SupernovaStarbright vs lendunistus]

In position number 4 we have DuckTank, who is increasingly looking like a maximalist Hard Hat - they’re the same lurid yellow, and DuckTank’s traditional duck-bill-shaped flipper is gone, replaced with a hydraulic battering ram hidden behind a sporty Cow Catcher.

Opposite the mighty mallard, Credit Score: F. Operator Lendunistus banked their first win in their last bout against CrowBot2000, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that the real work was done by the arena. Nothing to hide behind here - so expect a lot of examination into whether Credit Score F has actually hit a winning formula or not.

And they’re off!

Cagey from DuckTank in the opening move, shuttling forward a single position to square 5. Credit Rating: F is bolder, taking position in square 10. DuckTank nudges again, seeking position in square 6, and lendunistus jams forward, slamming into DuckTank face-first - and stuck there as DuckTank refuses to budge, Bumping against the superior engine output of its bulkier rival!

DuckTank senses something to get stuck into, so up goes the cow catcher and out comes the ram - and with two big hits Credit Score F is shoved back to position 9, and that flipper is starting to look mightily dinged.

Credit Score opts for an evade, but SupernovaStarbright must have some sort of extra-sensory perception, because as Credit Score F dodges, DuckTank pursues it, ram still out. Credit Score keeps dodging, and DuckTank keeps finding it - each time DuckTank pushing forward and Credit Score falling back. Thirteen times, Credit Score F falls back and DuckTank finds it with that mighty ram - until, with a toppling crash, Credit Score F evades itself into the gutters!

DuckTank wins by TKO!

Proposal: Evading a repeal

Timed out and passed, 6-1. Josh

Adminned at 30 Jul 2022 17:31:11 UTC

If the proposal Dodgy Mechanics passed, revert the changes it made to the rules.

Reword the rule Evasion to:

When a Bot evades, it moves out of the direct line of attack, requiring its opponent to compensate. If the evading bot did not evade on its previous turn this bout, the evading Bot is not considered to be present in any space until the start of its next Turn; except for the purposes of BotScript Triggers, Sudden Death detonations and being In Bounds.

If multiple Bots occupy the same space, they both take Scratch Damage and the bot that moved most recently bypasses forwards to the first empty space it reaches.

Add the following triggers:

If the [first / second / third / [...]] closest Opponent is evading…
If the current [turn / round] number is [odd / even]...

In case a full repeal is a bit hasty, I’ve got an alternative solution which is cut down from a previous proposal - you just can’t dodge more than once in a row, but it’s now a complete dodge of all weapons. You’re now not invisible, but the ability to see that someone is dodging remains, as well as a new trigger for general use. Also, as funny as it would be, dodging into someone when they’re facing the same direction as you no longer fires both bots forwards at high speeds into the sunset.

Proposal: Flipped Metal

Reaches quorum with 6-0 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 29 Jul 2022 19:18:58 UTC

In the rule “Statuses”, append the following to the end of the status “Flipped”:

While a bot is Flipped, its Shove Power is considered to be multiplied by 0.5 for the purposes of resolving Shoves.

Could tweak the values later, but this can still allow counterplay to shove strategies without being forced to have a system specifically for countering them

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Proposal: Dodgy mechanics

Withdrawn and failed -SingularByte

Adminned at 29 Jul 2022 19:18:06 UTC

Repeal the rule Evasion, and remove all bullet points that contain the word “evade” from BotScript.

Change to Staging the Readiness of all Operators whose Readiness is Set.

As it stands, evasion has turned into a direct counter to shoving in a way that feels overly excessive - you can literally just keep dodging any time a shove bot is out of weapon range and you stay completely intangible to its only way to interact with the game. With the previous implementation, there was at least the small downside that an opponent could “see” a dodge and choose to act on that info, but now that’s been removed via a rapid cfj. Bots can already be immune to shoving for the low cost of 1 cheap part with no downside, we don’t need a second way to be immune for free.

Proposal: Economy Fail

Reaches quorum with 6-0 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 29 Jul 2022 19:15:56 UTC

Reword the sentence in the rule “Ending Bout” that begins “The Winner of the Bout gains…” to read as follows:

All Operators who had Bots in the Bout gain ₩1,000, plus ₩500 for each Opponent; when these values are awarded, the Readiness of all Operators to have participated in that Bout are set to Workshop if they are not already at that value.

In the rule “Bot Loadout,” replace the sentence “Each Operator has an amount of Money, which is publicly tracked and which defaults to ₩10,000” with

Each Operator has an amount of Money, which is publicly tracked and which defaults to ₩20,000.

Losing a bout typically means you took more damage and now have more to repair than the winner, and rich-gets-richer games aren’t much fun; it’s always possible someone could start tanking bouts to build cash, but that’s a losing strategy with the “beat 6 players” race already well underway. This also sets the default Money higher for new players to offset the late-joiner challenge a bit.

Call for Judgment: Ervasiver Games

Popular at 6-0 with 1 unresolved DEF. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 27 Jul 2022 22:46:42 UTC

Reword the first paragraph of the rule “Evasion” as follows:

When a Bot evades, it moves out of the direct line of attack, requiring its opponent to compensate. Until the start of its next Turn, a Bot using an evade Reaction is an evading bot; that evading Bot is not considered to be present in its space for the purposes of checking for whether another Bot can move into or through its space, and when checking whether a Melee System or Taser has an effect on the evading Bot, the number of spaces checked is reduced by 1.

Change to Staging the Readiness of all Operators whose Readiness is Set.

See below.

Call for Judgment: Ervasive Games

Edited while Chiiika was voting. Marked illegal by Brendan.

Adminned at 27 Jul 2022 17:08:19 UTC

Reword the first paragraph of the rule “Evasion” as follows:

When a Bot evades, it moves out of the direct line of attack, requiring its opponent to compensate. Until the start of its next Turn, a Bot using an evade Reaction is an evading bot; that evading Bot is not considered to be present in its space for the purposes of checking for whether another Bot can move into or through its space, and when checking for whether a Melee System or Taser can be used against the evading Bot, the number of spaces checked is reduced by 1.

Change the Readiness of all Operators who are Set to Staging.

There’s a very boring open exploit in the evade rules right now. Let’s say a bout has no configuration, and one bot has this script:

1. If the current round is 65, move backward 3 times.

2. If the current round is 78, move forward 3 times.

3. If the current round is 1 or more, evade.

Then that bot cannot be attacked for the duration of the bout, except for exactly two rounds, which are unknown to the other bot—they could also be “if 64, move backward, if 77, move forward,” or whatever. The opponent cannot trigger off of anything to use weapons; it can’t even try to move around randomly and then use weapons, since the only thing it can trigger off of at all is the round number.

So either Sudden Death gets the other bot, or nothing does. The only viable defense against the above script is to use the exact same script oneself… and if that happens, both bots dodge the Sudden Death explosions, which head off into infinity, leaving the arena unperturbed, and the bout continues until the heat death of the universe.

I think this makes evades literally game-breaking, and they should be nerfed. I also think there should be more contingency triggers (if a coin flip comes up heads/tails, if round number is odd/even, etc) but this should be patched first.

Proposal: Better Fireworks

Times out 6-0 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 29 Jul 2022 19:14:07 UTC

In Ending a Bout, change Sudden Death to;

Sudden Death: In Sudden Death, the Announcer continues to process turns as normal until the Bout ends due to TKO, with the following changes: all Condition losses are doubled, and each turn, before any moves are processed, one space in the arena - starting with the leftmost, followed by the rightmost, and then moving inwards one square at a time, alternating from one side to the other - Detonates, with any Bot who is on a square when it Detonates taking 50% Chassis damage. Any space that has been Detonated before in the Bout Detonates as well.

The Arena got more bombs and could entertain the masses more!

Proposal: Conservation of Momentum

Timed out, 1-6 with one unresolved DEF. Josh

Adminned at 01 Aug 2022 16:12:49 UTC

In When Push come to Shove, adds a point under the text “The Shove Power of the actor and opponent is calculated, where Shove Power is Effective Power Output minus 50% of the consumption of the chassis and every system on the bot.”;

For every space the Actor has moved in the past turn, reduce the Shove Power of the Actor by 50.

Then, change the following

For every 50 that the Shove Power of the Actor exceeds the Shove Power of the Opponent, both the Actor and Opponent move in the direction that the Actor stated they were moving in by 1 space, up to the number of spaces the Actor’s script stated they were moving.

into

For every 75 that the Shove Power of the Actor exceeds the Shove Power of the Opponent, both the Actor and Opponent move in the direction that the Actor stated they were moving in by 1 space, up to the number of spaces the Actor’s script stated they were moving.

 

you shouldn’t be able to like; throw a bot with identical mass right out of the border with one quick hit.

Story Post: Announcement #16

Proposal: Economy pass

Reaches 1-6 and cannot achieve quorum -SingularByte

Adminned at 29 Jul 2022 07:52:12 UTC

In the rule Ending a Bout, change “The Winner of the Bout gains ₩2,000 and, if it is not already, the Readiness of all Operators to have participated in that Bout are set to Workshop” to read as follows:

The Winner of the Bout gains ₩1,000, plus ₩500 for each Opponent and ₩500 for each Configuration Variation in place in that Bout, and all other Operators who had Bots in that Bout gain ₩500 plus ₩100 for each Configuration Variation in place in that Bout; when these values are awarded, the Readiness of all Operators to have participated in that Bout are set to Workshop if they are not already at that value.”

Proposal: Systemagic

Reaches 1-6 and cannot achieve quorum -SingularByte

Adminned at 29 Jul 2022 04:31:34 UTC

The following Systems are Deprecated: Grinder, Plate, Targeting Module, Back-Up Battery. If any Bot or any Spare Parts Bin has any Deprecated System, remove it, then increase the Money of its Operator by its Cost multiplied by its Condition. Once all Bots have no Deprecated Systems, remove all Deprecated Systems from the ruleset.

In the effects of the System called Ram, change “Shoving” to “Shoving or Bumping”.

Reduce the Consumption of Taser to 290. Give the following Systems a Consumption of 30: Mound-Shaped Body, Spikes, Cow Catcher, Lead Weight.

Add the following Systems to the ruleset:

| Snap-On Socket || ₩2,100 || 0 || Has no effect in a Bout. If the Operator of this Bot has a Readiness set to Staging then they may add a single System in their Spare Parts Bin to this Bot (disregarding for that single placement any limitations related to Hardpoints) and then destroy this System.
| Wide Axle || ₩800 || 30 || Passive: This Bot is not affected by trap panels.
| Gold-Plated Connectors || ₩2,700 || 240 || When submitting a BotScript the Operator of this Bot may select a single line of the script. While this System is on this Bot, the line in its Script thus highlighted triggers twice in a single turn when it triggers.
| Wooden Mallet || ₩700 || 88 || Melee System: Subtract 10% Condition from the Opponent’s Chassis and move them backwards four squares; this effect may not directly result in a Shove taking place.

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Proposal: Repairing the Repair Wrench [Appendix]

Withdrawn. Josh

Adminned at 27 Jul 2022 12:50:27 UTC

Append to the bullet point in the Appendix rule “Numbers and Variables” that begins

Unless otherwise specified, to “spend,” “pay” or “lose” an amount X…

the following:

For the purposes of this rule, the words “increase” and “increment” are considered to be synonymous with the word “spend,” and the words “decrease” and “decrement” are considered to be synonymous with the word “gain.”

If there exists a Dynastic Rule entitled “Repair Wrench” and any players have made use of the atomic action in that rule, revert those atomic actions.

Per discussion in the comments of “Aren’t workshops typically used to repair things?”

Story Post: Announcement #15

Towards the middle of the contest the organisers had arranged for an internationally famous band to play for attendees. The band were an aging rock quartet from the continent, but the arena was still packed for them because they were extremely famous and how often do you get to see a band like that? As their set drew to a close a roadie slipped on stage and handed the lead singer a slip of paper.

Would you all like a little bonus tonight?

YEEEEAAAAAA

What do you think, Blado? Are they a good crowd?

Yeah, Twixty, I think they’re a fuckin’ awesome crowd

WOOOOOO

You wanna know who’s matched up tomorrow?

YEEEEEAAAAA

Hahaha alright, alright. Bear with me, we don’t get this robot fighting malarky on the continent and I’ve not got my glasses…

yeeeaaa, wooo, yeeeaaaa

Right! First up we’ve got…Donktork vs Croodle Stroodle E!

wot, eh, hahaha

Oh, maybe I got that a bit wrong… And then it’s Slornronks vs Ankletruxs!

i think he means annoy-o-tron

Ah, fuck it. Let’s play Francis Shrub. One two three four!

A few hours later, the BlogBot League Twitter clarified: DuckTank vs Credit Score: F with no configuration, and Sunrise vs Annoy-o-Tron with fire traps at 8 and 12 and a Shock panel at 18 would be the next Bouts.

Proposal: Snap-on Systems

Withdrawn. Josh

Adminned at 27 Jul 2022 12:50:08 UTC

To the subrule “Spare Parts Bin”, add the following:

As an atomic action, when their readiness is set to Workshop or Staging, an operator may:
*Optionally remove a system from their bot and add it to their spare parts bin
*Optionally remove a system from their spare parts bin and attach it to their bot if they have at least one empty hardpoint

I’ve pictured systems as being easy to swap out for the most part, and being able to customize to face your opponent (as long as you’ve prepared) would make things a bit more interesting. Plus I think this gives money a bit more value; you’re much more likely to want to buy backup systems and thus run low on money sometimes

Proposal: Aren’t workshops typically used to repair things?

Enacted 9-0. Josh

Adminned at 27 Jul 2022 12:48:54 UTC

To the rule “Bot Loadout” add a subrule “Repair Wrench” that reads:

As an atomic action, when their readiness is set to workshop, an operator may:
*Set the condition of any part on their bot or in their spare parts bin to any condition higher than it previously was
*Decrease their money by the formula: ((new effective cost of the part) - (previous effective cost of the part)) * 1.25

Proposal: Gaffer Tape Bodge

Enacted 8-0. Josh

Adminned at 27 Jul 2022 12:48:05 UTC

Add the following to the end of the rule Income:

Once in between each Bout in which they participate, while their Readiness is Workshop, an Operator may add 5% condition to each component in their Bot.

Proposal: Chika Technologies LTD Sponsorship

Enacted 9-0. Josh

Adminned at 27 Jul 2022 12:46:45 UTC

Increase the money of the player named chiiika by ₩6500.

I unidled in 16 or 17 of July and should have received a bonus as shown in The Old Iron (https://blognomic.com/archive/any_old_iron) to be on the same feet
And my company is good enough to gimme a bonus anyways

Proposal: Bye Bye Pass

Enacted popular, 7-0. Josh

Adminned at 27 Jul 2022 12:44:10 UTC

If Proposal: The house always loses was enacted then this proposal has no effect.

In the rule Configuration, change the bullet entry that starts “House Bots” to read as follows:

House bot: Randomly select one House Bot and set the Condition of all of its components to 80%. In this Bout, square 20 is also In Bounds, and the right-hand-most Bot starts on square 17 rather than square 16; the selected House Bot starts in square 10, facing in a random direction. The House Bot takes its turn second in each Round (i.e. between the moves of the first and second Operator-controlled Bot).

Add a new rule, called House Bots:

At any time, there may be up to three House Bots, which are publicly tracked. House Bots are Bots that are controlled by the Announcer.

If there are less than three House Bots then the Announcer may create a new House Bot at any time. A House Bot must have a name, an engine, chassis and at least one system (a House Bot may have any of the components that are available to any other kind of Bot), and a script, all of which is publicly tracked. One House Bot may have a Bot Value of up to ₩15,000; the other two must have Bot Values that do not exceed ₩12,000. Once created, the Announcer may amend or remove the House Bots at any time, unless the House Bot in question has been drawn as a Configuration in an Announcement for a Bout that has not yet taken place.

A House Bot may not the the Winner of the Bout and is not considered for the purposes of any clause in the rule Ending a Bout.

A trashed or defunct house bot is immediately removed from the bout, and if its current space does not have a physical obstacles (as defined in the configuration physical obstacles), then it gains a physical obstacle and is handled as per that configuration.

In the rule BotScript, add the following triggers:

If [the space / any of the X spaces] [in front of / behind the] Actor are occupied by a House Bot…”, where X is a positive integer.
If [the space / any of the X spaces] [in front of / behind the] Actor are occupied by an Bot that is not a House Bot…”, where X is a positive integer.

And add the following Reactions:

“...bypass forwards X times”, where X is a positive integer
“...bypass backwards X times”, where X is a positive integer

Add the following to the end of the rule BotScript:

When a Bot Bypasses, it moves in the allocated direction the set number of times, without interacting (bumping/shoving etc) with any Bots in the intervening squares. If a Bypass would result in a Bot ending its movement in a Square that is Occupied then it instead ends it turn in the empty square between its origin point and its destination point that is closest to the destination point.

Monday, July 25, 2022

Story Post: Bout #17: Hard Hat vs Yvette the Botmistress [SingularByte vs chiiika]

Here today we have a fascinating matchup. On the left, Hard Hat, with three consecutive wins under its belt and quickly establishing itself as the one to beat with its fast-moving , shove-heavy strategy. On the other, Yvette the Botmistress, sporting a fancy new LED banner… no names as yet… Perhaps hoping that today would be the first? Between them, the fearsome visage of the Colonel.

The siren has sounded and the match is on!

Oh, this is unusual - Hard Hard is not moving - in fact, SingularByte has put the control pad down! He’s crossing his arms! He thinks he can win without moving!

He might be right - immediately Yvette and the Colonel are getting tangled up in each other. Yvette comes a little bit forward while the Colonel is still circling and pegs him a cheeky strike in the battering ram with the taser, and that’s enough to set the Colonel off - he spins around on Yvette and closes in at ramming speed! Sadly Yvette’s engine is too powerful to be pushed around, so after a few bumps she keeps going with the taser, and that’s it for a few moments - the Colonel bumping in and out ineffectually, Yvette responding with the taser.

After six hits, the Colonel’s internal wiring is overpowered by the taser and it shuts down, but Yvette isn’t finished, and keeps slugging away at the Colonel until Sudden Death is called.

The explosion panels start to activate - but what’s this! As position 3 explodes, at that exact moment, Hard Hat decides to act - and scuttles back two positions to square 3! The explosion panels bypass it completely!

Yvette is not so lucky when, a few moments later, position 14 explodes with her still busy tasering the inert Colonel! She is propelled upwards and lands hard, the chassis shattering on impact!

Another incredible win! Hard Hat wins by TKO!

Viewership on this one was 7-1.

Story Post: Bout #16: The Killing Joke vs The Dark Lord [Darknight v Brendan]

In Arena Position 4 - wreathed in green-tinted nitrogen vapour and projecting the sound of mirthless laughter from fore and aft speakers - it’s THE KILLING JOKE!

The challenger, in position 16 - a new Bot from a veteran Operator - In the form of a mailed fist with each finger sporting a different weapon - ALL HAIL THE DARK LORD!

Arena pitmaster - raise the bumpers - this match has NO OUT-OF-BOUNDS!

Operators - READY!

Three! - Two! - One! - ACTIVATE!

The Killing Joke makes the first move, leaping forward with all the power that its nitrogen engine will allow - which isn’t enough as it crashes into The Dark Lord and pushes in vain against that chunky nuclear engine! The Dark Lord will not be moved but those spikes on Killing Joke’s chassis still gouge into its sides, meaning that each bump is going real damage to the exposed set of Pincers on Dark Lord’s first finger! Those pincers aren’t too robust to begin with - will it be enough to knock them out altogether? Maybe in time, but not yet, and there they go, crushing in on Killing Joke and shaking it a bit - for sure, loosening a few bolts -yep, it looks like Killing Joke is Loose!

Wriggling free of the pincers, here now is Killing Joke, working around Dark Lord to find an angle - and there it is! Killing Joke slips a flipper under that expensive Holdfast chassis and flips Dark Lord over! It’s turtled - surely helpless!

Oh, no - look at Brendan’s face in the pits - he’s not sweating! A flip of a switch on the control and the middle finger of that armour-plated fist slowly raises, as the guts of the system - the wheels, the weapons, the armour, everything - quickly invert. Dark Lord was flipped but that ain’t nothing to him - he’s good to go!

Dark Lord quickly scuttles back to get some distance between itself and Killing Joke, but too much gas goes into the retreat and it goes straight into the bumper bars! An almighty flip later and Dark Lord crashes down into position 8, flipped and dinged from the journey! But no - Killing Joke was CHASING Dark Lord and has careened straight into the same bumper barrier! Both bots are extremely lucky that there’s no out of bounds in this match!

Killing Joke has crashed down in position 14, flipped and dented!

Another piece of mysterious mechanism in the Dark Lord switches and a taser springs out of its rear, plugging into Killing Joke’s flipper and jolting it with volts! Killing Joke flips itself upright with the same flipper before getting struck again with that taser, before ploughing once again into the bumper wall - this is doing a lot of damage! - and crashing down in position 6!

That’s too close for comfort for Dark Lord, who retreats a little to position 10, giving Killing Joke an opportunity to right itself using its flipper - which, by the way, it starting to look very jerky what with all the electricity that’s been jolted into it. And here we are again - that taser snaking out to pump yet more shocking energy into that flipper. That’s three hits from the taser, and even with the best insulation most components can’t take much more than that - and Killing Joke is clearly not sufficiently well maintained! The flipper is now hanging limp and useless!

Darknight still has control though, and Killing Joke turns to face in the other direction - what can it have planned? A shot from the taser makes contact with Killing Joke’s axe but Killing Joke has its eyes set on another prize - driving away? At speed? Oh my goodness- straight into the bumpers! The bumpers coil and flip Killing Joke away - straight back to where it came from in position 6! But now it’s flipped and can’t right itself! Dark Lord takes the opportunity to take some cheap shots - three more hits from the taser and that’s Killing Joke’s axe handing limp and useless, the circuitry is fried! Finally some deft work on the control stick gets Killing Joke upright but it must be running out of options?

What’s it is - oh, it’s charging at the bumper walls again!

Boioioing - where does it end up now? Position #9 and it looks VERY badly dented now, as well as being flipped. Dark Lord retreats again, clearly worried that Killing Joke has something up its sleeve, then recommences tasering - two more hits, these aimed at disconnecting the spikes from the chassis of the bot. Killing Joke again rights itself, but then again immediately charges into the bumper walls - and this time it looks terminal - the hard springers flip Killing Joke up and into the air before crashing it down to earth, where the chassis, already loose, completely disengages from the completely defunct motor.

After a hard-fought battle, Dark Lord takes a well-deserved victory lap, which the announcer calls out over the tannoy:

DARK LORD WINS BY TKO!

Viewership for this Bout was 2-4.

Story Post: Bout #15: Credit Score: F vs CrowBot2000 [lendunistus vs Raven1207]

Hello and welcome back to Radio 4, where we’re covering the BlogBot championship, just like everyone else, but here we do it calmly. Just a reminder that BlogBot is a sport for people with high blood pressure, too, and sometimes those people want t hear the goings on without too much yelling or fuss.

Here we are - and what a nice crowd we have today. The fans of CrowBot2000 call themselves the Crowboys, and wander around in the convention halls with black wings strapped onto their arms and sports caps on backwards, talking like they’ve just come from a fraternity or a ball sports game… It’s not known how Raven1207 feels about this, as it seems to have sprung up from an internet meme, but these young people seem to be having a whale of a time.

Oh - here we go - the bout’s about to begin,

To the left, in position 4, we have Credit Score F. A bit of an enigma, this bot; it started out as a weird hunk of bolts that looked like it had been set up deliberately to loose, then at one point became the most expensive bot in the league, but it still hasn’t managed to bank any wins. Perhaps tonight will be it’s night?

And over there, in position 15, is the aforementioned CrowBot2000. CrowBot seems to have been fitted with an experimental flamethrower system - no-one is quite sure how it will work, least of all Raven1207.

Between them sits the Colonel, a doughty, solid presence overseeing it all with a stentorian eye. It’s nice that young people today still have a respect for authority and leadership; the Colonel is a reminder that your elders still have wisdom.

Oh, how nice, the match has begun now.

Well, it’s off to a busy old start, that’s for sure; Credit Score: F has busied its way forward. It has met the Colonel in the middle of the arena and I’m afraid to say that a little jostle has taken place. Credit Score F has a bit more poke than the Colonel, but only a little, so the old fellow has fallen back a couple of steps before digging his heels in.

Here’s CrowBot now coming in from the other side - oh, bump! Haha, isn’t that nice, it seems like the two younger Bots are trying to give the old Colonel a nice hug! Isn’t that - oh - oh, oh no, no, Credit Score F, you don’t hug with a taser, that’s not a nice h- CROWBOT WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU DON’T HUG WITH A FLAMETHROWER, OH MY GOD

...

Ladies and gentleman, I will spare you the details of what has transpired here today. I am sad to say that respect for our veterans is not as high as we may have wished. Suffice it to say that the Colonel has been thoroughly disrespected, and the two Bots who perpetrated this outrage - so obsessed with their act of wanton disobedience - got stuck into a loop of alternately firing a taser into the poor Colonel and dousing it with flamethrower fuel.

So busy were they that they didn’t notice the time-out buzzer, and CrowBot2000 was the disrespectful child who was first to be caught out by the sudden death mechanism. Credit Score: F wins by TKO.

...and I have just been handed a note to say that The Eveningly Calm BlogBot Update has been cancelled, immediately. Thank you for listening and goodnight.

Viewership: 3 to Credit Score, 1 to CrowBot.

Proposal: Making the bot your own

Times out 2-4 and fails -SingularByte

Adminned at 27 Jul 2022 12:27:55 UTC

Create a subrule of Bot Loadout called Mods:

Every component (chassis, engine or system) may have any number of mods. The presence of mods on a component is signified by prefixing the name of the component with those mods. Mods may not be added to or removed from a component that is already installed in a bot or inside a Spare Parts Bin and it can only be added at the moment that the component is purchased, unless otherwise stated.  A given mod may only be installed on a given instance of a component once unless otherwise stated.

The properties a mod has are a name, optionally a cost adjustment (in the form of a multiplier or a flat increase or decrease) to the component it is installed on, optionally a consumption adjustment (in the form of a multiplier or a flat increase or decrease) to the component it is installed on, optionally an effect, and a list of Eligibility Criteria for which components may have that mod. The multipliers for the cost adjustment and consumption adjustment may be any positive real number. Engines may gain a consumption as a result of mods, and default to a consumption of 0.

If a mod refers to itself as a component, system, engine or chassis, it is considered to be referring to the component, system, engine or chassis that the mod is installed on.

The mods are:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Mods
|-
! Name || Cost Adjustment || Consumption Adjustment || Effect || Eligibility Criteria
|-
| Polearm || x1.5 || x1.2 || Melee range for this system is 3 to 5 spaces in front of the actor || Any melee system
|-
| Stubby || x0.75 || - || Melee range for this system is 1 space in front of the actor || Any melee system
|-
| Side-mounted || x1.75 || - || This system is able to be used while the actor is flipped || Any non-passive system
|-
| Back-mounted || - || - || Any references this system's effect makes to anything in front of the actor is instead referring to behind the actor. Melee range is counts the spaces behind the bot rather than in front of it. || Any system
|-
| Twin-linked || x2 || x3 || This system's effect applies twice whenever it is used. This system is installed in two hardpoints instead of one. || Any non-passive system
|-
| Resilient || x2 || - || This component takes half condition loss (rounded down). || Any component
|-
| Fragile || x0.75 || - || This component takes double condition loss. || Any component
|-
| Mound-shaped || +800 || - || If the bot with this chassis would gain the Flipped status, they do not. Due to being a larger target, any condition loss that any systems of the bot with this chassis would receive is also received by its chassis. Due to the unusual shape, this chassis has 1 hardpoint fewer than its model would normally dictate. || Any chassis
|-
| Lunge-capable || +500 || +75 || If the bot with this engine uses a melee system, they move forwards 1 space before using the melee system. || Any engine
|-
| Sponsored || - || - || If viewership scores are calculated for the bout by the announcer, that viewership score is 3 less for this bot but money earned from the bout is increased by 400 irrespective of whether the bout has been won or lost. This effect only applies at most once per bot per bout, irrespective of how many sponsored components that bot has. || Any component
|}

Apply the mound-shaped mod to the chassis of every bot that has the Mound-Shaped Body system. Remove the Mound-shaped body entry from the rule Systems and from the list of systems of every bot that has that system.

In BotScript, reword the sentence “If it’s a Melee System and the Opponent’s Bot is not in any of the three spaces immediately in front of the reacting Bot, then the System’s Effect is instead not used.” to:

If it’s a Melee System and the Opponent’s Bot is not in melee range of the reacting Bot (by default, 1 to 3 spaces immediately in front of the actor), then the System’s Effect is instead not used.

If you’ve ever wanted the chance to use a sponsored back-mounted side-mounted resilient twin-linked polearm grinder, this is the proposal for you.

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Proposal: Don’t tar all bots with the same brush

Timed out and enacted, 4-0. Josh

Adminned at 26 Jul 2022 17:44:53 UTC

Repeal the rule Very Aggressive if it exists.

In BotScript:

Replace the trigger ‘“If the Opponent [has / does not have] Y…” where Y is any Status.’
with

If the [first / second / third / [...]] closest Opponent [has / does not have] Y…” where Y is any Status.

Replace the trigger ‘“If the Opponent [has / does not have] Z…”, where Z is any system.’
with

If the [first / second / third / [...]] closest Opponent [has / does not have] Z…”, where Z is any system.

Replace the Reaction “...use the following System:”
with

...use the following System [on the [first / second / third / [...]] closest Opponent]:

To the end of BotScript, append:

If an opponent is being referred to with an ordinal by a trigger or reaction but that opponent is not valid (either due to not enough opponents being in range or otherwise), then the closest valid ordinal to that ordinal is used (rounding down where there is a tie). If no such opponents exist, then the Reaction in that reaction/trigger pair is not considered resolvable. If an ordinal would be required but none is provided (such as if multiple enemies are within range of a system), the ordinal defaults to “first” and the appropriate snippet is implicitly assumed to be in that script entry for the purposes of resolving that instance of that trigger/reaction pair.

Append the following to the House bot entry in configuration (if that entry exists):

A trashed or defunct house bot is immediately removed from the bout, and if its current space does not have a physical obstacles (as defined in the configuration physical obstacles), then it gains a physical obstacle and is handled as per that configuration.

In the Bumper Sides configuration of Configuration, replace “random square” with “random empty square”.

In the effect of Nox Tank in Systems, replace the sentence “If all Bots in a Bout have this System then it has no further effect.” with:

If more than one Bot in a Bout has this System then it has no further effect.

The final change is an unrelated bug-fix - since house bots are bots but generally don’t have Nox Tanks, you could end up with both player bots starting on the left which feels a bit messy.

Proposal: The house always loses

Timed out and failed, 1-5. Josh

Adminned at 26 Jul 2022 17:44:32 UTC

If there exists a rule entitled “Configuration” then delete the list item beginning “House bot:” from that rule.

Three bots are a bad fit for a one-dimensional battlefield.

Call for Judgment: Very Aggressive

Timed out and failed, 3 up, 3 down. Josh

Adminned at 26 Jul 2022 10:49:48 UTC

In BotScript, append the rule named “Very Aggressive” that reads as follows;

If any Effect contains any instances of “The Opponent” which may affect more than one bot is activated, the Announcer should randomly choose a Bot able to be affected to be affected privately.

 

House Bots rn is a solid wall and let’s fix it

Saturday, July 23, 2022

Story Post: Announcement #14

New banners were put up on the front of the arena hall building overnight. The following morning, when the spectators arrived, pouring out of their municipal gondolas, they saw two vast images flanking the main doors.

On one of them was a composite of the faces of Brendan and Darknight, over text that said: THE DARK LORD vs THE KILLING JOKE. The subtitle underneath it reads: BUMPER SIDES.

The other was a composite of the faces of chiiika and SingularByte, this one reading YVETTE THE BOTMISTRESS vs HARD HAT. Underneath that was another subtitle: THE COLONEL and BUMPER SIDES.

When the ticket shutters opened a few minutes later, the queues were already a hundred deep.

Proposal: Cut The Livestream

Times out 5-2.  - Jumble

Adminned at 25 Jul 2022 20:57:54 UTC

Repeal the rule “Viewership Score”.

Story Post: Bout #14: Hard Hat vs Sunrise [SingularByte vs Jumble]

The two bots are entering the arena to their signature theme songs… From the left, trundling into position 4 to the sounds of the YMCA, Hard Hat does a little spin for the cameras… And over there, at the far side of the arena, Sunrise is moving towards position 15 with The House of the Rising Sun playing over the speakers. A little on the nose, don’t you think, Jason?

I do, Sammy, I do… Well, in any case, the stadium here is at capacity and they are lapping it up, so let’s see - Oh! Just like that, they’re off!

And - ah! Oh! Ah!

Did you see that!

Jason, did you see that!

I did! Just like that, it’s over -

What a remarkable -

I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it, Sammy.

Me neither. Barely even a second.

To be honest, we shouldn’t have been surprised - again and again we see bots getting into the ring with Hard Hat, forgetting just how much shove that little Bot has.

It’s the nuclear engine, Jason .

It sure is, Sammy. But again, what happened here is, before Sunrise even had a chance to move, or to make use of the obstacles in the arena, was Hard Hat did the big chu-chu and sprinted across the arena, slammed into it, and pushed it straight out of the arena with its big Cattle Catcher.

A lot of disappointed faces in the crowd here, Jason - a lot of people hoping to see a proper match - but that’s what happens when you come in with a technically good robot but without preparing your tactics.

That’s right - and here’s the judges to make it formal - there is is. Hard Hat wins by TKO.

Viewership: 4-1, I think

Proposal: Foodpandaing

Vetoed. Josh

Adminned at 25 Jul 2022 16:20:44 UTC

Repeal the rule Configuration.

The rider gets a takeaway!

Since Josh’s Elimination Round has enough Quorum EVCs but is going to fail, why not give a new proposal

Story Post: Bout #13: Annoy-o-Tron vs DuckTank [Trapdoorspyder vs SupernovaStarbright]

There appears to be a man in the crowd today wearing head to toe red robes, screaming “RAFA NADAAAAAAAAL” at the top of his lungs. Only in BlogBot, right?

Oh - it’s starting!

TO MY LEFT! The irritation of the workstation, the pest of the best, piloted by Trapdoorspyder and starting in position 4, IT’S…. ANNOY-O-TRON!

AND TO MY RIGHT! If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, IT’S PROBABLY A TON OF METAL DEATH! Operated by SupernovaStarbright and starting in position 17, IT’S… DUCKTANK!

AND BETWEEN THEM!

The crowd gasps…

BETWEEN THEM! YOU’LL SALUTE WHEN REFERRING TO HIM - IN POSITION 10 - IT’S THE COLONEL!

THREE!... TWO!... ONE! ACTIVATE!

The two operator Bots are circling warily, clearly unsure of how to respond tactically to the presence of the burly, bristling house bot. Annoy-o-Tron nudges forward to position 7, just out of the Colonel’s range, while the Colonel sketchs out a patrol pattern in the middle of the arena, keeping the competitors at bay. DuckTank starts inching forward, but Annoy-o-Tron has had enough, and plants itself, Trapdoorspyder clearly waiting to see if the fight can resolve itself without his intervention! The Colonel continues to circle while DuckTank creeps forward, but after a second the Colonel’s patrol ends - it has fixed its view on Annoy-o-Tron!

DuckTank makes use of this focus to sneak up behind the Colonel and rams it from behind! It’s a big hit but it leaves DuckTank in a precarious spot - the explosion tile underneath the Bot shocks it upwards, Loosening all of its joints! The startled Sargent bumps but does not react! Annoy-o-Tron is still watching but DuckTank spots an opportunity and shoves, jabbing out its battering ram for extra effect - and now the Colonel is on Annoy-o-Tron’s lap, DuckTank having delivered the House Bot right to its opponent’s front yard!

Annoy-o-Tron reacts with its giant axe - slam, right into the chassis of the poor House Bot! The Colonel never asked for this, to be ganged up on in this way! And to make matters worse, the Colonel is on a flame tile and is being Scorches by licking fire!

The Colonel tries to shove Annoy-o-Tron away but it doesn’t have the power in its motor - it just bumps into him ineffectually five times - while DuckTank is stuck behind the Colonel, trying to pish forward but in vain as the combined weight of the two bots can’t shift!

Down comes the axe again - and again - and again! It’s carnage but the Colonel can’t take it - after a few more chops its chassis is shattered! Normally that would be the end of it but this is a house bot so the end of the bout doesn’t trigger! For long minutes we’re stuck in the status quo - DuckTank trying to push past the corpse of the Corporal, Annoy-o-Tron contenting himself to run up a cricket score of strikes on the stricken House Bot! After fifteen or so axe blows, the judges indicate that neither Bot has tally - as blows to the House Bot don’t count - so we’re going to sudden death!

Does either Bot have anything left in the can? It looks like no - and after a few seconds, the ring of explosions makes its way to position 7, and Annoy-o-Tron is send flying into the air, its Chassis entirely shattered. That’s it - the match is called!

DuckTank wins by TKO!

Proposal: Shove clarity

Enacted 4-0. Josh

Adminned at 25 Jul 2022 16:19:14 UTC

If the Bout between SingularByte and Jumble announced in Announcement #13 has been resolved in Jumble’s favour due to SingularByte failing to set their Readiness to Set then undo the resolution of that Bout, consider it to have been announced at the time of the enactment of this proposal, and set the status of both of those Operators to Staging.

Reword the rule When Push Comes To Shove to read as follows:

When an actor has an opponent in a space adjacent to it and and its reaction is to move into or beyond that opponent’s space, the existing reaction ceases to take effect and instead a Shove occurs.

A Shove is resolved as follows:
* The Shove Power of the actor and opponent is calculated, where Shove Power is Effective Power Output minus 50% of the consumption of the chassis and every system on the bot.
* For every 50 that the Shove Power of the Actor exceeds the Shove Power of the Opponent, both the Actor and Opponent move in the direction that the Actor stated they were moving in by 1 space, up to the number of spaces the Actor’s script stated they were moving.
* Scratch Damage is taken by both the Actor and the Opponent.

The Shove Power of a bot is halved if they are shoving (or being shoved by) a bot they are facing away from.

If there is no rule called Configuration then any Bouts that were announced in Announcement #13 that have yet to be resolved by the Announcer cease to have their listed Configurations apply, and this proposal has no further effect.

In the rule Configuration, change “When a Bot is Shoved in while occupying a square that has another square above or below it, instead of being moved backwards, it is moved into one of the squares above or below it and is flipped” to say:

If a Shove is taking place and, during the resolution of that Shove, the Opponent passes through a square that has another square above or below it, instead of being moved backwards, it is moved into one of the squares above or below it (at random if both are present) and is flipped, and then the Shove immediately ends.

Resolving a debatable ambiguity in the Shove rules. I accept that on the current reading SingularByte’s interpretation is more likely to be correct, but I’m setting this to work the way I’d like it to work because otherwise I think that the Physical Obstacles configuration becomes pointless.

Friday, July 22, 2022

Proposal: Infinite Range Automotives

Reaches quorum with 8-2 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 24 Jul 2022 07:26:59 UTC

In the rule “Bot Loadout”, subrule “Systems”, add “Melee System:” to the starts of the Effects of the Systems “Flamethrower” and “Pincers”.

These are infinite range rn, let’s just fix that

Story Post: Announcement #13

S-S-S-S-S-SUPER-SUPER-SUPER-SUPER-SATURDAAAAAAAY

Here on Prime BlogBot TV we bring you ALL the fights, ALL the action, ALL your favourite Bots in the Ultimate BlogBot League

SATURDAY ARENA HALL C
It’s a default notice against an angry bird - that’s right, it’s lendunistus’ Credit Score:F vs Raven1207’s CrowBot2000!

Expect to see Arena Hall C tricked out with Bumper Sides, and word has it the the Colonel might make an appearance…!

SATURDAY ARENA HALL F
The sun may set in the west but it’s clocking off time on the construction site well before that - let’s see what happens when Jumble’s Sunrise meets SingularByte’s Hard Hat.

Arena Hall F has had special obstacles in place - so we’ll be seeing squares above positions 10 and 18 on the arena floor.

SATURDAY ARENA HALL A
One is a mallard, the other gets a reaction, and in Arena Hall A it’s be cooking - it’s Trapdoorspyder’s Annoy-o-Tron versus SupernovaStarbright’s Ducktank

The Colonel has been sighted in the vicinity of Arena Hall A, and that’s not all - word is that trap panels have been installed, two flame panels - one at position 1, another at position 8 - and an explosion panel at position 11.

Make sure you tune in - you won’t want to miss this!

Story Post: Bout #12: The Killing Joke vs Hard Hat [Darknight vs Singularbyte]

Arena Hall A was packed - so thick with people that they were crushed against the perspex safety barrier that separated the stalls from the arena itself. Fans of the Killing Joke could be picked out from their lurid green make-up, while Hard Hatters were identifiable by their pastiche construction worker gear. The atmosphere was electric when -

THE LIGHTS WENT DOWN!

And then, a single spotlight on position 4 - THE KILLING JOKE in pole position, its motor already revving!

A second spotlight on position 15 - HARD HAT! A fresh yellow paint job makes it glisten in the arena lights!

And then the floodlight flash to life and the bout is on!

It’s the Killing Joke first out of the blocks, springing forward. This bot has added sharp spikes to its chassis and - oh, they’re not for show! It smashes into Hard Hat, ripping deep gouges into that Cattle Catcher! But right in front of Hard Hat is not where you ever want to be, so this may be a tactical error - Hard Hat now bumping forward as well, into the spikes, and only now do we see - yes! Hard Hat has gone nuclear! This bot is powered by the atom! Killing Joke had no answer to that kind of shoving power, and, spikes be damned, this bout will end the same way that the first did - Killing Joke is shoved from the ring!

Hard Hat wins by TKO!

Proposal: Gonna be the very best

Withdrawn and fails -SingularByte

Adminned at 24 Jul 2022 07:25:46 UTC

Create a rule called “Elo” with the text:

Each player has an Elo score calculated from their bouts. This is a real number which has 1 decimal place and gets rounded to the nearest such number when being set to a value that has more decimal places. It defaults to 1000. The new Elo of the participants of a bout are calculated by the Announcer at the conclusion of each bout via https://www.omnicalculator.com/sports/elo, setting the development coefficient to 40 in the advanced settings - or, if the site is unavailable, by calculating the results using the standard Elo rating system formulas (again with a development coefficient of 40).

The player with the highest Elo that is above 1100 (defined as the Championship Threshold) is the Battle Bot Champion and has achieved victory. If multiple players hold the highest Elo, no players can achieve victory via being the Battle Bot Champion. As a weekly action, the announcer can and should should modify this Championshop Threshold in the rules text of this rule, decreasing it by 10. This action should not be performed the week that this rule enters the ruleset.

Upon enactment of this proposal, all Elos should be calculated for each player via the method described, performing each Elo change in the order that the bouts occured. Bout #10 should be considered to have been won by the player Chiiika for the purposes of this Elo calculation.

I honestly don’t see the current win condition being something that anyone will go for, so even though we’re in the middle of repealing some rules, here’s a simpler win condition. Win enough matches to get a high enough Elo and you win. You’ll get roughly ~20 Elo per win, and past victories are counted.

Proposal: Elimination Round

Reaches 2-6, and therefore cannot achieve quorum and fails. -SingularByte

Adminned at 24 Jul 2022 07:24:48 UTC

Repeal the rules Viewership Score and Income.

If a majority of the EVCs on this post contain the word “More”, also repeal the rule Configuration.

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Story Post: Announcement #12: It’s A Rematch

When the arena hall doors opened this morning, spectators were shocked and thrilled to find the front foyer dominated by a huge totem - an effigy of a spike, bursting through the ground until it pierced, high above the heads of the crowd, an comedically oversized bright yellow hard hat.

Also decorating the spike was a sign with a simple message: “REMATCH?”

The screens were showing that only one match would be taking place that day: The Killing Joke vs Hard Hat, round 2.

Proposal: New Drops

Times out 5-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 22 Jul 2022 17:37:22 UTC

Add the following new Systems:

| Nox Tank || ₩800 || 88 || Passive: At the start of a Bout this System’s Condition drops to 0%. If all Bots in a Bout have this System then it has no further effect. This Bot always starts a Bout on the left
| Inverter Driver || ₩2,700 || 310 || Passive: A Bot with this system that is flipped automatically ceases to be flipped at the start of its turn, before its script is run
| Flamethrower || ₩1,900 || 130 || The Opponent takes 15% Chassis condition reduction and 5% condition reduction to all Systems, and becomes Scorched
| Pincers || ₩1,100 || 190 || The Opponent becomes Loose
| Signal Jammer || ₩900 || 330 || The Opponent becomes Scrambled for the next two turns

Call for Judgment: Bout #10

Enacted 7-0. Josh

Adminned at 22 Jul 2022 13:21:37 UTC

Bout #10, lendunistus vs chiiika, was incorrectly resolved by me. Sorry! I misread a round instruction as a turn instruction. Oops.

The rules don’t give me much to work on when questioning how to correct an incorrectly processed Bout, and in this case the outcome varies greatly, so to the CfJ we do.

Uphold that Bout #10 is correctly resolved, and then:
* For chiiika’s Bot, correct the gamestate to the values it would have if Bout 10 had resolved without that Bot having lost 4% Chassis condition, 3% flipper condition and 2% taser condition, and instead had taken 25% chassis condition and 10% engine condition.
* For lendunistus’ Bot, correct the gamestate to the values it would have if Bout 10 had resolved without that Bot having lost 3% axe condition and 1% taser condition, and had instead lost 4% axe condition, 4% taser condition and 4% chassis condition.
* Remove ₩2,000 from lendunistus and award it to chiiika. If this would set lendunistus’ Money to an invalid value then revert all actions since Bout 10 that they carried out that caused them to lose ₩, from the most recent working backwards, until they have at least ₩2,000 available to carry out this step, and then carry out this step.
* For the purposes of future Viewership calculations consider chiiika and Yvette the Botmistress to have won Bout 10 and not lendunistus and Credit Score: F

Basically, Yvette closes to position 5, Credit Score hits it with an axe, Yvette flips Credit Score, Credit Score has no flip mechanism so is stuck, Yvette tasers to TKO.

Sorry for the mixup.

Proposal: Blast Off

Withdrawn and failed -SingularByte

Adminned at 22 Jul 2022 13:08:21 UTC

Add the following sentence to the effect of Flipper in Systems:

The Actor has access the the reaction “...use the system Flipper and fling self to move [1 space / 2 spaces] [forwards / backwards]” but if the Actor is not Flipped when this reaction is used, the movement component of the reaction is disregarded. Moving into a bot using this reaction is considered to be Bumping and cannot cause a shove. Moving two spaces with this reaction does not cause the moving bot to move into the space it would move past - it skips over that space without entering it.

This is my own version of the flip-lock fix; now you can use flipper to fling yourself out of range. If paired with the Evasion changes, it should leave several options for dealing with flippers.

Proposal: Evasive action

Times out 1-1 and fails -SingularByte

Adminned at 22 Jul 2022 13:06:50 UTC

Change the reaction “...evade” to

“...evade [X spaces [forwards / backwards]]” where X is a positive integer that is less than or equal to 3.

Add a trigger to BotScript: “If the Opponent is evading…”

Change the rule Evasion to:

When a Bot evades, it moves out of the direct line of attack, requiring its opponent to compensate. The Evasion Destination is the space that the optional section that of the Evade reaction refers to relative to the Actor; it is the number of spaces forwards or backwards from the actor’s current space that the reaction dictates. If that optional section is omitted, the evasion destination is the bot’s current space. As part of the Evade reaction, if the evading bot has a different Evasion Destination than its own current space, the bot changes its location to the Evasion Destination and turns to face the space that they vacated. The bot is not considered to have moved through the spaces that lie between its previous space and its Evasion Destination.

If the evading bot did not also evade in its last turn, the evading Bot is not considered to be present in any space until the start of its next Turn (or until it gains a status, whichever comes first), except for the purposes of calculating Evasion Destinations (defined in this rule), BotScript Triggers (which treat the evading bot as if it had not moved to its Evasion Destination during the evade reaction), checking for Melee and Taser spaces (in both of which cases the number of squares checked is reduced by one), Sudden Death detonations, being In Bounds and the rule Configuration - each of which use the Evasion Destination as the bot’s location.

If multiple Bots occupy the same space, they both take Scratch Damage and the bot that most recently evaded moves one space forwards; this is considered to be a kind of Bumping.

I’ve been considering some changes to evasion, so here’s my version of it (integrating chiiika’s change too). Now, evading is less about having a turn of intangibility and invisibility and more about repositioning while baiting out attacks. Repeated dodges let you move but no longer make you intangible, and arena effects can also screw things up for you if they hit you with a status. You can also now check if an opponent is evading, but this does take up a vital slot in the botscript line and doesn’t tell you where they are now.

Story Post: Bout #11: The Killing Joke vs Hard Hat [darknight vs SingularByte]

A mighty fanfare rings through Arena Hall D as The Killing Joke rolls into position. Darknight enters the Operator pit waving to the crowd, who cheer and yell wildly, but SingularByte is focused - muttering the game plan to himself under his breath, psyching himself out.

TO MY LEFT! In position number 4, a newcomer, painted in lurid white and green - IT’S THE KILLING JOKE!

And ON THE RIGHT! Starting in position 16, a veteran of these halls, battle-hardened and reinforced - IT’S HARD HAT!

AND WE’RE OFF!

Killing Joke makes a big move forward to position 8 but - what’s this? Hard Hat revs its engine a few times and then - oh my goodness! A little panel has opened on top of its yellow dome and a smoke-stack chimney has poked out! CHOO-CHOO! And then a HUGE slam forward, its Cow-Catcher front and centre, slamming into Killing Joke - oh, the power differential there! Hard Hat’s hydraulic engine and light buildout giving it a huge advantage over the heavier Killing Joke meaning that the yellow peril completely has its way! Killing Joke is offering no resistance at all - and there it is! Hard Hat pulls up the brakes on position 1 and ejects Killing Joke into the gutter at pace! That’s it, it’s all over folks - Killing Joke is out of bounds and out of this Bout!

Hard Hat wins by TKO!

The viewership for this bout was 6-1.

Story Post: Bout #10: Credit Score: F vs Yvette the Botmistress [lendunistus vs chiiika]

In the Insularic Series Yvette is often represented as a stern school-teacher type character, and here in Arena Hall F we can see that caricature out in full effect: the away fans are packing out the hall, and reports are that since the bout was announced the BlogBot website has barely managed to cope with the demand for tickets for this Bout. Here’s hoping it’s a classic for the ages.

Ah - here go the lights - it’s starting!

IN THE BLUE CORNER, in position #4, the local talent, the hometown champ, the reason you’ll be renting forever, IT’S: CREDIT SCORE:F!

AND IN THE RED CORNER, in position 16, the ma’am with most, the automation that gives detention, IT’S: YVETTE THE BOTMISTRESS!

Contenders… READY! THREE… TWO… ONE!

And we’re off! A cagey opening from Credit Score, shuttling a bit forward to position 6, and then a tactical move from Yvette, working around the perimeter of the arena to position 15. Both Bots staying just outside of each others’ reach, looking for an opening - here’s Credit Score F again, poking into Yvette’s range, holding a position at around the 8th square, and now Yvette, once again giving a little cautious nudge forward into 14 - but that’s close enough for Credit Score F, who fires off his taser, jolting Yvette right in the flipper!

(Is it just me or do some of those parts on Yvette look poorly maintained? Compared to Credit Score, at least, where everything is gleaming and new…)

Yvette, of course, has a taser of her own, and now we’re in an artillery fight, the two Bots circling each other, maintaining distance and trading taser shots! After three taser strikes Credit Score F has fried the circuitry on Yvette’s flipper, but Yvette needs four shots to do the same to Credit Score’s axe, and by then Credit score has moved on, and is jolting Yvette’s own taser - two shots and the taser is down, Yvette is defenceless!

But of course Yvette has one of the best pilots in the business, and chiiika won’t make this easy for her opponent. Immediately she goes into evasive manoeuvres, but Credit Score closes the gap even more, moving into position 10, and resumes fire with its taser - these shots are now hitting the chassis but the electric shock damage is hitting the vulnerable engine! Yvette can only take so much of this, surely - one hit, two, three - and then a fourth, and Yvette showly comes to a halt, with chiiika in the Operator pen shaking the remote control in frustration. The judges have called it! It’s Credit Score: F by TKO!

Viewership on this one was 3 to lendunistus and 1 to chiiika

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Call for Judgment: Conservation of Sight

Times out at 2-1 and fails -SingularByte

Adminned at 22 Jul 2022 07:15:46 UTC

In Evasion, change the following line;

The evading Bot is not considered to be present in any space until the start of its next Turn; except for the purposes of checking for Melee and Taser spaces (in both of which cases the number of squares checked is reduced by one), Sudden Death detonations and being In Bounds.

into;

The evading Bot is not considered to be present in any space until the start of its next Turn; except for the purposes of BotScript Triggers, checking for Melee and Taser spaces (in both of which cases the number of squares checked is reduced by one), Sudden Death detonations and being In Bounds.

You aren’t going invisible when you’re evading.

Story Post: Bout #9: Annoy-o-Tron vs CrowBot2000 [Trapdoorspyder vs Raven1207]

The Arena Hall is packed to capacity for the match between Annoy-o-Tron and CrowBot2000, as the fans curiously line up to see the newcomer in action.

To the left of the arena, in position #4, is the familiar domed body of Annoy-o-Tron - its pilot, Trapdoorspyder, poised and ready in the control booth.

To the right, CrowBot2000, its hydraulic ram just peaking out from its confusing mass of camouflaging feathers. In the control booth, Raven1207 appears to be frantically searching for something.

Then the siren blasts - this bout is on!

Annoy-o-Tron leaps out of the gates, moving to a tactical position in square 10 - but CrowBot2000 isn’t moving? What is this? Oh, no - it looks like Operator Raven1207 has somehow lost his control pad! He’s turning over the control booth frantically and signalling at the judges to halt the match, but that’s not how it goes in BlogBots - once the match is on, it’s on! Trapdoorspyder spots the furore and takes immediate advantage - moving forward to position 14, he proceeds to direct Annoy-o-Tron to brutalise the CrowBot with its axe - huge mighty chops raining down on the CrowBot and all its pilot can do is watch. The crowd are going wild but this act of brutality is over in minutes - in four mighty blows the Annoy-o-Tron has cleaved through CrowBot’s chassis and exposed the engine within.

With CrowBot trashed, Annoy-o-Tron takes a parade of the arena floor, taking in the adulation of the fans, while the jumbotron broadcasts the result - ANNOY-O-TRON WINS BY TKO!

Raven1207 did not submit a script for this Bout.

The viewership for this Bout was: 7 to Annoy-o-Tron, 1 to CrowBot2000

Story Post: Announcement #11

The Workshop is a mess of noise; the sound of hammers falling rhythmically on steel, rivets being rivetted, acetylene torches fixing seams. Row after row of concentrating faces, pit teams working round the clock to keep their Bots bout-ready in this room the size of an aircraft hanger.

Suddenly, SingularByte feels the hairs stand up on his neck. He looks up from Hard Hat and the spot-weld he is in the middle off, scans the room, steps away from his bench, looking for a threat he can sense but can’t see.

“What’s got you bothered, Hard Hat?” asks Kevan from his own bench.

“Viene la tormenta,” mutters SingularByte.

“Eh?”

SingularByte turns and faces Kevan, his eyes fixed through the other Operator, looking for something beyond the walls, over the horizon, a sense of creeping doom… “The storm is coming,” he says.

Then, the huge hangar door starts to winch open, and SingularByte turns to face it, that huge door the size of a football pitch being opened, and all for one figure, silhouetted in the frame, backlit and shrouded in smoke, one figure and a Bot besides it, while over the tannoy:

“Now announcing: SingularByte with Hard Hat will next face Darknight with The Killing Joke in Arena Hall C.”

Proposal: Car Park, Out Back, Ten Minutes

Withdrawn and failed -SingularByte

Adminned at 21 Jul 2022 13:39:32 UTC

Add a new rule called Exhibition Bouts:

Two Operators whose Readiness is Workshop may privately arrange to hold an Exhibition Bout. When they do so they should each privately inform the Announcer of that decision; at the first opportunity after receiving those messages when the two Operators both a Readiness of Workshop, the Announcer should change their Readiness to Staging, and, once both Operators have a Readiness of Set, run an Exhibition Bout with them, as usual, with the following changes:

* The Announcer does not need to make an Announcement for an Exhibition Bout
* There is no Configuration for the Arena in an Exhibition Bout
* An Exhibition Bout may not end by Domination and there is no Sudden Death; it can only end by TKO
* If an Exhibition Bout runs to 60 turns or more then it is inconclusive and has no winners
* If there is a winner in an Exhibition Bout then the Winner gains ₩4,000 minus difference between the Bot Values of the winner and loser (this difference may not hold negative value; if the Winner’s Bot has a lower Bot Value than the loser’s Bot then the difference is considered to be zero and the prize pool is unaffected).
* If there is no winner in an Exhibition Bout then all participants lose ₩1,000
* Viewership is not calculated for an Exhibition Bout

If Proposal: Your Name In Lights was enacted then add the following to the bulleted list added above:

* Winning an Exhibition Bout does not count as winning a Bout for the purposes of the LED Banner

A high-risk, high-reward way of running side pools

Proposal: If you swing around enough, it might work

Times out 4-3 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 21 Jul 2022 13:37:06 UTC

In the rule Statuses, append the following to the Status “Flipped”:

If a Bot is Flipped, it will cease to be Flipped after 3 turns have passed. When a Bot ceases to be Flipped, it can not be Flipped again for one turn. A Bot cannot become Flipped while it is Flipped.

The long awaited flip nerf (with a loop prevention also included)

Monday, July 18, 2022

Story Post: Announcement #9

...And now we cut into our main story tonight with some breaking news. The Ultimate BlogBot League has tonight revealed a surprise in this year’s BlogBot tournament: none other than the Champions of the Pan-Insularic Robot Fighting Series will be joining the contest, the first time since the inception of the sport that competitors from outside the League have been permitted to participate. Our correspondent, Jenny Haniver, is reporting from the BlogBot Arena:

Yes, that’s right Jens, in a brief update splashed on the video boards in the arena, and corroborated as genuine on Twitter, the UBBL tonight announced that tomorrow’s agenda would feature two exhibition matches, each of which would feature a well-known, yet entirely new, face.

[A brief clip is shown of a crowd gathered in front of a wall-sized screen, on which the word ANNOUNCEMENT is emblazoned, followed by a logo denoting that a new challenger has entered the contest, sending the crowd into an excited frenzy]

Fans have speculated for years that this might happen - that, despite high-profile tension between the stars of the two leagues, behind-the scenes co-operations has been steadily making this inevitable. Still, tonight the milestone has been reached: tomorrow, the Champions of the Pan-Insularic Series will take on some of their Archepaelic rivals.

[An infographic breaking down the career stats and highlights of two players]

First up, Annoy-o-Tron, fresh off of its win against Min-Mox, will accept the challenge of CrowBot2000, the famous fighting robot piloted by Raven1207. I have to tell you, Jens, this match-up has been theorised on the internet by armchair Botologists and fan-fic writers alike; the match-up of the two Bots statistically even sometimes being overshadowed by the tension between the online fandoms of their pilots.

[A clip of a robot methodically dissecting another robot]

Just as intriguing will be the bout between the newly revamped Credit Score: F and three-time Insularic champion Yvette the Botmistress. Rumour has it that Credit Score: F - previously a bit of an also-ran in the Archepelaic League - has attracted some serious sponsorship in the hopes that it will put up a good fight against the visiting champ.

Thank you, Jenny. What’s the mood in the Arena Hall feeling like?

Well, this has certainly been a bit of a jolt - in an already unpredictable year this influx of new talent and fresh approaches makes the act of prediction harder than ever. But one thing is for sure: plenty of smiles on fan’s faces.

Haha, good stuff, thank you Jenny. Now, turning back to our latest coverage of rising sea levels…

Proposal: Flip-Loop-Break

Withdrawn. Josh

Adminned at 20 Jul 2022 10:59:33 UTC

In “Statuses”, change

Flipped: When an Actor is Flipped, any step in its Script that results in it moving or using a System is ignored, unless that step would also result in them ceasing to be Flipped.

to

Flipped: When an Actor is Flipped, the “Move forwards X times”, “Move backwards X times” and “Evade” reactions in their Bot’s Script do nothing instead.

Story Post: Bout #8: Annoy-o-Tron vs Min-Mox [Trapdoorspyder vs thundershrike]

The tournament organisers sometimes like to dress or light these arenas a little bit differently from time to time. Today they’ve thrown up a disco ball, which gives the whole ambience a much more jaunty feel. We’re sure that won’t last ones - ah, yes, here they come!

Here, to my left in position 4, maintaining the new configuration that worked so well against Hard Hat - it’s Trapdoorspyder’s Annoy-o-Tron!

And to my right, in position 13, still the most expensive Bot in the league - it’s Min-Mox!

And the green go light is lit and with barely a split-second in in Annoy-o-Tron has sprung forward - oh my goodness - it’s closed the entire length of the arena in an instant and slammed into Min-mox! What an incredible sight, just an instant visceral body-slam, and for the viewers at home I have to tell you - the collision of these two slabs of metal made the chairs in the arena shake - not that anyone was still sitting! Look at the crowd!

Annoy-o-Tron is trying to shove but isn’t having its way with Min-mox - both of these bots using state of the art nitrogen engines and neither has the power to budge the other! But Min-mox is disengaging - oh, it’s taking evasive manoeuvres - look at it go! Thundershrike there in the Operator pit, a look of fierce concentration on the young pilot’s face and he pilots circles around Annoy-o-Tron - and Annoy-o-Tron is all turned around - oh my goodness! The dancing Min-Mox has Annoy-o-Tron spinning in circles! It’s a stalemate - the superior piloting of Min-Mox completely confounding Annoy-o-Tron’s axe and its willingness to ram! They’re evasion-locked!

Before we know it we’re into SUDDEN DEATH and I’m afraid the writing is on the wall here - we’re deep into Min-mox’s half of the pitch! This can only go one way - Min-Mox, with its back against the wall, soon finds that the floor is what it really should have been worried about. The Sudden Death detonator under its position goes off, shattering its chassis and handing Trapdoorspyder the win! ANNOY-O-TRON WINS BY TKO!

Viewership here is 6 for Annoy-o-Tron and 2 for Min-mox.

Story Post: Bout #7: Duck-Boat of Doom vs Sunrise [SupernovaSunrise vs Jumble]

For those f you watching at home, I have to tell you, Arena Hall C is packed to the rafters and the atmosphere is incredible this afternoon. These two bots are fan favourites but only one can leave the arena today the winner!

To the left of the arena, in position number 4 - it’s DUCK-BOAT OF DOOOOOOOOM!

And to the right, in position number 16 - it’s SUNRIIIIIIIISE!

A massive gout of flame from the curves above the arena - and the siren blares - this bout is on!

Duck-Boat is the first to move, creeping cautiously forward. Then Sunrise - it’s a cagey match - the two bots jockeying for position. This is a very tactical match, already - the two bots circling the arena warily, inching close, neither quite willing to commit - until - oh! From position 8 Duck-Boat sees Sunrise move into position 12 and leaps forward, flipping up its duck-bill flipper to reveal the hydraulic piston battering ram underneath! Duck-Boat absolutely SMASHES into Sunrise - but Sunrise has that beefy Nitrogen-powered engine and will not be shoved!

The ram crunches into Sunrise’s Flipper but although the damage is palpable the system still functions - and Jumble proves it, by manoeuvring around Duck-Boat and slipping under its chassis, sending it tumbling! But no - Duck-Boat’s flipper does a full 180, popping it back upright! Sunrise is still in position, though, and finds another angle, and Duck-Boat is flipped again! We’re in a flip-loop - Duck-Boat can’t get away but Sunrise can’t capitalise on the flip!

After a few minutes where neither Operator can find their position, the judges call the match.

The spotlights rover around the crowd before training on the judge’s booth. A quick, quiet conference is taking place before the Announcer is signalled over.

“The judges have determines that Duck-Boat’s battering ram blow was the only decisive blow of the Bout - Duck-Boat wins by Domination!

Viewership was 6 to Duck-Boat vs 1 for Sunrise

Proposal: Your Name In Lights

Timed out and enacted, 8-2. Josh

Adminned at 20 Jul 2022 10:55:06 UTC

Remove all Operating Costs from all Engines, and the phrase “an operating cost, ” from the rule Engines.

Add a new Engine to the list in the rule Engines:

| Nuclear || ₩9,700 || 1,450

Add a new Chassis to the list in the rule Chassises:

| Titanium Holdfast || ₩8,870 || 4 || 480

Remove the Base Power from all Systems, and the phrase “a base power,” from the rule Systems. Add the following Systems to the list in the rule Systems:

| LED Banner || ₩3,200 || 120 per name (see effect) || Displays the name of every distinct Operator that Bot has defeated in a Bout while using this System; these names are publicly tracked. Has no other effect.

Add a new rule to the ruleset, called Showboating:

If a Bot wins a Bout while using an LED Banner that displays the name of quorum or more Operators then the operator of that Bot has achieved Victory.

Sunday, July 17, 2022

Proposal: Underlay Underlay Arena

Timed out and enacted, 6-1. Josh

Adminned at 19 Jul 2022 16:00:38 UTC

Add the following as a second paragraph in the rule The Arena:

The Arena for each individual Bout may have differences in configuration, as set out in the rule Configuration. The specific Arena configuration for each Bout must be detailed in the Announcement for that Bout.

Add a new subrule to the rule The Arena, called Configuration:

Prior to Announcing a Bout, the Announcer must generate the Configuration for that Bout. This is an atomic action with the following steps:

* Set the Configuration for that Bout to be is a single row of infinite squares, with those numbered from 1 on the left to 19 at the right being in bounds and all others being out of bounds.
* Randomly determine between zero and two Configuration Variations.
* For each Configuration Variation thus selected, follow its instructions and add them to the Configuration.

Potential Configuration Variations are as follows:

* Physical Obstacles: Add between 2 and 6 squares above or below existing squares in the Configuration. Label them with letters in alphabetical order from left to right, starting with A; all such squares are In Bounds. A Bot can only be shoved from a Square on the same row as itself. When a Bot is Shoved in while occupying a square that has another square above or below it, instead of being moved backwards, it is moved into one of the squares above or below it and is flipped. When a Bot is in a square that is labelled with a letter and moves forwards or backwards, and there isn’t another lettered square that it can move into, it instead moves into the next numbered square in the direction of travel.
*  Trap panels: Add between 1 and 3 trap panels on random squares, each of which may randomly be one of: flip panel, flame panel, explosion panel, shock panel. When a Bot ends its turn on a trap panel it subtracts 5% from its Chassis and Engine, and gains a Status as follows: flip panels give Flipped, flame panels give Scorched, explosion panel gives Loose, and shock panel gives Scrambled. Trap panels are not considered when a Script tests whether a square is empty.
* Bumper sides: When a Bot would go out of bounds, it is instead set to a random square, subtracts 20% Chassis condition, and becomes flipped.
* House bot: There are up to three publicly tracked House Bots, which may be created by the Announcer at any time, which may have any of the Components available to Operator Bots (starting each Bout at 80% Condition), which must have a Bot Value of no more than ₩8,000, and whose Script is publicly tracked. Select one of them at random. In this Bout, square 20 is also In Bounds, and the right-hand-most Bot starts on square 17 rather than square 16; the selected House Bot starts in square 10, facing in a random direction. The House Bot may not the the Winner of the Bout and is not considered for the purposes of any clause in the rule Ending a Bout. House Bots are considered to be present when a line of Script checks whether a square is empty.

Add the following to the bullet list in the rule Statuses:

* Scorched: When an Actor is Scorched, whenever it would use a System it takes scratch damage to that system and to its Chassis
* Loose: When an Actor is Loose, half (rounded up) of any Condition loss incurred by the Chassis or System of that Bot is also applied to that Bot’s Engine.
* Scrambled: When a Bot becomes Scrambled, the Announcer randomises the order of its Script. When it ceases to be Scrambled its Script regains its standard order.

Proposal: The Great Clean-up

Timed out unpopular, 3-5 with one unresolved DEF. Josh

Adminned at 19 Jul 2022 16:00:16 UTC

In BotScript, reword the reaction starting “...use the following system” to

“...use the following System:” followed by the name of a Usable System that the Actor has. If that system is not currently usable, this script entry is skipped as if the trigger was false.

In BotScript, remove the line starting “A Reaction is considered Resolvable if: ” and remove the bullet points under it. In the next line, remove “and its corresponding Reaction is Resolvable”

In Systems, remove the line “If a System effect is preceded by “Passive:”, then it has no effect when used, and instead applies to a Bot with that System at all times.

In Systems, reword the line “While a System has a Condition of 0%, then its Effect is considered to be “No effect.”, and it is skipped when determining the frontmost or rearmost System of a Bot.” to

“While a System has a Condition of 0%, it has the Defunct tag and it is skipped when determining the frontmost or rearmost System of a Bot.”

To the end of the rule Systems, add:

Each system may have any number of tags - this is represented by that tag being within square brackets within the effect of that system. Some tags may permit additional information which may be unique to the system, known as that tag’s Tag Effect. The information of a tag effect (if it exists) is also found within the square brackets of that tag, separated by a colon. The tags a system can have are:
*Electrical: The electrical tag has no direct effect, but may be referenced by system effects.
*Inert: The inert tag has no direct effect, but may be referenced by system effects. The consumption of this system (if any) is said to be due to the weight of the component, rather than the energy cost of using it.
*Mechanical: The mechanical tag has no direct effect, but may be referenced by system effects. A part with neither inert nor electrical is considered to have the mechanical tag irrespective of whether they actually have it.
*Usable: This permits tag effects. This tag permits the system to be Used, as defined in BotScript. When it is used, the tag effect applies.
*Melee: This permits tag effects. When a system with the melee tag is used and the Opponent’s Bot is in any of the three spaces immediately in front of the Actor then the Melee Tag Effect applies - otherwise it is ignored. All Melee systems are said to have the Usable tag irrespective of whether they actually have it.
*Aggressive: If this system causes scratch damage, that scratch damage increases tally as if it wasn’t scratch damage.
*Defunct: A system with this tag loses all effects and tags except Inert, Mechanical, or Electrical.

For each of the following systems if they exist, reword their effects as follows:

Ram: [Mechanical] [Aggressive] Scratch Damage dealt to opponents by this Bot as a result of Shoving is multiplied by ten.

Flipper: [Mechanical] [Usable: If the Actor is Flipped, it ceases to be Flipped.] [Melee: If the Actor did not start the turn with the Flipped Condition, the Opponent becomes Flipped and takes Scratch Damage.]

Axe: [Mechanical] [Usable] [Melee: The Condition of the Opponent’s Chassis has 25% subtracted, and the Condition of the Opponent’s Engine has 10% subtracted.]

Grinder: [Mechanical] [Usable] [Melee: The Condition of the Opponent’s Exposed System (if it has one) has 25% subtracted.]

Plate: [Inert] While the winner of a bout is being determined, Plate is considered to be at 50% condition if it is below 50% condition. (Note: this effect is lost as normal when the system is defunct.)

Taser: [Mechanical] [Electrical] [Aggressive] [Usable: If the opponent is within six spaces, their exposed system (or the chassis if none are exposed) takes Scratch Damage. The system that loses condition from this scratch damage (or the engine if the chassis loses condition) is affected by Shock damage: it is treated as if it had a condition of 25 fewer percentage points than it actually has (to a minimum of 0) until the end of the Bout. Shock Damage is permitted to stack with itself. Electrical systems take double shock damage, and inert or defunct systems take none.]

Mound-Shaped Body: [Inert] If a bot with this system would gain the Flipped status, they do not. Due to being a larger target, any condition loss that any systems of the bot with this system would recieve is also recieved by its chassis.

Spikes: [Aggressive] [Inert] Scratch Damage opponents take which is caused by Bumping is multiplied by the number of spaces that were moved preceding the Bump that turn. This has no effect on damage from shoving.

Cow Catcher: [Inert] When moving into or past an opponents space from any distance away, the excess move beyond the amount that it would take to move adjacent to the opponent is treated as a shove. This effect cannot cause the actor to move futher than their script declared that they would move.

Grapple: [Mechanical] [Aggressive] [Usable: When used, this system causes Scratch Damage to the closest opponent within three spaces in the direction the Actor is facing. If such an opponent exists, the Actor then gains the Tethered to Opponent status, targetting that opponent until the end of the bout. Irrespective of whether that status was able to be applied, this system gains the Defunct tag until the end of the bout.]

Targetting Module: [Electrical] Whenever another System Effect refers to the Exposed System of a Bot, it refers to the frontmost System with the lowest Condition instead (if it is facing the Bot using the Effect) or the rearmost System with the lowest Condition (if it is not).

Lead Weight: [Inert] If a bot with this system would be Shoved, twice its consumption is added to the Shove Power rather than having any portion of it subtracted from it.

Back-up Battery: [Electrical] The Condition of the Engine on this Bot is instead calculated as the Condition of the Engine plus 25% of the Condition of this system, up to a maximum of 100%. This system has 0 consumption if it is above 25% condition.

Modify the consumptions of the following systems if they exist:
Plate to 60
Mound-shaped body to 30
Spikes to 40
Cow catcher to 45
Lead weight to 150
Back-up Battery to 70

Add the following status to the bullet points in Statuses:

*Tethered to Opponent: This status targets an opponent, connecting the two bots together. When either bot moves more than three spaces away from the other, the moving bot is able to (and required to) shove its opponent. Unlike a normal shove, each bot halves its shoving power when it is facing its opponent rather than when it is facing away from its opponent.

Append the following to the rule Scratch Damage:

It is permissible for a rule to specifically state that a chassis, engine or system takes the scratch damage; in that case, it is that component which loses the condition.

This cleans up a lot of the jank and the repetition in the systems to a series of tags. Now, everything is passive by default, and parts are split into inert chunks of metal, sensitive electrical bits, and regular mechanical parts. Everything has a weight now, with parts that actually do stuff still taking the lion’s share of the energy consumption.

Saturday, July 16, 2022

Proposal: Hey, it can still spin in circles pointlessly!

Reaches quorum with 8-0 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 18 Jul 2022 09:10:43 UTC

In “Bot Loadout”, change

If the Condition of an Engine, Chassis or System of a Bot is 0%, then that Bot is said to be Trashed.

to

If the Condition of an Engine or Chassis of a Bot is 0%, then that Bot is said to be Trashed.

In “Ending a Bout”, change

If all Bots in the Bout are Trashed or not In Bounds then the average Condition of its non-0% components is used as a tiebreaker, with the highest result being the Winner.


to

If all Bots in the Bout are Trashed or not In Bounds then the average Condition of its components is used as a tiebreaker, with the highest result being the Winner.

It’s not a knockout until you really can’t drive.

Proposal: Daily Docket

Reaches quorum with 9-0 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 18 Jul 2022 09:07:47 UTC

In the rule Bouts, change “At any time, the Announcer may Announce an upcoming Bout, by randomly selecting two Operators according to the Selection Criteria in this rule making a post Announcing their names” to read:

As a Daily Action, the Announcer may Announce any number of upcoming Bouts, by randomly select two Operators using the Selection Criteria in this rule for each Bout and making a post Announcing their names.

Shifting to a single daily schedule of new Bout announcements

Story Post: Announcement #8

And now we have an exclusive interview with the Operator of Sunrise - it’s Jumble! Hey, Jumble, good to see you!

Hi there Leslie, great to see you too, Good to be here.

What’s it like, being at BlogBog 2022?

Well, you know, it’s the biggest stage in the sport, and really it’s just an honour to be here, win lose or draw.

You’re hoping for a win, though, right? So far you have an unbroken record…

After only two matches, haha! Well, we’ll see how today goes. I’ve just had my line-up and there’s some fierce competitors out there.

Oh, can you give us a sneak peak?

Well, I don’t know if the organisers would like me saying this, but if you were to join me in Arena Hall C at 3.30pm today then you might see a certain SupernovaStarbright…

No - Sunrise is up against Duck-Boat of Doom?

Don’t tell anybody I told you!

If you don’t tell anyone, then neither will our millions of viewers!

Story Post: Announcement #7

Hey hey hey, I love this dance trend, check it out -

I wish that I could be like the cool kids…

Ah yeah? I follow him as well, he always seems to get the trends before everyone else

‘Cause all the cool kids, they seem to fit in…

Do you reckon any of the operators are on…

ARENA ANNOUNCEMENT:

shut up shut up

THE NEXT MATCH IN ARENA HALL A WILL BE: MIN-MOX VS ANNOY-O-TRON

ayoo let’s go

The Botmother comes to make bots

Chiiika unidles and returns to Blognomic to make bots.
Who knows what bot she’ll make?

Story Post: Bout #6: Hard Hat vs Annoy-o-Tron [SingularByte vs Trapdoorspyder]

Iiiiiiiin position 4, the yellow dome with the steamtrain nose, sporting a new loadout based on its brand new Cattle Catcher attachment: it’s HARD HAT! In the pit there we can see operator SingularByte, waving and smiling at fans.

OPPOSING HIM! Fresh from being plunged out of bounds by the current top seed Sunrise, and similarly reworked - now spinning under a domed shell to prevent flipping - it’s ANNOY-O-TRON! Team Trapdoorspyder gives a brief salute to the crowd before turning back to the arena, perfectly focused.

A hush descends, and then: ACTION!

Hard Hat leaps forward first, closing in on its enemy nine spaces to position 13! But this is a tactical error as it brings the yellow dome right into the range of Annoy-o-Tron’s axe, WHICH IS BROUGHT DOWN WITH A SICKENING CRASH! A huge crack can be seen in Hard Hat’s high-viz exterior but the safety equipment with the most is still spinning!

Now SingularByte makes his play - gearing up to ramming speed with its Cattle Catcher it slams into Annoy-o-Tron! Trapdoorspyder jams forward on its control stick but even after having been slightly damaged by Annoy-o-Tron’s axe the superior output of Hard Hat’s big hydrolic engine simply overpowers Annoy-o-Tron’s smaller motor! Oh - Hard Hat is shoving its opponent to the gutters at the edge of the arena! He’s going for the big ring out! Does Annoy-o-Tron have no answer to this? It doesn’t look like he does! Annoy-o-Tron is teetering on the edge! Nothing can save it - over it goes!

But no! Hard Hat has over-egged it! The sudden release of tension jolts Hard Hat forward - and over it goes as well! It’s a double-KO by Out of Bounds!

The judges confer in the booth. In this situation the resolution is clear - you have to look at the overall condition of the Bot post-bout. Hard Hat has an average Condition of 88% after taking that big axe hit, and while both bots were scratched in their push-battle, Annoy-o-Tron is otherwise unscathed - despite being made from second-hand components, it is evaluated at an impressive 95% Condition.

After an examination, the judges call it:

Annoy-o-Tron wins on TKO!

The viewership for this Bout was 1 to Hard Hat vs 3 to Annoy-o-Tron

Saturday, July 16, 2022

Proposal: Junkers

Passed 11-0. TDS

Adminned at 17 Jul 2022 06:38:57 UTC

Under the rule “Bot Loadout” add a subrule titled “Spare Parts Bin” that reads the following:

Each Operator has a Spare Parts Bin, which is a publicly tracked list of Chassises, Engines, and Systems as well as their conditions.

Change the bulleted list at the end of the subrule “Engines” to read the following:

*Either increase their money by the effective one-off cost of their engine or add their engine and its condition to their Spare Parts Bin.

*Replace the Engine of their Bot with another of any Condition by paying the Effective One-off Cost of the new Engine. If the new Engine is present in their Spare Parts Bin, they may instead remove it from their Spare Parts Bin.

Change the bulleted list at the end of the subrule “Chassises” to read the following:

*Either increase their money by the effective one-off cost of their Chassis or add their Chassis and its condition to their Spare Parts Bin.

*Replace the Chassis of their Bot with another of any Condition by paying the Effective One-off Cost of the new Chassis. If the new Chassis is present in their Spare Parts Bin, they may instead choose to remove it from their Spare Parts Bin rather than paying the Effective One-off Cost.

In the subrule “Systems”, change the paragraph beginning with “At any time…” to:

At any time, an Operator whose Readiness is Workshop may add a System of a desired Condition to their Bot by spending its Effective Cost or removing that system from their Spare Parts Bin as long as that system is present in their Spare Parts Bin at that condition. An Operator whose Readiness is not Set may remove a System from their Bot at any time by either increasing their money by 50% of the Effective Cost of the system being removed or adding that system at the appropriate condition to their Spare Parts Bin.

I feel like there’s not much room to try new strategies because you need to sell the parts you want to remove at a loss. Instead, I think having the option to hang onto them and put them back on later would be nice.

Story Post: Announcement #6

Welcome to BetBlogBot Gambing, the only site on the internet where you can gamble on BlogBog bouts!

SPECIAL OFFER: Mid-Tier Madness! BetBlogBot is offering HOT ODDS on the latest match to be called: SingularByte’s HARD HAT vs Trapdoorspyder’s ANNOY-O-TRON

Remember, BetBlogBot offers IN-BOUT GAMBLING so you can crush the odds while the BlogBots crush each other

Meanwhile, in football…

Proposal: Opening Shop

Passed 7-1. Adminned by TDS

Adminned at 17 Jul 2022 06:28:45 UTC

Add the following systems to the rule Systems:

| Targetting Module || ₩1,600 || 150 || 1 ||  Passive: Whenever another System Effect refers to the Exposed System of a Bot, it refers to the frontmost System with the lowest Condition instead (if it is facing the Bot using the Effect) or the rearmost System with the lowest Condition (if it is not).
| Lead Weight || ₩1300 || 0 || 0 || Passive: If a bot with this system would be Shoved, its Shove Power is multiplied by ten times the Condition of this system.
| Back-up Battery || ₩1300 || 0 || 0 || Passive: The Condition of the Engine on this Bot is instead calculated as the Condition of the Engine plus 25% of the Condition of this system, up to a maximum of 100%.

Adding counterplay against some strategies. Targetting system makes low Condition weapons risky again since they can be disabled easily, and Lead Weight adds some defense against shoving. Back-up battery makes taking out a bot by damaging its engine harder.

Proposal: It’s Just A Jump To The Left

Enacted 8-0. Josh

Adminned at 16 Jul 2022 17:10:29 UTC

To the list of Reactions in the rule “BotScript”, add:-

* “...evade”

To the “A Reaction is considered Resolvable” list, add:-

* It is an evade

Add a subrule to “BotScript” called “Evasion”:-

When a Bot evades, it moves out of the direct line of attack, requiring its opponent to compensate. The evading Bot is not considered to be present in any space until the start of its next Turn; except for the purposes of checking for Melee and Taser spaces (in both of which cases the number of squares checked is reduced by one), Sudden Death detonations and being In Bounds.

If multiple Bots occupy the same space, they both take Scratch Damage and move one space forwards.

Some basic manoeuvreing: spend a turn to dodge if you think you’re about to be rammed or attacked, at the cost of not doing anything else with that turn.

Story Post: Bout #5: Min-mox vs Duck-Boat of Doom [thundershrike vs SupernovaStarbright]

The crowd behind the safety screens is electric - a small girl is waving a placard saying DUCK-BOAT WILL BE YOUR DOOM, while a young man proudly shows off his Min-mox Rulez hoodie.

At the home end sits Min-mox, a gleaming, brand new Incisor TRN9P chassis powered by a state of the art Nitrogen engine fuelling a glittering array of systems - but even the most expensive of bots can only be as good as its driver, and what do we make of the callow newcomer thundershrike?

Up against him, spinning in place at the contender end of the arena, is veteral warbot Duck-Boat of Doom, unharmed after seeing off Hard Hat in an earlier heat. SupernovaStarbright looks relaxed but surely there is turmoil just under the surface!

With a mighty shout the claxons in the arena blast and this bout is on!

Min-mox immediately leaps forward eight spaces, settling into position 12 with its axe menacingly raised. Duck-boat takes a more cautious approach, stepping forward into position 15, but this is squarely in range for that gigantic chopper which comes down with decisive brutality on the Duck-Boat! Sparks fly and the crowd roars its appreciation but the Duck-Boat is made of sturdy stuff - it can take a hit!

With its axe raised Min-mox is exposed - and Duck-Boat uses that! Slipping forward it finds a narrow gap for its bill and flips Min-mox over, putting it on its back and leaving it completely inert! Min-mox has its own rear flipper, and flips itself upright - but Duck-Boat had got itself into position and flips Duck-Boat again! Suddenly we are locked into a flip-loop and, after a few more moments, the judges call time on the bout!

A hush falls over the arena as the three judges deliberate in the judging booth. After a few moments, every neck in the room cranes expectantly as the Announcer makes his way to the panel and has a brief whispered conference.

“The judges have ruled that the one axe strike by Min-mox was the decisive blow of this contest. Therefore, by domination, Min-mox is awarded the winner of this bout!

Viewership figures: Min-mox 6, Duck-Boat 2

Story Post: Bout #4: Sunrise vs Annoy-o-Tron [Jumble vs Trapdoorspyder]

The crowd are packed into the auditorium, expecting a huge slugfest of mechanised mayhem from these robot titans!

Illuminated by blue spotlights, drawn into the home position - Sunrise, Jumble’s battle-scarred robot famous for having seen off Credit Score:F with its creeping doom approach!

Now, being winched into the arena, it’s new contender Annoy-o-Tron, its gleaming Plate and Axe looking menacing in the studio lights!

THREE - TWO - ONE - COMMENCE

Sunrise shuffles forward cautiously but Annoy-o-Tron immediately slams hard on the gas - in reverse! It spins straight out of the stadium and into the out-of-bounds pit! That’s it - the referee calls time!

Sunrise wins by Out of Bounds!

The viewership for this Bout was as follows: 7 to Sunrise, 0 to Annoy-o-Tron

Proposal: Privacy Screen

Enacted 8-0. Josh

Adminned at 16 Jul 2022 17:09:45 UTC

Add the following to the rule Bouts:

Whenever the Announcer is required to randomly generate an outcome as part of administering a Bout they may do so privately.

The spreadsheet is really good this dynasty

Proposal: System Shock

Withdrawn

Adminned at 16 Jul 2022 17:09:11 UTC

In the rule Systems, in the sentence “At any time, an Operator whose Readiness is Workshop may add a System of a desired Condition to their Bot by spending its Effective Cost”, remove “Effective”.

Buying a cheap Engine affects its Output; buying a cheap Chassis affects its durability. There’s no downside to buying a cheap System, and while I’m not opposed to implementing one, many of them have non-damage outputs, making that delicate work. In the interim I think that Systems should be full price by default.

Proposal: Minute to Win It

Reached quorum, 7-0. Josh

Adminned at 16 Jul 2022 17:08:08 UTC

In “Ending a Bout”, replace every instance of the word “ten” with “sixty”.

Letting the eventful Bouts play out would put more weight on how well a bot has been designed and programmed, and (per my comment on On a Short Fuse) would make the potentially short lifespan of a cheap system much more significant, if your Axe snaps off but your opponent still has theirs. Sudden Death should really only kick in when nothing else is going to happen.

Hopefully this isn’t too much of a grind for Josh to process, I’m assuming most Bouts will either hit a stalemate or settle down into a predictable loop, after a few turns?

Friday, July 15, 2022

Proposal: On a Short Fuse

Withdrawn. Josh

Adminned at 16 Jul 2022 17:07:40 UTC

Remove the line “If a Bot has Systems and a Chassis whose combined Consumption exceeds its Engine’s Effective Power Output, the Bot is considered to be Defunct. The Script of a Defunct Bot is always considered to be blank.” from Bot Loadout

Add a new rule called Part Failure:

While in a bout, the systems of a Bot have a non-negative Short-Circuits value, equal to either 0 (when the system has greater than or equal to 50% condition), or half the system’s consumption (when the system has 21%-50% condition), or the system’s full consumption (when the system has less than or equal to 20% condition).

When the sum of a Bot’s Short-Circuits of all of its systems added to the the Consumption of its chassis and all of its system exceed the Effective Power Output of that Bot’s engine, the Bot’s system with the highest consumption out of all the eligible systems Shuts Down - it is considered to have 0 Short-Circuits and an effect of No Effect. This repeats as many times as necessary until the sum no longer exceeds the Effective Power Output. A system with a consumption of 0 cannot Shut Down, nor can systems that have already Shut Down.

If a Bot has Systems and a Chassis whose combined Consumption exceeds its Engine’s Effective Power Output, the Bot is considered to be Defunct. The Script of a Defunct Bot is always considered to be blank.

This rule initially has no effect on bots whose operators had a readiness of Set at the time of the proposal On a Short Fuse was made, except for this paragraph and paragraph 3 which function as normal. When one of those bots has finished the Bout that their operator had that readiness of Set for (whether that occurs after enactment or before it), this rule begins to affect them as normal, and this may occur for each of those bots. Once no bots are considered to unaffected by this rule under that criteria, any operator may remove this paragraph.

This is my new attempt at solving 1% parts. Now instead of having dice rolls to determine it, instead you build up the power consumption of your systems until your bot starts shutting down due to various electrical failures.

Story Post: Announcement #5

Did you hear? Duck-Boat of Doom is going up against Min-mox!

Aw, no way! Min-mox was Bot of the Month in last June’s Bots Monthly magazine!

I heard that the head judge was calling thundershrike one of the Operators they had their eye on this year! Said they could go all the way!

Yeah but c’mon, that’s SupernovaStarbright he’s up against!

What time are they on?

... shit! They’re starting in ten minutes!

RUN!

Story Post: Announcement #4

Ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary lovers of mechanical carnage and destruction:

Please make your way to BlogBots Arena Hall B, where the prize match between Jumble and his bot Sunrise and Trapdoorspyder with his entry Annoy-o-Tron is due to take place.

Please remember that alcoholic beverages are strictly forbidden in the Arena Halls.

Story Post: Bout #3: Sunrise vs Credit Score: F [Jumble vs lendunistus]

Appearing from under the Proscenium Arch - it’s Sunrise, taking its position in square 4, under the careful eye of its operator, Jumble.

And here now, released from the hellhound cages, is Credit Score: F, which appears to be being carried onto the pitch by its owner lendunistus - it is currently unclear whether or not it has wheels.

The siren blasts for the start of the bout! And once again, we have a bot that simply fails to start - Credit Score: F sits impotently, and its operator appears to be playing Angry Birds rather than carrying out any remedial action at all.

Sunrise moves cautiously forward - on turn 1 it moves forward to position 5, then on turn 3 to 6, then on 5 to 7, on turn 7 to position 8, and on turn 9 to position 9. It’s almost like it’s scared that Credit Rating: F is setting a trap!

SUDDEN DEATH starts, the crowd roaring with excitement at this undeniably boring bout. In turn 11, square 1 explodes and Sunrise moves to position 10. On turn 12, square 19 explodes. On turn 13, Sunrise moves to position 11 and square 2 explodes. On… I’ll spare you the blow by blow; Sunrise does not make to to Credit Score: F before Credit Score: F explodes.

SUNRISE WINS BY TKO!

The viewership scores for this bout at 6 for Sunrise and 2 for TKO.

Proposal: Time to cap off

Timed out and enacted, 5-2. Josh

Adminned at 16 Jul 2022 17:06:36 UTC

In Rule “Bot Loadout” in section “Dynastic Rules”,

Change

Each Operator has an amount of Money, which is publicly tracked and which defaults to ₩10,000.

To

Each Operator has an amount of Money, which is publicly tracked and which defaults to ₩10,000. An Operator’s Money can not surpass ₩20,000.

Story Post: Bout #2: Hard Hat vs Duck-Bot-of-Doom [SingularByte vs SupernovaStarbright]

At the home side of the arena, in position #4: Hard Hat, its operator SingularByte in the control booth.

Opposing them is Duck-Boat-of-Doom in position #16, with SupernovaStarbright on the controls.

Hard Hat operates a… odd strategy! On turn 1 it moves forward six spaces, while Duck Boat moves forward on, but then on turn 3 Hard Hat hits a hard reverse, backing right up right to the back of the arena and then accelerating hard into the distance!

The bout ends with Hard Hat way out of bounds, handing Duck Boat an extraordinary win!

DUCK-BOAT-OF-DOOM WINS BY OUT OF BOUNDS!

Viewership for this bout was 7 to Duck-Boat vs 1 to Hard Hat.

Proposal: Hall of Frame

Timed out and failed, 2-3. Josh

Adminned at 16 Jul 2022 17:04:23 UTC

Add a subrule to “Viewership Score” entitled “All-Time Viewership” as follows:

Each Bot has an ATV score, a numeric value which is publicly tracked. A Bot’s ATV score is the sum of that Bot’s Viewership Scores from every Bout in which that Bot has been engaged.

If an Operator changes the name of their Bot, that Bot is considered distinct from all the Operator’s other Bots for the purposes of summing its ATV score.

If there is a rule called “Income” then reword it as follows, or if there is no such rule, then create it as follows:

As a Weekly Communal Action, any Operator or Announcer may increase each Operator’s Money by ₩100 times that Operator’s Bot’s ATV score. If an Operator’s Money would be increased by more than ₩4000 in this way, then it is increased by ₩2000 instead.

Story Post: Bout #1: Tincutter vs Raven1207.2 [Kevan vs Brendan]

On the left side of the arena, in position 4: Raven1207.2! To the right, in position 13: Tincutter!

The arena lights dim as the two bots rev the engines before, with a massive gout of flame, the bout is on!

And the two bots just sit there!

Both of them are defunct, with power requirements that outstrip the capacity of their engines!

Ten turns go by with neither bot moving!

Then the floor starts to explode as SUDDEN DEATH MODE COMMENCES!

The floor starts to explode, starting from the edges and moving inwards!

Both operators frantically moving their controls, to no avail!

Until, with a mighty detonation, position 4 exploded, sending Raven1207.2 hurtling up into the air in a shower of metal shards and sparks!

TINCUTTER WINS BY TKO!

Proposal: Anti-Lockout Mechanism

Reached quorum 6 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 15 Jul 2022 13:55:36 UTC

Add a new rule called Income:

As a Weekly Communal Action, any Operator or Announcer may increase all Operator’s Money by 3,000.

Call for Judgment: Special Hardcase

Popular, 8-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 14 Jul 2022 17:28:54 UTC

Make the Special Case rule Imperial Deferentials inactive, and make the Special Case rule Mantle Limitations active.

Arguably this is a misuse of the CfJ mechanic but I didn’t get to set the special case rules at the beginning of the dynasty, and I’d like to get my colours on the mast about these.

Call for Judgment: Synchronising watches

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 15 Jul 2022 13:59:25 UTC

In BotScript, reword the line “If X [or [less / more]] turns have passed..”, where X is any number 1-10” to be

If the current [turn / round] is X [or [less / more]]..”, where X is any positive integer.

To the end of BotScript, add the line:

If a line in a script is no longer a legal entry but may be legally represented by other wording without changing the meaning it had at the time of being provided to the announcer, the announcer should strive to treat it as if it had that legal wording if possible. If an illegal entry cannot be treated as if it was legal in that way, it should be ignored. In either case, the operator who submitted the script should be informed at the earliest convenience.

To the end of the second paragraph in The Arena, add the sentence:

The current turn of a bout increases each time a bot’s script is run to completion (even if the result is no action). Each time X turns have passed since the last time the current round increased or was set to 1, where X is equal to the number of bots in the bout, the current round increases by 1. Both turns and rounds start at 1 in a bout.

As discussed in the discord, there’s several different ways that turns can be interpreted and this could make a complete mess of some sets of orders, so this cfj should clarify things (hopefully before the first bots start fighting).

Story Post: Announcement #3

And in Arena #3, we have…

IN THE RED CORNER! It rises in the east and brings down the wrath of its mighty axe in the west! Operated by Jumble… IT’S SUNRISE!

IN THE BLUE CORNER! It’s broke, in every sense of the word, but be careful it doesn’t take you down with it! Piloted by lendunistus… IT’S CREDIT SCORE: F!

THREE!.... TWO!... ONE!...

Proposal: A Hush Descends

Withdrawn. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 15 Jul 2022 10:19:57 UTC

After the first bullet list in “Bouts”, add:-

If any Operators have a Readiness of Set, proposals may not be enacted.

Locking the ruleset once somebody commits to a Bout, so that they know the rules won’t change during that match: that they won’t have to try to take multiple possible rulesets into account when programming their bot.

I’m not really sure how the pacing will shake out on this in practice, but the Announcer having complete control over the Ready→Staging bottleneck (plus the proposed 48 hour timeout below) should keep things in check if the queue slows down too much.

Story Post: Announcement #2

IIIIIN THE BLUE CORNER, weighing in at just under one metric ton, the safety gear with the killer instinct, piloted by SingularByte - IT’S HARD HAT!

And its opponent… IN THE RED CORNER, all the way from the village pond, a gleaming hunk of mallard mayhem, piloted by SupernovaStarbright - IT’S DUCK-BOT OF DOOOOOOOOM

Operators… ARE YOU READY?

Proposal: Set in Stone

Reaches quorum with 7-0 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 15 Jul 2022 04:29:58 UTC

In the rule Bouts, immediately after the first bulleted list, add the following:

Operator changes to any of a Bot’s physical hardware components (i.e. anything defined in the rule Bot Loadout) may only be made when the Operator’s Readiness is Workshop. Operator changes to a Bot’s software (i.e. anything defined in the rule BotScript) can only be made when the Operator’s Readiness is Workshop, Ready or Staging.

If, at any point during a Bout, one of the participating Operators has had their Readiness set to Set for the last 48 hours and the other has not changes their Readiness from Staging since the Announcement Post for that Bout, then the Operator whose Readiness is Staging forfeits the match and the other Operator is the Winner for that Bout.

Proposal: Trade-ins

Reaches quorum with 6-0 and 1 def and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 15 Jul 2022 04:27:13 UTC

Reword the final sentence of the rule “Engines” to:

At any time as an atomic action, an Operator whose Readiness is Workshop may:
*Increase their money by 50% of the Effective One-off Cost of their Engine.
*Replace the Engine of their Bot to another of any Condition by paying the Effective One-off Cost of the new Engine.

Reword the final sentence of the rule “Chassises” to:

At any time as an atomic action, an Operator whose Readiness is Workshop may:
*Increase their money by 50% of the Effective Cost of their Chassis.
*Replace the Chassis of their Bot to another of any Condition by paying the Effective Cost of the new Chassis.

In “Systems”, reword the sentences “At any time, an Operator may add a System of a desired Condition to their Bot by spending its Effective Cost. An Operator may remove a System from their Bot at any time.” to:

At any time, an Operator whose Readiness is Workshop may add a System of a desired Condition to their Bot by spending its Effective Cost. An Operator whose Readiness is not Set may remove a System from their Bot at any time, increasing their money by 50% of the Effective Cost of the system being removed.

Made it so swapping out parts isn’t quite so punishing, although it’s still expensive to do it any time you take a little damage (especially at high condition ratings). Also removed the bizarre ability to fully refurbish bots while outside of the workshop - although removing systems is still possible.
EDIT: Fixing a typo: A word was missed in the sentences to reword. This has been performed outside of the 4 hour edit window as per Clarifications - Spelling and formatting

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Proposal: More weapons to the pile

Reaches quorum with 8-1 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 15 Jul 2022 04:22:16 UTC

In BotScript, reword “A Bot can only move into an empty space: if an individual move step would take the Bot into an occupied space, the Bot remains in its position instead and takes Scratch Damage. If the occupied space was occupied by a Bot, that Bot also takes Scratch Damage. If a Bot ever ends its turn in a space that is not In Bounds, they are said to have Fallen Out of Bounds and take Scratch Damage.” to

A Bot can only move into an empty space: if an individual move step would take the Bot into an occupied space, the Bot remains in its position instead and takes Scratch Damage. If the occupied space was occupied by a Bot, that Bot also takes Scratch Damage. This act of moving into a bot in this way, or being moved into in this way, is referred to as Bumping. If a Bot ever ends its turn in a space that is not In Bounds, they are said to have Fallen Out of Bounds and take Scratch Damage.

Add the following systems to the rule Systems:

| Taser || ₩1,500 || 400 || 1 ||  If the opponent is within six spaces, they take Scratch Damage and the system that loses condition from this scratch damage (or the engine if the chassis loses condition) is affected by Shock damage: it is treated as if it had a condition of 33 fewer percentage points than it actually has (to a minimum of 0) until the end of the Bout. Shock Damage is permitted to stack with itself. Scratch Damage from the Taser increases Tally as if it wasn’t Scratch Damage.
| Mound-Shaped Body || ₩800 || 0 || 0 || Passive: If a bot with this system would gain the Flipped status, they do not. Due to being a larger target, any condition loss that any systems of the bot with this system would recieve is also recieved by its chassis.
| Spikes || ₩1,100 || 0 || 2 || Passive: Scratch Damage opponents take which is caused by Bumping that involves this bot is multiplied by 15, and increases Tally as if it wasn’t Scratch Damage. This has no effect on damage from shoving.
| Cow Catcher || ₩1,200 || 0 || 3 || Passive: When moving into or past an opponents space from any distance away, the excess move beyond the amount that it would take to move adjacent to the opponent is treated as a shove. This effect cannot cause the actor to move futher than their script declared that they would move.
| Grapple || ₩1,400 || 160 || 1 || Melee weapon. Scratch Damage from Grapple increases Tally as if it wasn’t Scratch Damage. When used, this system causes Scratch Damage to the opponent and until the end of the bout, the system is treated as if it instead had the effect “Passive: Any time the opponent would move to be more than three spaces away from the bot with this system, the bot with this system moves in that direction until it is three spaces away from the opponent. Reactions that use this system are not resolvable.”

Reword the effect of Ram to:

Passive: Scratch Damage dealt to opponents by this Bot as a result of Shoving is multiplied by ten. This scratch damage increases tally as if it isn’t scratch damage.

This is intended to benefit a number of strategies. Spikes for ramming into opponents that repeatedly retreat from melee range, grapples so you can latch onto opponents and ride them around the map for free while hitting them with melee weapons, tasers to act as powerful ranged attacks at the cost of extreme energy usage, some anti-flipper tech that makes you far more vulnerable to most other weapons, and of course a little support for shoving.
I’ve also added a little bit to make scratch damage increase tally where applicable for weapons, since if you’re ramming them all over the place or blasting them with weapons, it’s not quite the same ignorable incidental damage that a slight nudge would have.

Proposal: MOre tRIggErs!

Reaches quorum with 8-0 and 2 defs and is enacted - SingularByte

Adminned at 15 Jul 2022 04:19:11 UTC

Add the following to the list of triggers:

* “If the Opponent [has / does not have] Z…”, where Z is any system.

Add the following immediately after the first sentence of the first paragraph of the rule “BotScript”:

Up to two Triggers may also be optionally combined into a single Trigger. This is formatted as “A and B”, where A is the first Trigger being combined and B is the second one. Combined triggers are accompanied by a single Reaction as normal.

Simply providing even more granularity with creating scripts.

Story Post: Announcement #1

IN THE RED CORNER, the crimson terror, the axe-murderer itself, piloted by Kevan, we have… TINCUTTER

IN THE BLUE CORNER, the lightweight wonder, the puckish lightweight of the blogbot ring, we have the crowd favourite, operated by Brendan… RAVEN1207.2!!!

CONTENDERS… ARE YOU READY?

Proposal: Any Old Iron

Reaches quorum with 6-1 and 3 unresolved defs -SingularByte

Adminned at 15 Jul 2022 04:17:24 UTC

Increase every Operator’s Money by ₩6,500.

The Condition level of existing components defaulted to zero, so all our starting Bots are Trashed right now.

Keeping things moving by adding some money further down the proposal queue, rather than trying to repair what we’ve got. ₩6,500 is enough to buy a brand new Petrol Apex X1500 if you want one, but you can opt for a second-hand model, or whatever else you feel like.

Proposal: Incentives

Popular at 6-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 14 Jul 2022 17:20:11 UTC

If no bout has concluded when this proposal is enacted then give each Operator whose Readiness is set to any value other that Workshop ₩1,000.

Otherwise, give every Operator who has participated in a Bout so far this dynasty ₩1,500.

Proposal: Gosh darn sellouts

Reaches 1-6 and cannot achieve quorum so it fails -SingularByte

Adminned at 14 Jul 2022 04:03:51 UTC

Create a new dynastic rule named “Sponsors” with the following body, allowing the wiki to interpret the included wiki formatting into a table:

Each Operator has a Sponsorship, which is a publicly tracked value defaulting to None.

A Sponsor consists of the following: a name, which is flavor text, a description, which is flavor text, a Benefit, an Ad Read and a Severance Payment.

While an Operator’s Sponsorship is set to any value other than None, they must abide by the Ad Read of the Sponsor corresponding to their Sponsorship.

While their Sponsorship is set to None, an Operator may Accept a Sponsorship Deal, which is an atomic action with the following steps:
* Select a Sponsor
* Set your Sponsorship to the name of the Sponsor you selected
* Carry out the Benefit of the Sponsor you selected

While their Sponsorship is set to a value other than None, an Operator may Sever their Contract, which is an atomic action with the following steps:
* Subtract the Severance Payment of the Sponsor corresponding to your Sponsorship from your Money
* Undo the Benefit of the Sponsor corresponding to your Sponsorship, except for any sentences prefixed with “Instant:”.
* Set your Sponsorship to None.

The following is a list of Sponsors:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Sponsors
! Name || Description || Benefit || Ad Read || Severance Payment
|-
| Lending Tech Inc. || Bottom of the barrel parts for bottom of the barrel prices. || Instant: Add ₩6000 to your Money. || None. || ₩10.000
|}

Adding a basic sponsorship system, starting off with a “loan” of sorts

Proposal: Out of Range Error

Reaches quorum with 8-0 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 14 Jul 2022 03:59:00 UTC

To the “use the following System” Reaction, add:-

If it’s a Melee System and the Opponent’s Bot is not in any of the three spaces immediately in front of the reacting Bot, then the System’s Effect is instead not used.

Add “Melee System.” to the start of the Effects of Axe and Grinder.

Reword the Flipper Effect to:-

If the Actor is Flipped, it ceases to be Flipped. Otherwise, this counts as a Melee System and the Opponent becomes Flipped.

If the proposals “Up to Scratch” and “Ring Out” both enacted, reword the Ram to:-

Passive: Scratch Damage dealt to opponents by this Bot as a result of Shoving is multiplied by ten.

If either of those proposals failed, reword the Ram to:-

Move forward 13 times. The Condition of the Opponent’s Chassis and (if it has one) its Exposed System both have 15% subtracted.

To “Systems”, add:-

If a System effect is preceded by “Passive:”, then it has no effect when used, and instead applies to a Bot with that System at all times.

Seems wrong that Bots can hit each other with axes from anywhere in the arena.

Proposal: Ring out

Reaches quorum with 6-0 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 14 Jul 2022 03:52:07 UTC

In the rule “The Arena”, Replace the text “Bouts take place in the Arena, which is mapped as a row of thirteen spaces from left to right. Each Bot in the Arena may face either left or right. When a Bout begins, the two Bots taking part are placed in the two spaces at either end of the Arena (assigning these at secretly random), facing one another. All of this is tracked privately by the Announcer.”
with

Bouts take place in the Arena, which is mapped as an infinite row of spaces from left (i.e. from minus infinity) to right (i.e. to infinity). The spaces 1 to 19 are considered In Bounds. Each Bot in the Arena may face either left or right. When a Bout begins, the bots are randomly assigned to one of two starting locations: one bot is placed in space 4 and the other bot in space 16, both facing each other. All of this is tracked privately by the Announcer.

If the proposal “Up to Scratch” passed, in the rule BotScript replace “A Bot can only move into an empty space: if an individual move step would take the Bot into an occupied space, or if no space exists to move to, the Bot remains in its position instead.” with

A Bot can only move into an empty space: if an individual move step would take the Bot into an occupied space, the Bot remains in its position instead and takes Scratch Damage. If the occupied space was occupied by a Bot, that Bot also takes Scratch Damage. If a Bot ever ends its turn in a space that is not In Bounds, they are said to have Fallen Out of Bounds and take Scratch Damage.

If the proposal “Up to Scratch” failed, in the rule BotScript replace “A Bot can only move into an empty space: if an individual move step would take the Bot into an occupied space, or if no space exists to move to, the Bot remains in its position instead.” with

A Bot can only move into an empty space: if an individual move step would take the Bot into an occupied space, the Bot remains in its position instead. If a Bot ever ends its turn in a space that is not In Bounds, they are said to have Fallen Out of Bounds.

Create a subrule of BotScript called “When Push Comes to Shove” with the following text:

When an actor has an opponent in a space adjacent to it and and its reaction is to move into or beyond that opponent’s space, this is classified as a shove instead of a move. The Shove Power of the actor and opponent is calculated, where Shove Power is Effective Power Output minus 50% of the consumption of the chassis and every system on the bot. For every 50 that the Shove Power of the Actor exceeds the Shove Power of the Opponent, both the Actor and Opponent move in the direction that the Actor stated they were moving in by 1 space, up to the number of spaces the Actor’s script stated they were moving. Scratch Damage is taken by both the Actor and the Opponent.

The Shove Power of a bot is halved if they are shoving (or being shoved by) a bot they are facing away from.

If the proposal “Up to Scratch” failed, remove the final sentence of that added text.

If the proposal What-a-Boutery passed, add the following to the to the first list in Ending a Bout:

*Ring-out: One of more of the Bots participating in the Bout are not In Bounds

If the proposal What-a-Boutery passed, modify the entry for TKO in the second list in Ending a Bout to:

* TKO or Ring-out: If, at the end of a turn, every Bot in the Bout except one is either Trashed or not In Bounds, then that one Bot is the Winner. If all Bots in the Bout are Trashed or not In Bounds then the average Condition of its non-0% components is used as a tiebreaker, with the highest result being the Winner. If this still results in a tie then the Winner is determined secretly-randomly.

In the rule BotScript, replace each instance of “number from 1 to 13” and “number from 1-13” with “positive integer”

For the first instance of the words Scratch Damage in each rule modified by this proposal add a wiki link to those words to link to the rule Scratch Damage if it does not already exist.

This is a combination of the in and out of bounds concept I had in my withdrawn proposal along with the shoving mechanic I was considering: it’s a new way of winning, but you’ll need a strong bot to make it viable. New spaces have been added to the arena so that you don’t start right on the verge of a ring-out.

Proposal: Up to Scratch

Reached Quorum with 8-0 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 14 Jul 2022 03:44:54 UTC

Create a subrule of Bouts called Scratch Damage:

When rules state that a Bot takes Scratch Damage, this is interpreted as losing 1 condition percentage point from its frontmost system, or its chassis if it has no frontmost system.

If the text “Whenever an action by a Bot in a Bout causes the Condition of another Bot’s Engine, Chassis or System to be reduced” exists in either a rule called “The Arena” or in the rule “Ending a Bout”, replace it with

“Whenever an action by a Bot in a Bout causes the Condition of another Bot’s Engine, Chassis or System to be reduced by any means other than Scratch Damage”

Replace the effect of Flipper in the rule Systems with:

If the Actor is Flipped, it ceases to be Flipped. Otherwise, the Opponent becomes Flipped and takes Scratch Damage.

For the first instance of the words Scratch Damage in each rule outside of the rule Scratch Damage, add a wiki link to those words to link to the rule Scratch Damage.

Reproposing Scratch Damage without the randomness aspect. I’ve made it not count for Tally because it’s more to represent general wear and tear rather than actual attack damage.

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Proposal: What-a-Boutery

Reaches quorum with 6-0 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 14 Jul 2022 03:32:27 UTC

If there is a paragraph in the rule The Arena that starts “Each Bot in a Bout has a Tally”, remove it. From the same rule, remove “The Bout then ends, and the Announcer posts a blog entry summarising its events” and “and continuing this process until ten turns have been taken in the Bout”.

Add a new rule to the ruleset as a subrule of the rule Bouts, called Ending a Bout, with the following text:

A Bout can be Ended by any of the following conditions being met:

* TKO: One or more of the Bots participating in that Bout are Trashed
* Domination: Ten turns have elapsed without a TKO taking place, and one Bot has a Tally that is higher than its Opponent by at least 10%

After it has ended, each Bout must have a Winner. The Winner of a Bout is determined based on how the Bout ended, as follows:

* TKO: If, at the end of a turn, every Bot in the Bout except one is Trashed, then that one Bot is the Winner. If all Bots in the Bout are Trashed then the average Condition of its non-0% components is used as a tiebreaker, with the highest result being the Winner. If this still results in a tie then the Winner is determined secretly-randomly.
* Domination: Each Bot in a Bout has a Tally, which is privately tracked by the Announcer and which starts the Bout at zero. Whenever an action by a Bot in a Bout causes the Condition of another Bot’s Engine, Chassis or System to be reduced, the Tally of the Bot that took the action, for that Bout, increases by the same amount. If, after ten rounds, one Bot has a Tally that is higher than its Opponent by at least 10% then that Bot is the Winner. If ten rounds have elapsed without a Bot Winning through Tally then Sudden Death occurs instead.
*Sudden Death: In Sudden Death, the Announcer continues to process turns as normal until the Bout ends due to TKO, with the following changes: all Condition losses are doubled, and each turn, before any moves are processed, one space in the arena - starting with the leftmost, followed by the rightmost, and then moving inwards one square at a time, alternating from one side to the other - Detonates, with any Bot who is on a square when it Detonates taking 50% Chassis damage.

When a Bout has Ended, the Announcer posts an entry to the blog summarising the events of the Bout and its Winner. The Winner of the Bout gains ₩2,000 and, if it is not already, the Readiness of all Operators to have participated in that Bout are set to Workshop. Once this summary post has been posted, that Bout is considered to be fully concluded and may have no further impact on the gamestate.

Proposal: Garbage in, Garbage out

Reaches quorum with 9-0 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 14 Jul 2022 03:26:35 UTC

To the rule “BotScript”, after the list starting with “Possible Reactions”, add the following:

A Reaction is considered Resolvable if:
* it attempts to move or turn the Actor
* it attempts to use a System the Actor has and the System’s Effect is not “No effect.”

Reword the phrase “To run a Script, the Announcer reads through its list from top to bottom until they find a Trigger which is true for the Bot in question” to:

To run a Script, the Announcer reads through its list from top to bottom until they find a Trigger which is true for the Bot in question and its corresponding Reaction is Resolvable.

If the proposal “Front Toward Enemy” has passed, in the rule “Systems”, reword the sentence “If a System has a Condition of 0%, then its Effect is considered to be blank, and it is skipped when determining the frontmost or rearmost System of a Bot.” to:

While a System has a Condition of 0%, then its Effect is considered to be “No effect.”, and it is skipped when determining the frontmost or rearmost System of a Bot.

If the proposal “Front Toward Enemy” has passed, reword to Effect to the System “Plate” to “No effect.”

Bots with a trashed System should also skip any steps in the BotScript that uses the trashed System

Proposal: Why Must We Fight?

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 13 Jul 2022 16:50:30 UTC

In “The Arena”, add after the second paragraph:-

Each Bot in a Bout has a Tally, which is privately tracked by the Announcer and which starts the Bout at zero. Whenever an action by a Bot in a Bout causes the Condition of another Bot’s Engine, Chassis or System to be reduced, the Tally of the Bot that took the action, for that Bout, increases by the same amount. When a Bout ends, the single Bot (if any) with the highest Tally for it is crowned its Winner and gains ₩2,000. When a Bot wins a Bout, all other Bots in that Bout lose that Bout.

Replace “the Announcer posts a blog entry summarising its events” with:-

the Announcer posts a blog entry summarising its events and announcing its final Tallies and the Winner (if any)

Remove “Any of these steps that refer to winning the bout, or losing the bout are ignored if the ruleset does not explicitly define those terms.” from the rule “Viewership Score”.

A way to pick a winner and award a prize, to give us a reason to start building.

Proposal: Shake it off

Withdrawn. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 13 Jul 2022 16:35:13 UTC

If the proposal “Why? Why not?” does not pass, this proposal does nothing.

In the rule “Statuses”, reword the rule “Each Status has a name, which is flavor text, and an effect” to

Each Status has a name, which is flavor text, an effect, and optionally a positive numeric value. After an Actor has processed its turn, if it has Statuses with positive numeric values, reduce the value of each such Status by 1. If a Status would be reduced to 0 or less this way, remove it instead.

To the rule named “Statuses” add the following:

* Scrambled N: If an Actor is Scrambled, any Trigger in its Script that checks a numerical value of X instead checks the value of X-N or 1, whichever is greater
* Stuck N: If an Actor is Stuck, any step that results in it moving is ignored, unless that step would also result in them ceasing to be Stuck.

Further extending statuses to support temporary ones

Factory Recall

Wdtefv times out after a full seven days without making any posts or comments. Quorum drops to 6.

Proposal: Front Toward Enemy

Reaches quorum and is enacted at 8-0 -SingularByte

Adminned at 13 Jul 2022 05:59:25 UTC

In the “Systems” bullet point in “Bot Loadout”, replace the word “Systems” with:-

An ordered list of Systems

To the rule “Systems”, add:-

The list of a Bot’s Systems represent the mounted positions of those systems, listed from front to back. When a System Effect refers to the Exposed System of a Bot, it means its frontmost System (if the Bot is facing the Bot using the Effect) or its rearmost System (if it is not). While Bot is Flipped, none of its Systems are Exposed.

If a System has a Condition of 0%, then its Effect is considered to be blank, and it is skipped when determining the frontmost or rearmost System of a Bot.

An Operator who is In the Workshop may change the order of their Bot’s Systems at any time.

Add two new Systems:-

|| Grinder || ₩1,500 || 200 || 5 || The Condition of the Opponent’s Exposed System (if it has one) has 25% subtracted.
|| Plate || ₩1,000 || 0 || 0 || Nothing happens.

Reword the effects of the Ram System from “The Condition of the Opponent’s Chassis has 25% subtracted.” to:-

The Condition of the Opponent’s Chassis and (if it has one) its Exposed System both have 15% subtracted.

Assume the order of all Bots’ systems to match the orders they were listed as on the gamestate tracking page immediately before this proposal enacted.

Having the listed order of a Bot’s Systems being the sequence that they are physically mounted on the chassis. Also having Systems disappear from the sequence and shut down entirely, at 0% Condition.

Proposal: Why? Why not?

Reaches quorum and is enacted at 8-0 -SingularByte

Adminned at 13 Jul 2022 05:56:16 UTC

Reword the content of the rule “Statuses” to the following:

Statuses are states of being that a Bot may have during a bout. Each Status has a name, which is flavor text, and an effect. The following are all statuses that a bot may have:
* Flipped: When an Actor is Flipped, any step in its Script that results in it moving or using a System is ignored, unless that step would also result in them ceasing to be Flipped.

In the rule “BotScript”, reword the the list of Triggers to the following:

* “If the X space(s) [in front of / behind the] Actor are empty…”, where X is a number from 1 to 13.
* “If [the space / any of the X spaces] [in front of / behind the] Actor are occupied by an Opponent…”, where X is a number from 1-13.
* “If the Actor [has / does not have] Y…”, where Y is any Status.
* “If the Opponent [has / does not have] Y…” where Y is any Status.
* “If X [or [less / more]] turns have passed..”, where X is any number 1-10.

This is more of a tidying up proposal, but there are a couple of new triggers in there. The main effect is to create better framework for future statuses and make the triggers a little more flexible and have better grammer.

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Proposal: I’m drivin’ here!

Withdrawn and therefore failed -SingularByte

Adminned at 13 Jul 2022 05:55:04 UTC

In the rule BotScript, replace “A Bot can only move into an empty space: if an individual move step would take the Bot into an occupied space, or if no space exists to move to, the Bot remains in its position instead.” with

A Bot can only move into an empty space: if an individual move step would take the Bot into an occupied space, the Bot remains in its position instead and takes Scratch Damage. If the occupied space was occupied by a Bot, that Bot also takes Scratch Damage. If a Bot ever starts its turn in a space that is not In Bounds, they are said to have Fallen Out of Bounds and take Scratch Damage, then the bout then immediately ends.

In the rule “The Arena”, Replace the text “Bouts take place in the Arena, which is mapped as a row of thirteen spaces from left to right. Each Bot in the Arena may face either left or right. When a Bout begins, the two Bots taking part are placed in the two spaces at either end of the Arena (assigning these at secretly random), facing one another. All of this is tracked privately by the Announcer.”
with

Bouts take place in the Arena, which is mapped as an infinite row of spaces from left (i.e. from minus infinity) to right (i.e. to infinity). The spaces 1 to 13 are considered In Bounds. Each Bot in the Arena may face either left or right. When a Bout begins, the bots are randomly assigned to one of two starting locations: one bot is placed in space 1 and the other bot in space 13, both facing each other. All of this is tracked privately by the Announcer.

Create a subrule of Bouts called Scratch Damage:

When rules state that a Bot takes Scratch Damage, this is interpreted as losing DICE3 condition percentage points from a random part of the bot, either Chassis, Engine, or a randomly selected System. (The chances of either the Chassis or Engine being picked are 1/3 each with a random system making up the remaining 1/3, unless no systems exist on the bot in which case it is a 1/2 chance each for Chassis and Engine.)

If the proposal Big Flipper passed, append the Following to Systems:

A system with less than 100% Condition has a chance of failing to have any effect, with the chance of failure calculated as (100 - That System’s Condition)%

If the proposal Big Flipper passed, replace the effect of Flipper with

If the Actor is Flipped, it ceases to be Flipped. Otherwise, the Opponent becomes Flipped and takes Scratch Damage.

If the proposal Halt and Catch Fire passed, append the following to the final paragraph of Bot Loadout:

A Bot with a Chassis that has a Condition value of 0% is also considered to be Defunct.

For the first instance of the words Scratch Damage in each rule outside of the rule Scratch Damage, add a wiki link to those words to link to the rule Scratch Damage.

Note for anyone that saw earlier versions of this: I’ve gone back and forth with adding Shoving, but I’ve decided to remove it for good and put it in a future proposal - it might take more refinement and the rest of the proposal can stand alone without it.

Proposal: Halt and Catch Fire

Reached quorum 8 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 12 Jul 2022 15:04:51 UTC

To “Bot Loadout”, add:-

If the Condition of an Engine, Chassis or System of a Bot is 0%, then that Bot is said to be Trashed. (If the Condition of an Engine, Chassis or System would ever be reduced below 0%, it instead becomes 0%.)

Replace “When an Operator’s Readiness is Workshop they may set it to Ready at any time”, if it exists, with:-

When an Operator’s Readiness is Workshop and their Bot is not Trashed, they may set their Readiness to Ready at any time

A lower bound on Condition (otherwise a 25% hit against a 20% component can’t be legally processed), and saying that if a Bot has any completely destroyed 0% components then it might survive the match but it can’t be entered into another one until it’s been patched up.

Proposal: Ready Or Not

Reached quorum 6 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 12 Jul 2022 15:03:53 UTC

If Proposal: Start Your Engines, Proposal: Scrapheap Challenge and Proposal: Big Flipper were all enacted, in the rule Bouts, change “Operators have a Readiness, which is publicly tracked, which may be either In the Workshop or Ready, and which defaults to In the Workshop” to:

Operators have a Readiness, which is publicly tracked, which may be either Workshop, Ready, Staging, or Set, and which defaults to Workshop.
* When an Operator’s Readiness is Workshop they may set it to Ready at any time
* When an Operator’s Readiness is Ready and they are named in an Announcement Post then the Announcer should set their Readiness to Staging
* When an Operator’s Readiness is Staging then they may set it to Set at any time
* When an Operator’s Readiness is Set and they are participating in a Bout then the Announcer should set their Readiness to Workshop

Set the Readiness of all Operators to Workshop.

Proposal: Giving everyone a turn

Reached quorum 6 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 12 Jul 2022 14:45:12 UTC

Reword the rule Bouts to:

Operators pit their Bots against each other in Bouts. At any time, each Operator may be engaged in at most one Bout. The number of bouts an Operator’s bot has been engaged in is publicly tracked, and includes announced bouts that include the bot that are yet to be resolved. This publicly tracked value may be referred to as the Bout Count.

Operators have a Readiness, which is publicly tracked, which may be either In the Workshop or Ready, and which defaults to In the Workshop.

At any time, the Announcer may Announce an upcoming Bout, by randomly selecting two Operators according to the Selection Criteria in this rule making a post Announcing their names.

The Selection Criteria for selecting bots to engage in a bout is:
*If an Operator has a higher Bout Count than any other Operator, they may not be selected by the Announcer, except if there are no other available Operators to select.
*If an Operator has a Readiness that is not Ready, it may not be selected by the Announcer.
*The random selection of eligible Operators is weighted towards Operators with a smaller Bout Count - for each eligible Operator, subtract the current Bout Count for that Operator from the highest Bout Count of all eligible Operators then add 1 to get the weighting that the random selection will use.

I could easily see one player getting lucky and being selected repeatedly, so this should serve to mitigate the issue.

Proposal: Big Flipper

Reaches quorum at 7-0 and is enacted.

Adminned at 12 Jul 2022 05:19:35 UTC

If Proposal: Start Your Engines and Proposal: Scrapheap Challenge were not enacted then this proposal has no effect.

In the rule The Arena, add the following:

Relative to each Bot’s Script, the Bot who is performing the Script may be referred to as the Actor, and any other Bot participating in a Bout with the Actor may be referred to as an Opponent.

In the rule BotScript, add the following as a new Trigger:

* “If [the space / any of the X spaces] in front are occupied by an Opponent…”, where X is a number from 1-13.

In the same rule, add the following as a new Reaction:

* “...use the following System:” followed by the name of a System that the Actor has.

Add the following to the end of the same rule:

When a System is used as part of a Script then, provided that any criteria specified in that System’s Effect or elsewhere in the ruleset are all met, its Effect is applied to the Opponent in its current Bout.

Add the following Systems to the rule Systems:

|| Ram || ₩1,100 || 85 || 3 || The Condition of the Opponent’s Chassis has 25% subtracted.
|| Flipper || ₩1,600 || 185 || 1 || If the Actor is Flipped, it ceases to be Flipped. Otherwise, the Opponent becomes Flipped.
|| Axe || ₩2,200 || 250 || 5 || The Condition of the Opponent’s Chassis has 25% subtracted, and the Condition of the Opponent’s Engine has 10% subtracted.

Add a new rule called Statuses:

When an Actor is Flipped, any step in its Script that results in it moving or using a System is ignored, unless that step would also result in them ceasing to be Flipped.

Sunday, July 10, 2022

Proposal: Scrapheap Challenge

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 11 Jul 2022 17:34:31 UTC

To “Bot Loadout”, add:-

The Engine, Chassis and each System of each Bot have a publicly tracked Condition rating, being a percentage from 0% to 100%. If a rule refers to the “Effective” quality of any of these items, and that value is numerical, then the value has the item’s Condition percentage applied to it, rounded down (eg. the Effective Cost of a ₩5,000 Engine in 50% Condition is ₩2,500).

If a Bot has Systems and a Chassis whose combined Consumption exceeds its Engine’s Effective Power Output, the Bot is considered to be Defunct. The Script of a Defunct Bot is always considered to be blank.

(If the proposal “Start Your Engines” failed, remove the last sentence of that.)

Replace “At any time, an Operator may change the Engine of its Bot by paying the One-off Cost of the Engine they wish to move to.” with:-

At any time, an Operator may change the Engine of its Bot to another of any Condition by paying the Effective One-off Cost of the new Engine.

Replace “At any time, an Operator may change the Chassis of its Bot by paying the Cost of the Chassis they wish to move to, with the restriction that a Bot may not have Systems and a Chassis whose combined Consumption exceeds its Engine’s Power Output.” with:-

At any time, an Operator may change the Chassis of its Bot to another of any Condition by paying the Effective Cost of the new Chassis.

Replace “At any time, an Operator may change their Bot’s Systems by spending the Cost of any Systems being added, with the restriction that a Bot may not have Systems and a Chassis whose combined Consumption exceeds its Engine’s Power Output.” with:-

At any time, an Operator may add a System of a desired Condition to their Bot by spending its Effective Cost. An Operator may remove a System from their Bot at any time.

If “Wowing the Crowd” passed, replace “took 0 Damage” with:-

none of its Components decreased in Condition

...and remove “, or taking damage” from that rule.

Making damage as an aspect of all parts of the Bots, with the option to buy cheaper, already-damaged components if you think you can get away with it.

Also moving the two “combined Consumption” restrictions into a single ongoing check, so that it’s clear what happens if a proposal (or something else) alters the numbers on a component after a Bot has already been constructed with it.

Proposal: Wowing the crowd

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 11 Jul 2022 17:32:46 UTC

Create a rule called “Viewership Score” (as a subrule of “Bouts” if that rule exists):

Every Bot in a bout has their viewership score for that bout calculated and publicly announced by the Announcer at the end of that bout. The viewership score is calculated by starting at the first step (Baseline hype), then applying each applicable calculation in the listed order. Viewership scores are permitted to be negative during calculations, but those that have a resulting value of less than 0 are instead 0.


* Baseline hype: For all bots in the bout, the viewership score starts at 1.
* Winner: If the bot won the bout, their viewership score increases by 2.
* Win streak: If the bot won its last three bouts (including this one), their viewership score increases by 1.
* Not a scratch: If the bot won the bout and took 0 Damage during it, the viewership score increases by 3.
* Coward: If the bot lost the bout and took 0 Damage during it, the viewership score decreases by 1.
* The behemoth: If the bot has the highest Bot Value out of all bots owned by operators, and no other bot has that Bot Value, then the viewership score increases by 1.
* Underdog story: If the bot has a Bot Value of less than 3/4 of any of the other bots in the bout, then the viewership score is doubled.

Any of these steps that refer to Bot Value calculate it as the sum of the costs of the chassis and the systems of that bot, added to the One-Off Cost of the engine of that bot.
Any of these steps that refer to winning the bout, or losing the bout, or taking damage are ignored if the ruleset does not explicitly define those terms.

This does nothing yet, but it’s intended to be a bit of a score tracker. You can’t just win, you have to look good doing it. The underdog story bonus is also intended to be a bit of a catchup mechanic where players that have less money than anyone can earn some score (or for players that want to show off with a sub-standard bot.)

Proposal: Start Your Engines

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 11 Jul 2022 17:28:35 UTC

Create a rule called “The Arena” (as a subrule of “Bouts”, if that rule exists):-

Bouts take place in the Arena, which is mapped as a row of thirteen spaces from left to right. Each Bot in the Arena may face either left or right. When a Bout begins, the two Bots taking part are placed in the two spaces at either end of the Arena (assigning these at secretly random), facing one another. All of this is tracked privately by the Announcer.

During a Bout, the Announcer runs the Script of each Bot in turn, starting with the Bot on the left, and continuing this process until ten turns have been taken in the Bout. The Bout then ends, and the Announcer posts a blog entry summarising its events.

Add a new rule, “BotScript”:-

Each Bot has a Script, being a list of up to ten Triggers, each Trigger having a corresponding Reaction. Bots’ Scripts are tracked privately by the Announcer.

An Operator may change their Bot’s Script at any time by privately informing the Announcer of this.

Triggers are:-

* “If the X space(s) in front are empty…”, where X is a number from 1 to 13

Possible Reactions are:-

* “...move forwards X times”, where X is a number from 1 to 13
* “...move backwards X times”, where X is a number from 1 to 13
* “...turn to face the other way”

To run a Script, the Announcer reads through its list from top to bottom until they find a Trigger which is true for the Bot in question: upon finding one, they apply the corresponding effect, and this ends the run of the Script. If they reach the end of the Script and no Triggers are true, nothing happens as a result.

A Bot can only move into an empty space: if an individual move step would take the Bot into an occupied space, or if no space exists to move to, the Bot remains in its position instead.

A very basic starting system for programming bots, to see whether this makes any sense.

Proposal: Bot Bouts

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 11 Jul 2022 06:54:07 UTC

Add a new rule, called Bouts:

Operators pit their Bots against each other in Bouts. At any time, each Operator may be engaged in at most one Bout.

Operators have a Readiness, which is publicly tracked, which may be either In the Workshop or Ready, and which defaults to In the Workshop.

At any time, the Announcer may Announce an upcoming Bout, by randomly selecting two Operators whose Readiness is Ready and making a post Announcing their names.

This is a semi-explicit vacation of the field on how Bouts work; I have some ideas while I’ll propose in a day or two if there are no good suggestions in the air, but I’d be keen to see what Operators can come up with.

Proposal: Judging

Withdrawn. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 11 Jul 2022 06:43:32 UTC

Create a new dynastic rule named “Competition” with the following body:

Each Operator has a set amount of Favor of The Judges, which is a publicly tracked integer value that defaults to 0.

The Operator with the most amount of Favor of The Judges after the 10th of August, 2022 at 18:00:00 UTC has achieved victory. If multiple Operators are tied for the most amount of Favor of The Judges, then all of those Operators have achieved victory.

Adding a timeout mechanic in case the game gets super complicated like that mech dynasty or whatever

Proposal: Basic Mechanics

Reached quorum 8 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 11 Jul 2022 06:42:48 UTC

In the rule Dynastic Tracking, change “Worlds End” to [[Workshop]].

Add a new rule to the ruleset, called Bot Loadout:

Each Operator has an amount of Money, which is publicly tracked and which defaults to ₩10,000.

Each Operator possesses exactly one Bot, whose characteristics are publicly tracked. The characteristics that each Bot must have are as follows:
* A name, which may be freely selected by the Bot’s Operator and which is flavour text;
* An Engine, which is by default an Petrol motor
* A Chassis, which is by default an Apex Systems X1500
* Systems, of which a single Bot may have between none and a number equal to the number of hardpoints on the Bot’s Chassis, defaulting into none

Add a new subrule to the rule Bot Loadout, called Engines, allowing the wiki to interpret the included wiki formatting into a table:

A Bot’s Engine has the following characteristics: a fuel type (which also acts as its name), a one-off cost, an operating cost, and a power output. The characteristics of each type of engine can be found below.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Engines
! Type || One-off Cost || Operating Cost || Power Output
|-
| Electric || ₩2,500 || ₩100 || 240
|-
| Petrol || ₩4,000 || ₩150 || 550
|-
| Nitrogen || ₩5,500 || ₩300 || 900
|-
| Hydrolic || ₩5,000 || ₩700 || 1,100
|}

At any time, an Operator may change the Engine of its Bot by paying the One-off Cost of the Engine they wish to move to.

Add a new subrule to the rule Bot Loadout, called Chassises, allowing the wiki to interpret the included wiki formatting into a table:

A Bot’s Chassis has the following characteristics: a model (which also acts as its name), a cost, a number of hardpoints, and a consumption. The characteristics of each type of chassis can be found below.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Chassises
|-
! Model || Cost || Hardpoints || Consumption
|-
| Frictionless Inquisitor || ₩1,900 || 1 || 110
|-
| Apex Systems X1500 || ₩2,500 || 2 || 200
|-
| Tundra Industries #9 || ₩3,350 || 2 || 170
|-
| Echelon Hardcast || ₩3,900 || 3 || 440
|-
| Incisor TRN9P || ₩4,210 || 3 || 410
|-
| Camelot CG3 Rampart || ₩5,890 || 4 || 630
|}

At any time, an Operator may change the Chassis of its Bot by paying the Cost of the Chassis they wish to move to, with the restriction that a Bot may not have Systems and a Chassis whose combined Consumption exceeds its Engine’s Power Output.

Add a new subrule to the rule Bot Loadout, called Systems, allowing the wiki to interpret the included wiki formatting into a table:

A Bot’s Systems can each have the following characteristics: a name, a cost, a consumption, a base power, and an effect. The characteristics of each type of System can be found below.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Systems
! Name || Cost || Consumption || Base Power || Effect
|-
|}

At any time, an Operator may change their Bot’s Systems by spending the Cost of any Systems being added, with the restriction that a Bot may not have Systems and a Chassis whose combined Consumption exceeds its Engine’s Power Output.

Ascension Address: The Shatterdome

The stench of oil, sweat, and metal-on-metal filled the arena as the crowd road. Somewhere high above, in a booth overlooking the carnage, an announcer grabbed his microphones, and, after a moment of feedback, gave the cry that the crowd were waiting for: “BLOGBOTS… ARE - YOU - READY!!!”

Throughout the ruleset, change Demiurge to Operator and Omnipotence to Announcer.

The Vortex of Creation And Destruction

A post-dynasty chat thread

Saturday, July 09, 2022

Declaration of Victory: Nahobino

Enacted after 12 hours with 9 votes FOR, including that of the Emperor. Josh

Adminned at 10 Jul 2022 09:03:04 UTC

My Ideology is the Primary Ideology of all three locations with a non-zero population size; I have therefore Rallied the People against the Guardian.

The ruleset defines a Non-Player Character thus: “A Non-Player Character is a being that may be interacted with as described by the ruleset”. This definition includes a lot of things, including all Demiurges, meaning that all Demiurges are also Non-Player Characters. I has therefore just Debated SupernovaStarbright (bringing my Health to 264), then Brendan (462), then Darknight (660), before spending 525 to Conquer all three locations.

Saturday, July 09, 2022

Proposal: Keep the Beat

Vetoed. Josh

Adminned at 10 Jul 2022 16:35:29 UTC

Reword the 3rd paragraph of “The Heartbeat of Creation” to the following:

Some actions are Beat Actions. The total number of Beat Actions undertaken by each Demiurge in the dynasty so far is publicly tracked, and defaults to 3 less than the Heartbeat of Creation.  Whenever a Demiurge takes a Beat Action they must increase their Beat Action tracker accordingly. Beat Actions may be undertaken at any time with the restriction that a Demiurge may not at any time have undertaken more Beat Actions than the current Heartbeat of Creation.  If the number of Beat Actions taken by a Demiurge is four or more lower than the Heartbeat of Creation,
any Demiurge may increase the number of Beat Actions taken by that Demiurge by 1.

Giving players access to infinite stockpiling seems…problematic?  We should probably cap it at some point.

Thursday, July 07, 2022

Proposal: Mind Gems

Vetoed. Josh

Adminned at 10 Jul 2022 16:35:19 UTC

Add two new items to the “Items” rule:-

Name: Kangae Gem
Effect: If your Ideology Allegiance is not “None”, you gain 10 Health for each other Demiurge who has the same Ideology Allegiance as you.
Description: A white gem. It is warm to the touch.
Type: Instant

Name: Sasayaki Gem
Effect: You gain 5 Health for each different Ideology that exists.
Description: A grey gem. Pinpoints of light shimmer beneath its surface.
Type: Instant

Then set both of their Costs to 16,000.

Proposal: What We Owe To Each Other

Timed out and enacted, 6-0. Josh

Adminned at 09 Jul 2022 11:58:04 UTC

Repeal the rule And They Shall Hunt and the rule And They Shall be Consumed.

Add a new rule to the ruleset, called Debate:

As a Beat Action, a Demiurge may Debate any Non-Player Character.

Debating has a different effect depending on the target. If the target is a Phalanx that is owned by themselves then Debating is an atomic action with the following steps:
* Increase their own Health by twice the Health of the target Phalanx
* Destroy the target Phalanx

If the target is a Phalanx that is now owned by them then Debating is an atomic action with the following steps:
* Reduce their Health by half the Health of the target Phalanx
* Make themselves the Owner of the target Phalanx

If the target is any other Non-Player Character then Debating is an atomic action with the following steps:
* Set x to the health of the Demiurge carrying out this Debating action and set y to be the Health of the target
* If y is greater than x then reduce the target’s Health by x and then increase the Health of the performing Demiurge by x/10 (rounded down).
* If y is less than x then set the Health of the target to 1 and increase the Health of the performing Demiurge by (y-1)*2.

Expanding the mechanic to include a mechanism for slowly whittling down the Guardian, while making sure that it doesn’t allow for the Guardian to be killed just yet.

Call for Judgment: Don’t Accidentally Waste Your Time Patch

Timed out unsuccessfully, 1 vote to 5. Josh

Adminned at 09 Jul 2022 10:55:56 UTC

In the “Rules Text” for the location with a name of “Haunted Woods”, append the following:

A Demiurge may not Scavenge for Supplies here if they are already at the maximum amount of Provisions.

Decrease the amount of Beat Actions taken by Jumble by 1.

I am mildly annoyed about this.

Wednesday, July 06, 2022

Proposal: Cold Turkey

Timed out 6 votes to 1. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 09 Jul 2022 07:27:34 UTC

Remove “Heart Medication” from the list of items.

This “convert money to actions” item feels like another infinite loop scam in waiting.

Proposal: A new place and a new face

Vetoed- DK

Adminned at 08 Jul 2022 14:01:06 UTC

Remove the following text from Post-Extinction Capitalism:

All item definitions must have at least 1 valid location in that item definition’s list of shop otherwise the list reverts to the default.

Append the following below the first paragraph of Wide, Empty World of the Damned:

If the Location’s prerequisite states that an action (such as discarding some amount of resources) “may be performed as a Prerequisite cost”, then that action may be performed during the atomic action to journey to that location even if it would not otherwise be able to, so long as it does not result in illegal values being set. Choosing not to perform the action, or otherwise being unable to, causes the prerequisite to not be met for the Journey.

The following are locations to be added to the Locations rule:

Name: Monument of Returning
Population Size: 1
Description: In this distant place, a solitary monk teaches worthy travellers his secrets.
Prerequisite: Two provisions are to be discarded, and this may be performed as a prerequisite cost.
Rules text: Any Demiurge in this location may add Mark of Translocation to their inventory.

Add the following after the line in Items starting “Items with the Type Hold”

When an Item with the Type of Local is used, its effect on the Location on which it was used is publicly tracked until it expires.
Items with the Type of Curse are not able to be discarded. Otherwise, a Demiurge may discard an item at any time by removing it from their inventory. Curse has no effect on item removals by other means.

The following is an item to be added to the Items rule:

Name: Mark of Translocation [None]
Description: This tattoo has marks signifying a distant place. Its usage creates a vortex that permits wanderers to cross miles in mere moments, though unwelcome guests may find it significantly more difficult.
Effect:
The square brackets in this item’s name and any text inside them are ignored for the purposes of references this item’s name. The text between the square brackets is referred to as that Mark of Translocation’s Home, and it may only have up to one Location as its Home (defaulting to None). A Demiurge may set their Mark of Translocation’s Home to their Current Location at any time.
As a beat action, a Demiurge may Use the Mark of Translocation to mark their Current Location as Translocating to that Home location for 24 hours, and they must set their Current Location to that Home location. These two locations are referred to as the origin and the destination respectively. For convenience, the ideology of the Demiurge to use the item should be publicly tracked with this effect.
For as long as the origin is translocating to the destination, any Demiurge in the origin may set their current location to the destination as an action, but this can only be done as a Beat Action if the Demiurge taking this action is neither the Demiurge who used the Mark of Translocation nor has the ideology allegiance of that Demiurge. (Demiurges with no Ideology are not considered to have the same ideology allegiance as each other for this purpose.)
A Demiurge may only have one Mark of Translocation in their inventory at any one time.
Type: Local, Curse

Set the list of Shops for Mark of Translocation to be blank.

I’ve tried to achieve a few things here, but foremost among them is that adding a new location with a primary ideology will prevent the game from just suddenly ending if 5 or 6 people pool their resources to conquer everywhere at once. It also acts as a bit of an incentive to pick an ideology - if you have someone with a mark of translocation to a location, it can save a bit of scavenging for food.

Proposal: An adventuring patch of my own

Timed out 6 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 08 Jul 2022 08:56:57 UTC

Reword the Adventure atomic action in the rule Adventure to:

*Roll for N in the Dice Roller, where N is the dice specified in the Danger Rating of your Current Location and subtract the output(s) from your Health. This is referred to as the damage taken by the adventure. If this damage taken would bring your health below 0, instead set your health to 0.
*If your health is zero at this point, skip the rest of this action.
*Follow the instructions specified by the Drop Rate of your Current Location as an atomic action. If that atomic action fails to be performed, then instead skip this step.

In the rule Locations, reword the 4-5 result of the drop rate of Destroyed Apartment Block to:

Increase your Provisions by up to 2.

I’ve got little desire to see my own scam play out a second time because that would be somewhat dull, but the current megapatch doesn’t actually solve any of the issues that made it possible in the first place.

Tuesday, July 05, 2022

TBD

In the rule “Wide, Empty World of The Damned”, after “and optionally some rules text.”, add:

Each Location has an Unfaithful Population, which is a publicly tracked Integer Value defaulting to zero.

In the rule “And They Shall Be Conquered”, create a subrule named “Unrest” with the following body:

As a Beat Action, if a Demiurge is the owner of a Phalanx, they may Stir Unrest, which is an atomic action with the following steps:

* Select a Phalanx that you are the owner of
* Subtract 20 times Y from the Health of the Phalanx you selected. If the Health of the Phalanx you selected is at or below zero after this, skip the rest of this action.
* Add Y to the Unfaithful Population of the Location of the Phalanx you selected.

The Unfaithful Population of a Location cannot exceed its Population Size.

As a Beat Action, a Demiurge may spend 1 Soul to set the Unfaithful Population of their Current Location to zero.

In the rule “The Heartbeat of Creation”, append the following:

In the rule “The Guardian”, append the following:

Once after each Beat, a

Proposal: Megapatch

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 07 Jul 2022 16:22:13 UTC

In the rule “Wide, Empty World of The Damned”, subrule “Adventure”, reword “If this brings your Health to or below zero, skip the rest of this action.” to:

If your Health is at or below zero after this, skip the rest of this action.

In the rule “Wide, Empty World of The Damned”, subrule “Locations”, change the Drop Rate of Destroyed Apartment Block to:

Roll DICE5 and carry out the effect corresponding to the number outputted. 1-3: Increase your Macca by 10000. 4-5: Increase your Provisions by 2.

In the rule “Ideologies”, reword “If they aren’t already the owner of an existing Ideology, a Human Demiurge may Conceive an Ideology” to:

If their Ideology Allegiance is set to None, a Human Demiurge may Conceive an Ideology

In the rule “Items”, change the Effect of Bonsai Tree to:

Once per week, add 1 to your current amount of Soul.

In the rule “Items”, change the Description of Bonsai Tree to:

Despite being among the most fragile trees in the old world, this one somehow survived.

In the rule “Post-Extinction Capitalism”, subrule “Auctions”, reword “and x may be referred a Value” to:

and x may be referred to as a Value

Patching up a few miscellaneous bugs and janky interactions. If you’ve noticed any more of these, feel free to tell me in the comments

Proposal: The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled

Withdrawn. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 07 Jul 2022 16:20:15 UTC

To the rule “Living Beings”, add:-

A Human Demiurge may set their presence to Demon at any time, if their Ideology Allegiance is an Ideology that they do not own.

Add a subrule to “Living Beings” titled “Diabolical Victories”:-

The Omnipotence may judge a declaration of victory to be Diabolical by making a comment on it to that effect, if in their opinion it involved the performance of a scam.

If a declaration of victory is Diabolical and the Demiurge who posted it is not a Demon, or had not been a Demon for more than 48 hours prior to its declaration, then it may not be enacted, and may be failed by any admin.

Adding Demons to the game, as the only players who can win by scam.

Monday, July 04, 2022

Call for Judgment: Barely a Scratch

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 06 Jul 2022 06:57:53 UTC

In the rule “Items”, remove the following:

Name: Expired blood bag
Effect: This item can be used when at least one Phalanx owned by the Demiurge has the same Current Location as that Demiurge. When used, one of those Phalanxes has its health increased by 20% (rounded down).
Description: Congealed blood, not fit for human medicine.
Types: Buff, Instant

In the rule “Items”, change the Effect of the item “Ring of Protection” to the following:

When taking damage from the Adventuring action, that damage is three less (to a minumum of zero). Up to two Rings of Protection can be held at any time by any given Demiurge.

In the rule “Wide, Empty World of The Damned”, subrule “Adventure”, reword “When a Demiurge’s Current Location is set to a location that has both a Danger Rating and a Drop Rate, they may Adventure” to:

When a Demiurge’s Current Location is set to a location that has both a Danger Rating and a Drop Rate, as a Beat Action, they may Adventure

If the DoV happens to fail, someone’s just going to exploit the path to victory and immediately declare victory again. This aims to both prevent that and close off some of the more overpowered things in the ruleset

Sunday, July 03, 2022

Declaration of Victory: That’s right! I win!!!!

Reaches 2-6 with 1 def and cannot reach quorum -SingularByte

Adminned at 05 Jul 2022 13:44:30 UTC

I have achieved victory on the basis that I have a guaranteed path to victory which cannot be followed on any reasonable timescale.
I have rings to reduce damage by 6, and 100 health. Every 2-3 successesful adventures after the first is guaranteed to earn another ring, and reduce rolled damage even further. Eventually, I will have all 10 rings, which makes more than 50% of adventures succeed, and from there can roll until I have 200,000 Macca which can purchase a victory (through buying 3 Ao gems to heal, spending a beat to make a Phalanx, growing it with blood bags, then consuming it for hundreds of health.)
From there, this health can be used to conquer all 3 locations in the name of an ideology I will create, achieving victory.

Proposal: Ideological Purity

Timed out 3 votes to 0 with 1 unresolved DEF. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 05 Jul 2022 17:10:23 UTC

To “Ideologies”, add:-

A Demiurge may destroy an Ideology they own at any time; upon doing so, all Demiurges with that Ideology as their Allegiance have it set to None.

It’s flavour text, and two of us have made mistakes while writing them - SingularByte forgot to specify new player terms, and I’ve just gotten the current dynasty’s emperor/player terms the wrong way around.

A New Demiurge Arrives

Thundershrike is to be mentored by Josh until the First Dynasty of Lendunistus has ended and the date is past the 31st of July 2022.

Saturday, July 02, 2022

Arrival

I’d like to join blognomic

Proposal: Free-ish Market

Times out 5-0 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 05 Jul 2022 13:46:30 UTC

In the rule “Wide, Empty World of The Damned”, reword “There exists a number of Locations, which consist of a name, a Population Size (which is an integer defaulting to 0), optionally a description which is flavour text, optionally a prerequisite, and optionally some rules text.” to:

There exists a number of Locations, which consist of a name, a Population Size (which is an integer defaulting to 0), optionally a Danger Rating, optionally a Drop rate, optionally a description which is flavour text, optionally a prerequisite, and optionally some rules text.

In the rule “Wide, Empty World of The Damned”, change the Drop Rate of Destroyed Apartment Block to the following:

Roll DICE5 and carry out the effect corresponding to the number outputted. 1-3: Increase your Macca by 8000. 4-5: Increase your Provisions by 2.

If the proposal “Post-Apocalyptic Transactions” has not been enacted, skip the rest of this proposal.

In the rule “Post-Extinction Capitalism”, create a subrule named “Auctions” with the following body:

An Auction is a type of Event as defined here:
Type Name: Auction
Response Format: “Bid x”, where x is an amount of Macca higher than the minimum bid specified in the event post. Posting a Response to this event type may be referred to as “making a bid” and x may be referred a Value. A Demiurge may only make a bid if x is equal to or less than their current amount of Macca.
Creation Condition(s): Only the Omnipotence may create this event. This event may only be created when no other Auctions are currently open. The body of the event post must consist of the following: an Auction Item, a minimum bid and a description, which is flavor text.
Ending Condition(s): Only the Omnipotence may end this event. This event may only be ended if at least 24 hours have passed since its creation.
Ending Action(s): Add the Auction Item specified in the event post to the Inventory of the Demiurge who both made the bid with the highest Value that is equal to or lower than their current amount of Macca and made the earliest bid with that Value. Subtract that Value from the Macca of that Demiurge.

Change the Description of the Item “Bonsai Tree” to the following:

Once each week, add 1 to your current amount of Soul.

Change the Types of the Item “Bonsai Tree” to the following:

Buff, Hold

This proposal intends to do three things:
- Make adventuring possible while balancing the rewards
- Add an Auction mechanic because I want to do something
- Make Bonsai Tree actually usable

Saturday, July 02, 2022

Proposal: Post-Apocalyptic Transactions

Reaches quorum at 7-0 and is enacted -SingularByte

Adminned at 03 Jul 2022 19:42:41 UTC

Add the following location to Locations:

Name: Open-air markets
Population Size: 3
Description: Throngs of people gather here, perhaps more than in any other settlement.
Prerequisite: The Demiurge journeying to this location must have a non-zero amount of Macca.

Add the following text to Post-Extinction Capitalism:

Every item definition in Items has a publicly tracked cost (defaulting to 100,000), and a publicly tracked list of Shops (defaulting to Open-air markets if that exists as a location, or to Lost and Alone if it does not).

At any time, the Omnipotence may add or remove a location from any item definition’s list of shops. All item definitions must have at least 1 valid location in that item definition’s list of shop otherwise the list reverts to the default.

At any time, a Demiurge may Make a Purchase, which is the following atomic action:
*They choose an item definition which has the Demiurge’s Current Location in its list of shops.
*They pay a number of Macca equal to the item’s cost and receive an item matching the chosen item definition.

Add the following to the rule Items:

Name: Ring of Protection
Effect: When taking damage from the Adventuring action, that damage is three less (to a minumum of zero). Up to ten Rings of Protection can be held at any time by any given Demiurge.
Description: A golden ring topped by a tiny shield.
Types: Buff, Hold

Name: Bragging Rights Trophy
Effect: None
Description: Many awards still exist from the old world; trophies for acting, ribbons for chess competitions, cups for sporting competitions. They have little value now, but having one is still seen as a badge of honour by some.
Type: Hold

Name: Expired blood bag
Effect: This item can be used when at least one Phalanx owned by the Demiurge has the same Current Location as that Demiurge. When used, one of those Phalanxes has its health increased by 20% (rounded down).
Description: Congealed blood, not fit for human medicine.
Types: Buff, Instant

Name: Bonsai Tree
Effect: When used as a weekly action, this tree is not destroyed and it grants 1 Soul to the Demiurge performing that action.
Description: Despite being among the most fragile trees in the old world, this one somehow survived.
Types: Buff

Name: Heart Medication
Effect: When a Demiurge with Heart Medication in their Inventory performs a Beat Action, they may choose to Use Heart Medication rather than increasing their Beat Action Count.
Description: Apparently it works on the fundamental energies of creation itself, not just human hearts.
Types: Buff, Instant

Give all Item definitions a Shop of Open-air markets.
Give all items the following costs:
Raku Gem: 16,000
Taru Gem: 16,000
Ao Gem: 20,000
Midori Gem: 12,000
Gin Gem: 8,000
Ring of Protection: 4,000
Bragging Rights Trophy: 100,000
Expired Blood Bag: 10,000
Bonsai Tree: 30,000
Heart Medication: 300,000

Sorry to go for shops when I know Lendun is also doing them, but I’m kinda chomping at the bit to actually start adventuring. Shop mechanics and/or costs can always be modified in a later proposal.

Call for Judgment: Regina Phalanxe

Prior enactment of the cfj overturned. Now has timed out at 6-1 and is enacted. -SingularByte

Adminned at 03 Jul 2022 21:31:56 UTC

If there is a rule entitled “Living Beings” then set the Health of each Demiurge to 100 and delete all Non-Player Characters except The Guardian.

If there is a rule entitled “The Heartbeat Of Creation” then decrease by 3 the count of Beat Actions taken by the player Josh, and consider the player Josh to have taken three fewer Beat Actions in this Dynasty.

If there is a rule entitled “Fleshmancy” then reword the list item in that rule that reads “Reduce their own Health by x” to read “Spend x Health, where x is at least 2”

I keep doing this

Unidle me, please. Now I’m done with work orientation, I have more time

Declaration of Victory: First Among Many

Reaches 2-6 and cannot achieve quorum, so it is failed -SingularByte

Adminned at 02 Jul 2022 04:28:15 UTC

My Ideology is the Primary Ideology of Survivor Camp and Waterlogged Shops; I have therefore achieved victory.

Vanished in a puff of logic

LinkVanyali has gone idle after 7 days of inactivity. Quorum drops to 5.