Changes

== [[DSL-TC]] ==

== [[DSL-TC]] ==

At this point, Starcore was ready to call it good and move on to other things. He had gotten to talking with DarkRat who had made a lot of custom parts and gorgeous picture bot creations for the replica contest and Lu-Tze, a leading component maker who was dealing with health issues behind scenes. Both DarkRat and Lu-Tze were feeling the same way and so the trio decided to do a final swan song to help the RA2 Community. At that point, there was no balancing efforts or standards for developing custom or real life replica components and prior replica packs by others were fraught with unbreakable bots and components. Starcore, DarkRat, and Lu-Tze joined together to balance, populate and AI DarkRat's replica bots, set up standards for custom components, update the interface and arenas and thus DSL-TC (the DarkRat-Starcore-Lu-Tze Total Conversion) was born.

At this point, Starcore was ready to call it good and move on to other things. He had gotten to talking with DarkRat who had made a lot of custom parts and gorgeous picture bot creations for the replica contest and Lu-Tze, a leading component maker who was dealing with health issues behind scenes. Both DarkRat and Lu-Tze were feeling the same way and so the trio decided to do a final swan song to help the RA2 Community. At that point, there was no balancing efforts or standards for developing custom or real life replica components and prior replica packs by others were fraught with unbreakable bots and components. Starcore, DarkRat, and Lu-Tze joined together to balance, populate and AI DarkRat's replica bots, set up standards for custom components, update the interface and arenas and thus DSL-TC (the DarkRat-Starcore-Lu-Tze Total Conversion) was born. As a point of interest, at the time of building [[DSL-TC]], many of the [[RA2]] community forums were fighting and bickering. Since many saw [[DSL-TC]] as the future of [[RA2]] and wanted to be involved, Starcore leveraged the [[DSL-TC]] pack to force the warring forums to come together and get along. This was instrumental in healing the [[RA2]] community.

== Starcore v3.0 ==

== Starcore v3.0 ==

During the summer of 2004 and in the middle of spearheading [[DSL-TC]] with [[DarkRat]] and [[Lu-Tze]], Starcore was also working on growing and expanding the Starcore AI pack. He added new AI routines like Omni.py and OmniRammer.py that have become defacto standards in the RA2 community. And many people, seeing the success of Starcore V2.0, jumped in to have their bots included in Starcore v3.0. Lu-Tze provided the Starcore Arena, DarkRat provided a cool themed in-game selection screen and Rejected provided again a great pack splash screen. Instead of making new bots, Starcore's time became filled with AIing entries from others and tightening and/or rebuilding their bots to be more efficient and effective. [[The Troll]] being an example of shrinking a [[SHW] down to a more effective though still funky [[HW]]. Many exotic bots were brought in including [[Vortex CE]], [[Rabid Pit Bull]], [[Hunter-Killer Tank]] and others by Rejected; [[3-2-1 Blastoff!]], [[Flying Sheep]] and others by Foolishevil; and the first stilt bot ever seen, Mome Rath by Corporate Goon. There was also a major influx of new 6-bot themed teams, manny following the pattern of [[LW]], [[MW]], [[HW]], [[AW]], [[BW]], [[SHW]] including teams from [[FoolishEvil]], [[C2]], [[Spawngeek]], [[Jimxorb]], [[Viper]], [[EpicentrE]], [[WardenX]], [[ACAMS]], [[Rejected]], [[Artitan]], [[Gemini]], [[Clutch]] and [[Karnage]]. This grew the pack to a whopping 35 teams of 6 bots each for a total of 210 effective and diverse bots.

During the summer of 2004 and in the middle of spearheading [[DSL-TC]] with [[DarkRat]] and [[Lu-Tze]], Starcore was also working on growing and expanding the Starcore AI pack. He added new AI routines like Omni.py and OmniRammer.py that have become defacto standards in the [[RA2]] community. And many people, seeing the success of Starcore v2.0, jumped in to have their bots included in Starcore v3.0. Lu-Tze provided the Starcore Arena, DarkRat provided a cool themed in-game selection screen and Rejected provided again a great pack splash screen. Instead of making new bots, Starcore's time became filled with AIing entries from others and tightening and/or rebuilding their bots to be more efficient and effective. [[The Troll]] being an example of shrinking a [[SHW] down to a more effective though still funky [[HW]]. Many exotic bots were brought in including [[Vortex CE]], [[Rabid Pit Bull]], [[Hunter-Killer Tank]] and others by [[Rejected]]; [[3-2-1 Blastoff!]], [[Flying Sheep]] and others by [[Foolishevil]]; and the first stilt bot ever seen, [[Mome Rath]] by [[Corporate Goon]]. There was also a major influx of new 6-bot themed teams, manny following the pattern of [[LW]], [[MW]], [[HW]], [[AW]], [[BW]], [[SHW]] including teams from [[FoolishEvil]], [[C2]], [[Spawngeek]], [[Jimxorb]], [[Viper]], [[EpicentrE]], [[WardenX]], [[ACAMS]], [[Rejected]], [[Artitan]], [[Gemini]], [[Clutch]] and [[Karnage]]. This grew the pack to a whopping 35 teams of 6 bots each for a total of 210 effective, diverse, and dangerous [[Stock]] bots.

== Starcore v4.0 ==

== Starcore v4.0 ==

Starcore planned to release a v4.0 of the AI pack in 2005, but he disappeared from the community for quite some time dealing with real life needs. He returned in 2007, and released two Alpha versions of Starcore v4.0 tightening designs, upgrading most of the bots to [[DSA]] and many to include [[Caster]] armor. The RA2 community again pulled together to help rebuild, review, and test the updated bots. This put the Starcore pack back at the forefront of the RA2 Stock packs as one of the most challenging and diverse packs ever released. Many members of this community cut their teeth and grew their skills reviewing and competing against the Starcore pack bots.

Starcore planned to release a v4.0 of the AI pack in 2005, but he disappeared from the community for quite some time dealing with real life needs. He returned in 2007, and released two Alpha versions of Starcore v4.0 tightening designs, upgrading most of the bots to [[DSA]] and many to include [[Caster]] armor. The RA2 community again pulled together to help rebuild, review, and test the updated bots. This put the Starcore pack back at the forefront of the [[RA2]] [[Stock]] packs as one of the most challenging and diverse packs ever released. Many members of this community cut their teeth and grew their skills reviewing and competing against the Starcore pack bots.

Starcore's activity on the forums has slowed to a crawl in the subsequent years, but he still enters worthy tournaments once in a while and has seemingly lost none of his skill. He also tends to appear and post when his name is mentioned kind of like the bat light, an event dubbed "the Starcore effect" by [[R0B0SH4RK]].

 

Starcore's activity on the forums had slowed to a crawl in between 2007 and 2017, but he still enters worthy tournaments once in a while and has seemingly lost none of his skill. He also tends to appear and post when his name is mentioned, kind of like the bat light, an event dubbed "the Starcore effect" by [[R0B0SH4RK]].