Weapon tutorial

These are several tips to make your Stock bot really damaging.

-Naryar-

Basic Weapon Info

Golden rule: the more weapons and the quicker there are, the more damaging the bot. Although, depending of the bot, you might want to have just a few weapons on your bot (Popups mainly).

If you want to have an efficient bot, don't use weapons over 14 kg. In Stock RA2, heavy weapons are generally less damaging than lighter ones, because they do weight more for less damage done. Yes, it's not realistic, but it's the game !

Why the golden rule? Well, if you hit an opponent with, let's say, two Razor tips at the same time, each razor is going to inflict the damage it is supposed to inflict at the speed it is travelling . The mass factor in kinetic energy formula (Ec=(mass)/(speed^2),) doesn't applies here. This simply means your two razors will do double damage than one razor if the two setups are at the same speed.

Weapon Setups

If you can, use several grouped weapons. With some round extender work, you can make weapon heads/racks with multiple weapons.

I'm calling weapon heads several weapons indirectly attached to an offensive motor/piston - for all spinners, hammers, pokers, popups, etc...

I'm calling weapon racks a line of static numerous weapons - for rammers, pushers.

Look at my showcase. I have weapon heads on the first Hammer i showcased and weapon racks on all of my pushers/pokers/rammers.

Weapon Choice

Here comes the fun part : the weapon overview.

These are the best weapon choices:

Axe heads: (12kg). I fell in love with axe heads some time ago. There are heavy, but also deal good damage. Their shape allows for some static defense. But they have damage normals, e.g. they only do damage in front of them. Best used on rammers.

Iron spikes(10kg). A good all-around, decent damage. Their length can be useful (or not, depends of what you're building). Classic spinner weapon. I like them too, because they do look cool.

Razor tips (7kg). The featherweight weapon of all stock RA2 is also the most damaging. No damage normals, but they have half the hitpoints of all the other weapons, e.g. don't except them to last long. I don't like them much because of this weakness, but there are still the best weapon choice for Popups and in a vertical Hammers (both of the robot types attack a normally unprotected area of the bot, so they don't need to be very tough)

Maces (10kg). Classic Middle Age weapon. Another all-around weapon. Technically less damaging than the Iron spikes, but are shorter (they don't get blocked as easily as irons)) and provide for better coverage. A good defensive weapon. See also Absolute Chaos.

20cm Pole spikes (8kg) These are good, but i'd rather use Pointy tips instead because for the same effectiveness they provide more coverage.

Pointy tips (8kg). This would be the best weapon of all RA2 if they didn't dealed damage only with the tip. Same damage as the razors, 1kg heavier and twice as strong. A great thing for Pokers and occasionally Rammers.

Single ice picks (8kg). Same damage as Iron spikes, but for less weight. I like them, but they're hard to work with because these have normals too and the normal is perpendicular with the only attachment point.

Bear claws (8kg). Scrap Daddy claims there are great. I never used them because i find them ugly but he may be right.

Summary

-Use light weapons

-Use several weapons

-Make sure they all hit the opponent

That's it, everything is said. Now, have fun laying waste on your opponent !

Links

Clickbeetle's component statistics: http://beetlebros.gametechmods.com/ra2stats.htm My showcase: https://gametechmods.com/forums/showthread.php?t=692