Naryar's DSL tips

What you should know

• DSL is made and supposed to be realistic. DSL tournaments use the realistic rule (no stacking, no overlapping). And you risk being criticized if you showcase unrealistic DSL bots.

• Several motors are more suited for drive. These are Copals, Astroflights, Slimbodies, Drive magmotors (TWM3's and TWM3R's drive version), NPCs (all of them) and drive E-teks.

• In DSL 2.1, all weapons are balanced, unlike Stock. DP (damage potential) is how powerful the weapon is, and hitpoints is how tough the weapon is. Choose what is appropriate: do you want your bot to be more damaging or more defensive ?

What you shouldn't do

• Never use DSA. Even 1mm Plastic is much better. Keep DSA for Stock.

• Empty space. Same applies for Stock.

• Never use weapon motors for drive. Even Copals are better than Piglets (that are 9kg heavier) for drive.

• Using drive motors for spinning weapons is not really a good idea because your weapons will have much less max RPM's, so less damage - however the spinup time is shorter with drive motors.

• Use 10 mm Steel armor on any type of bot. Seriously, the weight wasted using this type of armor could be used for external defenses, better drive, etc... instead.

What you should do

• Look for the total output of your bot (add all the amps provided by batteries) and the total output (add all the amps drained for motors). You can generally underpower slightly (output being superior to input) your bot, but not if it uses burst motors and not more than 50%.

• Titanium and Plastic armors (especially titanium) are the best.

• Using wedges is a good idea on most designs. You may use any wedge you want, but some wedges are better than others - just experiment.

• Currently, wheels are unbalanced. If you need a fast bot, use the grippiest wheels you can (the selection of grippy wheels is basically, Tornado, Vladiator, Techno Destructo, Wheely Big Cheese, Hypnodisc and Overkill ones, as well as the DSL wheels and motorcycle wheels). Grippy wheels make your bot faster.

• External defense (metal sheets are particularly good) is generally better than heavy chassis armor.

Last thing

As you can see, DSL provides for WAY more building variety and less restrictions than Stock, and you can build good bots with your own personal building style, but unlike Stock you have nearly no tutorials.

Just build, try and gain experience. You'll be a decent (or even good) DSL builder quickly.