Weight Matters In Robocraft 2

In Robocraft 2 we intend to simulate physics more accurately than in previous games. Engines provide propulsion to wheels, tank tracks, and other types of movement and each engine + movement type combo is designed to suit particular weighted vehicles.

The engine in the first release is designed to work well with a medium weighted vehicle with off-road wheels.

Materials are a key component to building in Robocraft 2. All block shapes can be painted with the materials via the material painting system. In the first release we will have three materials:

The weight of your Robot is a combination of its volume and the density of the materials you have used in its build. Rather than show density in the Inventory, we show ‘unit mass’ which means how much mass a single 1x1x1 block of this material would have. Higher-density materials will provide tougher tankier builds but will be significantly heavier.

Here’s a quick video showing how much difference weight makes to the acceleration of your vehicle.

Centre of Mass matters a whole lot more too. Getting your speed and grip up but not getting your centre of mass in the right place will result in a lot more trips to your Switch Plate:

If you have a rear heavy vehicle, it will begin to tilt backwards and can even topple over. It’s also unlikely to get enough traction with the front wheels which are used for turning and even if you do accelerate, you may not be able to turn efficiently.

If you have built a top-heavy robot, there are a few ways to combat this by increasing the weight towards the base of the robot. Or you can spread the base of the robot outwards. Below is an example of how simply widening the base will increase the stability

One of the features that we wanted in the original Robocraft but were not able to add was the ability for weapons recoil to have a real impact on your own machine. There will be some very powerful weapons in Robocraft and you won't be able to equip them all to lightweight robots. Some weapons will require a sturdy base otherwise they could topple over!

Later this week we will give some more information on the structural integrity system and the damage systems of the weapons. These systems combined with the considerations for weight and how it affects movement will all be quite key to creating effective battle meta builds.