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One of Beyblade's greatest achievements is the bringing together of new and old players. Because its system is so comprehensible, and because blading skill is essentially based on practice over time, two bladers of completely different experience-levels can still compete together in fair and equal competition. Even if the less-experienced player loses, he will learn - and be better prepared to win next time. Very few games (if any) facilitate this cross-generational gameplay as well as Beyblade.
So how does this translate with WarShell? Among so many new and evolving shell designs - and countless variations of arena types - how can we be expected to research and practice? How will we know which parts are best to use against others? What security do we have that our own shell designs will not be terrible in an actual fight?
The answer we have already covered in a previous episode of Formula Bei: physical programming. Remember, physical programming is where we modify the behaviour of something by changing its physical characteristics. Beyblade is such a successful product because it allows us to program our blades effortlessly; changing the performance tip of a Beyblade is a perfect example of physical programming.
The same principles of programming a Beyblade also apply to building custom shells in WarShell. What makes WarShell so exciting is that these principles can be applied in completely new and innovative ways. This does not mean, however, that the principles themselves will be different. Aerodynamics, weight distribution, recoil - all apply equally to any custom shell you can imagine. Just as they do in Beyblade.
In WarShell, we may not be able to judge the performance of our opponent based on previous experience. In most cases, we will be fighting the opposing shell design for the first time. But we can use the basic principles of physical programming to quickly analyse the opposing design and judge for ourselves how he will perform with surprising accuracy.
Over the next few episodes, Formula Bei will be examining the basic principles of physical programming and ways of applying them in your designs. Rather than construct a simple list of principles (which would just play-out like a lesson in basic physics) I will instead use a number of case studies to illustrate the idea.
You will notice many of the principles examined here apply equally to Beyblade. This is because the two games are so very similar - and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, you may even learn something new about Beyblade through studying-up on WarShell.
So this week, I have an exclusive video of a WarShell battle from my studio - a single test round between Sumo and Terminator, whom some of you will have seen in the past. For this episode to make any sense, you really must watch the video.
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BEHAVIOURAL PHASES
Remember that a "program" is a chronological sequence of events. Some programs are more complex than others; but all programs will start somewhere and end somewhere - so all programs can be analysed in measures of time. Physical programming is no exception.
In almost every case, a shell will exhibit predictable behaviours during combat. These behaviours can be classified in "phases" of time through which the shell will naturally pass over the course of its operation. Exactly how the shell behaves in each phase depends on its unique design - but to keep things simple, we use the same words to describe each phase for all shells.
These phases are known as:
- Engage
- Patrol
- Attack
- Shock
The diagram below is an audio-waveform analysis of the fight in the video. Here we can track the progress of each shell throughout the entire conflict. Each spike on the wave indicates an impact. Each fuzzy area indicates movement around the arena. Notice how the behavioural phases are quite clear to see?
Engage
In this phase, shells are less concerned with fighting each other and devoted instead to recovering from the violence of launching. For each shell, the purpose of this phase is to engage all its mechanisms and assume its programmed behaviour.
A shell should ideally engage as soon as possible. The longer it takes to engage, the more likely it will be interrupted by obstacles (or its opponent) without first being combat-effective. Interruptions of this kind are a waste of energy and can lead to uncontrollable reactions - particularly unwanted recoil.
In the video (which runs at 30 frames per second), Terminator takes just 25 frames to engage - or 0.83 seconds. An engage time of less than a second is pretty phenomenal. By contrast, Sumo takes 106 frames to engage - or 3.53 seconds. So Terminator exhibits a shorter engage phase than Sumo, giving it the upper hand from the outset.
Patrol
Once a shell has fully engaged, it will need to find something to attack. Patrolling describes the way a shell will cover ground to locate its opponent. The traditional Beyblade flower-pattern manoeuvre is a good example of patrolling. This behaviour increases a shell's chances of finding its opponent - and readies the shell for a powerful attack.
Not all shells will attempt to seek out targets. Some are so confident in their stamina that they purposefully avoid conflict all together - hoping their opponent will die from exhaustion. Tornado-stalling is an example of this kind of patrolling. Others may occupy very little floor space and will attempt to move as little as possible - becoming very small, innocuous targets for their opponents. In all these cases, we still refer to this behaviour as patrolling - because it determines the likelihood of the shell meeting an opponent.
Attack
It might seem like a shell's prime combat-effective phase should come right after its launch - or at least right after it engages - when it carries the most energy. But in practice, this is almost never the case. The best way to understand this curious paradox is by example:
Consider the shell illustrated above. If a target hits the flat, outside area of those blades, it will simply bounce off - a weak impact at best. But anything caught in the recesses between those blades is going to feel some serious pain. Furthermore, the deeper within the recesses the target is, at the point of impact, the more severe the impact will be. This is why we call those recessed areas:
kill zones.
But because this shell spins at such high velocity immediately after launching, targets will have barely any opportunity to be caught in its kill zones at all. Instead, they will just bounce off the flat, outer surface. As the shell slows down gradually over time, targets are presented with ever-increasing chances of being caught in the kill zones - because they have more time to travel into them.
So the prime combat-effective phase of this shell will not be immediately after launch - because it inflicts impacts better as it slows down. This is an important attack strategy - it allows the shell to inflict heavier hits after its opponent has depleted much of their own energy.
Ideally, the attack phase should come as late as possible in the fight - for maximum effect against a weakened opponent. This must be carefully balanced against using too much energy before the attack phase begins - or the attack will not be strong enough to disable the opponent.
The exact moment a shell enters its attack phase is not always clear - though it is usually accompanied by a sudden burst of energy and aggressive behaviour. So many physical forces come into play during the attack phase that it is often difficult to keep up. This is why we always look for sweeping behavioural changes rather than analysing each impact and recoil.
Shock
The shell is still able to operate but has no real hitting power left. Once a shell has entered the shock phase, it is unable to properly participate in the fight. It should avoid all physical contact from this point forward.
Shells should endeavour to avoid shock for the longest time possible. The longer the shell avoids shock, the longer it will remain combat-effective. Largely, this factor is based on its abilities in the patrol and attack phases.
Once a shell has entered the shock phase, it should endeavour to remain operational for the longest time possible. Avoidance is a good strategy here. It also helps to disengage any attack abilities and concentrate all power on basic operation.
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PHASE-BIAS
You will notice in the video that shells designed for stamina and defence tend to patrol for quite some time. Most shells will naturally favour one behavioural phase above the rest. This characteristic is known as: phase bias. So a shell designed for stamina might have a "patrol phase bias". By directly comparing the amount of time a shell devotes to each phase, we can gauge exactly what kind of shell it is - and which design we should employ to counter it.
Often the type of behaviour a shell exhibits will be obvious - and we will rarely need a detailed diagram to make informed design decisions. But because shell designs vary so dramatically from one fight to the next, it is worth observing the phase bias of an opponent - to make beating them just that much easier.
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COUNTER-DESIGN
Sumo
Sumo, as its name implies, is designed specifically to push its opponents around the arena with brutal traction manoeuvres. It sports multiple traction plates with no impact points at all. Smooth upper and lower surfaces also increase traction time. This notorious setup is colloquially known as the "chasm" design; the deep channel in the shell perimeter effectively grips onto targets and stops them recoiling away to safety.
Traction is a popular attack strategy when fighting in stamina-based combat arenas because it produces almost no recoil. When the arena is so flat, with very low walls, high-recoil designs would likely self-destruct.
The metal-wheel of Sumo is positioned low on the core. This may seem like a design flaw at first, as the wheel will contact the arena walls. But the low-recoil perimeter minimises these impacts, using traction to stabilise instead. Though not as extreme as the Terminator design, Sumo's weight distribution also makes it more likely the shell will gravitate toward the centre of the arena rather than toward the outer walls.
Sumo exemplifies a stamina-based shell with powerful attack capabilities. It is designed specifically to destabilise other stamina-based shells in high-risk arenas just like this one. Often this kind of design is known as: anti-stamina.
Terminator
Terminator is recognised by its colossal height and heavy core. A solid defence design. The weight of the shell is almost wholly centred with a relatively high centre of gravity. This gives the shell extreme stability and massive leverage to absorb incoming attacks.
In the video, Terminator is repeatedly pushed by Sumo during traction manoeuvres. But Terminator's core is so strong, the shell recovers before Sumo has fully completed the manoeuvre. Terminator then corrects itself in a swift, sweeping arc of movement - avoiding the arena walls due to its strong core and unmatched stability.
Adding insult to injury, the travelling speed of Terminator induced by correcting the effect of the traction manoeuvre is enough to inflict a heavy impact on Sumo as both shells collide again. The strong core of Terminator allows it to recover from traction and recoil so efficiently that attacks from Sumo are largely negated.
Terminator is designed to attack only if attacked first. It does not hunt its opponent. Furthermore, in a stamina arena like this one, it fully expects to be attacked by shells sporting traction plates - and is designed to counter. Every time Sumo attacks, its impacts merely trigger Terminator's own attack behaviour - fast, tight, sweeping arcs of movement. Impacts from these counter-attacks send Sumo recoiling into the arena walls.
This is a perfect example of counter-design. Terminator was specifically engineered to be immune to traction and recoil. Its super heavy core gives it the shortest engage time ever recorded and huge amounts of torque against leverage from opposing impacts. Though Sumo has performed exactly as intended, Terminator is programmed specifically to counter its attacks.
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WEAKNESS
In this fight, both shells use the Beylon Customs Bolt (BCB) construction method. You can see this method illustrated in the Sumo construction diagram above. The BCB method is specifically designed for using Beyblade clear-wheels in custom shell designs. It locks the clear-wheel to the core rather than pressing it into the metal-wheel. This is a significant departure from the Metal Fight Beyblade (MFB) construction method. It allows shells to be constructed in a broad range of heights without exposing their delicate clear-wheels to attack.
The clear wheel of Terminator is positioned high atop a monolith of steel. Only the tallest shells are able to reach this high. In contrast, Sumo's clear-wheel is positioned just above its metal-wheel and protrudes toward the shell perimeter. This is a design flaw; leaving the clear-wheel exposed to attack.
As the final impacts of the fight are inflicted, Terminator performs an advantageous traction manoeuvre on Sumo's clear-wheel. Because the perimeter of the clear-wheel does not hold nearly as much energy as the perimeter of the shell itself, this is effectively a one-way traction attack and Sumo is severely compromised. This is a perfect demonstration of how any part of a shell not expressly designed to inflict damage may quickly become a weakness in combat.
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COMBAT MANOEUVRES: TRACTION
Throughout this report, we have made reference to the brutal
traction manoeuvre. Some of you will recognise this exotic attack from the 4D Scythe design - though that design certainly did not use it exclusively. When we refer to traction, we are talking about the ability of a shell to gain momentum from grinding against its opponent - like a car wheel spinning against the ground, attempting to accelerate.
Unlike normal impacts, where a hit is inflicted and both shells recoil away to safety, traction translates the force of an impact into a constant, applied effect on the target. A single normal impact with recoil may last only a millisecond - but a traction attack can last indefinitely, depending on the design. The result is a devastating transfer of energy from the attacking shell into the body of its target.
You might be wondering: what if both shells are spinning at the same speed? Will the traction not be applied to both shells equally? Yes, traction is a dangerous manoeuvre and needs to be executed perfectly to work well. Luckily, there are a number of ways we can ensure our traction attacks perform as desired...
Attacking from below the target is essential; this gives our shell the weight advantage. A spinning top will always travel toward the average direction in which it is leaning. So when a shell attacks from below, it is naturally coaxed to lean "in" to the attack by the weight of the target above - meaning better traction and better stability with a much-reduced chance of recoil.
Meanwhile, the target is forced to lean "out" from the attack, being leveraged by the weight of the attacker underneath. The result often looks as though the attacker is chasing the target around the arena - as seen in the video. This destabilises the target as well as reduces its energy output.
Consider how a nail works best when you use the pointy end; or how a thumb-tack only goes in one way. The same principle applies to traction. The sharper the attacking surface compared to the surface of the target, the more force will be transferred into that target. Traction plates are best when they are sharp - like in the Sumo design - because they output more force than they receive in return.
(May. 02, 2014 2:51 PM)Bey Brad Wrote: Making a powerful spinning top is actually pretty easy. The strongest Beyblade would be round, small, heavy, with no projections. Part of what I learned when working on Battle Strikers is that top design boils down to: start with a circle, and then intentionally make it worse.
Why would anyone do this? Simply put, perfection isn't fun. People aren't playing Beyblade in order to have the strongest Beyblade; they're doing it to have the coolest battles, and to earn those victories. Making a perfectly circular Beyblade is the same as making a card in a game that says, "this card cannot be defeated."
What I love about this quote from Bey Brad is the challenge it issues to the world of blade, shell and arena design at large. Challenge is what this game is all about - in both combat and design. Defiance of the accepted status quo in Beyblade is where WarShell really shines.
A circular perimeter may be a strong design - but it is not actually the strongest. In fact, my experience is that there is no "strongest" design at all - only balance. A circular shell might deflect impacts and minimise recoil - but this also makes it particularly susceptible to traction attacks in return. Beyblade does not use many perfectly circular designs and its stadiums are always very deep - so we rarely see this kind of attack used well. But in WarShell, it is yet another layer of brutal strategy we must consider in our designs.
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IN A NUTSHELL
Because this fight takes place in a stamina arena, the launching skill of the shell operators plays less of a part in the result. In this case then, the actual design of the shells is paramount. They each need to be able to operate at peak-efficiency - without launching guidance from their operators.
Because WarShell arenas can take almost any form imaginable, at least one shell in every cluster ought to be able to operate completely independently of operator input - regardless of how it is launched. In this way, when the importance of operator skill is minimised by the fighting environment, whole fights can be won by design alone.
Building your own shells or customising existing ones with your own parts may seem daunting at first. It can be difficult to achieve anything comparable to existing designs - such as Beyblade - until you have experimented with a few different methods. But once you have mastered the basics of getting something to spin, you will undoubtedly start to recognise the virtue of well-considered combat design.
I have been quite busy in recent months; and it may be the case for the next few - but we will eventually examine some specific building methods I have found to be quite rewarding. It's all about choosing a strategy, minimising cost and buying the right stuff. Hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am.
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