A tesla turbine would be ideal for a launcher because you could use a much larger air tank - or even an actual compressor. I have not decided if WarShell launchers must necessarily be "human powered" yet, but all the launchers I have designed are "string-and-spring" based, like in Beyblade. Needs more attention.

I guess human powered launchers give sence of the control to the player but are awfully unconsistent and whole outcome of the mach could be determined solely on the poor launch.
This unconsistency pushes players to invest a lot of time perfecting their shooting tehnique in order to give themselfs best odds of winning (aside choosing proper parst combination).

If all launchers were "self-propelled" game would put more emphasis on the proper parst combinations. On the other hand putting more power into the warshell may result in some pretty spetacular show. Who knows how parts perform (and break) when you increase RPM. ;-)

A turbine in the shell itself is tricky because of torque. Far as I can tell, the "steam" engines create significantly more torque than the turbines because the turbines rely on a lack of friction - while the steam engines are specifically designed to overcome this friction by throttling the pressure-release from the tank. The closest comparison I can think of to explain this issue is: a clock, slowly ticking away, versus a loose spring, that just explodes all its energy at once. The steam engine is the clock. Releasing just a small amount of energy for each "tick" means the engine can run for longer, with greater torque, on a smaller tank - where a turbine would just blast all the air out in one go.

Loving this conversation, by the way.

I guess you could always put some kind of gear box. This may intorduce a whole new level of customization as player could choose different gear ratios depending on the (tips friction) strategy he wants to implement. Planetary gears offer compactness and are symmetric, therefore mass distribution is balanced by default.

If all the above solutions fail you could always try electric motor and (super)capacitor as they are charging insanely fast (batteries could be made replacable to overcome this problem). Ultimately this solution is one step closer tu fully remotely controlled units.

I guess you coul always put some kind of gear box. This may intorduce a whole new level of customization as player could choose different gear ratios depending on the (tips friction) strategy he wants to implement. Planetary gears offer compactness and are symmetric, therefore mass distribution is balanced by default.

Well, I hesitate to say "I've done this," exactly - because I have never got a gearbox working in a shell - but I do have a very particular set of orbital gearboxes here which are unique because they are modular (and tiny). Each box offers 1:3 ratio. Add more boxes and you modify the result accordingly. In a shell, you theoretically get a free-spinning tip (or sub-attack ring) where you can modify exactly how free-spinning it is by ratio.

Trouble is, I simply cannot make gears at this size - it is beyond me - so I have to buy them and it is really difficult to find the gears I need at this size. The box itself is it's own conundrum. My laser-cutting method is not currently accurate enough to sink the shaft holes correctly. It's just really difficult - and if the EG series tells us anything, it's that copious ammounts of gears will never beat good-old-fashioned blade design: heavier hits, sharper blades, more powerful launchers.

Also, I've been playing around with some style-guide images:

[Image: WarShell%20Dark%20Small.png]

[Image: WarShell%20Tatoo%20Small.png]

[Image: WarShell%20Burn%20Small.png]

Obviously these are meant to be wallpapers. These images all lose a lot of integrity when I resize them for the forum. Pity. Can't see all the little burnt bits in the tattoo version.

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Trouble is, I simply cannot make gears at this size - it is beyond me - so I have to buy them and it is really difficult to find the gears I need at this size. The box itself is it's own conundrum. My laser-cutting method is not currently accurate enough to sink the shaft holes correctly. It's just really difficult - and if the EG series tells us anything, it's that copious ammounts of gears will never beat good-old-fashioned blade design: heavier hits, sharper blades, more powerful launchers.

Too bad you haven't succeded in producing usable gear box but at least you tried. If the game sparks enough interest maybe someone with proper machines manages to produce it someday.

I tottaly agree that the simpler the top is the better its performance is but I must admit for me it's not alwas about battle itself but collecting different (beutiful) designs. It is the idea (or strategy) behind the design that I like the most about Beyblades. Each one is unique in its performance and each one represents one attempt in solving the problem of surviving the battle. The more radical design is the more I like it. They may be total failure from the point of their battle effectivenes, but they may be very interesting from perfomance point. May I just mention Duo Uranus or Storm Capricorne. Both beyblades implement dose of randomness in their battling strategies. Unbalance is not desirable feature in Beyblades but it can definitely produce some interesting patterns and outcomes.

EG series was surpased by HMS and all the other simpler series that derivated from it, but EGs complexity is still not matched up to this day (what a shame). EG series relied on engines additional power burst to bring something unpredictable and interesting to the game. Burst system implements "break down" mechanism. Neither of them improve effectiveness of the beyblade per se but raither enrich the game with new battle experiences.

Regarding the above photos (wallpapers) I prefer the middle one. Although first one has better colors middle one has sharper lines. Could you maybe try white outlines on the black background ?

I tottaly agree that the simpler the top is the better its performance is but I must admit for me it's not alwas about battle itself but collecting different (beutiful) designs. It is the idea (or strategy) behind the design that I like the most about Beyblades. Each one is unique in its performance and each one represents one attempt in solving the problem of surviving the battle. The more radical design is the more I like it.

I tend to agree. It's natural to attach a kind of aesthetic (even functional) mythology to a fighting character (or whatever one collects) and hopefully you'll be able to do this with WarShell - largely the point is that how "cool" your shell looks is entirely up to you. Because all the WarShell parts are ready-made and available, making an awesome and functional shell is kind of like solving a 3D puzzle... You just keep poking at it until it looks how you want.

Far as combat-behaviours are concerned, I have two quality "grip" designs so far; one which runs most efficiently at high speeds (a kind of squished ball) and one which has a minimum rotational speed of 1:60rpm (which is one revolution per second) and never falls over (the perfect spin-stealer). I hope to have more grips in future (for more behaviours), but as they will all be performance-based (not gimmick-based, which I will reserve for engines and sprockets), they take some time to design and source good parts for. I'd hate to release a bad grip - it's basically the one crucial component that necessarily must never suck.

Regarding the above photos (wallpapers) I prefer the middle one. Although first one has better colors middle one has sharper lines. Could you maybe try white outlines on the black background ?

Yes. I have a pet dislike of white lines on black (it burns my retinas, precious) but maybe that's because I'm just not particularly awesome with that kind of image. Anyway, judge for yourself:

[Image: WarShell%20Black%20and%20White.png]

[Image: WarShell%20Paper%20Drawing.png]

[Image: WarShell%20Glow.png]

The last one looks weird when it's small. At 1080p, the glow diffuses much better across the desktop screen. Dang brain-reality disconnect! The "paper" one in the middle is likely what I'd focus on for a kickstarter. Still deliberating.

I also took a group shot of some of my five-minute builds, because I can. Below, you can see the 3D joint for the shell teeth - which is basically the whole reason WarShell even exists in this format. This joint took months to perfect - and it's still using prototype "nuts" in the centre, which is a bit embarrassing.

[Image: WarShell%20Prototype%20Group.png]

[Image: WarShell%20Formulae%20Details.png]

Hope ya'll enjoyed this little trip.

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I actually really like the wooden one, if only the text was more readable.

Yet again middle picture has the best effect. Maybe it's beause first one is negative so shdow are white and threfore not intuitive. I took some liberty and made this "wallpaper". Maybe it will help you in your searc of visual identity.

[Image: 2nsl8m.jpg]

P.S.

I made a simple logo to make things visually interestig. There are Vernier Calipers "hidden" in the negative space.

Hmm air compressors would be a good idea for a launcher, but the problem with autonomous tops is that the skill element of the game is removed. One may argue that designing is part of the skill of the game but there are lots of intelligent people in the world. My only fear is that someone with enough planning could build a shell that would dominate. Set rules and game variations could be used to fix this though. Balance is key in these types of games. How big are the main components of a shell?

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Yet again middle picture has the best effect. Maybe it's beause first one is negative so shdow are white and threfore not intuitive. I took some liberty and made this "wallpaper". Maybe it will help you in your searc of visual identity.

[Image: 2nsl8m.jpg]

P.S.

I made a simple logo to make things visually interestig. There are Vernier Calipers "hidden" in the negative space.

Very nice! You may need to think about joining a marketing team lol.

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ASH

Awesome. I reverse-engineered your art (is that a double reverse?) and made a high-resolution version. Then I shrunk it down and uploaded it to my photobucket. I am uploading everything at 500p to make it uniform and easy to search on google. I also made a white paper version, for comments and criticism:

[Image: WarShell%20model850%20Red.png]

[Image: WarShell%20model850%20White.png]

The red version feels soviet to me. Like Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, which is big on red vector art:

[Image: Command-Conquer-Red-Alert-3-Demo_1.jpg]

Thanks for taking the time to contribute, model850. I really like what you've done. I've been steering away from colour generally (maybe I'm just not confident enough?) so it's nice to see someone give it a go. The logo is interesting too - something I've struggled to handle myself.

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You're welcome. :-) Even though logo is rough verson and may need some tweaking and iterating it could be of use for now (feel free to use it if you want). I may give it a second look when I catch some free time. ;-)

Regarding the color I completely understand your concern. Now that you emphasised the problem of red color it definitely looks a bit komunist. XD Unfortunately such thig can't be objectively interpreted so another opinion is always welcome. :-)

Awesome. Glad you will be selling these parts at some point, count me in absolutely. That was the only part that turned me off at first, finding the time and having the skill to engineer my own beys completely from scratch.
And yeah, any beys that you could make that are metal replicas of old plastics would sell really well I bet. I know I would buy them for sure

Personally, I always had a thing for the ridiculous fakes that decided the best way to bypass copyright was to infringe upon as much of it as possible. I'm taking Charizard, Great Moth, Grand Tortomon, Shaman King and Sonic the Beyblade here.

Obviously it'd be something you'd have to tread carefully with but I would very much love to see that kind of thing redone right if it's possible for you do do so legally.

Regarding the color I completely understand your concern. Now that you emphasised the problem of red color it definitely looks a bit komunist. XD Unfortunately such thig can't be objectively interpreted so another opinion is always welcome. :-)

I don't think the soviet vibe is a bad thing. Most of my favourite machines (and fantasy renditions of those same machines) are soviet in nature. The soviets had about 70 years of producing machines which were all-function and no-pretence, which I admire. The most powerful WarShell products I've built often carry this same aesthetic precisely because they are so starkly functional.

But will people warm to the soviet vibe?

Also worth noting, WarShell parts are all made from raw materials. There is no paint in the WarShell product line at all. In the images I've posted so far, the gun-metal grey components are are pure stainless steel - I simply finish the surface of the steel to give it its hue, scattering the reflected light to make the metal look dark. I am not using paint specifically because the only paint which would work in the "combat" environment is petroleum-based oil paint and I hate fossil-fuels; which are essentially toxic anyway. Raw materials are beautiful. So all the colours you'll see in the actual WarShell products are derived from the raw materials - steel, brass, bronze, copper, bamboo, etc. This might also help explain why I have not focussed on colours for my images so far.

And yeah, any beys that you could make that are metal replicas of old plastics would sell really well I bet. I know I would buy them for sure

Personally, I always had a thing for the ridiculous fakes that decided the best way to bypass copyright was to infringe upon as much of it as possible. I'm taking Charizard, Great Moth, Grand Tortomon, Shaman King and Sonic the Beyblade here.

As plastics were before my time, it'd be really handy if you guys could post pics (or links) of what you mean here. I'm struggling with Google.

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I completely dig soviet designs as they are making some of the craziest designs and do not hesitate to try something new. As you said aesthetics vise function is always over the form but this roughness give it a bit of cold mechanical, almost stempunky vibe witch I love about it. Everything looks a bit more striking and manacing. :-)

Will people dig it is hard to tell. You can always make some kind od minimalistic stickers to visually enhance the overall look. As parts are mostly of similar shape stickers could be made "unversal" so the user could costomize the look up to it's preferances.

Here's second attempt

[Image: war_shell___logotype_and_wallpaper_by_mo...agj4iz.png]

How is it going with the project?

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ASH

Fair enough. I haven't been posting anything for a while because I've been on the road - as usual - and unable to actually build any new shells. I'm really happy with the way the shells feel and how they are constructed. The metals are all so nice to touch! The product itself just feel really good. So building a whole bunch of shells and playtesting them is high-priority right now - and I can't do it while I'm travelling.

As of last week, I'm actually back though. But I haven't had a chance to unpack everything (all my stuff goes into storage everytime I leave for long periods). I also wanted to properly thank model850 for his awesome artwork before moving on to other things and I just haven't had the motivation to whip out the old photoshop. It's easy enough to post and rant in other people's threads - much harder to maintain my own when photoshop is involved. That said, I chucked a photo of a hybrid shell in for this post - two shells of half the normal weight limit, bolted together so they can be split apart and used separately during a fight - which is an old relic of a rule for Phantom-Fox style shells. Robot-fighting calls them "clusterbots" but I've just been calling them hybrids. Outside of fights, they make great display stands! See the shadow?

[Image: WarShell%20Display%20Stand.png]

There's a longer and rather more interesting story behind this unplanned hiatus too - but I want to let that wrap up in the real world before I spin half the yarn and leave you in suspense. Or did I just do that?

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You're welome.

Looking at this new shell I wonder what is the purpose of that gear shaped washer between the center bolt and the "attack ring"?

It's actually an adaptor plate for MFB clear wheels. The funny shape just gives it vertical grip. The advantage of using MFB clear wheels is that they are lightweight and place a lot less physical stress on the launcher than the WarShell "latch" fragments. But in the picture above, I'm using a 20mm shank (face bolt) and I just needed an extra 1.5mm to raise the top shell up off the body of the bottom one - so it can spin freely.

... So it's basically just a spacer for height.


Also... I've been getting a lot of mail (and a few pms) about videos of the new toys. I thought I'd just be clear about this to ease everyone's fears: I want to get my hands on some slow-motion cameras before I start making videos. I don't really want to do a "vlog" for development so I'm reserving the filmy action for professional-like stuff. I'm planning to have my videos broadcast free-to-air here in Australia before releasing them online, so it's important to do them right. I'll update everyone on progress I make with cameras, etc.

Hopefully more pictures and art to come.

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Well, it's been six months since the WBO updated its forum software. The updates were all much appreciated and the development team should be very proud of what they have achieved. An unfortunate result of the update is that the Formula Bei blog can no longer be updated and maintained the way I originally hoped it might. Combine this last six months of lightweight updates with a pretty nasty work injury returning to plague me on a regular basis and suddenly it seems right to pick a new direction for the WarShell project. And with that, this post is to announce a little bit of housework I am planning: rebranding!

[Image: Silver%20Shell%2001.png]

Imagine finding this poster, walking down a dark alley at night,
heavy nightclub vibrations pounding from behind an unmarked door.

Silver Shell is basically just a simplified format for fighting with homemade tops. You can build your own from scratch, use parts from your existing Beyblade collection or otherwise choose from a growing range of specialist products in the new Silver Shell range. Some of the Silver Shell prototypes have been showcased here already - but the majority are yet to see the light of day. For the most part, future Silver Shell gear will be released through Kickstarter. This is the best I can currently manage.

Below are some ideas for the rebranding. I want to embrace a simpler, unified aesthetic; straight from the dystopian cyberpunk of 1980s Japanese science fiction. The original Blade Runner meets Masamune's Ghost in the Shell. The images and branding are a kind of homage to model850's suggestions earlier in this thread, as well as the original laser-cut Silver Top designs from Lowen93 and the slick new WBO Club Format, which I love. I also wanted to move away from associating the sport of fighting tops with the violence of war, which has always been a bit misguided. The original "war" theme stemmed from how WarShell players used three "shells" in a battle, instead of one; but as this idea has now been popularised by the Deck format, I think this is the time to redefine exactly what makes the homemade format unique: the tops themselves. And apart from which, I can more easily pitch "Silver Shell" to someone wearing a suit.

[Image: Silver%20Shell%2002.png]

[Image: Silver%20Shell%2004.png]

I hope to continue researching the history of Beyblade and the ancient world of fighting tops but that will need to take a back seat to the development of Silver Shell. We all know that this alone will take long enough! It may also mean I need to move my new Silver Shell updates to a new (not broken) thread in the Your Creations forum. I will let everyone know if that happens.

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Your posts are always great. Keep up the good work.

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Blader For Life

Thanks mate, your own creations have been a continual inspiration for me these past few years. Someday I hope to join the club and graduate to 3D too. That'd be pretty awesome, right?

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OKAYLISTENUPFOLKS

It's three hours 'till midnight, December 31st 2017, and fully time for one last project before this ridiculous year finally and thankful ends forever and is committed to the eternal dustbin of oblivion we call the who-cares past. To celebrate this momentous evening, as I sit at home, alone, nursing an ongoing head-injury, I'm going to finally fix the OP of this OG blog...

...ALL 20,000 WORDS OF IT, BEFORE MIDNIGHT, WITH MYBB CODE.

Strap yourselves in kids, because not only am I going to do this, finally, after a year of downtime here on Formula Bei, but I am also going to drink a whole bottle of tequila in the process. Don't try this at home. Or at all. Anywhere. Also, I have already finished half the tequila.

First on the list of things to do is sign up to IMGUR as recommended by Kei et al when I complained about the Photobucket heist which started all this. Actually I've already done this bit. But I need to populate it with all my original Formula Bei images.

Be right back.

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PROOF

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Okay, we're up and running with the new account. For those who don't know, the problem here is not just that photobucket shot me in the face, but that the new forums (ala circa etc end of 2016) has a cool text editor (which I am using to write this) which cannot handle the amount of memory required for the Formula Bei OP, meaning I have to code the entire thing blind on my local PC before uploading all the text in one go and HOPING it works. But hey guys, DO or DO NOT, there is no TRY. Ammaraight?

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Alright, now we're cooking. Got a system going, with just three articles to go.

2 HOURS LEFT, BOIZ!!!

I expect they're celebrating already in New Zealand. Can I get a shout out from the sheepmen?! Anyone?! I'm the east coast, so we're next, fellas! Party!

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It may also be worth noting that I have my favourite Thai Funk playlist on, which is basically obligatory when you're spending new years (forever) alone. Thailand rocks. Literally. Or is that figuratively?

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WHAT. Imgur is making me prove I'm not a robot! Hang on guys, this could be a problem. I mean, what if I AM a robot? Why should that preclude me from Imguring?

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Yes, your majesty!

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Hour and a half left, folks. Almost there! With a hard drink, a late night and foggy memories of a tropical island romance, this little p-diddy can do anything! I'm almost through the code, then comes the insane "try to get it to load into WBO" phase begins! Man, at this rate, I'm thinking all you folks reading this at home (TLDR) probably deserve some kind of reward for tuning in. You know, like a close-up of the crazy thing on the screen in that first photo. You know... THAT thing.... Yes, I'm also rendering video while I'm doing this DONTJUDGEME bebop jive turkeys.

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The coding is done. Now the moment of truth: the upload...

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OMG IT LOOKS GOOD
(checking for errors as we speak/write/read)

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Well, I guess the BB-95 Flame Byxis patent never worked... Stand by....

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LADIES & GENTLEMEN
kindly hang on to your butts because
FORMULA BEI
is back online

Head over to the OP of this thread for an illustrated history of Beyblade and the long and winding road leading to the creation of the Formula Bei project and its insane plans for a totally modular, robotic fighting top future. What's done is the existing OP and, now that I know it can be done (yes, apparently the WBO can be hacked for better myBB results), I'll be updating it over the next few weeks with some of the juicy stuff that would otherwise be lost in the tasty meat of the thread. I'd like to thank my family, my agent, my producer, yadda yadda yadda.

Well it's been a wild ride, but I've got a whole hour left until midnight and I'm determined to get the very most out of my WBO login time. That means it's time to post something truly awesome. Yes, folks, there WILL be a Kickstarter, yes, there will be fighting tops and yes, I will ship to almost anywhere. You better right-click and save this baby before I wake up tomorrow and realise just what I have done. You hear me!? THIS IS ONLY GONNA BE HERE FOR A LIMITED TIME BEFORE I FIX MY LIFE IN 2018. But enough from me, try this on for size:

GOOD NIGHT
- AND -
HAPPY FREAKING NEW YEAR

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AWESOME!
I can't wait for Silver Shell to become a thing, and since you plan on making open source, do you plan on making the whole project Free/Libre Open Source under what license?
GNU GPL v2/3, the MIT license, or even any the Libre Creative Commons licenses like Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) or Attribution Share Alike (CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Do you plan on using a Copyleft or Permissive license for this Open Source Modular Beigoma (Beyblade) System?

AWESOME!
I can't wait for Silver Shell to become a thing, and since you plan on making open source, do you plan on making the whole project Free/Libre Open Source under what license? GNU GPL v2/3, the MIT license, or even any the Libre Creative Commons licenses like Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) or Attribution Share Alike (CC-BY-SA 4.0) Do you plan on using a Copyleft or Permissive license for this Open Source Modular Beigoma (Beyblade) System?

Ha, slow down FT, I know you love the sources. So let's be blunt, I'll be running a kickstarter for this in the near future - hopefully by the end of the month - which means I have a huge amount of work to do in order to avoid actually losing money on this. So that means the open source component of this project has a priority level of approximately zero, bearing in mind how the original idea of "open source" has, as you have so clearly illustrated, become a bit of a "closed loop" of pseudo-legalities which only tenuously hold any weight in Australia, where I am based, anyway. Put simply, no matter how "open source" I make it right now, there's still nothing officially stopping me from lawyer-punching a pirate.

Don't worry though, you'll get what you want in the long run.

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