A Simple Guide:
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Written by Krag7
A short guide created in the hopes of improving the quality of experiences with
robocraft gameplay.
-=Introduction=-
Robocrafts’ simple image was born of a simple want by its developers: originally,
it was intended to be a simply marriage of World of Tanks gameplay and Minecraft
creativity. With the several changes to core game modes along the games’ development
path, techniques to counteract new weapons and ever-changing meta have constantly
followed – not unlike the real-life polarity of offensive and defensive developments
in military technology.
As complex as this games’ history is, and similarly the meta is ever-changing, this
guide will be simple. I only intend to cover a very short selection of general tips,
some of which are generally applicable to most competitive and semi-competitive team-
based games on the market. All of this is mostly in the interest of new players, hoping
to catch the attention of those individuals who do happen to check the guides section.
That said, players of middling skill – or experienced players with poor priorities –
may find use of this guide.
With all of this said, let us begin.
-=-=-Section 1: The Bot-=-=-
Before anyone can join a match, they need to design their vehicle. As of the creation
of this guide, measures have been taken to make the robot-building experience easier
for new players. Despite this, many choose to build bots with CPU ratings below 1,500
– this leaves a quarter of potential armor and gear wasted, often with no positive
effects due to the poor situational awareness of newer or less experienced players.
-=Tip-Set 1: CPU Efficiency
You have 2,000 CPU to use for vehicles in public matches. Anything more is a megabot,
and anything less than 1,750 is often leaving something to be desired. Most individuals
will choose to create their own robots: With this in mind, all effort should be made
to make full use of your CPU allowance.
Only once you decide you would excel in a long-rage or evasive role should you attempt
to create low-CPU, highly-evasive robots, and even in these cases a high-CPU-cost
vehicle will often perform at a higer efficiency.
-=Tip-Set 2: Survivability
Survivability is the key to winning an engagement, which often translates long-term
into winning a game. survivability can be achieved in two major ways: protection and
mobility.
The more recommended method, Protection, comes in two flavors, which are sheer health
reserves and elecro shields. The more luxurious option, electro shields, are expensive
in terms of both CPU and robits, and are incredibly restricting in terms of weapon and
gear placement. The brute option is sheer health reserves, which involves forgoing
most, if not all, placement of electro shields and only using light or normal cubes
to create a large-profile hull for mounting your weapons and gear on.
Note: When using a protection approach to survivability, ensure that you attempt to
encase all mobility in at least two layers of defense(Two-cube thick walls or one-cube
thick walls with electroplate).
The more skill-reliant method, mobility, is reliant on player skills and situational
awareness, only focused on by the majority of air-based vehicles and ground vehicles
that are designed for flanking or long-range combat. Now, this doesn’t mean low CPU:
these robots may simply be less tanky due to an emphasis on modules or weaponry, or
just use an exposed and weak method of movement.
Movement types all have their advantages and disadvantages; Wheels are fast, treads
are slower but easier to hide, and mech legs(non-sprinter) are even tougher than that
but almost impossible to protect. Rotors and propellers/jets/wings are flying, and
fastest, but vulnerable to damage. Hover fans are in-between.
This method of survival inherently requires the player to avoid close-range combat and
attention from the enemy, and as such usually involves flying or climbing movement.
-=Tip-Set 3: Offense
Ideally, you should be trying to eliminate your enemy as quickly as possible. This means
having the best weapon for the job. Even with a weapon well-suited to your role, you
need to have redundancy and backups. If you have only one flak gun and nothing else, you
will be near-useless against ground vehicles and you will be disarmed quite quickly. A
better setup would be to have lasers or plasmas for use against ground targets in self-
defense, and using two small flak turrets in favor of a single large example.
This is a major selling point in the interest of non-top-tier weapons: not only are
they expensive in terms of robits, but they are expensive in terms of CPU, reducing
the amount of them and any backup weapons you may wish to mount. This leaves you
vulnerable if you lose these weapons. Keep in mind that different tiers of some weapons
behave quite differently.
Even with the right weapons, you can die quite easily to someone otherwise less-armed
than you if they happen to know where to shoot and you don’t. Ensure that you eliminate
an enemies’ weapons before they can do the same to you.
-=-=-Section 2: The Match-=-=-
-=Tip-Set 4: Combat
While this was touched on in set 3, the elimination of enemy modules is key to winning
an engagement. This doesn’t just apply to weapons: the elimination of an enemies’
ability to maneuver will make them easier prey. This is the major reason you should
protect your own mobility options.
Killing them off is also generally the preferable option, even in non-TDM matches. The
short respawn time still keeps them out of the picture longer than if they fell back
and healed up. As such, focus on a single enemy at a time and kill them off unless
another is doing too much damage to sustain. You may want to make efforts to keep your
allies alive, on this note.
Speaking of allies, numbers exponentially help in fights. One enemy (who does not know
how to focus on a single target) will always do less overall damage to two targers
than if you were alone.
-=Tip-Set 5: Objectives
Unless you are playing TDM, you are going to be attacking and defending some area of
the map. Ignoring these will result in the match being lost, and even if you do an
incredible amount of damage in a given area of the map, it will probably be your fault
for the loss. This is because a singular enemy can capture points quite easily if
they don’t happen to be contested. Play the objective, and kill enemies in the
interest of these objectives.
A key note, and something that can be observed quite often, is that players will often
drive off of a point if they start taking fire. Do not do this. What you are doing is
letting the enemy contest you. An inverse point is that you should always drive onto
your own points in order to defend them; this blocks a capture.
-=Tip-Set 6: The Team
You will always have an advantage in co-ordination provided you play with people you
know over a voice chat. if you work together to create a lineup of vehicles that leaves
no weakness to any given mobility type, you will never be caught off guard by something
like a missile helicopter or plasma bomber.
Use communication and co-ordination to split your team’s strengths across the map. If
flying enemies are focusing on your near point, then have your flak vehicle move there.
If there is a shotgunner raiding middle point regularly, have tanky vehicles with a
lot of redundancies focus his weapons and eliminate him.
