The Nineteenth Dynasty of Josh

10 July - 1 September 2022

Ascension Address

The stench of oil, sweat, and metal-on-metal filled the arena as the crowd road. Somewhere high above, in a booth overlooking the carnage, an announcer grabbed his microphones, and, after a moment of feedback, gave the cry that the crowd were waiting for: “BLOGBOTS… ARE - YOU - READY!!!”
Throughout the ruleset, change Demiurge to Operator and Omnipotence to Announcer.

Players

At the start of the dynasty, these players were active: Brendan, Darknight, Josh, Jumble, Kevan, lendunistus, Raven1207, SingularByte, SupernovaStarbright, thundershrike Trapdoorspyder, wdtefv

Final Ruleset

Ruleset 205

Gamestate

Workshop

Posts of Interest

Basic Mechanics (Josh): Established the fundamental economy of the dynasty: Operators had Money with which they could buy Engines, Chassises and Systems (weapons and tools).
Bot Bouts (Josh): Operators could pit their Bots in Bouts with other Operators, by changing their Readiness to signal availability. This was later modified to make it more nuanced, and restrictions were put in place to modifications at different points in the Bout lifecycle.
Start Your Engines (Kevan): Bots performed according to a predetermined Script, which sought to anticipate conditions of the Bout and prepare their Bots to perform accordingly. Bouts took place in a single linear pathway, which simulated relative position in three-dimensional space. The Announcer had broad latitude to interpret scripts as needed.
Wowing the Crowd (SingularByte): For a fair chunk of the dynasty, Bouts had a Viewership score; this was never plugged into any other mechanics, and was eventually repealed.
Scrapheap Challenge (Kevan): Components all had a percentage Condition, which represented the Damage taken. A Bot with a 0% Chassis or Engine was trashed and lost its Bout.
Big Flipper (Josh): Added the first systems: a Ram that damaged Opponents by bashing into them, an Axe to chop, and a Flipper that could put opponents on their backs. Flipping became a very powerful status so was later nerfed to expire naturally.
Giving Everyone a Turn (SingularByte): Implemented a system by which Ready participants for a Bout were selected according to how few Bouts they had participated in before.
Why Must We Fight (Kevan): The first stab at how Bouts conclude. This was broadened into a range of bout ending criteria.
Garbage In Garbage Out (thundershrike): Tidied up rules around script entries that couldn't be processed.
Up To Scratch (SingularByte): Implemented Scratch Damage, a small amount of damage levied for bumping into an opponent that became a key game concept.
Ring Out (SingularByte): Established that the squares outside of the confines of the defined Arena were Out of Bounds, and that a Bot finding itself Out of Bounds had lost their Bout. Also established that Bots could Shove each other, a strategy that came to dominate the middle of the dynasty.
Out of Range Error (Kevan): Some systems were Melee Systems, and could only be used at close range.
Incentives (Josh): With all of the above proposed and often enacted, no Bouts had yet taken place; this proposal from the Emperor incentivised getting Operators off the fence and into the Arena to try the rules out.
More Weapons To The Pile (SingularByte): Added a few more consequential weapons: the Taser, which had utility as a support weapon throughout the dynasty; the Cow Catcher, which dominated the middle of the game; and Spikes, which ended up being part of a devastating combo at the end of the dynasty.
Anti-Lockout Mechanism (Jumble): Gave Operators a weekly stipend to fix up their battered bots and avoid making Money too much of a rich-get-richer mechanism.
Time to Cap Off (Raven1207): Put a cash limit to deter hoarding.
Minute to Win It (Kevan): Increased the duration of Bouts from 10 turns to 60.
Opening Shop (thundershrike): More systems, including the essential Shove counterplay Lead Weight.
Junkers (SupernovaStarbright): Allowed unused systems to be retained in a spare parts bin.
Underlay Underlay Arena (Josh): Added Arena configurations, which could be traps, obstacles, House Bots or bumpers, and added a few new Statuses.
Your Name In Lights (Josh): The first VC. Added the LED Banner, which each Bot could have as a System in their Bot and which tracked the number of Bots that Operator had defeated; having quorum names on your Banner would confer victory.
New Drops (Josh): More new kit; the Inverter Driver being a powerful counter to a flipper build, and the flamethrower and pincers being used to apply statuses to rivals.
Don't Tar All Bots With The Same Brush (SingularByte): Configurations created an issue whereby Competitors could get caught on either side of the House Bot and not manage to reach each other. This was one proposal to fix it: Trashed Bots got removed from the floor, leaving a trap behind them as they did so.
Bye Bye Pass (Josh): Another change on the same theme was Bypassing, which allowed Bots to opt to move through the space without interacting with each other or the House Bots. Blocking could counter bypassing.
Gaffer Tape Bodge (Josh): Allowed for small, occasional repairs to Bots, to avoid players getting caught in a 0% / 0 Money trap.
Economy Fail (Brendan): Made cash rewards flat between winners and losers. The emperor missed this change and no-one noticed, meaning that a lot of Bouts ended with the amount of cash awarded to the loser being missed. This was addressed by CfJ.
Hook Line and Sinker (Josh): The Grapple got a big buff, and accordingly so did melee builds.
Sfida (Josh): Introduced the ability to Taunt each other, for increased money or additional damage. Only lightly used, even after being made more powerful.
Pumped Up Kicks (Josh): Added some new gear, including the exploitable Modular Breakpoint and the powerful defensive Ablative Plating.
Winners at War (Josh): A second VC, this one setting a time limit after which the remaining Operators would get placed into a Bracket and would have to fight a tournament for the crown.
Formalised Disputes (SingularByte): Set out how disputes would impact the timeline during the Tournament.
The Bots Attain Sentience (Josh): Picked up an idea from Habanero to add some advanced scripting options into the game. Improved by SingularByte.
Double Blind (Habanero): Bot configs are hidden during Tournament Mode.
Bottling It (Brendan): Nerfed a promising new strategy around stacking multiple versions of the same System on a bot, for multiplicative effect.
Fighting Fund (Josh) and Stimulus Check (lendunistus): Boosted resources available to Operators as the Tournament loomed.
Imperfectly Debalanced (Habanero): A final balance pass that also added the last new System, the springloaded treads.
Some of the bits (Josh): Boosted flip durations and amended the way that Scrambled worked.
Standardised Rule Books (SingularByte): The rules for each Bout were held in place in advance.

Non-Dynastic Proposals

Play Fair (Trapdoorspyder): Attempted to prevent admins from 'abusing their powers', interpreted broadly; did not pass.

Bouts

Bout #	Participants	Winner	Announcement	Bout
1	Kevan vs Brendan	Kevan	Announcement #1	Bout #1
2	SingularByte vs SupernovaStarbright	SupernovaStarbright	Announcement #2	Bout #2
3	Jumble vs Lendunistus	Jumble	Announcement #3	Bout 3
4	Jumble vs Trapdoorspyder	Jumble	Announcement #4	Bout #4
5	thundershrike vs SupernovaStarbright	thundershrike	Announcement #5	Bout #5
6	SingularByte vs Trapdoorspyder	Trapdoorspyder	Announcement #6	Bout #6
7	SupernovaStarbright vs Jumble	SupernovaStarbright	Announcement #8	Bout #7
8	Trapdoorspyder vs thundershrike	Trapdoorspyder	Announcement #7	Bout 8
9	Trapdoorspyder vs Raven1207	Trapdoorspyder	Announcement #9	Bout #9
10	lendunsitus vs chiiika	lendunistus *	Announcement #9	Bout #10
11	Darknight vs SingularByte	SingularByte	Announcement #11	Bout #11
12	Darknight vs SingularByte	SingularByte	Announcement #12	Bout #12
13	Trapdoorspyder vs SupernovaStarBright	SupernovaStarbright	Announcement #13	Bout #13
14	SingularByte vs Jumble	SingularByte	Announcement #13	Bout #14
15	Lendunistus vs Raven1207	lendunistus	Announcement #13	Bout #15
16	Darknight vs Brendan	Brendan	Announcement #14	Bout #16
17	SingularByte vs chiiika	SingularByte	Announcement #14	Bout #17
18	SupernovaStarbright vs Lendunistus	SupernovaStarbright	Announcement #15	Bout #18
19	Jumble vs Trapdoorspyder	Trapdoorspyder	Announcement #15	Bout #19
20	SingularByte vs Brendan	Brendan *	Announcement #16	Bout #20
21	SupernovaStarbright vs Trapdoorspyder	Trapdoorspyder	Announcement #17	Bout #21
22	Brendan vs chiiika	Brendan	Announcement #18	Bout #22
23	Raven1207 vs Lendunistus	lendunistus	Announcement #18	Bout #23
24	SingularByte vs Trapdoorspyder	SingularByte	Announcement #19	Bout #24
25	Lendunistus vs Trapdoorspyder	Trapdoorspyder	Announcement #21	Bout #25
26	Brendan vs Maldor	Brendan	Announcement #20	Bout #26
27	chiiika vs Trapdoorspyder	Trapdoorspyder	Announcement #22	Bout #27
28	SingularByte vs Brendan	Brendan	Announcement #23	Bout #28
29	Raven1207 vs Habanero	Habanero	Announcement #24	Bout #29
30	SupernovaStarbright vs Trapdoorspyder	SupernovaStarbright	Announcement #24	Bout #30
31	Brendan vs SupernovaStarBright	Brendan	Announcement #25	Bout #31
32	Habanero vs Maldor	Habanero	Announcement #26	Bout #32
33	Trapdoorspyder vs SingularByte	Trapdoorspyder	Announcement #27	Bout #33
34	SingularByte vs Habanero	Habanero	Announcement #28	Bout #34
35	Trapdoorspyder vs SingularByte	SingularByte	Announcement #29	Bout #35
36	Darknight vs Habanero	Darknight	Announcement #29	Bout #36

Tournament

Bout #	Participants	Winner	Bout
T1	Darknight vs Lendunistus	Darknight	Tounament Bout #1
T2	SupernovaStarbright vs Maldor	SupernovaStarbright	Tounament Bout #2
T3	Brendan vs Darknight	Brendan	Tournament Bout #3]
T4	SupernovaStarbright vs SingularByte	SingularByte	Tournament Bout #4
T5	Trapdoorspyder vs Habanero	Habanero	Tounament Bout #5
T6	Habanero vs SingularByte	SingularByte	Tournament Bout #6
T7	Brendan vs SingularByte	SingularByte	Tounament Bout #7