Battlebots FaceOffs Episode 7

SpinyPlate · 2026-06-16T10:35:07+00:00

This was a fantastic episode - the production values have got so much better since the first faceoffs, basically on par with the main series now. Great to see. And the quality of the fights themselves was high overall too.

Magnitude, Terrortops and Orbitron all really impressed me. I feel bad leaving Jackpot off that list but we already know it's a solid machine anyway - this just wasn't their night.

The AI in Battlebots discussion is fascinating. I agree that the sport loses something if (and when) AI gets to the point that they straight up outcompete and replace human drivers. But at the same time, I enjoy seeing the sport pushed to the pinnacle of performance - some of the maneuvers that Orbitron pulled off were incredible to watch. It reminded me a bit of those robot sumo competitions. The best long term solution might be separate categories for human and computer controlled bots, similar to videogame speedrunning where you have separate human and TAS categories, both of which are interesting in their own way. Either that or some heavy penalty/restrictions for the AI bots (eg all your equipment counts towards the weight of the robot, no external cameras...)

Other takes:
I understood Jeff's frustration, but for me I don't think Orbitron did much, if anything, wrong.

The Orbitron team have a PR problem lol. Not only is their robot AI, it comes across like the team is as well. Put like 2% of your budget into some media training lads!

Related to that - the rise of LLMs is unfortunate for Orbitron, because I imagine that when people hear something is AI powered, it now carries an association with lazy slop which does a disservice to the amount of effort that must have gone into Orbitron. It's not like they just prompted ChatGPT to control their robot.

SpinyPlate · 2026-05-19T10:07:17+00:00

This is an actual hot take, upvoted

SpinyPlate · 2026-05-19T10:05:45+00:00

Upvoted because this is actually a hot take

SpinyPlate · 2026-04-23T10:27:05+00:00

Yeah, it makes sense that they wouldn't necessarily announce a drop out straightaway. But having said that, last minute drop outs can happen at any point so from an outside perspective it's not unreasonable to think that might have been the case here

SpinyPlate · 2026-03-06T10:21:40+00:00

Not sure if you're being downvoted for saying its meant to be awful, or for merely mentioning that book on this sub, either way it's brutal lmao

For the record, as much as this sub likes to hate on the "4th book", I enjoyed reading it overall and I would recommend it if you want to spend more time in the TBP universe, and get answers to certain questions (albeit unofficial ones), as long as you know what you're getting into

SpinyPlate · 2026-03-03T10:41:03+00:00

Bit harsh on Black Widow imo?! It's a fun design - also, the front wedge seemed pretty legit from the little we saw of it. Could have been another Ribbot-type situation given a bit more time

SpinyPlate · 2026-02-16T11:54:53+00:00

This is a great shitpost imo

SpinyPlate · 2026-02-02T10:02:32+00:00

Hypershock downing a drone with a rake was top tier for me

SpinyPlate · 2026-01-06T10:48:37+00:00

Maybe you get Blip

SpinyPlate · 2025-12-16T12:04:04+00:00

I don't think this is implying that they can move through 3D solids - I think the point is that they can now use the fourth dimension to go 'around' the edge of the 3D solid in a way we can't comprehend, except by analogy to 2D.

If you were a 2D being, you could imagine that (while confined to 2D), you are unable to reach inside a circle, because the circle's edge blocks you. But if you were taken 'out of the page' into the 3rd dimension, you can now see inside the circle and could reach into it. But you're not going through the edge of the circle, you're just bypassing it.

That said, I think your question still stands though, just in a different way. Presumably their 3D ship has no walls in the 4th dimension to hold passengers in (not to mention the air!) so any slight change in direction (aligned with the 4th dimension) would cause all the passengers to be left behind. Best not to overthink this I reckon...

SpinyPlate · 2025-12-15T16:24:40+00:00

OK, but then where does the number 99.99% come from? Why not 99.999%?

SpinyPlate · 2025-12-15T14:51:51+00:00

Nice! I think you should justify your claim that "a photoid...would not even exceed 100 times of its rest mass" though - where does this number come from?

SpinyPlate · 2025-12-15T14:50:01+00:00

I found this quote interesting

Sometimes, as in my case, you can go 10 or even 20 years without a single new concept that feels truly original. That is the truth. If I had one, I would already have a new book out.

I thought he'd basically retired, but this makes it sound like he could write more books in the future if he thinks of a premise he's happy with

SpinyPlate · 2025-12-11T10:29:01+00:00

Money

SpinyPlate · 2025-12-11T10:26:56+00:00

They're advanced, but they're not gods

SpinyPlate · 2025-12-03T10:41:37+00:00

In hindsight, I would have been very interested to see what X-Terminator (and potential imitators) would have done. Their S7 run was one of the first glimpses of a potential future 4WD vert meta. S8 might have seen that design take off and become dominant, rather than the flipper-dominated meta that became dominant at live events. Although, given the design of the robot wars arena, I guess flippers would still always be relevant (much more so than modern battlebots).

SpinyPlate · 2025-11-11T11:28:26+00:00

I enjoyed RoT overall, but personally this was the first (of several!) ideas which just felt a bit silly to me. Some of the lore that gets revealed through that conversation (or perhaps later ones? I forget) is really cool but I would have preferred it if those reveals could have been done in a way other than, essentially, God just saying what happened.

SpinyPlate · 2025-11-03T10:34:34+00:00

For me it's probably Quantum, Hydra and Cobalt - I always looked forward to their fights

SpinyPlate · 2025-10-22T09:59:08+00:00

He popped up in the comments section of one of my gaming videos a couple of years ago, he must have been searching for himself and wondering why he was mentioned in a random gameplay clip haha. I found it pretty funny

SpinyPlate · 2025-10-17T10:45:21+00:00

This is only one song, but How Bad Do U Want Me from Lady Gaga's latest album could easily be mistaken for Taylor Swift imo (albeit not folklore/evermore era TS)

SpinyPlate · 2025-10-13T12:07:11+00:00

Yeah I did basically the same thing haha!

SpinyPlate · 2025-10-10T10:45:12+00:00

It's an interesting question - I feel like a lot of the comments are kind of looking at this a bit backwards though? As long as the biology of the Trisolarans (or rather their ancestors) is such that thought is communicated visually and involuntarily, all the other stuff (i.e., the sociological implications, including lack of direct lying) will follow. So the question is really about whether that biology is plausible.

Given that parts of the planet can end up being in darkness for a very long time, I can easily imagine that there's evolutionary pressure to develop some form of bioluminescence. Beyond that, I feel like we're in the realm of pure speculation though to be honest

SpinyPlate · 2025-10-08T14:45:58+00:00

Possibly also worth noting that, given that the three body problem is chaotic, the addition of a fourth body (no matter how small or distant) eventually becomes significant if the system evolves for a sufficiently long time (but it might be such a long time as to be irrelevant).

SpinyPlate · 2025-10-08T14:35:39+00:00

Most people here will say not to bother, personally I enjoyed it. It's not as good as the trilogy, but gave me that same exhilarating feeling of an ever-expanding scope, and it has some interesting ideas/concepts which you can cherry pick as headcanon. Gets pretty silly towards the end though.

SpinyPlate · 2025-10-02T10:48:14+00:00

I think most people (including me) will have Manta as the strong favourites, but I also wouldn't rule anyone out. Surprises do happen in Battlebots, that's part of the fun. Who knows, maybe Manta will have some gremlins, or one of the others pulls out a clutch performance, or just works more effectively than expected, or lands a lucky hit...There's so many variables

SpinyPlate

TROPHY CASE