#calber war bots

[purplekoop]

I think I wanna get into the habit of writing some character interactions so I can get a better feel for some of the cast. Calber's a character I feel a little uncertain about, and he's also the first bot in the roster order who actually speaks, so let's start with him.

with Wilderoad:

Calber: "Y'know that's some sharp shooting for a civilian..."

Wilderoad: *"thank you" whistle*

Calber: "...Maybe a little too good, for a bot we couldn't get a proper background check on. I'd like the story when we get back to base."

Wilderoad: *suspicious silence*

Calber: "Don't worry, I'll give you plenty of time to write it out. Supervised, if I need to."

with Poppett:

Poppett: "Woooaaahh, where'd you get that grapple arm, man? I'd kill for one of those!"

Calber: "I did. It's a rotten deal."

Poppett: "Uhh... gotcha. I'll ask the engineers if they could figure it out."

with Yanno:

Yanno: "Say chief, how do you operate those fancy rockets of yours?"

Calber: "You mean... my artillery strikes? They're automated mortars that I remotely activate to target a positional signal."

Yanno: "Ahh, I see! Was just wondering then, I got some fantastic ideas for this one gig they'd be perfect for..."

Calber: "What?! No! They're high-level clearance only!"

Yanno: "Alright, alright... I'll figure it out myself then."

with Velenna:

Calber: "Do you care to tell me why your herbicide is capable of corroding metal, professor? I didn't approve that kind of chemical weaponry."

Velenna: "I haven't heard you object to anyone else's weaponry, commander. What makes mine any different?"

Calber: "You know damn well what makes it different. Can you imagine what kind of harm that stuff would do in the wrong hands?"

Velenna: "I'm hurt you'd think I'd be so careless."

with Lyonn:

Calber: "Any help is appreciated, but I still don't get why someone with a position like yours would willingly go to a place like this."

Lyonn: "I do have to admit, it's a bit odd even for me to be so brave, but bravery is all we have in the face of fear, isn't it?"

Calber: "Sometimes bravery can do more harm than fear. Watch yourself out there, professor."

with Formann:

Formann: "Us old-timers gotta stick together, eh?"

Calber: "I don't think we deserve any praises just because we've gotten lucky getting this far."

Formann: "Living's always worth bein' proud of. It ain't always easy, but I've found it worth my time."

with Navea:

Calber: "Status, captain?"

Navea: "Ah Calber, I'm good as ever! Worry about how you're doing for once!"

Calber: "I thought that was what you're here for?"

Navea: "I've got more than you to worry about now! But I'll always be there when you really need me."

Calber: "...appreciated, captain."

with Harmony:

Calber: "Be advised ma'am, fame won't do you any favors on the battlefield".

Harmony: "Ah, I understand dear! Don't fret, I can take care of myself! I'm much tougher than I look!"

Calber: "I see... I'm glad you're on our side then."

with Xenir:

Xenir: "Geared up and ready for action, commander sir!"

Calber: "I appreciate the enthusiasm kid, but don't get too ahead of yourself. We don't wanna lose a good engineer out there, so play it safe."

Xenir: "Ah. Right, of course, commander, sir... but if I DO get caught out, then I've been tuning up my personal firearm, even managed to get in some rounds in the firing range the other day without hurting anybody for the first time, AND I've also-" *keeps going*

Calber: *sighs*

with Sorsier:

Sorsier: "Commander Calber? I've read a lot about you, you're a living legend!"

Calber: "I'm living alright. Can't say I've done much to deserve being called a 'legend' though."

Sorsier: "Ah... the records didn't mention how... humble you are."

Calber: "I bet they didn't, huh."

with Otto:

Calber: "I can't condone vigilantism, but I can tell you've at least got good intentions, kid."

Otto: "Yeah, I've heard that before. But sometimes you gotta play dirty to get a clean result, y'know?"

Calber: "I've heard something like that before too. The outcome isn't always as 'clean' as you hope."

with Nekross:

Calber: "As soon as this war's over, we're getting your sorry chassis locked in the deepest, darkest cell we can find so you can't hurt anyone again."

Nekross: "Does the even greater dealer of death than I not want to admit a more efficient solution?"

Calber: "I didn't have a choice. You did, you monster."

Nekross: "Your perspective of 'choice' is shallow."

with Burnett:

Calber: "Y'know, we did a background check on your little engineering group, and found you've done some work for some Outlander factions."

Burnett: "Oh really? What, you got something to say about it then, or do I gotta-"

Calber: "Off the record, I couldn't care less. Construction and repair work isn't much I find concerning. Unless you'd like to give me a reason to be concerned?"

Burnett: "Yeah yeah, alright. I'll make sure I don't stick the welder in any funny spots."

with Ezela:

Ezela: "If you need my help, just call and I'll be right there, sir."

Calber: "That's much appreciated, thanks. We could've used more bots like you back in the day."

Ezela: "O-oh... I'm honored, sir."

with Arber:

Calber: "We need all the help we can get, but don't think for a second about going out of line. That goes for you and especially your little friends."

Arber: "You can trust me. All of me. All we want is peace."

Calber: "...Hmph. I suppose we have that in common. I'll be watching your back then."

Arber: "Same to you, commander."

[lazyvase]

Dear, @purplekoop

GRRRR RAHH War Bots is consuming me! I keep finding myself thinking about the far off hypotheticals and all the little extraneous details:

What would box art look like? So far I can see Wilderoad and Calber staring at each other from the corners of the art. A random map from the game is the background. Other bots from the game are all rushing towards each other ready for a fight.

What kinds of PvP maps will there be? One idea I had is an abandoned amusement park based on a once-beloved-but-now-forsaken gaming company that is now being used for training.

Also I had the potential* headcanon that the PvP gameplay is the War Bots** training.

*(I say potential because i don't know if you already had that idea. I don't want to assume.)

**(Not to be annoying myself. But I know that War Bots is not the final name of the game nor the team. I just wanted to make that clear real quick. Sorry if this sounds rude. I genuinely don't know how to phrase this without sounding like an asshole.)

What will the trailer look like? I can see a rough draft. A little rendered animation of showing Wilderoad walking onto a PVP map. Chaos is everywhere. We then get quick clips of gameplay footage of characters using their abilities. The obligatory pop song playing in my head bounces between "Cut Off" by Set It Off and "Magic 8" also by Set It Off. (I listened to the album these songs were in recently while I had War Bots on the brain)

By the way, I see Wilderoad as the face of War Bots mainly because they were literally the introduction to it, and if I remembered correctly, they were also one of the first characters made. And if i'm remembering REALLY correctly, I believe you yourself said they were the face.

What will the cosmetics be like? This question really started when you mentioned the quickly scrapped penguin's moveset being given to Velenna. I instantly thought "Alright, Velenna should be given a penguin skin then." Then i realized that I don't recall you ever mentioning cosmetics. Would it be more TF2-esque with a loadout system? Or would it be more Overwatch 2-esque with a simple complete skin system? Speaking of Overwatch, I couldn't help but think of an "Ancient Heroes" skinline that gives our favorite bots a familiar look. Some mappings are rather cut and dry, while some really get you to think (Poppett in particular: Tracer? Lucio? D.va? Kiriko????). I also briefly imagined a "Coat" mechanic of sorts. Where you could merely change the color of the bots bodies. Like putting on a new coat of paint. (As you can see, I'm kinda using War Bots as a cope and a way to wean me off of Overwatch. Or at least attempting to.)

What would the community jokes and memes be like? What would be our nerf Genji? I can already see a meme about Necross, but I won't since I plan to make that one a reality eventually.

Bot Select? I want to see all the bots lined up in rows and columns.

Of course. What game would be complete without your favorite thing: figures! Not to make you drool, but imagine if a Wilderoad figure was right there on your desk. Or Formann? Or Poppett? Or Velenna? Or Navea? Or etc etc etc.

It's all so just- GRRRrrr OHHHhhh, so enticing, so magical, so beautiful. I'm proud to say that I'm on the ground floor of War Bots. I love being a part of this. I can't wait for what comes next.

Sincerely, G

PS: I have absolutely no idea when the rest of The Gardeners posts will be finished. I have solid ideas on all of them (minus one). I just haven't had the time to write them. This week I'm focusing on a big midterm and have the usual load of homework. I'm trying to get a lot done this week so Spring Break I can truly relax and write to my hearts content. Of course, the biggest roadblock to my writing is that I'm busy writing a script for my university's comedy skit program club. And that has a deadline of the week after Spring Break. So yeah. Sometime after that I suppose. I will let you know that the next Gardener I'll be going over is the one with blades.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings!

[purplekoop]

Just now thinking that I never outright *said* where each of the Havens are other than 1 and 2 being North and South America, respectively.

The number order isn't that hard, just west to east on a standard map, with the northern continent taking priority. So 3 is Europe, 4 is Africa, 5 is Asia, and 6 is Australia. I should note that the numbering is somewhat arbitrary, I did the simplest order I could think of instead of trying to perfectly deduce which Haven would have logically been built first or reawakened first, depending on whether it was humans or bots that made the names. My current (but not definitive) explanation is that the bots did the arbitrary west-to-east numbering themselves since most of them reactivated at similar enough times.

As a little bit of a bonus fact, here's what Havens (or. I guess more broadly accurate, continents) each bot is from and since it's vaguely relevant, my current thoughts for what they'd sound like in terms of accent and stuff.

Wilderoad's exact origins are a mystery, but their model is generally not found much far from Haven 1, and they tend to travel the western half of the continent. They don't have a proper vocal module, as their model wasn't made with them by default, and unlike most others, they haven't had one installed post-awakening. They instead use a crudely fixed speaker only capable of producing whistling-like sounds to "speak", although it's not in any sort of language and is just a means of vaguely communicating with noise. They can also use Universal Android Gesturing Communication (or UAGC), a form of sign language that most humanoid bots have a built-in database for by default, which lets them express more specific thoughts.

Calber is thoroughly American. His model of infantry bots were the poster children for the US's final war efforts, seen as a symbol of their undying persistence and fighting spirit... an irony that no surviving unit can ever really live down. Calber has a general American accent with no discernable specificity beyond that, though with a distinctly dry practicality to his voice. He prefers to be slow and relaxed, but can quickly spring to quick and tactical precision on a moment's notice. He's rarely cheery and never prideful.

Poppett is... full transparency, just decided this a minute ago, Canadian. Still putting her in the broad domain of Haven 1, but so many of these guys are American so. Marginally more variety. Her exact model was very rare to see manmade, with no discernable country of origin, but the model has seen a resurgence in recent years worldwide for new bots. Upper North America has been the main frontier for post-awakening Haven 1 expansion due to its relative abundance of natural resources and lack of Outlander factions, so many bots looking to foster a successor will start their family there. This cultural melting pot and her particular fondness for global attention give Poppett a very nonspecific accent, where she'll slip in and out of accent quirks like "aboot". In terms of mannerisms, she's generally eager and short-sighted, but is neither naive nor especially selfish, aside from her aspirations of recognition. She does naturally tend to use most of the most up-to-date lingo, but tends to limit it when working with the rest of the team on missions. She's tired of having to explain what "Dialed In" means to Martinet.

Yanno hails all the way from Haven 5, located in what was once known as the center of China. Older bots tend to somehow have retained the dialect of the humans they used to live alongside, though it tends to fade with more international exposure. English is the global language, as most fundamental robotics code was originally written in it, though most bots are multilingual by default. Yanno follows the trend, still having a distinct accent, but not an especially strong one due to spending most of his life traveling across the world. His voice is raspy, with his damaged vocal module giving the effect of a human who's smoked for 20 years, then put through a faint radio filter. He's one to act extremely casual, almost to the point of irritating his more professional associates, but isn't aloof by any means. He's got little to no respect for himself, but is willing to do whatever he can for others.

Velenna was built and raised a ways south of Haven 3, in what we know as Italy. As another post-awakening born bot of a globally produced model, her accent is less "hereditary" than the older bots like Calber and Yanno. However, she has a fairly strong accent due to her formative years being in a very culturally prideful and relatively isolated community, persisting even after her worldwide travels. Her lifelong love of science has given her a stern, analytical manner of speaking, though not necessarily an outright hostile one. It only turned to outright coldness in recent years after parting with her lifetime friend, and gotten worse since. She's the most overtly unfriendly of the cast, but still certainly not "evil"... though she cuts it close when dealing with a certain someone. She's brutally to the point and not one to say more than what's needed, though she's not above taking pride in her work when it's due.

Martinet is, like it or not, exceptionally British. I mean otherwise the joke of his existence doesn't work, regardless of his name technically being French. His model was globally produced as a luxury servant, typically used as butlers or bartenders at fancy parties, but they were exceptionally popular with the social elite of Europe. Martinet's posh british accent and high-class behavior are part of his fundamental code, though he's grown his own sense of wit from his years as an intelligence agent. When not putting up a charming front for a mission, he tends to be snarky and self-assured, and a bit prone to buying his own hype. The others tend to humble him where they can, though Poppett tends to go back and forth between inflating his ego and bursting it.

Navea was built for the naval force set to defend Haven 4. She has a distinct African accent that's faded over many years around Haven 1. (Gonna skip out on the extra story details here since I still need to smooth out her exact timeline). In contrast to her long-time cohort Calber, she has a much more optimistic view on the conflicts they serve in. While she still detests violence for the sake of it, she's more willing to do what she has to for the sake of protecting others. Her optimistic nature shines in most of her being. She's proud, loud, and eager to get into the action. She loves getting to know her fellow recruits, and most have a hard time not being fond of her in turn. She insists to Calber this is just for the sake of maintaining moral and improving team coordination and trust, but it's not hard to see she's just genuinely friendly. While she seeks to inspire others to do their best, she tries to make sure they don't push too far past their limits, which is something she struggles to do for herself. She tends to be more casual in speech than Calber even when on duty, but still is prone to using a decent amount of military jargon. She's got a hearty laugh so booming it can manage to rattle in the metal of other nearby bots.

Formann is a piece of solid Texan engineering of a model from early in the initial boon of robotics, centuries old even compared to other manmade bots. It's a miracle that any of them lasted this long, and as such he awakened with an old-timer sort of spirit already. He speaks with a slow, gruff texan drawl, with a well-worn vocal module that adds even more to his "grandpa" perception. His mind is still sharp though, with a keen technical mind and a low tolerance for people trying to pull a fast one on him. He can be tough as nails if he needs to be, but can be gentle just as much. He's generally not one to take things too seriously, and gives most problems a calm approach. This tends to clash with his two crew members, as Xenir's insistence on perfection and Burnetts short temper are aggravated by Formann's more even-tempered solutions. Tangential on the note of speech, but as the only member of the cast with a physical moving mouth, he has the vestigial habit of attempting to lip sync it to his speech, even though he uses a speaker to talk like the others.

Harmony... is undecided. Her lore needs a lot more work due to being one of the newer cast members, but I can say she's likely either American, British, or some other kind of European. In terms of mannerisms though, she has a somewhat aloof and "airy" quality to her voice, like she never completely leaves the stage in her head. She's certainly not stupid by any means, but she's the least apt for combat and it tends to show. Her movements tend to vary between graceful and awkward, especially when navigating spaces not built for a bot of her size. She's not vain, but tends to be self-conscious about how other people see her. She doesn't perform for her own fame, but instead she seeks to be someone others can believe in, and tends to be harsh on herself if she thinks the fails to meet that expectation.

Xenir is a model of bot from a northeast branch of the same company that made Formann and Burnett, though is the newest model of the line. Xenir themselves is a fairly young bot, who embraced their innate function of engineering work and served under Formann's apprenticeship from a young age, seeing him as somewhat of a parental figure and giving him the utmost respect. They don't have a discernable accent more specific than "American", but have an unmistakable high energy to their speech. They tend to talk fast, especially when excited, though also when stressed. They also are something of a perfectionist, and have a habit of fiddling with something constantly even if it's already functional. This eager nature also tends to irk Burnett, though that can be said for most things. They've worked together long enough to effectively be siblings, and even she can't stay ticked at them for too long.

Sorsier... got a whole massive post explaining their lore, model origin, personality, just. Go read the GIKN post, its good I think. Only thing to add here is that their specific Keeper facility is somewhere near what we know as the northern border of Mexico, and they have a slight accent reflecting this.

Otto is a model of urban cleaner bot originally developed in Japan but later manufactured again elsewhere in the world, including in post-awakening major cities like the one Otto himself is from. He has a poignant city slicker accent as a result, though with his unique upbeat energy. His profound optimism and friendliness is easy to mistake for foolishness, and while he's not a genius by any means, he's craftier than he lets on. He can still give people the benefit of the doubt even when he knows he shouldn't, but things tend to work out for him even if he makes a bad call. He's also the type to make dumb catchphrases he uses once and then forgets about. Poppett thinks it's cool at least.

Ezela is from the extensive power network tunnels sprawling from Haven 1. Born into a uniquely isolated existence, she has a distinctly formal manner of speaking that comes off as... well, robotic. Enough to somewhat weird out the rest of the cast, which still has her feel somewhat alienated. She's certainly not emotionless, but struggles more to communicate it without unnerving or irritating the others. She tends to greatly appreciate the more calm and understanding members of the team as a result, while shying away from the harsher ones like Velenna, Martinet, and Burnett. She's especially fond of Harmony, to the point of finding her aspirational. Over her time on the surface, she's gradually become less timid and more certain of herself, though still buckles under pressure when there's a problem she can't outsmart.

Burnett is a spunky little bot from the region around what was once New York. While her model comes from the same company as the other two members of her crew, she's a post-awakening bot only 5-10 years older than Xenir. She has a heavy accent from the area and the fiery temper stereotypical of it, though this is in part due to being glossed over at a young age and quickly getting tired of it. She speaks her mind loud, fast, and often, and isn't afraid to hurt feelings. Unless it's Xenir. Maybe. Don't tell them she said that. Formann can take it though. While she'd rather be melted into ingots than admit it, she cares for the two of them like family, and anyone who messes with them is due for a quick visit from her wrench to the face. She's not the most technically minded or ambitious of the three, but makes up for it with her work ethic and practical-mindedness. If there's a job to do, she'll do it, and do it quickly. She's not a patient bot and is quick to assume nobody else is either. While she's known for being ornery, she's fairly quick with a joke to lighten the mood... or rub salt in the wound of somebody while they're down.

Arber is of an entirely bot-made model, designed and produced in his home of Haven 2, located within modern day Brazil. While proud of his home and what his existence as a brand new model of bot means for the progress of robotkind, he's struggled to figure out what he wants out of life even after two decades of it. As a silver lining in the world-shattering incident that almost left him for dead, he found a new meaning to his life after becoming truly one of a kind as the first fusion between organic and inorganic life. Now he wishes to take his new lease on life and spread the hope inherent to his existencr with the world... while also running away from/fighting off the giant plantoid mass that half of his body mass defected from. Arber's personality hasn't been functionally inhibited by his unique state of being, as what makes him "Arber" has been untouched by his organic half. While not directly altered, his outlook on life has shifted, with his new sense of purpose having him look on the bright side more often. He's laid back and optimistic, though still has a wariness about him due to being aware that being a plant and a bot means he has a lot of things wanting him dead. This fortunately excludes most of his fellow recruits, who either see him as a fellow bot worth respecting no matter what, or as someone who's useful to have around at bare minimum. There's one obvious outlier to this of course, but she manages to be professional... for now. Arber also has a unique relationship with his other half, who can't necessarily communicate or even think in the same ways he can, but their unique bond manages to get ideas across by some means that's yet to be understood.

Nekross is an enigma in origin, nature, and motives. No bot like them has been seen anywhere else in recorded history. They appear erratically, act indecipherably, and vanish seamlessly. Some people aren't even sure if they're actually a bot, and not some advanced drone or even a supernatural entity. The lucky few that have had motives align for long enough with this mysterious entity can confirm enough to decide they are a bot, but they certainly aren't like any others. They can speak, and do so rarely, but they do so as if speaking with 12 voices trading turns several times in one word, then warped further. No accent or dialect can be meaningfully identified. What they do say is technically intelligible, but frequently difficult to interpret, often speaking in what sounds like riddles. Their motions are equally bizarre and alien, often jarring, with limbs snapping directly between point to point precisely as needed. Almost any attempts to directly communicate have been met with silence, gibberish, or a bladed weapon being thrust to the neck.

Kashov is a shifty salesbot from somewhere in the range between Havens 3 and 5, otherwise known as western Russia. He has a strong and distinctive accent, which he claims is vital to his salesman charm. He's also known to play the "clueless foreigner" card to his advantage during his international travels, though this scam only works so often. He's far from truly clueless, though isn't necessarily the mastermind he thinks he is either. He has a knack for schemes to peddle his wares for a high price, though he's quick to back out of it if it means he can get out of it while making some sort of sale. Or getting out with his life, whichever is a better bargain for him. He's not a scam artist out of malice or (total) greed, but because he's just not sure how else he's supposed to sell anything. He does get a genuine sense of joy out of his wares being used for the greater good, though wouldn't complain if they were used for the greater bad. He almost always maintains a cheery charismatic salesman voice, though if he thinks it'll close a deal then he can instead try to make himself appear as pathetic as possible in an attempt to get pity.

For the two other characters I have solid ideas for, one of them is the only member of the cast to hail from around the elusive Haven 6, while the other is... unclear. You can deliberate over which is which.

AAAAAAAAAAAANd that's everybody. This uh. Got more in-depth than I intended, oops. Have fun reading this in the morning.

[lazyvase]

War Bots Story: Investigation

*Note: The following incidents have been taken from numerous Havens, cities, and towns. As such, the timeline and order indicated by the numbering may be inaccurate.

**Note: To protect individual’s identities, some information has been either censored or replaced (varying by each Haven’s policies).

Incident #23: Commanders Calber of Haven 1 and Navea of Haven # needed a resupply of mortar shells for an attack on an Outlander Outpost. The two officers managed to get in contact with a weapons dealer who went by "Shiny Sam". They exchanged 30000 credits for a large box of mortar shells. Upon opening the box, they discovered that the mortar shells were just soup cans painted black. Shiny Sam had already fled the scene.

Incident #324: Three construction bots paid for 40 tons of bricks by supplier “Rick Scoll’s Materials.” They received a 40 ton brick instead. Having no tools to properly separate the block of stone, they attempted to contact RSM. No answer. The authorities were called shorty after. Upon investigating how they came into contact with RSM, the three bots began to argue and bicker over who was responsible for the whole ordeal.

Incident #682: Famous pop star “Harmony” was planning to host her Millennium Forward performance in Haven 3. However, in the weeks leading up to the event, nearly 79% of her tickets were scalped by internet username ���cr3d1tc4rd”. Furthermore, most tickets bought from the scalper were revealed to be counterfeits. Resulting in Harmony played to a nearly empty stadium.

Incident #799: Velenna ________ and Aphrodite ________ were caught with stolen lab equipment in Haven 4. When interrogated, Velenna insulted and swore at investigators. Aphrodite claimed that they bought them from a vendor in Haven 5. She described the vendor as having white plating, a trapezoid-shaped head, a black suit, black wires in the shape of a mullet, and glasses with one lens orange and the other green. Eyewitnesses from Haven 5’s marketplace corroborated their story, claiming that the same man sold posters of "invisible" tigers.

Incident #2354: Agent 770 _____ ______ ___ _________ ______ ___ __ ______________ ______ ____________ weapons dealer _________ _____ ________ "Ferrard Ferrardeli" ________ _____ false info _______ _ ___ _____ casino ________ cruise ship ________ oil rig ___ ________ ___________ oil rig and casino combination ______________ ___ ___ ___ _____ __ _ ______ explosion ____ ______ ____________ __ soup cans painted black.

Incident #516: An incident involving the vigilante Otto resulted in the arrest of "The Tendril Gang"'s key leaders. When interviewed by the local news later, Otto commented that the leaders seemed to be buying some sort of high-level security from a "nice-looking yet shady bot" named "Slip Jib". Otto said that the bot wore a nice colorful suit and had brown wires on his head that mimicked a receding hairline. The bot slipped away during the fight, leaving behind the security pass they were trying to sell to the gang leaders. Upon some examination over Otto's donation, it was revealed that the pass was nothing more than painted plastic.

Incident #873: Two individuals were spotted robbing Rust-Easy graveyard. Eyewitnesses provided the details for the following sketches of the two suspects.

Incident #3983: Popular Rewind content creator Poppett was a regular promoter of “Vohsak Energy Drinks”. Studies conducted on the fuel source revealed a link to increased likelihood of corrosion and molding by those who utilized it. In what is her most disliked video in her channel’s history, Poppett issued an apology to her fan base.

***Note: This ring of scams and false products seem eerily similar. If anyone has any information on possible connections, they are encouraged to come forward. A prize of 40000 credits can be expected for anyone who helps reveal the truth behind these crimes.

Incident #995: We are no longer offering the reward money. No elaboration will be provided.

****K's Note: Suckers.

[purplekoop]

Do the characters of War Bots have a base and/or team name? Do they have roommates? Are there wacky sitcom-esque situations between them?

Ooh, this gives me a good general chance to talk about connected characters!

The biggest group (by a small margin) is Formann, Xenir, and Burnett, who don't have a formal group name yet but they're the building team! Because reconstruction and bot repair are vital jobs in this world, they tend to be pretty highly regarded positions. That said, this trio in particular tends to be more open to odd jobs since they're a neutral party between the big Haven government and the rebel Outlander factions, and tend to just work for whoever pays more without picking permanent sides since it's their belief there's no "right" side between the two. This of course tends to rub some people on either side the wrong way, but they manage to navigate both circles fine enough. I like to imagine their dynamic being vaguely like Team Chaotix with some traits mixed around. Formann is the rugged but caring grandpa-like figure, Xenir is the bright-eyed dreamer who wants to help people, and Burnett is the short-tempered practical one. They enlist as mercenaries in the Plantoid fight mostly because Formann and Xenir want to help people, and Burnett just begrudgingly does what she has to for a paycheck.

Aside from that group, most of the other groupings I have in mind are smaller pairings.

Calber and Navea are actually old colleagues from one of the prior Outlander wars, serving as esteemed high-ranking members of the Haven militia. They were both built as well... some of the few literal war bots in this cast, with Calber being a standard infantry unit while Navea is a more robust "juggernaut" model, so her model is much less common. Calber largely resents his time in action, detesting conflict between bots just as much as the conflicts that drove humans into extinction. Navea meanwhile is more of an optimist, still not liking conflict but seeing it as a necessary evil sometimes. Both of them were some of the first contacted to lead the fight against the plantoid invasion, though it took some personal convincing from Navea to get Calber willing to go back into action.

Not so much a proper group but more just a pair of character that I'd want to put together in an "official" story is Poppett and Martinet. This was actually a suggestion by my partner, since I didn't realize "poppet" was a british term of endearment, so they suggested they pair up as a sort of adoptive father-daughter duo. They both have some manner of leg-mounted wheels so I figured it makes sense, plus I like the potential interactions between the skilled but vaguely aloof parental figure clashing with the impulsive but still relatively grounded child-ish figure.

A pairing that I had in mind but scrapped due to one of the characters being scrapped was a dynamic between Wilderoad and a bot named Kashov. He was meant to be a money-based utility character back when the PvP mode had a money mechanic, but since that was scrapped in favor of the simpler loadout system, and I didn't know how to have a character exist in both modes where his main mechanic was only built into one of them. Because the PvE mode still has an upgrade shop (ala TF2's MvM), he's still planned to feature as the shopkeeper there since I like his potential personality. I always like the shifty spineless salesman characters, and he's always been especially pathetic in my head. Here's what he looks like, though uh. Be warned: old and not great art. Why does his right arm look like that.

Anyways, Wilderoad as a wandering vigilante has to eventually bargain for supplies with somebody, and their favorite self-preserving capitalist to bargain with is Kashov. Mostly because they don't feel bad about holding him at gunpoint until eventually his scams get negotiated down to a reasonable price. I like their dynamic of "has morals but not for this bastard" and "is the bastard but goes along with the one with morals for practical reasons, and yet will still try to be a bastard at any given opportunity". At this time one of Wilderoad's alternate weapons was implied to be something they stole from Kashov, since it was a revolver that increased money earned from dealing damage and getting kills.

Unless I'm forgetting something that's the main group dynamics I have planned at this moment. It's something I definitely wanna flesh out more over time, but since gameplay takes precedence over story it's more something that's more just connecting dots and building from there. I wanna figure out more connections, but individual character stories and the overall plot still have a lot that needs work in general.

Good question though, was looking for a chance to bring some of this stuff up at some point!

[purplekoop]

How big are the War Bots respective to humans?

(More specifically: Which bots are smaller than humans? Are there any bots smaller than humans?Which bots are the same size as humans? Which bots are bigger?)

I’d think it’s safe to say all the tanks and Otto are bigger than humans. But I’m still curious about the rest.

I know scaling is hard, so I’m fine with a rough estimate.

Pretty simple answer actually: Martinet, Arber, and Calber are roughly human sized! Most bots are built around a human scale, just smaller or larger to fit their specific purpose.

To be a little more specific, Martinet is specifically about 5'10", since his model was originally built for high-class social events. Calber is a bit shorter though, just to save costs on mass producing military bots. Arber is somewhere in the middle as an adequately average height. Ezela meanwhile is actually a notable bit taller than average, even when on the ground. The tanks and Otto are in fact the tallest, with the order from shortest to tallest being Otto, Navea, Formann, and Harmony. The first two are just a bit taller than 6.5 ft, but Formann is at least 7 and Harmony is nearly 8.

There's also plenty of little guys too of course! Wilderoad, the poster child, is pretty dang short in fact, no more than 5 feet max. Poppett and Sorsier occupy a similar height bracket (ignoring the former's crouched stance and the latter's hat). Burnett is also a similar height, if not a little shorter, but has a bulkier overall body shape. And littlest of all is Xenir, since it's I think a law that the builder character in a class shooter has to be the shortest. They're *short* short too, no more than 4 ft and very likely even less.

The uncertain ones are Yanno, Velenna, and Nekross. The first two are due to impending redesigns, with Yanno especially due for fine tuning on his proportions. He's meant to be a fair bit tankier gameplay-wise than he looks in his current design, but I think he'd look good in the lineup as still somewhat short (around 5 ft) but stockier. Velenna similarly probably won't change much, sticking around the average height gang but looking a bit bulkier with her armor and trailing coat. Nekross is more an issue of clashing design elements, where their initial design is grand and imposing while their gameplay role is more balanced around subtlety. Granted, their design is among the more rough, and on the developmeny priority list they're 18th out of the 16 fully revealed characters just because of their gimmick, so they have plenty of time to wait on a design that hopefully meshes with the best of both worlds.

Fun question though! Sorry for the late response, been busy at a wedding all day on a mountain with no reception. Not like I needed an excuse but hey, I'm not gonna get to use it again any time soon. Probably.

[purplekoop]

I'm taking the 4 hero reveals of varying degrees from Overwatch this weekend as a personal challenge to now showcase all at once every single War Bots character I'm currently seriously considering to be a part of the final roster. For those who missed my earlier posts on the project, the tentative title "War Bots" refers to an original hero/class shooter concept created by myself, starring a wide cast of robots with an arsenal of interchangeable weapons, body parts, and accessories, who fight out over objectives against other teams of bots, or against hordes of mutant plants over the post-human earth they both inhabit.

War Bots, like I said before, has a whole 5 categories of character in its roster: Damage, Control, Tank, Utility, and Support. The current goal is to have 4 characters in each role, so 20 characters total. As of now though, I only have art to show for a little more than half of that. This art is also varying degrees of "rough" and far from any professional standard, so pardon the dust there.

All that said, let's start with the Damage bots:

As you might expect, Damage bots excel in direct combat, and when played well can typically be expected to win a fight on equal ground against other roles. They may be overwhelmed in group encounters, but they can be relied on to get the first pick to get a team fight started.

From left to right, there's the small but fearsome spring-loaded vigilante Wilderoad, the battle-worn tactical commander Calber, and the bombastic young daredevil Poppett.

Wilderoad is a generalist fighter with a solid balance of damage, range, and mobility that's easy to use but hard to master, and can be useful in just about any fight. Their revolver excels at medium-range, and while they tend to be a relatively honest fighter, they have a few tricks up their sleeves thanks to their spring-loaded limbs, allowing for long-range punches and springy steps to quickly evade danger.

Calber is a long-ranged specialist, armed with one out of an arsenal of rifles that can scope down for deadly precision from a distance. As a tactical commander, his abilities also can benefit his team, from area-denying flaming artillery strikes to long-range recon to anticipate incoming enemies. Calber tends to struggle in close-quarters encounters however, due to his low health and his movement options being limited compared to other Damage bots.

Poppett is one of the most mobile characters out of the entire cast, armed with dynamic roller-bladed feet and a weapon that fires close-range explosive rounds to wreak havoc when she gets in on a target. While her weapon's limited range is a defining weakness, her mobility allows her to get in and out with little issue, and her accessory options allow for a variety of team support tools that can function outside of her weapon's effective range, from a gummy explosive that can slow down enemies to a sudsy grenade that can both cleanse certain debuffs from allies and temporarily short-circuit enemy machines.

Together, these three create a gradient of long range, medium range, and close range experts, all of which can customize their loadout choices to further specialize in their niche. Calber for instance can change his standard rifle for an assault rifle that trades range for fire rate, or a sniper rifle that lets him take down enemies from an even longer distance.

Next up is the Control bots:

Control bots specialize in area denial, commanding sections of the map with area-based damage in unique ways. While one weakness or another prevents them from securing kills as easily as Damage bots, they excel at putting pressure on the enemy team nonetheless. Their ability to fight multiple targets at once is also invaluable in the fights against plantoid hordes.

I've got two to share with you today: the reckless pyrotechnics expert Yanno, and the ruthless ecologist-turned-toxicologist Velenna.

Yanno is equipped with a fireworks launcher of his own design, which he uses in combat to dramatic effect, devastating enemies in the colorful blasts of every rocket. He can also have a rocket burst while inside of the launcher's chamber, creating a conical blast that can launch enemies or himself. His special blast-resistant boots also allow him to propel himself into the air with (relative) safety, and his armor makes him more resilient than he looks at first. He can also lob a mortar ball to ward away enemies in an area, or else be subject to a debilitating debuff, such as having their position be revealed through walls or making them temporarily take even more damage from attacks.

Velenna is a much more stern threat, using special chemical compounds designed to eat away at metal as well as organics to torment bots and plants just as efficiently. Her Herbicide Sprayer shoots a plume of toxic gas that rapidly damages enemies in its range, and builds up a lingering Toxin debuff that eats away at their health even after they leave the spray itself. Velenna can expedite the process with her sprayer's alternate fire, Reactant Grenade, which fires a small projectile that makes the enemy take their buildup of toxin damage all at once if it hits. Velenna can extend the area she controls with her Auto-Fumigator, a stationary device that makes a constant spray of toxic gas in an area until destroyed. The exact properties of her toxins can be adjusted to allow for a variety of ways to make her victims suffer, which can be mixed and matched with her other abilities for all manner of experimentation.

While these are the only Control characters I have ready to show today (another one needs some work on his kit and the other doesn't have the art extend to his feet so he'd look dumb in this format), know that AoE attacks aren't the only things that make a Control character function, but it is the commonality between these two eclectic "visionaries".

Moving further down the spectrum of raw damage to team support, next is the Tanks:

Tanks are the biggest and highest-health bots of the entire cast, both traits they use in addition with their abilities to be the stalwart defenders of their team, holding the line against enemy advances and putting pressure on the frontline in turn.

Again, I only have two ready to show today: the boisterous minigun-wielding captain Navea, and the slow-going expert on construction and destruction, Formann.

Navea boasts high health and even higher damage output, the latter thanks to her handheld Artillery Minigun. While it takes time to rev up, and limits her mobility while revved and firing, it boasts some of the highest damage output in the cast at close range, and its hitscan rapid-fire nature lets her at least pressure enemies at farther ranges as well. This damage output goes into charging up her Booster Beacon, which provides one of several buffs to Navea and any nearby teammates, allowing for big offensive pushes or big defensive saves. In its downtime, she can also use her Arm Guards to block incoming damage, or use them as a melee weapon to knock some sense into the enemy personally.

Formann has the highest health of the cast, and while his slow, easygoing nature can be presumed based on the animal he resembles, he can be a force to be reckoned with if taken lightly. His weapon, the cement cannon, can output bursts of damage with either shotgun-like blasts or arcing globs of liquid cement, which with decent accuracy can slow down an enemy, letting Formann catch up and be in his ideal range for a further followup. When outside of that range, he can instead deploy a Barricade Frame, a stationary wire-frame wall that can act as temporary cover. He can even activate the small wheels on the side of the frame to let the frame move forward, letting his team advance behind it safely. He can even apply his own cement to it to increase the damage it can take, though at the cost of removing the ability for allies to shoot through it. On the other hand (pun intended) is his Wrecker Arm, a steel ball on a chain that he can sling out to send enemies flying backwards, or deal massive damage to enemy buildings.

Tanks are certainly a tricky archetype to get right, so my plans for additional tanks have been heavily in flux for a while now. I want characters that not only don't feel like carbon copies of existing characters in other games, but also don't step on the toes of any other character in this cast, too.

Next up is a unique role, the Utility bots:

Utility is the wildcard role, with the overarching goal to help their team in a number of unique ways without being the best at raw damage, area denial, damage denial, or healing, though all of these things are available from one Utility bot or another. This broad expertise is also exemplified with their loadout options changing their playstyles and capabilities more drastically than most other bots, possibly completely changing their role on the team with a simple change in weapon or accessory choice.

Once again, I only have two to share today: the whimsical master of powers unknown, Sorsier, and the wily master of cold-hard engineering, Xenir.

Sorsier utilizes a mysterious power to unleash a variety of potent abilities, with the most versatile set of options in the entire cast. Sorsier's default staff can fire a modest stream of projectiles effective in medium range, or lob the orb at its top and aim it after it's been fired to strike for a burst of damage. However, alternate staffs allow for scorching explosive attacks, devastating defense-reducing debuffs, or even full-on team healing capabilities. Sorsier's scarf lets them charge up an area-of-effect spell, such as a field of energy that restores ammo and recharges allies' abilities, or a pillar of earth that emerges from the ground to act as temporary cover or high ground. They even carry one of several types of potion, those offering their own manner of effects as well. Sorsier is versatile, but they are also frail, and lack any true movement options to get them out of a dire situation, so they require either careful positioning or additional team support to stay safe.

Xenir is the smallest bot in the cast, but makes up for their small stature by bringing in the backup with multiple types of deployable and upgradable buildings to bolster the entire team. Xenir alone is an unimpressive fighter, with only a modest pressurized Nail Gun for self defense, and the ability to dig underground to temporarily move faster and evade harm using their drill arms (guys I SWEAR I had this idea WAY before this weekend trust me). However, Xenir shines with their buildings, which they can build and upgrade using collected ammo packs as salvaged material. They can deploy a Sentry Cannon as an automatic mid-range source of damage, as well as a pair of Transport Tunnels to let allies get back to the fight in record time. These buildings can be individually exchanged for alternative options, like trading your automatic sentry for a manually controlled Tinkerer's Tank that Xenir can hop in and pilot, or trading the Transport Tunnels for a pair of Restock Depots that let you place your own health and ammo kits. Xenir takes care in both managing your resources and picking your fights, but can let his team be an unstoppable force if played well.

The breadth of the Utility category is only displayed so well with half of its intended lineup ready to show, but this role is perhaps my favorite in terms of the exciting possibilities it provides.

Last but very much not least, the Support bots:

Support bots are the experts in aiding teammates, with strong, reliable healing output being standard across the role, along with strong utility to save allies from dire situations or give them a more aggressive advantage in a fight.

The final three bots for today are an elementally-inclined trio, with the hot-tempered speedy mechanic Burnett, the electromagnetic gentle combat medic Ezela, and the reborn cyborg arbalist Arber.

Burnett's estimated repair time is as short as her temper for nonsense, with a drive to work fast and move fast. Her Repair Welder can scorch an unwary enemy, but it excels at repairing allies much faster, with one of the highest healing outputs in the cast balanced by limited range and uptime. She can also fire a glob of ignited fuel from a distance for an alternate attack she calls the "Hot Shot". If she's out of welder fuel, then she can fix dented allies in a pinch with a good ol' Wrench Swing. Her fuel isn't just good for powering her welder, as it also lets her use her Booster Gear, which lets her charge up and release a burst of forwards speed, letting her navigate the battlefield with even greater haste than her normal above-average movement speed. She can also put spare Scrap she collects from healing enemies to use by repurposing it into Bolster Packs, throwable collectibles that give allies temporary bonus health. She can also trade out the Bolster packs for alternate team-support throwables to make with Scrap.

Ezela is a more conventional style of healer, with very low direct damage output but constant, reliable healing output. Ezela constantly emits a Recharge Field that slowly heals all nearby allies, but this can be channeled through the electrical node on her right hand, the Focus Coil, to make a targeted beam of electricity that heals allies at a faster rate. Her other arm's Coil Beam fires a beam at a different frequency, letting her damage enemies. The damage is slow and limited in range, but can bypass certain defensive abilities and is easy to aim. By healing allies, Ezela can also charge up an Electron Shield, which provides a temporary spherical shield that can protect either Ezela herself or an ally, depending on whether or not she has a Focus Coil target. Ezela can also evade harm using Surge Dash, a technique that focuses the electromagnetic energy keeping her afloat to quickly lunge into any direction. Overall, Ezela is for the most unselfish of teammates, while also requiring above-average positional and situational awareness to make the most of her talents.

Finally for today is Arber, a one-of-a-kind hybrid of plant and machine that was a result of a miraculous fluke in survival. Arber uses a humble crossbow to fire unique techno-organic bolts that repair allies and damage enemies. Each shot boasts solid range before arcing, and does a solid amount of either damage or healing. However, by pulling back the crossbow a second stage, its power is increased, flying faster, farther, and with more power to its effect. Arber can also utilize his unique symbiotic nature to unleash a Vine Shot, firing a cable-like vine that can ensnare enemies it hits, slowing their movements and restricting movement-based abilities. He also has access to a a seed which he can throw to plant a Mending Bud, a friendly plant creature that emits healing spores, gradually healing allies in its range. Arber is a high-impact healer, but he has notably more downtime and less mobility than other options. While alternate kit options let him address these weaknesses, it comes at the cost of one of his existing strengths in range, burst output, or utility.

WHEW! Let's give one last round of applause to all 12 of the bots who came out here tonight!

A motley crew indeed, these bots all have to work together to protect their rebuilt world from falling into ruin once again. And while this is the bulk of the cast (at least based on what I have in mind), rest assured that there's more to meet in the future.

Thanks a ton to anyone who's read this far down to the end. I'm really excited about this project, and even if it doesn't amount to anything, I at least want it to be a cool idea I get to share. Stay tuned for more in-depth character breakdowns, story details, and insights into other parts of the (hopeful, eventual) game.

[purplekoop]

War Bots 15 Fact Extravaganza

As a little followup to the introduction (or re-introduction) to the cast, I wanna do a little rundown of trivia about each of the 12 characters from that post, along with teasers for one extra Control, Tank, and Utility character to get a clean 3 out of each role!

So let's get right to it:

1. Wilderoad is actually the oldest War Bots character in terms of development! They were originally planned for an older project for a setting featuring humans and robots (explicitly called "droids" in that universe) called City of Desos, where they took the role of a ruthless silent mercenary in spite of their small stature. They were actually planned to be a minor antagonist who would get a role in a later side story. I don't wanna say much more about this other project, as due to its scope I actually plan to do it wayyyy later than I want to do War Bots. As I got the initial idea for War Bots, I wanted a character I already had a connection to that'd ground the world and inform the style for the rest of the characters. As such, Wilderoad is who I consider to be the mascot of the game! They didn't actually get any art until the current one, where they were the first of much of the cast that I drew while in a hotel for a vacation a couple years back now, but the idea for the design was more or less the same in my head between both projects, though with the War Bots version looking a bit more "heroic" to match their new good-natured vigilante role. Bonus fact: Wilderoad's first "functional" appearance was actually in a DnD game ran by my partner! This was based on their at the time current characterization from War Bots, though in this universe they were a goblin. Can't find the art I made for that version, but it was ironically made before the robot design I always envisioned them as.

2. On the other hand, Calber came at the same time around when the project first became War Bots. He's the key example I give for the existence of the loadout system, as just existing as "the rifle guy" means there doesn't have to be a separate assault rifle and sniper rifle character. His name took a while though, for a while I just called him "Rifleman". Fun fact peering into my naming process: there was an older version of the roster with 25 characters, which along with a special unique 26th character meant that each letter of the alphabet was the first letter of a character's name once and only once, so having "C" open is what eventually led to the name "Calber".

3. Poppett gets her name from the sound her gun makes! Pop-et-pop-et-po-et-pop-et. Her weapon is called a "Blitzum Launcher", and in-universe it was made as a paintball gun that Poppett gave some more extreme ammo. It works like a rapid-fire version of Splatoon's blasters. I wanted the "Scout/Tracer" character to have a weapon based around rapid-fire tracking but also satisfying-feeling burst hits, so that was the compromise. The gun was also inspired by some real-life guns that have a reload mechanism that resembles an old gumball machine's turning dial. The high mobility, paintball-like gun, and the bubblegum motif all came together to make a "young pro athlete" kind of character. She's also the canonical youngest character in the cast, and is a lot more friendly than she looks at a glance.

4. Yanno's name is a play on the Chinese word for fireworks, "Yānhuǒ". His design was already very much inspired by Chinese culture due to that being where fireworks were originally invented, plus it was fun to design him to both have some Chinese-style aspects of his look also resemble a fireworks rocket, like his hat resembling both the tip of a rocket and a Chinese straw hat. Plus, his Chinese dragon themed fireworks launcher is what I think really makes him stand out.

5. Velenna similarly is named after the Italian word for poison, "Veleno". No real reason this time, I just thought it sound cool. When I'm struggling to name something, I often just bash my head against google translate until it gives me an idea to work with. A bonus less "fun" fact is that of the designs from the last post, hers is the one I want to overhaul the most.

6. First teaser for a yet-to-be-seen bot, the third Control bot's name is "Martinet", full name "Gaston Martinet". In fact, they're the only character so far who has a first and last name. A hint for what he's like is that his name is a play on what famous character they're an extended reference to. Hint two: it's not Mario.

7. Navea's kit has gone through a number of changes, trying to find the right balance of defensive abilities. For a while, her main defensive ability was "Hull Bash", where she'd pull out a smaller Reinhardt-like shield, then bash forward, knocking back enemies in her path. This felt overly complicated, and gave her both too much defensive utility and too much mobility for what I felt appropriate for a high-DPS Tank in this game. The alternative was actually simple: basing it on my "what-if" idea for how I'd imagine the TF2 mercenaries working in Overwatch. In that list of ideas, I made Heavy's shift ability a block-style ability based on the Fists of Steel. This felt much more appropriate for Navea, and also gave me better ideas for sidegrade options, ironically some resembling Heavy's other iconic gloves. On the note of melee weapons though: an earlier version of her kit had her melee weapon be a point-blank gun! Now she just uses her arm gauntlets to punch, since the gun as a melee weapon would be silly now that there's a reserve ammo system.

8. Formann, Xenir, and Burnett are all long-time close friends! Two of them were even closer though in an earlier concept, as my original concept for a construction-based Tank was a large, four-legged robot with at least one drill arm. The idea was that they would dig through terrain to gather material that they'd then use to fire out as cement from a back-mounted cannon, which would then form into simple shapes like walls and small blocks to act as cover or temporary means of traversal. I decided to simplify this concept a lot, turning the drill character into the engineer character and reiterating the rest of that idea into a simpler tank themed around construction vehicles. Formann is also the only character of this bunch to have a mouth of any kind. I feel like a lot of construction vehicles have charm due to looking like some sort of mechanical dinosaur or other reptile, so that kind of childish interpretation is what informed both his design and his personality as a gentle giant who I imagine would get along well with kids.

9. The third tank is actually not Dinastus, the rough concept I made semi-recently. That concept is gonna need more iteration. Instead, the tank I want to sort out next is one I'm gonna codename "Heart". She's actually my third attempt at trying to make a more "unapologetically feminine" tank, since I think there's room for fun shape language to make a large, sturdy-looking character that doesn't have to rely on masculine design tropes to look "like a tank". Her gameplay is meant to evoke this too, with her kit being a sort of "support tank" that's less aggressive and more focused on directly protecting allies. The first idea for this kind of archetype was Galleia, a space-themed character who does have a design, but I scrapped her due to being too large and complex of a design to fit into the relatively tame bounds of War Bots's roster, as well as her kit not really feeling very satisfying or coherent. The second was called Herelda, a large clockwork-style robot with a bell-shaped dress. As fun as that idea was, the kit that was coming together just felt like a slightly less aggressive ripoff of Reinhardt, and I feel like I can do better than that. My best reference point for how "Heart" might work is something like Peach in the first Mario+Rabbids game: a high-health character who can directly share the burden of some of the damage an ally takes, and then use another ability to heal herself of some of that burden. This could potentially be a really cool gameplay loop that's high risk, high reward, but also needs to be carefully balanced to avoid being too hard to not just die but also not oppressive with how much protection she can grant. I'm really excited to get this character right though, I think she has a lot of potential to be a personal favorite.

10. A repeat fact about the mysterious Sorsier! Like I mentioned in an older post, War Bots was originally not an original world and cast, but a concept for a fanmade Bloons team-based shooter. The three-path upgrade structure of Bloons TD 6 was a major inspiration thanks to the cool way it allowed for one basic character to be spun off into three branching specializations. While this direct upgrade-based system was eventually scrapped due to concerns of how it'd fit into a PvP shooter environment, it did lead to the current loadout-based system we have now. Sorsier still carries this Bloons development ancestry though, as their three alternate staffs are based on the elements of Light, Fire, and Darkness, the same three elements as the three paths of the BTD6 Wizard Monkey.

11. Before Xenir took the drill part of the original "Drill Tank" concept, the tool of the engineer bot was meant to be a hammer. To make them unique though, I wanted them to have some characteristics of a monkey, making them a small and nimble mischievous sort of character who'd be backed up by their buildings. However, with the drill theme, I took that "little monkey" type of character and pivoted them to be more mole-themed. Even then, the monkey idea was still meant to only have one eye. Bonus fact: the way Xenir's hands can switch between large fingers and drills is inspired by the pokemon Excadrill!

12. Last "mystery bot" to discuss for now is a cool guy named Otto. I knew I wanted to have some kind of robot with a vehicle transformation ability, and as you might guess by the sound of their name, Otto sure is a mobile bot. An Otto-mobile or Otto-bot, if you get what I mean... anyways. They were originally a tank who would have two different kinds of barriers and two different kinds of guns depending on whether he's in vehicle mode or walking mode. This idea really didn't have much of a "thematic identity" though, so I eventually revised the concept with a defining theme to the character that'd tie his abilities together and better define his role. I won't elaborate yet besides saying that Otto is the highest-health character who isn't an outright tank, and is sort of the "off tank" of the cast, but definitely fits better in the broader role of Utility.

13. Burnett's unique means of motion was a conscious choice to demonstrate the potential of a cast of robots. I didn't want every character to just walk on two boring legs when robots could walk around in so many other ways, so when it came time to make the first healer of the cast I decided it'd be good to start this initiative with her. If her body plan looks familiar for some reason, that's because that part of her design is outright inspired by Crank, the orange robot from the 2005 movie... Robots. I love that movie, and it's certainly an inspiration for a good chunk of War Bots's style. Burnett isn't the only member of the cast to be inspired by a Robots (2005) character though, but I'll let you all figure out the other one. Also, if it wasn't apparent, the reason she's the first healer I made was because I had to ask myself "what would a doctor for machines be", and the obvious answer was a mechanic. Combining the vehicle-adjacent theme with the wheeled body plan also gave me the idea to make speed and mobility a key part of her gameplan, which I think will be the super fun part of her kit that makes people want to stick with her other than to just be an obligatory healer. Arber is for people who want to express aim skill, Ezela is for players who want to express skill with game sense and positioning, and Burnett is for players who wanna go zoom.

14. Despite now fitting the role of the de facto Medic/Mercy style of support, Ezela was originally designed to be the first Tank of the cast! She was meant to be an "intellectual" tank designed both in look and in playstyle to be like Overwatch's Sigma. The large shoulders, floating posture, and lack of a conventional weapon should make the resemblance obvious. However, I wasn't very satisfied with her kit as a tank, especially with how it just felt too blatantly like a mishmash of existing Overwatch tanks. I noticed though that she was oddly small if I wanted her to be a tank. I then realized her hat resembled a nurse's hat, and then I instantly pivoted her playstyle with no changes to her design necessary! I've since decided that this "transformatory" development backstory would also be a fitting part of her backstory, which should be more apparent when I elaborate on that.

15. Last but certainly not least, Arber! Early on when coming up with ideas for characters, I had a vague concept for a crossbow-wielding bot with a body made of wood and some kind of companion creature, overall making a sort of "fantasy Ranger" archetype of character, but as the story for the PvE developed and the themes of "machines versus nature" came about, I figured it'd be cool to have a playable character to represent what was otherwise strictly the enemy faction. Arber's unique position in the story I think is what makes him interesting to think about, along with how his special nature making him stand out from the rest of the cast, but not in as distracting of a way as a character like Galleia. I like thinking about how he'd just passively exist differently from the rest of the cast due to being partially organic in nature, with plant matter making up significant portions of his body.

And once again for tonight, that's everybody! I ended up having more to say about some characters more than others, but hope it was entertaining all the same. If you have any questions about the cast so far, my ask box and the replies to this posts are as good of places as any to start! Expect a wider "lore of the world" post sometime tomorrow I think!

[purplekoop]

Judging by her appearance, ability names, and actual name, I assume Navea was more involved with battles on water?

You'd be... correct if I wasn't so wishy-washy with details over time. See the original idea to give her more of an identity than just "Heavy but a robot lady" was to give her a naval vessel theme, like she is a miniaturized living battleship with an appropriately massive weapon.

This was always part of her non-minigun abilities, though those have changed over time to lose the nautical nonsense. Originally her "E" ability was a homing flying torpedo that acted as an entity with health that the enemy could destroy before it impacted, but this didn't really feel too helpful or interesting for a character who already pumps out a lot of damage. This was traded for her Booster Beacon, an AOE team buff that requires dealing damage in order to use instead of just being another attack or cooldown, which in a more symbolic sense fits her role as a half-literal flagship for her team, a big source of damage and HP that the team wants to rally around. The theming of it being some kind of navy radio signal is probably the most navy-themed part of her kit left. Her defensive ability as I said before changed from "Hull Bash", a shield bash with a shield at the front, to a simple gauntlet guard. Like I explained in the big facts post, this was mostly just to give her a simpler, less cluttered ability that gave her less defensive team utility than other Tanks.

The other weird potentially cut aquatic-themed ability of hers is a passive that requires explaining another mechanic: Water.

Water isn't an instant death pit like in Overwatch, but characters can't exactly swim because... they're made of metal. more or less. So everybody just sinks to the bottom and has normal movement controls... with the maybe exception of Navea, who would have the ability to swim freely up and down using her buoyant build and propellers that pop out when underwater. I'm iffy on this though, because it doesn't necessarily fit into her kit, but it also doesn't clash with her kit egregiously, so I'm sorta just iffy on it right now. This is also in part because out of the last 3 characters for the full cast of 20, either the last Tank or last Support may actually use water as part of their kit, so they'd naturally make more sense to give the swim mechanic to, along with other mechanics that'd interact with water.

In terms of story she's still definitely navy-themed, though whether or not Navea herself has done active combat on water is more just a story semantic thing considering most of the Outlander War she's fought in with Calber took place in the center of what was the US, which... doesn't exactly have a lot of water. Her model of bot was definitely designed for operating heavy naval artillery, which means at the very least keeping her ability to swim makes sense, but it's not necessarily something Navea herself would've had much time to make use of canonically.

So yeah, ultimately it's an aspect of her character that's been shaken up over time. She's always been more of a military themed character than an aquatic character, but the bias towards the former has shifted over time.

[purplekoop]

An idea I had for Arber’s map:

Frontyard Frontline

One half of the map is a war torn town: dilapidated houses, shells sticking out the ground, barbed wire, those weird x things, trenches, a lot of smoke.

The other half is overgrown forestry: leaf ramps, flower platforms, large tree trunks blocking line of sight, thorns as hazards, Spring Bloom jump pads. Plus, since it’s the frontlines, it can explain away the Plantoids not interrupting the match. But, if you look through the slivers in the wall of trees that serve as the map’s boundary, you may see yellow eyes with familiar silhouettes staring at you.

The very basic layout of the map would be something like below, in order to give both teams equal access to both sides.

Though this may be a bit too similar to Calber’s map, I still do think there’s something there.

(And yes I was inspired by PvZ GW2. How could I not be?)

Oooooohohoohhh that's actually perfect!! Genuinely no notes, perfect concept for this stage of things. Also I think the similarities to Calber's map would be minimal aside from being in some kind of warzone. That one's a much older bot v bot warzone made of almost entirely ruins in a desert area, while this has a much different tone just in basic concept, with a fresh battlefield in a different kind of biome.

also as someone who's watched a friend playing GW2 a bit lately (like within the past week, it's been recent), I understood that reference.

[purplekoop]

Self-indulgent developer history blog post time

So, a while back I was getting into BTD6, thinking about the different tower types and how they'd work in a different context but still using the same 3-way upgrade system to change their role and strategies.

I got oddly in-depth on what I knew would ultimately be a throwaway concept: a PvE shooter where you pick a monkey from the tower defense games, defend your base from waves of Bloons, and by beating Bloons you get cash for upgrades just like the original series, which can be used to upgrade and specialize your abilities.

If you're familiar with the BTD series then you probably can imagine what I had in mind. Dart Monkeys are the generalists with cheap upgrades, Sniper Monkeys specialize in range, Dartling Gunner Monkeys are the high-damaging tanks, so on.

The Wizard Monkey was one I want to point out though. In BTD6: The Wizard has three upgrade paths themed to different elements: Light, Fire, and Darkness. I decided to extrapolate on this idea, making it so each upgrade path has a drastically different role on the team: Light was a potent healer, Fire was an AOE damage specialist, and Darkness was the best at raw damage. Keep this one in mind for later.

The game had other mechanics from the Tower Defense series, like placeable towers that all players have access to, as well as throwable items that any Monkey can equip as an extra source of utility.

Eventually though, I realized that sticking to Bloons was too restrictive for a few reasons, most obviously the fact that working with an existing IP would be very limiting, and would likely not go anywhere if I wanted to actually pursue it as a serious project down the road.

There was also the fact that based on the source material, I was adamant that there wouldn't be a PvP mode, since the monkeys don't fight each other in the source material. Even in the competitive multiplayer versions of the series, BTD Battles, you don't have monkeys fight monkeys. In there, you have your monkeys fight the enemy's bloons while your bloons fight the enemy's monkeys. It just feels weird by contrast to have the silly little guys commit war crimes on each other instead of the lifeless hordes of plastic.

So, it came time for a completely original world and characters, and to be honest it didn't take me long to come up with a world entirely made of robots. I've loved drawing and coming up with robot designs my entire life more or less, so coming up with designs wasn't anything too hard.

I did decide to have each character focused around a weapon first, then extrapolated into full designs based around the weapon. I got shaky with this concept later, but it served as the basic outline for making the first designs.

One thing I had in mind though was that I still planned on keeping the three-path upgrade system. Each character starts out basic, but over the course of the game would upgrade their abilities and specialize their role on the team. A character may not start especially tanky or with healing capabilities, but may upgrade over the course of the game to fill that role.

A perk to this system was compression: Instead of every single weapon type needing its own fully-fleshed out character, like in Overwatch for instance, you just need one character that can cover a few archetypes. For instance, instead of having a character with an assault rifle and a separate character with a sniper rifle, just have one character with a basic rifle that can upgrade into either other archetype. This notion in particular led to the creation of Calber, a very by-the-books militaristic bot. Not my favorite design of the lot so far, but he gets the point across.

But upgrade specializations could be even more extreme. Remember the Wizard Monkey earlier? Well, what if I took that same concept and applied it to a Bot? That led to the creation of Sorsier, a mage-like robot I shared earlier in their own post. They were made with three upgrade routes in mind: Light for healing capabilities, Ice for crowd control and defensive abilities, and Darkness for raw power. They start weak, but quickly extrapolate their role as the round goes on.

Well... in an earlier iteration of the idea at least. There were a few reasons I decided to shelve the upgrade system, the main reason being PvP (where have I heard that before. Or... since. Yeah this has been in the works for a while, I think most of these designs and concepts came before Overwatch 2's first public beta.)

The upgrade system was meant to be what set the game apart as a hero/class shooter, but the thing is that the game was originally meant to be exclusively PvE. This was a holdover from the Bloons phase, which I kept around because I figured it'd just be less difficult to balance a PvE-only game without having to consider how player-v-player interactions would feel. Eventually though, a friend I was discussing my ideas with convinced me that it'd be a bit of a waste to have these mechanics basically functional for a PvP mode, but restricted to PvE. So I folded, and since then the vision has been for War Bots (the most placeholder title ever) to be both a PvE and PvP experience, with the upgrade system shared across both.

Eventually though, I struggled to conceptualize how the upgrade system would work in PvP. PvE mid-match upgrades would be no issue, TF2's Mann vs Machine mode shows that the formula works, but a fast-paced PvP mode with an upgrade system like what I had in mind was just hard to grasp. How would taking time for upgrades feel in the flow of a match? How do you make upgrades feel both "earned" and balanced? If you earn upgrade currency for getting kills or healing or what have you, then would that lead to a snowball effect for the players that were already winning? If you earn just as much for losing, but have the advantage of respawning and thus having access to the upgrade menu, then doesn't that mean you get rewarded for losing?

It was too many questions I didn't have good answers to, and thus I decided to scrap the upgrade system from PvP, leaving it as a PvE exclusive feature in almost identical fashion to TF2's MvM.

So that left character kit design in a weird spot. I had a few iterations where upgrades only affect abilities while your main weapon is a choice you can make from the start, and then later a system where each character just has 3 alternative kits that change the majority of their abilities all at once.

This felt restrictive though, because it felt arbitrary to have an altered ability in one kit be exclusive to that one kit, and not let it exist with other aspects of other kits. If you liked the way the main gun of one kit worked but wanted to use it with a movement ability from another kit, you'd be out of luck. It felt limiting on creativity and experimentation, something I admire about TF2's weapon unlock system.

So that's where we are today, with the Weapon/Body/Accessory system I laid out in a previous post. Each character has three different slots that have a default version and three unlockable alternatives with modified stats and new attributes, and each of the four options in each of the three slots can be chosen freely.

Needlessly long post, but I dunno, it's fun to share the creative history behind something like this, tracking where ideas came from and changed over time. If you made it this far then I hope the read wasn't too unbearable at least!

Expect more posts like this at some point, or at the very least more spotlights on individual Bots. I've got most of the 15 character cast with at least a rough sketch, so hope you stick around for those!

Remembered that my team shooter project War Bots started as a concept for... a Bloons Tower Defense team shooter.

[purplekoop]

HOOOOOOOOOOH ALRIGHT in respective order:

Box art was a question I haven't asked myself because my running expectation for a release is like, 20 bucks on Steam and that's it, not trying to worry about the headache of a multiplatform release at least at this point. Ignoring that and/or modifying the question to also account for whatever you'd say the equivalent to a digital box art is, personally I'd like to imagine it's something that shows the team assembled together, either standing in cool dramatic fashion or working together to fight off plantoids.

Maps are something I definitely need to think about more, but I'd like to have a good variety that shows off different parts of the setting. Maps set in civilized bot areas, more open natural areas with only sparse signs of civilization, and then of course some maps set in human ruins. Theme park in particular though, didn't consider that one at all yet. It's a hard thing for me to visualize though, map design is something I don't have any experience in whatsoever (even if just compared to character visual/gameplay design), so it's hard to imagine what exactly I'd want from maps or what would work well with the character abilities. Definitely something that'll be a learning process.

See my official statement is still that the PvP is non-canon "what-if" matchups, but obviously any headcanons can be headcanons. That's a fun explanation though!

(And yeah, I gotcha! I didn't wanna sound like an ass about it either, totally get it.)

Now trailers I do actually have a solid idea for. One of my friends who I talk about the project to in private brought up the idea of the trailers kind of like the Portal 2 Cave Johnson official videos, but for each of the individual bots. My idea to expand on that was to have an in-universe commercial made for the model of each bot, and then cutting to a scene showing who the individual character is like. Easy example: an upbeat commercial for a model of simple little service bots, and then cut to one of those little bots in the present day, now with a cowboy hat, strolling up to a western-style bar shortly before a bar room brawl breaks out. Not necessarily all action scenes, like Calber's starts as a military propaganda commercial before cutting to him sitting down to give an interview while he looks tired and exhausted. Not sure if this format would work for every character, but it's definitely an idea I really like, contrasting what these bots were made to do with what they ended up becoming as individuals. Obviously a more general action-showcase trailer makes sense too, and could definitely really cool, but these are the special "Meet the Team" sorts of things that I think would really get across what I think makes this cast interesting.

And you would in fact be correct in Wilderoad being the face! I do think I said before that they were the first character conceptualized, though for a different project that was very bloated on characters and ideas at the time, with them being merely an antagonistic side character who'd only be playable in a DLC side story. It wasn't until much later where I had the idea for War Bots and needed a character to act as a starting point, and then I finally drew them out with their new role as a hero in mind. Wilderoad did very much inform a lot of my initial ideas for what the cast and world would be, to the point where the main story taking place in America is because Wilderoad biased my view on what the setting and aesthetic would be like so much that it's more Old West themed than it should be given the overall cast. I still like the vague idea of limiting the scope to just the Americas for a while, but I feel like I'd hit a wall trying to not make too many american southwestern desert maps without feeling like it's just early TF2.

Cosmetics! Great question! This is another thing I've thought about, especially in terms of monetization, though I do have to acknowledge it's easier to act noble about things when you're just one person not committed to running anything at all yet compared to a massive company with shareholders and all that junk. The ideal intention though is that, again, the game itself is just 20 bucks, and microtransactions will be either minimal or nonexistent. The idea is that you earn in-game currency simply by playing games, and then use it to buy cosmetics you want from a list. That's it. PvP modes have a pretty average payout but you can get bigger rewards for harder PvE missions. I don't think people would mind an option to buy the currency directly using real money, but that's meant as a shortcut for what's intended to be readily accessible just by playing a few rounds of the game. I think Bloons TD6 strikes a respectable balance for a paid game with entirely optional microtransactions, with the only things you can buy being currency you earn plenty of just by playing the game or cheats to make the game easier except on its more "competitive" modes. Also do note I only specified cosmetics as unlockable. Characters are all unlocked from the start, but functional alternate weapons and gear are locked behind a separate XP system, where playing the character progresses their individual experience points, which can be spent if you have enough to unlock their alternate kit pieces. The idea is that you get a feel for the basic character before you get to play with the alternate playstyle options and not overload them with choices from the start, but in a way that's all determined by player choice and progress. Once you have every kit piece a character has to offer, XP is then just used to show much larger milestones to unlock unique cosmetics, like get a billion Xenir XP or something and you get the "Engineering Maniac" badge to wear as them or something. Unlike the cosmetic currency, there's no plans to pay your way past the XP system for unlocking anything, it's all legit.

Now, boring money talk aside, actually playing dress up with the funny robots. As much as I like some of the fantastic things that full model swap skins like Overwatch can provide, I think a more interchangeable cosmetic system sounds more potentially interesting, and fits with the loadout system for the weapons and abilities. Just... y'know, without the insane price tags from TF2's economy-based system. Plus, full fancy outfits can still be a thing, but now each individual piece can be paired with any other parts without too many limitations. There are some weird caveats though with how the functional equipment sometimes clashes with the cosmetic outfits, like how Sorsier's "body" loadout slot is their scarf, so no cosmetics can change it for the sake of it being visually clear to other players what your scarf of choice is. Not a huge deal, but something I've had to think about. I have also considered a paint system as another layer of customization to costume pieces, though somehow didn't realize that they could also just paint their bodies and have it not be weird. Unlike model swaps, I do think this actually can work for customizing weapons, since as long as the piece has a unique shape to distinguish it from the others then it's fine to retexture it. Plus who doesn't love gold weapon recolors?

Okay now the real fun part about cosmetics, yes I absolutely have reference skins in mind. Sorsier and Martinet in particular I find fun to come up with ideas for. The former having costume sets like "Bothersome Witch", "Epic Apprentice", or "Titan Dweller", and the latter having options including "Family Man" (featuring the "Forged Cut" hair piece) and "Internationally Mysterious" (complete with more voice lines ending in "baby!" if you have the full set on). I think some legitimate crossover skins would be fun to do eventually, either with outside projects of a similar scope or internal references to other projects of mine. With the penguin outfit I can't help but imagine Velenna wearing a goofy pajama-like suit just to contrast how serious she is normally. I'd also love to do other beta throwback skins, considering how long the development process has left to go I can only imagine several characters are gonna get some visual overhauls, so cosmetics based on earlier designs would be a neat compromise.

god I love the idea of theorycrafting memes in advance. Nekross definitely seems like the tryhard edgelord character who'd be the annoying one in the voice chat (sorry in advance Nekross mains), but I feel like Burnett would end up being the character people try to play as a battle medic. The perils of giving a healer such freeform mobility, but perils I'm willing to risk because it'd be funny if it works anyways. One specific joke I've already made in private is based on one of Poppett's alt accessories, the Repair Kit Satchel, which lets her pick up and throw health packs to allies. The joke is that I'd expect people would RP as a pizza delivery girl mid-match, just delivering health packs to allies for the funny instead of shooting enemies. Complete with a joke skin that actually dresses her up as a pizza delivery girl.

Character select! Not sure on the exact layout yet, that friend I mentioned before is a pretty solid graphic designer so it might be the kind of thing I'd ask him for input on, but while I think a simple single row could work for a cast of 20-25 max, I'd also want to see how a grid-based layout would look. Each role is a column, then going down in release/development order. Row 1 is, Wilderoad, Calber, and Poppett from top to bottom, Row 2 is Yanno, Velenna, and Martinet, etc. This is actually how I have the roster laid out in my notes, so it's already the layout I'm used to. Actual visual style for the UI is something that I need to sort out in general, so if there's a cool theme going then the character select might change accordingly.

And last is- Oh. Oh you KNEW this would get me raving with joy, predicting the drool and all. Full disclosure is that, either subconsciously or consciously, I already draw the characters like they're designed to be action figures. I mean robots already work great for figures, you don't have to worry as much about hiding articulation points or other seams in the production that might "break the illusion" for other kinds of characters. Aside from that though, even stuff like the general proportions of characters are made to they'd balance easily as physical freestanding objects, with the Mega Man style big "boot feet" to help with that. There's a couple weird outliers, like Sorsier balances on a little orb they roll around on to move, and Ezela literally floats, but that's nothing some tasteful transparent plastic stands (included in the box of course) can't fix. But also of course, Sorsier's orb foot, Poppett's roller blades, and Burnett's three-wheeled lower body would all actually be able to roll... well at least Burnett's wheels, those seem pretty easy to make practical without compromising stability. Shoot, if I could make it so you could pop out Martinet's wheels he uses for his slide ability, I would. Also you wouldn't have to worry as much about facial expressions since most characters literally don't have mouths anyways, so the only issue is the eyes. Er, eye, in a few cases. Sometimes just a flat screen. And even for the one guy with a mouth, Formann, it's a big simple jaw you could actually make work in the figure. Shoot, if you want really goofy play features, then what about Calber actually having a mechanism in his arm to shoot it for his grappling arm trick? Though maybe make this a swappable piece so you don't have a spring-primed arm waiting to go off on your shelf.

There's also just all the accessories possible, both in the conventional sense and in the War Bots specific definition. Not just all the default kit items as tangible props, but have them be interchangeable with the other loadout options. Literally be able to equip your toy of the character with the same weapons you use in the game, come on how am I not supposed to be irrationally giddy about that. Maybe the alts are a separate thing you can order separately if you really want. Even the more basic stuff though, like Xenir coming with a full set of their buildings, or Arber coming with his plantoid companion. aw and then now I can't help but imagining the plantoids as bonus figures, maybe even some of the more advanced ones getting full-on figures like the playable cast.

Again, maybe unsurprising how shameless I am about this, but legitimately I'd be ecstatic to have all these guys on my desk, more than any of my other characters even. If there's one far-flung merch idea I'd actually want to pursue it's this, obvious logistical issues aside. But hey, if I'm already planning on making a full-fledged live service multiplayer online game then I might as well shoot as high as I can. Maybe don't expect to find them at Target, but if there was a way to make them available for online order without insane prices or limited supply, then I'd absolutely go for it.

closing thoughts, dear god this response took over 2 hours, but I don't regret a second of it. It genuinely means more than I can accurately convey to have someone as excited as I am for what this project can be. It's something I both think I can make and really want to, because I think it has the potential to really be special and get people excited again about a subgenre that's certainly been through the wringer. But to know I even just have one person already behind me on it is already giving me so much push to believe in it more myself. Thank you, genuinely. Seeing this definitely turned around my sour mood this evening. And thanks to anyone else who managed to sit through both of us rambling so far, or otherwise in the present or future even just has an ounce of interest in the project.

And no rush on the Gardeners, seriously! Don't try to burden yourself with something that can wait when you're already worrying about something else. I've learned from experience that trying to make imaginary expectations for this sort of thing based on what you think others expect from you is just a shortcut to sucking the joy out of what you'd otherwise have fun working on. It's what killed Role Requeue along with the massive ActiBlizz layoffs, and it's what's severely dampened the mood on other projects of mine in the past. Take your time, and take care of yourself.

Dear, @purplekoop

GRRRR RAHH War Bots is consuming me! I keep finding myself thinking about the far off hypotheticals and all the little extraneous details:

What would box art look like? So far I can see Wilderoad and Calber staring at each other from the corners of the art. A random map from the game is the background. Other bots from the game are all rushing towards each other ready for a fight.

What kinds of PvP maps will there be? One idea I had is an abandoned amusement park based on a once-beloved-but-now-forsaken gaming company that is now being used for training.

Also I had the potential* headcanon that the PvP gameplay is the War Bots** training.

*(I say potential because i don't know if you already had that idea. I don't want to assume.)

**(Not to be annoying myself. But I know that War Bots is not the final name of the game nor the team. I just wanted to make that clear real quick. Sorry if this sounds rude. I genuinely don't know how to phrase this without sounding like an asshole.)

What will the trailer look like? I can see a rough draft. A little rendered animation of showing Wilderoad walking onto a PVP map. Chaos is everywhere. We then get quick clips of gameplay footage of characters using their abilities. The obligatory pop song playing in my head bounces between "Cut Off" by Set It Off and "Magic 8" also by Set It Off. (I listened to the album these songs were in recently while I had War Bots on the brain)

By the way, I see Wilderoad as the face of War Bots mainly because they were literally the introduction to it, and if I remembered correctly, they were also one of the first characters made. And if i'm remembering REALLY correctly, I believe you yourself said they were the face.

What will the cosmetics be like? This question really started when you mentioned the quickly scrapped penguin's moveset being given to Velenna. I instantly thought "Alright, Velenna should be given a penguin skin then." Then i realized that I don't recall you ever mentioning cosmetics. Would it be more TF2-esque with a loadout system? Or would it be more Overwatch 2-esque with a simple complete skin system? Speaking of Overwatch, I couldn't help but think of an "Ancient Heroes" skinline that gives our favorite bots a familiar look. Some mappings are rather cut and dry, while some really get you to think (Poppett in particular: Tracer? Lucio? D.va? Kiriko????). I also briefly imagined a "Coat" mechanic of sorts. Where you could merely change the color of the bots bodies. Like putting on a new coat of paint. (As you can see, I'm kinda using War Bots as a cope and a way to wean me off of Overwatch. Or at least attempting to.)

What would the community jokes and memes be like? What would be our nerf Genji? I can already see a meme about Necross, but I won't since I plan to make that one a reality eventually.

Bot Select? I want to see all the bots lined up in rows and columns.

Of course. What game would be complete without your favorite thing: figures! Not to make you drool, but imagine if a Wilderoad figure was right there on your desk. Or Formann? Or Poppett? Or Velenna? Or Navea? Or etc etc etc.

It's all so just- GRRRrrr OHHHhhh, so enticing, so magical, so beautiful. I'm proud to say that I'm on the ground floor of War Bots. I love being a part of this. I can't wait for what comes next.

Sincerely, G

PS: I have absolutely no idea when the rest of The Gardeners posts will be finished. I have solid ideas on all of them (minus one). I just haven't had the time to write them. This week I'm focusing on a big midterm and have the usual load of homework. I'm trying to get a lot done this week so Spring Break I can truly relax and write to my hearts content. Of course, the biggest roadblock to my writing is that I'm busy writing a script for my university's comedy skit program club. And that has a deadline of the week after Spring Break. So yeah. Sometime after that I suppose. I will let you know that the next Gardener I'll be going over is the one with blades.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings!