Robot Destruction

“

You must destroy the enemy's robots and collect their reactor cores to win. Retrieve stolen power cores by invading the enemy vault.

Click to listen

— The Administrator explaining the rules

”

Robot Destruction is an upcoming game mode announced on July 8th, 2014. Currently, Robot Destruction is in beta and only includes one beta map, rd_asteroid. The release date for the game mode and map are currently unknown.

Because the game mode and its map are in development, certain textures and animations may be missing, and any gameplay elements described in this article are subject to change.

Gameplay

The only current Robot Destruction map is symmetrical, similar to Capture the Flag maps. This game mode requires players to go into the enemy base and destroy their robots to earn points. When the robots are destroyed they drop Power Cores that may be collected to add points a team's score.

A team's points are stored in a Reactor deep in its base. When a team begins to score points, a rotating Reactor Core appears over a capture point in that team’s base. Reactor Cores may be stolen and captured (similar to taking and capturing an Intelligence briefcase). When first stealing a Reactor Core at a Reactor capture point, stored points are charged into that core over a time of several seconds – the longer the stealing player waits at the capture point, the more stolen points are charged into the Reactor Core, until all stored points are depleted.

A stolen Reactor Core is captured by carrying it to the stealing team’s base, awarding the charged points to the stealing team. Reactor Cores may be dropped, either when the carrier is killed or when the carrier presses the drop-item button. Unless picked back up by the stealing team, dropped Reactor Cores are eventually returned to the owning team’s Reactor and the stolen points they contain are returned to their score. The game continues indefinitely until one team reaches a certain score, in which case that team wins.

Power Cores

Power Cores are dropped when a robot is destroyed. They may be collected by any member of the team that destroyed the robot. If left uncollected, Power Cores will eventually start flashing for a few seconds before finally vanishing.

Reactor Cores

Reactor Cores represent the stored points of the enemy team. Successfully stealing a Core from the enemy base and depositing it on your team's Core spawn point directly transfers to the stealing team any points stored in the core. Unlike the intelligence briefcase in Capture the Flag, the Core can contain a variable number of points depending on how long it is "charged" by an enemy player standing on the core spawn point. The Core cannot be moved from its spawn point until at least 25 points have been charged into it.

Like the intelligence briefcase, a Reactor Core may be picked up by any enemy player that touches it, and although it can be dropped deliberately or on the carrier's death, it cannot be picked up or otherwise affected by a friendly player. Friendly players can defend the Core from being picked up by physically preventing enemy team members from touching it. If a Core is not touched by an enemy player in a set amount of time, it will disappear and any points stored in it will be returned to its team.

Importantly, the return timer on dropped Cores is not fully reset upon touching it (another difference from the intelligence briefcase). Instead, the return timer for the Core starts at approximately one minute and is reduced for each second that the briefcase is dropped and is increased by one second, up to the maximum starting time, for each second that the briefcase is held.

Soldiers with the Rocket Jumper equipped, Demomen with the Sticky Jumper equipped, Scouts under the effects of Bonk, and Cloaked Spies are unable to pick up the Reactor Core.

Scoring

Teams score points by collecting Power Cores and by capturing or recovering stolen Reactor Cores. One point is scored for each Power Core collected. One point is deducted from a team’s score for each point charged into a stolen Rector Core. Points charged in a stolen reactor core are thus removed from scoring until either captured by the enemy or returned to the team’s Reactor. The stolen points in a Reactor Core are awarded to the stealing team’s score if they carry it to their Reactor’s capture point; however, those same points are returned to the owning team’s score if the Reactor Core has been dropped for a long time.

Team scores are displayed at the bottom center of the HUD. Each team's score tracks higher as Power Cores are collected and as Reactor Cores are captured by or returned to that team; and tracks a decreasing score while a player is charging a Reactor Core with points stolen from that team. A player’s display of scores shows green numbers as friendly points are added and enemy points are stolen and shows red numbers as friendly points are stolen and endpoints are added. Distinct sounds give notice or warnings of friendly or enemy points scored or stolen.

Robots

Robot behavior

The robots in areas B and C are protected by what appears to be an Übercharge when the robots in front of them are alive, for example; B robots are protected if any A robot is alive and C robots are protected if any B robot is alive.

The robots are defenseless, but will attempt to escape from attackers by running in circles. After 7 seconds without taking damage, the robots heal themselves at a rate of 8 health per second. All of the robot groups share a respawn timer, and will reset when the timer runs out.

When destroyed, A and B robots drop their associated amount of Power Cores in a single drop. When C robots are destroyed, they perform a death animation wherein they run around dropping a stream of Power Cores. The robots also drop gibs when destroyed. These gibs may be collected for Ammo or Metal.

Robots give 5 health per second to nearby friendly players as well as to disguised enemy Spies.

Robot Voice Lines

Note: These voice lines are in beta and may be altered in the future. In addition, robots occasionally emit the death-notice sound from Half-Life

Idle

When a player crosses circuit path

Under attack

"Oww."
"Ow."

Death

Strategy

Main article: Community Robot Destruction strategy

Maps

Main article: List of maps