- "Robot Wars has descended upon this Aircraft Carrier in the North Atlantic and it's totally crazy! Watch out for the catapult!"
- — In-game description
The North Atlantic Aircraft Carrier is one of eight playable arenas in the PC and Xbox versions of Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction. As its name suggests, it is based on an aircraft carrier, with the background being based upon a storm taking place at the North Atlantic Sea.
Appearance and Hazards[]
- "Things to watch out in this Arena include the Steam Catapult, all ready to fire you into the sea if you end up in the wrong place. One of the most dangerous features of this Arena is the Plane there, don't go too close to the blast from those engines if you can help it. Depth Charges lined up along one side of this Arena, hold on tight if they're pushed over the side! The Pit here on the Aircraft Carrier is particularly deadly, that deck lift full of explosives will turn even the toughest robot to scrap metal!"
- — Jonathan Pearce's introduction
The Steam Catapult in action, firing a robot off the ship
The arena features several unique hazards, one of the most notable and dangerous of which is the Steam Catapult. The catapult takes the appearance of a small red block with a yellow hook on it, and is mounted on a rail in the runway section of the arena. If a robot drives over and makes a connection with it, the Catapult will immediately grab hold of it and fling it at very high speed, and often into the air, towards the edge of the runway. This will almost always cause the affected robot to fly off into the sea for an instantaneous defeat, although some robots (mainly ones with tracks) can stay on the carrier if they reverse when the catapult lets go.
It is also possible for robots to drive or be pushed off the sides of the carrier into the sea without the Catapult's interference, and thus be considered out of the arena.
Another recognisable feature of the arena is a Depth Charge launcher, located near Matilda's CPZ, which functions similarly to a pit release button in that it activates once a robot touches it. However, rather than lowering a pit, this hazard will instead start dropping Depth Charge bombs over the side, cause the entire ship to rock violently to one side. This will severely hamper the traction of any robot, including House Robots, causing them to slide everywhere. At the same time, several objects lying around on the arena, such as a torpedo shell and a mobile stairway, will also slide around and hit robots which get in their paths.
The arena also features a large bunker that acts like a pit. As can be expected, it will eliminate any robot that falls into it, but is unique in the fact that it has four bombs mounted into its corners, which detonate when any robot that falls into the bunker touches them. When they explode, the bombs will cause major damage to immobilised robots which fall into the bunker, and can often blast their remains back onto the main arena.
As with other arenas, four CPZs are featured in various places around the carrier, housing Shunt, Sergeant Bash, Matilda and Sir Killalot respectively.
The whole arena moves up and down along with the wind and the waves, making it hard to control the robots. If a robot is flipped up during a strong tilt, they are often thrown across the arena with little way of stopping it.
The final, somewhat less notable hazards, are the jet engines. A fighter aircraft resembling an F-15 Eagle is parked just outside of the arena boundaries to the right of Shunt's CPZ, with its rear afterburners facing towards the stage. Periodically, they will vent huge bursts of flame, causing damage to any robot which drives within range of them; if the affected robots are armoured in wood or fur, the jets will also set them on fire.
Glitches[]
- If a robot was to make contact with the Atlantic Ocean, it would normally be eliminated instantly. However, it is possible for a robot to glitch, and be able to freely drive around in the water. This allows the player to see the whole aircraft carrier, as well as drive underneath it.
- Should a piece of arena equipment fall into the bunker and touch one of the bombs, it will continually explode until the match ends and statistics screens are passed over.