Okay, few things I want to throw out on the table. First of all, I say we shoot for around a 15'x15' urban style arena environment. Buildings no taller than 3', most will be around 2-2.5'. I'm thinking about 1 square foot for the footprint of them.
I'm open to suggestions on material to be used for the buildings. Matt suggested we could make them wider at the base than the top and make them out of sheet metal, that way we could stack them for easy storage. Foam has also been brought up as an option (I'm talking to Fon Davis about some stuff that is destroyable, crumbles like stone when hit, etc). I originally was going to make them out of thin ply, but I'm thinking its probably a bit too flimsy for transportation and storage.
I'll be posting a render tonight of the proposed arena layout for the Robogames event, going to try to keep it fairly simple though. I'd appreciate feedback on it.
Lastly, we have the safety issue to address.
While a thin mesh net on the crowd facing side would probably suffice, it will probably make visibility difficult. I am going to look at a plexiglass like wall to put up, preferably something that can be broken down for transportation. I can provide storage for all of this stuff locally, but I'd still prefer that it was a managable size. Any input on what we could use to make a high visibility safety wall on the crowd facing side would be much appreciated. I realize this could be a bit spendy, which is why I've launched a Sponsors page on the Mech Wars site here: http://mech-warfare.com/sponsors.aspx
If anyone knows of additional companies that would be interested in helping us get this rolling, I'd appreciate it. I've listed our current sponsors in alphabetical order. These are companies that are providing time, parts, and other various resources and I greatly appreciate all that they have done. We'll try to get some 'billboards' up in the arena with ads to help get them some exposure, maybe they can have their own buildings as well?