I've seen a few different ideas floating around; have you decided what's going to happen with ties/physics/bot shape?
I believe Nums has made a decision on how the ties will work, and the physics is the same; Nums tends to make the majority of the major decisions, but it is his project, and he is more experienced.
I can give a definite answer on the shape of bots. Here goes:
-Bots will be Iscoceleze Trapezoids.
-One side will be the "head", and the other will be the "tail".
-Both the head and the tail will be able to change width, but this might not happen until after M1.
-The height will also be able to change, but again, this will not likely be present in M1.
Some things to note:
-Theoretically, when they can finally change size they could turn themselves into Triangles, which could be interesting.
About ties:
-It is my understanding that ties are going to work more like hinges, where two bots (or a bot and a wall/shape) form a connection at a point on their perimeter which, according to Nums, does not necessarily have to be at one of their vertices.
-Ties are not going to be connected at the center of a bot.
-The plan right now is to partially ignore collisions between bots(or shapes) that are directly tied to one-another.
As for the Physics:
-Right now we are working on this.
-So far we are concentrating on the collision detection.
-Proximity will be judged based on bounding circles, so that if two bounding circles overlap a collision might be occurring. This lowers the amount of calculations done by the physics engine.
-The physics will almost certainly be from scratch, as there are no suitable physics engines for a program like this.
Again, don't expect too much from M1; Personally, I would be glad to even have a blank window pop up at this point, but by that time there will be plenty more that has already been coded.
Keep the questions coming; this is how we can best find holes in the design