Calling All Drivers

[WhiteShadow1474]

So week 1 regionals of lunacy are done and over with officially. Now am i calling on all the drivers to come here and so i can ask, If you could give one great piece of advice this year, what would it be?

[thefro526]

Keep moving, no matter what.

After more though I realized that perhaps I should elaborate on this one. It's not as simple as always moving. It's learning how to do everything on the fly. A lot of robots would need to pin an opponent to score. The problem is, when you're pinning an opponent you're not moving either. Try not to stop, and never ever base your strategy around stopping. When you do this teams will know that you're going to stop at some point in the match to do something, and they'll be waiting.

[WhiteShadow1474]

Keep moving, no matter what.

that looks like the basic, most essential thing. I also plan on having my commandor watch out for bots gunning towards us and warn us and tell us to bolt out of there

[Lowfategg]

As said in Monty Python, in the last 20 seconds of the match, RUN AWAY!

[WhiteShadow1474]

As said in Monty Python, in the last 20 seconds of the match, RUN AWAY!

ya... you 'do not want to be the team that gets super cells scored on

[BPetry234]

By saying "keep moving" that might end up hurting you. I've noticed that driving full speed 100% puts you in poor places to defend yourself. By having different speeds, it makes you harder to hit from hp's and robots.

It's also a control question. With no traction, that means no brakes. Just like driving on ice, you need to increase the time it takes to do everything.

I think the better word would be always move WITH A PURPOSE. If that means that you back yourself into a corner with a hp with no moon rocks, that's fine. Just always have the best stratagy before each match that you can.

[Libby K]

Think a few seconds ahead of your opponent. Anticipate their turns.

[gorrilla]

the key to effective driving-communication with your co-driver:P

but seriously, Ive seen alot of teams where their down fall was lack of communication(ie..both drivers go into a "zone")

[hiimcristhian]

I would say don't gun it right away... measure your turns, think twice, and most importantly have fun :)

[GarrettF2395]

Know your opponents and know your partners.
This goes right along with having a good strategy.
If you know you have the better robot in your alliance, anticipate getting ganged up on. If you have the weaker robot in your alliance... anticipate getting ganged up on.
Same goes for your opponents.
If your robot is a push monster like ours was, know which of our opponents will be easiest to pin. If you know that a teams human player has some Major NBA skills, stay away at all costs!
Buts in cases like that, make sure your partners know too.
As was said before, good communication can be a winning attribute within an alliance.

[NoahTheBoa]

There are times when you may need to stop moving, pinning a robot so your teammate can unload on them for example. Just make sure that your coach is constantly watching the field and telling you when to move.
Also, if you are up against a dumper just try to keep the front of your robot facing the front of theirs. If they can't get to your sides, they can't score.

[hiimcristhian]

There are times when you may need to stop moving, pinning a robot so your teammate can unload on them for example. Just make sure that your coach is constantly watching the field and telling you when to move.
Also, if you are up against a dumper just try to keep the front of your robot facing the front of theirs. If they can't get to your sides, they can't score.

I agree... this is going to be very useful when you go against the dumper and shooting powerhouses, keep moving; pin people; rely on your coach and co-driver and again have fun...

[kirtar]

I'm not a driver, but as a scout, here's what I noticed:

With the exception of strategic pins and that such DO NOT STOP MOVING. This does not mean that you should always go full tilt though, since modulating your speed can easily make you harder to hit.

Although not exactly related to driving, make sure that your Human Player knows the rules and follows them. All of the penalties I saw were on the human player, and there was even a disqualification for touching a robot, which would quite obviously affect the outcome of the match (had that not happened the opposing alliance would have lost by around 20). Don't throw empty cells over the outpost wall, don't stick your fingers through the hole in the outpost or hook over the alliance station wall, don't pick up moon rocks early and for god's sake don't pick up the super cells too early because it's a double penalty. In practice matches, go ahead and throw what you're not supposed to if you think the extra 2-4 throws will make a difference, but definitely not in the qualifications.

Be very careful about where super cells are. Stay away from those corners for at least the last 30 seconds (mileage may vary). We pinned somebody for around 10 seconds until a super cell got scored, so it's not just waiting for 20, since you can be pinned in the corner.

[Sam2197]

my best advice is to learn how to use the trailer to your advantage. make it help you turn and make it help you move other people into a bad position. also make sure you have some sort of autonomous.

[Brown 2010]

throughout the week, our robot had some problems with our dump mechanism, and throughout the competition, and espeicially the elimination rounds, we learned that pinning can be absolutely devasting. just find the best robot on the opposing alliance, and run it into the corner with ur alliances human player. with a pinned robot in front of them, it gets really hard to miss. this turned out to work very well for us.
so my advice, dont rely solely on ur robot, even if it the best out there. the human players are there for a reason. and if u can find a way to use them to ur advantage, the effects can be deadly

[BradMello]

Know what you're going for. Don't just drive around hoping to end up behind someones trailer, hone in on someone and don't give up becuase you think you see a better opportunity elsewhere.

I know our machine well, I know what its capable of, and I know how the traction control will effect my driving, and I was still making mistakes early on in qualifying matches.

It takes longer than you probably think to turn your robot around, even 90 degrees, and take off full speed in one direction. Frequently I was finding that I would "give up" on following a robot to dump into, becuase I thought I saw, in my mind, a better opportunity to score which was usually on a robot moving in a different direction than our robot was. I wasted a lot of time turning around and if I have learned one thing from the GSR, it would be to stick to a target, and only change targets if you're completely sure you won't waste too much time doing so.

[nukelear1991]

Be patient and dont let the stress on the field go off the field, a whole team can fall apart because of one ticked off driver.

[Gin]

The main thing that you have to watch out for is which dumpers and human players have balls. This game this year is crazy and you need to have tabs on who can unload and score for you. Watch out to see where the empty cells go so you can get on the other side of the field.

[JesseK]

The coach, more than ever, needs to have good field vision. They need to keep track of everything from where robots are moving to, to what human players are doing, to where the empty cells are going. There's alot to keep track of in this game, it's almost as if you need to split it all up amonst your entire alliance. You also need to figure out if the opponents have a better strategy than you, and adjust yours accordingly on the fly. That's probably the toughest part.

[BigWhiteYeti]

With the driving as slow as it is this year, your decisions will only start to happen a second after you hit those sticks. It takes time to build speed, to stop, or to turn. Anticipate your next move and start to turn or stop a half second before you want to. And mostly, dont panic and gun your wheels. Spinning out leaves you vulnerable and incapable of turning.

[Dragonscythe261]

Hi there. I agree- the trailer is a great tool. It's one thing to have complete control of an unhitched bot and something much more magical to have complete control with a trailer. If you can do this, you can use the trailer to reverse right to where you want to be- this is both impressive and unexpected so you get the kudos and an easy attack. The driver needs to be conscious of the entire field but still rely on his/her coach. Most importantly though, stick to the strategy unless your coach demands otherwise.

[GillSt.Bernards]

The traction was a lot less of a problem then I anticpiated it to be. Just watch to not get pinned by an opposing station

[wcamp1742]

Unless you're being hunted by another bot, just do what you do best. You don't always have time to consider what the other 5 bots are doing as the driver so stick to your strategy. Listen for your commander to tell you when to take evasive action and COMMUNICATE! Talk to your co-driver and encourage your commander to talk to your other alliance members during competition, especially during elimination rounds. We got shafted once by our own alliance member when they pinned us in the last 20 seconds by mistake. They weren't listening so they didn't hear us yelling at them to back up.

[HighLife]

Keep moving and stay away from the good human players, especially in the last 20 seconds of the match.

[thefro526]

Strategize.

I have seen more upsets in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last 3 years.

Lunacy is a fair deeper game then many of us realized in the early days of build. A good strategy, more so than a good robot, is what wins matches. We've seen some of the most powerful teams fall to teams that we knew nothing about 6 weeks ago and it can all be contributed to strategy.

Go out and meet your alliance partners before every match! Learn what they can do and learn what your opponents can do. Then from there try to play the game as smart as possible. Don't take unnecessary risks because they can be your downfall.

[Hanna2325]

Move:D

Really consider if the points you are going for are = to the points you can loose. It isn't worth getting stuck next to a robot that is about to pour twenty balls into your trailer just to score one ball, for example.

If you can empty a ton of balls at once do it before trying to get a single 10pt b/c a lot of small balls add up faster, for the most part -- a lot of this depends on ur robot design of course

don't forget about ur human player (they've been a big determiner from a ton of points scored to tie braking fouls...) :cool:

And if ur robot is broken, don't try and run it, it is easier to move/protect a trailer than a trailer attached to a dead robot (and ur alliance will thank u);)

Be sure to strategize with alliance members before round, some teams might need to closer work together to complete high scoring tasks than others and if picking an alliance take into account human players and the compatibility of ur robots not just pts scored (although this is important too).
But really, for most of the driver stuff it depends what you are comfortable with and ur robots capabilities. I'd say the safest thing is to do what u know best!

[jamie_1930]

In my opinion after this second week, and to answer the long asked question, shooter beats dumper.

[JM987]

keep moving, stay away from opposing fueling stations and outposts, don't get pinned, and if you do fight against the robot.

[Chris is me]

Don't get hit.

Have a plan. Take your three robots, take the other three, sit down before queueing and go "which one can score the best? Which one is most mobile? which one is likely to not do anything?" Take your mobile members and make them pin people, take your high scorers and have them handle balls, and keep the powerhouses in check as you try and juggle this game.

[gorrilla]

dont give up if the odd's are'nt good


3 moderately good robots can easily defeat a superior alliance with the right strategy......

[cziggy343]

speaking to your alliance beforehand is of the utmost importance. without any team chemistry whatsoever, your chances of succeeding are slim to none.

stay in your alliance's "safe zones." this refers to the areas where your alliance's payload specialists are located. this is especially important if you are facing an alliance with robots that are not large scorers b/c the PS is the only way that they will be able to score in bunches.

this is more to the programmers... but please PLEASE move your robot in autonomous... it is very difficult to get up a strategy knowing that as soon as you gain control of your robot, you may already be down by 20+ points.

super cells are important! if you can pick up off of the floor, but you are not a very reliable scorer, you may want to seriously consider becoming an empty cell runner. a robot that specializes in running empty cells is a very hot commodity to a winning alliance... b/c i know that scoring teams like ours do not want to have to mess with the empty cells b/c it slows us down and messes up our groove.

the obvious: keep moving. the longer you sit, the more you are a sitting duck for good robots and for good PS.

[Matt382]

Deliver empty cells when its convenient. Usually, the outpost is open to go pick one up right after autonomous ends, but if it isn't, don't go for it. Go play defense or score moonrocks and come back later.

Don't pin a robot in front of the opposing team's human player. I've seen plenty of robots do this and a human player will just load up your trailer and it usually isn't worth having their robot pinned.

Keep moving, but remember that turning all the way around is hard and it takes longer than you would think to stop.

Stay smart. This is probably the most important thing. You need a smart drive team, one that can strategize well before hand and handle strategy changes based on field conditions.

[thefro526]

dont give up if the odd's are'nt good




This is one of the best pieces of advice posted in this thread.

Never, Ever say a match is won or lost until the final score is posted. I've seen too many teams say we're going up against (XXX) and they're awesome and we're going to get owned. If you take that mentality then of course you're going to lose. Go out to every match and do your best, a wise man once told me "A Robot can Always be fixed but a Match can never be Replayed."

Also, Keep a level head. (I suffer from this) Don't ever get too big of an Ego. No matter how awesome you were in the last match, your last regional, last year, last decade you could still lose. A battery could come unplugged, your robot could reset, the field could drop you, your robot could throw a chain, you could get triple teamed by the opposing alliance, you could get pinned in a corner for 2 minutes anything can happen. Always be ready to work your butt off and play each match as if it were your last.

And something I've found out in the last few weeks, Stay away from drama at a competition. If you know there's someone on your team who stresses you out then try to stay away from them. I've seen first hand what team Drama can do to a Drive Team's performance and it's not pretty.

[its da PAT!!!]

before the match the coach, button monkey and me look at the field and look where we wanna go and where not to. We call it the "triangle" stay in your triangle drive towards your human players. Also if a dumper has to dump all there balls at once, play possum once they start to dump get out of there and snap, they lose all the balls and have to go pick up.

[bigbeezy]

im not a driver this year, but from experience of driving for the past 4 years I would say one of the most important things is to keep your cool. Getting frustrated when things arn't going your way only causes you to make mistakes, thus making you more frustrated.

from watching teams you could tell some drivers have bad tunnel vision. they get so locked onto one robot they miss the robot stopped in the corner a little ways away. This is solved mostly with practice.

when your alliance has a supercell you should "go fishing." you need to get your opponent to your corner so if u act as "bait" you may be able to "reel in" another team then when they get close you strike back pinning them into the corner making a easy shot for your HP.

[Greg Peshek]

from watching teams you could tell some drivers have bad tunnel vision. they get so locked onto one robot they miss the robot stopped in the corner a little ways away. This is solved mostly with practice.

when your alliance has a supercell you should "go fishing." you need to get your opponent to your corner so if u act as "bait" you may be able to "reel in" another team then when they get close you strike back pinning them into the corner making a easy shot for your HP.

A good coach generally solves the first problem, you want your base driver to be able to lock onto a target and go after it and look for other options, but you also want a driver that will listen to a coach that lets them know if there is a much more open robot. A good coach is a nice redundancy system for a good driver.

I don't like playing the bait game.. because it can end up very badly. I have planned with my alliances in the past to corrall the opponnent into the corner. You just get two or three robots to drive them over there and then you have a wall setup so they can't get out and your HP can get a nice shot.

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but something we found useful was coming up with hand signals between the coach and HP if you're on different sides of the field. We had signals for "get me the empty cell", "partner is tied up, we need to get the empty cell", "start throwing balls onto the field for our robot", among more. They are really handy for communication.

-Greg

[robostangs548]

Don't try to figure out what the score is, and better yet don't worry about it until the match is over, even if one super cell is taken away, its better then loosing the match because of underscoring...

[Chris is me]

Don't try to figure out what the score is, and better yet don't worry about it until the match is over, even if one super cell is taken away, its better then loosing the match because of underscoring...

Absolutely yes worry about the score. How else will you know whether or not to convert / fire a supercell?

However, don't worry about penalties at all, really. You'll at most lose an empty cell or two, unless you have awesome teammates in the next match, and if you have awesome teammates then you don't need the supercells.

STRATEGY is absolutely vital to everything ever. The strategist needs to be well-versed in the rules and have some practice in. Play every match as if it's your hardest.

[Josh Goodman]

Don't be afraid to change your strategy on the fly. You only have 2 minutes to win a match. If something isn't working, CHANGE IT.

As said many times before, don't stop moving. Pinning is always an important part of the game, but waiting on the field is definitely NOT okay.

COMMUNICATE! Communicate with your alliance partners. The key to this game is cooperation. 3 powerhouses may win without communication. But it is very possible for 3 okay teams to beat them with communication.

Look at the score but don't obsess over it. The game can change extremely quickly with very many points. If making a supercell shot will give you the 2x penalty, depending on the score, you may want to make the shot as a safety. Remember. One game at a time.

Positive attitudes. I can't emphasize this enough. Everyone gets stressed on the field but keep a positive attitude with the feeling of "we can totally win this, I'm going to give it my all".

At about 30 seconds left, watch for what HP have empty cells and stay away from those areas. Let your alliance know the same thing. On a different note, keep an eye out for those who don't possess any moon rocks because that is now a safe zone you can drive in.

Play the zones. Stay away from enemy HP who can score big on your trailer. This is how alliances are scoring many points. Pinning in front of HPs.

[Brad Voracek]

I drive a four wheel, wide drive base robot. We have no sensors for traction control. Our sticks were converted to a cubic function in programming, besides that, it's straight drive. 12.5 to 1 reduction from the kitbox, straight geared to the wheels.

I received compliments all weekend long in LA for my driving, one person even came over to us and asked us what we did chemically to our wheels to accelerate so fast. In qualifying matches I was only scored on once by 599 after getting in a bad position. The only other time I had more than 5 balls in my trailer was because we were dead for half the match in front of an enemy human player. (match 13)

Ramp the sticks up slightly if you dont have traction control. Unless you're turning, then just gun it.

It's easy as sin to make a complete 180 with the trailer, keep that in mind. Just start soon enough so you don't run into a wall.

Always move, unless you're homing in on a trailer, then slow down. If you ram into a trailer too fast it'll bump away from you and you can't score. Unless the trailer is against a wall of course.

I drive this game just like overdrive. I drive circles around the court until we have enough balls (the balls collect along the edges) then go for the kill.

It's easy to get pinned in corners, avoid them. Driving against walls its easy to avoid pins and "juke" someone. Just have your coach paying attention to if someone if coming towards you. Then stop moving, accelerate past them, or go backwards and flip around using the trailer.

Human players are deadly. Our autonomous mode collided with 207 in the semifinals, and we kind of got stuck over there. Their human player was loading our trailer, and by the time i got out of the pin, we were full. Sadly, our human player was loading our robot because thats what we usually do (968 style) but we told him if that ever happens again, score on the enemy trailer. Points in their basket are better than you scoring them later.

Elimination and qualifying matches play COMPLETELY different. At least in LA, we had 60 teams there and only got 7 matches. It's a completely new ball game when all of the robots can at least maneuver a little.
To Elaborate:
There will -not- be as many balls on the field to gather up.
There will -not- be "nonmoving" trailers as much.
The human players will know what they are doing
Super cells are probably more useful. In LA, there were no super cells in the finals. However, they could have changed matches. We made a mistake in our matches and never went for empty cell delivery. However, this would have been better for us. There were not enough balls to collect and score. The only qualifying match we lost was because we delivered an empty cell instead of scoring more moon rocks, and thus, we figured they would be equally as useless in eliminations. Looking back at our matches, we could have delivered an empty cell and won with the super cell if we prepared for this. Keep it in mind. Eliminations and qualifying are completely different games, this year more then ever.

Not related to driving, but alliance selection is super important. Have scouts. The most important statistic (imo) is how full their trailer is at the end of the match. If your trailer is near empty, you're pretty decent. If it's full, you must have been doing something wrong.

DON'T GET SCORED ON. That's the biggest thing. If one robot can score on you you're out of luck. to get scored on, it should take one robot pinning you and the second scoring. If it doesn't, you're doing something wrong.



I hope some of this was useful. *shrug*

[jamie_1930]

You know you have the match in the bag if your alliance partners are counting money before hand, in place of strategizing.

[rockbga]

Learn to drive backwards with the trailer attached.
This helps with pins and helps you be more agile.

[roboraven15]

definatly consider baiting dumpers if you cant normally outrun them or such. like one team with traction control twice only scored a few balls on us when we obviously couldn't run away faster than them, so we'd slow down, wait for the moment they should dump, and drive off. and get far enough away before they could react and follow. they wasted atleast 3/4 of there balls easy.

[ShadowNinja]

1) watch tokyo drift for about a week
2) read your physics book...especially over momentum and power...
3)practice..practice...practice...
4)Do not forget to attach ur trailer onto the robot (if you forget...hope ur team has a good sense of humor)
5) Do not trip while walking with controller box
6) Do not eat anything spicy or round before competiton...nightmares!
7) Learn to intimidate other robots with your evil stare
8)Learn to use the force to your advantage (Starwars)
9) Have fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gorrilla]

[QUOTE=ShadowNinja;841143]
8)Learn to use the force to your advantage (Starwars)
QUOTE]

ah-ha

the perfect stratagy.....

[ShadowNinja]

trust me....if only i could...lol....untill then ...if anyone is a rockets fan..i wish i could be blocking like yao ming..."not in my house!"