Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

Did anyone see any Issues with bounce out? (Discs bouncing out of the goals)

Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

On the wood-backed goals at the event we went to, it was absolutely an issue. We saw robots that would only make half their shots due to bounce-out.
I have no idea how a lexan goal compares, but my advice would be to shoot softly and have a lot of spin on the Frisbee.

Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

Lexan usually absorbs force more than wood because of its flexing nature. That could potentially dampen shots that go in. We're planning on heading to the Atlanta Scrimmage which has the official field, so we can go and see if this is an issue.

Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

The bouncing is 50/50, but it depends on if the chain helps absorb the shot power if going full force. The shots may have to be softer to dampen the chains but we learned today there is a threshold of how you can do it. I really, really want some lexan goals to play with but I don't think it would make much of a difference IMO. Can anyone say any different?

Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

Unfortunately we aren't learning a lot about floor loading, which is the only thing as a strategist I have flipped on multiple times (which is obviously bad for strategy)

I think movement is incredibly easy if:
-your robot is short enough to go under the pyramid
-you have geared your drive to handle the open field environment, or you stacked your drive motors to a 6 or 8 motor drive to make it not matter
-your robot can handle going over frisbees right-side up and work with frisbees upside down
-don't plan on doing a lot of cross-field work after the endgame hailstorm

I think this is a great game for human players, but not Lunacy-tier.

Climbing is still a bit of open book, but the pages are starting to write themselves. A number of teams show the ability to climb. A few teams actually can climb. Fewer teams are big-climb specific bots, and even fewer of those will actually make more than 10 points on climb anyway.

Pyramid shooting, while not impossible, is a lot harder than I anticipated.

Frisbees will fly around in the scoring boxes but never seem to fall out. Regardless, there will be big matches this year where I think a popped-out frisbee or two will decide the outcome.

Bonus observation: if Week 1's arrival date is the steak in this picture, then I am the cat.

Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

In Auton, the frisbees only have to be touching your robot, so a robot could simply drive backwards and let another team shoot the 2 disks on the floor.

Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

Through our tests on almost a full size field, we found that pickup from ground from arbitrary positions on the field wasnt as effective as going to the feeder station and back to anywhere around our pyramid to shoot.

Our goal was to hit over 100+ points per round with no opposition and rain of frisbees which we did.
Hopefully, with the rain of frisbees, opposition, and other great points noted here, we can still contribute as best we can.

Sounds to me like floor feeders are only good during auto period, but then again, we havent seen the elite teams unveil their effective floor feeders as of yet.

Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

If there's a way the Elite's always find the path first.

Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

Watching the event yesterday made my stomach hurt. There were some bad matches going down til the elims. I hope that this was an indication of a shockingly small field (the Shakedown usually has twice as much teams in it) and not a bad game design.

Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

I had a feeling this is how it would work. We figured that floor pickup would be a big benefit in autonomous, not so much during the rest of the match. Too bad we never did get around to figuring out how to do the auton floor pickup. But we finally got our robot going enough to be able to run a few simulated one robot practice matches yesterday, and it looks like our concept of quick human loading combined with quick back-of-pyramid shooting will do us well.

Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

It was a Week Zero, but it won't be at BAE. Remember that BAE teams are notoriously defensive and that most teams at week zero weren't trying to win as much as they were trying to get some practice in.

At Week Zero, with an official field, bounce out wasn't a problem. I saw maybe one frisbee bounce out the entire day.

What to you mean by bad matches?

Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

Surprisingly, I didn't see a single upside down disc on the floor. The broadcast feed quality probably makes it hard to verify this statement. Can any attendees confirm/deny?

Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

At Week Zero, they were extremely rare during auto and teleop. Once the humans started throwing them willy nilly, however, they became more frequent.

Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

Which is weird, because in extremely advanced tests™ my teams did (throwing them at a wall), we found the discs would land upside down around 70% of the time. Maybe it's a human thing.

Re: Pre-Stop Build Scrimmages - What Have We Learned So Far?
 

Watching Suffield with 1058, we saw exactly what we had hoped for: dozens of frisbees on the ground, most of them under the goals, even before the blizzard. With a very effective floor pickup, they're hoping for a 36 point max in autonomous by eliminations in New Hampshire and lots of threes from in front of the pyramid.