Defense vs tower
 

In your stradegy, are you guys focusing on breaching the defense or scoring on the tower?

Re: Defense vs tower
 

We are stuck between the benefits of defeating the obstacles and the benefits of shooting the boulders

Re: Defense vs tower
 

Defeating 4/5 obstacles (running over them twice) will gain you one Game Point (or whatever it's called). Scoring boulders will gain you points, 2 for low goal and 5 for high goal, but you can do it infinite times. You can only get 10 points out of defeating defenses (5 per run, no more points after defense is defeated) per defense, so 50 points total from defenses, but your robots have to actually be able to cross the different defenses presented. If you want to equal that in boulders, you need to be able to get 10 high boulders or 25 low boulders (or a combination of the two) (and you have to be able to somehow land them in the tower, and can only have one at a time). Capturing a tower gains you another Game Point, but to get that you have to have the tower at 0 strength (8 boulders if no tech fouls occur). So I think you can pick and choose if you want to do obstacles or boulders. You are able to win (and get two Game Points) whichever path you choose.

Re: Defense vs tower
 

Personally, I'm leaning towards breaching defenses primarily. There are a lot of points there, and it seems like it would be faster than shuttling balls. However I could definitely see the arguments for both strategies.

I think competitions will be split between robots good at breaching and robots good at shooting. Good alliances will have both.

Re: Defense vs tower
 

Don't forget that the value of defeating 4/5 of defenses changes in the playoffs.

Re: Defense vs tower
 

It's possible to do all of them with Vex stuff. As Ri3D demonstrated you can clear all of the obstacles with a 6WD with 8" pneumatic wheels, and due to the new bumper rules this year that's certainly possible.
I think at the highest levels 2 robots on the alliance will be capable of doing everything, and one robot will be basically a drivetrain with an intake to transport balls to their alliance members.

So far I've been siding with destroying defenses as a priority. The robot should still be able to transport balls and score in the low goal, however the ability to navigate the defenses is in my eyes the major priority

Re: Defense vs tower
 

Both...each is -8 strength to get RP very even from that perspective although in playoffs tower seems like it may be slightly weighted benefit.

Re: Defense vs tower
 

Ooh, do you happen to know if there's video of a 8" 6WD clearing some of the obstacles? I'd love to see it, a lot of my team seemed to believe 8" wouldn't be safe enough for the Wall.

Anyways, back on topic, we're planning on breaching more, but it depends on what our Alliance can do of course.

Re: Defense vs tower
 

Got a link for this? I'd love to see this bot in action as my team is considering a similar set up.

Re: Defense vs tower
 

6WD getting over Rock Wall

https://youtu.be/j3ZPrIRetEI?t=32384

Re: Defense vs tower
 

Thanks! Robot was good on the rock wall, but seemed the struggle a lot with the moat.

Interestingly, in that same video a bot with the Rhino chassis seemed to be having a much easier time with moat, as well as the other static defenses, see quoted video, @ timestamp 8hr 15min

Re: Defense vs tower
 

Another point in favor of doing the defenses is that capturing a tower requires three bots. That means if some team on your alliance is disabled, too slow, not watching the clock, touching the carpet with their bumper, or otherwise not on the tower when the timer hits zero, then all the work you did, all match, was pretty much wasted. On the other hand, I can see one well-made robot single-handedly crossing all the defenses before the end of the match, and thereby nailing down one Rank Point for sure.

Re: Defense vs tower
 

why not both?

Re: Defense vs tower
 

Looking at the video, that struggle with the moat might be due to the wheels being spaced exactly the length of the moat, not the wheels themselves. If you're not using kitbot, that can be fixed.

Re: Defense vs tower
 

it needs more drive power

Re: Defense vs tower
 

I think the issue might have been the ground clearance. If you watch, the wheels spin freely in the bottom of the moat. I dimensioned it out last night, and it's pretty easy to get more than 2.5" of clearance with a pneumatic wheel on 2x1 rail, so this shouldn't really be a big issue.