Re: 2016: The year of bullying kitbots and hypothetical situations
 

I look at the secret passage like this:
It's the human player feeder station. It's perfectly reasonable to make the feeder station a "protected area." The difference in this game is that game pieces being sent through are more attainable by the opposition than before.

Consider:
* The human player is required to send boulders out at a certain point - whether that alliance's robot is ready or not.
* All boulders sent through the station will spent some time on the ground - and likely not in the possession of the intended bot.

In other words, we have a feeder station that is inviting the opposition to swipe the game pieces.... They just have to be really, really careful.

I can see a real value in a new type of defense at high levels: An offensive bot that specializes in quickly grabbing boulders in the opponents' secret passage.... And I can see human players rolling a tantalizing boulder out just a wee before their robot arrives, tempting said bot to make an error in judgment.... There could be some interesting play around this....

Re: 2016: The year of bullying kitbots and hypothetical situations
 

There wasn't. 50 points sure changed the outcome, though. And before tech fouls was the dreaded "disable-DQ" one-two punch, which DID change the mechanics of the match as a 3v3 became a 2v3.

Here's a penalty recap of some of the real game-killers:
2005's "Kiss of Death": in a low-scoring game, 30 points could wipe an average alliance's score off the board. Elite alliances could take that and survive, barely.
2008's line crossing "reverse-direction" penalties weren't remarkable for their size, but for their frequency.
2014's 50-point tech foul swayed more than one match.

By the way, other than the slight change to game mechanics (+1 strength to the tower, meaning one more boulder to score before a tower can be captured for +1 ranking point or +25 points), this rule works very similar to 2012's lane violations.

Re: 2016: The year of bullying kitbots and hypothetical situations
 

Because I am a programmer and think very literally, I can think of lots of years where game mechanics were changed during a match due to fouls. Points are a game mechanic, after all.

In all seriousness, tech fouls this year actually seem modest vis-a-vis regular fouls, compared to previous years. I remember in the past tech fouls being horrific disasters, whereas this year they're only mildly worse than regular fouls.

Re: 2016: The year of bullying kitbots and hypothetical situations
 

It is an interesting mechanic, the GDC basically is saying we want it to be more then a tech foul but less then a card which is to say it is encouraged but encouraged in a cautious way. I dunno how to describe it well, it is definitely intentional, and on paper what it looks like is stealing a base in baseball where it should be done carefully and in a calculated manner. I dunno this game is weird.

Re: 2016: The year of bullying kitbots and hypothetical situations
 

Cue the sweat inducing SD flashback...

Re: 2016: The year of bullying kitbots and hypothetical situations
 

If you want to talk about bullying kitbot then let's not forget that both last year and this year kitbot had been at an extreme disadvantage. This year kickbot will be the worst it has ever been.

Re: 2016: The year of bullying kitbots and hypothetical situations
 

I think this year is one of the best for kitbot in recent years. Someone has to be left to defend the their alliances tower? Sure they may get pushed around if they are under powered, but at least they serve a role in the game that doesn't require anything more than a drive train. Better yet, making a kitbot with an intake that can go under the low bar is likely within the reach of most teams, especially now that AndyMark sells intakes. If they add the pneumatic wheel kit, the Ri3d's have shown that they could cross all of the defenses that don't require manipulation. A kitbot with an intake could serve as a great 3rd pick on any alliance. Compared the games I've watched matches on (2008+) this year seems like the best year for a rookie team to do the least amount of work, yet have such a strong capability to impact the game.

Re: 2016: The year of bullying kitbots and hypothetical situations
 

1. Kitbot
2. Pneumatic wheel upgrade kit
3. Swap Toughbox ratio to the lowest available
4. Add a simple mechanism under 14" to suck in and spit out a ball.
5. Practice low goal cycling while crossing defenses.
7. Figure out how to plan strategy and coordinate with alliance partners well.
8. Probably make elims as an alliance captain at a signifcant number of events. At more competitive events, be a very attractive third robot. (Profit?)

Re: 2016: The year of bullying kitbots and hypothetical situations
 

Wow, you cracked my team's 2014 robot mlg strats! *mind blown*