Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

We are considering having all teams vote prior to the event, and have static defenses (not changing throughout event). Lots easier on volunteers.

Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

See http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/43664

Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

Just had this idea....some sort of swinging bridge...similar to a rope bridge.
basically a suspended platform the size of a defense bottom about a inch or so high off the defense base. each corner would have a rope (or chain) attached to a post holding the this up. As you drive across it could swing back and forth. If a robot sat on it then took off the base would tend to swing out from under the robot. Driving onto it too fast would make it difficult to drive across.

Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

Any newly created defense is not fair to teams that designed around the very specific defense arrangements on the field. Sure, it's "not fair" that other defenses will be removed too, but removing a game element is a lot less of a penalty than adding one that not everyone can cross.

Honestly, they should just make off season defenses static. CDF, Rock Wall, Ramparts, Moat. CDF in 2 to block the human player, yet Moat in 5 and Rock Wall in 3 to allow skilled HPs something to try. Terrain defenses in 3 and 4 for auton. Skipping Sally port and Drawbridge for visibility reasons, and skipping Rough Terrain because it's easy and we're out of room. This will save tons of time and congestion for field reset, reduce load on volunteers, increase defense robustness (you can bolt down defenses instead of pinning them) and generally make things smoother. I will miss the strategic depth of defense selection (and trust me, there was some) but I think ultimately it's worth it for a better event without disadvantaging certain teams.

Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

-A normal defense base... Covered in rollers
-A running treadmill (running towards the neutral zone)
-The black knight
-Car tires
-A pit full of mutton legs

Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

Stickers were put on at World Champs.

Granted the Portcullis is probably one of the more hazardous game elements in recent years, but the stickers were a little -- bizarre. No one is supposed to be on it anyway. I'm surprised there weren't more stickers on it saying "Danger - Tipping Hazard".

Having static defenses would be kind of dull. Most of them weren't a problem moving in and out of the bases, except like the Rock Wall or Ramparts which got banged out of position by the robots and the pins wouldn't come out. My crew at UMass Dartmouth were running ahead 30 minutes. The reset crew at the NE Champs were dancing even after 3 days of resetting.

Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

I don't know that creating new defenses is any more or less fair than choosing a set of defense to use permanently. We're specifically choosing defenses that should be crossable by all drive trains.

Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

You can make something that is easy, fun, and/or weird. For instance, I don't think putting a short stack of gray totes or an Aerial Assist ball sitting on a ring on the portcullis base for teams to bulldoze through is particularly difficult to execute in construction or requires any significant change to an existing Stronghold robot, but could make play more interesting/wacky for an offseason.

Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

You would think that the CDF would block the human player, however, our human player actually was able to bowl over it, without any robot assistance. No matter how you try to stop the human players, they will always find ways around it.

That said, I think that it is already hard enough to to bowl it over the rock wall, ramparts, or moat, so you don't need to make it even harder. It would decrease the value of the human player, and make all but the best human players much less valuable. Then again, after much practice, it might become more common for HPs to bowl it over spots 3,4, and 5. Also, your idea would be great for field reset times.

Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

I think static defenses at a lot of smaller off-seasons makes a ton of sense. Get more matches into one day by lowering field reset times and require less volunteers.

However I still want to see changing defenses at IRI, Chezy Champs, and other similarly competitive and/or long off-seasons.

Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

Make the new defense another robot. Alternately, two smaller robots.

Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

Not the cliffs of Insanity!!!

Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

Potentially, yes this could disadvantage teams, but by adding a defense that could be pretty easily traversed by most drivetrains in FRC this year, I would wager that for the most part it would be a non-issue. Plus, it's the offseason, which is the perfect time to try out fun stuff like this without hurting anyone's chances at winning a blue banner. I think it'd be really fun to see something like what a lot of people have proposed. The defenses could still be static if that makes things easier on field crews, but the added twist might be pretty cool.

Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

A MOAT WITH ACTUAL WATER.

Re: New Off-season Defenses
 

Sometimes, teams are too good at it.

Now, I'm not saying that its not hard. In fact, its incredibly hard. However, I feel like people would want to minimize the influence of human players, as this is a robotics competition, not a human player competition.