Re: Team Playbook
 

Usually what we do is talk to our alliance partners and rely on our detailed scouting to determine what to do against other teams. A playbook would be nice but we have some pretty devious minds on our team who can think up some pretty brilliant strategies before the match. The randomness of the match prevents making concrete plays.

Although you could be a like a rookie QB and have an armband covered in plays :yikes:

Re: Team Playbook
 

With a game that has 2 three team alliances and 10 places and 4 ways to score...there are too many variables to make set plays around; take it match by match at the competitions. Plan for as much as you can in every match. Think of what the other teams might do plan around it.. all like a set of "ifs" and "thens."
"If they cap and of the middle tetras... we should go cap over it"
"If they try to cap the middle center tetra with a big stack to prohibit other stacks...defend them."

Each team should also have a list of things to do in order of importance...
1) Team A main goals...
2) Team B main goals...
3) Team C main goals...

Last year our goals were:

• 1)Retrieve mobile goal

• 2)Get a 2x

• 3)Cap a goal with (all) HP balls in it.

• 4)Push mobile goal to HP

• 5) HANG

My team has done this in every match that I can remember...we talked to our allies before the match.. and sometimes just in the cue lines. Match by Match strategizing is the best way to win a match IMHO.

-Henry

Re: Team Playbook
 

Knowing waht you're robot will be mainly doing is important to know way back in the design phase.

Last year this is what our plan pretty much looked like.


(1.) Hang

(2.) Hang

(3.) Hang

Anything else that we added to our amazing hanging robot was pretty much just tacked on while we were building the thing. It worked out very well though.

Re: Team Playbook
 

I am talking about knowing what it will do in each match... my example was normally what we did. Occasionally we defended other goals.. or just went and defended the bar. Lets say this year you have your alliance of three robots. One robot Caps tetras...the other gathers tetras very efficiently...and your robot also caps tetras. Your main objective will be to have the two capers get the tetra "gold" from the gatherer on your team and cap as fast as you can, pretty straightforward. The next match your alliance is composed of three capers... for that match one of the robots is probably going to play defense on the other side of the field to uncluttered your side of the field for the two robots playing offense. Your robot may be the defender. OK: the match is going well then...BAM malfunction of one of your alliance members...luckily before the match you said to your alliance "we have to have 2 caping at all times" so you adapt to a the strategy that was prepared for before the match. Two matches.. same robot...different strategies. You have to be able to adapt and plan for as much as possible. I don't think there would be a point in writing down plays to call in a match. I could see documenting plays though. After a regional look back on matches and say "Hey.. doing this works well against these bots" and write it down for future reference but not as a set of a definite plays to pick from.

Re: Team Playbook
 

OK, I posted a white paper if anyone wants to download my teams strategy guide for 2005.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pa...le&paperid=424

Re: Team Playbook
 

We've held the playbook idea for at least 2 years now.
It can be effective, but we're trying to take it to a new level.
We're working on a peice of strategy software to run in-match (if possible, waiting for FIRST Q&A) that will assist us in knowing possibly which tetra goals are what priority for capping/blocking, etc.
I'm not sure how effective it will turn out, but an interesting concept, nonetheless.

Re: Team Playbook
 

think of as many possible designs, their strengths and weaknesses and see how they can work together. think of possible designs, their strengths and weaknesses, and see how they can work against us. then. make counters to those?

Re: Team Playbook
 

Just something that I thought of... If you give the plays to the other team that is your alliance during that match, they will have them at a later time when they might not be your alliance. You are given new alliances at the beginning of each match.

Re: Team Playbook
 

I think adding the third robot finally destroyed any possibility of trully being able to figure the game out ahead of time. In 2002, my team did an amazing job with pre-game strategy. We had it down to a science what other teams would do, and how we could best counter them. It helped that our robot could get away with avoiding opposing bots most of the time, or have our alliance partner run interferance while we did our thing. Last year, we really tried hard to use our strategy prowess but things always went wrong(usually robots, sometimes balls popped, functions stopped working, etc.) proving that you really have to be able to think on your feet.

That being said, we recorded every teams autonomous, we knew when they went for the bar, we knew how long it took them to cap, and just about everything else. We scouted like fiends. That knowledge did help, but it wasn't enough to create a full game plan. It was usually just enough to decide on our autonomous, the 15 seconds after that and the last 20 seconds or so.

This year, that all goes to hell though. Yeah knowing opponents autonomous capabilities is usefull. Knowing which opponent you should defend against is also useful, but its just going to be a hectic mess. Most plans will have to be decided upon during the course of the game. 3 robots suddenly decididng to take a certain row, will really alter the playing field.