Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

My team wants to settle for rolling the balls in for one point. I want to use the camera and focus on shooting the balls into the goal, but our backup being the ability to roll the balls.

What is your teams primary obkective and what are you pros and cons for whatever you are deciding to do.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

Let's go through this bit by bit.

First off, rolling. Pros: Any bot can do it, provided that said bot can move. Multiple balls at once. Cons: Small balls at least used to have an annoying tendency to send robots to the floor on their backs when someone pushed them. Can be easily blocked. Fewer points per ball.

Second, shooting. Pros: Very hard to block. Could be done semi-automatically. More points per ball. Cons: Hard to aim. Easy to throw off aim. One ball at a time.

Your choice of which to make your primary function (well, involve your team, too.)

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

I would say shooting in the center hoop because an opposing bot could just sit right in front of the corner goals and make you ineffective. Even if you do manage to get some in they're not worth as much and the extra goals probably wouldn't compensate for the fewer points per goal. It is much easier to make a roller but a competitive bot will be able to score in the center goal.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

Oh of course I will involve my team. I just wish they would involve me. I think that it's too easy with the center goals. Blocking will be amazingly easy and it will be hard to score. But who know, maybe I can make a case to them even though it is abot 10-1 on this.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

Remeber that you have two robots that will be doing everything they can to get you to miss those shots.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

Perhaps if you demonstrate the accuracy at which balls can be shot, they would be convinced.

You can also point out that scoring in the corner goals will be giving them balls to load for their robots. If your opponents have a strong firing robot, scoring in the corner goals may just give that robot extra ammunition. I agree rolling is not satisfactory for this game. If your team is worried about accuracy, give your robot the ability to recover balls, so the balls you miss may be retrieved =).

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

Remember that for every three you shoot, only one has to go in to match those three sucessfully put in a corner goal. And assuming you can turn your robot, there are a lot more places to shoot from than there are corner goals, harder to block.
And those 2 you miss you can pick back up and shoot again. If all 3 go in the corner, then that are all gone, and belong to the other team. If they bounce off the wall they are free for enyone.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

they get the balls from the center goal too. it's just that they can at best match the points.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

I really appreciate you guys thoughts. Im not good at thinking pros and cons without conversing with others so i thank you all greatly.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

Looking at the arena the balls scored in the center goal are also retrieved by the other team.

Also any balls you miss shooting at the center goal is also free game for the other team to pick up. So those cons for a corner goal robot applies just the same for a shooter.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

Just wondering but how will it be amazingly easy to block? :confused:

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

Im talking about corner goals. Just place your robot in front of it to block balls. Seems pretty easy to me, at least right now. :confused:

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

yes but that only leaves 1 robot to defend two others who may be shooting. I think that a team that has 3 shooters on it may get a little crowded when all three are trying to aim for the one center goal :rolleyes:

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

That's very true. I don't know how a team with 3 shooters wil be functional. They would have to have at least one bot try to score in a corner goal. And I think id take one robot on two for shooting then play a zone defense and defend the goal that the other bot is trying to score.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

For blocking the goals, that's easy (assuming 1 or fewer shooters on offense). Park 2 bots in front of the corner goals. If there is more than one shooter, it wouldn't work right.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

If an alliance has at least one good shooter, then the other two should be strong pushers. This way, two offensive robots push the other two defensive robots around, ensuring the shooter is undisturbed while shooting. If an alliance has more than one strong shooter, they could take turns. One shooter and one roller clears the way for the shooter, and once that shooter has unloaded all its balls, the other shooter takes its place while the empty shooter plays defense. Once this is done, unload in the corner goals. After all, if you don't score in the corner goals, you're starving the opponent.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

Make that "If you don't score at all." Humans can get the balls from the center goal as well.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

I keep on forgetting that part. Thanks =)

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

mmmmm i can smell a new list of things coming on. as for my 2 cents, i beleive that we all should consider accuracy. my sub-group alumni said that if a robot is garunteed to score more points per second every time with te corner goals, then we sould focus on them. if not we should focus on the center goal. its going to be diferent for each team. do what works best for your team. please excuse my typos guys this keyboard stinks. thank you


would you guys like for me to keep an organized list of the pros and cons as i se them just like with the hint boards? thank you very much! :D

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

yes, that would be wonderful. I am doing the same. I'll PM you my list when I am done.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

Every ball you score goes to your opponent. They have a chance to return 3 points per every ball you score. If them can only get 1 ball through the center hoop for every 3 you score through the corner goal, you'll tie.

I'm going to have to disagree about a team being "dysfunctional" with three shooters. I'd say you'd have a better chance becuase 1 robot will always be unguarded.

I wanna see this game get played. None of us know how this'll play out 'til then.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

That 30" opening is pretty big, you can shoot more than one at a time if you wish.... :)

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

Of course, you are assuming that both (or however many more you launch) will fly straight, no interference, no collisions, no spreadout.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

ahh yes murphy's law. dont you just love that! ;)

so anyway i have a list coming along and will post it A.S.A.P. so you all will have a semi organized list to work off of.

as for my contribution we must take into effect the possiblilty of other robots running into shooters. If they arent careful, shooters could easilly be thwarted by little robots with lots of torque. shooters should have really grippy wheels so they cant be pushed around as easilly. the only trade off on this is that when you try and turn the wheels are dragging making you use alot more power to turn the motors possibly ending up in your battery dying.

hope this helps! ;)

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

Okay guys, just like I did for the hint board I am going to be making a list of pros and cons of scoring through the center goal and scoring through the lower goal. If anyone would like to help me please do.

Center Goal
Pros
Hard to block balls being shot
Semi-automatic
Lots of points

Cons
Hard to aim
Easy to lose a “lock”
Only one ball at a time


Corner Goals
Pros
Any one can do it
Many balls at once

Cons
Bots can trip
Easily blocked
Not as many points per ball
Lots of balls in goal means more balls for other team

contact me if you have anything that you need to ask me or tell me! ;)

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

Also, your shooting mechanism would have to have more than 33% accuracy to make it even worth using. Even the robots in the animation didn't display that kind of proficiency. I expect to see quite a few bots who will try the center goal during auto mode then switch to corner scoring during the last 3 periods.

Re: Pros and Cons. Shooting or Rolling
 

All of this depends on how the camera works. Last year nobody used it. This year it's vital to scoring in the center.
Since having all three bots try to score in the corner chutes would be inefficient, I think that quite a few teams will try shooting in the center, more so since a single good shooter could make the difference between winning and losing. Last year a robot that used the camera wasn't important; getting ten extra points during autonomous just wasn't worth the effort.
This game strikes me as being quality vs quantity. Shooters and rollers each hvae advantages, but I imagine that the best design would be a robot that can do both.