Human Player
 

How valuable do you think a great human player will be? Do you think it will affect alliance pickers to pick your robot who may be a little worse over a team thats a little better with a horrible human player? How much will the human player affect alliances and the overall game play?

Re: Human Player
 

It really depends on what kind of ball pickup mechanism you have, right?
If you have to toss balls into your hopper, you had better have a good human player! :)

I don't really see the viability of making goals all the way across the 50-something foot field, over the 6-foot wall.
The robot has a hard enough time making goals from half court! :ahh:

Re: Human Player
 

Well even if you don't have the above hopper which you toss into, human players still hold alot of power, as the balls on the ground can be very tempting to the other teams, you have to know when to throw them and where to throw them. the human player which isn't able to throw in the top hopper, will likely fail at this... besides which team out there doesn't have a member on a sports team, or which has a good throw... I don't think it will be very often that you find a "bad" human player, but they will pop up I am sure.

Re: Human Player
 

I think that last year a lot of people said a human player wouldn't be important because of auto-loading.

Think again!

Even if your robot is automatically loading, that mechanism can break down, and having a good human player in a stitch may be your key to success. Also, your human player can help your alliance a lot. Say a robot with an open top on the blue alliance is situated such that its human player can't reach it right away...but the HP on the other end of the side can. Simple communication can speed up the process of loading and send the bot on its way.

Re: Human Player
 

This game is a combination of so many factors that it's hard to say that something will not make a difference.

The way I see it is, this game is just as dependent on the robot and how it works as it is on the strategy involved in preparation. So, if the robot depends on the human players, of course, the human player's role will be important. Each miss provides that many more seconds wasted in throwing and going down to get another ball. In a game like this, each second can make a difference.

So does the human player make a difference? Yes. Will it make a significant and noticable difference in the overall picture? I don't think so.

But how do I know? I haven't played yet! Time will tell....

Re: Human Player
 

If nothing else, your human better be able to hit a person at the range of 30 feet so the other person can grab the poof ball! That way, you can get the balls to the best human player quickly. About 60 feet to the far end of the field +6+ft.barrier= few if any human scores.

Re: Human Player
 

Can't the human player shoot balls over the wall into the hopper on top of the robot? That isn't 30 feet away. When a team is in defense mode can't they still be collecting balls, but not shooting them? They should be able to collect them from the floor and from the human player. On defense, two of the robots can be over in the end near their alliance human players "defending" against the other robots. Why can't they block a corner corral and have their human player load balls over the wall into their hopper? :confused:

Am I missing something?

Thanks for the input.
This is a great forum to put out questions on.

Carolyn Hinckley
Mentor

Re: Human Player
 

It is definitely possible, that was all I worked on for the first week or two of the build season. However, it is kind of hard to account for all of the robots that will be winding in and out of the space in front of the opposing lower goals. They would either deflect balls from a human player or just suck them up and use them for something else like shooting.
If I read your post correctly, you are right - the human players can load balls into the hopper of the backbot while the other two robots are playing defense. Blocking a goal to manually load balls while the other 5 robots are on the other half of the field should not be a problem.

Re: Human Player
 

Maybe I have this wrong but I thought our Human players were at the end of the field where the other teams scoring zone was. If so, that would put two robots near the human players that could be loaded. I thought one strategy was that when the opposing team scored a goal that our human players were there and could hold onto the balls or put them back on the field. Our players would not be loading our backbot. It would be near the opposing alliance human players.

Aren't the human players on the opposite end from the scoring zone for each alliance?

Re: Human Player
 

Human players are on the opposite side from the scoring zone, you are correct. However throwing a poofball from 3' BEHIND the lexan (yup, behind the starting line) over an 8' piece of lexan and into a robot that will most likely not be sitting still will be difficult. And if the robot is up against the lexan (guarding the side goal) it will be almost impossible (other than a lob) to put a poofball into the robot.

Re: Human Player
 

But can't the human players go to any part of the alliance zone they want to?

Re: Human Player
 

Thank you so much for this answer.
I thought I was confused. Not a great strategy on our part is it?

Thanks anyway. :)

Re: Human Player
 

Don't forget Dan, those dimensions are actually 4' behind and 6' 6.25" high in the space behind the low goals. (10' 5.25" in the central section). Anything is possible :)

Hans, human players can go anywhere within the boundaries of their own alliance zone... they cannot go to the zone of the opposing alliance.

Re: Human Player
 

and the human player can launch balls over to your half of the scoring area so you have balls when you need them. even if they miss, then your robot can pick them up if you have a harvester to do so.

Re: Human Player
 

My 30' estimate for hiiting a person was in reference to the fact that humans, even the worst ones in the world, can throw or pass the balls to each other. If you can hit anything you want at 60 feet, you can hit the robot or the corner goal.