Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

I dont' really see myself agreeing with a lot of things that have been said in this forum so far. At NJ at least there are numerous teams that can score in the center goal from their starting locations. Also I don't think we've had a problem with telling who's on defense and what not...it's fairly simple to explain to people...whatever side has the green light lit is the team that's scoring.

Also yes the defense is important, but we have one team (25) that can get all 10 of their preloaded balls through the center in auto...that's 30 pts, and almost guaranteed the 10 point bonus...that's hard to defend against...no matter what you think.

Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

It depends on your function. A shooter than can only get one ball every 5-10 seconds is better off heading for the ramp at 15 seconds. A 1-pt. dumper can often exceed the point differential given for the ramp, especially if there's a likelihood of getting just two machines up there. More often than not, we've opted for another load of 10 or so balls.

It seems that most teams know straight away if they can or can't make it.


Oh, you bet. Low center of gravity is a big advantage in this game. You won't fall while climbing, you won't be easily tipped by collisions and you won't tip yourself over, either. :)

Here at PNW, I'm going to go out on a limb and sat that there aren't more than three 1-pt. robots that teams need to worry about, so more often than not, the side goals go unprotected.

It seems that at least half the period is focused on the ramps, so there's not a lot that's happening during free for all. We, in particular, load during defense and score during free for all.

I can't speak for others, but we've never won an autonomous period and we've won more matches than we've lost.

I've had no trouble keeping our team on task, but some of our alliance partners have not been paying attention to clock nor light and so they do dumb things and dumb times. What doesn't help is that the field announcer is often as confused as they are and, in several instances, has announced which alliance is on offense incorrectly. That'll mess with your head.

Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

From the NJ regional point of view:
2 robots on the ramp appears to be max, 3 I've yet to see done, more teams are having problems with the ramp then everyone has expected. If you have balls at 10 seconds, then don't go up the ramp, just get into open space and get that shot off, if you don't have any balls then if its open, communicate with the other drivers and start getting up on the ramp. (read on for more on this)

Nope, they are harassing the teams that are trying to get shots off. Mostly defencive robots are congregating within a 5 foot radius of the center ramp, that area also happens to be where 98% of all tipped robots i've seen are.
This all depends on the strength of your robot, if you can shoot, generally you are scoring points. If you can't shoot, your playing defence. Not soo many people are going for the ramp, I don't think I've seen any 25 point bonuses at all, and in most matches only one robot from either alliance makes it onto a platform. However it is common to see traffic jams at the base of a platform at then end of a match, some robots are being very effective at just sitting at the base of the ramp stopping people from going up.
If you have a working autonomous mode, you having a working shooter/dumper that alone sets you way ahead, however if you have a team that has a great robot but needs work on the autonomous its possible to make up the difference. I'd imagine winning autonomous will make a much bigger difference in playoffs though.
The light above the goal is how you check this, just look up across the field and if its green then you can shoot. If its not, then don't, the sounds though I found harder to pick up, but watch the light and look at the countdown clock.

Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

Most of my comments are in the PNW Regional thread. Here's one I missed:

Ball sweeping is WAY more important than most teams thought. Slow sweepers suck. The very few great sweepers that can collect balls at full speed (like 848 and 254) rule. I think it is my greatest surprise in a mechanical sense.

I think the game rules. MUCH more fun to watch than last year, and few matches are determined by penalties.

Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Events/NJ/matches.html

I am very happy with this years game! I do not feel that the penalties are out of proportion. Above are the mach results for the New Jersey Regional. I am a little disappointed in what I'm seeing. Keep in mind these numbers are based on 55 matches!

* 18 matches that have had single digit scores.
* match #25 Teams 1563, 1412, 555, 1367, 896 and 293 all recieved zero points!
* Teams recieved zero points 9 times!
* 17 matches could have been won by all three teams climbing the ramp!

How is it possible for three robots to spend 2 minutes not moving a single ball into the low goals? or why can't any of these teams get up the ramp? What are they doing during autonomous?


If this game continues to score so low, teams should consider different strategies (I.E. get on the ramp, push balls to side goals, or do something during autonomous.)

This in no way is a hit against the game! This game was made for high scores!

Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

Penalties... I'm guessing, but I'm pretty certain... It happened to us once last year :(

Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

Has anyone at any of todays Regionals done an analysis of the match results with respect to the which alliance is on defence during the second period?
I would like to know if more winning alliances start on defence during the second period. From the match results posted on the FIRST website it is impossible to analyze this.

I watched some of the VCU webcasts today and found it quite difficult to follow what robot was on offence and defence at any given time due to the camera shots, etc. The cameras seemed to focus a lot close up on the pushing matches rather than show a wide angle view of the whole field.

It seems to me that it should be a significant advantage to be on defence during the second period so that you can collect as many balls
as possible to score while on offence during the third period. The fourth period seems to be a real battle ground with relatively low ball scoring and a majority of the period spent climbing/defending the ramp. Besides the obvious point advantage of winning autonomous is there a real strategic advantage to winning autonomous and therefore going on defence/ball collection mode first?

I guess what I am asking is what are the percentages of winning alliances that are on defence vs. offence during the second period (the first one after autonomous)?

Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

some footage from the GSR:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=44976

Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

I agree.Watch team 25, 103 and 1279 work together and you'll see that game the way they no doubr visualized it.25 is a serious threat for the championship in my opinion.

Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

My Thought's after watching the NASA/VCU regional on NASA TV:

-Game's insane
-Overall, seems like it will be fun at GLR
-Do not anticipate anything really to change as far as overall strategies are concerned. How they are played is a variable.
-Like the robots I saw on TV, just love em.
-Yet, it seemed that a lot had too high centers of gravity. Might pose problems.

Next week, I'll get to see the game in person, then I'll have a much better summary.

-Joe


[Edit] 1610, the Franklin robot, really good. Congrats to them on winning.;) There was also another one with a top shooter that had a really nice autonomous. Really loved those two. Then I found the one with some sort of cotton candy like bowl device on top to be pretty innovative. :cool: [/edit]

Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

Crucial if your a defense oriented bot/ have bumpers: bumpers+ramp+trying to block=easily tipable, i was scouting today and that is the major thing i noticed at one point today, 1274 was able to tip two of the opposing alliances robots,

in autonomous: if u can score in the center go for it, it gives you an early lead and you will get the 10 point bonus, at BAE these teams included but not limited to: Bob (319) , and kaizen blitz(1276), bob went to the finals and kaizen won.

one thing to watch out for, if you are a corner dumping bot, be careful of ur drop down mechanism to release the balls, from the stands it looks like it is diffucult to see the bot across the field and Wheres Waldo, 1547, was Dq'd twice in qualifying and once in ELIMINATION,

Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

Yeah, you got that right. It was hard enough to keep track of for me, and I'm a veteran of Strategy and Gaming!

I found myself asking teammates whether or not teams were offsides a great deal. And heaven forbid you were a spectator. I took more than one person outside to watch the animation again more than once. Hell, the whole concept of an alliance takes most non-FIRSTers some time to grasp.

I mean, this isn't really a gripe. It's simply a observation that...well, as one of my friends put it after watching 562's noodle machine spin balls around, "I would concentrate on the game but oooh...pretty spinning colors!"

Wow.

Also: what was up with the BAE scoring system? For almost all of the finals the scores were read but not displayed.

And can anyone from the match we were in vs. 296 (when we tied them 8 vs 8) explain how by the beard of Zeus we tied 8 to 8 when there were no penalties and the live scoring read 55 to 8?

Dude, I'd love some of that footage. Especially of Kaizan or Northern Force...both of those teams had an extreme :yikes: :ahh: :eek: factor when it came to shooting.

And really...even most veteran teams didn't master shooting...

--Petey

Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

I think everyone was at the wrong regional this weekend. NJ went really well and we didn't experience any of the problems other people are bringing up. The game is simple...whenever the green light above the colored ring is lit the corresponding allaince is on offense, and one member of the opposing allaince has to be the back bot.

As for shooting, we had some amazing shooters...25,103,293,522,1089 just to name a few. Once the members of 25 post some video it should be easier.

There was a glitch in the scoring system so when the elimination match scores were posted the winning allaince would have the correct scores, and the losing allaince would have 0...so that's probably why they didn't post the scores to avoid confusion.

I'm sure that all these problems will be resolved in future weeks.

Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

No, they had a weird glitch that looked like it was affecting the scores.

Like, the real-time scoring would read, "65-21", and the top score (score without penalties) would read that, and then there would no penalties, and then the final score would be "46-33" without explanation.

It was very strange and had I been the losing team on some of them, I would have raised the issue with the judges. For instance, we tied 296's alliance at one point 8-8 after they'd been leading us 55-8 in the real time scoring.

Oh, and 296 got screwed over on their only loss. They sight by the green light, and it didn't go on in autonomous. They have it on tape, and I saw it with my own eyes while it happened. However, rather than doing a field reset, the refs and judges merely said that it was impossible and that it couldn't have happened. Except for those anomalies, 296 would have been 9-0 at BAE.

--Petey

Re: Week 1: Thoughts, comments
 

I do know that the scoring system was even worse before the updates they added. That really bites that you guys got screwed over. At NJ if there was a problem with the field (ie: autonomous not firing, green lights not going on) and it was in fact the field fault, then we did have to replay the match...in fact we had to replay SF 1 Match 1 3 times before it ran correctly.