Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc S.
Defensive bots(that are built well) can be a huge game changer. Often times defense decides who wins. Now i'm not a big fan of box-bots either but saying that every team should build an offense bot isn't necessarily a good solution.
A good compromise, I think, is building a defensive robot(if that's the rout a team wants to take) but incorporate some feature that allows it to score points, say in the endgame. Last year a defensive robot with a good minibot was very competitive, this year a defensive robot that also allows for easier balancing could be very competitive.
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I think that the OP makes the mistake of directly associating defense bots with box-bots. It is true that simple box-bots made with little more than the kit-bot are not very competitive, which I think is more what the OP is trying to say. I think a strong defensive bot needs to be capable of starving the other team of balls and/or be very good at balancing to be called such, which will take active design beyond the kit-bot.
I do have to agree with the OP, though, that offensive bots will be more competitive than similarly strong defensive bots, more and more in these games, a strong offensive has been able to overwhelm even the strongest defense. A good defensive bot might be able to get you good standings at a regional, but it won't go nearly as far at championships. Many of the qualities that will make a strong defensive bot will also make a good offensive bot, so why not implement a design that can be both?
Any way you look at it, simple kit-bots are going to be the least competitive and it is good to show people that it doesn't take much to get beyond that.
Hopefully that all made sense, I'm pretty tired right now