Quote:
Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery
A sensible and common goal. But I'd suggest watching some more match footage from as many different games as you can, as this goal doesn't really align with reality all that often.
While a mechanical brake will help you maintain position, in most cases there's enough room for a skilled offensive robot to avoid a fixed obstacle (like a team braked in position). Occassionally there are chokepoints (like next to the pyramids this year or the tunnel in 2010), but there are usually other options (under the pyramid this year or over the bumps in 2010) and most of the best offensive robots are capable of using those. If anyting, a braking device will be most helpful for maintaining offensive positioning during a lengthy scoring process in an unprotected area (such as most teams scoring tetras in 2005, tubes in 2007, or a bunch of balls in a single load in 2006).
Similarly, the concept a omni-directional offensive robot seems like it would more difficult to defend, but reality tends to disagree. Unless you have the option of goals in multiple directions (2005), the general path the offensive robot is going to take is predictable, regardless of how many different directions the robot can travel. A smart defender is usually able to position themselves between the offensive robot and their destination and force the offensive machine into at least some contact (a scenario that does not benefit mecanum or omni wheels). If you want to avoid this contact, the solution is typically having a higher acceleration and better drivers than the defender.
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Building off of this, a smart defender knows full well that they don't need to stop their victim.They must merely slow them down enough that their scoring output is lowered past the potential scoring output of the defender during that time. Otherwise the defense is not effective.
The alternate option is that your job as defender is to disrupt the pattern of the opposing drivers. However, a skilled driver can factor a static obstacle into their pattern and work around it. Example: Most cyclers this year had a path they liked to take from feed to fire. Disrupting this path would slow them down as they then had to reorient themselves and find other reference points to line up for. A static obstacle (braked robot) is pretty useless.
Additionally, I would assert that the moment the opposing robot hits you you've done a good deal as the defender. Why? momentum is important. If I can force a robot to have to accelerate up to speed again I am delaying them far more than the contact time. Plotting your offensive routes such that you cross their typical paths before they do and force their drivers to slow down to avoid you means you can play offense while still denying paths to your opponents.
TL;DR - Less man to man defense more zone defense.
(I seriously hope any of that made sense)