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Unread 05-01-2014, 10:55
yash101 yash101 is offline
Curiosity | I have too much of it!
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Join Date: Oct 2012
Rookie Year: 2012
Location: devnull
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Re: Is Defense Finally Viable

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr.Bot View Post
Dear teams,

IMHO, while your limiting your opponents scoring by running defense, you are also limiting your alliance's scoring by not assisting. So there is no net gain to defense unless there are special circumstances such as a terrific autonomous mode where one alliance has a huge lead in points. and then just runs defense with two robots essentially shutting down the their opponents. This seems pretty petty and mean spirited, and not the gracious thing to do.

I hope people don't play this way. I think the most fun way to play this game is total offense. Figure out a way that your robot can maximize the scoring of your alliance no matter who your partners are. If you have two rookies on your side who can only pass balls, go for 31/40 points each cycle and try to get 4 cycles.

To rookies, build a RELIABLE base that can work every time and assist by passing the ball. Build your robot early and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!
If you have trouble building your robot have your drivers practice with RC cars. Your first regional is not a good time to try to learn to drive.

If history repeats itself, I am guessing that defense will not be very important in qualifiers, but may be extremely important in finals. Because there are four alliance partners; one may well be a defense specialist that matches up well against an effective high scorer. Designing such a robot is risky, because it won't stand out in early rounds and have trouble getting picked. Being a defense specialist worked out well for Team 25 in 2000. They were so low in qualifying points that no one considered them for the third pick (This was a two on two game but the third robot was part of the alliance and you could play them at any time.) Since no one had scouted them their defensive strategy cleaned up and they were part of the National Championship alliance.

My final admission, I don't know how to build an effective defensive robot. Say I want to run defense against a highly effective high goal scorer like a fictional team called the 'Holy Doritos.' They have a machine that is maneuverable and fast can traverse the field in ten seconds and score, the turn very effectively and can automatically adjust their balls trajectory by use of an autonomous optical ranging system. So the can turn and shoot from any part of their scoring zone with 80% success.

How can I build a robot to defend against that? Even If I could it would at best slow them up and best case possible lower their efficiency 20 to 25%.
So they end up scoring 300 instead of 400, and meanwhile my alliance has scored 150.
I bet 987 could beat that

Have an ultrafast drivetrain with shifters. Build the bot to 5 ft as something blocking (lightweight so all the weight is at the bottom. Then have 2 rods that extend higher up to block the high shots! Make sure they are collapsible so you can get under the truss!

Last edited by yash101 : 05-01-2014 at 10:58.