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Originally Posted by UnTrustedTruss
Aerial Assist is one of the most technically boring challenges we have had so far, and with the smooth gradient of difficulty each year as the league matures. This simply does not make sense, it is clear there is something missing.
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No major shifts in origination, challenge, or league size. It is weird that this would be mentioned if there was not something further to back this up.
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However, this is not some weak little rope
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I believe that there is a pretty significant challenge, that would get you approximately the same amount of points as an end game would, that everyone is missing.
First off, it has been mentioned that the truss can support a lot of weight and they could have just used a rope. A rope or even a 30 foot long metal bar would end up sagging and robots would get caught in it, nevermind that it needs to support cycle lights and posts. It seems pretty easy to put together and transport given any situation and I feel it is a guarantee that a robot will not accidentally break the truss; last year some teams had some issues when the pyramid slightly lifted off the floor.
All this in mind, There is a huge, very challenging, yet very worth it part of the game that people aren't putting their full thought into, and that is passing and catching a ball over the truss. If two robots had the ability to pass and catch over the truss for EVERY cycle, and lets say that each cycle of pedestal->HP->robot zone 1 ->robot zone 2->robot zone 3 lasts about 30 seconds, that's around 4 cycles per match. If the ball goes over the truss, that's another 40 points. If the ball goes over the truss AND IS CAUGHT, that's 80 points, the equivalent of 2 3-assist cycles, and given this game, a proper "end game" score, if the game were to have one.
The pass-and-catch, I feel, is the equivalent of the end game that seems to be lacking from the game, and I think that a lot of people are underestimating how hard it will be to pass a ball from robot to robot, with little knowledge of how far/high alliance members throw their balls and how good they are at catching. As this game is centered around communication and cooperation between teams, I think this will require a ton of effort and communication between all alliance partners to make work, and a lot of testing and practice beforehand, as some people did for the double or triple balance in 2012. That is the spirit of this game, assisting one another, and so I don't believe there will be another catch (pun intended), but I do think passing and catching will be harder than we think.
That's why I think it would be a pretty idea good to coordinate with teams in your area to practice with each others robots during build season. This isn't about building one robot that can do everything anymore, teams will really need to cooperate and know how to work together more than ever.