[DampRobot]

Linear punches have consistency limited by two things (as we've found). Besides all the obvious stuff (same pull back same distance, same release, ball in same place, reasonably speced springs, etc) you'll see consistency deteriorate when you don't have a large enough pusher plate and from knuckle.

We found in prototyping and from talking to other teams that large pusher plates give more consistent shots. We had a tennis ball contact the ball in early prototypes and quickly saw that a large plate improved consistency a ton. There's probably a good reason that 118 has a puncher plate the size of a frying pan. The teams with smaller plates generally only go for closer shots, because there consistency doesn't matter as much.

The other thing is knuckle. We aren't putting any spin on these balls, and as they have weird surfaces, they're sensitive to aerodynamic effects. Linear punchers also get the balls going quite fast at first, where they're more subject to aerodynamic effects. We've seen variations of +/- 1.5 ft up and down from knuckle alone. Perhaps someone has come up with a good solution for this, but we haven't.

But all around, I'd say that from what I've seen, high pivot catapults are killer at close range shots, but aren't that great long range shots. Low pivot (team JVN) catapults are quite good at long shots, but are bad at close range. Linear punches (especially at high release points) are pretty good at both types of shots. Strategically, I'd say high pivot and release (think team Boom Done) will continue to dominate the game.