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Re: Unscheduled Team Update: 3-20-2014
My opinion is that this is simply an attempt to move this game away from being Battle bots Plain and simple.
Because the game is a single ball game, 2 robots are not doing anything and they are beating the living daylights out of the other teams offensive robots.
At one time I coached high school lacrosse. At the high school level, in many places you have a large percentage of less experienced players that simply cannot throw and catch the ball effectively. The game, when played on a higher level, has little contact because good players get rid of the ball quickly enough and make quick passes so that physical play does not net you an advantage. In a lower level game, because the players do not have these skills, physical play nets results and the game becomes quite physical and violent at times.
This game is not unlike this situation... teams have a tough time holding on to the ball or acquiring it... this makes close defense a real option.
The way you beat a double team on your robot is to pass to another player that is not being defended... unfortunately, this is VERY difficult in this game... most robots have a very difficult time passing to each other effectively and the ball gets "kissed" to the other robot... this leads to lots of contact.
As game play gets better, defense will be harder to play... with better robots that have strategies that include moving the ball towards the goal by passing rather than driving with the ball, defense will have to change.
Right now its really easy to defend.
What is happening is that this kind of defense is leading to robot failures from the contact. Too many robots are being damaged. Some permanently.
Robustness is difficult to design .. acquiring the ball, carrying it and launching it are very difficult tasks for many teams....
I think the GDC is simply telling us that they want us to not cause damage. To back off a little and let robots do what they were designed to do a little bit.
It has gotten too rough... we should not be damaging each other.
Now, referees are tasked with doing this by calling fouls. Like any sport, we will have to see what they are going to allow. This happens even in well established sports and in individual contests from weekend to weekend.
The GDC is just saying stop the violence and the damage. In operation of your robot, think about what you are doing... the protection of bumpers is not sufficient this year. Think before you play defense by brute force. Use position and scouting to do it.
We will see what this means but if we all just take a step back and try and play defense with finesse rather than brute crushing power I think we will be fine.
I really don't think the referees are looking to call penalties... they are simply trying to make the game safe for the robots.
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