[Mitchell1714]

Stronghold has been a very good game, but there are some tweaks I would make.

1. The scoring bar at the bottom quarter of the match feed should have been done differently. They should have had team numbers, score, defenses that alliance has breached and damage they have done to their opponents tower all on the same side. It was confusing and counter-intuitive to see red teams and red score on one side, and red defense/boulder count on the other.

2. (Spoiler, reading, fairly complicated change to game-play)

During just the playoffs, there should have been 2 new defenses available for selection: the "field" and the "keep".

What are they?

The "field" as it's name suggests is just a green flat surface robots drive across. Robots cannot damage the "field" and receive no points or contribution to a breach for crossing the "field" in both auto and teleop. The "keep" in historical terms, is the fortified central tower of a castle and last defensive resort. The "keep" in FRC Stronghold is a tall tower defense, place in the outer works, that is illegal to cross.

How do these two defenses work?

After each alliance has placed all their defenses, and before robots are placed on the field, each alliance then gets to place either a "field" for them to cross, or a "keep" to slow down the opposing alliance. Each alliance can place a "field" or "keep" on any defense except another "keep", "field" or low bar. There can be BOTH a "keep" and a "field" in the same outer works. If this happens, that alliance will only be able to damage 3 defenses, and will NOT have the possibility of scoring the Breach bonus(20pts). The red alliance gets to place first, then blue.

Why do I think it's a good idea?

One word, STRATEGY! This would make Stronghold playoffs the most strategically deep game in a while. This would affect many parts of the game:

A. Selecting defenses- Game theory now comes into play more as you have to guess if the other alliance is going to help themselves or slow you. The red alliance has the advantage of placing their "field/keep" anywhere and potentially blocking the other alliance from putting the opposite defense in that spot. High seeded red alliances must also determine if faster crossing is worth the possibility of no breach. Blue has the advantage of knowing what and where the red alliance placed their "field/keep" and countering, either as offense or defense.

B. Auto- The "field" increases an alliances auto possibilities. 2-ball autos and 2-ball-not-low-bar autos would be much more common. It also increases the chance of an alliance doing a double 2-ball auto. The "keep" hinders your opponents auto possibilities. A "keep" can be used to replace easily crossed defenses. It can be used to force opposing alliance robots to line up next to each other and risk messing up a 20 point auto. More importantly, the "keep" can force 1 of the 3 opposing bots to cross an active defense.

C. Teleop- The quick crossing of the "field" to increase shot count is huge. Two top tier shooters and alliances of 3 pretty good shooters could gain a big advantage. I could see some 1 and 2 alliances picking it even though the opponent could give them a "keep" and ruling out the possibility of the breach bonus. Top shooting alliances could more than make up for the 20 point breech deficit by shooting more boulders in auto and more cycles in teleop.

D. Endgame- The only way this affects endgame is the "field" can make last second rushes to the batter faster.

I know its kind of a complicated idea, thoughts, comments?