Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Matt
I LOVED your analysis of the game, but I find a big flaw with this statement. You're assuming a few major things with what you say...
1.) You can ONLY score one ringer on each spider leg. This is not true, anyone can go over what you put, but ONLY ONCE. Two can fit on. This is a proactive way to negate a large score. This adds a MASSIVE amount of new strategy to the game that only boggles the mind. Even though it's harder to see on the other side of the field, any scoring on the sides can be well seen and changed.
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You better check <G15> on that. Double ringers are either ignored or negate your own score.
A few other issues:
1. I don't entirely agree that the bottom spider is the most important. While it may require the least lifting, it is also the easiest to defend regardless of the size of your 'bot. A long arm, on the other hand, can reach over the top of a defending 'bot and still score.
2. Depending on the alliance, a good defense ("proactive" or not) can be very important. If the opposing 'bot can easily score 4 or 5 ringers undefended and I can hold him to just 1 or 2, I've made a big difference in my alliances chances to win. Similarly, if I can "defend" my alliances scoring 'bot by not allowing the opposing defense 'bot to interfere, I've done the same. As far as not being meeting the goals of the game--perhaps not the way you want to play it, but that is something I love about FIRST. Every year I see solutions to the problem that I never even imagined. We specifically chose a gearing that would allow us to to do well in pushing matches (I can't remember ever being out-pushed) and would also allow us to power our way up a ramp. This turned out to be very important, as we fried 3 banebots motors on our arm before switching to pneumatics and then finally abandoning offense.
3. How do you define "agressive defense"? Constant pushing and shoving to keep a team from scoring seems to be very much in the intent of the game, especially with the bumpers that protect the bot while giving a weight advantage over teams that chose not to use them. High speed ramming and similar acts are spelled out in the rules and punished accordingly (sorry Channel Cats--our all out autonomous dash across the field in high gear was a programming error--and the penalty also cost us the match).
I think overall there are many more aspects to the game than I originally thought, and some of the things I though would be important turned out not to be. I really wish we had another opportunity at it, but now I'll just have to sit back, get some sleep, and then see how the rest of you handle this game.
Good luck to all.