Quote:
Originally Posted by Carol
I agree with that. Hanging a keeper has little or no effect on the final score, especially as compared to last year. Many teams didn't even bother trying to design an autonomous program this year. Is the GDC deliberately trying to level the playing field by de-emphasizing autonomous? It's another aspect of the game that can make it interesting, IMHO.
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Teams are missing (understimating) the value of automomous. The true value of the keeper is NOT 2 points. Look at the match a different way (backwards rather than forwards). Evaluate the keeper's worth by looking at tube positions at the END of the match. The keeper is an incremental tube scored in a row. Without it, an alliance would have one fewer tubes creating the exponential score. Example: At the conclusion of a match an alliance with a row of 6 including a keeper would score 64. Without the keeper, 32. The keeper value is actually 2^n - (2^(n-1)), where "n" is the series number of tubes in the keeper's row.
With more and more defense being played, and with more strategic placement of tubes and spoilers, the incremental exponential value of a keeper will be much more important than its 2 point illusion.