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Unread 08-01-2009, 12:42
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Nuttyman54 Nuttyman54 is offline
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AKA: Evan "Numbers" Morrison
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Re: No-show teams and trailers

Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard View Post
Back-in-the-day (before the alliance era) FIRST provided a Placebo robot to fill no-show slots. The Placebo had no scoring capability, and fairly limited mobility. One such Placebo was actually a hovercraft, IIRC. I don't recall if there were others.

Perhaps FIRST should provide non-functional Placebo robots to stand in for no-shows in Lunacy. Placebos could be built using the AM C-Base chassis with no drivetrain, fitted with standard bumpers and trailer hitch, and ballasted to the maximum inspection weight. Trailers assigned to no-show teams would be hitched to Placebos instead.
I thought of this too, but it actually isn't a good idea. The former placebo was not allowed to affect the score of the match at all, and in this game it has to, by definition of the fact that it moves and therefore moves the goal. In a game where moving is key, a team with a robot that can't move or drive very well is then better off saying their robot is "broken" and having the placebo play instead.
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