[Chris is me]

After quickly realizing I don't have a team, might as well add some thoughts to Rick's excellent analysis on what I see as stuff that seems particularly important. Disclaimer that I could be very wrong.

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

You can vary the distance and height of your shooter by either varying the shooter wheel speed or the point of release. In 2006, I preferred the second method, but there's not much question that either can work.

Though I don't know how you can build a sliding release point in FTC, I do know sliding release points (especially in Lunacy) resulted in much faster firing, to the point that notable teams this year that relied on wheel speed would abandon ranged firing altogether in favor of building a hood permanently tilted.

A mechanism or strategy that can turn the goal is a valuable thing. I'm not suggesting any particular mechanism, but I have noticed that the penalty for moving the goal in autonomous is pretty small in comparison to the points you can avoid <deleted>. In the middle of writing this paragraph it occurred to me that the GDC is a pretty bright bunch and that they might have noticed that a 5-point penalty isn't enough to dissuade this strategy. In the latest version of the manual the penalty for SG7 has been increased to 40 points. Take note! A relatively minor offense is now the death penalty.

40 points, depending on the strategy, might not be the end of the world. I'm not saying it's anything you should bank on but it certainly will happen in at least a few matches with the specific intent of messing up autonomy. Considering auto points are worth double (basically), even if they pick up all the balls they miss or they don't fire if the goal gets messed up, you could potentially deny more points than would be scored in very extreme circumstances.

Most FTC robots I saw last year were poorly controlled, and I don't think this was bad driving. The drive motors are so powerful in relation to the size of the field that teams built fast robots that were hard to drive. I expect the best robots this year to have great smoothed-and-scaled drive code. With another cluttered field this year with four relatively large robots on it maneuverability will be at a premium, so I expect to see new-generation driving code to be combined with holonomic drive trains in many of the best robots. Our new FTC robot uses a holo drive and it's a revelation compared to last year's machine.

If I understand what I saw correctly a lot of this was trouble turning, which omni wheels will help with. Holonomic drives will excel at chasing the 5 point goal in particular. If I were building an FTC robot I would go 6 wheel for other reasons though.

I would not be surprised to see a swerve chassis of some sort this year.

Of course, you need a good strategy for acquiring balls. Sucking them up as they come down the ramp seems like a no-brainer to me.

This is what I've been trying to push on anyone who will listen. Almost every team I've talked to just wants to deploy the ramp then use intake to get them from there, and that's giving your opponent free points. Controlling the gates with a drop down hopper or just some "wings" or something is more important in my mind than human loading in Lunacy or Aim High. I wonder if you could get away with no floor intake at all if you really had to.

The ability to hold zillions of balls looks good, as is the ability to hit the off-field goals from more than minimum distance. Shooting while moving would also be valuable, but I doubt we'll see much of that.

I honestly think the 10 point goal is the most important part of the game. Scoring in it is just as valuable as scoring in autonomous, but easier as you have drivers to control it. The goals are also wider so you can shoot 2 or 3 balls wide into the goal, unloading at ridiculous speeds. Just one corner worth of balls plus a doubler and your preload and you break 400 points. 40 point penalty doesn't look so bad now.