[Chris is me]

The debate over strategic flexibility versus a specifically toned game aspect is one that defines most teams, seasons, and games. Doing everything perfectly, without compromise, is the ideal, but that's rarely possible for even the best of the best.

So then you decide if you do everything with compromise, some things without compromise, or one thing perfectly. In games with alliances, rarely does the need or option arise for one robot to be able to do everything it takes to win a match; the GDC doesn't try to design alliance-based games that are winnable by one. So the general opinion of me is that it's better to make less functions perfect than more functions work.

That doesn't mean if you can't perfect something not to do it though. For example, 2791 has bump climbing ability. It is not perfect or a big focus of the robot. It is an option on our robot because we feel at least one alliance member will always need to be able to traverse them, so the best way to guarantee that is to make us that alliance member. Not focusing on making a crazy suspension or other, more effective bump traversing techniques lets us put more time into the kicker, while having the bump climbing option as designed now doesn't interfere with the kicker's success, as it took fairly little effort to design the drive to work over the bump relative to the option we would have chosen without the bump in mind. This is highly variable depending on your team's resources.


So that's my thoughts on "listing what your robot can do", really. I don't care what you can do. I care what you can do well and consistently.

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As for "game strategy", this year's game mandates a few things, in my personal opinion:

Ball return control
Flexibility / Transition game (offense to defense)
Ball hoarding in offensive zones

The ball return is pretty huge. With only 12 game pieces, every game piece will be fought for in the middle zone. An alliance will need to have a consistent middle ground opponent with a high traction drive (sorry, mecanum probably won't cut it here). The same limited number of balls means that the game's focus will change based on where said balls are. When your opponent has more balls than you do in their zone, you'll have to pull back and play defense, but ideally there will also be times when your zone has the balls, so an alliance member will need to be able to go from the opponent's zone to the middle to the front in order to play where the balls are. The unique one robot in opponent's zone rule means that balls in your own zone are more "safe" than anywhere else on the field, so almost secondary to scoring points is securing balls in said zone.

From this strategy, you'll get the design criteria for 2791's robot. The first aspect mandates either skid steer or possibly swerve drive for the traction and pushing power. The second, combined with the design expertise of the team and the 6 week period, requires a bump climbing skid skeer. The third requires a kicker that can shoot over at least one, preferably two bumps, even at the expense of a little accuracy.

The real tricky part is being able to adapt your strategy to your alliance. The only constant is yourself, so you have to make your robot what you believe is absolutely essential to a winning alliance to ensure the most wins possible. This varies from team to team, obviously; you can quite clearly see that a lot of teams have decided this is the year for mecanum drive! However, it's best to put any worrying over what you can't control off until after build. Once you know yourself, then consider how you will tackle qualifying matches where your robot is the only one with a kicker, or you have the only traction drive, etc.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you're probably wrong. I bet Week 1, I'll look at this post and realize I either overemphasized or overlooked some game aspect I wish I hadn't. Pay attention to the regionals before you and see if your strategy would work. Consider adapting if it would not.

All this being said, I'm sure if all goes well, I'll regret posting this. Use it as you wish.