10 pt. ball into/out of play

[Lil' Lavery]

Do you think its better to design a device to bring the 10 pt. ball into play or just one to knock it out. Knocking it out is simpler, but reduces the matches score. Which do you think is better.

[Cory]

It doesnt really lower the score. I figure that if you can get 2 balls into the goal, youve got the 10 pt ball. If you knock it in, great. If you dont, great. Even if you get it in, youve still got to get it to the human player. Even after you get it to the human player, the human player has to get it into a goal. If you can move the mobile goal close, then it's fairly easy. If the mobile goal is full or you cant get it close to the player stations, then youve got to shoot for the fixed goal, which is going to be harder.

The bottom line is, whether its on the field or not, you've got 18 balls more than if it's on the tee.

Cory

[KenWittlief]

this is a good example of how you can spend a lot of time money and resources trying to make a very small improvement in your score - its not worth it

knocking the ball off buys you 45 seconds of playtime with the balls on the floor

gathering 5 point balls has a potential value of 90 points (for the 18 on your side)

being able to cap a goal has a potential value of 120 points, if you have all 24 of your 5 point balls in a goal

hanging has a potential value of 50 points

are we going to spend effort going after something with a potential value of 10 or 20 points?

No.

[Levaman]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

this is a good example of how you can spend a lot of time money and resources trying to make a very small improvement in your score - its not worth it

knocking the ball off buys you 45 seconds of playtime with the balls on the floor

gathering 5 point balls has a potential value of 90 points (for the 18 on your side)

being able to cap a goal has a potential value of 120 points, if you have all 24 of your 5 point balls in a goal

hanging has a potential value of 50 points

are we going to spend effort going after something with a potential value of 10 or 20 points?

No.

You don't have to pick up the ball to put it into play. Just a cylinder with a shroud on it and to knock it in.

Remember though, you'll probably be in auton mode if your going for it. The Phrase KISS sums up what I'm trying to say.

[kjohnson]

But its a whole lot easier to knock the ball out and be done with it than to take your sweet time and reach around it to bring it back in.

[Ryan Albright]

Yes trying to bring it into play will just take to much time i mean shure 10 points is nice but there is other things you can do wiht your autonmous time. I know last year autonmous became very important last year but i think this year is even more critical cause most likely teams are gonna go knock that ball off but i mean wiht a good ai that will take what like 3-6 seconds that you stil lhave alot of time to set up for your next move or bring back the goal.

[kjohnson]

Originally Posted by Ryan_team710

Yes trying to bring it into play will just take to much time i mean shure 10 points is nice but there is other things you can do wiht your autonmous time. I know last year autonmous became very important last year but i think this year is even more critical cause most likely teams are gonna go knock that ball off but i mean wiht a good ai that will take what like 3-6 seconds that you stil lhave alot of time to set up for your next move or bring back the goal.

exactly

[KenWittlief]

its not just the 3 seconds on the field - its the hours and hours you will have to spend to get the more complex retrieve subsystem to work, instead of the no-brainer 'set it flying' subsystem

take a carefull look at the field boundary and the pipes you have to reach through - knocking the ball onto the field is not trivial

and if your bot is standing right there, it will probabally bounce off your bot and go off the field anyway.

[Ben Mitchell]

You could just make an arm with an L shape to it to knock the ball to the side rather than out - or at least give a greater chance of knocking the ball inwards rather than pushing it out.

If you can score a ten point ball, it's half the time for twice the points rather than make two shots with the normal balls.

I say do your best to keep them in play.

[Lil' Lavery]

You could just make an arm with an L shape to it to knock the ball to the side rather than out - or at least give a greater chance of knocking the ball inwards rather than pushing it out.

Thats exactly what i was thinking. A PVC L, just a quick wrap-around and a tug will bring it in. If you have an extra motor you could make swing free of the robot if you wanted. Real simple design that takes you maybe an hour to build. That is if you have a swing motor, otherwise 10-15 minutes.

[ngreen]

I thought that they would put the the 10 pt balls back into play so it wouldn't matter... Did they say something different?

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

this is a good example of how you can spend a lot of time money and resources trying to make a very small improvement in your score - its not worth it

I agree, it's a lot of work to keep track of it and even if you do manage to get it to your human player, they still have to make it into the goal, which isn't a garranteed thing. So, my opinion is, get it out of play.