Defensive Strategies

[Goldeye]

So, what ideas do people have for defense?
There's the obvious stuff; stay in front of the corner goals for ground shooters, and for center goal shooters, try to bump em off as best you can.
What else?

[Rick TYler]

Build an incredibly aggressive ball-sucker. Depriving the other team of balls is a good way to decrease their scoring. Use your ball-sucking skills to hand balls over to the best shooter on your alliance either by dropping one or two balls in front of their collection mechanism, or by gently poofing them into an open-top hopper. Sometime in the 4th period dump all your balls into the low goal for a little 15-25 point pop.

You could also try running up the ramp at high-speed, flying through the air to smash into the plexi in front of the opponent's driving station, distracting them and perhaps causing them loss of bladder control. Your robot may only be able to do this once, so pick your time wisely.

[Buster Wolf]

Originally Posted by Goldeye

So, what ideas do people have for defense?
There's the obvious stuff; stay in front of the corner goals for ground shooters, and for center goal shooters, try to bump em off as best you can.
What else?

you could hook on to another robot and drag them, though im not sure if that would count as a pin or a disableable offense. there is also ramming and annoying LOUD NOISES to scramble the brains of your opponents.
but seriosly, try to interfear with the main objectives of the opposing bot as muc as possable. if you were uber GODly masters of programming sensing and the force you could try to shoot the opponents balls in mid-air (have fun with that).
you mainly have the basics though. try to see it as what would be to most irksom thing that could happen to you when you are playing offense.

remember land mines are defensive weapons.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Buster Wolf

you could hook on to another robot and drag them, though im not sure if that would count as a pin or a disableable offense.

You'd probably get an entanglement call, and its associated penalty or penalties. (Don't have a copy of the rules handy, so can't check just whate the penalties are. I think there was something about disabling.) Unless the head ref was really feeling gracious, that is.

[Shu Song]

The best defence has gotta be just continuous ramming another robot so they don't get an opportunity to shoot. Since this isn't basketball where a defence-man can't touch someone who's in the process of shooting, this strategy would be equal to just hugging the player with the ball all the time so they can't shoot or pass (which isn't allowed is b-ball). So I really don't think many robots will have to specially equipped for defence.

Whats more important is defence strategy; choosing which robots to stick on, or choosing whether to play defence at all. You could just sit back and load up on all the balls your opponents score and when the period ends, got back and score all those points back.

The most interesting defence period will most likely be the last period where both teams can score and there are no backbots. There are so many strategies for that depending on bot's weakness and strengthes and the score situation.

So all in all, just ram the robot trying to shoot.

<edit>replace all instances of "ram" with "impact from short distance"</edit>

[Jon K.]

Originally Posted by Shu Song

The best defence has gotta be just continuous ramming another robot so they don't get an opportunity to shoot. Since this isn't basketball where a defence-man can't touch someone who's in the process of shooting, this strategy would be equal to just hugging the player with the ball all the time so they can't shoot or pass (which isn't allowed is b-ball). So I really don't think many robots will have to specially equipped for defence.

Whats more important is defence strategy; choosing which robots to stick on, or choosing whether to play defence at all. You could just sit back and load up on all the balls your opponents score and when the period ends, got back and score all those points back.

The most interesting defence period will most likely be the last period where both teams can score and there are no backbots. There are so many strategies for that depending on bot's weakness and strengthes and the score situation.

So all in all, just ram the robot trying to shoot.

Might I just note rule G 22 on page 7 of Section 4 The Game, where it specifically says no ramming... Granted this strategy works well when just simply stated as pushing, but just remember everyone RAMMING IS NOT ALLOWED.

[Kelvin Ng]

Originally Posted by Jon K.

Might I just note rule G 22 on page 7 of Section 4 The Game, where it specifically says no ramming... Granted this strategy works well when just simply stated as pushing, but just remember everyone RAMMING IS NOT ALLOWED.

I think Shu means ramming from short distances. Eg. accelerate from 2 feet away, ram, back off 2 feet, ram etc. The rule states no long distance ramming.

[Jon K.]

Originally Posted by Kelvin Ng

I think Shu means ramming from short distances. Eg. accelerate from 2 feet away, ram, back off 2 feet, ram etc. The rule states no long distance ramming.

That is why I put my post in the wording it is, to note that ramming is technically illegal and is stated in the rulebook as from a distance, and that a good defense does not include ramming but instead pushing.

[Henry_Mareck]

We had the idea of attaching a large CIM to a fan blade and trying to blow the ball away from their trajectory. Yeah, like thats gonna happen. We also had the "idea" of attaching all 15 available motors ( i think there are 15 ) to a fan, and just floating around the field.

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by Henry_Mareck

We had the idea of attaching a large CIM to a fan blade and trying to blow the ball away from their trajectory.

you know....anything is possible

[Kelvin Ng]

Originally Posted by Henry_Mareck

We had the idea of attaching a large CIM to a fan blade and trying to blow the ball away from their trajectory.

You know what, that sounds REALLY COOOL!!! perhaps...gear it to a thousand rpm, like most teams' shooter roller thingies, you could have some potential for changing the trajectory just enough. Then again, I think just making the robot mobile enough to get in front of the shooting robot should be enough. There probably won't be (m)any teams that have robots that fire from the ceilings of their robots.

BTW, if you could have a floating robot, load it up and slam dunk! =D

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by Kelvin Ng

There probably won't be (m)any teams that have robots that fire from the ceilings of their robots.

Really? This is the only design we have been seriously considering.

[Safarley2901]

Originally Posted by Henry_Mareck

We had the idea of attaching a large CIM to a fan blade and trying to blow the ball away from their trajectory. Yeah, like thats gonna happen. We also had the "idea" of attaching all 15 available motors ( i think there are 15 ) to a fan, and just floating around the field.

We tried it doesn't work. The blowing ball thing. We tried

[pyroslev]

Ramming like that is what i call sniper ramming.

But anyways...

Use your defensive robots, all of them to plot/prepare for offensive period.

It's surprisingly simple.

[Mike Norton]

you need to think out of the box.


First everybody is worry about the 3rd robot scoring. what would happen if a defence robot can push 2 robots at the same time around leaving the other robot 1 on 1.

If you where to block a side goal while waiting there you could be filling it with balls

no one have said anything about the ramp. this is going to be big. it is worth 25pts if you get three robots up there. I like that because if you push your opponent up on to the ramp you can hold them there until the end. (by the way the ramp I think will flip robots over if being push to it) that will make it easy to move a turtle on its back up the ramp.


go to where the points are and you will win.