[FTC]: Interaction in FTC

[TRWSHSHLX]

While there are teams that dislikes the interaction of FTC robots in the previous challenges, there are teams that absolutely love the "contact" aspect of the game.

Why do you like it? / Why do you dislike it?

Please tell everyone that's on your FTC team to give their opinions...

And vote in the poll!!!

Thanks in advanced.

Edit: there are threads regarding defensive strategy / contact already but this is a new updated one to see where teams are headed towards as we'll most likely be using TETRIX KOP for a while and to compare how FTC develops to VRC since it uses VEX parts.

[Andrew Remmers]

I like this idea of seeing opinions!

Anyway I have had experience with VEX and FTC I really like both programs! While some things might be more difficult in one than the other and visa versa both kits are versatile. I started with FTC and I have loved every bit of it interaction certainly causes for some interesting moments. It kind of encourages teams to build their bots accordingly to be able take that tough defense. From what I have seen in VEX games like Clean Sweep you didn't really need to design for interaction, Gateway however is a mix of both (and I think it will work out really well, I personally REALLY like the game). Both levels of robotics have had really awesome games and I thank the GDC for both levels for making such hard games. One thing I would really like to see in FTC is hanging though, we haven't done much of that recently! Lets test what this kit can really do! I'm stopping before I start ranting pointlessly on about random stuff...

- Andrew

[electron]

I don't mind running to other robots (or rather, vice versa), but it can make driving pretty annoying.

I find the limited driving space much more of a problem. on the GOI! field, there were 26 tiles that had no obstacle, and 8 of those were taken by rolling goals or robots. That did not leave enough space to drive around in, in my opinion.

[TRWSHSHLX]

Yeah... The GOI! field was really crowded and there are not many ways that robots can drive "around" the other robots without occuring penalty or hitting something.

HotShot!'s field was a good balance I think. There were enough space for two robots driving side by side around the center goal.

My team's philosophy in robotics is "it's how much you can score WITH defense that counts." FTC, VEX and FRC are competitive so contact should be expected and be put into the engineering cycle, along with objectives and goals to score.

Unless it's the programming / driving skill challenge in VEX. That's where good engineering robots truly shine.

FTC and FRC expects interaction and it's a cruscial part of the game. But GOI! field is very unbalanced and favors defensive robots since there are so many obstacles on the field...

Just my 2 cents.

[team F.T.C 4240]

I personally liked the FTC Face Off game about the best because there was a lot of space to run around, there was 4 tiles that had obstacles, there was a big goal that the top could only hold so many pucks so its whoever got the most in first, then it can't hold anymore pucks (and all 4 robots could score easily at once), and there was 2 different starting places, a ramp and the floor and at the end game you had to get the ramp down somehow and get on it. You could defend but defense wasn't a good way to win (because you could only use 4 motors that year). There was room to drive, good obstacles, just everything was really evened out unlike this year where there was a TON of obstacles and it was hard to score and hardly any space to drive.