King of Mountain Robots

[Solace]

amen to that

[Greg Perkins]

Originally posted by Joe Ross
Do you remember how tough the file cards were on the carpet last year? Well, my team found a material that is ever harder to move on the hdpe.

So did we,


every peice of our bot that touches the HDPE will have this special rubber we found in a catalog, excluding our tires. be prepared for a fight on the bridge


bad

[Jnadke]

Originally posted by M. Krass
There will be robots in this competition that do stuff you didn't even think of, and they'll do it faster and more reliably than you ever thought possible. By parking yourself atop the ramp, you're setting yourself to do nothing more than be a spectator to these amazing machines.

I couldn't have put it any better myself.


No doubt that stacking robots will win the game.

Everyone thought goal robots would win last year. Who won the national championship? 173. A ball robot, using balls, against an alliance of excellent goal-only robots.


A better strategy always defeats a better bot.

[Todd Derbyshire]

Originally posted by Jnadke
I couldn't have put it any better myself.


No doubt that stacking robots will win the game.

Everyone thought goal robots would win last year. Who won the national championship? 173. A ball robot, using balls, against an alliance of excellent goal-only robots.


A better strategy always defeats a better bot.

It pains me to point out the obvious but yes Strategy will always defeat the better bot. However, this also applies for the stacker bots. Unless you are a robot that can move multiple boxs over the bar all at the same time then you are making a major assumption that there is going to be bins on your side of the playing field. Now you may say that well there is just going to have to be no one can get all of those boxs in the first four seconds into their scoring zone!!! As for last year it wasn't all about ball grabbers. Finals were determined by a ball grabber and a strong goal grabber. When Team Hammond broke down and RAGE and Team 66? won, the strategy plainly was Rage would pick up balls while Team 66 made sure RAGE was free to do what it wanted to do. This game is all about strategy. This year its about stackers vs. kings of the hill only the best will survive. Oh one more thing what happens if there are HYBRIDS?
Muahahahaahahahahahahhaha

[sevisehda]

Every year there are amazing bots that are unique. But stacks are too vulverable. Even if you carry a stack at some point you have to deposit it. While you carry the stack your more top-heavy and you can't get under the bar(yes i know a unique bot could pass the boxes over the bar). If you plan on carrying a stack on 10 around your gonna have a nice chunk of your bot up high when you deposit it and if any bot hits you while your that high theres a good chance you'll tip. True a ramp-dom can't win alone but it is a key bot and the well done ones will be amazing in the finals. Also ramp-doms lead to low scoring matches so they will be low in qualifying not high. There usefullness comes from keeping the opponents score low so they'll be good in finals.

There is a relatively common material that sticks to HDPE like glue. If you think you can dislodge a bot because it will slide think again.

I'm not at all saying stackers will be useless in fact there the other half of a ramp-dom stacker pair. But some people think that ramp-doms do nothing for 2 minuts, In fact they control the center of the field.

[Dave]

Well... we went for a sorta bulldozer/rampdom bot this year... two 4 foot arms protrude from our robot's sides... made out of a single piece of 1x1 extruded aluminum (!) Noo.... it won't break.... we've been using the pieces to pick the robot up AND whale on some metal with... They've got these cool little cross-pieces which make it look like an x-wing...
Our bot weighs about 130 lbs... it's doing well.
It takes about 700N to twist our bot with NO compensation from the drivetrain... YAY!
Oh... and if you can move your walls (retract, raise, what have you) then you have complete control over the field... you can still go block the sides if it's that much of a problem.
And swinging piece of metal is great at hitting those nice, tall stacks.
SPIN LIKE A WHIRLING DERVISH!

[MisterX]

Every body is talking about these robots with arms or what not acting as a ramp-dom but what about a team that had little extentions that were left behind to guard the ramp while the robot could freely move about

[srjjs]

Originally posted by MisterX
Every body is talking about these robots with arms or what not acting as a ramp-dom but what about a team that had little extentions that were left behind to guard the ramp while the robot could freely move about

You can't intentionally detach pieces.

[MisterX]

Yeah you can as long as you are still attached to the pieces that you left behind

[Cory]

Originally posted by sevisehda
True a ramp-dom can't win alone but it is a key bot and the well done ones will be amazing in the finals. Also ramp-doms lead to low scoring matches so they will be low in qualifying not high. There usefullness comes from keeping the opponents score low so they'll be good in finals.

Can someone please please tell me why all these people think the game changes from Qualification rounds to the finals? The game *does not* change like last year. You do not want to mutilate your opponent. you want to still ideally have one more point than them.

Cory

[srjjs]

That would be because in the finals you can pick the partner that best suits your strategy.

[sevisehda]

First of all you'd have to be tethered to your detacheable wall, and then they'd probobly rule it as an intanglement hazard. The gameplay may be the same in qualifying and finals but the strategy is different. In qualifying you want high scoring close rounds. In finals you want to win.

If a team could go into each round and score 50 points but gaurantee the oppoing alliance was shutout they would do bad in QP. Probobly near last, but in finals they would rock.

[Eric Bareiss]

The game *does not* change like last year. You do not want to mutilate your opponent. you want to still ideally have one more point than them.

Why not mutilate them? If you win 100-0 and then again 100-0 you still win just like last year.

You don't want to get the max amount of points, like qualifying, you just want to get more points than your apponent.

Just like last year if you win both of the matches, you win. The only difference is that playoffs will be shortened because there is no option of a third match.

If you really go back and look at the number of playoff rounds that went 3 matches, I would say it's about 10%.

So for those other 90% of playoff matches, essentially everything is the same.

[SpaceOsc]

two # 60 and 71.. these heavy weight dominate every other round with there over powering assault of sheer robotic prowess.... these are the best example of power concentrated in a theoretically flawed and easy counter-able strategy's.. yet how many out there did do well again ts these two

the point is that theses guys didn't do much besides there assigned jobs.. yet there power and skill make huge differences in the balance of power and i think no one can argue that.. there partner did well also but there presence made everything possible... ram dominator's well not do everything but they do much...they will interfere and even disable many strategy's.. no one should assume there the key to win but most good alliances every where will include a great ramp dominator...

Bin collector will be great also... but they wont have as much impact on the field as the dominator's...

[Jason Haaga]

Originally posted by GilaHumanPlayer
Why not mutilate them? If you win 100-0 and then again 100-0 you still win just like last year.

Or how about beat them by a little and have around a hundred point lead going into the next match? Then all you have to do is keep the score low and not even care about winning. A defensive strategy means you have to win everytime. A good offense means you may have to win only half the time.

Originally posted by Todd Derbyshire
Oh one more thing what happens if there are HYBRIDS?

My thoughts exactly, a stacker that can muscle up on the ramp when it wants...