Aerial Assist Discussion Thread

[GearMan98]

Well, it has its advantages and disadvantages.
THE GOOD STUFF
-Provides for a lot more design possibilities. It's always seemed like, in the past, we had a few certain best ways to do the task. One that won the most competitions, got the most points.
-It forces you to depend on your alliance more. People need to cooperate at a really deep level to win.
-Gets rid of robot specialization. For example, last year, our team was the "designated climber", which got us far. This year, that won't fly. Every robot needs to be able to perform every task well if the team wants to mesh well with the alliance.
THE BAD STUFF
-Seems very unoriginal. I can't really put it into words, but Aerial Assist seems to be "missing" something. This could be just me getting used to it, as it's very, very different from every other challenge.
-It forces you to depend on your alliance more. FIRST's notion of "cooperatition" is a very good thing, but I feel like this may be taking it a step too far. I also feel like it's putting more pressure on rookie teams to build and compete at an unrealistic level.
-NO ENDGAME. But why? The endgame was amazing, it made every challenge seem like two different games in one. It's very possible they cut it out because of the impossibility of robot specialization, which would make sense, as the one game is complicated enough already.
(Please note all of this is just a collection of my very early opinions, as the season goes on, I will probably change my views on most, if not all, of this.)
I think it's going to be a very interesting year, regardless of anything. This is a totally new type of challenge, and, although I'm not sure how it will go, I get the feeling it's going to be remembered for a long time to come. Also, I think it's very important that we make use of this forum this year. We should all make sure each team knows as much about as many other robots as possible so we can work together more effectively.