Wall 'o Boxes

[Madison]

Originally posted by sevisehda
However the rampdoms alliance partner can play a very easy game. They can selectively allow how many crates move over the bar and what the stack looks like on the opping side. If the plan is to control the score the a rampdom is a very useful tool.

Here, I think, is where I fundamentally disagree.

I can't see how a single robot (save 68) can effectively patrol and defend both alleys on the playing field. ...especially when it's 2 vs. 1. Each alley, as you're aware, is 6' wide and 9.5' deep, never mind that they're separated from one another by a 12' wide ramp. Quickly moving back and forth between them doesn't seem plausible.

What, exactly, can they do that selectively controls the score? Unless they share a similar capability to move bins over the bar en masse, nullifying the efforts of at least one of the opponent's robots, they won't do much. Sure, they can possibly do a decent job of keeping the bins in the alleyway, out of scoring position - until they're overwhelmed (or buried, as the case may be).

If they dare risk crossing beneath the barrier onto their scoring side, they leave an alleyway wide open, and there's the potential to move many, many bins into scoring position at that time. Similarly, one robot on the opposing side could give that robot trouble, getting in its way, effectively leaving both alleyways open to the trafficking of bins.

See, it's like the ramp dominating robot is the U.S. government, sitting up their all tough and pretending to be in control. Their partner is the U.S. Border Patrol, trying to stop the movement of the bad stuff into the country, but, there's just way too much territory.

How relevant all of that is, though, I'm not sure. I haven't seen a single team that claims its robot can successfully move bins over the bar on these forums. I know of at least two, however, via private conversation. But, in all cases, they seem to require the bins be stacked, and as we've already seen, stacking bins seems likes it's going to be a tedious and time consuming task. Making several stacks of 4, 5, or 6, depositing them over the bar, pushing them into scoring position and keeping them there seems as equally daunting as trying to stop it from happening.