Triaging Lost Teams

[TJP123]

Originally Posted by ahartnet

... say make it over the low bar twice every match.

I'm sure you meant under the low bar, but it brings up a good point. Once they have a driving robot and are getting ready for competition, make sure they understand all of the fouls. The "safe zones" and Secret Passage are going to cost more than one team that doesn't understand the rules.

[ahartnet]

Originally Posted by TJP123

I'm sure you meant under the low bar, but it brings up a good point. Once they have a driving robot and are getting ready for competition, make sure they understand all of the fouls. The "safe zones" and Secret Passage are going to cost more than one team that doesn't understand the rules.

Ha! I did mean under. And yes - identifying the rules that would be easy to break would be a great thing to go over.

[Billfred]

Step 1: Get driving. Probably something skinny, 6WD, thick plywood bellypan. Not going to fuss with pneumatic tires at this point, let's just get them running.

Step 2: Probably order the AndyMark wedge front piece, for a little more help with the static defenses.

Step 3: While shaking that down, add a short, low-bar-clearing arm (like Team Cockamamie did on Ri3D, though maybe not with the window motor depending on what's around) to manipulate the Portcullis and Cheval de Frise.

Step 4: Coach them up on playing smart D, the importance of the tower capture, and get them running drills over the defenses.

Step 5: Get it all super-clean, so they can get a fast inspection and start hitting the filler line at their event.

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Congratulations, you just built a robot that can attack 7/9 defenses and would be a worthy second pick at most smaller events if you drove it well. Leave the ball handling to teams that have been thinking about it for three weeks.

If I had still time and a little more resources, I'd probably figure out how to make that arm in Step 3 reach the floor so it can help boost the drivetrain over defenses. I like pneumatic tires for this game, but with the current supply situation I probably wouldn't steer a team this far in the weeds to them. That does put you one notch down from the pneumatic-tired teams, but I don't think it's insurmountable.