New Off-season Defenses

[Twepeler]

A spike pit. But the spikes are made of rubber so the won't actually puncture a robots wheels but it acts sort of like a second rough terrain by having different heights for the spikes.

[janette38]

The rolling log is good, but absolutely NO on the live bunny? (Huh???) It would be absolutely TERRIFIED of all the robots and noise.

[The other Gabe]

Originally Posted by ctt956

3. Bridge of Death

You must ask these questions 3!

[Eric Scheuing]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

You can make something that is easy, fun, and/or weird. For instance, I don't think putting a short stack of gray totes or an Aerial Assist ball sitting on a ring on the portcullis base for teams to bulldoze through is particularly difficult to execute in construction or requires any significant change to an existing Stronghold robot, but could make play more interesting/wacky for an offseason.

Bonus points if the defense is damaged and the game pieces end up back in their starting location (or close enough to it) at the end of the match!

[pwnageNick]

I suppose coming up with a new defense to replace the Portcullis makes sense if FIRST will not be sending it with the field. Personally I think just always having the CDF out would be fine, but I could convince myself that having a new one would be good.

I do not however understand any logic behind trying to replace the Sallyport, Drawbridge, or any other defense.

For one this devalues any robots who actually designed around these challenges. It also removes a challenge that teams may feel like adding something small to their robot to in the offseason to try.

If you want to add a new defense, I'm not sure in what way that new defense would be effective. There would be two ways to approach it: either something that almost all robots would be able to accomplish with their current designs, or something challenging that teams would have to engineer their robots further to accomplish. Either option is poor; if you make something that almost everyone can accomplish with their current robot, then why even bother creating it or replacing any of the current defenses in the first place. If you make a challenging one, you are forcing teams to build something new to damage it, which most offseason events tend to want to avoid. Also, if you're replacing the drawbridge or sallyport, those are already 2 defenses that most teams were never able to do this season, so replacing them with something challenging that requires a new mechanism is pointless when the team could deisgn a new mechanism for those defenses they chose not to do during the regular season.

Sorry this post got away from me a bit and I rambled, I'm still recovering from my VEX/FIRST Champs illness. Bottom line, I'd say just leave the defenses alone (physically). Now if you wanted to change the breach requirement to needing to damage all 5, then I might be interested...

[Pauline Tasci]

I mean we can just make teams use the team versions since its way more safe.

[MoistRobot]

A half-pipe could prove interesting to mount and traverse.

[Nate Laverdure]

Loop-the-loop. Takes up 2 defense slots.

[notmattlythgoe]

Originally Posted by Nate Laverdure

Loop-the-loop. Takes up 2 defense slots.

This is happening.

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

This is happening.

Dunno why, 836 is the only robot fast enough to do it...

[Crew Cox]

Pull up bar for all those fast hangers out there........
HI mom!!

[carpedav000]

Originally Posted by JesseK

Dunno why, 836 is the only robot fast enough to do it...

We might be fast enough

[ctt956]

Originally Posted by pwnageNick

There would be two ways to approach it: either something that almost all robots would be able to accomplish with their current designs, or something challenging that teams would have to engineer their robots further to accomplish. Either option is poor...

Maybe make something in between the two, so some robots can already cross it easily, while others would only need small changes. There could be different defenses depending on what teams competing at each offseason event are capable of.

Originally Posted by paunatime

I mean we can just make teams use the team versions since its way more safe.

Yes, team versions of the portcullis would be much safer(most likely), but durability would be an issue. I've seen wooden ones break very quickly with little robot use.

Originally Posted by pmangels17

Potentially, yes this could disadvantage teams, but by adding a defense that could be pretty easily traversed by most drivetrains in FRC this year, I would wager that for the most part it would be a non-issue. Plus, it's the offseason, which is the perfect time to try out fun stuff like this without hurting anyone's chances at winning a blue banner. I think it'd be really fun to see something like what a lot of people have proposed. The defenses could still be static if that makes things easier on field crews, but the added twist might be pretty cool.

Agreed. That's part of what the offseason is for IMO; trying things you didn't get to try during the regular season.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

I heard that someone had 2 of their fingers broken while setting it up.

That was the Newton Field Supervisor in week five. He had to have a surgical procedure done to fix it.

[wesbass23]

Forgive me if this has already been suggested but the replacement could be whatever defense is not being used from the current audience selected category. That way it is a defense that already exists and everyone can plan for. Downside is I can't really see anyone not choosing the CDF unless the sallyport or drawbridge was the other option.