Fuel Vs. Gears

[Joe G.]

Originally Posted by Cory

I think it's far more likely that a single robot comes close to scoring 100 balls in auto than I do that no alliance will score 100 balls in auto.

Agreed. Collection is pretty easy -- trip the dump so that you collect them in the air from the far bin, then turn your intake on on the way to the boiler to scoop many of the remaining balls off the floor as possible. Should be able to get 70+ in the robot that way. Additionally, I think many people are seriously underestimating the potential fire rate of elite shooters in this game. Comparing to past games with heavy and large game pieces that largely did not incentivize fire rate optimization is not a good way to gauge how fast teams that really try to pump balls through their robots as fast as possible are going to be. Pure throughput is going to be more like lunacy dumpers than any recent more conventional "shooting" game, and also like Lunacy, absolute accuracy isn't as important due to the huge number of balls on the field. Like Lunacy, I do not think a single ball wide, turreted, angle adjustable shooter with heavy camera control is optimal for this game because it forces your game pieces to come out single file.

Additionally, I think people may be making too much of the distinction between the act of cycling gears, and the act of cycling fuel. With so many game pieces and no possession limit, you don't really need to target specific ones. I'm guessing that a robot that just puts its intake on the ground while making a beeline to/from the feeder station to deliver a gear is going to pick up an appreciable percentage of their storage capacity without making any special effort. Doubly so if the human players just dump fuel on the ground instead of waiting for the robot. Even if your primary match strategy revolves around gear cycles, why not take some shots at the boiler while you're down at that end of the field anyways, and you have the fuel? Not a lot of added time, for potentially significant added benefit.