Team Update 1 Posted

[Jarren Harkema]

Originally Posted by niklas674

Did it ever look appealing?

[Ty Tremblay]

Originally Posted by Andrew_L

So now the question lies in how quickly balls are removed from the boiler. I understand that it should be spinning at a minimum rate of 5 balls per second at all times during the match, but it also speeds up to up to 15 balls / second - at what point does that happen and for how long?

Pretty sure they mean it gets more efficient as more balls enter since less balls are bouncing around inside and more balls are there to find their way into the slots.

[Andrew_L]

Originally Posted by Ty Tremblay

Pretty sure they mean it gets more efficient as more balls enter since less balls are bouncing around inside and more balls are there to find their way into the slots.

Gotcha that makes sense.

[RoboTigers1796]

Are there any VR compatible images of the field this year? The ones last year offered such a great experience for those of us who don't have the opportunity to see a real field until competition.
It really helped us get a feel for what the field looks like and some of the restrictions we will face when we get there (vision from driver station, little things we can't make out from tour video, drawings, and CAD, etc) / its just cool to virtually stand on the new FRC field.

[jee7s]

Originally Posted by niklas674

Did it ever look appealing?

Re: Low efficiency goal.

It sure is appealing to teams who aren't confident in a high goal shooter. I'd take a reliable low goal dump truck over an un-reliable high goal shooter any day.

Oh, and 70 fuel capacity, at 5 fuel emptied per second means 14 seconds to empty the low goal and get 7 points with 7/9 of the next point scored. So, if you refilled it the moment it emptied, that means you get 8 trips in the match and a total of 62 points. Well coordinated low goal dumpers can still get an RP. And, with a good high goal shooter, they can also overwhelm the bins pretty fast too.

[StAxis]

FIRST not publishing the airship makes no sense. Practicing robot to human player timing is important, especially to reliably execute autonomous modes. Plenty of teams will be building their own airships, some unsafely, because they do not have proper drawings.

This doesn't prevent top teams who have the ability to build an airship from succeeding in achieving a "solution" to the game, but it does put young, inexperienced teams at a disadvantage and a risk.

[alectronic]

Originally Posted by StAxis

FIRST not publishing the airship makes no sense. Practicing robot to human player timing is important, especially to reliably execute autonomous modes. Plenty of teams will be building their own airships, some unsafely, because they do not have proper drawings.

How about liability of a team not making one properly and first somehow being on the hook? does that make no sense?

[StAxis]

Originally Posted by alectronic

How about liability of a team not making one properly and first somehow being on the hook? does that make no sense?

I don't know if FIRST would be in any way legally responsible if a kid got hurt. Very likely not, but I'll leave that to the lawyers. If it does happen though there's a strong possibility it could be prevented by safe drawings being released.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by jee7s

Re: Low efficiency goal.

It sure is appealing to teams who aren't confident in a high goal shooter. I'd take a reliable low goal dump truck over an un-reliable high goal shooter any day.

Oh, and 70 fuel capacity, at 5 fuel emptied per second means 14 seconds to empty the low goal and get 7 points with 7/9 of the next point scored. So, if you refilled it the moment it emptied, that means you get 8 trips in the match and a total of 62 points. Well coordinated low goal dumpers can still get an RP. And, with a good high goal shooter, they can also overwhelm the bins pretty fast too.

Good coordination between a high shooter and low dumper is going to make for a lot of amusement with the 2 opposing HPs having to handle a return bin every 5 seconds or so. High levels of play are going to involve a lot of running for the HPs in the loading lane. I think if your opponent manages to switch over to fueling before you do, it'll be easy to get way behind way fast.

[JABianchi]

It will beautiful to watch the team(s) who have a constant stream of high goal shots for almost the ENTIRE match (as they are parked in front of a stressed out overflow loading station or driving around their launchpad collecting the hundreds of unusable fuel being redistributed back by their opponent!)

[niklas674]

Originally Posted by JABianchi

It will beautiful to watch the team(s) who have a constant stream of high goal shots for almost the ENTIRE match (as they are parked in front of a stressed out overflow loading station or driving around their launchpad collecting the hundreds of unusable fuel being redistributed back by their opponent!)

I suspect that after an alliance gets the ranking point for the boiler, the shooting will stop and efforts will be focused to getting the gears scored.

[JABianchi]

Originally Posted by niklas674

I suspect that after an alliance gets the ranking point for the boiler, the shooting will stop and efforts will be focused to getting the gears scored.

In reality, you're likely right, but it's nice to dream

If its possible for a team to have a continuous stream of fuel going into the High Efficiency Boiler for 135 seconds of teleop (x 5 fuel processed per second) (x 1/3 points per fuel) that would be 225 points. Let's also assume this robot also gets a 60 point AUTO, accounting for 285 SOLO points.

You wouldn't need to have powerhouse alliance members to get frighteningly high scores. The other 2 robots could get a couple rotors moving (80-100 pts) and help keep the fuel overflowing.

At the very least, this strategy would put a lot stress on a team full of gearbots.

[Poseidon5817]

Originally Posted by StAxis

I don't know if FIRST would be in any way legally responsible if a kid got hurt. Very likely not, but I'll leave that to the lawyers. If it does happen though there's a strong possibility it could be prevented by safe drawings being released.

I think he was trying to say that if a team didn't follow the drawings properly, or the drawings did have a mistake, FIRST could be held liable. If they leave it to the teams to figure out, they have much less liability.

[niklas674]

Originally Posted by JABianchi

In reality, you're likely right, but it's nice to dream

If its possible for a team to have a continuous stream of fuel going into the High Efficiency Boiler for 135 seconds of teleop (x 5 fuel processed per second) (x 1/3 points per fuel) that would be 225 points. Let's also assume this robot also gets a 60 point AUTO, accounting for 285 SOLO points.

You wouldn't need to have powerhouse alliance members to get frighteningly high scores. The other 2 robots could get a couple rotors moving (80-100 pts) and help keep the fuel overflowing.

At the very least, this strategy would put a lot stress on a team full of gearbots.

i think a shooting auto would be a better option compared to a gear auto. The large dent that a team can put in the kPa will affect the rest of the match as well as probably allow for an alliance to get 4 rp much easier.

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by Andrew_L

So now the question lies in how quickly balls are removed from the boiler. I understand that it should be spinning at a minimum rate of 5 balls per second at all times during the match, but it also speeds up to up to 15 balls / second - at what point does that happen and for how long?

Originally Posted by Ty Tremblay

Pretty sure they mean it gets more efficient as more balls enter since less balls are bouncing around inside and more balls are there to find their way into the slots.

Where's the 15 balls/second speed given? As far as I can tell, neither the 5 or 15 balls/second is given in the manual (so I'm hesitant to really count on either)... The only places I heard the 5 balls/second speed given were in the live broadcast and in the Boiler Field Tour video (which says 4-5 balls/second).