Picking up fuel from the ground vs. using hoppers/retrieval zone

[AnnaCC]

Hi everyone,

Our team is having a discussion about whether to spend the time/resources/robot space on an intake system for picking balls up off the ground or if we should just rely on the hoppers and retrieval zone. We're building a simple high goal shooter, but gears and rope climbing are our priorities.

Although running across the field to get fuel isn't ideal, we'll probably doing it anyway for gears, and if alliance partners cooperate to collect fuel from hoppers simultaneously (keeping as much off the floor as possible) we figured it wouldn't waste much more time to run across the field than run around the launchpad chasing balls.

Of course, it's easier to defend against a robot that can't pick up balls from the floor, and any missed shots become irretrievable. But we're a little more concerned about being able to do everything else well, I think.

What is your team doing about fuel? Anyone have any other insights?