Advantage given by succesful autonomous mode

[DanDon]

Hey all,

So, last year, we all remember how crucial autonomous was to winning a match. The 10 pt bonus, but more importantly the chance to go on defense first, allowing you to gather more balls and have one big uninterrupted offensive period consisting of your offensive period and the free-for-all period.

So I was wondering, while at first glance, this year doesn't really give substantial reward to a succesful autonomous other than a guaranteed spider for the rest of the match, how do you think this will affect gameplay?

Will autonomous be as crucial as last year? Or not?

Let's hear your opinions!

[Tetraman]

Oh you can make Auto mode very important. Remember keepers are permenant rings, therefore your opponent can't negate them. You own that 2 points and possible place to combo off of.

Therefore the ability to score keepers in plain view of the other alliance will not only give you points, but will be one less place for your opponents to score easily from.

Auto-mode will make or break some matches, and might not matter to some matches.

[Ericgehrken]

I think auto mode will be important for setting the tone for the match but after that the telecontrolled period is what the game is. The most you can score is eight points in auto mode and guarantee starting places. Teams must perfect their teleoperated section of the game much more than their autonomous mode.

[Windwarrior]

Based on my reading of the rules, I don't see where the autonomous mode is that critical. With only six weeks to build and perfect an operating 'bot based on the rules and KOP, I think that more time should be spent on the operator-controlled and Home Section portion of the game.

I may be wrong, but the maximum an alliance can score during autonomous is 8pts, and no other advantage (ie, go on defense first, or score additional pts).

With that in mind, why should a team spend a lot of time on that aspect of the game?

Windwarrior
Mentor-Team 1777

2006-Rookie Inspiration Award
2006-9th place Alliance Denver Regional (Rookie Year)
2007-Vex Connect Award
2007-4th Place Alliance, St. Louis Regional-VexRobotics

[BrianR]

Originally Posted by Windwarrior

I may be wrong, but the maximum an alliance can score during autonomous is 8pts, and no other advantage (ie, go on defense first, or score additional pts).

Okay, so 8 pts is the maximum score you would have after auto mode. BUT you now have 3 rings in a row that can't be spoiled. You are only 2 ringers away from 5 in a row, and the center isn't spoilable, so the other team needs to quickly block you from taking the two edges, otherwise you will quickly accumulate points and will take an irreversible lead.

[Zero-Bee]

Autonomous is close to usless this year, IMO. It's only an automatic row of three if you are teamed with two bots that can set up rings right next to each other w/o conflicting with you or themselves, then it won't do much good.

[Koko Ed]

I wish they would have at least made keepers worth something like 10 points when you placed it on the rack. Outside of having a permanent space this isn't the apparent deathblow to your chances autonomous was last year where you could put a team down 40-0 and drain away their will to live.

[paradoxal]

the advantages is that the row of three you create sets it up easily for a row of 4-5, and makes the row of 6+ more feasible

[Josh Murphy]

One other thing that comes into play with auto mode is that there are only 4 lights and 6 robots, so if one alinace decides to go for the lights that leaves one open and what if all 3 of the opposing robots are doing the same thing? there will be 6 robots going for 4 lights. There is going to be all types of contact but that is assuming that everyone uses the camera.

[MrForbes]

It does give a neat opportunity to program the robot to find the spider leg between two lights....which is probably why the camera software can recognize two targets....

[Matt Krass]

I'm very disappointed by autonomous mode this year. It seems almost like an afterthought to the game and not really thought out or effective. I also think the lights are going to be exceptionally unhelpful given how unstable the scoring structure can be, but I expect some team will pull a miracle of programming wonder and prove me wrong, I look forward to that.

[bear24rw]

I agree with others in saying that i am disappointed in the autonomous mode this year, while it does present an interesting challenge no doubt, it seems like it is of secondary importance and is not being looking upon like it has in the past. I was kind of hoping that this years game would have presented a more interesting challenge..

[swamp_child]

The advantage is essentially, you get an additional "spoiler". Because the tube cannot be nor spoiled, if each team on one alliance puts one on each level, the max points for the opposing alliance is greatly decreased ( as the max for each level drops to 128 from 256)

[Tetraman]

This year's reminds me of a better Triple Play auto mode

[Lil' Lavery]

This year's autonomous will not be AS important as Aim High's (where the winners of autonomous won a vast majority of matches), but it will be far more important than in Triple Play or FIRST Frenzy. Depending on how the game plays it could be minimally the value of Stack Attack, but it could range to have great importance.
Keep in mind, it is possible to negate your opponent any chance to a 8-row in autonomous. Additionally, you have either 2, 4, 6, or 8 points that cannot be negated. Other placements can also allow for rapid growth and creation of further rows, or the ability to eliminate your opponents from doing so.