More Strategy in 2007

[Zoheb N]

yes this year there will be a high demand for people that can make good strategies. when you look at the game it reminds (at least me) of a tic-tac-toe game. That means we should all practice playing tic-tac-toe before competition.

[Guy Davidson]

Hopefuly there will be high demand for good strategy teams. We're working on a brand new system (at least for us) for collection of information and analysis thereof, and also for real-time strategy decisions (during matches).

[redbarron]

This years game is more like a tic-tac-toe game than triple play was because there is not going to be the option of covering the opposing alliances color up like you were able to do in triple play. This year once there is a tube on a spider leg its there for good, with the exception of the spoiler being placed on top of the color.

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by Imajie

The only problem is you need to say up long enough for the refs to measure your height.

Just launch all three robots into orbit and you'll have no worries about staying up long enough. Of course there are a few problems - like re-entry in time for the next match.

[Psychoflood]

obviously, telekenisis is ideal for robot lifting.

no seriously, the only thing i have against ramps is ramp robots are heavilly relying on two things

1. the other robots ability to climb a ramp (our team was talking yesterday and decided that if we wanted to be a really really good ramp robot, we probably would have trouble getting up ramps ourselves.)

2. You rely on both robots being active, present, or completely functional. Many, many times last year during the matches robots would either have something break off, the battery would die, they could get disqualified, the robot wasn't turned on (monty madness -.- or the team just couldn't make it to that match (a 3 v 2 match). This significantly cuts down the number of points a ramp robot can score.

[D_Price]

Is pushing the same as blocking and if it is will we get a yellow card?

[KMAC42]

[quote=Tetraman;550772]I'm going to strongly disagree with the second part of your statement. My reason is that one robot lifted a foot gives the alliance the same amount of points a row of 5 does, or 3-4 rows of three rigs give you. It is much easier to get 30 points by lifting a robot rather than placing rings. 30 points is a big deal. It can bring you from 20 to 50, and in this game thats huge. Than just think about 60 for two robots up.

I agree that lifting will be important, but i ask you this do you really need 3 lifting robots on one alliance. NOOOO!!! if you have one robot that can lift two bots and maybe thats all it can do, two robots score and the other one "shines at the end." I also doubt that your robot will be great at everything. Keep It Simple Stupid!!

[Fuzzy]

The drive team (mostly the coach and human players of the 3 teams) will have to keep a mental count of what's on the rack and where the 4 spoilers are throughout most of the match.

I think the end game is going to be the biggest period of strategizing - should I bail from the rack now to attempt lifting or should I move one more spoiler to secure my row(s)?

[T3_1565]

Originally Posted by burkey_turkey

the way i see it, there will be 4 distinct types of robots:

1) the platform bot - no real tubing strategy. during most of the game some defence is played, possibly a tube or two is placed. it shines at the end, when it unfolds into a giant 12 foot high platform with ramps that its alliance partners climb onto. this or it has two massice platofrms it pulls up. basically a 60 point bot if the alliance works with it

2) the confused bot - some of everything. this bot cna place some tubes, probably on the first and secnd rows only. it does okay with that. at the end of the match it can elevate one bot. 30 points+tubes. thats respectable

3) the manipulator - arm of god. this bot can place tubes quickly and efeciently. it can place them anywhere, and probably has a good camera system. when the match is almost done it has to choose between placing a spoiler or running back for 30 points by getting lifted by someone on their alliance

4) everything bot - perfection. this is the regional winning bot. it cna place tubes efficiently, has a working camera. it can lift one or two bots. very manuverable, yet can push well. here will be very few of these bots.

I completely agree with this.. these will be the main four types. There may be a few offshoots (not sure how) but besides that these are them. Personally I think ethier two or four will be the best because this year seems to be all about stratagy. If your a bot that can do most things required, you can change your stratagy a lot better than one that is, say, a lifting bot. It's going to be really neat, I think most of the time, a lot of the winning will be place on who is put with who. Because like what was said before, the ideal team is two scorers and a lifter, but that won't always be the case lol. I can't wait!!

[kawelch]

I think the end game is going to be the biggest period of strategizing - should I bail from the rack now to attempt lifting or should I move one more spoiler to secure my row(s)?

Just imagine a scenerio where the red team has 7 ringers in a row (the eighth spot is held by a blue keeper. Total for red 128pts. But now blue has the choice of running back an being elevated for 30 pts or placing a spoiler on the middle postion of red for no blue points but costing red 112 pts (now two rows of 3 at 8 pts each). Does red give up 30 pts of its own for not being lifted to try to prevent this? End game is going to be interesting.

[T3_1565]

to me, this challenge is more strategy than it is actually building a good robot. as long as you can get a ring on the bottom row, and quickly, i think you're good. its more a matter of team strategy. i guess if you could lift robots up, and keep the other team from scoring, you could do quite well. i think the team that can get the most rings the fastest will win, unless the other team stops them by blocking them. as long as our robots can get a ring up and aren't super flimsy then they;ll do well.

[MattLi]

I would like to make a point that I believe we have missed. We're all talking about strategy and how important that it is and I think we've overlooked an important factor. The rack is a cylinder. This means that the drivers, coach, and human player won't be able to see the entire rack. Which means the robot and the drivers are blinded to what happens on the other side. Yes you can use the camera to target and make sure that the ringer you're placing goes in, however how are you supposed to tell where putting a ringer will be most effective.

Originally Posted by Flanamana

This years game seems to be more strategic than last years
Also, this years game seems more like you won't have a clue of who will win until the end, since putting up Ringers aren't definite points.

Yes it will be difficult to tell who won. You can't see the other side of the rack.