Week 2 Impressions of Rack 'N Roll

[Koko Ed]

The end game reminds me too much of Stack Attack. Teams could work thier butt off all match long and the other teams don't have to do much of anything and if they have a ramp can steal the match in the end. Thyey should have made it 15 per robots for 12 inches instead.

[cziggy343]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

The end game reminds me too much of Stack Attack. Teams could work thier butt off all match long and the other teams don't have to do much of anything and if they have a ramp can steal the match in the end. Thyey should have made it 15 per robots for 12 inches instead.

i agree, 15 points for 12in. and 5 for 4in.

[KTorak]

I agree with the ramp points. 30 points is way too much. Mainly for the reason listed above. It's dumb for a team to just shove you all over the field for a min and thirty seconds, and then to just climb a ramp, or be lifted and get thirty points.

Other than that, the game seems to flow pretty well. However, the scoring of refs is questionable...but i'll leave it up to someone else to fill in the blank about that one.

[R.Greene]

Originally Posted by KTorak

30 points is way too much. Mainly for the reason listed above. It's dumb for a team to just shove you all over the field for a min and thirty seconds, and then to just climb a ramp, or be lifted and get thirty points.

The last 30 seconds was the most insane part of the match. With the penalties given for being in the opponent's home zone at 15 seconds, defending against ramp bots is almost impossible to do.

Way to many points that cannot be defended against during a match. As a driver, it is painful to watch a team load two robots onto another and know that there is nothing you can do to stop them from getting another 60 points.

[meatmanek]

Matches are getting a lot more aggressive. Some folks are saying the ramps are worth too much, but as the game goes on, the tubes are worth more and more. In week 1, until late Friday and Saturday, it seemed like most matches had 5 tubes on the rack. We're starting to see the racks get a lot more full. High scores are attained with tubes, not the ramp.

In my opinion, by the time Atlanta rolls around, we'll see consistent bonus points, where you don't win by getting on a ramp, instead you lose if you can't get onto a ramp (or make up for it with a valuable tube)

[technoL]

I'm not too sure about Week 1 regionals, but after getting inspected on Thursday night and seeing the board of inspected teams, there were still quite a few (like more than half) left to be inspected Friday morning. I'm just curious was the issue that teams were just not finished repairing in time, or were there just many teams that failed inspection the first time around?

I also agree with the chance winning of the game being based around the ramps. I remember seeing several matches tied with ringers, or even with more ringers than the opposing alliance, but then having that all crushed because the other alliance got at least one bot up 12".

-No L

[seanl]

on thursday when we weighed our robot it was a whopping 20 lbs over weight. so we spent the whole day shedding weight. we passed our inspection minutes before our first match.

[RKElectricalman]

They should've seriously made a requirement that before any robot from a single alliance can score by bonus points, they must atleast score one ringer for their alliance (or two), in order to qualify for bonus points. This way If an alliance of all three ramp bots can't just pick and choose a ramp before the match, defend via one-on-one defense, and then just ramp up to win.

Requirements, and Qualifying for bonus points.

my two cents.

Rameez

[sanddrag]

I think a whole alliance that works together well, and has done a lot of pre-match planning is key. From what I've seen, almost any combination of robots has a chance of beating almost any other combination of robots with a very detailed and well thought out and played out strategy.

[Eldarion]

Originally Posted by RKElectricalman

They should've seriously made a requirement that before any robot from a single alliance can score by bonus points, they must atleast score one ringer for their alliance (or two), in order to qualify for bonus points. This way If an alliance of all three ramp bots can't just pick and choose a ramp before the match, defend via one-on-one defense, and then just ramp up to win.

Requirements, and Qualifying for bonus points.

my two cents.

Rameez

I like that idea...good thinking!

Too bad FIRST can't do anything about it now...or can they?

[IndySam]

It cracks me up hearing people complaining that the ramp points are worth too much this far into the game. The GDC did a great job designing a game with two different scoring options and weight constraints that make it hard to do both well. My hats off to them.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Eldarion

Too bad FIRST can't do anything about it now...or can they?

If they do, I'd suggest FIRST prepare for a rampbot assault on their HQ.

[John Gutmann]

I don't see the big problem with how many points you get for being lifted. If you hate it that much then you should have built a ramp bot. There was 6 weeks for you to make a decision.

[Tetraman]

Originally Posted by RKElectricalman

They should've seriously made a requirement that before any robot from a single alliance can score by bonus points, they must atleast score one ringer for their alliance (or two), in order to qualify for bonus points. This way If an alliance of all three ramp bots can't just pick and choose a ramp before the match, defend via one-on-one defense, and then just ramp up to win.

Requirements, and Qualifying for bonus points.

my two cents.

Rameez

In that situation...If three ramp-only robots got paired with each other during qualifying matches, they automatically have lost.

[JoeXIII'007]

Ramps are really a difficult feat to do well, as we found out, and watched... I mean, just look at the photo titled "Whoops!" in CD Media. That scenario came up either exactly or close to coming up for every round ramps were attempted.

I sort of compare it to hanging back in 2004... that proved to be difficult for some teams to master, but if done, 50pts to them. It became a deciding factor along with the 2x multipliers.

Thus:

2004's hanging == This year's lifting
2004's 2x multiplier removal == This year's spoilers placement.