Defensive Strategy - cornering opponents ball

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Shadow503

I guess this is where our opinions split. I believe a team with a half-done robot should not be able to effectively compete.

Teams like us have spent too many hours building a powerful bot to have our scoring potential neutralized by a half-done box bot ("defensive bot"). The game creators intended to reduce pinning. This can be found by the lack of any 90 degree corners in the track. Unfortunately, teams are still able to pin a ball.

If your "powerful bot" can be neutralized by a "half-done box bot" then I put forth that your bot isn't all that powerful.

More likely, the fact is your team did not take into account defensive strategies ... so now you are crying foul.

Originally Posted by Shadow503

I've done the math and I have a counter pinning strategy: high speed ramming. If I can get our 120lb bot moving at 20 ft/s we should be able to disable/dislodge the defensive bot/track ball. A single lap w/ hurdle will be sufficient to cover 10pt penalty. After this, one of four things happens:
A) The defensive robot has been damaged and is no longer able to play defense
B) The defensive robot is still working, but we are able to keep control of the ball
C) The defensive robot, while still working, has realized it is in their best interests to not pin the ball
D) The defensive robot, still working, pins the ball after we come around the track again. We repeat the ramming maneuver and hurdle (with no net point loss) and hope for conditions A),B), or C) next time around.

1> High speed ramming is against the rules
2> Strategies designed to damage other bots or the field will get you DQ'd
3> Most defensive bots I've encountered are built stronger than their offensive counterparts because they 'expect' contact.

Have fun with your strategy. I'll be there to assist the other guy putting his robot back together while your team goes home after being DQ'd

Originally Posted by Shadow503

Most defense bots are weak KOP bots, so I have a feeling condition is A) is the likely outcome.

Please show me your evidence that defensive bots are weak KoP bots.

Originally Posted by Shadow503

Yes, it might not be the most GP solution, but neither is pinning. Pinning was not in the intent of the game creators and promotes laziness in bot design and construction. Pinning will lead to boring, low scoring matches. I intend to change that. I encourage other teams with competitive robots to do the same to keep this years game interesting.

See you at Nationals!

Please show me your evidence that pinning was not the intent of the game creators. My guess is that they knew some teams would try this strategy and a few would actually get good at it.

If you try to destroy others robots and encourage others to do the same ... don't be surprised when it happens to you.

Have fun at the nationals