New VEX Game Announced!

[ttldomination]

I'm wondering, would it be beneficial to dump balls outside of the arena...Let's say that a bunch o' balls get pushed over to your side, and you have a large capacity to do a final load, but not quite large enough. To minimize the score on your side, would it beneficial to dump a load outside of the field?

[Andrew Bates]

Well if you had two large dump bots I'm sure a strategy could be to fill both of them up and then dump one out of play and the other on your opponents side. However I'm not sure that in this game removing game pieces from play is that effective. You could just put them on your opponents side instead.

[Chris is me]

Oh, I meant the "vertical plane", which I guess isn't really a plane at all? Bad terminology.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by corpralchee

Well if you had two large dump bots I'm sure a strategy could be to fill both of them up and then dump one out of play and the other on your opponents side. However I'm not sure that in this game removing game pieces from play is that effective. You could just put them on your opponents side instead.

The field barrier neither attempts to block your dump nor attempts to score those balls back. (I'm not saying it's the best strategy, but I see the merits.)

[waialua359]

It looks like our team is finally going to do VEX also with our middle schoolers.
2 Hawaii tournaments and there are plans for a Japan VEX tournament also. We are planning to do that one also, if we are invited, along with a microrobotics contest.
Busy, busy summer already......

[The Zevling]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

I'm wondering, would it be beneficial to dump balls outside of the arena...Let's say that a bunch o' balls get pushed over to your side, and you have a large capacity to do a final load, but not quite large enough. To minimize the score on your side, would it beneficial to dump a load outside of the field?

I sincerely hope people decide this is not a viable strategy, as my team is planning to host an event again, and I have a good chance of getting stuck in field reset.

*Pictures large numbers of small spherical (and sort-of-spherical) objects all over the floor*
*shudders*

This game is going to be annoying to reset as it is.

[AlexD744]

Originally Posted by The Zevling

The factor you're forgetting (which is completely understandable, considering you aren't an active VRC member) is that matches during the seeding rounds are completely random. If you design your robot defensively, there is no guarantee that your partner is offensive.

Is anyone familiar with the prisoner's dilemma*? That sort of thing could occur here:

1) Because the worst possible scenario is two defensive robots, everyone will build offensive robots.
2) because everyone has offensive robots, a defensive robot will always create the "ideal match-up".
3) Several teams, following this logic, create defensive robots.
4) Several teams, anticipating #3, have to decide whether to create an offensive or defensive robot. It seems safer to make an offensive robot, but that puts you back on #2.


I myself have found no rule preventing my "uber-wall", which would ideally block all ball transference except where specifically allowed by my robot.

The same dilema is sometimes present in FRC and a team has to decide that for himself, right now I have a design in mind that could successfully acheive both. If only I knew what VEX stuff looked like. I have a great idea for a ball manipulator and it can also block the goals. I want to join VEX so badly, too bad I'm probably the only one on the team that does.

And I thought about the uber-wall, and I agree it could be a winning strategy, however, the viability of getting a 12 foot by at least 4 foot wall out of a 18 X 18 inch box is slim. But I'd love to see a team prove me wrong.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

I have a design in mind that could successfully acheive both. If only I knew what VEX stuff looked like.

www.vexrobotics.com

[The Zevling]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

And I thought about the uber-wall, and I agree it could be a winning strategy, however, the viability of getting a 12 foot by at least 4 foot wall out of a 18 X 18 inch box is slim. But I'd love to see a team prove me wrong.

You think it needs to be at least 4 feet? I think 2 feet would stop most designs.

I guess it depends on how common shooting robots will be. This being Vex, my guess is they won't be, but I might be wrong.

[ATannahill]

Alex, I think you should get Shark Attack into VRC. Last year there was a qualifier at TNT so you probably won't have to travel more than you regularly do.

[Smoores]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

And I thought about the uber-wall, and I agree it could be a winning strategy, however, the viability of getting a 12 foot by at least 4 foot wall out of a 18 X 18 inch box is slim. But I'd love to see a team prove me wrong.

I've already managed to build a wall/arm that has a 3 foot span. I could add another 2 feet if that was my sole strategy.

[ttldomination]

How Tall is this arm/wall?

[Smoores]

Its going to be a variable height,but it can go a significant amount over the wall. It however can't go that low though. But I'm still tinkering with it.



- i just extended it to a 4 ft span

[AlexD744]

Originally Posted by The Zevling

You think it needs to be at least 4 feet? I think 2 feet would stop most designs.

I guess it depends on how common shooting robots will be. This being Vex, my guess is they won't be, but I might be wrong.

The only reason I say 4 is because if that is your main strategy then you'd want it to defeat te few that shoot higher than normal, so that you aren't useless in those few times. I know 2 feet would stop most designs but maybe not all of them.

I would love to do VRC, however, I'm not sure if my team would go for it. The tournament in TNT would be a good string to pull if I were to ever convince them, thanks for that. And I think I'll make my way over to that next year.

[Chris is me]

If I was building a big giant unfolding wall of Vex plating, I'd just have the center stretch more than 2 feet. But a big, giant wall is unfeasible because your alliance partner can't break it either. A sliding wall on some kind of omnidirectional chassis, be it crab or omniwheel, would probably be better.

Man, why aren't there more Vex crab drives?