FAQ for Q&A

[EricH]

Just getting this going so that we know what's commonly asked and likely to go to the Q&A if it isn't answered in an update. I thought of putting it in Rules/Strategy, but decided more visibility is better.

1) Launching minibots--is it legal under a) free flight or b) tethered to the pole?

2) Minibots at the top of the pole: Do they have to stay there until after the match, or can they slide down during the match to make retrieval easier?

3) Are you allowed to move your own tubes, other than ubertubes, around after they are in scoring position?

[Duke461]

Originally Posted by EricH

Just getting this going so that we know what's commonly asked and likely to go to the Q&A if it isn't answered in an update. I thought of putting it in Rules/Strategy, but decided more visibility is better.

1) Launching minibots--is it legal under a) free flight or b) tethered to the pole?

2) Minibots at the top of the pole: Do they have to stay there until after the match, or can they slide down during the match to make retrieval easier?

3) Are you allowed to move your own tubes, other than ubertubes, around after they are in scoring position?

1) a)/b) im not exactly sure what you're asking but i do know that the minibots can be launched, they always have to touch the pole, and once they cross the deployment line you cannot touch them (if thats what you mean by tethered)
2) No they do not, as long as they hit the pressure-like sensor (2-4 newtons of force btw)
3) As far as i know, you are allowed to. although you really shouldnt have to

[DonRotolo]

Someone planning on going to Q&A with this, or do we interpret and then decide?

[EricH]

I don't have access to that, so someone else will need to.

One that I forgot: If a minibot is moving upwards at the end of a match, does it still get the 10 seconds to finish for points?

Personal suspicion is yes, but never hurts to confirm.

[ATannahill]

These items have been heavily discussed and no final answer has risen. IMO this thread should be saved for items that need to be posted to the Q&A.

As to who will do it, IDK.

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by EricH

If a minibot is moving upwards at the end of a match, does it still get the 10 seconds to finish for points?

It looked like the presentation said the minibot had to climb the pole and trigger the AB stacked signal light. At match end you can look at the field look at the lights. Blinking - no score. Solid - score.

[alicen]

Where is the bumper zone?
(I went to go double check that I knew the bumper zone today and could not find the rule stating it. There are tons of rules about the bumpers, but nothing about exactly WHERE the zone is )
This has been answered, the rule was just hiding in section one instead of section four with the rest of the robot rules

How do coopertition points affect your qualifying and ranking scores?
(There was a clause about how if you loan a minibot to another team, you get a CP, but nowhere did it say how this would affect your ranking or anything at all.)

Is it legal to program your minibot to go up the pole, wait for some time, then be programmed to go back down the pole for easy retrieval?
(Minibots are not controlled by the FMS system, so I'm wondering if programming them to go back down the pole would make it easier to remove them at the end of the match.)

[goldenglove002]

This question came up earlier today, I don't think a conclusion was made.

Is there a limit to how many minibots can be deployed by one robot?

[Jack Jones]

Another for the Q&A:
{RE}
<R92> The following items are the only permitted materials for use on the MINIBOTS:
...
C. exactly one 12V rechargeable NiMH battery pack identical to those supplied in the FTC kit of parts (PN W739057)
...
E. No more than one NXT controller with the Bluetooth functionality disabled,

QUESTION: How are we supposed to power the NXT controller without using its self-contained batery(ies)?

[Trent B]

Originally Posted by alicen

Where is the bumper zone?
(I went to go double check that I knew the bumper zone today and could not find the rule stating it. There are tons of rules about the bumpers, but nothing about exactly WHERE the zone is )

Page 7 of Section 1

BUMPER ZONE ␣ the volume contained between two virtual horizontal planes, one inch above the floor and seven inches above the floor.

[smurfgirl]

Originally Posted by EricH

Just getting this going so that we know what's commonly asked and likely to go to the Q&A if it isn't answered in an update. I thought of putting it in Rules/Strategy, but decided more visibility is better.

1) Launching minibots--is it legal under a) free flight or b) tethered to the pole?

2) Minibots at the top of the pole: Do they have to stay there until after the match, or can they slide down during the match to make retrieval easier?

3) Are you allowed to move your own tubes, other than ubertubes, around after they are in scoring position?

These are basically the three questions my team had that we were waiting to post to the Q&A - since I know they're common questions that are going to be posted, I'll pass that on.

[BX MARK]

What do the other two human players do? Four of them feed the game pieces on to the field...What do the other ones do?

[Darbus]

Originally Posted by BX MARK

What do the other two human players do? Four of them feed the game pieces on to the field...What do the other ones do?

They're 'analysts.' From section 1.6 of the game manual: "ANALYST – a HUMAN PLAYER that assists the COACHES with strategy. There is one ANALYST per ALLIANCE."

My take on the minibots question is that a robot can just deploy one. It refers to minibots in the game manual as 'the minibot,' as in, "The ROBOT includes both the HOSTBOT and the MINIBOT (ROBOT = HOSTBOT + MINIBOT)." (From the definition of Robot in section 1.6) That's not a definitive answer by any means, just an interpretation of the text.

[ZipTie3182]

I know this was probably in the manual, but how many tubes do the human players start with to hand to the robots through the slots? This just affects the importance of picking tubes up off the ground.

-Anna

[MagiChau]

Originally Posted by ZipTie3182

I know this was probably in the manual, but how many tubes do the human players start with to hand to the robots through the slots? This just affects the importance of picking tubes up off the ground.

-Anna

You get enough logo pieces to fill both scoring grids with logos

6 triangles
6 squares
6 circles

Each feeding station gets 3 sets of logos.

3.1.2 <G10> Each FEEDER STATION must contain 3 sets of LOGO PIECES.

I assess this as, its rather difficult to prevent an opposing alliance from completing at least one logo because that's taking 6 pieces and putting it possibly into your lane or in your scoring zone.

No game pieces except the uber tubes are on the field before the human players place the logo pieces in the arena in tele-op.