paper: Spanking the Children

[Caleb Sykes]

The GDC really put themselves in quite a jiffy this year by only giving alliances one way to score (with the ball) and giving that score a variable value (based on assists). If assists were scored as they occurred, instead of a massive score at the end of the cycle, it would be perfectly reasonable for fouls to be worth 10 points and technicals to be worth 30 points. As it stands though, illegal actions have a drastically variable impact on the game.

If a robot that is not holding a ball gets pinned at the start of the match for 8 seconds, the alliance of the pinned robot is only marginally hurt (certainly no more than 20 points). However, if, with 10 seconds left in a match, a robot holding a ball with 3 assists on it is pinned for 8 seconds, the alliance with the pinned robot could likely be hurt by 40 points.

This is not to say that I would not still be in favor of reducing the value of penalties, but we do have to think of the consequences of doing so.