pic: 6 speed?? Great in theory - lets see how it works!

[DMetalKong]

Originally Posted by kmcclary

Well, for most of the contests I've seen to date I'd agree, but I can imagine exceptions.

The two primary gears I want are of course "dash around unhindered - high gear" and "position yourself for scoring - low gear".

However, having a "sumo fight - VERY low gear" can be extremely useful in some contests, where you have to hold ground or displace another bot from their scoring position, but it's too slow for efficient scoring. (But that can often BE the low gear...)

Beyond those cases though, the only time I'd want more than three gears would be in a contest where you could score in more than one way and they require different speeds not easily attained by the two (or three) gear system.

One game that comes to mind is Zone Zeal. It could easily use up to 4 ratios, optimized for minimum time consumption at full speed:
- Dash while empty
- Drag 1 loaded goal as quickly as possible without stalling
- Drag 2 loaded goals as quickly as possible without stalling, and
- SUMO mode - tank crawl against a blocker while holding 2 goals (or displacing an opponent holding 2 goals).

<edit>
I do have a hard time envisioning use for anything over a four speed transmission, though.
</edit>

- Keith

It seems to me that a better way to get four speeds would be to use two dogs, that way you do not have the gears smashing into each other. You could just have something like this:

   In
    |      |      |
    |     ---X---------
    |      |      |
  -----X-------   D
    |      |      |
    D    -----X-------
    |      |      |
   ---X---------  |
           |      |
                 Out

X's are interfaces between the gears,
D's are the dogs,
----- is a gear,
| is an axle.