Shooter or Dumper?

[nssheepster]

My team is currently deciding between whether we want to "shoot" the balls, or go up close and "dump" the balls, into the hoops. Due to the rules, a dumper could only hit the second hoop, unless the appendage stuff changes. But shooters are clearly less accurate. So, I'm asking CD's opinion. What do you guys think? (See poll at top of page.)



http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...=100788&page=2
Another poll of mine, if you're interested.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by nssheepster

But shooters are clearly less accurate.

Yes, a shooter will miss shots. That's better than not being able to take any because a defender parks in your way or jostles you hard. And there are going to be some very accurate shooters.

[Colin P]

Your best option is to make a shooter that has the option of dumping. Shooting is going to be harder, it will be a lot easier to add a dumping option later than it will be to add a shooter.

[nssheepster]

Originally Posted by EricH

Yes, a shooter will miss shots. That's better than not being able to take any because a defender parks in your way or jostles you hard. And there are going to be some very accurate shooters.

Personally, I agree, but my team still has some dissent, even though a shooter is clearly the majority vote.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by nssheepster

Personally, I agree, but my team still has some dissent, even though a shooter is clearly the majority vote.

You guys need to decide ASAP. This is week four and if you haven't decided yet you are at least a week behind.

I would suggest to do whichever you can get done quickly.

[Billfred]

Agree with IndySam. You have 21 days until it has to be in the bag. Whatever your strategy (and there are several not listed here, mind you--including some that may be better moves at this stage of the game), you need to settle on it ASAP. Clock's a-ticking.

[Tetraman]

Originally Posted by IndySam

You guys need to decide ASAP. This is week four and if you haven't decided yet you are at least a week behind.

I would suggest to do whichever you can get done quickly.

We have decided and have been working on it since the first week. There were some thoughts to the other way of doing things that a few students still wished to pursue and have the rest of the team consider, that's all.

It depends on your robot and strategies.

For us, we plan on doing both. We will have a shooter that can shoot far, but our main offensive strategy is to be a fast collector and dump our balls into the middle hoop really fast, and then get more balls. Just slam up against the fender, fire away, and then get away really quickly to gather more balls.

In a test run of this, we successfully out-maneuvered the defending robot and were able to rack up points pretty quickly.

We shoot far if we're feeding from the other side of the field, or in autonomous.

[pfreivald]

We are building a shooter that can be easily retrofitted to a dunker if the shooting challenge doesn't work out (consistency is difficult; we're not yet sure how difficult -- it's quite the challenge to shoot balls at the correct speed and angle, much less in the right direction, and this problem is daunting on both the programming and the mechanical side.)

[Walter Deitzler]

We have not decided a style of shooter, but the way we are going right now it looks like we will be able to succesfully dump and shoot balls. I would have to agree with all of the people before me that said that you should be able to do both effectivly.

[bearbot]

We have a robot rite now inthe middle of shooter and dumper our shooter is within a day or to from being completed and our dumper will be functiion by the middle of the next week.We decided to throw it on in case their no defenders.See ya at CHeaspeake regional

[MichaelBick]

I personally consider shooting in the top basket while touching the fender to be dumping, If that is the case, then I believe dumping is the far better strategy.

[DampRobot]

Our team is going with a shooter. It is much more risky than a dumper, but with a practice robot and some excellent programmers, I hope we can pull it off. I would recommend that any team that has yet to decide should concentrate on having a consistent dumper rather than a shooter that might never work.

[nssheepster]

Can you really do that? I didn't think you could touch the fender. I thought it was a foul.

[josephburns2487]

The team I am mentoring is doing a shooter and I agree for this year’s game that it is a better idea. I think that it is just a better idea simply for the fact that you are protected when you shoot from the key, if you were not protected in the key this would be a whole different conversation in my opinion. and like said above it is getting a little late to be changing your mind on major design components.