Is throwing worth it ?

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by JB987

What makes you think we haven't already, Jim? We almost did worse...launched ball so hard it knocked off control boards from shelf at driver station wall in our shop. Turns out the joysticks are pretty durable.

Video or it didn't happen, Joe! you know the rules

[Mulcahy]

Originally Posted by MrForbes

I think the important question here is, when will the High Rollers break a wall clock this year?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raZdkGxq5Ig

We broke a driver station on Sunday. Does that count?

[mitchklong]

Originally Posted by Qcom

I am going to quote Rule G11

Yes but i would think G11 refers to intentional ejection. Here is how I see an ejection happening...

Human player feeds to bot 1 who does a truss throw. They do this close to the arena edge because thats where the human feed occurs. The ball in flight bounces off a moving bot and out of the arena, past the human players.

Is this always a penalty ? What if the bot that hit it was just in the wrong place at the wrong time ? And what does a red human player do with a blue ball that lands in their player area ?

[Keegbot]

I think throwing is worth it because scoring in the low goal is relatively easy to do and defend and being able to shoot in the high goal will add diversity to your attack and make you harder to defend. Also, truss points are added to the score as soon as it is thrown (or caught) so if you are at the other end of the field at the end of a match than you could quickly score 10 and a possible 20 points and save the time of having to drive to the other end or pass it to other robots for them to score. I definitely think it is worth it to at least be able to throw.

[Racer26]

Originally Posted by Team3266Spencer

But the ball has a 12 inch radius, so I imagine it wouldn't be that difficult to push in.

There is at least one video on YouTube already of a basic box bot being easily able to just shove the ball over that edge with very little in the way of trouble.

[zsm150]

Originally Posted by Team3266Spencer

But the ball has a 12 inch radius, so I imagine it wouldn't be that difficult to push in.

This is a assuming that you have a solid driving team that is prepared to control a ball of this size. Speaking from our teams decisions, our chassis is only 27in wide meaning there is only 1.5 inches of play on each side of the ball if it is centered. Just bumping the ball down the field could possible result in unreliability in terms of accuracy of your passing as well as another team can hit your ball out of your possession and push your bot around as much as they want. I would recommend a system that could keep control of the ball while you are moving

[thinker&planner]

We discussed this as a team and I believe came to the conclusion that even if we had a reliable shooter, we would only use it for autonomous and truss points, unless someone is blocking both of the low goals.

The only advantages:
Autonomous points
If a team can successfully block the low goals for an entire match and
nobody on your team has the capability to shoot high, it comes down to the
autonomous points.

The disadvantages:
Loss of control, time wasted trying to recover the ball
Missed shots, leading to ^^
Yet another system to be designed (although what else would we spend our
time on?)

Overall, we resolved to prototype a shooter/thrower, and if our prototypes were semi-successful, we would keep it as an option.

[mitchklong]

Does anyone know what the rule is if the ball leaves the arena ? I assume that if one of the human players catches or stops it they can throw it back in and nothing is lost but time, but what if the blue ball goes into the red player area ? I assume they dont have to throw it back in. Or what if it leaves the arena and isnt playable ?

In particular I am wondering if all of the assist and truss points still stand.

[Zuelu562]

Section 3.1.2 of the Manual:

BALLS that are ejected from gameplay during a MATCH will be delivered to the closest HUMAN PLAYER of that BALL’S ALLIANCE by event staff at the next safe opportunity. This includes BALLS that go in GOALS but don’t meet the criteria to be considered SCORED.

[Qcom]

Originally Posted by mitchklong

Does anyone know what the rule is if the ball leaves the arena ? I assume that if one of the human players catches or stops it they can throw it back in and nothing is lost but time, but what if the blue ball goes into the red player area ? I assume they dont have to throw it back in. Or what if it leaves the arena and isnt playable ?

In particular I am wondering if all of the assist and truss points still stand.

I am going to quote Rule G11:

BALLS may not be intentionally or repeatedly ejected from gameplay.

Violation: FOUL per instance.

Passing a BALL to a HUMAN PLAYER is within gameplay and not considered a violation of G11.

The violation of this rule is a foul per instance a ball is ejected from the field. Nothing is stated about nullification of previous points, so I think we can safely conclude that truss and catch points are still valid (although effectively negated as 20 points would be awarded to the opposing alliance).

[Sean Raia]

If you have the resources you should certainly attempt to throw.

If not, try being the best catcher you can be. Are you a lineman, a wide reciever, or the quarterback? That mostly depends on how youre built. And I mean that about the robot as much as I do the team.

I love the positional designs this game requires.