Point of reserve gear?

[Catherine57]

I suspect it is for looks when you have an alliance that can't do gears. Having at least the main rotor spinning on each airship is more of an audience pleaser.

[Donut]

Somehow I still think we will see at least one alliance with a score of 0 this year, when their human player drops the reserve gear in their excitement

[Dibit1010]

I'm confused- can a pilot get a gear from a bot and put it in the 1 gear slot to get the big rotor turning for auto points? I looked through the manual and didn't find anything against it but it seems odd that it would be allowed


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[maths222]

Originally Posted by Dibit1010

I'm confused- can a pilot get a gear from a bot and put it in the 1 gear slot to get the big rotor turning for auto points? I looked through the manual and didn't find anything against it but it seems odd that it would be allowed

I'm not quite sure why that seems odd to you. From a scoring point of view, the big rotor is no different from the three smaller rotors. Since the big rotor is "rotor 1," it must be the first rotor started by an alliance, and if a robot delivers a gear in auto, the pilot should insert it there for auto points.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by maths222

I'm not quite sure why that seems odd to you. From a scoring point of view, the big rotor is no different from the three smaller rotors. Since the big rotor is "rotor 1," it must be the first rotor started by an alliance, and if a robot delivers a gear in auto, the pilot should insert it there for auto points.

Yep. And they can't use the Reserve gear to do that in auto, so it has to be a robot-delivered gear.

[Andhika]

Originally Posted by Dibit1010

I'm confused- can a pilot get a gear from a bot and put it in the 1 gear slot to get the big rotor turning for auto points? I looked through the manual and didn't find anything against it but it seems odd that it would be allowed


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Yes, it is allowed I'm pretty sure. This would encourage autonomous function for teams since a gear being placed in Rotor 1 would earn 60 match points instead of 40 from a pilot placing in the reserve gear as tele-op starts.

[Evan G]

According to rule A05, a pilot cannot remove the reserve gear from it's slot in autonomous. However, the reserve gear is a free 40 points in teleop mode.

[JesseK]

The reserve gear effectively levels out scoring on the final two rotors. It means that a single bot getting 1 auton & 5 teleop gears in the match is the same score as that bot getting 1 auton and 6 teleop gears. It means that an alliance of robots who are individually capable of scoring 4 teleop gears each can find something else to do to supplement their match score.

Since there is no verbiage in the manual which states the reserve gear could be taken away for DCMP/WCMP events, expect it to stay. Using it smartly is strategically important, since it gives ball-focused alliances more options for selecting or being selected by gear bots.

In other words, before stuffing it in slot 1 of the first-available rotor, double-check with the gear bots on your alliance.

[Ari423]

Originally Posted by JesseK

Using it smartly is strategically important, since it gives ball-focused alliances more options for selecting or being selected by gear bots. In other words, before stuffing it in slot 1 of the first-available rotor, double-check with the gear bots on your alliance.

I don't understand why you shouldn't just put it in the slot as soon as teleop starts. In what case would there be an advantage to waiting till later in the match to use it? Or not using it at all? I can't think of any reason not to.

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Ari423

I don't understand why you shouldn't just put it in the slot as soon as teleop starts. In what case would there be an advantage to waiting till later in the match to use it? Or not using it at all? I can't think of any reason not to.

Things in a match never go as planned. As a coach, I can easily tell the pace of a match by determining when the 2nd rotor is activated. If robots can't do the first 2 rotors on their own in a reasonable time, we have to make a decision on whether or not to go for the third rotor.

If by some miracle 2 rotors are done in autonomous then I would use the 3rd rotor as the gauge for match pace - and if things go poorly then we'd finish the 3rd rotor with the reserve gear.

As I see the game now, I fully suspect the reserve gear will always be placed on the 3rd rotor in the matches I coach - regardless of when in the game that happens.

At the highest levels of play, I agree that holding back the reserve gear has diminished value.

[Ari423]

Originally Posted by JesseK

Things in a match never go as planned. As a coach, I can easily tell the pace of a match by determining when the 2nd rotor is activated. If robots can't do the first 2 rotors on their own in a reasonable time, we have to make a decision on whether or not to go for the third rotor.

If by some miracle 2 rotors are done in autonomous then I would use the 3rd rotor as the gauge for match pace - and if things go poorly then we'd finish the 3rd rotor with the reserve gear.

As I see the game now, I fully suspect the reserve gear will always be placed on the 3rd rotor in the matches I coach - regardless of when in the game that happens.

At the highest levels of play, I agree that holding back the reserve gear has diminished value.

Another idea would be to make a non-powered signaling device to relay the info to the coach of how many gears are in the uncompleted gear train. This way the coach knows exactly how many gears are done and there's no chance that the pilot will forget to place the reserve gear. IIRC all members of the drive team are allowed to use non-powered signaling devices, and there's no rule they can't attach them to the railing so the coach can see them without being constantly held.

[martin417]

As pointed out by a co-worker, it may be that FIRST is tired of seeing 0-0 match scores. This way, there won't be any shut-outs (unless someone really screws up)