Ball or Bar

[roboticscom13]

Bottom line all of the games in the past (this one is no exception), comes down to one thing.....consistancy. If you look back at the past games the teams that won, (championchips, regioals, etc.) were robots that were consistant every time. Wildstangs were consistantly on the ramp right after autonomous and controlled the basic end result of the game. If your robot is not consistant then you will be playing the games by the skin of your teeth. I have learned this throughout the four years i have been involved.

SO.... what it comes down to is, if you can do the SAME thing time after time, whatever your design might be, you will be successful.

[KenWittlief]

you will be successfull at doing what your bot was designed to do

but if you pick the wrong thing to design it to do, you might, for example, consistanly be able to hang in every match

and still lose every match.

[kevin.li.rit]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

you will be successfull at doing what your bot was designed to do

but if you pick the wrong thing to design it to do, you might, for example, consistanly be able to hang in every match

and still lose every match.

You may get drafted though, last year the teams that crushed the other team ended up scoring low and not making it to the top 8 but they were drafted for finals.

[roboticscom13]

Originally Posted by Coffeeism

You may get drafted though, last year the teams that crushed the other team ended up scoring low and not making it to the top 8 but they were drafted for finals.

exactly my point

[MichalSkiba]

A serious point for all teams:

Don't plan for doing everything. Thats what we did last year. We were able to do everything, but not one thing well, and that became our weak point. Additionally, when teams looked for alliance partners, they wanted a bot that could perform a complementing function. My suggestion, if you are looking for a challange, is to design a bot that can do one thing VERY well, EVERY time without a doubt, and then try to incorperate additional functions.

[kevin.li.rit]

Originally Posted by MichalSkiba

A serious point for all teams:

Don't plan for doing everything. Thats what we did last year. We were able to do everything, but not one thing well, and that became our weak point. Additionally, when teams looked for alliance partners, they wanted a bot that could perform a complementing function. My suggestion, if you are looking for a challange, is to design a bot that can do one thing VERY well, EVERY time without a doubt, and then try to incorperate additional functions.

Originally Posted by Coffeeism

Your definitely right, doing one thing well is extremely important. If you focus on doing too many things you won't be able to do anything effectively to win a match or be considered for drafting. If you do one thing well teams will probably look for two different robots each with it's own specialty or two robots that do the same thing very well for consistency.

We seem to think alike.

[abeD]

Originally Posted by Coffeeism

You may get drafted though, last year the teams that crushed the other team ended up scoring low and not making it to the top 8 but they were drafted for finals.

Well only problem is that they are completely different games (this year much more offense than defense). In this game it isnt so easy to "crush" your opponents as it was last year. I beleive that most of good teams will all score a high number of points and play defense by playing offense...

[kevin.li.rit]

Originally Posted by abeD

Well only problem is that they are completely different games (this year much more offense than defense). In this game it isnt so easy to "crush" your opponents as it was last year. I beleive that most of good teams will all score a high number of points and play defense by playing offense...

You'll definitley get some crushing during the finals though.

[KenWittlief]

I agree - the is not much you can do to crush your opponent this year - you cant descore their goals (like you could descore containers last year)

you cant stop your opponent from having its 6 starting balls

its unlikely you will be able to play keepaway with all three 2X balls

you cant stop the balls from dropping at T=45

and if someone has a quick and effective ball collector, you wont be able to stop them from zipping all over the field and collecting them, or delivering them to one side or the other - soon as you make a dash for the bar, the corral will be open

in fact, once you are up on the bar, it would be hard to stop someone else from grabbing it too. its what? 10 feet wide?

[nuggetsyl]

Why waste you time pickin up balls when noone will let you score them????

[Crop-Circles]

In (Zone Zeal), the (small balls) were dependent on your robots (goal) control. If your robot could control the (goals), your opponents (ball control) was meaningless. Throw in the added option of ending the game (in your home zone), and you control the entire match.

In (Stack Attack), the (stacks) were dependent on your robots (bin) control. If your robot could control the (bins), your opponents (stacking capabilty) was meaningless. Throw in the added option of ending the game (on the ramp), and you control the entire match.

In (First Frenzy), the (2x balls) are dependent on your robots (small ball) control. If your robot can control the (small balls), your opponents (goal capping) is meaningless. Throw in the added option of ending the game (on the bar), and you control the entire match.

I think people are underestimating small ball control. By controlling small balls, you essentialy control the entire match.

-Mike B.

[Anthony Kesich]

The way i see it is you need to priortize. To be competitive, a robot must be fairly fast and manuverable, able to push balls, do the autonomous, and have ONE specialty which they do extremely well. Trying to grab the multiplier, grab the bar, put the multiplier back on, gather in a special way AND grab goals will net you with a complex robot that can do everything average. Which would you choose, a guy who can do everything, but not very well, or the guy that can push the balls around for the first 1:30 then ALWAYS end up hanging on the bar for the extra 50?

-Kesich

[kevin.li.rit]

Your definitely right, doing one thing well is extremely important. If you focus on doing too many things you won't be able to do anything effectively to win a match or be considered for drafting. If you do one thing well teams will probably look for two different robots each with it's own specialty or two robots that do the same thing very well for consistency.

[Anthony Kesich]

Exactly. That both destroyed us and sved us last year (yet another conundrum). WE had an arm that sucked, and we tried to use it, but it was just ignoring KISS. But we were able to take it off and become an awsome dozer with an autonomous that worked like a charm (except for when the older teams asked us to delay ours and then theirs screwed up.... uggh). But we learned that doing one thing very well pays off, when we dont runing it by adding more :-D.

-Kesich

[Korbin]

The way that I see things is this: A lot of people are going to go for the bar, and not do it well, like staking last year. but the most commmon robot will be a tank with wings that pushes balls around. so if you are looking to be a good bot to compliment others, and get picked in a good seed then you will need to consistantly be able to control the 2x balls, or always get on the bar. i am predicting that the good vets will go for the bar, and get it, and be in the top seeds, so they are going to want someone that can handle the 2x balls really well.