Human Player

[Joe_Widen]

How valuable do you think a great human player will be? Do you think it will affect alliance pickers to pick your robot who may be a little worse over a team thats a little better with a horrible human player? How much will the human player affect alliances and the overall game play?

[Eldarion]

Originally Posted by Joe_Widen

How valuable do you think a great human player will be? Do you think it will affect alliance pickers to pick your robot who may be a little worse over a team thats a little better with a horrible human player? How much will the human player affect alliances and the overall game play?

It really depends on what kind of ball pickup mechanism you have, right?
If you have to toss balls into your hopper, you had better have a good human player!

I don't really see the viability of making goals all the way across the 50-something foot field, over the 6-foot wall.
The robot has a hard enough time making goals from half court!

[d.courtney]

Well even if you don't have the above hopper which you toss into, human players still hold alot of power, as the balls on the ground can be very tempting to the other teams, you have to know when to throw them and where to throw them. the human player which isn't able to throw in the top hopper, will likely fail at this... besides which team out there doesn't have a member on a sports team, or which has a good throw... I don't think it will be very often that you find a "bad" human player, but they will pop up I am sure.

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

I think that last year a lot of people said a human player wouldn't be important because of auto-loading.

Think again!

Even if your robot is automatically loading, that mechanism can break down, and having a good human player in a stitch may be your key to success. Also, your human player can help your alliance a lot. Say a robot with an open top on the blue alliance is situated such that its human player can't reach it right away...but the HP on the other end of the side can. Simple communication can speed up the process of loading and send the bot on its way.

[hansTP2S]

But can't the human players go to any part of the alliance zone they want to?

[nehalita]

This game is a combination of so many factors that it's hard to say that something will not make a difference.

The way I see it is, this game is just as dependent on the robot and how it works as it is on the strategy involved in preparation. So, if the robot depends on the human players, of course, the human player's role will be important. Each miss provides that many more seconds wasted in throwing and going down to get another ball. In a game like this, each second can make a difference.

So does the human player make a difference? Yes. Will it make a significant and noticable difference in the overall picture? I don't think so.

But how do I know? I haven't played yet! Time will tell....

[EricH]

If nothing else, your human better be able to hit a person at the range of 30 feet so the other person can grab the poof ball! That way, you can get the balls to the best human player quickly. About 60 feet to the far end of the field +6+ft.barrier= few if any human scores.

[chinckley]

Can't the human player shoot balls over the wall into the hopper on top of the robot? That isn't 30 feet away. When a team is in defense mode can't they still be collecting balls, but not shooting them? They should be able to collect them from the floor and from the human player. On defense, two of the robots can be over in the end near their alliance human players "defending" against the other robots. Why can't they block a corner corral and have their human player load balls over the wall into their hopper?

Am I missing something?

Thanks for the input.
This is a great forum to put out questions on.

Carolyn Hinckley
Mentor

[EricH]

Originally Posted by chinckley

Can't the human player shoot balls over the wall into the hopper on top of the robot? That isn't 30 feet away. When a team is in defense mode can't they still be collecting balls, but not shooting them? They should be able to collect them from the floor and from the human player. On defense, two of the robots can be over in the end near their alliance human players "defending" against the other robots. Why can't they block a corner corral and have their human player load balls over the wall into their hopper?

My 30' estimate for hiiting a person was in reference to the fact that humans, even the worst ones in the world, can throw or pass the balls to each other. If you can hit anything you want at 60 feet, you can hit the robot or the corner goal.

[paulcd2000]

Human players would be useful if they could get the ball anywhere close to the robot. That way, the robot can load it itself, and you don't need an inordinately good player. I don't think there is any way anyone will score points. Maybe 1 in 100 tries, but seriously, most people couldn't throw into something that small from 10 feet away, much less 54, and definitely not over a 6 foot wall. The game is giving us restrictions, and we have to find a way to get around them, or lose part of our potential

[aaeamdar]

I am the human player for our team, team 1719, and I don't see how you could even get 1/100 into the goal . I've tried rolling the ball into the goal from just a few feet away, and even that is not exactly easy because the ball bounces as it comes up to the goal and seems as likely as not to hit the top of the goal and bounce back out.

Throwing the balls in would be almost impossible considering the angle, not even counting for the fact that a minor variation in the way you throw the ball makes a big difference in where it ends up. I'd say only on an absolutely /perfect/ throw would you even have a chance.

Overall, I'd say the chances are such that noone will get throw any balls into the corner goals at any of the competitions at any time.

The human player does have some resposibilities, which have already been talked about here anyway, so I suggest not boring you with them again.

That's it,
Paul Dennis

[Tim Delles]

Well even if you don't have the above hopper which you toss into, human players still hold alot of power, as the balls on the ground can be very tempting to the other teams, you have to know when to throw them and where to throw them. the human player which isn't able to throw in the top hopper, will likely fail at this... besides which team out there doesn't have a member on a sports team, or which has a good throw... I don't think it will be very often that you find a "bad" human player, but they will pop up I am sure.

Who says the best people for human players have to be on a sports team. Honestly that is sterotypical for people to think that. In 2004 (FIRST Frenzy) our human player was not that athletic and did not play a single sport. However throughout all the regionals and nationals he made around 95% of his shots. In elimination rounds in Long Island he missed none of his shots. So why would teams instantly decide to go with a sports player for human player?

Anyways human player has a few things they are going to need to be able to do.

1.) be able to shoot into your robot. Yes you may say lets just shoot close, but if your human player can make it in your robot then that is less time your drivers have to take to chase a ball down and get it in the robot. Meaning you can shoot more over the same time.

2.) the human player needs to know when to shoot. If the robot is about to move the human player needs to be able to predict this movement.

3.) also the human player needs to know the rules of what she/he can do. Because penalities can cost matches no matter their size.

4.) Also needs to be able to know what is going on on the field.

[Modulardragon]

i've only practiced a bit this year, but i got to be the human player 2 years ago, so i've had a little previous experience. From around 15-20 feet away, i can hit our hopper 6 out of 10 times, i know, its not great, but our hopper is like 2 feet by 1 foot. However, i can drop the rate of fire (6 out of 10) into the lower goal from a straight shot, not the cross shot.
The human player is going to be useful for us, because we have to load balls from the ground 1 at a time. i think this is gonna be great.

[Dominicano0519]

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human players are vital to a team that has a hopper also to teams that harvest balls


we have really good human player they can make 19 out of 22 from 40 feet away and 21 out of 22 from 30 feet away(half of the feild)

[Jevin H]

i see the human player as valuable because they control who or what has the ball