What do you think will be important this year?

[Jared Russell]

What will be important is that a team is able to do one thing "well".

[Uberbots]

Zone-Zone mobility and ball passing (if mobility is too much of an issue)

[bobwrit]

Honestly, I think the tunnels will end up being a bottleneck for many teams, so being able to go over the bumps will be big,

Also, being able to play both offense and defense will be huge, as two of the three sections will be primarily one or the other.

I think for all the sections, being able to move balls quickly will be big, as you can effectivly play both offense and defense with a single move.

The middle will be a combination of offense(being able to move returned balls) and defense(blocking tunnels)

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

The tunnels will be insignificant.

Wanna put money on that?

[Mr. Pockets]

Originally Posted by EricH

Hanging will be important, especially the ability to hang with another robot or two hanging from you.

If you ask me, having a handle, or some other convenient way for your comrades to hang onto your robot will be almost as important as the ability to hang in general. Being easy to grab and hang from will be a great advantage for an alliance.

Originally Posted by vance

Swinging? That's the third way to travel from one zone to the next.

Seems like it'd be slow and slightly dangerous (a fall might leave a big mark). Also, if I understand <G44> [BALL CARRYING – ROBOTS may not CARRY BALLS. Violation: 2 PENALTIES for each CARRIED BALL.] you wouldn't be able to bring any balls with you, so I'm not sure what the advantage of that would be as opposed to just trying to make it over the walls.

[vance]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pockets

Seems like it'd be slow and slightly dangerous (a fall might leave a big mark). Also, if I understand <G44> [BALL CARRYING – ROBOTS may not CARRY BALLS. Violation: 2 PENALTIES for each CARRIED BALL.] you wouldn't be able to bring any balls with you, so I'm not sure what the advantage of that would be as opposed to just trying to make it over the walls.

The advantage is that unless another robot is also swinging, you cannot be blocked. You can be pinned or completely blocked in the tunnel, and you can be blocked or flipped going over the bumps. Of course you can't take a ball with you, but the only way to reliably travel zone-to-zone with a ball is through the tunnel anyway.

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by vance

The advantage is that unless another robot is also swinging, you cannot be blocked. You can be pinned or completely blocked in the tunnel, and you can be blocked or flipped going over the bumps. Of course you can't take a ball with you, but the only way to reliably travel zone-to-zone with a ball is through the tunnel anyway.

Sorry to burst your bubbles but how are you going to swing from a bar that his higher than the 60 in height limit? To swing from it you would have to climb up the bump and if your doing that you might as well just go over the bump instead of wasting time to swing ....

[EricH]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

Sorry to burst your bubbles but how are you going to swing from a bar that his higher than the 60 in height limit? To swing from it you would have to climb up the bump and if your doing that you might as well just go over the bump instead of wasting time to swing ....

Touch the tower. You can adopt Finale configuration any time you are touching the tower under <G30-C>.

Of course, if I was a ref, I might call an <S01> violation if you were swinging, depending on the manner of swinging. Definitely if a tower came down.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by EricH

Touch the tower. You can adopt Finale configuration any time you are touching the tower under <G30-C>.

Of course, if I was a ref, I might call an <S01> violation if you were swinging, depending on the manner of swinging. Definitely if a tower came down.

I'm wondering how these teams plan to shrink back to standard configuration before letting go. That's also rather important.

[Bongle]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Wanna put money on that?

I think a tunnel-dependent robot will be easily shut down. If the opposing alliance's star robot is tunnel-dependent, then your alliance can just take your weakest robot and stick it in a tunnel.

Also, I think pushing in the tunnel will be difficult with the high-up bumper positions. The force of pushing will be acting on your robot horizontally, and most likely above your robot's centre of gravity. So your robot will tend to lift the side it is pushing with, and may very well flip.

[SamMullen]

On one hand, herding a ball in any controlled manner would be very hard to do if you are going over the bump. On the other, going under means having to fight the 36inx18in space of the tunnel (29inx18in after you've factored out bumpers on the sides).

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Bongle

I think a tunnel-dependent robot will be easily shut down. If the opposing alliance's star robot is tunnel-dependent, then your alliance can just take your weakest robot and stick it in a tunnel.

I think tunnels will at least be an option for many teams, and a preferred one to the risky bumps for many. Not necessarily mandatory but they'll be used.

Balls also roll through sometimes.

[Mr_I]

Vision / camera systems may be critical: We've started wondering (and won't know until we either build a Bump or CAD out the dimensions) if soccer balls will be easily visible across in the far zones because of the Bumps. If not, the ability for a robot to "see" will be critical, both on offense and defense.

[kjolana1124]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

The tunnels will be insignificant. Hanging from the tower will be common, until teams realize they can't defend during that time. Being able to move balls accurately is key.

Building off of this, how long it takes a robot go get to the tower will play a role, seeing as that equates to more or less time that robot can attack or defend. Teams will have to decide if going for the tower will be worth it based on factors that will obviously change depending on the game.

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by kjolana1124

Building off of this, how long it takes a robot go get to the tower will play a role, seeing as that equates to more or less time that robot can attack or defend. Teams will have to decide if going for the tower will be worth it based on factors that will obviously change depending on the game.

This. I think there will be too many variables in play when deciding whether or not to hang from the tower. We can make up as many situations on an electronic message board all we want, but it will ultimately come down to each individual game.