What is a bigger penalty, pinning or scoring on the middle row?

[Andy Grady]

Obviously the title of this thread was meant to be slightly humorous, but I think one of the more interesting aspects of the game this year lies in what I am dubbing "The Line of Sight Penalty". I found the game design quite diabolical by the fact that when you score on the middle row, you are actually assessing yourself quite a disadvantage by eliminating a clear line of sight through the field. This can carry quite a problem, especially for those teams who are looking to deploy the minibot in the final 10 seconds of the match.

My question to you is this...would you purposely score away from the middle row in order to keep a clear line of sight for your drivers for the most important part of the game?

I'm very curious to see how people will deal with this.

Good luck to everyone this season!

[Zuelu562]

Want to Buy opaque game pieces... I really hope the GDC saw that part coming.

In regards to you question of how teams will handle it? Camera. Myself and the rest of the programming team are going to be on top of the camera this year. (Which reminds me, I need to mention that to our head programmer >.>)

In regards to the entirely disregarded humorousness of the title, I believe going into the enemies zone is the highest penalty.

[Andy Grady]

Originally Posted by Zuelu562

In regards to the entirely disregarded humorousness of the title, I believe going into the enemies zone is the highest penalty.

Actually the highest penalty is pinning as stated in rule G50...


<G32> Neither ROBOTS, HOSTBOTS, nor MINIBOTS may break the planes of the vertically projected borders of the opponent’s ZONES. Violation: PENALTY

<G50> A ROBOT may not pin another ROBOT that is in contact with a field border or TOWER for more than 5 seconds. A ROBOT will be considered pinned until the ROBOTS have separated by at least 6 feet. The pinning ROBOT(S) must then wait for at least 3 seconds before attempting to pin the same ROBOT again. Violation: 10 PENALTIES


I would be willing to bet that the GDC had noted the difficulty of scoring on the middle row, and considered it a positive as it will make you think about various ways to move around the field using sensors and other optical aids such as your camera. The question is, how effective will those aids be during a tele operated period? It should be very interesting to see how it pans out.

Good luck with the camera, its a good start!

[Jeff Rodriguez]

Andy,
I think this problem can easily be solved by using gamepads instead of joysticks. A handheld controller now lets the drivers move around in the player station and look around the potential obstacles in front of them.


(first post on CD in a long time)

[DonRotolo]

(welcome back Jeff)

Just using the camera image might be valuable as well.

[Andy Grady]

Originally Posted by Jeff Rodriguez

Andy,
I think this problem can easily be solved by using gamepads instead of joysticks. A handheld controller now lets the drivers move around in the player station and look around the potential obstacles in front of them.


(first post on CD in a long time)

Never even thought of that...good solution!

[Erik Huang]

not to mention, the bottom row is underneath you; it's just as easy to miss. Then again, you could program the robot to score the bottom row autonomously using the "tracks"

Maybe they put that Line-of-sight-Penalty so you would have to use the camera.

[SteveGPage]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

My question to you is this...would you purposely score away from the middle row in order to keep a clear line of sight for your drivers for the most important part of the game?

I'm very curious to see how people will deal with this.

Good luck to everyone this season!

We figured that we would only score in front of the team that wasn't going to attempt to try the minibot. It looks like the team in the middle should have a relatively unobstructed view of the field, it is the teams on either side that can be obstructed by the game pieces. Hopefully when when mock up the field we will get a better sense of what that looks like.