Shooting full court?

[Kusha]

With all these prototype videos I've seen, there are some impressive ranges going on. Will teams start to "camp" the loading zone and just shoot full court? Is this even a plausible idea?

[Austin2046]

i definately think it's plausable... but i do worry about tall opposing robots just parking in front of you and blocking shots... not to mention pyramids could be in the way.

[dcarr]

Basic calculations show that an 84" robot could block fairly effectively even from several feet away from the feeding zone, even if you are shooting from the maximum height of 60". However, it is difficult to speculate how many robots will actually deploy to 84" while playing defense.

[Bill_B]

Originally Posted by dcarr

Basic calculations show that an 84" robot could block fairly effectively even from several feet away from the feeding zone, even if you are shooting from the maximum height of 60". However, it is difficult to speculate how many robots will actually deploy to 84" while playing defense.

You will only be at 60" when down field. 84" in your autozone. Compare those heights to the bottoms of the two far-wall holes.

[tr6scott]

My Autozone is your feeder zone... I will be 84" in my autozone... just to protect you from making shots from there. You will probably still feed your zone by missing me, but you are not scoring from the feed zone. If you try to score from there, the Frisbee at best in my autozone, and worst ends up in my low score bin. . . think about it.

[DjScribbles]

There is danger in attempting to block the feeder slots, if you get too close, the robot at the feeder can rack up penalties against you.

A good allied defender bot can also mitigate blocking if it's key to the teams strategy. It's not difficult to park in front of your ally against the wall.

I would not be surprised if we see some teams making full court shots with some degree of success. Even 50% accuracy is deadly if you've got an allied bot that can pickup the other half.

[Ido_Wolf]

Seems a lot more doable for mediocre teams than last year, and I kinda have a reckless prediction that many teams out there would give up on trying to make an extraordinarily good climbing mechanism, at least in my regional...so a great shooter would be the next great thing to put some effort into for those teams.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by cmrnpizzo14

I am sure that at least one team will try this and have reasonable success.....until the frisbeeswarp. We all know that this will happen, but no one seems to consider it as a factor.

Have you actually warped your disks to an extent that seriously affects your shooting? How?

[cmrnpizzo14]

Originally Posted by Siri

Have you actually warped your disks to an extent that seriously affects your shooting? How?

No, but we have only had them for 5 days or so and have not begun heavy use of them. Also, I doubt that teams will be able to warp their disks even with heavy testing because you cannot replicate the beating that they will take at a competition.

Originally Posted by andrewthecow

I thought about this until I fooled around with the frisbees. They're made from a different plastic than an "ultimate" frisbee and are much more rigid. When flexed, they quickly return to their original shape. I doubt we'll see many problems with warped discs at competition.

You are also not a 150 lb robot driving over the top of it.

I might be wrong, but using last years balls as an example, the disks will not get replaced until they absolutely need it. I think that teams with poorly designed shooters that unnecessarily crunch the disk, teams with inaccurate shooters that pound the disks off of the walls, and teams that drive straight over the disks will destroy these disks. We will see, but I think that it is nearly impossible to simulate the wear that an average disk will take until you get to a competition.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Taylor

I'll just leave this here.

Clay pigeons are a lot denser, less aerodynamic, and you do not want them to have a consistently repeatable trajectory. Variability is good.

Originally Posted by cmrnpizzo14

No, but we have only had them for 5 days or so and have not begun heavy use of them.
<snip>
I might be wrong, but using last years balls as an example,

Ok, but I know the efforts Siri's team went through to try and warp the disks, without success. So next time you speculate, label it as such and not as established fact. Please.

Last years balls are not very comparable. FYI.

Bad information is worse than no information

[slijin]

Originally Posted by cmrnpizzo14

... teams that drive straight over the disks will destroy these disks.

Rim damage will occur, most certainly, from the shooter tests that people have already posted, but the speculations you make have already been considered and have been debunked.

[pfreivald]

Iteration throughout the season means that an 84" pole with a sheet of, well, whatever (even, say, 180-count percale cotton bed sheet) on the top will utterly destroy any full-court shooting robots in later regionals and especially at CMP.

Strategy: Park in front of uber-unstoppable robot. Stop shots. When necessary, go climb.

[karomata]

On the feeder end of the field, opponent robots can be 84 inches tall and you can only be 60 inches tall. Easy to defend full court shots.

[Undertones]

Just saying, FIRST has never chosen a game piece with the advantage of aerodynamics and lift.

[karomata]

The problem with full court shooting is that accuracy is at its worst, and for defense a team can literally just sit in front of you and block your shots. I think the better teams will have aiming aids for their drivers, such as targeting systems, possibly visible lasers, and probably a multitude of other things. Worst fear is that matches are boring because all that happens is teams shoot from the other side of the field and constantly miss.