How many of you are going for the Mini-bot at the end?
and why would you choose this option instead of playing the tubes?
Most definitely we are going for the mini-bot.
It won’t take too terribly long for the entire mini-bot deployment to occur, and in the 20 seconds max it would take to do that, you could only get 2 more tubes at best considering you have to score them one at a time. and of top of that for those one or two tubes to be more valuable they would have to be able to finish off a FIRST logo.
It’s probably not the BEST idea to do an either or with the tubes VS minibots. I mean, the minibot deployment process is an end game strategy that yes, will bump you up to 40 pts, but it’s a big chance to take when could be building up and stacking points from the game pieces as well.
If a team solely focuses on the deployment of the minibot and can grantee a score there, they should then think about refining their strategy into enhancing the score with tube placement or herding.
I LOVE the mini-bots. Greatest idea ever. It’s like a vertical Zone Zeal end game.
The part I don’t really like is the strict limit on what the minibot can be built of.
I agree with Tetraman, FTC parts only seems a bit silly.
The only issue I forsee with minibots is them being worth too much. If a team can win the minibot race, they are almost guaranteed the win.
I don’t think this is true, it is only a bonus round. Assume your alliance does win the first two positions in the race 50 pts (30+20) the other team still gets (assuming they have working minibots) 25 pts (15+10) meaning its only a 25 pt swing. Also assuming the perfects score, a Logo on the top row with ubertubes under each part is worth 36 pts… I think
2 comments:
- FTC parts are not the only legal items.
- Who says tubes and minibots are mutually exclusive? It ought to be possible to fire a minibot, grab a tube, and get it in place before the match ends.
yep we are going for it
scoring a tube within that time would not be easy and the minibot has the potential to get a lot more points
I agree with this point 110%
If you want to win yourself a championship, then you better not plan on sitting around for 10 seconds and watching what happens.
We think we can score 30 points faster than by hanging tubes. That’s why.
I think some people are missing that the End Game is 10 seconds and you ONLY have that time for deploying. If you so much as touch the tower with your minibot, it’s a dead tower.
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**<G17> **[FONT=Arial,Arial][size=3]HOSTBOTS may not DEPLOY a MINIBOT. [/size][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Arial][size=3]Violation: TOWER is disabled.
[/size][/FONT]
DEPLOYMENT – the act of positioning a MINIBOT on a TOWER. DEPLOYMENT starts when the MINIBOT breaks the vertical projection of the TOWER BASE circumference during the END GAME. (Related form, DEPLOY, verb)
So it becomes, can you build a system and minibot that deploy and climb in 10 seconds (3-5, prefferably)? If so, which I believe is possible, it’s definitely worth it. 
30 POINTS
20 POINTS
15 POINTS
10 POINTS
The full FIRST logo on the the top row with an ubertube is 30 points.
I don’t think it should be looked at as a question of playing a minibot vs. scoring tubes - you can do both. One day into build season, you shouldn’t be ruling out a huge component of game play altogether - you need to figure out strategies for the game and what elements you think are important before you decide which elements your team wants to focus in on.
That said, if you look at the points breakdown, the theoretical maximum for the tubes is 108 points, vs. 50 for the minibots. Getting three ubertubes on the top row of pegs is pretty unlikely, as is filling all of the pegs with the correct tubes, which brings down the expected actual tube score quite a bit due to the loss of multipliers. The minibots definitely have the potential to swing matches, and I predict that they will. I think minibots will be an important part of game play, and while not all teams will decide to build them, I think it would be silly to neglect them this early on in the build season because they have the potential to make a huge difference.
Explain to me how you can score 30 additional points in 10 seconds, keeping in mind that, unless my thread is right, you start with 12 points on a rack, and you could bring it up to 36 with one more piece, all that you could realistically score in 10 seconds.
Minibots play a huge part in adding a bonus to a team’s score. I like to say that the end game period is like icing on the cake.
I mean, just to put this out there:
Say an alliance scores one ubertube in the automode.
Assuming that the alliance completes a logo with that row, you get 30pts already.
Having said that, it’s just as an equivalent for a team or alliance all together to complete that logo set.
There’s a ton of possibilities as far as point values for the equivalency of ubertubes, additional placements, logos and the minibot go.
In conclusion though, my initial thought is that the Minibot shouldn’t be the SOLE focus of a team’s robot design, because while YES completing the task gives you big points, something like this could happen:
The opposing alliance could starve out the alliance that relies on minibot action by collecting several game pieces and hording them in their designated zones where no long accessible.
At that point, there and then, you’re stuck with just the points from the minibot plus whatever scoring piece you can maintain.
I guess in conclusion before I blabber more about strategy, minibot scores can be overcome when the game is played right (just like with finals last year when 469 got beat out with a good game play and bend of rules via loopholes!)
I strongly believe that robots can be built to fulfill both tasks though (and we will probably see it)
This year’s end game is more important than last year’s, but doing both well would be the best solution, IMO. Place tubes in teleop and race minibots at end game for maximum points.
on the question of minibots does anyone know if you would be allowed to use compressed air and released it all to get the bot moving, and then let it work on its own. it is simmilar to a booster engine a a space shuttle
The real big question is, how many teams will be able to scrounge enough legal parts to build one? What if FTC isn’t big or doesn’t even exist in your area. Check out Lego Educational - kits are out of stock. :mad:
If you have at least one ubertube placed on the top rack, when teleop begins if two robots complete the logo you have 30pts right there with a little more than 10secs give or take depending on whatever arm capability they have.
With two ubertubes and a completed logo, you’re already at 42 points.
And with three (totally possibly, but the likelihood? who knows): 54pts.
Although, teams will be impacted with how far the game pieces travel at the start of the teleop period (so collection bot or HP toss).