I was wondering everyone’s opinion on scoring in the amp vs scoring in the speaker. I think this year it is interesting bc there is strength in a amp robot and it is also a different mechanism than scoring in the speaker. This year I don’t think it is a high vs low like past years (meaning that the low isn’t necessarily easier than the high). I am just wondering if anyone agrees or disagrees with me.
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From an auto perspective, definitely want to make use of the 5 point speaker shots. For teleop it really depends on which cycle is faster for your robot and who your alliance partners are. I think focusing on 1 of the 2 scoring options is good enough for less experienced teams. For teams with more knowledge/resources I would recommend going for speaker/amp or amp/trap, just to be more flexible with your strategies during quals.
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yeah, my idea for our team is to make a really quick amp bot and make that score in the trap. but I think its interesting how this year there is a bonus for amp, or scoring that is easier that we don’t normally see in games.
During teleop having a quick amp robot is crucial for the whole alliance, however, still think that your biggest struggle will be not being able to score in the speaker during auto. You will lose that scoring potential. However, I’m a huge fan of not spreading resources too much, so building a bot focused on amp scoring can be really powerful in my opinion (given the extra driver practice time you will have)
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If I were to make just one, it would be speaker for the overall higher points and relative ease of shooting position.
However there is that 2.5x points multiplier that’s directly from the amplification that I can easily see being a solid 2nd bot territory. I think all Bots need some capability to do both to be competitive.
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I think it depends on a lot of things. An amp robot is going to have an overall lower points per match average but a speaker bot won’t be able to reach full point potential without an amp bot.
It’s also going to depend on the region you compete in. If you’re at a competition with a lot of amp bots, a speaker bot is going to be extremely effective and sought after during alliance selection (if they’re not a captain), and vice versa.
It may be difficult to predict what the teams in your area will do but if you can and you build a robot that does the other task, you can drastically increase your potential to get picked.
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I agree, but I think there are going to be a lot of bots who go high because they see there are more points to score similar to how last season a lot of teams who tried to go high but would’ve been better as a low bot.
I for one believe that amp bots are going to be crucial and less common than speaker bots this year due to the lower scoring and the fact that the speaker doesn’t look horribly difficult. I also believe that the amp is the key to this game and competitive alliances have to have a fast-cycling amp bot in order to maximize points for the win.
I’m lobbying for an amp/trap bot because not only will it complement power teams that want to fast cycle the speaker but need an amp bot, but also be highly capable of achieving both the melody ranking point and the ensemble ranking point.
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That’s a good point. Teams need to be able to know which they would be able to do faster to maximize the notes they can score for the melody RP regardless of whether it’s for amplification.
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Opportunity cost (with second or third) robots leads to some interesting n-dimensional problems sometimes.
i’m curious s what you mean by n-dimensional
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While its a good idea for less experienced teams to pick ether the amp or the speaker, with how crazy robots are becoming in order to have competitive chance you will need the ability to score both, I do think the speaker is likely easier to score in.
that makes sense but this is also not a one robot match, if you have 2 fast cycling speaker bots and one amp bot, your going to be competitive and teams are going to value your speed (if you can get the speed). and like you said the speaker is easier to score in, that just makes an amp/trap not even more powerful for an alliance with teams who can’t do everything efficiently.
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Do you think this disincentives more competetive teams from trying to both? Because you’re right I mean if youre a speaker bot with fast cycles in what situation would you try and score at the amp?
When the 2 other robots are kitbots and can only score in the SPEAKER, you would likely have a better chance if you did the AMP and had the 2 robots do the only thing they can do.
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The amp this year is also going to be similar to the charging station, the poofs will want to just score into the speaker and they will have something to score in the amp. but they are going to want to score more points by just shooting in the speaker.
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I’m not so sure about this. The amp may be more difficult than it appears. The kitbot included a way to score in the speaker, not the amp. This is a much different situation than other years where the lower goal was easier to score in, and a lot of the minimum competitive concept robots did scoring in said lower goal: everybot from 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022 all did this.
All that said, I agree with you that the meta for the upper tier of teams will be scoring in the speaker.
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My team has unanimously decided to prio the amp because we did some calculation, and the bonus points are to good to pass up. Plus, strategically will win out in the end of quals.
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imo amp and trap bots could honestly change the course of the game from the difference between amplified and non-amplified speakers, pointswise. assuming they all have the same cycle time, an amp bot can help gain more points with 2 shooters in comparison to 3 shooters without an amp-bot (unless i did the math wrong, feel free to correct me).
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I’d argue that scoring 2 notes in the amp during auton is better. The human player can amplify at the start of teleop, and the alliance would have notes in their wing (provided that in auton the robots grab notes from the center line)
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