Hi All!
For auto this year what is your team aiming for (pun intended) and what do you think will be the best attainable auto by any team (not including human player points)?
I’m thinking 4-5 ball top goal auto will be the maximum this year.
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Start auto as close as you can to the lower hub. As auto starts, dump the cargo, then make a beeline for the wall to get the taxi points. 4 points right there.
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I would be surprised to see that. There are only 3 floor balls that you can reach during auton (plus the one ball in you makes 4). And that only makes sense if none of your alliance partners can do even a 2-ball auton. IMO, your best bet would be to develop 3 different two-ball autons so you can work with whatever your partners can do. Then you might put time in on a 3-ball auton (probably including the one nearest the side wall as that will probably be the least popular).
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Great point. A portfolio of autos is always better than a single specific high-scoring one.
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5 is attainable depending on how much entropy there is in ball delivery through the terminal, the way I read the rules, the human player doesn’t have to go for the half-court shot and can just feed it through to the robot
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What’s stopping a robot from driving over to collect the cargo in front of the terminal? Would that take a few seconds to get there, yes. But I’d say we’ve seen some pretty crazy auto routines in the last 4 years.
I wouldn’t say 5 balls can’t be done (looking at you guys 254 and 1678), but it certainly would be challenging and only viable in a handful of matches most likely.
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I’m thinking a good swerve robot (maybe with a turret for the overkill) can swerve in between opponent balls and grab alliance colored balls while staying continuously aimed at the goal (because swerve) and shoot while moving then finally grab terminal ball, come closer and make a semi-far shot
I think 7 cargo is possible but I also count the HP cargo. So 6+1. Basically preload and pickup one and score, then grab another plus in front of terminal and score, then grab the two cargo line and score, plus HP makes their shot.
It is a long shot. I think a 5 shot (4+1) is a better goal, since you can do it without making it from the terminal.
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That would be super impressive, but only useful if your alliance partners got nothin’.
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Once you cross the tarmac do you get the points or do you have to stay outside by auto end?
In other words, if you drive out to pick up another cargo drive back in to score and end there are you still getting the movement points?
Per Table 6-1, The TAXI is awarded to
each ROBOT whose BUMPERS have completely left the TARMAC from which it started at any point during AUTO
So yes, you still get the points if you come back on the TARMAC. You can even get them by driving onto the other TARMAC of your color. That might be useful if you have an alliance partner who’s going to do a multi-ball auto.
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G210 Says you cannot make contact with a bot or ball on the other side of the field. So this is going to limit how many balls you can access in Auto.
Resulting in 8 max per alliance, up to 3 in bots, 4 on the floor and 1 in the terminal.
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So the way the rule G210 is worded theoretically doesn’t penalize you for crossing the centerline during auto rather it only penalizes you for contacting STAAGED cargo OR OTHER ROBOTS , so if by chance the other team knocks your cargo off fromm there staged location you could theoretically then go pick it up and score it in auto, am I correct thinking about this.
If your auto can locate a cargo randomly knocked on to your side of the field and score it, my hat is off to you!
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I think cargo tracking in auto will be done by the elite teams. Instead of getting their HP to score it they toss it towards the bot.
This is a pretty fair assumption in most regions.
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Keep in mind that robots shooting at the upper target at the same time have the potential to block each other, I expect there will be some timing involved there to avoid hitting the other balls so your shot is good.
You’ll start with one. If you’re a higher end robot, I’d imagine you can drive back collecting one of the 3 staged cargo and back to the one by the terminal. Have a shot tuned well to shoot from there and you can get 3.
If you want to get 4, you’re essentially driving back to where one is immediately, shooting both, driving to where a second is, driving to the terminal, and same as before used a tuned shot.
There’s a LOT that can go wrong with the 4 option. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some teams get the 3 going pretty well. I’ll be more surprised to see the 4 be consistent. As you progress through the season, 3 is the sweet spot anyway. If you can do 3, you can reliably get the RP bonus help with 2 other bots that simply dump theirs. That gives you the 5 you need.
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There is also a ball on the floor by the terminal.
If everyone on the alliance shoots the preload and one off the ground, one robot can rush to the human player station, get one from the ground, one from the player, and go shoot them. I think this can probably be done within 15 seconds.
I’m only getting 12.5ft in CAD from the nearest HUB floor CARGO to the TERMINAL floor CARGO. So ~3’ to start (edge of TARMAC to staged CARGO, minus length of deployed intake), then 12.5’. Assuming you can shoot from the TERMINAL, this isn’t particularly more terrible than many years. 5-ball on the other hand…
I don’t have a team this year but I’m hearing mixed reviews on accuracy of shooting balls based on shapes and inflation.
I don’t doubt that can be resolved. But it’s a subtle complication that isn’t as prevalent in past year shooters.