Hi everyone, every year since I became active in FRC I produced a comprehensive strategy guide with my initial thoughts and reactions for my FRC team within the kickoff week-end. Since I’m too old for the team this year, I decided to “publish” the guide on ChiefDelphi for the general community. I love to talk strategy for FRC events. Please read the guide if you have any time, and best of luck with everyones season. If you have questions please put them in the google doc or in the chat. I’ll try to answer them, but no guarantees. I’m sure that I’m wrong regarding a couple things, typos or erroneous theory…
Enjoyed your strategy guide I will point out a couple of my own thoughts to add…
First, I expect many teams to lose game pieces on the floor and the acquisition of both patch panels and cargo can be done in the field of play with floor pickups
The game is designed for roughly ~8.5 cycles per robot to accomplish all tasks besides endgame. I appreciate what you said about pins, that IS an effective strategy to slow down their cycle times. However, you are not scoring either at that point. So the net “gain” is still zero.
If a pin strategy also involves a scoring game piece acquisition (and a denial of them having it) then the result is positive. The fact there are really no in game “scoring escalators” and the only prevention opportunity is to deny a RP , I think a defensive pin strategy also need to combine with game piece acquisition and scoring.
Yes, I expect that there will be some panels on the floor from missed placements however, there are no panels that are “wild” that start in the game field. Only cargo balls from the depots, which are risky to move and can’t be moved far without a foul. Personally, I don’t like to base my guide off of a possible mistake from an opponent, but I do admit there will without doubt be some panels that end up on the floor from a missed placement.
I use a slightly different method on game cycles to calculate net gain, ill explain below.
- If both alliances use all three robots to build up their side of the field there is a total of 24 cycles between the three robots. 8 cycles per robot. (I count the half-cycle as a non cycle)
- If one alliance sends a robot to play defense they would lose 8 cycles
- If we use a 5 second pin, 3 second reset, and 2 second travel as the game cycle for a defensive bot that bot would be able to run 10 cycles before end game. This gives off 50 seconds of pure stall which by itself denies the opponent 4 cycles, as the last cycle would be incomplete and thus not be scored. I also believe that if the three opposing robots are held up by the defensive bot they will get in each others way. For every 7 seconds that they get stalled, in theory they will run into each other, which inhibits their game cycle. This is where the estimation will make or break the theory… I focus on the Loading Zones, there are two of them for three robots. If we use 5 seconds to deposit and gain control of a piece of cargo, the opposing robot will be “pinned” by a teammate already using that Loading Zone, this denies the opponent another 5 game cycles 50/7 -> 7 (rounded). I take off two cycles as the driver will most likely not be able to secure a 5 second pin every attempt.
This is how I got to plus 2 on the net gain
However, I agree that every robot must have some way to build up their side of the field. There is definitely a gameplay that will counter the 2 build-up 1 defensive. My point with that example was to try and prove that not accounting for fouls or driving error, the 2 build up 1 defensive would beat the 3 build-up 0 defensive in a vacuum, (by my formula and time estimations for net gain)
Thank you for your feedback, I definitely agree that a robot cannot function well in an alliance if it cannot score some game piece effectively