Do you think the pyramid this year will be decisive?
Last year in the rebound rumble bridges were essential to the final matches in victories, what you think of this year on the Pyramid … ? 
The importance of the pyramid is based directly on the ability of teams to score discs. If teams prove that they can score a ton of discs, then the pyramid lowers in importance, as its points are dwarfed by the discs. However, in your typical match I expect disc scoring won’t be terribly high, making the pyramid worth a ton, for those teams that can climb it to the top.
While it is likely that the one robot completing a 30 point climb would win an qualification at some events without doing much else, the elimination tournaments are going to be chess matches of when alliance robots have to stop shooting and start climbing in order to complete their climb.
I expect it to be a major source of points, especially at regional matches. In four years, I have been constantly surprised at how much influence the end game has. But decisive? I don’t see that happening. But I’ve been wrong before!
I believe that the pyramid will be very important this year. Like other years, the end game is very important. But, what I think do think is more important this year is the autonomous score. If you start the game off with a high auto score, it will be a game changer.
The later you get into the season, the less likely that a 30 point climb will win a match. This is the type of trend that FRC tends to follow. In week 1, you’re more than likely to win if you do the end game perfectly, but as you approach week 5 or week 6, winning takes a good overall performance in every aspect of the game.
agreed, the importance of the pyramid totally depends on your consistency and quickness of your scoring/shooting.
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As the season progresses, simple reliable climbing devices will be copied and added to Bot’s with weight to spare, making the end game less important. Recent history has shown a Team’s competitive advantage is quickly eliminated after Week 1, as evident by ball deflectors in 10, ramped MiniBot deployers in 11 and stingers in 12. The winning alliance at the Michigan State Championship will be predicated on the strength of their combined Autonomous scoring, not climbing ability.
I am not sure if they will be decisive this year or not. We are counting on it for our robot design, but we build for competiveness at our regional and with our limited resources in mind.
What I do know is that it sure will be a lot of fun to watch the robots climb and the different ways people approach it!
Also, the GDC has reserved the right to adjust the pyramid climbing scoring for Championships so it’s hard to predict at this point I feel.
A 30-point ascension has at least six times the value of any other disc-related maneuver in this game. Of course it’s critical and decisive.
Having said that, I kind of wish the scoring on the pyramid was 10 - 20 - 40 points.
What about the pyramid being worth 0 - 10 - 40 :eek: The GDC has the option, if they for some reason decide to, they can. Bad rule IMHO.
With 2481 proving that a climb to the top doesn’t have to be that time consuming (just over 30 seconds), I’m hoping to see some reallllly high scores. A 30-point climb on top of a decent teleop score would be crazy.
The thing is, disc scoring is repeatable. Yes it may be wort 5 times more than one autonomous disc in the 3 point goal, but you can score more of those, and then you can score more in the teleop period. If you can do that then 10 point hang you can easily beat a robot dedicated to climbing.
This years game is VERY individualistic, last year your alliance was linked in terms of what your end game points could be, but this year there is no link between your score and your allies at all (except limited discs but I don’t think this will be a problem).
Getting 30 points consistently will win most qualification matches, but scoring discs has a higher potential value, granted most teams will not be good at scoring discs, I doubt most teams will score more than 2-3 per match. At the same time, putting all your points in one basket and going for the pyramid can be even riskier, one failed climb and you’re done, not just for the match, but potentially the season.
TL;DR: Of course scoring points will always be valuable but discs are less risky and have a higher potential value, it’s all up to what your teams wants this year because the game is very individualistic.
Our team did the math on this one and figured our best shot was to climb and dump, thus requiring a simple drive train in addition to a climbing mechanism. We too have limited resources and will work on improving our fundraising for next year in order to be more competitive…
That said, if we can get 40 or 50 points a match, That is a lot of points to try to make up by shooting…So will it be decisive? Probably…until you reach a level where all the teams are 30 point climbers, then it becomes moot.
Just my two cents though.
Edoga
I think the pyramids will matter at some times, but not at others…it depends on what you design your robot to do, and of course, who else is on your alliance, and what their robot can do. In my limited experience, I wouldn’t recommend relying on the pyramid; the systems that could be used in designing it for that can be very finicky and (hopefully not) troublesome. If that’s you and your robot fails…then I suppose you can play defense, but otherwise you’re a 120 pound paperweight.
In other words, incorporating disc shooting in your design is (in my opinion) extremely important.