I’ve Seen a lot of people talking about their robot ideas but all of them are attack robots. Does anyone know if certain teams or your team is considering on making a defense robot?
I try to convince anyone not to build a purpose built defensive bot.
A good intake can steal pieces away from the other team and a speedy powerful drivetrain can definitely get in the way. Both of these are good for offensive too. Typically if you build a good offensive bot you will fall into a good defensive bot too
21 Likes
^ this. A lot of the above and beyond defensive specific things that would make a defense-only bot more effective than just a well built offense capable bot are likely not worth pursuing since there is little upside to it.
Like if you’re at full weight with a heavy traction gearing and push people around - scores you nothing and only limits your opponent by one bot’s output (assuming you’re 100% effective on D).
Lane control, piece starvation, effective time management, occasional pins - all of these are proven defensive strats and work just as well with a bot that’s also contributing to the point total where possible. That’s net positive points in your tally and still can limit scoring on the other wall, which is likely much better math in the long run.
4 Likes
I think there’s some value for teams to design an attach-if-needed extended wall into their design like those used in 2016 (and inspect it with the rest of the robot).
But would build for scoring first, then just attach it when the game changes in the playoff rounds if they’re the worst scorer on the alliance versus defense.
4 Likes
I’ve usually had the opinion that an offense robot can play defense, but a defense robot just can’t play offense. I think you’re much more likely to get picked by a higher ranked captain if you have basic scoring capabilities, as you have the versatility of being able to score or defend depending on the matchup. And you never really have much of a chance of becoming a captain yourself as a defense bot, unless you have an very lucky schedule
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.