This year there are only a few ways to score points, but the methods of scoring these points are incredibly diverse. A poll suggests 7 different types of robots people are building, and from these you can combine methods to make even more types. Now that a stack is just a bin supported by something in the scoring zone, there are even more ways of scoring points. Last year there were less than half as many ways of approaching the game, yet it was still important what type of robot you got paired up with. This year the competition will be a nightmare because the chance of you being paired up with a robot that will compliment yours will be extremely slim. It seems that there will be many matches where two very good teams will be paired up, but they will both do the same thing (say lift one box extremely high) and thus they will lose to a couple of mediocre teams that can actually move crates. The mediocre teams will move all of the boxes to their scoring zone and the good teams will be stuck trying to get some boxes in their own zone so their lifting mechanism will be able to do something. Of course there could also be a match between four robots that elevate crates and none of them would be very good at moving crates and would thus all just putter aroung attempting to move crates and more than likely a few of them would get tipped over.
This will lead to many uniquely designed robots, but it will also lead to boring matches between robots that seem really bad, even though they are very good at what they were designed to do and just got very unlucky.
Any ideas on how to make winning the game more dependent on great ideas and less dependent on lucky alliance pairing?
The trick is to build a robot that can do one thing very well, but would work with any other type of robot, no matter what it does. 
That’s exactly the best thing to do!
*Originally posted by pauluffel *
**Any ideas on how to make winning the game more dependent on great ideas and less dependent on lucky alliance pairing? **
unfortunately, this won’t happen… luck is ALAWAYS part of the equation. that’s why the top 8 teams get to pick 2 partners from the entire field. there may be a really great team out there that just had some bad luck.
Yeah, and this year there are a lot of rookie teams. Rookies teams generally have BLTs…brave little toasters. If they don’t, they have done one heck of a job.
Yeah, I am in charge of scouting for our team, and instead of last year, when speed, manuverability, and torque were the most important factors because there were basically 2 types of robots, goal contollers and ball handlers. This year I built a database for our competition and had to include a score for compatability and weight that because it is so important for this year
But there a large pool of different kinds of robots this year and with whole autonomous control period teams will have surprised up there selves and from what i have heard theres team that can do special tricks such as cannons and self flipping robot to cut time running around the field… scouting this year will be the hardest its been in years:cool:
Well, as it always tends to be, a team with a very well made, robust robot will be a strong contender in the game.
I think with chance of there being more types of robots this year than last, the competition will probably be more interesting overall.
Even with a bad pairing of robot types, all is not lost. If you are a stacker and you can’t get to your zone, there are still things for you to do. A robot that can -move- can push bins out of the opponents scoring zones.
What I’m foreseeing is that if you have an alliance with two robots that do exactly what they were meant to do and can do it very well without any bugs and with good drivers, that will be an ideal alliance.
luck of the draw? sure is…you never know what robot you’ll end up being paired with (and what skills they have). Even in the finals when you choose your partner you don’t know which teams will be taken until just before the choosing. That’s what makes it so much fun.
that is why you make a very versitile robot. wink, nudge
*Originally posted by K. Skontrianos *
**The trick is to build a robot that can do one thing very well, but would work with any other type of robot, no matter what it does.**
We decided to be modular so we can do anything very well. Just not everything in the same match.