For this years game what is the most feared freature or features you do not want to have to go up against. For me i saw 1403 robot (playing in nj) and they can grab most of the ball falling in there robot. I really do not what to have to play against that. The only thing the would make them even more of a power house would be if they could get on the bar.
shaun team 25
Here is what I see winning:
1.) A robot who can catch all the balls while its partner triggers the bonus ball
2.) A robot who can get on the bar immediately and de-cap the 2x ball (if needed).
These two simple strategies I will fear the most. I fear even more an alliance who can do both of these, for I believe that they will be unstoppable.
My biggest fear, possibly unfounded, is that this game will go the way of numerus other years games.
FIRST has, for better or worse, started a trend in the game of a single, relativly easy big scoring item. I take this to be a token for rookies, so they have something they can do and still have a shot at doing well.
The problem comes from 90% of every other vet team realizing that they can control the game by controling that one scoring object. Last year it was the hill. The year before that it was the three goals. This year, it is the bar.
I really, really fear that in the first 30 seconds, every bot that can is going to go right for the bar, and there will be a royal slug fest between all 4 bots and who gets to hang. The number of ball handlers this year pretty much shows how weighted the game is to that 50 point bar.
Maybe this is because my team can’t hang. But still, who wants to watch 2 minutes of pushing and shoving over a silly bar? I don’t blame the teams that are going for the bar at all- it’s probably the winning ticket. My team realized that, we just decided that we’d rather stay out of that and do something a little bit diffrent.
Speaking for my self, I would much rather play a fast paced and dynamic game then a pushing match followed by a minute of watching my 'bot dangle.
I’m sure many will start posting reasons why I am completely off base, and there are so many ways to score points. Go ahead. It won’t change my outlook on the game or what I think is likely to happen. The only thing that will change that is never seeing it become a trend in matches.
-Andy A.
I think you do not people know how much the small balls are going to change the game. Ex: if all your robot could do is grab big ball and push a goal you push a movable goal you your side of the feild put all 6 ball from you team side in it and cap it the is 60 points with out getting any ball off the feild. that alread negates on robot hanging. Now i feel you can put 11 balls in the small goal with the 30 inch ball that now negates both robots hanging and you have the advantage.
you aren’t completely off base, but I don’t think you are 100% right either…have you been to a scrimmage yet? cause what I have seen at the scrimmage i went too and what I have heard from other scrimmages is that small balls & who can hang determines the winner…imho and others that I have talked too think this game is much more different than the last two…keep in mind there were balanced games in the past, and yes there are easier ways to win than others (there will always be), but that is all in the strategy and how your robot performs, not necessarily that FIRST has given a game that is too single focused…
my most feared feature would be a doughnut making machine, or a robot that says mr.T lines like don’t be a fool stay in school.
Any robot that can hang in auto mode and keep other robots from hanging, or any robot that can catch every ball. An alliance that could do both would make my head explode. So if anyone wants to watch my head explode…
I think going for the bar early is going to be a bad idea for most teams that hang. From the pictures I have seen so far, very few teams appear to have made a locking mechanism to prevent them from being removed from the bar, or as I like to say, delivered to gravity’s ever loving embrace.
On the QnA board, FIRST has stated that it is legal to de-hang opponent robots. This gets sticky though, as we all know that intentional damage is not permitted. The crux is that this will be a judgment call on the part of the referee.
On the one hand, I did not de-hang your robot to damage it. I did it to win the match. It was your responsibility to design your robot in such a way that it could not be dislodged from the bar, or that it could survive falling from the bar.
On the other hand, it may be my responsibility to design a robot that could safely deliver your robot to the ground after disengaging it from the bar, if I were planning to engage in such tactics.
If I had to make the call I would go with the first case. The second one doesn’t pass the extension test. For example, extend this concept to pushing matches. Am I responsible for ensuring that no damage is done to your robot if I decide to push it away from my ball corral, or are you responsible for building a robot that is robust enough to take the punishment?
If you ask me, hanging early = broken robots for teams that don’t lock on to the bar.
Thats Scarrier than i ever thought possible. i now do not fear death.
Im some what worried about Omni Directional Robots as if anyone who is somewhat up to date with teams posting there pictures and profiles there are TONS of crab drive and Omni drive robots this year with the capbality to run circles around you while floating like a butterfly and stingin’ like a bee. from scrimage footage and playing with that First Frnazy 3D simulator(Omni robot on the game) you will see there is tons of room to drive around franticly and distrupt any if not all attempts to get up the steps or get up that bar. im happy thought because our robot does not try to get up the bar but where still a volunerable target to any axis happy pilot willing to block our path no matter where we go. Kudos to team 21 who took our idea (haha j/k) and also have a omni directional capability.
Be Afriad
-Osc on 702-
well I think that i agree with my teamate Andy Grady the robot that scares me the most is one that directly funnels all 18 balls from the ball drop driectly to the human player station. :ahh:
the thing im most scared of is the 13 inch balls of death. no one realy knows what ones are gonna be used in the actual compititon. at the building museam we kept running up on them!!! it was tearable! so im woried
I posted this concept in a different thread. I feel that every other robot, even the teams who catch all 18 balls and roll them out to the human player, is beatable through the correct strategy. In most cases, I have even already thought of that strategy. The one doomsday scenario I can imagine is an ultra-tough, quick unfolding, funnel. If a robot can unfold itself and funnel balls directly from the troft to the human player zone, while being able to take multiple hits and avoid being moved…you really can’t beat them. Of course then again, with some of the strategy nuts on this board, I wouldn’t be suprised if someone could think of something. 
how bout caping their big goal before they can shoot?
According to the rules, all small balls on top of a capped ball still count and will get a 2x multiplier.
Unless you have built a robot that can expand taller than theirs and divert the balls the other way. hehehe.
Any robot can be moved.
have you tried shooting 18 to 24 balls into a goal that has a 2x ball wedged in its top?
when they are fully inflated, they dont push down very far very easy - if someone caps your goal, and you dont have a means to uncap it, you are not going to get very many balls in it.
TO answer the subject of this thread, The thing I would worry the most about is a team that thinks this is battlebots - with a machine that comes flying out in autonmode and smacks their opponent, or that rams our bot for no apparent reason
even if they do get disqualified, we still have to go back and repair the damage.
It would be hard to move them if they brace themselves against the wall and the side and that corner. You really can’t push them from the other side and most robots can’t pull as well as they push. Anyway what could you grab onto to pull. That would just get you in trouble. My next move would be if they have a fabric to capture the balls to strategically push on that kind of like when a baseball gets caught on top of mesh batting cages. This would possibly divert the flow of the balls.
my biggest fear is a robot that can control the bar, but then im just worrying about the finals matches
I fear the team that has decided the best way to play the game is to run around and look to shove robots over off of the ramp or find some way to topple other robots and try winning by breaking the opponents robot (not intentionally, of course :rolleyes: ).