We’re looking at options now. Since it was on a GoPro we should be able to retrieve the last four hours or so of video. Everyone is getting a well-deserved good night’s rest now (or will be soon :P).
Here are a couple of notes/first impressions from watching two low-mid tier robots play the game:
-It’s a lot more exciting to watch than one would expect. There’s a constant tension on whether the totes will fall over-- it’s really easy (and faster) to stack them imperfectly aligned if you’re only grabbing one at a time.
-Noodles in the recycling bin are key-- scoring those guys alone is super easy (we could do it in 30 seconds-- with practice and a more solid robot one could probably get it down to 15-20 seconds)-- these are the equivalent of two 3-tote stacks, which is huge.
-Shorter, “complete” stacks were easier and faster to make than taller stacks-- for ours, I think the best height was a complete 3-stack. GreenHorns would do a two stack from the loading station and Snow Problem would cap it with a bin w/noodle and a tote. This seemed really effective
-If alliance scores are at 1.5x our average score (which would be 36 points), Coopertition will be a huge plus, doubling an alliance’s score.
-Picking up bins is easy. Picking up totes is easy. Picking up bins and totes is easy. Picking up both well is hard. Picking up both well and quickly is really, really hard.
-Stacking totes two high at the feeder station (per our video) was faster than either of our robots. I think this will be true for the majority of teams.
-Driver practice is even more essential than usual. To maximize points you’re working against your own success. The higher those stacks get, the more difficult it is to see. Picking up the right totes at the right time will be a key strategic thing at a high level.
-Peter (former 2175 driver) hates camera driving. After driving for a few hours, he was practically begging for one.
-Slide drive/strafing is huge in this game. I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of Einstein this year is slide drives. 6WD is not nearly as effective as it has been in the past. I’ll bet there will be successful teams that use it, but strafing makes the game so much easier.
If anyone has any questions, I’ll be reacquainting myself with Chief Delphi over the next few days, so feel free to ask here, in the Snow Problem thread, or via PM.
Also, anyone who says FRC is the hardest fun you’ll ever have clearly hasn’t done Ri3D. I loved my time as a student on 2220, but Ri3D was flat out exhilarating. One of the guys on the team said “After building this thing in 3 days, it makes me wonder what we spent the rest of the six weeks doing!”
