What are your thoughts on working on filling the rocket during the sandstorm?
Were thinking that in playoffs we should focus on the carbo ship, but debating if it’s worth loosing some guaranteed points on the ship during qualifications, so we can start working on the rocket to gain a ranking point.
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Not sure where you’re getting guaranteed points from. In case you didn’t see, the pre-loaded hatch covers are special “null hatch covers” which do not count for points.
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Working on filling the rocket during the sandstorm is a brilliant idea! If you get off the platform, your team gets a ranking point. Yay! If you can get that rocket filled before the end of the match then yay another ranking point! Working on it during the sandstorm will get you a time advantage towards that ranking point.
Working on the cargo ship during the playoffs can be a double-edged sword. The cargo ship (I believe) is the tiebreaker for ranking points. If your team is tied with another then if you worked on the cargo ship and filled it that means you will be the one who gets the higher placement. Then again, if you are only focused on the cargo ship, and don’t fill the rocket you are giving that ranking point up.
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I’m talking about the preloaded balls, when covered worth 5 points.
If I go for the rocket, I won’t preload balls since they will fall because I don’t cover them, and as you mentioned the hatches don’t give points.
So I don’t quite understand what you mean by “preload” Since 5.1.1 F says
"F. Each team must prepopulate one (1) CARGO or one (1) Null HATCH PANEL (a HATCH PANEL marked with white tape and hardware installed to secure Null HATCH PANEL to the CARGO SHIP, see drawing GE-19244) in each of their two (2) designated CARGO SHIP BAYS.
So those are only able to go on the Cargo ship not the rockets. If you are talking about the piece your robots gets to start the Sandstorm with, then a Cargo (Ball) would be pointless as they would fall out, but you Could score a hatch (disk).
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You might want to check on that.
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There are 2 preloaded cargo balls in the cargo ship in addition to another 3 game pieces that every team decides where to place and which game piece to place.
Now let’s say the preloaded cargo balls (as the current null hatch) also don’t count for points.
In this case, obviously I will prefer to focus in autonomous on the rocket because of the ranking point, but this is not the case.
In reality though, the preloaded cargo are worth points, there are 2 preloaded cargo balls that if I place a hatch to secure them will be worth 5 points, unlike the rocket where placing a hatch is worth only 2 points (obviously it’s not worth to place balls in the rocket before hatches), so basically I’m sacrificing 3 points for every hatch I place on the rocket instead of on the cargo ship but I’m getting closer to a ranking point.
Plus, the potential of points gained in the cargo ship during auto is higher than the ship, I’m hoping my team can place a maximum of 2 hatches per auto (maybe dreaming rather then hoping 
but still) so that’s already a 6 points difference between placing on the rocket rather then the ship.
So I was wondering what other teams rather do, get closer to the rp or focus on the additional points?
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I believe that your alliance recives a ranking point for earning 15 points when climbing in end game. Not for everyone moving off the platform.
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The idea that I have made from all of you is that for playoffs, you pre-load the cargo ship with cargo. Then, during the sandstorm period, the best thing to do is to do the cargo ship first. The balls pre-loaded will be counted at the end of the game if they are still in the ship. Then after the cargo ship is don’t have the alliance work on the rockets from the bottom up. Then, have all of the members can go to their highest point in the hab. And try to fit all of the robots which can not get to the top to be on the middle step.
There is no auto/sandstorm RP. You get one for a full rocket, one for at least 15 points from hab, and two for win
Based on our reading of the cargo ship preloading, it looks like there are actually 6 game pieces to decide on (2 bays per team with 3 teams). Which makes the decision even more important.
The RP on the Rocket will be worth starting on early but if you know it will be a close match you may have to sacrifice to get those cargo ship points.
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The first tiebreaker for the qualification rounds is “Cumulative CARGO points” – i.e. points scored for balls, in both the rocket and the cargo ship. It’s also the second tiebreaker for playoffs. (First is foul points by your opponents.)