Hi, Team 4765 here.
Our strategy is to be primarily a breach and defensive robot. We plan on being able to breach 4 of the 5 categories of defenses in game as our main offense to gain 1 RP. Your thoughts?
Any boulder scoring robot is going to have to breach at least 1 of the categories as they need to pass the defenses to get into the opponents’ courtyard. Save yourself the trouble and only work on breaching 2-3 categories. Then spend your extra time scoring in the low goal, defending, etc.
It’s a solid strategy. Should be a fairly simple robot to build and you’re still valuable to an alliance.
Would you think that a 6 wheeled drivetrain with 2 bogey wheels be a good idea for pushing another robot for defense but also traversing the rock terrain?
This is along the line of what we were thinking too. I think a robot that can breach 2-3 categories effectively would make a good asset on an alliance.
That’s something that came to mind reading thru the rules. even if your robot can’t score a single ball you are still very valuable if you can breach a few defenses. Never have defensive robots been as valuable as they are in this game. 1 RP by a single defensive robot is a pretty huge deal.
What do you think about shooting?
that will be extremely hard to do unless you have a good vision system
What do you guys think about a 6 wheel drivetrain? Also do you have a plan on defending the shooters?
I can see a lot robots this season using 6 wheel drivetrain, our team might consider using them ourselves, and best way to play defense for a shooting bot is to disrupt the aiming and shot.
Would you recommend trying to put a shield up? And do you see any issues with the 6 wheel drive?
You can try to implement a shield could do the job, but what we found that a nudge or bump of a team out of position is just as effective. Good driving practice is a good form defense. There can be issue of tipping with any drivetrain it depends on how high your center of gravity.
if you go offensive you could design it more compact to go through the lowbar (which is a very strategic component for an alliance), and be able to gather boulders somehow, to shoot in the low goals. If your going more defensive, try a faster and taller robot to block the boulders like http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/BRGPOD/147605.jpg
as an example, to block shots both on top and bottom, but it can’t be top heavy.
I agree and this idea is what I’m leaning toward… I have not considered a pure defensive bot yet but the key is a low center of gravity especially through some of the defenses.
If you are only focusing on two to three categories I would note, that a shooter bot would likely want a bot that can do the most time consuming defenses on their alliance in playoffs so that they can take the fastest cycling route to the Castle.