Hi, decided I’m going to make a thread with observations from week one events and will be adding to this throughout the week, any observations you make, comment them and I’l add them to the list. Also criticism is greatly appreciated! These are my personal observations and opinions on what I am seeing
Average match score prediction 30-40 Rank one average scores 70-90 at least for week one, I will be updating predicted scores also
Be prepared to update your firmware. Bring a flash drive with the most updated firmware for your PDP, PCM, Roborio and Talon SRX. thank you ehochstein for the info!
Throwing noodles are a very viable way of scoring points, possibly a game changer (at least in early matches)
The audio for the previous 30 seconds left is now on 20 seconds
The field is going to get very very very
messy very quick at least in early matches probably even later because people will still try to throw noodles. Whether they land on your side our the opposite side its going to get messy. - With noodle throwing being a very possible strategy, if you don’t have a way to clear noodles it’s going to be very hard for you to move around and you’ll shred noodles to pieces
Co-op points- rare to see 4 yellow totes on the step further more at least one. Possibly because often noodles block the path to the middle. This is where clearing noodles helps.
** Co-op points are very valuable**
I cant stress this enough. With such low scoring this is whag seperates teams in the standings. Top ranked teams will be those who get co-op points and do it consistently - Many teams seem to prefer the landfill
Landfill isn’t going to be pretty pretty for you to acquire totes from, especially later in the match
Capping stacks especially 6 stacks is rare. My prediction, if you can at least make one 6 stack with a can you can make a big difference in your alliance’s score
Recycling containers are
going to be knocked over. I don’t care how hard you try at not knocking them over most if not all of them will be knocked over. If you plan on using them, you should be able to pick them up tipped over. - Some robots, especially external forklifts are a bit tipsy carrying stacks, be aware of falling/tipped robots.
It’s going to be crowded on your side of the field, try to give others some space especially those carrying stacks
Not much scoring in autonomous, even simple robot sets. If you can make a tote stack all by your self and have your alliance partners stay in the autozone and do nothing could possibly be a game changer. Even just a container set is helpful
There is no such thing as a Science to throwing noodles
there are to many variables (bent noodles, stiff noodles, etc.) to have a way to throw noodles %100 to the other side noodles are NOT accurate - For scouting, look for an alliance partner that can complement what your robot can do. what I mean by this is is look for teams who you can work together with, if you can stack really well don’t choose an alliance buddy who can also stack really well, maximize what your alliance can do
Despite what everyone says about the lack of involvement of refs in this years game, refs are
calling fouls and they do hurt your score. With such a low scoring game -6 really makes a difference. specifically SO SO SO many G-6 fouls (touching chute door and tote) be aware of this - The Real Time Scoring
is NOT reliable at all. They’re are delays and it does not score noodles. Coaches need to learn to score in their heads.
When I went to a week 0 event, I was surprised at how quickly I couldn’t really tell what was happening on the field once the match started.
Unless you have a robot on your alliance that can effectively clean up missed noodles, a human player with dead-on accuracy when throwing, or you desperately need points if it’s a close match (only applicable in finals), I don’t think throwing noodles is going to be a very popular strategy once teams realize how much clutter it results in on the field.
Why would it being a “close match” impact you at all? Wins/Losses don’t matter, only how many points you score. If the clutter on the field from noodles reduces your score more than you gain in points from scoring the noodles, don’t throw. If you gain more points from throwing the noodles than you lose to the clutter on the field, throw noodles.
I underestimated utility this year which is weird normally I over emphasize it.
Just saw a tethered robot and the actual “footprint” created by the tether was a lot bigger then I had accounted for.
Size is killing some robots be it with center of gravity or just trying to get around, shout out to GDC for smart resource placement.
The one penalty I saw was a robot getting snagged on the scoring wall thing that determines your bin level. With so many mechanisms that apply force sticking out of the robot you need to remember that you are limited to what you can actually apply force to.
From a Robot Inspector at Lake Superior… Be prepared to update your firmware. Bring a flashdrive with the most updated firmware for your PDP, PCM, Roborio and Talon SRX.
It seemed okay to me today. I do think it’s worse than any game for 2011-2014, but it seems better than 2009 or 10. Still, it did seemed very… awkward to watch.
You know I had a chance to make a joke and I missed it but here goes anyway.
For inspection generally you see maybe one or two mimes at competition. These mimes are in charge of making invisible walls around your robot and if there are any cracks between where the invisible walls should meet then your robot doesn’t pass. After security has chased the people randomly dressed up mimes away they lay down a tape square and do it for real.
No box. They just eyeballed the vertical planes of the box, not my preferred method of checking this rule. If you happen to be off by 1/4" or 1/2" you would likely get away with it especially if it was higher up on the robot.
