We are going to see a lot of teams doing different things during the sandstorm period. but what is the main objective besides getting out of the HAB zone? Personally i think the hatches should be the number one priority to keep cargo from spilling but what do you guys think?
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for sure, scoring hatches is going to be a huge priority
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Yeah it seems like hatches will be a large priority because you essentially score 2 game elements in 1 cycle. Other than that maybe trying to get to the human player station to get more hatches or trying intake a ball to get ready for another cycle could potentially be tasks if you have time.
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Think elims sandstorm and quals sand storm may be different.
If you are trying to just win the match I think you go for a hatch to claim those two cargo balls before they pop out. If you want a rocket ranking point.(which will usaly win you the match if you get it.) Go for the rocket hatches.
Elite teams I predict still run auto instead of use a camera because it’s is more effective for scoring no one could score as many of the cubes on the scale in tele opt without sandstorm visibility as the Poof’s could in auto in 15 seconds. So with the poor visibility points perseconds
its not as effective manualy operating with a camera
Guessing during quals elite teams will attempt to run auto to take out as much of the rocket as they can which is 2 hatches and 2 cargos at most. Start with a plate grab one from the loading station and grab two cargos in the habitat area killing a level on the rocket. 1/3 the rocket with 4 games pieces is taken out. Making it easier to get ranking points. During elims can see a different config that hleps maximize total alliance points.
I’m not saying it’s gonna happen but I wouldn’t be surprised after last year.
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We ran some simulation today to see, what are some possibilities and it seems being able to hatch cargo int the sandstorm is going to be a very utilized strategy…but @13spangs point there maybe different tacts used for quals when chasing the ranking points vs elims going for the straight win.
I definitely agree with you in the fact that in quals you might want to try to help towards the ranking points but in elims, you might go for more points possibly.
I think there could be some risk with some teams running autos while other teams could be using cameras in the fact that if the robots collide it runs the risk of damaging the robots but any way you go, with less vision autonomous or driver controlled robots are going to collide at some point.
My first idea after looking through the game at a basic level (Read: I haven’t done my deep dive through the rulebook yet, because I’m unfortunately not associated directly with a team right now and had other things to do today) is that the simplest but most effective auto for a low to mid-range team would be to preload the cargo ship with a cargo and then place a single hatch on that spot during those first fifteen seconds of the game, preferably autonomously to get consistency down. That at least gets you points on two fronts. However, when you have any chance of completing the rocket, hatching those ports could also get you a lot quicker towards that 1RP as previously stated.
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The only hatch covers available during the initial sandstorm will be those pre-loaded on the robot. After those are scored, the only game pieces available will be the cargo in the depots. I expect teams to pre-load hatch covers, place those (possibly on a rocket), then start loading cargo from the depots into the cargo ship and/or covered rocket cargo bays where they will nominally stay in place until hatch covers are added after the sandstorm. This may involve “parking” in front of the hatch to keep the cargo from bouncing out until it settles.
OK, missed that in 5.1.1 A. Still, a limited number. Beyond those now five hatch covers, game pieces during the sandstorm will be limited to the cargo in the depot.
Actually there are also 2 hatch covers preloaded in the loading zone that you can access.
But wouldn’t the cargo still fall out once they moved, which would be needed in order to place a hatch cover there? The bays stay tilted for the rest of the game once the sandstorm is over - the magnets never re-engage - so as soon as said parked robot moved, the cargo would just roll right back out.
until it settles - you’d obviously have to back away to get a hatch cover. In any case, I missed that the cargo bays dump at the end of the sandstorm rather than the end of the match.
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My team where just talking and where like just look at the screen that is above that shows the robots and stuff 
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