We have a competition on the 1st of december and we only have a drive train done due to also being on a FTC team, so should we focus on scoring flags with balls OR flip caps and score caps on poles?
I would go for a strong defensive bot that can flip low caps and score low flags but also deny the opponents points.
Caps. Maybe beef up your drive train some, too. There’s just a lot that can go wrong with a shooter given a short time frame. And you most likely have a decent experience with lifts, if you want to go that route.
Flag are more important than caps, at least so far.
But with 10 days left you may have limited options.
If you have a good drive train that can park, I’d work on the following in order if you have a good coder:
Running auton from the back (Red Right or Blue Left) b/c good teams will have a better auton for flags.
- knock cap off the ball during auton (+1 for you)
- #1 + park during auton (+4 for you)
- implement a low cap flipper and low flag flipper
- #1 + flip cap near post + park auton (+5 for you and -1 for opposition)
- cap de-scorer, but if you can prevent them from putting it there in the first place…
I wouldn’t worry much about front auton. A top team will have this so your value is in the back and defense.
A low flag flipper is really easy. You may just slap that on and get one of those 448X intake flipper things and spend the other 8 days driving.
hey, I’ve already gone through 2 robots at 2 separate competitions. We had a really strong cap bot, that could flip all of the caps, score 'em on posts, flip low flags, and park. We got to semifinals each time and lost to a ball launcher every time. so this time, we went for a catapult with a cap flipper on the back, and it looks like a much better option. It can hit all flags, and flip all caps on the ground, and park as well, parking is vital.
but, if your really pushed for time, and have no launching experience, go for caps instead, building a solid ball launcher is pretty hard, took me 3 tries to get it right.
A shooter, no matter the design, will always be difficult to perfect and, will take time to get working decently well. Building a good lifting bot that can consistently score caps on posts quickly is also difficult and takes time to get working decently well. Considering the amount of time you have, being able to consistently flip the caps will do you much better that having a shooter that barley works or a lift that just gets in your teammate’s way. If I were you, I would build a simple, but consistent, cap flipper and stick the remaining motors in the drivetrain. That way you can assist your teammate well, park, use the cap flipper to score low flags, and, my personal favorite, play defense by pushing people!
Hope this helps. Good luck at your competition!
Whatever you decide to go with, don’t forget to be able to center park!
yup yup yup
its pretty surprising how little teams I’ve competed with can park. only about 2-3 out of 20
Ermm… how about considering our 8059D ri1d design? 
But to be honest, don’t expect to win if it is just a ri1d (8059a singvex nbn was one of the rare exceptions to the rule), but it will be at least competitive and useful 
Depends:
Caps require a lot more strategic play as you have to control the back zone of the field (tiles on polar end from flags) as descoring is something simple and easy to get attacked by
But easier to get into
Flags: being good at flags will be a major benefit as point swing is massive, espc during auton
But requires more time to tune
Really? I’ve designed around that. It’s a pretty simple fix. I just chained a small wheel onto the drive chain using a larger sprocket to add torque. It stays off of the ground, so the speed difference in it is negligible.
Still, it’s kind of janky to drive. I assumed most teams would be able to do it, so I didn’t put much thought into it.
I would make a really fast base that can easily center park and hold it’s ground, then a simple four bar or six bar with a passive cap intake and flipper to score caps. Also ,where is this competition? I have one on the same day.
yeah, its pretty annoying loosing those extra 3 points. may end up just building a little wheel thingy and asking each of our alliances to put it on their bot so we can have them park.
I built a hook so I could literally drag them onto the platform. I never attached it, but it was pretty punk. (For lack of a better term.)
lol sounds great. I remember on my SS year I built a weird hook thing for our partners so they could high hang.
lol sounds great. I remember not yet existing during SS. However, I came up with a pretty cool design using a platform they could drive onto. PowerUp Buddy Ramp style.
nice. that was my first year, and we lost because our robot decided to implode itself on our final match. my bad for being such a horrible builder back then tho.
Oof. I’m still a horrible builder tbh. But I come up with some wicked concepts. Just can’t build them. Such as my passive MoGo lift last year. Was spectacular, but kind of put too much stress on various pieces.
Anyway, back to the topic, cap robots can be a deciding factor, and shouldn’t be overlooked due to their inherent design flaws. Such as descoring bars.