Not because I’m some stat nerd, but I’ve been following designs. Field elements in a prior season become parts in the following seasons.
In the early 2014-16 games, robot were light and airy. Lots of 1 x beams, standoffs, sort of gossamer builds. There were not really big parts, so teams cobbled stuff together. The game in 2017 gave teams in 2018 big panels to build from.
And that next year 2018-2019 saw “containers” used to hold scoring objects.
But the long beams in these game elements (2x20’s) really advanced the reach of robots.
Squared Away with the parts store gave *x1 parts by the dozens and robots used them.
Pitching in and Slapshot have not really advanced the part count, other than the slides in the yellow goal.
But this year (slapshot) also saw a reappearance of the chunk bot to hold goal parts. The 12x12 slabs made for easy containers.
Three questions:
For 2023-24, do you think the chunk bot vs slim bot will be the best bet.
For new teams: Buy old games, get the huge part count?
Third: Do 3 year teams have an advantage of the parts they have?
(Disclaimer: I love VIQ since 80% of the parts can be reused. I’m looking at the best way to give my 2022-24 teams equal footing)
Pitching In’s field elements did bring in some 3x plates that weren’t available outside of Gen 2 kits. We had a couple teams make decent use of those. I think Slapshot’s blue and purple tower plates are going to be factors in next season’s robots as well, simply because there will be quite a few of them.
I think what will drive chunky vs slim will hinge on whether there’s a ramp or hang element for Full Volume. If it’s a lot of element collection and storage, I’ll lean towards chunky.
To your other questions, I do think teams with access to previous years’ fields parts do have some leg up in a broader set of things they can draw from. Enough to make it worth buying up previous games, I don’t think it’s that much.
Not sure if it’s still available but used to cost $99 CAD regular price and $49.99 on sale. So when on sale, I bought for my sons to boost the number of pieces they have to build with. Comes with a number of useful parts like string, flywheel waits , wheel hubs, and pulley wheels. A lot of useful curved piece and even rubber standoffs. A lot of odd hole 1X beams also. If you can find these at a good price still, definitely worth it. Costco sometimes sells some similar set at a good piece per price ratio.