I think it would be a pretty good advantage if you are able to desocre the stashed bucky balls but it is quite a diffucult task…I’ve been thinking of a few ideas but none of them are that great/effective. Does anyone perhaps have some ideas they are willing to share? 
We started discussing this in a different topic I’m sure you can find.
I think a lot of us are considering the legality issues at the moment, which we discussed there. I know one of our teams is planning to build a mechanism that can, but we want an actual ruling before we spend a week making a prototype.
Yes, I was aware of that but I was wondering about how to descore…the thread doesn’t really talk about ideas on descoring but whether it’s legal…
Once we hear if it’s legal, we’ll start building mechanisms to do it.
Before then, we’re working on scoring mechanisms and a lift that can also hang.
I see…I really hope gets ruled as legal though…it would add so much more to the game. Anyway, thanks!
The legality is very questionable due to the fact that a descoring mechanism could potentially grapple or damage the field by attempting to descore.
Rubber links would make it more flexible… but no I think you should have a limit just like pinning where if it takes you longer than 5 seconds to descore some form of penalty is applied… and other robots during this time are not allowed to push you cause it could damage the field…
But descoring needs to happen because by worlds what will happen is very close games in terms of points. Aka scoring the whole field…
I don’t think it necessarily NEEDS to happen. If it is deemed illegal or legal, it will result in different kinds of play. If deemed illegal, the field will be scored, but because of the nature of the objects there will be a lot of tossing and carrying back and forth, so the match will certainly not die down at all. It would also make the stash goals merely a competition between who can score in them the fastest, excluding the large balls of course.
Regardless of which way the ruling goes, the game will go on. For better or worse either way, I can’t say.
It’s legal!Of course it’s legal. If it wasn’t they would have written a rule specifically not allowing it.
It’s the field damage / not allowed to grab the field rules that make this tricky. How can you descore without grabbing onto the field? Short answer is you can’t, so the real questions are in what circumstances are the refs going to call you for grabbing?
My guess is if you are quick about it and not directly preventing an opponent from using that goal (IE they aren’t right behind you waiting), then you’re probably good. I think the grabbing rule is mostly aimed at so called “wall-bots” that may want to permanently attach themselves to the field.
My guess is if you asked Karthik about grabbing while descoring he will probably say that the decision will lie with the ref or head ref.
So it’s a grey area, which is fine. It’s just like pinning. Some pushing is allowed, but if too much time passes you might get called for pinning.
Be quick about it and mindful of the field. Also I would build my robot to be able to withstand some abuse while descoring. Assume that someone is going to try to push you and be prepared for that. Because I’ll be honest, if you were descoring my points I’d flat out broadside you in a heartbeat.
-Cody
However a full on broadside intended to disrupt a descoring bot i believe is NOT allowed under <G11>.
Only robots who are pure defensive bots get little G11 protection. If I can score and descore and you ram me while i am descoring that is not legit.
stan
lol im pretty sure he means the most aggressive LEGAL way…
I believe that you are reading the rule wrong. At the very least I would like to have a discussion about this, and I’m sure that eventually someone will ask Karthik exactly what is and is not legal. I’m curious where everyone is currently falling in their thinking.
Let’s take a look at <G11>, shall we?
I’m about 99% sure that if you’re sticking any sort of apparatus down the cylinder, you would be “obstructing the field,” and therefore will not be protected under <G11>.
Furthermore, descoring stashed objects would most definately qualify as a “defensive [strategy].” In the case of your robot being hit while you are undertaking such, your robot should be built to withstand “vigorous interaction.” To me, this means your robot had better not be breaking if you’re going to be doing any sort of descoring from within the cylidners.
I’m in favor of teams building these types of mechanisms. It would add a great element to the game. However, you had better be absolutely sure that if I crash into you and start shoving with a torque-geared base, your descoring mechanism won’t either come off in the cylidner or damage the field in any way.
In a real world scenario, I would probably only advise my drivers to push the opposing bot if it had not managed to engage the goal. This is somewhat dependant on how Karthik rules on my SG9 question.
We got an answer.
https://vexforum.com/t/answered-sg9-descoring/23824/1
So to sum up, build anything you want to descore. But YOU as the Descoring robot are responsible for making sure that if I barrel into your robot while your implement is in the goal the field will not be damaged.
Awesome. This is exactly what I wanted, at least. And now we know what to build.