From a stategic perspective and an engineering perspective, i do not think hanging is worth it.
First off, i do not see hanging as a 20 point perk. I see it as a 10 point hanging perk that turns your robot into a column goal. half of the points come from holding a large ball. So realistically, the act of hanging is only 10 points, while the act of holding a large ball while hanging is also 10 points.
Now, i may be a victim of a prison of consistency and i’m rationalizing my way out, but here is a scoring analysis of max scores
Buckys are worth 50 points
Large balls are worth 30 points
hanging is worth 20 points
If each method is performed perfectly, these are the scores you get. By far, bucky balls are the most valuable. So the real argument is whether you should hang, get large balls, or do both. to determine this, we need deeper analysis. Here are the max added scores a robot can influence at 1 time.
Buckys are 70 (50 from the columns, 20 for opposing stored on barrier and/or within robot)
Large balls are 50 (20 in columns, 30 in goal zone)
hanging are 40(preventing 2 robots from hanging)
Looking at both scenarios, large balls still have the lead. In scenario 1, if 2 large balls were in the column, it would be worth 20 points. 10 points would be added if balls were in the goal zone. Because of this, 30 would be the max score. Even if balls were in the goal zone, that would be 20 points, equalizing with hanging. However, if you consider total influence, you can see that manipulating all 8 large balls at the same time can have a much greater affect than hanging yourself. Even if all balls were in the goal zone, that would also equalize scoring. The last option is much more cunning however. By preventing a hang rather than hanging yourself (assuming that it’s impossible to hang and prevent others from hanging at the same time), you can cancel out a potential 40 points. If you hung yourself, you would only have a potential of 20 points.
So rather than hanging, or hanging and manipulating large balls, you can determine that developing your robot to stop teams from hanging is much more convenient. the driver practice needed to disrupt an opponent’s strategy is not difficult. Defense all the way, get between the opponent and target. the engineering difficultly isn’t that hard either. Develop a robot which can resist pounding from a robot that’s equally built. Develop a robot which can block the necessary path to reach the hanging bar. Developing a robot which can stop 40 points of hanging rather than earning 20 points of hanging has a much higher chance of winning a 2 s 1.
So sidetracking slightly, to hang, you need to hold a large ball and lift your robot off the ground. To raise yourself off the ground, you have to be 40 inches tall and have a lot of power.
Because of this, i look for alternative uses for these traits.
what if you could be 40 inches wide? If you’re 40 inches wide, you could easily manipulate 2 of your large balls at the same time. With more engineering, you could manipulate all 4 of your opponent’s large balls. That will deprive them of a possible 30 points and hanging points. if you decide to make your robot protect your large balls in the goal zone, that would be another 20 points. Also, being in the goal zone opens up strategy opportunity with bucky balls and de-scoring.
what if you placed all the power you use for hanging towards shooting? if you could shoot bucky balls into the goal zone, you can quickly pass pieces to your opponent to stash. You also have the strategic capability to send opposing game pieces to the hanging zone. This forces them to make a round trip to score again. Also, shooting is very flashy. Not only does it look cool for judging, it’ll look cool for alliance selection.
what if you were a heavy robot that couldn’t hang? you could push around opponents and no one could push you back. The field is tight anyways so speed wouldn’t be a necessity. heavy weight also compliments the anti hang ideas.