How Important are Rings?

[technik3k]

@Xenon27

how are we defining easier here? it might take less driving skill to drive up a platform with 4 goals, and it might be quicker, but it also might be more difficult to build a robot that can carry 4 goals, especially if the robot also has to stack rings (which I think robots will really want to be able to do).

If there was motor penalty for the pneumatics, I would tend to agree with you that it would be nontrivial and take some mechanical wizardry to build such robot.

However, no penalty rule makes it almost mandatory for teams, who want to win championships, to buy pneumatics kit and use it for auxiliary tasks (like locking the claws) and to shift motor power between different modes.

If you think about it, with access to 8 motor drivetrain and as much pneumatic cylinders as you want, it is not that hard to pack four mobile goals into a robot and carry them up the platform.

@Xenon27

also consider the advantages of being able to move freely at the end of the match, instead of sitting still on your platform. You can take away any goals your opponents have left in their home zone, you could score some extra rings, you could even defend an opponent trying to reach their platform and stop them from doing so.

I would expect any competent alliance to keep all mobile goals they own locked on their robots and both of their robots stay in contact with the platform for the last 30 sec of the match, so that they could score collected rings without any interference from the opposing alliance.

Also, if I was a robot that snatched two neutral goals during autonomous, I would stay as far away from the opposing alliance home zone as possible. Because I wouldn’t want them taking me hostage along with the points that come with those goals.

I would try to pick another alliance goal and collect about 10 field rings during autonomous, then pick remaining alliance goal at the beginning of the driver period.

@Xenon27

and I don’t think goal only robots will be able to defend very well if they’re holding a large quantity of goals. that weight will slow them down, especially when it comes to acceleration, so much so that even with a 6 or potentially even 8 motor drive, opponents should be able to outpace them.

I wouldn’t need to - I would just go to my home zone, deploy some sort of the pneumatic brake, and spend the next ~60 sec trying to score rings on my alliance goals to make it more dangerous for opposing robot to harass me, as they would risk DQ if they cause any of those rings to descore.

@Xenon27

I’m not so sure about this, for a robot to defend an opponent carrying the neutral goal to the point where they cannot stack rings on it, they would have to spend all of their time defending, and even then it might not be a perfect shutdown. which can be a viable option if your opponent is the only good robot on their alliance and you have a competent partner, but otherwise it’s a net loss for you to spend your whole match defending.

If my alliance partner would want to engage opposing alliance, to interfere with them scoring any rings or play counter-defense on them - that would be great.

However, if I was a robot that was fast enough to snatch two neutral goals early in the game and reliable enough to collect 10-12 field rings, score them on the alliance goals, and park on the platform with four goals - then I would be mathematically guaranteed to win the game even 1v2 and even with very competent opponents:

Assuming that on the championship level both alliances are evenly skilled and rarely make strategic mistakes, it will all come down to who will be able to grab more neutral goals in the first seconds of autonomous and then not fail in scoring the rings and parking on the platform in the last 30 sec of the match.

I hope the middle of the game is not going to be as boring as, I afraid, it could be. Perhaps, some tug of war over the neutral goals or strategic dumping of the rings under the platforms to prevent parking, will make it more interesting.