Just wanted to shoot this out there… how important do you think autonomous is this year? And, how much do you think a robot should score in autonomous to really make a diffrence?
-Luke
scoring the mid goal, whatever it is yours or the opponent’s, in isolation zone first should make great differences. if your robot is not able to do so. alternatively, block at the mid goal position.
if you are in interaction zone, make sure your opponent’s robot will be blocked by your action that makes it not able to score the high goal in middle, or not easy to reach it first in driver control. alternatively, score the low goal on your side first if you are sure that opponent’s robot will not score the high goal or not able to score it at all.
Autonomous mode this year might actually be more important this year than it was last year. Due to the fact that there is no descoring, anything that is scored in autonomous mode stays there permanently. Keeping this in mind you will want to try to score on as many goals as possible to get those bottom point bonuses. If you can’t score in autonomous mode, as the person above said you can try to block the middle goal in isolation, or ram in interaction. I would suggest that every team try to at least get a simple scoring autonomous mode because its well worth it. If you think about it, autonomous mode takes up 1/5th of the entire match. If you only use 4/5th and someone else is using all of it, then you are at a severe disadvantage
it is very important as the above two said because those are the ONLY bonuses in the game (excluding the special barrels)
if you miss out all the “bonus” in autonomous, you will need to score twice as much just to equal out the score
On top of scoring the bonuses, working in the autonomous mode saves time during driver control. Even if you can’t, for example, get to the middle 20" goals in autonomous before your opponent, you can still try to score as many of the objects from the ground as possible, so you can help score the other objects in the interaction zone. If your competition is at the point where people can score everything in a 1:30-2:00, finishing first means that you have time to bother and block the other team from scoring the last of their barrels, negating any advantage from scoring the bonus points.
I will personally write an autonomous to get a robot to score in the side low goal (goal 1 or 3), if anybody is seriously considering ramming in autonomous. Bear in mind that rule <G11> probably rules out any kind of obvious ramming in the first place.
yes obviously scoring would be prefered but i was merely giving an alternative to teams who can’t do that. And yes, the rules make it much more difficult to ram which is a great thing. I hate ramming robots
How does G11 discourage obvious ramming? It simply states that if your purposes is to damage the robots, then you’re out of line, but I am of the opinion that a healthy amount of the ramming is an essential part of any defense.
- Sunny G.
In autonomous it is also different. It would have to be obvious that the intent of their autonomous was to damage the other robot in order for it to be considered illegal. Ramming in autonomous it almost always not going to damage a well built robot, so I doubt it would ever be considered illegal, until it actually damaged the robot, and still it’d have to be the obvious intent. (Obvious to the referees, that is.)
~Jordan
I think <SG10> is more of a concern when talking about ramming in autonomous. Though I think we will still see ramming, I would bet there will be much less of it this year because of that rule. Even if they are not aiming for the opponents starting tile, it is a huge risk if they accidentally hit it in autonomous.
ah i was gonna point that out
blocking other robot in autonomous doesn’t mean to strike directly to their starting tile. it should be fine that just move to the front of the high goal in the middle of the field and stop at there. then in driver control you may have the advantage of scoring it first, and that would likely be a promise of winning a match, if your alliance is able to score those goals in isolation zone.
what exactly does rule <SG10> say?
It’s pretty easy to look it up, you know. 
http://content.vexrobotics.com/docs/vex-gateway/VEX_Gateway_Full_Manual_080311.pdf
~Jordan
If someone is trying to ram you, you will probably realize this as soon as they start moving. So, just grab your robot before it leaves your square and change your autonomous based on where the ramming robot ends up.
–Tsauce32
rule sg10 only states that you cannot ram when the opponet has left the starting tile, but could you block them from moving without touching the robot? (pin?)
It is VERY important this year because there is really NO de-scoring. You want to score first in this game… Autonomous is going to be a HUGE part in this game.
Ramming and pinning in autonomous is legal right? As long is it is not on purpose?
Last year we had some major problems autonomous wise. The first attempt someone placed the robot incorrectly and we managed to entangle in the ladder and were unable to play for the rest of the match. The next attempt one of our team maters rammed the back of our robot and managed to lift us up causing us not to be able to score. It’s mostly my fault as I was the programmer and it was a pretty badly written autonomous. (It backed up, roller out the tubes, and then moved forward)
That being said, we’re definitely going to make an attempt this year. I’ve already written multiple routines to be used and we’re actually going to be putting some sensors on. At the very least we’re going to follow a line to a goal and sit in front of it.
If autonomous isn’t a consistent wash at high level play, it will decide the Championship.