Would it be wiser to run a 100% consistent defensive autonomous that sets the other alliance off track or a scoring autonomous that does pretty well but only about 80% of the time?
Set it up so you can choose between them?
Consider the following: neither robot on the other team is running an autonomous program that will score any points. If you go defensive, all you might do is nudge them and help them. Meanwhile, you’re not scoring any points yourself. If your ally isn’t scoring anything, then you just wasted your autonomous entirely. Of course, if your ally has a really good autonomous and you’ll get in each other’s way, that 80% successful offensive approach isn’t looking so great.
A defensive robot is only effective with good scouting, otherwise you’re just running an autonomous that wouldn’t be effective 50-70% of the time. In my opinion, an offensive autonomous that works 80% of the time is about the common autonomous, as well as I think the extra 20% is worth the gamble.
+1
My team had a defensive autonomous in the states competition. It was really effective and stopped our opponents from scoring mobile goals in the 5, 10, and point zones. Our alliance would then score a mobile goal in the 5, 10, or 20 point zones.
For me, this is less about reliability and more about point potential. A lot of the teams I get partnered with would be a lot better of if they had a defensive auto instead of no auto at all, which is what a surprising number of teams have this year. Especially for my second picks, I often wish they had a defensive auto.
Run your offensive, then code your partner to have a defensive auton.
We usually run a defensive auton if we know someone is going for the mg’s. If it doesn’t look like they’re going for mg’s or if they go for high stack we’ll usually use an offensive 10 pt or 7 pt auton.
We have a really consistent offensive (20 zone with 2 cones) auton that has never failed us, but we also have a few good defensive (and one that gets a cone on the stationary and a cone on a mogo in the 5). Depending on who our partner is, we decide which one to run. If our alliance partner also has a consistent, high scoring 20+ point auton, we may run a defensive, but otherwise we would run our high scoring one. If we know our opponents will score 26 points, and we can only score 24, we will probably run a defensive one, but IMO the potential for scoring is usually enough to justify an offensive auton rather than a draw, even if it may not be entirely consistent.