We are currently trying to buy parts for next season and one of the main things is buying a field. We see teams all the time build their own field but I have asked teams and they say it is inconsistent and unreliable. Is it better to buy a field or to build one?
It is usually better to buy your own field. VEX usually has some weird shapes and materials that one can’t replicate on one’s own (like the stake toppers this year or the triballs last year).
However, seeing as they are expensive, some seasons you can purchase a game elements set instead of a whole field (like over under and spin up) and replicate the other field elements yourself while only sacrificing minimal accuracy. But it really depends on the game. (This year, the stake toppers not included in a game elements set are especially hard to replicate, so that messed up quite a few teams)
tldr: if you can afford it, you should. If you can’t, well, depending on the season you may be at a major disadvantage or a minor one.
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My team hasnt got that much money so this season my team built 1/4 of the arena using wood and 3d printed stakes, mobile goals we didnt have a model for which put us at a major disadvantage at the start of the season (Wish they made this a sold seprate game element like rings) But we then printed very accurate moblile goals however we noticed that the stake top was alot more flexable then what we had so we went through about 5 protoypes just trying to make an accurate goal
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I believe they mean building the outside field, not the game elements. We’re a new private team and used the DIY instructions to build one out of PVC
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://content.vexrobotics.com/docs/vrc-change-up/DIY-Field-12012020.pdf
It’s been fine. The biggest issue is that it’s pretty light, so we need sandbags or something to keep the robots from pushing the walls out when they hit it. We didn’t use the GPS strips, so I can’t comment on how those work with a DIY field. The texture of the wall is a little different, so the rings would slide or not slide on it differently when pushed by the robot.
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