(I have competed in FTC for two years, and actually did not compete this past season due to the cons below. However there are some pros.)
Cons:
- FTC games are bad.
- The FTC control system is the single most buggy, unreliable, and prone to damage control system that I have ever used. Not to mention its terrifying vulnerabilities.
- Everything FTC is more expensive, like way more expensive.
- Unless you have the tools to make everything custom, you will get smoked by everyone that does.
- FTC game rules are so exceedingly restrictive on robot interactions that it might as well consist just of skills runs.
- Way, way too many things to do to score points. Most years people just pick two and go only for those. Only the very, very top teams play the entire game.
- There is no field controller. That’s right, the only way robots are disabled and enabled, autonomously run, etc. is through the drivers themselves starting and stopping the program by pressing a button on the screen on the phone.
- Penalty system. In FTC, for most rule violations there is no warning/dq system, rather points are awarded to the opposite alliance.
- The wireless control system runs on freaking Wi-Fi, which teams must constantly manually change the channel of. Lol and we think vexnet has interference issues…
Now, some pros:
- Java programming language (expect v5 will come up to par with this with c++)
- more powerful motors
- More freedom; you can use sheet metal and weld it if you want (If you have the required tools that is…)
- More robust materials (metal gears, actual chain)