I’m thinking a mecanum drive might work well because it allows strafing so you don’t have to turn while scoring 3 towers in a row. It will also keep the power of all 4 motors when playing defensive.
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Our team is currently working on 2 bases, one going 3:7 600RPM on 4" wheels (257 RPM) and the other going 5:3 200RPM on 3.25" wheels (270RPM). Since the field will be relatively empty this year, we figured out that having a high speed drive train can be more effective as we can maneuver faster to score the tic tac toe
Would defense with mecanum wheels be an issue because you can move sideways easily?
strafing drives cannot push back hard enough, so yes you’d have issues. unless you could use the strafing to avoid the defender, but at that point you’re spending all your time running from them, and they’ve effectively accomplished their goal of neutralizing you. So if you choose a strafing drive this year, you’ll have better performance in skills and auton, but I’d expect you to suffer during matches.
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I’ve noticed from my TT bot that mecanums are actually pretty hard to push from the side. You wouldn’t be able to push back sideways, but it would be pretty hard to move you if you fight back
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sure, but now you’re wasting your time fighting back when you should be scoring. your defender has done their job. I don’t think a mecanum or x drive will be able to score while getting defended so well, unless the driver is really good.
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How would you make an x drive more defensive?
Practicing smart defense
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I think you should not worry about defense as much, people get so caught up in “I need to build a giant tank sized bot so I can resist defense.” Really the best strategy is to make a small speedy boi that can out-maneuver all the big robots with mechanum wheels or whatnot.
Change Up is meant to be an offensive game.
If your strategy is to box out your opponents with your large robot, it won’t work so well in this game since the field is so open. In turning point, you could trap your opponents behind the platforms so they could not get to the flags. This strategy worked all the way into the dome in turning point, especially from math division. In this game, a small and fast robot has the field advantage. I expect defense to be seen, but not as bad as turning point. The only reason you need to worry about having a strong base is if your facing a wallbot, and even then a good driver with a speedy robot can get past it. (Also, I don’t expect many wallbots like from TT, more of cap bots and cover bots). It’s not so much as “slow down your opponents from scoring,” but more of “you get faster and out-cycle your opponents,” when you’re scoring. (Especially early season, as I expect defense will pick up later in the season, as there is just a point where a robot cannot get any faster at scoring. That’s when defense becomes valuable, since you can’t really out-cycle your opponents anymore, since they are just as fast as you. Defense will be the only option at that point).
It will come down to who can play defense the best without sacrificing scoring speed. Check out 8059A from turning point. They were just as fast shooting flags as the other teams, but also had a huge robot that could box-out its opponents. And again, boxing out opponents won’t be as valuable this year, but slight defense will be viable late season.
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Tower Takeover had a valid reason fo H and X drives, but for this season there really isnt a reason to have them. Just go with tank for the sake of simplicity, space efficiency, and speed. 
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I disagree. Tank drive will work fine, but speed and mobility will be really beneficial, so I’m thinking an X-drive will be the best option.
Especially for my perfect skills score plan.
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I think skills could be maxed without x drive. Just gear faster for equal rpm, strafing is not needed. You will likely lose out in matches, and for skills, you can probably max without x drive.
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What type of drivetrain is your team using?
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Yeah, If you want speed, and mobility, an X drive is pretty good
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Its a geared tank drive
Small Base (25x25) has a 5:3 200RPM Gear Ratio on 3.25" Wheels (270RPM on 4" wheel scale)
Big Base (32x32) has a 3:7 600RPM Gear Ratio on 4" Wheels (257 RPM)
We chose to go for a geared drive since it gives a wide variety of speed to choose from, have less slop, and doesn’t snap like chains
Personally I would not do a tank drive
I say this just about every time chain snapping comes up, but if you use chains right you will not have to worry about snapping. If your chain continues to snap the problem is most likely under one of these categories:
- Your chain is under too much tension. Loosen it up a bit.
- Your chain has a bad link. The plastic chain can be deformed if misused so whenever a link breaks mark it. If that link breaks again replace it.
- Your chain is carrying too much load. Similar to the tensioning issue, but the solution for this is to lighten whatever it has to carry(or double up chains)
- Your sprockets are out of alignment. Make sure your sprockets cant move side to side at all on their shafts.
Driving something with gears will of course allow it to handle more force, no question, but chained drives are still really viable even in defensive games.
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One thing I dislike is that there is more slop in chain. They can be viable, but I think gears are the better option for this game.
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I kind of think this game is more offensive than defensive.
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Personnally, I’m doing a 280rpm geared mechanum drive (macanum or machanum?) However tank drive is the most popular for a reason. It’s consistant and has slightly better pushing power. Also mecanums are expensive and we don’t want to waste ours.