FRC Field in FLL Game Manual

[Owen Busler]

The FLL game was released today and in the corner of one of the field pictures You can see what appears to be an FRC field... With grey carpet... Was this picture taken on next years field?

Here is the manual look at page 14 picture 3.

http://www.firstlegoleague.org/sites/default/files/Challenge/TRASH-TREK/TRASH-TREK-Challenge.pdf

[robochick1319]

If so then that is a next level game hint. CLUES ARE EVERYWHERE.

[dodar]

That's either in the driver's station or there is a field divider on the field.

[Billfred]

The FLL game was released today and in the corner of one of the field pictures You can see what appears to be an FRC field... With grey carpet... Was this picture taken on next years field?

Here is the manual look at page 14 picture 3.

http://www.firstlegoleague.org/sites/default/files/Challenge/TRASH-TREK/TRASH-TREK-Challenge.pdf

It doesn't shock me that they'd set the table up on an FRC field, considering one stays at HQ for the GDC's use.

Alternate hot take: They're trying to give these kids a little taste of pre-last-year FLL at Championship! :P

[DCA Fan]

If I remember correctly, they've always filmed the FLL stuff on an FRC field. No big hints here, just normal carpet and driver station.

[BrennanB]

If I remember correctly, they've always filmed the FLL stuff on an FRC field. No big hints here, just normal carpet and driver station.

This is correct, often times the FLL game field is placed on an old FRC one.

[MattRain]

Last year they placed the FLL field on the 2014-2015 Season FTC field. Had a few pictures of elements and such....

[Jared]

That's either in the driver's station or there is a field divider on the field.


I'm pretty sure this is in the field and we're just looking at a corner.

If we were in the driver station, we'd be able to see some aluminum box tubing running along the ground with the fold down Velcro pads.

[GeeTwo]

Grey carpet is not much of a hint, even if it is the 2016 field. By my calculations, two-thirds of the games so far have had grey-carpeted fields. Based on the FRC_Game_Summaries_Photos for 1992-2002 (http://www.usfirst.org/sites/default/files/uploadedFiles/Who/FIRST_History/FRC_Game_Summaries_Photos.pdf) and the game manuals since (and presuming that "Ground Pepper" is a shade of gray), I count 16 of the first 24 games as having "grey carpet" as the primary surface:
1994: Tower of Power
1995: Ramp N' Roll (hard to tell; looks like red lights on grey carpet)
1996: Hexagon Havoc
1998: Ladder Logic
1999: Double Trouble
2001: Diabolical Dynamics
2002: Zone Zeal
2003: Stack Attack
2004: FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar
2005: Triple Play
2006: Aim High
2007: Rack 'N' Roll
2008: FIRST Overdrive
2011: LOGO MOTION
2013: Ultimate Ascent
2014: Aerial Assist

[EricH]

Missed at least one: 2009 had gray carpet. Admittedly, it's easy to miss, but the border of the field--1' or so, as I recall--was gray carpet (this to enable escaping from pins); the carpet was laid out and then the FRP was unrolled on top and secured.

"Ground pepper" is in fact a shade of gray.

Non-gray-carpet fields:
1992, corn kernels
1993 (Rug Rage)--not sure offhand, but almost certainly carpet. Gray or not, not entirely certain.
2010, green carpet (soccer field)
2012, tan carpet (basketball court)

1997 I'm pretty sure was gray carpet.
2000 was DEFINITELY gray carpet.

So, in 24 games, only 3-5 did NOT have gray carpet as the primary surface. 80% or so.

And, just to stir the pot, there has already been a water game. One of the games I listed in this post had water in the game. Anybody want to take a guess?

[Christopher149]

Missed at least one: 2009 had gray carpet. Admittedly, it's easy to miss, but the border of the field--1' or so, as I recall--was gray carpet (this to enable escaping from pins); the carpet was laid out and then the FRP was unrolled on top and secured.

"Ground pepper" is in fact a shade of gray.

Non-gray-carpet fields:
1992, corn kernels
1993 (Rug Rage)--not sure offhand, but almost certainly carpet. Gray or not, not entirely certain.
2010, green carpet (soccer field)
2012, tan carpet (basketball court)

1997 I'm pretty sure was gray carpet.
2000 was DEFINITELY gray carpet.

So, in 24 games, only 3-5 did NOT have gray carpet as the primary surface. 80% or so.

And, just to stir the pot, there has already been a water game. One of the games I listed in this post had water in the game. Anybody want to take a guess?

2015, red and blue carpet

Edit: The water game was Rug Rage

[GeeTwo]

1997 I'm pretty sure was gray carpet.
2000 was DEFINITELY gray carpet.

According to the pics in the game summary document, 1997 was light blue, and 2000 was tan/cream. It's possible that 2000 they was exposed or processed improperly. 1997 has a stack of toroids, including one white one, in the foreground, so I don't think the color was that far off.

[Nathan Streeter]

Missed at least one: 2009 had gray carpet. Admittedly, it's easy to miss, but the border of the field--1' or so, as I recall--was gray carpet (this to enable escaping from pins); the carpet was laid out and then the FRP was unrolled on top and secured.

It's a nuance, but I suspect the GDC implemented the 1' carpeted 'field border' in 2009 more to provide some friction so robots were less likely to slide into the field walls at 6+ fps all the time.

[Joe G.]

It's a nuance, but I suspect the GDC implemented the 1' carpeted 'field border' in 2009 more to provide some friction so robots were less likely to slide into the field walls at 6+ fps all the time.

If I recall, the stated purpose of the carpet perimeter was to allow pinned robots to have a friction advantage over the pinning opponent. In reality, it mostly just enhanced the field's effectiveness as a Van de Graff generator.

[rsisk]

Apparently there will be many sizes of FRC fields next year, and in a multitude of colors

http://i.imgur.com/z7iiqgm.png

[Taylor]

And, just to stir the pot, there has already been a water game. One of the games I listed in this post had water in the game. Anybody want to take a guess?

2009. Because, as everybody knows, there's water on the moon.
Also very (in)famous pictures of Dean himself applying the water.

[EricH]

According to the pics in the game summary document, 1997 was light blue, and 2000 was tan/cream. It's possible that 2000 they was exposed or processed improperly. 1997 has a stack of toroids, including one white one, in the foreground, so I don't think the color was that far off.

2000 was gray. I watched that one at Nationals that year. Gray can look tan/cream in the right lighting. (I summon... The TechnoKat (https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_NPAkx7sAJAeUJWNVVvNjFHZjA&usp=sharing&tid=0B_NPAkx7sAJAakRFSjRKeTdMcVk) History Project!) (Note that there are some field photos that look tan/cream under game lights, but when people are on the field it's gray.)

1997 shows up as gray as well--reference the 1997 archive from the TechnoKats History Project (http://www.technokats.org/history-project/).

1993, gray--do I need to say where to find photos again? :p


Taylor, sorry, I was referring to INTENDED use of H2O. Christopher got that part right. Some of the balls in 1993 had water in 'em.

[SamcFuchs]

2015, red and blue carpet

Edit: The water game was Rug Rage
Hardly- the water was completely contained within the balls. If you watched the game, you'd never know.

[ratdude747]

Looks like a driver's station.

IIRC during a kickoff one year (2010?) they showed pictures of the GDC prototyping the game; I remember the experimental field being gray (as it's probably used for protoype field elements, not the actual full field).

So no, IMHO, not an actual hint.