Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

I don't think anybody asked if the group likes the game this year. I mean, we all like robotics, but do we like this game, specifically? Hence the above poll.

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

I like it as a technical challenge. A lot of thought and precision work has to go into making effective scorers, more so than previous years IMHO. It has taken much more design work than I thought it would. It's also an interesting strategic challenge. There are a lot of ways to win, and a lot of ways to lose, and it is difficult to pinpoint a "best" strategy.

Also, no minibots! :D

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

I hold my opinion til after the scrimmages so I can see how the game looks with actual robots playing it. But from what I've seen so far I like it.

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

I like it, it leaves a lot of room for creativity in both the loading mechanism and the shooter itself. That, however leads to a lot of design disagreements early on though, lol:D

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

I like the game but not a lot of the rules. like no touching other robots or its a penalty. :(

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

I like this game, but not as much as I liked Lunacy!

But I think I'll hold most of my judgment until we get the chance to play on a field. I can't accurately judge the game as a whole based off of the one robot we're making. Gotta see it played with the other five.

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

I have always liked the fact that FIRST puts out games with two aspects. By That i mean a regular gameplay (shooting hoops, in this case) and a possibly game-changing final task (balancing on the bridge).

The Hybrid period is also pretty cool, since it includes programming other than the "make the robot move, then the programmers go twidle their thumbs" kind of challenge, and includes something new (the kinect)

Overall, I think that this year's game is quite good, and includes numerous engineering challenges that will teach students the think outside the box.

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

Wow, only 53 so far. Maybe I needed another option. "Don't care about this poll."...

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

The words "2009" and "Lunacy" are not words in 1058's dictionary... It never happened.

Anyway, I like the game for the balancing and scoring aspect, and I love that they ditched the minibots. However, I don't like how the balls are different densities, adding just another layer of complexity to an already complex game.

8.5/10.

P.S. Yo GDC I'm happy for you and I'm gonna let you finish, but Aim High was the best FRC game of all time!

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

As a veteran team, we LOVE it! I've always wanted another game similar in nature to "Aim High"! I think the public will like this game, especially in the regional elims and at Championships when you have several teams that can shoot.

Now to my concerns about this game, and it really doesn't have anything to do with the way the game was designed. Aim High had a couple of ways to score, including the corner goals, where you could drop balls into the bottom goal for a single point. We were a relatively young team at the time (I think it was our 4th season), and while we could occasionally score in the upper goal, we also knew we could score in the lower goal, and we could play defense. As we discovered in Aim High, building a shooter is not a trivial task, and building one that can shoot from more than one spot on the field is going to be even harder. However, since that is the main object of this game, teams are going to try to build just that, and, like we were in 2006, many will be very ineffective. We did do a good job of scoring in the 1-point goal, and playing defense. It was enough to get us selected as a 3rd round alliance pick.

Like Aim High, this game still has those opportunities for teams to score points, without having to build a complex shooter. Rookie/younger teams should be building a bot that has the capability to climb and balance on the bridge, and that they make that a priority! 10 balancing points is 3 made shots at the high goal, 5 made shots at the middle goal, or 10 made shots at the low goal! Yet, since we are still in the middle of the build season, hope springs eternal, and many teams I've worked with say "We want to be a shooter, and we 'know' we can do it." Some may very well do it, but many won't, and will spend a large part of the match trying to score a single shot.

Hopefully, teams will work to build bots that can at least get some of those "easier" points:
* Bridge balancing, as mentioned above
* Dumpers into low/mid goal (can be done easily from the front of the fender, or from the side where the fender and alliance wall meet)
* Simple shooters, maximized to shoot from the spots mentioned above (that's what we did in Aim High)

If they do those types of things, we see some good matches, otherwise I fear we will have some matches where the only points come from the penalties, if they can even cross the bridge/barrier to put them self in position for a penalty.

Overall, I rate it an 8/10 - Aim High would be my 10!

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

Absolutely love it. From a coaches perspective, there are so many different strategies to win a match.

Also this is the first time I can think where the game will drastically change between qualification and playoffs. You may see teams with excellent shooters in the qualification rounds turn in to ball runners during the playoffs to mimic 25, 968 and 195's "A-Bomb." The fact that the bonus for the bridge between qualification and playoffs will drastically change the game.

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

I'll reserve judgement to I see the game played with the referring. I worry that this game could become a game of tag and that more points are scored with penalties than by baskets. I like the base game. The rules are questionable. I would not like to to ref this game.

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

Game seems like it will be a decent game for spectators to watch. It will be really easy to explain to people outside of the FIRST community.

However, I am not looking forward to the unnecessary drama of the Co-opertition Bridge.

-Clinton-

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

I would have preferred to see the protection of the key limited to all wheels above the front line of the key. Limiting defense to blocking dunk shots seems too limiting.

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

I love this game.

• Incredible flexibility in design (dumpers, shooters, 'placers')
• Incredible flexibility in strategy (dance around the key, bump vs bridge, all-star vs support)
• Defense built into Offense (like 2010 -- gobble their balls up and fire them to your side)
• Anti-aggressive rules regarding defense (key/alley) so we don't need drive trains that push

I keep thinking of new strategy tidbits every day.

The only thing that I question is the automatic and irreversible real-time penalty system, which will probably subject more than a few matches to subjectivity and selective memories across the 3,000+ qual matches.

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

I love this year's game. I wasn't around for Aim High, but this game sounds to me just as good. I also liked 2010's Breakaway, for similar reasons:

• Easy for spectators to understand and follow real-time
• Good level of challenge
• Good Autonomous game
• Good End-game bonus
• Not heavy on defense
• No Mini-bot, and especially no Tetrix parts.

I hated the parts limitation of the mini-bot last year. It was antithetical to FIRST engineering. In particular, the Tetrix motor was poorly designed and not robust at all.

The GDC deserves a big round of applause for Rebound Rumble. Our team is really enjoying it and digging into the challenge.

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

I like it, but I liked Lunacy at this point in the season too. Lunacy turned into a bore of watching a bunch of robots slowly push each other around. Hopefully this game will be realize more of its potential.

Commendable things about it:
-Autonomous is worth a decent amount, but not an overpowering amount
-The programming for autonomous will pay off for many teams in tele-op as well
-It makes people think of Aim High, which is my all-time favourite
-Lots of different strategies to try
-Bridge balancing should be a crowd pleaser, and doesn't require a complicated extra mechanism to participate in (hello, 2004 and 2010's hanging and 2011's minibots). Any robot that can drive should be able to participate in the exciting endgame.

Things I'm mildly worried about
-Actually getting the balls in the hoops might be a bit tough for teams without automated aiming, especially with only 3 balls per attempt. At least in Aim High, a team without automated aiming could load up with 10 balls and gradually dial in their aim. Not only is the target smaller, but your balls-per-attempt is much lower.
-The fouls overwhelming actual points scored. In particular, OPR will be less useful this year because it'll be harder to separate points scored versus foul points awarded.

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

Unless you use the Twitter feed. There is a thread or tow around here with preliminary posts from it and it breaks out foul points.

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

Just posted another poll http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=101650 here. I'd love some opinions, if you have the time.

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

Ask me again after IRI.

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

I like this game because there is so much strategy and variation. It is almost like real basketball, where there are so many ways to play the game. Also, I think first made it really easy for spectators to watch. I think it was a definite improvement on breakaway, because it still had the spectator aspect, yet it allowed more variation in how the game is played by each individual team. It is much more like a sport, which makes it so much more fun to play.

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

In general, FRC provides very good games and I think the last few have been really good. Scoring has actually been simplified!

In the past, one of the major issues with FRC has been getting the general public to understand the game. Something like FIRST Frenzy was just about impossible to explain to the uninitiated.

I think one of the best things about this game is the one-line description:

"We're playing basketball and balancing a teeter-toter at the end of the game."

Everyone seems to get it.

Should be one of the most "general public" spectator-friendly games that FRC has had in a long while!

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

Re: Do you LIKE the game this year?
 

This is my first build season, so I do not have much to compare with. That is, other than reading and viewing videos of previous matches. But, so far I LOVE this game!

I know some folks think there are too many penalties, but I think the rules this year encourage experimentation with more drive train designs that might have been suitable in previous years. Also, the bridge cooperation scoring options seem to encourage an even higher level of communication between teams, both across alliances and between them. Brilliant. Perhaps like others I should withhold my opinion till I see some real matches, but there is just too much to be excited about in this game.