Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

I like it!

That wouldn't surprise me at all.

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

With multiple robots all working together, just think what they could accomplish!

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

So maybe we'll be allowed to use alcohol to fuel the robots this year?

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

How about using alcohol to fuel the mentors???

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

Im fairly certain thats the ONLY reason they release the Hint.

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

If that's the case, I'm not letting anyone borrow my screwdriver!

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

I really hope that there isn't an essential task that must be completed by two or more robots on the same alliance. A lot of robots aren't very strong or can't do certain things and I wouldn't want to rely on alliance partners to do some kind of critical task. I'm totally in favor of having cooperation be a part of the game, but I don't want it to hurt a good team paired with weak alliance partners. I thought coopertition was fine because the chances of none of the opposite alliance robots not being able to balance was extremely unlikely.

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

Agreed (except for maybe endgame). Too much cooperation elements can overcomplicate the game unless they increase the game time and build season length.

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

Just stringing together a lot of thoughts here of my own.

Seal the Deal

A DINNER, MISSED
HOLDING WEIGHT

Well a good way to miss dinner is to snack on some chips. Down that same alley, in poker, chips have weight. Back to the videos referencing cylindrical objects placed on circular objects, perhaps the robots move chips onto card-like objects.

There could be 3 values of chips like the pushpins on the rick astley photo, and by choosing him, the game hint people can reference a joker card just for fun.

Long story short, robots stack chips on cards, and maybe there's an element of chance helping rookie teams stand a chance against veterans.

Your game is poker.

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

I dont know how, but in a dream Woodie Flowers accidentally showed me a letter titled "FRC 2013 Game: Space Race". Unfortunately I didnt open it as I didnt want to spoil the kickoff for me :)

Space relating to the curiosity landing?

I dont know how, but I felt COMPELLED to post it! :ahh:

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

Let me continue speculating on the game hint... I know some already touched on the significance of the number 3 based on:

- the second game hint was labeled hint #3
- pi starts with 3, and pi was used to translate the numbers
- "Never Gonna Give You Up" is 3 minutes and 33 seconds long
- The Rick Astley Picture is held up by 3 different colored pins (if their intentions weren't to make it specifically 3 different colors and wanted to maintain correspondence to FIRST's color scheme, one of the red pins would be white)

But here are two things that I didn't see anyone mention that emphasizes on the importance of the number 3 here...
1)The picture of Rick Astley occurs EXACTLY 3 minutes into the music video it was taken from.?
2) Is it just a coincidence that the only pin that is different on that image is the 3rd one whether you count them as if reading lines, or if you count them like quadrants of a unit circle ***pi***?

Now, I'll recite what someone previously said about FIRST's game trends:
2011 resembled 2007
2012 resembled 2006
If 2013 will follow this pattern and resemble 2005, then the 3's are easily and obviously related to tetras.

But other than that and the unlikely possibility of having 3 alliances, any thoughts on why 3 would be so important, and how it may relate to the other game hint?

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

Something I noticed. Go to the page for downloading the game manual. Right click on the image that says "Game Manual" (the box with rounded corners and the arrow that says "More"). If you click "Save link as..." the default file name is "3.htm".

I think "3" is the critical hint here. There are just too many "3"s for this to be a coincidence. Maybe 3 alliances (2v2v2), 3 minute game, or something involving 3. I'm thinking something like Tic tac toe?

(Now in the interest of full disclosure, the link for the admin manual is "2.htm" so maybe it IS a coincidence. Hmmm....)

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

The fact that the screenshot was three minutes into the video was said many many many times. And yes, that IS very key I believe!

My favorite game was 2005!!!!!! PLEASE!! (At least I wont have to wait much longer :) )

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

Yes i was the one who posted this. I though of the 2005 game and it had 3 goals in a red zone 3 goals in the middle and 3 goals in a blue zone. Maybe three different scoring areas. I pretty sure some people have mention this in having 3 scoring zones or obstacles. We will have to wait in see in about 33 hrs.

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

I have to say, cannot contain myself any further, but have been lurking through and reading this thread nearly non stop since Wed. night (took time out to go to a Mentors Meeting/Dinner in a restaurant w/ wifey tonight - Thurs. though, and discussed the thread instead part of the time). Takes a while when you follow most links of course. Only hit 1 Trojan (Be careful of the old MFG. site for the Jaguars tech info straight from the VexBot site to the old makers of the Jag's. there's a JS.Trojan.Exploit there upon opening the page link...MS Security Essentials cleand it immed., no harm, no foul...Oh, and only 1 actual non-expected RickRolling LOL).

Way back when Win XP was about to be released to the public, before the release, Microsoft hosted a worldwide game (a real world game much like what this particular clue release has caused in this thread), and the game took weeks, people all over the world cooperated together to solve the puzzle together....(I work in the IT & computer repair/consulting field, and I work for myself, am big multi-tasker very Type A Idiot, and I could play the game while I worked and still produce fully, think FRC build season 24 hrs a day)...But that game ("Loki" you nearly killed me)...I played that game nearly 24 hrs. a day for the few weeks or months it ran and I still have every clue & post link in neat lil' folders archived on a BU HD and some great memories (I actually was a Second Place Winner and won a Zune Player from Microsoft that I gave to my middle son).

I would have been proud to have had any/ & many of you along for the ride as many of you have gone down so many roads and are on the right track I think in many places, some I think are waaaaay off base as I very well may be also.

Luckily for me, there is only less than a day and a few more hours and the whole puzzle will be revealed as far as what the clues mean.

Kudos to those that decrypted the poem, right on through to the actual poster of approx. the (Partial) of Pi....Though If I read one more reference to "water game" (though I did have to laugh about the T-Shirt at AndyMark a page or 2 ago), and am also as terrified of the scouting aspect of 4v4 or the even worse thought of 3v3v3...Yikes!

I have seen some suggest and discuss their feelings (most being Mentors of course), about how build season over extending, etc.

Sry, had to lay a foundation...Here are my guesses. Bear w/ me and my book here a few minutes...Remember I read from page 1 of the thread to the post somewhere in page 30 or so before posting once. But the quoted post above hit where I was before I hit page 24. (Methinks Frank is a very bright man, I wouldn't even be surprised to know that either Frank and/or a few on the Game Development Team also met "LOKI" along the way also).

1. The Pic of Rick. Rickrolled? HS Jr. Student son (Programmer, Driver, all around everything if it needs doing), and I were discussing the RICKPIC last night, and my Teacher Mentor Wifey says "What's Rickrolled?" We educated her very quickly. Now (my real ?)...How in the world did she make it to late 40something teaching / & researching the web like she does without ever getting Rickrolled? I need to really find out that secret (I live on the web, I research solutions to hardware/software & other problems for a living, any idea how many times I have been Rickrolled myself since 2004? Care to even guess? Think of the digits in Pi, then add a Raspberri or 2...LOL).

Or, is the RICKPIC a VERY GOOD hint? A real promise by Frank to post the pic previously to the actual posting? I looked back through his postings & I saw no proof (if you did see a previous promise to post that pic in another of his previous blog posts, please post back a link for me).

So it leads me to also think that pic has a ton of meaning, that particular frame of the vid is exactly minute 3:00 into the actual vid (any on youtube, same song, and that song can/could have many of the game element and/or title meanings all over it), then there is the "rose" window up to the right, rectangle field, the choice of pushpin colors & positions, (a light hits the gloom on the gray...Never mind that is Game Clue #3 after decryption of the poem, and I digress), but there are elements inside the pic I saw that could relate to parts of the decrypted poem easily. I'll see later if the RICKPIC has anything at all to do w/ this game later, I SURELY HOPE?! </;-)

2. The teaser clues in Frank's Dec. 18 Post and his use of 2 words/phrases hit me odly (Mesoamerican Long Count..., & not Myan Long Count...), and ‘coincidence’ ....which was anything but when on 12/21/12 a portion of what seemed like a series of #'s as "easy as pie" (but wasn't, still WOW), was served up as The Promised Clue - or "Game Clue #3" (Along w/ certain info for those interested in the KOP•Size: 6" x 7" x 30"). Very interesting stuff.



3. The title of "GAME CLUE #3" is a clue in it's own right. (3's as almost everyone knows so far, will go far)...No "coincidence" that 12/21/12=3+3+3 caused a ton of consternation, nervous energy, guessing & excitement. Personally after looking at what the bracket sheets looked like for when it was 3v3v3 back when (before my time for sure), it was a mess or appeared that way, though they got through it....I personally think 3vs3 is safe for now (I guess we'll see together in less than 36 hrs, eh?)

4. Cryptography really isn't my thing (and the ones who like cryptography here), seemed to have safely and logically deduced & reduced, and decrypted & massaged the game clue cipher into a reasonable poem result; Work explained very well & easily trusted.

A ROSE, KISSED
SINGER GREAT
A DINNER, MISSED
HOLDING WEIGHT (Though the last comma was misplaced originally in a few
of the posts). The one pointing that out and the ones
that immediately followed it turned on an instant light in
my head.(!) ("My eyes become large and the light that you
shine can be seen").

5. Straight to YouTube (Sokay, I love that Seal Song anyway and had been whistling it since the first mention of "Kiss From A Rose" by Seal), you know that tape in your brain that keeps looping until another song or piece of music replaces it (please do not deny it, humor me....I CANNOT REALLY BE ALONE IN THIS!!!) LOL Watched the vid a time or 2, off to download the Lyrics IMMEDIATELY...Hmm, they were not discussed in any of the posts so far in this thread.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/seal/kissfromarose.html

6. Then I began reading them and it felt (read it as you hear it), just like "Build Season" & beyond (I believe many of us during competition will really miss the "witholding weight" fellow FIRST FRC Members). But, I think based on the amount of Dinners we do miss between Saturday 1/5 & that Bag & Tag day after mid February arrives, and all that happens like a blurrrrr between those 2 points and beyond (it is time we find time to have a REAL sit down & eat at home "Dinner" or 2).

Then again looking back to last year and how different colored lights reflected differently from that ("A light hits the gloom on the gray"), gray reflective tape that was used on the backboards last year, and how neat that looked through the Camera as a target in reverse contrast...Either red, or blue, or green on a black background....So the song could mean many things to many different people.

Or it (the poem), could explain elements of the game, or the Game Title....We'll see. But, I do personally think we are going back to Bag It, Tag It, Run what ya brung, and fix it (only) if you have to during the few hrs. you have onsite at competitions (No arriving w/ that 25~35 lbs. of reserved & refined extra practiced witholding weight in the form of major fabricated pcs. or what you saw that worked real well in that YouTube vid last week).

SRY All, My book is done....Fading into the wallpaper to finish the thread....."My power, my pleasure, my pain, FRCeeeeeeee"

OK, I'd rather believe that we all make it to the Championships, Seal comes and performs a set or 2 incl. "Kiss From A Rose" for all of Mentors like Wil & the Peas did for the kids, and FIRST throws in a sit down dinner. Hey, I didn't start all this...Frank did.;)

Cg