Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

I did like the autonomous mode. It was a big mindgame of trying to predict your opponents movements so you could stop them from getting away from your human player.

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

No, since you have never driven on regolith, I cannot fault you for wanting to. If it isn't in a competition, it can be kind of fun slipping and sliding all over the place.

Once you have tried it, however, then I believe I could consider you crazy for wanting back on the field for a game. :ahh:

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

Saw this on the FRC blog post today...

Does this mean that there will be an abundant amount of game pieces this year? (ie. lunacy)

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

Not necessarily, but hopefully. It just means FIRST doesn't want the demand to exceed the supply just yet. They could have a production shortage (at the moment or throughout the entire season), in which case there are big problems. Or they want things to be fair.

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

It probably means FIRST wants to make sure the game pieces don't run out in the first 5 minutes (like the talons did, for example) so every team gets to order some.

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

Many teams rush out to buy a ton of game pieces right after kickoff. These are typically used for pre-season and off-season events... but if enough teams do that right off the bat, it can create a shortage for other teams.

Just look at last year... having 3+ basketballs was great for testing your robot, and there weren't really a ton of them on the field at any given time. But to put on an event, you'd need a ton just to account for wear and tear and replacement.

This decision means that every team should be able to get a couple, and then teams that need a lot for an event can go in and get what they need, if there are enough. If not, they'll be the ones waiting on backorders, not teams that need the game pieces to design around.

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

What do the Curiosity rover and Navy Seals have in common?

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

Probably the memory Pen/Thumb Drive w/ (is it Classmate Image on it?), which was a separate item last year I think too. There have been a number of smaller items over the years that probably arrive too late to get in the tubs but, are provided in the KOP (think I read that or asked a question and received that answer...though it was not an offical answer as it didn't really matter that much to me, we received it). Can you imagine unstacking & opening every one of those stacked plastic tubs to put a box that size in them at the last minute when for every tub someone else handles you can hand them that lil' box, and let them drop it in the tub? My guess; 4"X1"X1"=A Thumb Drive.

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

That would be great. I would like to see pulleys involved, actually. Can you imagine robots hoisting each other?

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

SO I WAS RIGHT!!!! :D

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

Ehhhhh I'd argue that the dumper robots scored more than the human player, but I'm agreed. Lunacy basically turned into a game of tag. Except that if "it" caught you, you were screwed.

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

It was? Our code was just "full speed ahead" from the center starting positions. If we were lucky, the opponent robot had some sophisticated autonomous decision code (or none at all) and we'd just pin them to the wall so our human players could score as many points as possible. :cool:

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

My team found a great way to solve the problem of opponents knowing what we would do - we had like 6 different autonomous modes (plural was decided to be autonomoose), plus a seventh program that would pick randomly for each match - our opponents didn't know where our robot was going and neither did we!

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

I don't know, what this says to me is that Andymark may be the only supplier of gamepieces (like they were last year) so they will probably be something unique and custom made for FIRST (tetras!).

Re: 2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!
 

Not necessarily(though I personally think it'll be the case that the gamepiece will be unique). People were able to obtain whatever the ball manufacturer had left of basketballs with their branding(not FIRST branding), and IIRC they were pretty much the same as what you could get from AndyMark(with the same ball-to-ball variations, that is).