Re: 2015 Game
 

Ok, i see why assists would be better teamwork wise.

Re: 2015 Game
 

To be fair, the co-op bridge predates me as a FIRSTer, and my feedback is based solely on opinions I've seen and heard. Either way, it does seem a bit like 2009, where teams would purposely lose by large amount during elimination matches to activate G14 and *hopefully* limit their opponents' super cell count. I've seen a few 2012 matches where teams refused to use the bridge, to prevent rival teams from ranking higher than them. Honestly, I view FRC as "Cooperation off the field, competition on the field".

That being said, I do like the idea of something like assists returning allowing lower end teams to be powerful alliance members. (I say lower end teams and NOT rookies due to very powerful rookies this year like 4911 and 5172)

Re: 2015 Game
 

My opinion was primarily derived from the bridges in 2012s game

Re: 2015 Game
 

Wanna bet on that last statement? (Or the first one, for that matter?)


Take my advice, don't bet. I only take bets I'm fairly sure can win. The White Alliance last played in 1998, in a 1v1v1 game. After too many 1v2 games that were supposed to be 1v1v1, FIRST decided to change it to 2v2, then 3v3 in 2005.

Although there was the 2001 game, where the green robot, the yellow robot, the red robot, and the blue robot all had to work together in a 4v0, where up to two of them could get some bonus points.

Re: 2015 Game
 

I think you misunderstood. My statement is totally in agreement with yours

Re: 2015 Game
 

This is going to be challenging. My team is new so we have no idea what to do. Any advice?

Re: 2015 Game
 

My point was that we'd actually already seen NvNvN (N=1), with a white "alliance". This occurred BEFORE any NvN (N>1) matches ever happened. Thus, NvNvN most definitely occurred--with a white alliance, not a green alliance--prior to 4v4.

That said, because of that experience, for anything going forwards, I'd agree on the number, but not the color. (White is, after all, the third color of the FIRST logo.)



For Dakota: Find a veteran team to mentor you (there are 4, and at least 3 are active on Chief Delphi). Also, just so you're aware: Nothing in this thread actually applies to the 2015 game. We don't know what it is yet. You've got until January to learn the ropes, so make the time count, and learn well.

Re: 2015 Game
 

Assist-structured gameplay also has way more strategic depth and makes for a much better spectator sport, to my eyes. It's much more rewarding to see three robots functioning as a team than three disjoint robots doing tasks in parallel.

Re: 2015 Game
 

Considering games are prepared 2 or 3 years in advance, I'd be surprised if we see Assists as a major part of this years game.

I hope it's not another shooting/launching game but it's definitely trending towards put Object A into Target B and get X amount of points plus Y amount of bonus points for any particular game functionality. Unless they have a simpler scoring structure for picking up/capping/stacking an object, I think we'll be seeing more objects in goals of some kind.

Re: 2015 Game
 

Don't be too concerned. All of this is just speculation. Here at Chief Delphi we are all crazy and none of these games (*cough cough* water game) will happen. Since you are are a first year team, try to find a mentor team in your area. You will survive (coming from a second year team) Good luck!

EDIT: Meant for Dakota/RoboLynx

Re: 2015 Game
 

I'd be pretty disappointed if FRC keeps going with shooting games. 1 more will mean that the class of '15 went their whole FRC career in shooting games. There's nothing particularly wrong with the challenge of distance scoring, but variety helps round out the experience.
I'd at least like to see a game where shooting is left as an option, instead of being a requirement (e.g. 2014 - no height extension, 2008 - height extension allowed, so you could choose to lift or shoot).

Re: 2015 Game
 

I think that if assists return, it won't be explicitly spelled out with the focus of the game based around them as was the case last year. I could definitely see a game with "virtual assists" though. 2010 and 2012 are both good examples of this concept. Rather than rules, they used barriers on the field to make it more efficient for robots to play a zone based strategy, and pass balls from one end of the field to the other.

I'd also like to see this concept reborn in the endgame. I strongly believe that 2007 had the best endgame FRC has ever seen, followed by 2012. Both required all three robots to work seamlessly together to score the most points, and in many cases, designs centered around "user friendliness" were common. 2010 had the potential to top either of these, but the lack of point incentive for suspension resulted in a great concept rarely actually taking place.

Re: 2015 Game
 

This was a game where shooting was left as an option. Our team built a robot without a high goal shooter, and worked purely for assists. As a result, we did better in MAR than we ever have, reaching MARCMP eliminations for the first time. On the whole, though, I'm behind your point. It would really be a pity for an entire class to go through the FRC shooting things at a distance.

Re: 2015 Game
 

My years (2005-2008) we built an arm-type robot 3 of the 4 years. Currently there are 0 team members on our team with experience competing with a "pick up and place" type game. That is why this summer we built a very simple "Arm-bot" with the intention of getting the students some experience with seeing/operating a robot of this size and type. Once they have that basic experience they can much easier think of and design improvements should we need to this coming year.

Re: 2015 Game
 

We've had some type of shooting game the last 3 years now, I doubt they'll do 4. We're due for an arm or some type of stacking or puzzle game