Re: 2017 Game Speculation
 

Our team actually made a pair of practice denim bumpers this year. They didn't last long, unfortunately.

Re: 2017 Game Speculation
 

I've attached a spreadsheet I made on the characteristics of past game pieces, 1992-2016. It has their shapes, sizes, weights, and other info. A breakdown of the spreadsheet terminology...

For size:
Extra Small: Small enough to hold easily in one hand(1992).
Small: ~6" - ~12" for a sphere, or small in comparison to robot size(2016).
Medium: ~13" - ~30" spheres, not too big when compared to robot size(2014).
Large: ~30" - ~40" spheres, big or bulky when compared to robot size(2015).
Extra large: ~40"+ spheres, as big or bigger than robots(2005).

For abbreviations, CIR = circle, SQ = sqaure, CYL = cylinder, TRI = triangle.

About the "filler" column:
None means the game piece is hollow or empty(just contains ambient air), or is a solid material(like 2016 and 2012).
Air means it's filled with pressurized air(inflated). 1992 is listed as air because tennis balls are filled with pressurized air, but they eventually flatten out.
The rest are self-explanatory.

Some notes:
Weight and size do not scale with each other(a small ball filled with water probably weighs more than a tube full of air).
Spheres are the most common game piece so far.
From 2003 forward, you can see the not-a-sphere, sphere, not-a-sphere, sphere pattern.
Cylinders and flying discs are the least common game pieces.

What hasn't been used as a game piece? Cubes, and star/pointed objects...

Re: 2017 Game Speculation
 

Initially when I read, I saw the word Space, and later the word Bass. So I said hmm... Space... Base... then I thought of the Space Race. The world's competition to get the a very advanced peak into space, which started during the Cold War, would also fuel the race to launch the first satellites to orbit the Earth.

After reading above about the travel to Jupiter in 2001: A Space Odyssey (I've never watched it because of the amount of "static action"), I looked into it. Jupiter has a plethora of moons, 67 known in fact, and I also found that Galileo discovered the first 4. What are they known as? The Galilean Satellites. Galileo's discovery of these moons was when he discovered the orbit, the curved path around a star, planet, or moon.

That's all I've got.

Re: 2017 Game Speculation
 

The FRC blog post regarding the not yet released teaser was mostly about science fiction innovations made reality. However, at the end of the post was this line:
Combining both of these, I think the game might be to create a robot to help run a sort of futuristic restaurant.
That, or maybe he was just hungry when writing that blog post.

Re: 2017 Game Speculation
 

Honestly, why do threads like this even exist. I do love humor, but honestly the same thing is just repeated every year. I come to these rumor mill threads in order to find some weird quirk within the game design that an ingenious student found. However, I am just met with hundreds of comments on denim and water games. Again, it wouldn't even be half bad if the comments were actually funny, rather than just being reused from last year.

Re: 2017 Game Speculation
 

STRONGHOLD 2 CONFIRMED

Re: 2017 Game Speculation
 

5 gallon water jugs stacked into shaped pallets then the pallets are raised to a height. ( we finally get our water game)

Better that Recycle rush cause defense can be played while gathering the jugs from a common area.

Re: 2017 Game Speculation
 

Something I noticed about a week ago is the first part of the game name:

STEAMworks.

STEAM = Science Technology Engineering Art and Mathematics

I have no idea whether or not this will have anything to do with the game(probably not), but it could. Even if it doesn't, FIRST made a good pun.

Still hoping for a water game where the robots are made of denim though.

Re: 2017 Game Speculation
 

You see, everyone looks to the blimp as a game piece, but really, it's just going to be a simple scoring mechanism for the audience (i.e. the flag this year), as one team scores, their blimp goes up, so in the audiences perspective, they can just look at what team has a higher blimp! Now, you might ask, "why would first do this?", and the answer is simple, Recycle Rush, most people will rave day and night about how that game was terrible and so boring, and First sets this up to make it more interesting for the audience, you're not looking a robots making stacks, you're watching a race between two airships! Wow!

But for gameplay itself, instead of the blimp as a game piece, it will really be the most prominent thing on the logo, the HAT. you see, teams will stack oversized top hats similar to Triple play, with autonomous hats having a ring of reflective tape on the bottom. I'm basing this off of two things, A.) The last two unusual game piece games (so all since 2007), have been shooting based, First is too smart than to let that cycle continue, B.) The 12 year cycle (I'm only half joking here), Stack attack to Recycle rush, First Frenzy to Stronghold, so Triple play to SteamWorks.

Take that with as many grains of salt as you like.

Re: 2017 Game Speculation
 

In DLC packet number 3, there's a ringtone called "123LiftoffFIRST." If you play it, it sounds like an endgame cue.
I have a few thoughts:
• Flying (doubtful)
• Hanging from a blimp / blimp - like structure
• Lifting a blimp game piece

Re: 2017 Game Speculation
 

Given what we've seen so far and know about FIRST's trends, I'm thinking of a game where the red and blue alliances have to move small black cubes (coal) into a container in order to lift something up, on a balance of sorts. Perhaps that something is another robot.

Re: 2017 Game Speculation
 

Actual flying, yes doubtful, but moving on a zip line for endgame to give the illusion of flight, that could be fun.

Zip lines would be a really fun game, but it sounds a bit dangerous for the robots. Perhaps the robots would have to climb some kind of ladder or pole and get a score based on their height.

Re: 2017 Game Speculation
 

How about a salmon ladder? That's nice and safe!

Perhaps a double salmon ladder, with hooks facing inward, so a robot could climb up very high?