Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

This is going to be a ton of fun for everybody involved except field reset. SO many possibilities, and so many variations. I love the theme, I think it works well this year. Some of the terms (Embrasure, Portcullis, lots of other big words) may be confusing for some initially, but on a whole, it will be glorious!

Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

I've been looking at the field element diagrams and some of them like the rough terrain look pretty heavy with no easy grasping points. At least they all have wheels so once they have been lifted out of their current location they can be wheeled about.

But I expect that between pretty much every match there will be six elements moving because the way it's set up the team in Queue position 2 must make a selection so their opponents can see the defenses while they are in position 1 and with 48 potential arrangements the odds of things not moving are pretty low.

Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

Is FIRST trying to expand beyond just STEM in to history, foreign languages an Monty Python?

This game should be really fun for spectators.

Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

HOLY CRAP! GDC definitely out did themselves this year!

This game is going to really develop over the competition season. There is a never ending supply of strategies that will lead to great competition all the way through Championships. No regional will be played the same and every team can add their own unique talent/skill! This will be a great game for rookies and veterans alike!

Completely dumbfounded by Stronghold - I cannot wait to see what my students come up with!

Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

I believe lots of teams will bite off way more than they can chew and the field will be pretty full of robots who try to do lots of things but can't do anything very effectively

I also believe field reset will be pretty long; I haven't read how the defenses are attached to the field, but I hope its robustly; for safety sake, which means it will take a decent amount of time to rearrange defense elements.

These factors make the game less exciting for audiences.


My relatively simple design idea for a team who wants to avoid biting off more than they can chew is a drivebase which can get under the low bar . This is 15 pts(drive forward under bar in auto) and go through again in teleop and its 1/4 of a breach. It can play defense the rest of the time, and if its got a torquey, efficient drivetrain(put at least 4 CIMS in it), and driver practice, it could be a very effective defender. It could also challenge the tower in the endgame for an additional 5 pts (you have 20 seconds at the end where you can't touch opponents anyway).

Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

How do you get 48? It's been a few decades since my last statistics course, but isn't it 8 x 6 x 4 x 2 = 384 arrangements for one side?

Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

Order matters, too. And I'm pretty positive that there's a second set of elements for the other side. So...

Eh, not going to calculate, it's late. I recall the video saying that there were over 10,000 combinations for the two sides.

Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

We'll ignore the Audience Selection for a moment. Let's assume it's from group A for the time being.

So the Red Alliance chooses one from B, one from C, and one from D.
2 x 2 x 2 = 8

They can go in position 1, 3 or 4 - there's six permutations:
B, C, D
B, D, C
C, B, D
C, D, B
D, B, C
D, C, B

8 x 6 = 48

The Blue Alliance gets to make the same choices.
48 x 48 = 2304

The Audience had 2 choices
2304 x 2 = 4608

And finally the Audience Selection could have come from 4 categories, in which case the alliances still had 48 choices each.
4608 x 4 = 18423

Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

Tough game but it sounds like it's gonna be a blast to watch.

Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

I think this game isn't as bad for rookies as it looks, as long as they don't bite off more than they can chew.

I can see a lot that a simple (box-on-wheels) robot can do to help their alliance. The various defenses definitely make this game LOOK difficult, especially if you try to do everything. That's one of the biggest traps of this year's game.

Rather than focusing on the all the changing field configurations, what parts of the field are constant? How do those elements effect the score of the game? How do they effect the flow of the match? How do they potentially effect your alliance's ranking in the tournament? Focus on the forest, not the trees.

Really read the rules. I mean REALLY read them. How does the game and scoring change from qualifications to playoffs?

One constant I've seen in my years on involvement of FIRST is just how much a really good box on wheels can swing a match, even if only on lower levels of play. A worthy exercise for ANY team, rookie or veteran, would be to imagine both the game and tournament from the perspective of a box-bot, and see just how much you can accomplish. I think you'll see that they can play a valuable role on a playoff alliance.

Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

Yep, that's exactly where I got 48. For any given team, the odds of selecting the same defenses in the same location as the previous match is 1 in 48.

Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

THIS THIS THIS!

Best game I've seen in my 12 seasons.

That said, as I now FTAA regularly, I see the field setup, field reset, queueing etc from a different perspective. This game is going to be very taxing on every volunteer.

Make sure you acknowledge and thank every volunteer you meet!

Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

Hardest fun you'll ever have....

Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

I would whole heartity agree that this game is great for teams of all ages. It will be fun for field reset/field supervisor/FTAs/Queuing.

Re: How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

Well it is my first competition so I am very excited to be apart of this and can not wait to get building and going to the competition.