How do you guys feel about this year's competition
 

I feel this year's competition is more complex that last year and i feel it will be hard on rookie teams, we were a rookie team last year so we had recycle rush and that was not that complex and we still had some problems.

Anyways how do you feel?

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

I feel that the game is so complex that rookie teams are going to be hard pressed to find a task they cannot do. Even if all they do is cross one or two defenses, it's still a contribution to the alliance.

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

Pneumatics

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

Well, even a rookie team with just a drivetrain could be useful in this game. If they can get through some of the defenses, that can still be quite beneficial.

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

xx

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

The game itself will be difficult for some new teams to understand. However, the robots for this year will be relatively simple for young teams to build, there have been many years worth of examples on how to shoot balls and climb things. It should be relatively easy for some newer teams to accomplish the basic goals of the game. Even a good amount of the defenses can be somewhat easily traversed with some simple trial and error of how to get over them.

I think this will be somewhat like 2013, where young teams had a chance to contribute well with shooting frisbees, but they were unable to do some of the more complex portions of that game, such as climbing the tower or consistently scoring in the more difficult goals.

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

Why?

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

Rookie teams always have it tough.

I would say that the GDC did a pretty good job of having tasks that rookie teams can accomplish.

auto: drive forward and you get 2 points.

tele-operated:
low goal/ high goal: Low goal allows for balls to essentially be pushed into the goal to score.

defenses:
There are several defenses which should be able to be just driven over without much problem, OR if opened from the other side with help from an alliance partner just driven over with a standard drive train.

I like the diversity of challenges, it makes us think!

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

depends what you try to do. like any other game, attempting all aspects is unrealistic for a rookie team to try to do. This year though i think is a very good year for rookies. Typically defensive bots(not all rookies focus on defensive bots but that is the norm) aren't that useful and and can usually only do interfere with the other team but they don't tend to contribute to pointage usually. However this year, just a well made moving chasis has a huge potential by breaching defenses and passing balls to the scoring bots and that's a huge points contribution which will make them very desirable.

Attempting to have a scoring bot(which will be very difficult in itself and probably requires vision) and a defense navigation bot is most likely too much for a rookie team to realistically do but you don't have to. just having one or the other is sufficient to do very well in this game

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

I am pumped for this year's competition. I am going to use my new found pneumatics skills and knowledge to the test.

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

As a 15 year veteran mentor, my thoughts can best be summed up with the following observations:

• The newest members of the team (mostly freshman, but some of all years) were suitably awed by the intricate complexities and wonderful possibilities of the game.
• The 2nd year members (newbies last year) were also awed by the intricate complexities and wonderful possibilities of the game, especially considering last year's game.
• The 3rd and 4th year members were overjoyed that we have an unbelievably exciting game again.

Thanks, GDC, this year is going to be GREAT!! :D

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

I think that this years game is a bit overwhelming, but when you start to break it down, there is a lot that you can do with some very simple mechanisms that I feel a rookie team could accomplish with not much effort. with the construction of one mechanism you can traverse all of the opsticuls.

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

Yes, this year's game is quite complex. Even mature teams will get tripped up by this.

If you analyze (not just read) the rules and stick by Karthik's "Golden Rules", your team can be a valuable addition to a strong alliance. It may be helpful for your team to find some stronger teams in your area and ask them to evaluate the strategies that your team develops. They should not feel threatened by your team and should welcome a younger team trying to be in a position where they can make a contribution on the playing field.

Edit: I totally agree with what Ginger posted above.

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

Personally, I'm in love with this team from a strategy perspective. Tons of valid options for diverse robots, the ability to get RP beyond winning matches, playing just as much against the environment as your opponents' robots, opportunities for dynamic cooperation between robots, rules that give the top lots to do but also give teams with low resources lots of options (compared to previous games)... I could go on. Plus it's visually interesting and this was the best kickoff broadcast I've ever seen.

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

As a competitor: AWESOME!

As a volunteer: @#$@. $%(^*$%(. !@($&@!(. This is not going to be fun...

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.

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

As a ref, this is going to be a challenge. I get that the BOULDER scoring is automatic, but refs will have to be able to accurately see the OUTER WORKS so as to be able to tell when a DEFENSE has been CROSSED. Then they have to go back to ref panels to record this action.

How many times are we going to hear "but the lights didn't go off" this year? Also, there is no minimum or maximum for the strength of the TOWER, so a team that gets two TECH FOULS prior to SCORING won't have any lights turn off on the TOWER until they score their third BOULDER - surely someone will believe this to be a field fault.

However, it will be an awesome game to ref! :)