What way does the Cheval de Frise go?
 

This is an odd question to be asked in the middle of Week 4, but here it goes...

What way does the Cheval de Frise go?

In the Game Manual and official field drawings, it's positioned as so:


So, when looking at the Cheval from the Neutral Zone, the panels are positioned as "Down - Up - Down - Up". The panel on the right is positioned away from you.

But, on the official field in the game reveal video as well as in the field tour videos, it looks like this:


Here, the panels are "Up - Down - Up - Down" when viewed from the Neutral Zone. The right panel is positioned towards you.

I feel that the Game Manual might be in the wrong in this case. Simply turning the Cheval around wouldn't solve the problem, it's the panels themselves that would need to be switched. What are others' thoughts on this?

EDIT: We have submitted the following question on the official Q&A:

I will post an update in this thread once the question has been answered.

Re: What way does the Cheval de Frise go?
 

I think the Q&A would be the best way to go here, but without the insight of the Q&A, I would think the manual takes precedence, however the rock wall dimensions have proved that wrong.

Re: What way does the Cheval de Frise go?
 

I agree with this but want to note that the field drawings of the cheval de frise match the manual with regards to orientation.

Re: What way does the Cheval de Frise go?
 

Every year the animation has a robot which violates the "intentional contact inside the frame perimeter" rule. This year that rule is [G24]. This year one of the robots in the animation had a battering ram that had only one obvious function: "communicate" with other teams, regardless of [G24].

I do believe the field drawings themselves take precedence over the manual, which takes precedence over the animation/field tour.

Re: What way does the Cheval de Frise go?
 

Yes but....By that logic, the Rock Wall should have never changed. All dimensions were consistent between the team drawings, official drawings and the manual. The only way the discrepancy was found was through measurements taken on the built field in Manchester at kickoff.

In this case, I wouldn't necessarily treat the animation as having any bearing, but the video of the real field is again discrepant with the manual and drawings.

I don't expect this issue to be quite as hard to resolve (after all it's just the order of the planks), but if the real field differs from the documentation, we'd want to know.

Fwiw, the defenses are all keyed so they can't be installed "backward".

I am kind of curious how many robot designs actually care about the order, vs just wanting to practice on the right thing. Seems like a pretty specific, asymmetrical design is required, but I've seen stranger things...

I also would be curious to know what Q&A has to say.

Re: What way does the Cheval de Frise go?
 

Waiting on the Q&A reply. It looks like they built this one wrong like the rock wall, but correction shouldn't be limited by the contractor's tools.

Re: What way does the Cheval de Frise go?
 

That's a great point. Please post it here if anyone hears back from Q and A regarding this to let us know. Thanks.

Re: What way does the Cheval de Frise go?
 

And we have an answer.

Q&A

Re: What way does the Cheval de Frise go?
 

Interesting. I wonder how they got the real-life version wrong, since as has been mentioned, the orientation isn't reversible.

Re: What way does the Cheval de Frise go?
 

If there is one observation to make about the game design from the outside this year, it's that the field's complexity contributed to drawings not being locked in until beyond the last minute. It's possible the field they set up for the videos didn't have the casters and the "keying" function built in yet.

Re: What way does the Cheval de Frise go?
 

Just rotating this won't fix it, it needs to be disassembled and corrected. Another example of field inconsistencies I haven't seen anyone else bring up is the Sally port. The metal support bar on the back is completely different between a photo posted in the Sally Port thread of a kickoff official field and the one in the field tour video.

Edit: Link to post mentioned. Here

Re: What way does the Cheval de Frise go?
 

I know, it's almost like

or something.

I don't understand what you thought I was trying to say. There were (small but noticeable) changes made after the field tour videos were published.

Re: What way does the Cheval de Frise go?
 

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear. What I meant was that rotating the CDF won't make them face a different way. Then gave another example proving your point further.

Re: What way does the Cheval de Frise go?
 

If the Cheval de Frise is down-up-down-up, then figures 2-5 and 2-7 in the manual are wrong (showing up-down-up-down).

The manual shows two different orientations.