Re: Safety in Game Design
 

This thread seems a bit quixotic, and reminds me of the one not so long ago that chastised some or all of the Dean/Dave/Woody trio for not wearing safety glasses during a game demo.

If anyone wants to actually change things, use your noggin, and figure out the proper channels to use to contribute your help.

If anyone wants to winge/vent, this is a great place to do it.

;)
Know-what-I-mean?

Re: Safety in Game Design
 

Ah yes, the age-old (and very helpful, I might add) "your-posts-on-this-forum-amount-to-nothing-in-this-bleak-world" post.

Thanks gblake!

-Mike

Just FYI, Frank Merrick ( fmerrick [the "at" symbol] firstinspires [the period symbol] org ) is a great place to email questions/concerns about FRC game design safety.

Re: Safety in Game Design
 

I'm not positive (maybe someone else knows for sure), but do all districts own their own field borders? If so, implementing a 1-time change to the field border setup like this would be costly to them. The configuration of the alliance station wall is easy enough to change year to year (and it's an expected change), but the sides are a little more difficult.

I think it would also complicate field reset/robot flow - if you were to limit robot entry to one gate (since the FTAs, refs, etc would be really mad if robots had to enter directly in front of the scoring table), you'd have six teams trying to go through one opening at once, potentially creating a backup in the lane where teams from the previous match have to travel to exit.

Re: Safety in Game Design
 

That's fair. Something that I definitely didn't consider. I'm just recalling the field from back in 2010, which was basically a time before districts (MI not withstanding.)

It's certainly possible to still do the 3 team entry per side, though admittedly locals like Greater KC that have very little space between the scoring table and a side of the field complicates the midfield entry.

Re: Safety in Game Design
 

The answer is yes, districts do own their own field perimeters.

Re: Safety in Game Design
 

Certainly for us. We found that our robot had problems with its tread coming off if we turned poorly while entering or exiting the secret passage. It immobilized us for a match or two, and while we were in the opponent's courtyard they could just touch us and gain points on us for it.

Re: Safety in Game Design
 

As far a flow goes - no reason you couldn't have added the middle gate and left the 4 in as well - just use the middle gate to get robots from the previous match off if they finish in the Neutral Zone. This was the critical path/worst case scenario, because you had teams crossing in the secret passage, which had a berm and was narrow.

Re: Safety in Game Design
 

To be fair, that was rare, as most people wanted to get the points for the scale/challenge at the end of the match.

Re: Safety in Game Design
 

I agree.