pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Ohh this is going to be fun. ;)

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Cool!

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Wait a minute, the field in the background of that picture looks like it was from 2011, and Frank, in the foreground, is holding a goat plushie... so either Frank has been photoshopped into this image, or Frank must have predicted the "Totes ma Goats" meme 4 years in advance! Alternatively... Time Travel!

:rolleyes:

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

If you have questions about the future of FRC, I think Frank would be a very good person to ask.

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Frank is wearing a 20 Years of FRC shirt, so that lines up with 2011. It's worth considering that just the goat is photo-shopped in rather than Frank. All of the possibilities you raised are still just as reasonable.

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Frank,

What lessons were learned in 2016 that will be applied to future games?

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Thank you! Your question has been submitted! :-p

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Another themed game next year by chance with a teaser from Disney??

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

If you have any other questions for Frank please post here or continue to email firstupdatesnow@gmail.com. We would like to be able to compile these tomorrow morning.

There will be a couple official FRC announcements from Frank so make sure you tune in to hear all about out them.

Also we will be having another t-Shirt give away live on the show. We will have some sort of trivia so get your FRC knowledge caps on.

Reminder the show will be live starting at 8:30pm EST at www.twitch.tv/firstupdatesnow
Archived at: www.youtube.com/c/firstupdatesnow

Expect this to be a shorter show of 30-45 minutes.

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Right thread this time... I submit to you two categories for questions. In honor of Frank's MST3K fandom I have categorized them as “Science Facts” and “You should really just relax”:

Science Facts:

• Can you encourage someone from the GDC to do a talk about the process they go through for designing the games? Something similar to Rob Daviau’s talk about “legacy game design” (https://vimeo.com/82383614) would be cool.
• My FRC career began in 2004 and it seems like autonomous mode has not changed significantly all that much from then. Are we likely to see more complex autonomous challenges in the future?
• There are roadblocks to teams adopting more advanced vision and location processing systems for FRC, such as unclear documentation for networking, rules around secondary batteries, cost limitations, programming headaches, and no reliable field positioning. Is this an area that is actively being discussed for improvement in FRC and if so then what might we expect to see in the future?
• Have there been any discussions about enabling FRC drive teams with wearable technology aside from Dave Lavery hinting about the Microsoft HoloLens?
• One of the the big reveals this season was the data collected by FMS. Are there plans to expand the scope of that data collection and make more of it available to teams? Something similar to the telemetry that Formula 1 collects on their drivers/cars during a race (https://streamable.com/n6az)?
• There was a lengthy community discussion recently about removing a particular constraint for FRC teams, along with many suggestions for helping to improve the sustainability of FRC teams. Are any of these ideas being discussed within the FRC HQ and how seriously are they being debated?

You should really just relax:

• Do you think you are being unfair against lizard people with your dislike of pineapple on pizza? As we all know, it is a staple food in the diet of lizard people everywhere.
• Joel or Mike? And yes, we will judge you for your answer.
• How many ad-hoc dodge ball tournaments were started at FRC HQ this season due to the choice of game piece?
• What was the most outlandish defense considered for the game this year?
• Joystick or gamepad? (I have money riding on this one so don’t let me down.)
• Godzilla or Mechagodzilla?
• What did you have for breakfast this morning?
• What was your favorite Dean Kamen moment from this past season and why was it him roasting the DoD guy?
• Are things really as dope as Will.i.am says they are?
• iPhone or Android?
• What was the last thing you ate that you really enjoyed?

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

How many defense securing pins did FRC go through this season? Do you have other similar fun* facts about materials used during the season?

*I have a weird definition of fun, so what?

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Speaking of defense pins I have like 20 I accidentally stole from worlds. Frank do you want them back? :rolleyes:

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Failure rates for defense securing pins are likely multi-modal, due to the variety of components used. At six events I attended, I saw pegboard hooks, zinc-plated machine screws (12-24 and 1/4-20), round pins, and socket head cap screws used for this purpose.

Strong drive trains overpowered them all, but some pins are tougher than others. I believe they popped out more frequently than they snapped.

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Our team had communication issues that only presented while connected to the FMS this season (and in previous years as well). This is a weakness that we would like to correct on our end, but this is challenging without access to an FMS. Are there plans to create some sort of a "FMS Simulator" to help teams to diagnose these kind of issues?

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

As someone on an event planning committee for a district this year, I doubt Frank has that information, or if he does it's likely not very accurate. Securing pins were not really something the field crew kept track of, and many events used various securing solutions that they came up with on the fly, and, consequently, would also not be tracked.

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Just as a side note, even if he doesn't know doesn't mean that Frank won't have fun with the question. While we can't make all questions to Frank comedic (whether it's intended to be or not), it's okay to have some like this.

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Here are my real questions
::safety::
Where do you see FRC in 6 years? # of Districts, Champs, # of teams, ect.

Is there going to be a trailer for this years game like last year?

Are there going to be new world championships division names this year?

Have you picked out a radio for next year yet?

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

It would be good to hear if Frank can share any insights on the number of divisions at each of the 1/2CMPs....

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Two questions:

1. Winning Chairman's and Engineering Inspiration affect district rankings. Why not make the marketing-related awards separate from the robot competition with different rankings for both? This way, the best robots would win the competition and be ranked high in robot performance, while the Chairman's teams could be ranked high in marketing/outreach/etc, but if their robot wasn't the best, they wouldn't take the top spot from a better robot just because they won Chairman's. Both are important.

2. Why was cheering noise level decided as the best way to have the audience vote on defense selection over using an app on a phone or something like a ResponseCard?

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

I'm a bit late to the party here, but I have a question:

Why not base wildcard distribution on a more holistic standard, e.g. district points, rather than simply finalist alliance position? District points are designed to be an all-encompassing measure of competitive success, so why use a simpler, less thorough method that ignores results that FIRST has deemed important (qualification rank, alliance selection, awards) in determining which teams have succeeded most at a district event?

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

We're going online in just a few minutes. Hope you can join us!
www.twitch.tv/firstupdatesnow

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

If it's not too late--did FTC game designers attend the Disney retreat that Frank discussed earlier in the year as a major influence on the game? He talked a lot about how Disney encouraged them to build the game as a story, which is something FTC did for what seems to be the first time this year too.

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Thanks for asking my questions! And thank you to Frank (I know you're reading this!) for answering them.

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Since this thread got bumped anyway I have to ask.

Who is ready for Polar Plunder 2017?

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Is this archived some place? Twitch won't let me watch it after the event.

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

I'll be uploading tonight, we had a couple issues with Twitch so I have to do a little bit of editing. I will post here and on social media when it's uploaded.

Thank you to those who watched live and thanks to those who will be watching the archive. We had a great time with Frank and we were thrilled he made the time to answer some tough and light hearted questions.

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

AMAA with Frank has been uploaded on YouTube and Soundcloud and iTunes! Go check it out and let us know what you thought.

A huge thank you to Frank once again for making the time and opening himself up to the community to answer questions.

Re: pic: Stronghold AMAA Live with Frank 6/21 8:30PM EST!
 

Thanks for putting up the Youtube link. It's queued up so it starts at Polar Plunder. Sounded interesting, but I don't want to work field reset with the very unhappy Polar Bear starting Match 3.

I missed the color code in the announcement back in January, but got it when he first posted the slide (and I went, where is Black?). I guess the off season patches will be silver and gold? :rolleyes: