Worst possible game
 

In the spoopy spirit of the season, let's discuss the scariest thing possible, a bad frc game, what do you think is the worst possible combination of past game elements?

Mine is a playing lunacy, full with trailer goals and floor material, but instead of shooting balls, robots move logomotion pieces onto the opponents goals,with higher rungs meaning more points, then at the end the robots hang from something, human players cannot put the pieces onto opponents goals (so no pinning the bots nearby and just wrecking the opponent)

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Lunacy, but with barriers limiting each robot to its own zone and the total number of game pieces in everyone's trailers being the score issued to everyone (6v0).

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This would be just the 2015 game played again exactly as it was.

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No no no... 2015 played on Regolith.

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I disagree. Recycle Rush had many, many, many flaws...but it also birthed a lot of really cool, one-off designs (see also: #TeamTether, harpoons, factory robots, 1114 doing kiwi...).

If you wanted to make it the absolute worst, give it some obnoxious rules on what the robot can do above the bumper zone like Breakaway, then add some field features that incentivize staying short anyway. So that way you'll have a snoozer game and 95% of the robots looking the same.

Or you could just do Breakaway with enough team updates to make 469's robot completely illegal, and be done with it.

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I think we're getting somewhere.

2015, played on regolith (and with Lunacy wheels), with rules that make it really hard to be tall.

Alternatively, Breakaway style game with regolith and a completely divided field like 2015. Also closing the 469 loophole and keeping the 2010 ranking system.

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The 2010 ranking system sold it for me. Done, ship it.

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Worst possible game?

FIRST closes up shop, no game this year or ever again.

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I don't know, it's pretty close between that and 2015 + Breakaway robot rules - loopholes.

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1992, replayed using grits in place of the dry corn.

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That would be a travesty to both the gearboxes of the robots and the grits.

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I thought about the worst features of the worst games, and what they had in common. Rules that cannot be explained to the people who walk in off the street, with subtleties that most FRC teams miss, and not very exciting, to boot. My musings make me think that the worst possible FRC game (apart from no game at all) would be the robotic analog to this.

Edit:
and the name of that game would be FIRST: True Grits, and the Search for Hominy.

Worst possible game
 

Aerial Assist on regolith (with Lunacy wheels)?

Alternatively, Aerial Assist where high-speed ramming is legal and you receive some kind of point bonus for it.

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This is a good starting point, but we can do much much worse:
Add a 50% chance of a couple of DOGMA penalties for every scored game piece.
Tech fouls are worth 50 points and refs give them out every time a HP blinks their eyes the wrong way.
Referees are not allowed to tell teams what they were penalized for, instead, when teams go to the question box, all they can do is tell the refs how much we appreciate them and how good of a job they are doing.
+10 points if you break the opponent's driver station by running into the wall during auto.
An official match contains 200 game pieces, and each costs a minimum of $200.
Instead of the GDC answering the Q&A, you must send all official questions to your grandma, asking her what she would do in a given situation.

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Split field a la RR, but with obnoxiously shaped game pieces, like oversized jacks.

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You guys are way over-complicating this. Just take the limit as FIRST approaches political correctness. Here is what you get:

Every team is a world champion (by default). They each get the same trophy. Awards are given for how many nice things a team said. There is no competition, each event is just a long field delay where refs and mascots dance to YMCA and the Cha Cha Slide. Everybody congratulates everybody on what a great job they did. Anybody that says a discouraging word or offends aybody else is banned for life.

Done.

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A game like 2014 where there is a lot of hitting and open field. Every drive wheel on the robot is required to be an omni or mecanum wheel by rule.

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I think you just described the best game of RC bumper cars ever.


Seriously though I wouldn't mind this at all.

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Playing on a floor covered with entanglement hazards - something like 5000 pieces of rope.

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Time to go work on that flying robot...

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the floor is also regolith under 1 inch of water

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You aren't sounding very graciously professional

*speaks into wristwatch* We've got a non-gracious professional here, get Woodie on the phone!

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Hillary Havoc: Robots put foam cubes called emails into bins called servers. Keeping with the theme, robots cannot defend servers. The floor is regolith, and any team who has a relationship with a prior world champion wins every match by default.

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"Woodie says this is FIRST priority."

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Ooooh! ooooh!

Someone else please make their parents views on Trump into a game parody too!

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Cheese Grits! Please!

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Trump Terror: Robots compete (on regolith of course) to build a wall across the middle of the field. Teams then launch foam balls over the wall into the other alliance's territory. If an alliance relaunches the balls back across the wall, bonus points are given.

Does that make you feel better?

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I think that the worst game FIRST could make would be a water game. I'm still not sure why everyone likes the concept of it. Then again I'm in the one percent that really enjoyed Recycle Rush, so that may explain some of it...

Another thought is a game like Stronghold, but all the defenses are constructed out of Regolith, and you must use the same drive wheels from 2009. Only one breach would happen in the course of the entire season, lol.

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It would be cheaper to make teams use a low traction wheel, and drive on a low traction surface that also develops a lot of electrostatic potential. Then all the robots (still functioning) can slide around chasing each other until someone gets pinned and dumped on.

Or we could just play Lunacy.

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Overdrive, but on regolith and the trackballs are required to remain in contact with your robot all the way down. It also has Stronghold's 15 inch frame perimeter rule, so try to figure that one out.

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You guys are all lightweights.

Starting point: 2001. (4vClock) For those that aren't aware of that game (Diabolical Dynamics), the basic idea was to stuff a bunch of playground balls in a couple of mobile goals, stick both mobile goals on a balance bridge, preferably with a large ball or two on top for extra points/multipliers, and stick your entire alliance in the far end of the field, as fast as possible (the faster you were, the higher your score multiplier).

Now, add 2 robots. (6vClock)

Change all the playground balls to Orbit balls, from Lunacy, and change the primary field surface to regolith (also from Lunacy--wheels too, folks!). Bridge gets HDPE surface (common in the '03-'06 timeframe).

And, just to make life totally miserable, the goals are the '02 goals (weighing in at 180 lb each)--AND bumpers are required, '10 bumper and extension rules.

Did I mention that the current field layout is used, and there's no communication between the field ends, but all the robots start at one end of the field?





Every time someone brings up Recycle Rush as bad, I have to remember that they probably haven't seen '01.

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Close, but what if each alliance had their own blocks for building the wall, and they must use the blocks belonging to the opposing alliance for the wall? Meaning there would be red blocks on the red side, and blue blocks on the blue side. The red alliance must take and use the blue blocks, and vice versa. Whoever finishes first wins, but any robots on the wrong side of the wall must be sent back to their side. If they refuse to go there on their own, they may be pushed, dragged, launched, or otherwise moved to the correct side. Additionally, one robot on each alliance will be assigned as Donald Trump, referred to as The Donald. The Donald will be identified by a wig and optional hat. :p

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabolical_Dynamics

Specifically:

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A few people probably also think Recycle Rush was the best FRC game to be designed. Ditto for Lunacy.

Just a thought.


(There's also the thought that perhaps someone needs to recall their English lessons from high school, particularly the slight yet significant difference between "a few" and "few".)

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Let's put that quote in context:
There certainly appears to be a trend that all of the 4n+1 years (1993 Rug Rage, 1997 Toroid Terror, 2001 Diabolical Dynamics, 2005 Triple Play, 2009 Lunacy, 2013 Aerial Assist) have each introduced a distinct new challenge (or as I've called it before, a "bizarro" game), and most (if not all; I can't properly document the first two) seem to have been "love it or hate it" games. Unless the GDC is bucking this trend, this year we are living in "interesting times".

Edit: And OBTW, in 2013, there were at least two bizarro items. Not only were we required to launch frisbee discs with a robot that fit inside a 120" frame perimeter, the "hanging" postgame was regulated such that a "high" climb was mandated to be in no fewer than three separate stages. AFAIK, every other climb/hang game to date (both before and since 2013) could be completed in a single grab and pull.

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xkcd 285

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One adjustment. Your alliance wins if the other alliance builds the wall. Ready, set, play.

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Cellfone Folly! Break the phones out of phone jail to keep everyone in the arena alive!

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Triple Balance on the 2012 bridge with 2009 wheels on the drivetrain.

And the bridge is regolith.

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You will also want to take some cues from FTC.

Make autonomous 30 seconds long and include various available tasks that are worth good points. Allow opponents to point their robot at yours and drive into you during autonomous.

Designate protected areas and field elements that your opponents can't touch. Put them in locations that both alliances need to drive near to play the game effectively. Make the field good and crowded so the protected areas aren't too easy to avoid. Give out huge penalties for bumping into them.

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Considering that both xkcd and sabotage have been brought up, I can't help but feel that https://xkcd.com/689/ is relevant somehow

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Just replay any year, cut the teleop period by 50% and extend the autonomous period by the same amount.

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Worst game I could come up with. Pretty long description, but in most of the worse games the devil is in the details.

Field is divided into a grid of 12 zones, 3 across, 4 down. Teams get points for each square they move into from their starting square as well as a multiplier bonus of how many zones away from their starting position they are at the end of the match. Teams may only block robots from entering a zone, they may not push opponents back into other zones, significant penalties are assessed for such an action.

The game objects are 1ft x 1ft memory foam cubes, there are 7 of them on the field, each robot starts with 1 and there is an extra 1 in the middle of the field. Points are awarded when a cube touches the ground inside a zone, per zone, cubes may not be dragged across the ground into a new zone, but must be lifted over the tape lines, if a cube touches the tape it negates the score of the cube. This score is divided by the number of zones away from their starting zone each cube is at the end of the match.

Robots may start in any zone they wish, one per zone. Priority is determined by a staggered load in order (red 1, blue 1, red 2, blue 2... etc).

Designated score keepers are expressly forbidden. There are two referees and the head referee. There is an automated laser grid system that matches the grid lines, but it does not record information, only feeds information about which grids it thinks are occupied based on entrance/exit information back to the referee display in real time.

The referee interface is divided into 3 screens, one screen for actions involving the robot (with alternating buttons for both scoring and penalties on a per robot basis), one screen for the actions of the cubes, tracked per cube, and one screen that is locked until the end of the match at which point the referees enter the starting and ending positions of all 6 robots and 7 cubes. Each referee must keep score and penalties for all 6 robots. When there is a discrepancy between the two referees, the average of the point values is taken per team.

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Are you mad?!? That sounds awesome!

Oddly enough, DD was my high school team's Head Coach's favorite game.

One of my design mentor's favorite game so far is RR.
Also, one of my favorite games is Lunacy.

I guess we're just one odd group of mentors.

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Every year, the rules have included a rule against attaching to the carpet via hook and loop tape (velcro). What if, instead of that, the entire field was made out of velcro, and everyone had to drive with soft rubber wheels?

Or, the worst combination I would want to imagine is Aerial Assist, but robots need to be taller than the truss. I legitimately think that there would be a good strategy to go with that, otherwise I would say some ridiculous stuff.

My other option is following the upcoming Steamworks game. Imagine Recycle Rush, but instead of stacking boxes, just cranking a pump for 2 and a half minutes. Literally nothing to watch, no reason to play (just like 2015).

Beyond the normal stuff, how about a repeat of the 2003 game (I think '03 at least)? The game had movable goals, and any balls scored while the goal was in your zone was a point. There were a few exploits, where (mostly one team) managed to lock the goals in their zone in the first seconds of the game, and did a slow march into the proper zone. Nobody could move the robot, since it had wide traction feet, and no wheels. Anyway, what if we saw that game again, except on a lunacy field to stop any more BS? And, just to add insult to injury,you can't cross the midline? Instead there would be a great enormous wall (to keep the blue alliance out), and all the goals started on top. Whoever got both goals first wins. 10 second matches. Makes the MSC 200 qualifiers in 2 days look easy.

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How about a game where the robots launch the bins from Recycle Rush into the goals from Aerial Assist.

Imagine the mayhem

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Hmm... imagine a game where wheels contacting the carpet were illegal. All your drive components would have to be some sort of walking or marching mechanisms. I know there have been some walking robots in the past, but I'd say that most teams would spend a LOT of time sitting dead on a field.

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I'd expect to see some Pedrails.

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LOL, my son mentioned how Recycle Rush was not a very exciting game to watch, basically when done well, both teams just look like a well run stacking factory... the only exciting part was the "can grabbers" so the best games were decided by how many cans were grabbed the first 20 seconds.

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2003...

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The bins are also filled with water.

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nah, only some of them will be filled with water, that way you have to build a bot to handle both weights.

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'02. I see you've heard of the Beatty Beast (71), so I'll just point out that your description is quite incorrect--they had wheels all right, and were very, very fast to get to the middle of the field (where the goals were located) on said wheels. Once they hit the goals, they engaged the file cards. Yes, file cards. Normally used to clean out files that have been used to remove sharp edges from the robot. In this case, used to dig into the carpet.

It was a race to the goals that year, and many many many robots built for speed and immovability. But the balls could tip the match.


'03 was like Recycle Rush, if all the totes started on the step and you could go over the step--and if you could knock down any stack you cared to. Stacks were very definitely attacked.

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I think attaching to the carpet was legal until 2003, after 71 used file cards.

Here's a good video of 71's 2002 robot in action, uploaded by none other than Andy Baker! There are also a few more on TBA.

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Legal until after 2002 would be a better way to say it.

Actually, it was FAR worse than it sounds. Probably half the teams out there in '02 had some sort of metal "dig into the carpet for more traction" device, either on their wheels or on planting plates, and most of the rest used treads on their wheels (or just used treads). So, for '03, the ruling was that no metal could contact the carpet (in general terms--it's been a while). Specifically, to be used for robot traction. Rule's still there--though a lot of teams were wondering about the screws used to attach their rubber treads for a few years. Wasn't just 71, they just get the credit for that rule.

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Battlebots

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Well, it would shorten competitions.

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Worst game for rookies/ teams with limited resources. Maybe not so bad for veterans.

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Another Overdrive :rolleyes:

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+1

Kit of Parts comes with Blue Championship Banner....

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Stack Attack, with 2008+ robot to robot contact rules and bumpers making it....

FIRST Pillow Fight!

Cooked or uncooked? ;)