That's what I meant.

AMAZING. Also the mesh reduces the grip on the ramp.

I LOVE IT.

its deffinately very interesting, i like it better than last year already

This year's game, like always, can be won with brute force OR finesse. The best challenge is the different surfaces - carpet, wire mesh, and HDPE, flat and inclined. What is the best wheel or track for traction on all surfaces? The crates are a welcome change to round balls. How about strategy??? Is it best to play for the final robot points or for the stacked crates. Is it best to have human players stack crates and protect them with a robot or to play defense and knock over your opponents stack? By the way, the maximum points occur when the same number of crates are stacked as are in the scoring zone - maximum is 22 high and 23 in zone for 506 points plus 2 bots on platform for 50 extra - total is 556 points. Lets see someone stack crates 22 high... How can brute force win? There are 50 points guaranteed for robots on the top platform and a brute can knock over any stack...

FLL
 

FRC is getting more like FLL. I am used to automation. It took FOREVER to program a 2.5 minutes match. Be glad that it's only 15 seconds for FIRST.

All of it. The manual says it must be free of all other surfaces.

It's gonna be tough... and I don't even mean the autonomy. Imagine trying to defend a stack from one or maybe two robots. I've been playing with them and one good thwack is all it needs to send the whole pile over... I love the scoring changes, particularly the elim rounds. Still in shock, I never would have guessed storage bins in a million years...

center line
 

dose anyone know if you can go around the "hill"? from the part of the simulcast that i saw it look like there was a low bar on the side.

Nate

No you can not go around it. There is a bar, i believe it was 14" off the ground and 20" floor to top of bar, making it impossible for a box to go under the bar. Unless you can go over or under the bar, you can not go around the ramp

Oh man is this going to be fun... and problamatic... and hard... and ARRRRGH! When they took the curtain up, immidiately I saw the crates, and immidiately I thought of the crate-stack-posts on the Next Game thread a while back. I almost cried. But, speaking about cries, I'm pleased to hear that FIRST listened to all the programmers' cries of request for automation. Our team had a mini-lego competition to introduce the newbies to robotics that had to be fully automatic... if that was any indication, this year should be chaos in automatic mode. On the other hand, as a programmer, I love the challenge! =)

Let the games begin!

I know I don't speak for many, but I was one of (at least) 2 programmers at the JPL/southern california remote kickoff who was bouncing around with joy at automation.

Not that you all can't figure this out, but FIRST really did an awsome job of listening to the comments here.

Different playing surface (fake-ice was brought up) : Carpet, mesh, and a 'fake-ice' surface. :)
Different levels: Ramp
Automatic robot control: First 15 seconds (They hinted with the sensors last year)
No more balls: Containers
Better scoring: Well... um... it's much easier to see at a quick look what's happening.
Easy for rookies to do something, but hard for vets too: Last year, unless you were steel w/ tons of power, you wouldn't win. Here, even just a robot that can move can do quite a bit. But... for those who want the 'problem' they can find useful things to do with crates. + Automatic robot control

At first, i didn't know if i liked it or not. But... I'd have to say that this is BY-FAR the best game. It still will have 'contact' between bots, has BOTH offencive and defencive (sp?), AND... No more balls! :)

Only bad thing: Now... when i describe what our robot does to a non-firster, I have to say that it stackes boxes :)

Are you sure? Remember that the winner alliance gets its own score plus twice the opponent’s score (check manual). So if two other robots are on top of the ramp, you get your 556 + 2*50 = 656. Maybe there is really a way to get even more QP by having a very small difference between the scores, but I don't think so.

regarding the bar to the sides..unless you build your robot lower than the 14inches you cant pass it.....unless you step over it, maybe someone will come up with a way to walk over the bar. but crates cannot go under it.