Re: who thinks this years competion is easy
 

I think that this years game is very similar to many past year games but mostly 1996 and 2002

Re: who thinks this years competion is easy
 

Elgin...you forgot a few other parts of the 2003 game incorporated this year:
1) The autonomous mode
2) The tape on the floor that the robot may follow

Re: who thinks this years competion is easy
 

I'm a major n00b, as this is my first post, and thus I don't know if my opinion counts for anything, but I think the competition is not easy nor impossible. As for the 15 second autonomous part, it'll most likely make the competition more interesting.

Re: who thinks this years competion is easy
 

I may be wrong, but I see this game as, more than in the recent past, needing "do everything" robots to qualify well. Unless you are really lucky in the alliance draws, you are going to need to get balls to the player station, knock your "tee" ball on auto mode, handle doubler balls, and hang.

I was surprised that the game placed so much emphasis on human player skill, but maybe this is to make up for last year's game having only a few seconds of human player activity.

Re: who thinks this years competion is easy
 

I dislike the fact that the competition requires so much of the human layers because my team is made up mostly of non-athletic fat geeks.

Damm Damm Damm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: who thinks this years competion is easy
 

i don't think this competition is going to be easy at all. i think it's going to end up being a determinant of having an alliance that can do 2 things VERY well, rather than ALL things mediocre. it's going to be hard because there are so many possible aspects, but when it gets down to elmination rounds, i think that's going to be the key. finding a team with the best human player, the team that can grab and hold onto the bar no matter the cost, and the fastest/most accurate robot to give balls to the Human Player

Re: who thinks this years competion is easy
 

This year's game will be "easy" in the sense that it is (or should be) familar to anyone who has been around the last 5 years. But like Kit mentioned, there is a lot of stuff to do. I agree that teams will need to be able to do a lot, and do it well, to be 'on top' this year. (sorry, bad pun :p)

Good luck, everyone!

Re: who thinks this years competion is easy
 

I think that this years competition would be easy in theory, and what you have to do to get points is fairly simple in words, but building a bot to do it will be a different story. Hanging from the bar a couple years ago was pretty hard, and now the bars at 10'. The only thing im not happy about this year is the dependancy on a human player. i would rather have the bots do everything.

Re: who thinks this years competion is easy
 

As far as the veteran advantage of knowing how to handle the big balls and the bar from 2000 and 2001 there are a few things.
1) the bar is twice as high, lot harder
2) the only people on vet teams that will know that are adult team advisors who were involved those years, college students now mentoring teams who were involved in their HS or college team those years, or the HS seniors. The HS juniors sophomores and freshmen werent around. Besides, out of that portion of people (involved in 2000 and 2001), the only ones who will know how to handle the bar or big balls are people who built robots that could handle those elements in the 3 and 4 years ago.

it's not as big of an advantage as you think.

Re: who thinks this years competion is easy
 

I think the game is well balanced, rookie teams can easily puch the goals and score the purple balls and knock out the 2x ball. Intermediate teams can go for moving the 2x ball and blocking the step, and the veterans can go for the bar and anything.

Re: who thinks this years competion is easy
 

Well im sure some of those teams still have those bots from those years sitting around the shop somewhere all they gotta do is go and look....and i'm also sure they took pictures of it. Most of the time for a concept all you need is a picture.



in relation to this year though the hanging very different and the big balls, well its almost the same just that its different in that instead of having a fixed height of an 8ft goal, you would want an arm that could handle placing the ball on both the 4ft goal and the 6ft one.