What do you think about NEXT YEAR's GAME?
 

there was a discussion about next year's floor in the Rumor Mill, and most people show many ideas about.
I thought it would be really nice to talk about what we imagine for next year. By the way, making the game must be THE fun thing to do.


I think there should be a game with a possibility for a robot without traction, only very good arms/systems to do things. Not as a requirement, but as an option to play the game.


I'd love to see everyone's thoughts!

Digo....i think this thread needs to be put on hold till after nationals...and maybe even longer than that

sorry but frankly i don't want to think of next-years game (seeing that i have anough on my mind about this years already):D

I put big money on the exact same playing arena size as this year with the addition of stationary obstacles in the center of the field similar to the game in 2000 that was soo much fun

i think the game should be like 2000. that was by far the best year of first. so much could happen, and you could figure the game out without having a 20 min. explination. this year scoring was too complicated, and there wasn't as much room for variety with respect to robots. i mean in the 2000 competition you had short bots, tall bots, bots that could cross the field, and bots the couldn't (such as ours which wasn't designed to). this year you had two goal bots which were short, tall ball bots that could crab 1 or 2 goals, and a few 3 goal bots. from what i saw at the MMR there wasn't much variety. i hope that next years competition is simple, but has enough aspects to allow a lot of variety.

my $.02

I would say it will be the same size field. I would love to see moving obstacles still. The goals are cool, and last year's bridge was awsome. WPI had a compatition with 2 bridges and it was 2 against 2. It was so much fun. But back the the moving objects, the goals have to move, it makes the game so much different. Instead of having a blue and a red goal, there are 3 this year, who ever gets them first in the their zone, its theirs. It makes the game some much different.

I'd love to see a revival of some of the older FIRST games.

Toroid Terror with mjovable goals, anyone?:D

Thank God they used soccer balls this year!

Those balls from 2001 and 2000 were very difficult to deal with. Most of them were not even round!

#5 soccer balls are sold anywhere, so you don't need to order it from FIRST.

I hope that, if they use balls next year, they use soccer balls again.

footballs... how many years do i have to wait for footballs?

and moguls.

Hovercrafts!
 

I want to see a FIRST robot be a fan powered hovercraft.

Never mind the lack of pushing power, it would just be cool.

footballs would be sweet

What about stacking cubes?

or Toroids (donuts)

Mmm...

Of course, what about the game 30 years from now?


0-gravity anyone? The Nats could be on the moon, or at the International Space Station!:p

Re: Hovercrafts!
 

It's been done. During the 1996 or 1997 competition (I forget exactly which right now), a team of undergrad students at MIT built a hovercraft from legal kit parts. They did it as an exercize, to see what they could do. It was not able to play the game as all it did was float around the play field. But that year the game involved three teams playing at once. During certain matches, only two teams would be in the queue to play, so they put the hovercraft on the field at act as a "placebo" player. If I remember correctly, the placebo even won a match or two!

-dave

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"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them."
- Mark Twain

I want to see that.
 

I imagine it wasn't a very battery-friendly robot though :)

Re: Re: Hovercrafts!
 

I don't believe it! Anyone have more information on this?

Re: Re: Re: Hovercrafts!
 

I've witnessed it.

I went thru all my negatives, but I do not have a picture of it.

It wasn't quite legal however. It was powered with 4 drill motors, and I believe it was constructed by FIRST.

I like 1997's Placebo best. A hoover upright vacuum. Slightly modified.

I'm not digging for photo's of it. :-)

I will post photo's of older teams right after I finish scanning them

Since everyone was asking, I'm doing old home week on pictures.

These are from the first season that TJ² competed in.

Here's one for Tigerbolt, I don't know if any pictures of their National Championship robot survived the team breakup and reformation

http://www.tj2.org/1996/imagepages/tigertron.html

For all you Human Players, this is the Human Player station
http://www.tj2.org/1996/imagepages/playerstation.html
Notice, if you will that each player is seatbelted into the floor.
It's a little cut off, but in order to pass the balls back onto the field, they had to go over the white cross bar. (about 5 feet even) Also notice our first, bad, attempt at tie dye. Yes, we've had it since day one.

Here's an overview shot of the field.
http://www.tj2.org/1996/imagepages/96hamp1.html

Since buzz won the regional award at New Jersey, and we found out that thier rookie year was the same as ours, he's a picture for them.

http://www.tj2.org/1996/imagepages/buzz.html

Here's one of Dean and Woodie at the awards cerimony. (Back when they both would appear at the same regional

http://www.tj2.org/1996/imagepages/96hamp19.html

And finally, just to prove that history does repeat itself.
http://www.tj2.org/1996/imagepages/96hamp20.html

Last one,

Did anyone every wonder where the no pinning rule came from?

http://www.tj2.org/1996/imagepages/96hamp16.html

That was our postition for 1 minute and 20 seconds of the match.

autonomous robots
 

Some year we should have autonomous robots. Put the robot on the field, turn it on and no human interaction again until it is time to take the robot off the field. This would make the programming a lot more critical. (Anyone guess what I teach? :D )

I believe Lego League is like that, isn't it?
And that way you can't adapt your strategy as the game evolves, as things change in what you were thinking.

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mpking, Dean and Woodie were together in the second day of the Pacific Northwest Regional in Seattle this year. :)

Dean's Face
 

Look at Dean's face watching that pinned robot.

hehe, so now we know....

Who wants to claim responsibility for the entanglement rules now? :)