Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I think we've all just about had it with this clue, and i think we need to listen to the "Quotable Adam" as he puts it...

Just a little skippit of our IM

Adam - 1341 (10:37:38 PM): hey, what's up?
Me (10:37:45 PM): thinking about you know what lol
Adam - 1341(10:37:54 PM): haha give it a rest
Adam - 1341(10:38:00 PM): you won't figure out the game
Adam - 1341 (10:38:02 PM): no one ever has

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

yeah...but this is just so much FUN, not to mention good brain excersize over the holidays!

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

not entirely true.. we figured out that the name would be tripple play last year... that sorta counts :-p

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Last years discussion did get very close to money... As a result I think over the off-season (when they weren't designing the game) the GDC worked on their hint-making skills. Or this years hint has absolutly nothing to do with the game. Or... Dave and Lil'Lavery have switched things up a bit by telling/showing us things that are true, knowing that we wouldn't believe them due to years of mis-guidence and mis-direction... hmm... curling robots anyone? :ahh:

P.S. - What does FIRST do with old game pieces?

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

That does make an awful lot of sense. Buttes tend to be plateaus.

Yeah. Can we end the water game speculation now?

By Jove...

Good as inference as I've heard from anyone.

I disagree, "Quotable Adam." Last year, CDers figured out the basic tetrahedral part of the game, in that things would be pyramid shaped. We didn't figure out the tic-tac-toe thing, but that couldn't be expected.

--Petey

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

WAS there even a tic-tac-toe reference last year?...i mean other than the "Triple Play"...

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

We've all had our theories, here's a very important point that people have missed so far...

If you know anything about pasta it's over 60% WATER! So what does this mean for the field? Probibly a mix of water (roughly 60%) and "dry" (roughly 40%) land. Oh, Or even BETTER! When you cook pasta, you start off dry, but then boil it as you add water! So maybe the entire field starts off dry and then is gradually filled with water throughout the match! Imagine the new drive possibilities!!!

From wikipedia, here's a few other interesting facts about pasta.

Pasta is made either by extrusion, where the ingredients are forced through holes in a plate known as a die, or by lamination, in which dough is kneaded, folded, rolled to thickness, then cut by slitters.

Fresh Pasta cooks quickly and has a delicate taste, but spoils quickly due to its high water content.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

oh man....that'll be hell for our drivetrain team
one problem though...how do we waterproof the motors? I'm not too concerned about the electronics, but you have to leave air holes in the motors, or the overheat..and if water gets in those...say hellooo to rust!

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I only skimmed over the thread, so I apologize if anything here has been mentioned before.

The first thing that came to mind when reading Montana was Joe Montana. It seems I'm not the only one who thinks this either. Kinda lends to the idea of footballs for the game piece.

Then it came to thought that shovel could refer to a shovel pass in football, lending even more to the "football gamepiece theory". It could also mean we could get points for passing forward.

My first thought for "green heights" was the Ramp N' Roll hill back in '95. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it green? And it had a field goal on it. Perhaps we're moving footballs over a field goal on a hill for points.

Then there's the "five 'bots tangling with pasta". Sadly, pasta has a very broad definition. I thought of Rigatoni first, thinking that maybe there could be tubes/tunnels we need to go through. Then, I thought about your standard spaghetti, thinking of needing to pull ropes to get somewhere (possibly a random bot on another side of something). There could be a rope net of some sort as well. Or, in a suggestion I saw elsewhere in this thread, the goal could be shaped like a shell. It's my opinion though that the "five 'bots" could be a red herring (okay, I just really can't think of anything other than a pentagon for something).

Eddie's official (IOW, semi-crazy, but fun) guess: The game pieces will be footballs (heck, I'm willing to bet some Dew on this) colored for each team. There will be a bunch of long tubes/tunnels leading to and from the start, ball stations with one ball of each teams' color (around the outer walls and around the field), and the center goal, which will be a giant shell (actually, I'm thinking a large bowl ~10ft in diameter for this) on top of a circular hill. The idea is the smaller bots could go through the tunnels for quicker transit, while bigger robots have to go a longer way around various obstacles if they can't fit. A point for a ball in the goal, another point if the ball was passed to another robot before scoring (assuming there's alliances, you can add a point for each robot it touches, even if it's just two robots passing back and forth and chaining up massive points). Perhaps sort of a three point line where if a ball is shot and made, it's worth double. Maybe add a special neutral ball that starts in the center goal, and which ever team keeps it in the ball station next to their drivers' station gets 10 points. Of course, you can't have a hill without a bonus attached to it, so any bots on the hill at the buzzer get 5 points. And I'll be adventurous and suggest a pentagon field for this. Because I can. :p

And my longshot: We'll be hurling footballs over water while the field is shaking (look up Huang He; apparently, that's where the oldest signs of any type of pasta are found). And if that's true, I so get bragging rights for the year. :D

In conclusion: okay, the only thing I can really guess with at least 90% confidence is that we're throwing footballs (a game piece obsessed with a shovel's show - and seeing Montana's...), and there will be a circular hill involved ("green heights"). I also wouldn't be too surprised if there was a field goal involved ("Montana's green heights", related to the '95 goal). Would've been easier if I just got right to that, huh?

Final thought: has anyone thought of the possibility of Football not being the American version?

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I think that water is an absolute impossibility this year. Building robots capable of withstanding and operating in water is just too much of a technical challenge, not to mention a challenge for event operators. Good luck finding a pool with sufficient stadium seating! Also a water competition would not be good for getting new teams because it would just seem too complex. Really - to you, what seems easier: a robot that doesn't need to withstand water, doesn't need a sealed area for electronics, and can operate just like a car, or a robot that has to be waterproof and submersible?

If first was going to introduce water, they would probably just start a new league. (How about a college league!?)

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

just a side note, but can we NOT turn this into (yet another) water game discussion? (yes i realize i've contributed to it). the ONLY hint we have of a water game is the picture by Dave, and for all we know, he's just screwing around with some textures

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

There is a motto that we should keep in mind:

KISS

Keep It Simple Stupid.

We are all going into this complicated ball of thoughts..

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

the year before we also figured we'd have to reach up and climb, and that nothing could be fired faster than 9.8 ft/s or whatever. So every year there is typically a pretty close consensus to what some of the game elements will be. UNFORTUNATELY its never enough to actually design a bot to hehe.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Hey guys just a few notes that I think could head this thing off in a slightly different direction.

Accoding to the first entry in this thesarus, obsessed is a synonym for controlled. So a game piece controlled by a shovel's show? Perhaps the shovel part alludes to how the game piece might be manipulated, and therafore what shape it might be.

On a similar note, the pasta part has been picked apart quite a bit with conclusions ranging from game piece shapes to hydrality (it's a word now), but here's something new. Perhaps it refers to plurality. You never see talk about pasta as a single object, but as many pieces, and generally small. I'll go out on a limb and say many smaller game pieces that need to be collected (going on the shovels show/minining theory) and and put into goals. If the objects were really small (inches) that would lead to some interesting scoring possibilities, as scores would probibly have to be determined by volume, not number of object, also we'd see some very different collection systems.

Also the tangling is a synonym for mixing. Perhaps game pieces can be mixed in goals?


Oh, 5 DOES NOT REFER TO BOTS! Regardless of it's place in the sentance structure. There are many countless reasons previously covered about this. It's far more likely to refer to something more likely like number of goals, game pieces (that would be different, each alliance starts with only 5 pieces to score with), or even something more abstract, 5 minute matches anyone?

And here's hoping this inspires people to look at things a little different, where does the Human Player fit into all this? Are they shoveling? Providing communication to the driver for a part of field blocked by the hieghts? What then?

Anyways here's to hoping people are inspired :)




So in short:

1: Game piece controled by shovels show.
2: Pasta = plurality/small
3: Five /= bots
4: Where does the Human Player fit in?

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Random responses to other posts:

Anyone see that movie of the same name; "Sky High" for some more abstract references to the rest of the clue by any chance?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303933/ :p I'm not giving up on my idea from 2004's clue carrying over to this year.

The only reason they barely work inside is because the transmitter of the signal is outside, and the receivers usually need a clear line of sight with at least one transmitter (satellite).

GP also could mean (a'la 2001 competition, and the basis of the Co-Opertition patent) working together as only one team.

Shall we try that again?

I would tend to look at Tckma's idea.