Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I haven't had a chance to read all the posts.(I am visiting relatives and have only 5 minutes left of my hour of leased Internet) But five bots bothers me. So Here are two devious possibilities.

1. There is a "house" or official bot, that has to be overcome - to be overcome it must be neutral, or able to be utilized fairly by the other robots in some manner. I like this better than:

2. Five robots are on the field, but the alliances are formed after play begins either as a strategy or by some random event. (I would think this is too devious even for Dave Lavery to come up with, but I've learned never to underestimate Dave's ability to be devious in game design!)

About the green - you can bet that the CU-cam will be back, and the best programmers will have the best chance of doing well. About Montana, Climbing or putting something high (scooping up lots of objects, and them placing them in raised goals either by climbing a ramp or some sort of transport mechanism will be there.

And as always, there will be something the rookies will be able to do, if they have a platform that can move.

Finally, remember folks, the trick to winning is to score more points than the other team.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Finally read the hint. Brain is stewing. Wonder what it is...? Foam peanuts? Pool noodles? A hill control game? House Bots? So many possible meanings.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

you might want to look at these to find the meaning of 'bots,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special...=%27bots&go=Go
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bot

also,
there might be 5 teams of 2 with each bot on two teams, (it's a stretch, I know)

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/shelfish/razorclm/razor6.htm

This brings the "shovel" back to a donut shape like a hula hoop - as discussed in the earlier thread. OR It could be the inside of a pool noodle.

Just some ideas for the objects of the game.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Im telling myself, dont go back to the thread...
but it's just too ...difficult not to

Maybe the game will have to do something with a foot ball type game? who knows.. ekk i need to stop.

I find it fairly funny, that 7 of the 10 most recent spotlight adds....come from this thread, one from the "2007 game hint?" one

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

During the 2004 season, I was having an "After Hours" conversation with someone who was somewhat involved with the game design. This guy mentioned that he had wanted an auto mode where teams selected their alliance partners or tasks based on their action (or inaction) in auto mode. He also liked the idea of a divided field where you pick what side you play on during auto mode.

Imagine not knowing who your partners were until auto! Crazy... I would not be surprised if you had to use visual autonomous control to find something (maybe green?) that would dictate either who your partners were or what your task was.

Maybe all the football references are correct, and you choose if you play offense or defense in auto mode. I envision a game like the one from American Gladiators where contestants tried to put soccer balls in little goals that were defended by the hosts. You pick if you play O or D during the auto mode. Who knows how you do rankings based on the results of matches, I am sure there are many ways.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I noticed that Paul Copioli continued with the Joe Montana/Notre Dame reference, and mentioned that ND's colors are green and gold (also happen to be the team colors of one of my favorite FIRST teams) Coincidence that Paul would hide a reference to JVN's old team? Hmm. Conspiracy if you ask me.

See you folks at Kickoff.

Rob

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Or ORO could turn into Oreo. What pasta lools like an Oreo? Wagon wheels! And a wagon wheel would want to see Montana's green heights. So the game pieces will be wheels!

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

There will be one robot controlling other robots from two different alliancees of two robots; and there will be "Oreo" game scoring objects which move up and down.

How's that for a rational idea?

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I don't like the idea of teams getting to choose their alliances for the Qualifying Matches, Mainly for the same reasons of a free for all match you will either get several "strong" teams ganging up against the "weaker" teams, or several "weaker" teams ganging up against a "strong". Neither of which goes along with the ideals of FIRST. At least the way the system has been set up for the past several years all teams are on a level playing field when it come to alliances, during the Qualifying Matches anyway.

Just my opinion.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Joining kinda late.
I really don't think that the game will have to do with shoveling sand or snow. The FIRST people are not idiots and want an easy cleanup and reset.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

The entire "should a sport cater to the audience" argument is fairly irrelevant. They do. This said, whether we wish it to be or not, we have to think under this restriction.

The hint describes a game...not the game describing the riddle...so first I go at this from this direction...first set the parameters of the game.

FIRST Fields flatly have to be all the things required in the post linked to above...most of that can be condensed into cheap and safe. It also has to be fast moving and simple enough for a TV audience so that requires that the refs can read it fast and the field hands can set it up fast. We also have to assume it is the shape and size of a basketball court because the arenas have been rented already.

Foam noodles are very light and breakable but they are cheap to replace. They are also very safe. It would take quite a bit of talent to hurt yourself with one.

On the other hand footballs are also light, bit more durable and rather safe too...and America loves footballs. This might be FIRST's attempt to tap into another audience. However...how much does a single football cost? I honestly don't know what footballs cost but if they are more expensive than say...a plastic bin or the materials for a tetra there might not be many of them on the field.

There is the possibility that both noodles and footballs are used and the footballs are thrown by human players.

I don't think FIRST will ever have a house robot. I may have to eat my words there but seriously it is a good deal more work than normal to reset, expensive, requires maintenance, and is a safety hazard if it gets beat up too badly and is not fixed. FIRST is often short volunteers to do everything already; where are they going to get a full pit crew to take care of a robot that runs every single match? You would probably need at least two of them unless you want to wait between every single match for the motors to cool. That isn't even counting the cost of teams making a mock house robot.

A lot of people are talking about going up a ramp to either a hole or a platform. I'd say platform here because if a robot gets stuck in a hole and another robot drives over it it poses a very grave danger...especially to an electrical board.

That field might be valid but if that is all the game is it would probably descend very quickly into a competition of plowbots. I'm sure FIRST has considered this too...so perhaps there is another scoring area? Maybe one up high?

I think the thing about the camera is that yes it is a hard task if you start from scratch but really the difficulty for a rookie team to complete that task is the amount of work between where the FIRST default code puts you and the end product. If the camera had more background code it might be quite reasonable. No matter what however I'd be willing to bet its back.

The game could very well be five vs five if the size of the robots was decreased. This would allow people to play more rounds, and more robots to go to championships. It would change up strategy considerably and would be a disadvantage only veterans would feel. Rookies are not locked in a 3x3x5 mindset so they don't feel a change but it would require some major changes for those teams who love reusing their old designs.

This may be wishful thinking but I think the days of the multipliers are over. People (viewers especially) need to be able to add the scores in real time.

Also...my friend said that once upon a time there was a cartoon character named Montana Max. Anybody know if this has any relation at all?

Also...in case this helps anybody

Major mountain ranges of Montana are: Little Rockey Mountains, Bear's Paw Mts, Sweetgrass Hills, Lewis Range, Rocky Range, Whitefish Range, Salish Mts, Purcel Mts, Cabinet Mts, Coeur D'Alene Mts, Mission Mts, Swan Range, Garnet Range, Big Belt Mts, Little Belt Mts, Highwood Mts, Castle Mts, Snowy Mts, Judith Mts, Big Sheep Mts, Bridger Range, Castle Mts, Tobacco Root Mts, Highland Mts, Anaconda Range, Beaverhead Mts, Tendoy Mts, Blacktail Mts, Snowcrest Mts, Graverly Range, Madison Range, Gallaton Range, Absaroka Range, Beartooth Mts, Pryor Mts, Big Horn Mts, and Wolf Mts

"Bridger" mountains sound promising but other than that nothing pops out at me.

Also to throw one last thought out there...green could have a double meaning and also be "money" aka points.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I don't think anyone seriously expects that we will be shoveling sand, or snow, or anything messy like that. Even resetting a field with something the size of golf balls or tennis balls would be difficult. I think the most feasible game pieces mentioned so far, in no particular order, are:

1)Footballs - the clue has several hints that could be taken as football references, the strongest of which is the Joe Montana reference. There is also a general expectation (although I'm not sure where it comes from) that FIRST will return to balls this year. The danger is this expectation could lead people to find ball references where they are not intended.

2)Pool noodles - which would be a clear reference to pasta, although their durability is questionable making it a somewhat less likey choice.

3)PVC pipe - similar in shape to pool noodles but more durable

4)PVC elbows - I find this one intriguing. The elbows are of course the reference to pasta and the durability of these would be higher than pool noodles.

All of these options could be reset on the field in a reasonable amount of time and could be easily cleaned up at the end of the day. Additionally, they are all reasonably priced so that the teams can set up practice fields with as many game pieces as needed.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Okay, I'm probably the last person in this thread to take Dave's animation picture, blow it up with IrfanView, and examine it in detail.

The object does look as if it is a banana; I cannot imagine anything else being skewed enough to end up with that shape. With that in mind, there are three possible conclusions:

1) As already mentioned, there will be a difficulty posed by slippery conditions this year (slippery field or slippery game objects), or
2) Since the robot appears to be carrying the banana, the game objects this year are banana or sickle shaped, or
3) Dave is indicating the special musical guest during the kickoff broadcast will be Tally Hall

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

What if Montana's green hights are green, football shaped goals that are set up in different positions before the match, like the vision tetras.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Im sorry if im a little slow but can someone link Dave's animation i want to take a look at it.
Thank you in advance.