Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

there is also a band called 40 Watt Bulb that has an album called Shovels Lenth Short and in the article it describes the album as being relaxing after a long days work at a blue collar job....it's a little far out there but that would mean the robot could "relax" somewhere on the field and accumulate points after all the work.....

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I am fairly sure that the FIRST Game Hint is not based on some obscure band's album's name. I think we are getting a little off track here :p . Yes this is a very difficult hint, but there is still a lot to decipher from it ;) .

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

"Quote:
Originally Posted by b-rant
there is also a band called 40 Watt Bulb that has an album called Shovels Lenth Short and in the article it describes the album as being relaxing after a long days work at a blue collar job....it's a little far out there but that would mean the robot could "relax" somewhere on the field and accumulate points after all the work.....


I am fairly sure that the FIRST Game Hint is not based on some obscure band's album's name. I think we are getting a little off track here . Yes this is a very difficult hint, but there is still a lot to decipher from it "
/
/
/
he has a point though. anything is possible. and it sounds like something that could be a first game.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

while it's an interesting connection, i don't think that FIRST will do that...watching a robot sit somewhere isn't very exciting...

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

agreed, but it is still a cool connection

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I'm not so sure.

Imagine that next year's game is a glorified game of Capture The Flag. (This wouldn't happen, as the FPS gamers would all travel to Virginia to praise and thank and maybe even worship Dave for bringing CTF to FIRST, meaning we'd all really be up the creek for manpower.) Suppose further that whichever robot had the flag received a bonus for however long it could stay on a particular patch of field without being moved off or having the flag taken away by another robot. Granted, defending the aforementioned flag isn't particularly relaxing, but it'd still be sitting there.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

billfred has a point. and how do we know what dave listens to. for all we know he has listened to the majority of music websites on those late nights rendering fake game animation to through us off. i just got thinking. is it me or is it that as we develop more and more of a game dave posts more pictures. to throw us off maybe?-=------------ does anyone have last years clue, i have an idea------ we haqve reached 22000 views either this is sad or dedication but i wonder if we can reach 40000 or even better 50000

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

2005 Official 2005 Clue Thread

Looking Back: 2005 Game Hint

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I was considering today how little attention this part of the clue is receiving. Why isn't anyone looking closely at it? A "game piece" could be many things -- a chess pawn, a die, a horseshoe, etc. If it's so obvious and straightforward, then tell us what it means. :p

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I'd like to build on this a bit and connect it back to some other ideas.

Billfred makes some great points: think about CTF. It's a lot of teamwork. Each alliance would need a very good idea of their game plan, and assign individuals to protecting the flag, capturing the flag, and doing whatever other stuff needs to be done.

Personally, I don't believe that this is the only element of the game. However, I remember in 2003 you got more points for having the movable goal on your side, correct? So maybe they are bringing back something like this, except with more value.

In either case, this makes me think of swimming pool noodles. If it's a relatively large game piece, it would be easily visible by the audience. If anybody has other leads, add on! Woo for speculation! And only a few more days now!

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

the comment was made "sitting somewhere isnt very exciting". think of it this way, while the robot may not tootally be "relaxing" think of a King of the hill like 2003. At the end, the robots "sitting" on top of the ramp was awarded points. That was plenty exciting! perhaps theres a stronger connection than thought? farfetched, yes, but crazy enough to have potential.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

that was 2002 :rolleyes: and you got 10 points for the goal being in your zone and 1 point for each ball in the goal

4.5 more days

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I've no idea if this was said, since I really havn't the time to read thirty-five pages of posts, but heres my idea.

Noodles is foam packing noodles. You have to shovel them into a bucket or other container above the ground. Scoring would be based on how much was put in the bucket, with multipliers for filling them higher. Obviously, each team would have their own buckets, to keep scores seperate. As for the five 'bots thing, I've no idea.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

After reading most of the thread I am prepared to give an update on my ideas for 2006's game...

My guess is this year's game will involve a large central island. The island is on wheels and movable. The island is shaped like a truncated pyramid. There is enough room for 5 robots to drive on it and park. Above the pyrimid is a large bowl. The bowl is used as a goal for scoring elements. This year's scoring elements will be pool noodles and ball crawl balls.

The ball crawl balls will be dumped onto the field similar to the balls in 2004. Human players will have pool noodles. They will be handed off to a robot similar to how tetras were handed off in 2005. The goal of the game is to score the most noodles and balls into the pasta bowl. At the conclusion of the match a robot must be parked on the pyramid to score extra points. If the island is on your side of the field at the end of the game additional points are scored.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

totally knew it would have something to do with cylinders this year! :) man i'm good.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

i dont think the human player will have the noodles. after my experience as hp last year handling the tetras without hitting someone was hard enough, a pool noodle it wouldnt heart but yud get hit alot, i like the idea of pool balls what a drivingchallenge, especially if they were to just spread them around the feild

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

My ideas follow Mike's very closely, and I am gonna do my own summary.
Though it is possible that auto is at the end, i think auto will be at the beginning as usual. I think that there will be TWO scoring options in auto. One that is easy, and one that is more difficult, so that new teams can do something besides sit there, and experienced teams can still have a high goal to shoot for. I also think the truncated pyramid will appear, and i think the top will be worth more points. I like the moving goals. I think they make the game interesting. But where did the ball crawl balls come from? And where did the footballs go to? My theory: replace the ball crawl balls with footballs. And i dont know about the pool noodles, but they are pasta-like, and can be different colors. But if they ARE a game piece, then i get the feeling there are going to be pieces of pool noodle all over the field(s).

EDIT: we used ball crawl balls in a competition called B.E.S.T. (Boosting Engineering Science + Technology). This comptition is on a smaller scale: 24"x24"x24" foot robots, 24 pound weight limit. ball crawl balls seem to be too small a scale to me, compared with tetras and four square balls, etc. but the shovel picking up small stuff makes sense. hmmmmmm . . . .

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I guess this was kind of my own invention because I wanted ball crawl balls more than it made sense :o

What made me think of small balls was the clue about the game piece obsessed with a shovel's show. A shovel picks up many small things and dump them together. However, there are clues to support a football themed game piece- Montana and the shovel pass.

In retrospect I would leave everything the same except change ball crawl balls to footballs.

EDIT: There is another reason I didn't want to include footballs. Teams have been asking for footballs for a long time. Every year it was thought, "this is the year, we'll have footballs." Then we get something like a tetra :rolleyes:

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

only about 399600 seconds to go until kick off

whos gunna be right? :confused: :ahh: :confused:

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Here's a shovel show I haven't seen mentioned: Shovel Racing

Could this be how the human players play? Gotta admire his form...

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Remember Dave's post about the "Viking Death Ship"? I buy in to a central island, which has ramps to get up to the 'heights'. Rather than a truncated pyramid, I think there will be only 2 ramps, more like a boat. That fits only 5 robots.

Tangling with pasta possibly has something to do with an obstacle placed on the field. Past posts have discussed the durability of pool noodles, I agree and don't think we'll see them. Hula hoops and twirling batons overheard on a jet? Maybe, when combined with Dave's post about 'batons and other stuff around the office' (or something like that).

Looking back at the 2005 game hint posting, it is amazing that the second post had already come up with the name "Triple Play"...

Me, I'm hoping for those 100 pound spheres Magnus Mangusson likes to toss around...

Don

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

yeah but if there's a branch just low enough....ouch

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

To draw some (hopeful) connections:
If autonomous mode is at the end, I hope the GPS-like technology broadcasts your field location.

~Stephanie
*programmer being hopeful*

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

if you're talking about those packing peanuts little syrofoam things, then those would be a pain in the you know what for the field reset clue to clean up. im thinking more towards the ball crawl balls, pool noodles(more unlikely) or pvc pipes/cylinders.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

That would be interesting, but I doubt it will happen. How would you test your code during the build season?

You could achieve the same thing by going to a predifined location before autonomus ends though, then your 'bot would "know" where it is. This adds all sorts of interesting strategic elements because the opposing team could figure out your predefined spot and sit there...

If you're clever, you'll have a multiposition switch indicating a bunch of points on the feild. Then line your robot up to one of those points and set the switch appropriately. The switch's state can be saved in EEPROM for the automode to recover...

I hope auto is at the end and worth a lot of points this year. Please dave, pleeeease? :D

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

There's no way FIRST would put Auto mode at the end of a match. Until we have a competition year in which 80-90% of the teams actually participate in Auto mode - it will stay as is. I bet the CMU camera will be back though, and this time, I bet a lot of teams can have more success with it. Who knows maybe we'll get two cameras this year? :)

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

hmm, that's what I originally thought.

Unless... there's some rule against blocking teams from getting to their (known?) autonomous starting spot?

<random thought> Boy... getting off the bar from 2004 during autonomous for tons of points would be interesting </random thought>

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

awsome idea, but the game hint says "tangling WITH pasta" not OVER....pity tho, b/c that would be awsome

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

post 445 near the top :)

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

This might seem obvious and/or have been mentioned already, but I was thinking that a "game piece obsessed with a shovel's show" would mean that the way in which the game piece was SCORED would have to do with a shovel's show, not the shape of the game piece itself.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I have a question for you all.

Would there be enough of a coincidence, and/or could it possibly be that a clue could link to a long time supplier/sponsor of the FIRST program in some out of the box kind of way?

If you think yes, I have this to offer you.

Looking at the latest UFH I see Tony and Bob from IFI. (which just so happened to be the 49th UFH - interesting number :cool: )

Anyways, I instantly think Tony (I am told he is the one on the left in that picture - please forgive me if I am wrong, I have never met them) looks like a familiar face, so I Google a movie I have seen and come up with an actor's name.

Joe Mantegna is the person I was thinking of.

Now, I saw this as just another person who looks like a celebrity and a pretty cool way to remember what Tony looks like, until I reflect back to the clue.

"seeing Montana's green heights"

Most people think Montana = Joe Montana in that equation.

Joe Montana (sounds like) Joe Mantegna. Anyone catch that one yet?

I remember Joe Mantegna from a movie called Liberty Heights.
There is that word heights.

In that movie, Joe's character buys a Mist Green Cadillac.
There is that word green again.

One famous Liberty is of the Bell shaped variety.
Bell game pieces?

Oh yeah, and the UFH award to Tony and Bob was awarded 5 days before Kickoff.
There is the five from the clue as well! :ahh:


Just some things to ponder.


4 more days.


Oh, and Tony, I hope you are a good sport about this, and take this as a compliment/joke/another FIRSTers crazy random thoughts in this anxious week leading up to the six weeks of craziness of another season, and nothing more.

Thanks! :)

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

that is crazy elgin! haha the coincidence is uncanny

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I think perhaps the larger problem with an autonomous period at the end would be having the drivers let go of the controls on time...imagine it. Pairs of tense high school students their sweaty hands wrapped around the controllers in a death grip praying their robot will make it that last five inches...four...three...two...

...and then a little noise comes and they all gracefully let go of their controls and let their robots move into autonomous mode?

Erp...I can imagine quite a few judge/driver disagreements on "was the driver touching the controls or not"

I find the truncated pyramid very interesting. The sides make me wonder however. Either the incline on the sides would have to be very shallow or the robots would have to be very clever to hang on without damaging the playing piece but at the same time not roll off when the power is cut.

This makes me think...what if the sides were also flat and the playing piece looked like steps instead?

This also fits with the idea of "show" or third place. In the Olympics and such winners stand on a series of platforms. The winner stands in the middle on a higher stand while the second and third place winners stand on shorter platforms on either side. This configuration is a pretty good match to the profile of what the playing piece could look like if the sides of the truncated pyramid were changed to flat planes that were lower steps.

The top view would look just the same as the top view of the truncated pyramid. The side view would look like a shape from tetris...don't know a better way to describe it.

Anyway...I'm not sure how that looks like a shovel but...it fits most of the other requirements.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Elgin, I have never seen any other FIRSTer so enthusiastic about solving the clue. You just proved how FIRST is a combination of the craziest people with the craziest ideas.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Well, the controls are disabled during autonomous, so it wouldn't really matter if the drivers were still thrashing away at the controls like maniacs or not.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Ya just gotta luv and admire the creativity of everyone responding. This thread has made my new year start off with a good laugh.

I concur with many of you who think that the "noodles" will become game pieces not obstacles...why?
safer and more lightweight than the tetras
industructable (lots of tetra repairs last year)
easy-to-source (less parts shortage for PVC pipes than last year)

I also consur with those of you who think that these game pieces might be stored in some sort of a "bowl" on the field where the robots have a "feeding frenzy" to grab the pasta noodles...what might eb interesting is individual competition, but with two appliance "home bowls" where 1,2,3, or even 4 teams could stash their retrieved noodles?

I also concur that "green mountains" might be carpeted & ELEVATED elements on the playing field; maybe even visualized by the camera during auto mode to climb a ramp of some sort? Auto mode MUST remain at the beginning of the round for all the reasons you have stipulated.

ps: Wal-Mart is already sold-out of swimming pool noodles.......ha, ha, just kidding. Wait until Sunday!

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Montana's Green heights:

Montana Green is an actual evergreen plant. According to the link below, it has an ultimate height of 20'. It seems to me that they like having us reach tall:)

Edit: do a search for montana green


Look Here

Addition # 2: Noodles---

Upon a froogle search for Noodles -- I found that they are a very popular style of golf balls....something else to think about.


Happy clue hunting!!

Gabriel Goldman

On my way to PhD in mechanical engineering ....5 more years!!

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Hungry Hungry Hippos?

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

The thing is that (supposedly) if you hit the reset button a whole bunch of times in autonomous you can regain control of the robot. I believe that is why the rule was made in 2003 that the drive team has to stand a given distance from the controls.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Um... still not buying it. What were the reasons?

- The students would not release the controls on time: 1)The controls are useless in autonomous mode unless you alter some of the code that is not supposed to be altered, and even then I'm not sure if the controls will work. It could easily be verified if you have altered inappropriate code by having the robot set to autonomous mode and allowing a ref to try to controls to see if the robot responds in any way. 2) There could be a brief 2 second pause between driver mode and autonomous mode until all the drivers released their controls. We've had this the other way around in previous years to allow for the judges to evaluate what goals were accomplished in autonomous mode.

- Too hard to program: We have already seen examples from Vex of how the autonomous coding can be made easier.

- Not enough teams use auto mode: I think 95% of the teams at our regional last year (and it was the first round of regionals) had some form of auto mode by the end of the practice day.

- There would have to be a rule against blocking teams from getting to their known starting point: No way! I can make a deaf, blind, stupid robot drive into a corner from any point on the field, just drive one direction long enough to hit something, turn 90 degrees and drive long enough to hit something else, lather, rinse, repeat. The kit usually includes contact switches, IR-sensors, probably a gyro, and a camera. It's not hard to find your way to a known point as long as you choose a proper known point. You drive into a wall until you square up and you know you are either looking directly down or across the field of play.

Besides, you don't have to have people setting up the field in random orientations if you have the autonomous mode at the end. The randomness is already introduced by everything that has been done during regular game play.

Feel free to dismiss this idea if you want, but at some point, even if it's not this year, we will see autonomous modes that are not at the start of the match.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

An additional find from my previous post:

Montana Greem is an evergreen plant that grows in a pyrimidal structure. From this, one could concluded that the scoring goal is pyrimidal.

-Gabe Goldman

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I think the intent of this rule was for the crowd to realize the robot is operating autonomously rather than under driver control.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I got it, I got it, eureka I've got it.

First their was the baton hint, then their was the noodle hint. Maybe we are going to have batons as a scoring objective, but we will have to do something that involves the batons going all floppy like, just like pasta in a pot of water, any takers on this idea. I have no idea how it would work, maybe an elastic inside the baton or something. But other than that I wouldn't know. However, FIRST does perform miracles with these games, so I wouldn't be surprised if they figured a way to do this.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

the multi form game piece idea would be cool, but it seems like it would be rather complicated to construct a game piece that can change its form. This would mean a possibility of only a few game pieces. Maybe the game pieces themselves wouldn't change, but rather they would be replaced with something else once scored :confused:

On autonomous mode: I agree that the whole point of not touching the controls is mainly to prove to the audience that, in fact, no one is moving the robot. It just gives it the one extra wow factor. I can see it being a problem with teams still scrambling at the controls during autonomous mode, but what if a penalty were to be inflicted if you were touching the controls, or even a 5 second period where the robots were disabled, and drivers had to get off within the 5 or so seconds?. there would really only need to be two or so judges to look at this, and I think after a while, teams would get used to it

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Pasta? Shovels? Montana? I sense a bad mafia hide the bodies joke buried somewhere in the this.

Also for Monatanna and Green I can't help but think of the Green and Gold that Joe Montanna wore at Notre Dame when I see those comments.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Wow! That's a lot of posts. 546. I have to admit, I didn't read them all. I did look at the hint, and the discussion, and even the "2007 hint picture" , and this website, and determined, that, of the 8 words in the english language that end in "bots", two of them describe fish, one is a ruffle, one a shoe or a gun modification, and one a monk.

This has probably already been covered, but I'm trying to ease my way back into CD for the year.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I decided to go and look at a2zwordfinder for myself and got the same results. But then I started checking the results more closely. This is what I found out about "Burbots":

An elongated fish of the cod family, Gadidae, and the only member of the family found in freshwater. The burbot lives in cold rivers and lakes of Europe, Asia, and North America.

Searching a little more I found that these fish are found in the mountain lakes and streams of, you guessed it, Montana. Armed with this new knowledge I just have to say, "So What? I still don't have a clue as to what the game will be!"

That is all, carry on with your lives, get some sleep. Kickoff is in less than 4 Days!

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

After all of this is said and done, think about how much more you all will know about the lovely state of Montana and other things not related to robotics. :)

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Hummm, too bad the clue didn't mention "women" and "want". I could sure stand to know more about that. ;) ;)

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

i'm inlcined to believe that about half of our connections are so far fetched that they're coicidences...but man, those are SOME coincidences.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I'll add my bit to the confusion and speculation.
Shovel is a synonym for Spade.
David Spade is the first name that comes up when you search the IMDB.
David Spade was in several television shows.
So what kind of game piece could be obsessed with "Saturday Night Live" or "Just Shoot Me"?

I hope I have muddied the waters further, thank you.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

i really like pasta, and i think it would be interesting if it were green.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

"Just Shoot Me" was mentioned earlier (page 1), but there was no explaination...maybe this is what M.Krass was hinting at

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I'm also trying to edge back into CD, and haven't been able to read the many pages of posts. (I was away from internet for a week before now.)

This may have been said and is probably wrong, but somehow "obsessed with a shovel's show" makes me think of a shovel's capacity. Maybe you gain an advantage from large shovel capacity, trying to pick up many tiny gamepieces which all "want" to be in the shovel? Then again, that would cause cries of "there's a flurbie stuck in the transmission!" (Assuming they had any chance of being called flurbies).

"Seeing green" does make me fear the CMUCam, but I could get lucky and have it be something else.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Indeed, it was.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

It sounds to me like were back to climing and a game of keep away but also think simple

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

This is one interpretation that I like...

The game piece will be tubular, maybe a length of PVC. Consider for a moment how hard that is to work with: just picking it up would make for an interesting driving challenge.

You will have to place the tubes in a hole to score (Game piece obsessed with a shovel's show: I think of a shovel's show as being a hole or a trench, that sort of thing). Again, think of the driving complexities. Lots of creative potential there.

There will be a green target over the hole that has autonomous implications (Ignoring the Montana bit, the rest can be interpreted as something green high up, which points toward the CMU cam. Yay!)

The '5 robots' bit is a little confusing, and I don't even want to try to take a stab. The best idea I have heard here, however, is the 2 vs. 2 with one neutral bot. I can't see a 5v5 (field's too small) or a 1v1v1v1v1 (after FIRST's teamwork spiel? not a chance).

Call me boring, but I've noticed that not many of the game hints are based on obscure trivia (unless you want to call 'Stairway to Heaven' obscure). I have also noticed that there is no clear game ideas gained from the hints (Again, 'Stairway to Heaven' pointed to a 6" step). May as well just wait.

Sparks

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

There is a family guy episode titled: "8 simple rules for buying my teenage daughter"
Just throwing it out there.
And if anyone called Stairway to Heaven "obscure", there is a slight chance i would kill them.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

the banana fish in 2007 game hint !?!?

If you Google-Image search "Burbot fish" some of them are yellow!

... I have other things I should be doing...

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

It certainly has nothing to do with this year's game, but I found it quite amusing (and coincidental) that yesterday, while watching a section of the Beatles's film Magical Mystery Tour, there was this scene in which John plays a waiter in a restaurant and he actually serves a customer by shoveling pasta into her dish.

The week before kickoff causes some weird stuff on one's mind. :p

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Hmmmm.....I don't think this has been mentioned.

Kickoff is in 4 days, and I have my money on footballs.

Has anyone else noticed the Kickoff----Football connection?

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I'm not sure if its been mentioned yet and i really don't feel like reading all the posts but someone posted in another forum that first has ordered 2000 mailboxes from home depot.

So it may be a game piece or maybe even a part of our kits...

Just putting that out there...

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

thats good, where did u find this out?

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I think he was refering to the2006 Game Piece? thread.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

This thread
might be a hoax tho, and it's too late to put them in the KOP, as they've almost definitely been packed, if not already shipped to the local kickoff locations

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

According to our Regional Director the kits have already shipped. They should be arriving at the pickup locations sometime in the next couple of days, if they didn't arrive today. I think kit arrival varies somewhat depending on the location.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

The kits already arrived at the San Diego kick-off location.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

well i guess that takes care of that. Whatever the order is for, IF there was such an order, it's NOT going to be in the KOP

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

enough about the kits, back to the game and the hint!
The idea of a moving, center, truncated pyramid that could be parked on came about a few pages ago.
I was discussing this with some of my colleagues today, and we realized that if it was on wheels and could move, it would probably be really hard to climb on top of it. So, I think it will just be attached to the floor.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I'm thinking that the field may be similar to 2000--tall hoppers with a ramp in the middle. Though I may be waayy off, this would go back to Dave's comment about "You already have it." The ramp would be larger (and green) and the hoppers would be able to carry footballs. Oh, and no hanging bar. HP job is to (try to) throw footballs into a hopper.

(Only 3 more days or so to kickoff. Almost out of time to speculate...)

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

ok these mailboxes could still be in the KOP what if they ordered 2000 more earlier, and then ordered 2000 more for extra parts at the regional competitions?

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Back to this thought (sorry im just catching back up with this thread) YES the KOP have been shipped... but guess what hasn't? The fields...........

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

ok just thought of something. ok what is just big enough to fit in a mailbox? a football, so what if they are setting these mailboxes down on a movable base that is on the playing field and the HP is throwing these footballs up in the air to land in a mailbox?

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

then it'd be like playing those carnival games where you try and get the rings on top of the bottles...not very easy, and not very entertaining. I DON"T think this is what's happening.

more likely would be if the HP put footballs in the box, and the robot had to take it out

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

That could be interesting...but I hope getting the footballs into the mailbox is worth a good many points, because I can't think of many people on our team who can throw a football with very good accuracy.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

actually i think nuttyman strikes up a better idea. the mailboxes could be "loaders" so to speak... they probably wouldnt have as good of a chance of getting mangaled either, i mean, sure there will be the occasional few... after seeing what some bots did to the roof cover the drivers, its a good thing that they ordered 2000.

Also, it could be like painted mailboxes and then have a moving piece with a group of arrayed mailboxes and then you have to try and aim for hte middle, it wont be as hard as long as you can throw a decent spiral in the general vacinity.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I think that the "green" hint is going to involve to cameras again. Only this time, instead of just a couple of the game pieces being green (I don't remeber how many tetras were vision tetras), all of the game pieces will be vision pieces. And when we are in autonomaus mode, we will have unlimited amounts of scoring bonuses. Or, maybe the green hint is suggesting that the floor will be green instead of gray like it has usually been.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Maybe the mailboxes are for some insane sort of mail system at the regionals :)

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I heard the robot size requirements have drastically changed this year, and USPS will now be handling all shipping and drayage. I wonder if these mailboxes have something to do with that?

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

John, does the FRC Robot Controller even fit in a mailbox? :rolleyes:

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

The new 2006 RC might....

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Didn't somebody mention "fish" in an earlier post? You're a bit late JVN! :D

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

That's an interesting fact. It seems to me that this is probably not the case, but maybe people are prevented from seeing the playing field, and your robot will have to keep track of where it is? This is a little farfetched, I'll admit.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

After much thought I had to put my 2 cents CDN in. Here you are:

'bot - An automated machine or computer program designed to perform a specific task with little or no human direction.
-A program that runs autonomously, and which performs repetitive and/or remotely-controlled tasks, from very simple IRC commands to incredibly complex online game manipulation.
(from urban dictionary)

tangling - Verb: tangle tanggul

1. Force into some kind of situation, condition, or course of action
- embroil, sweep, sweep up, drag, drag in (from wordwebonline)

- "Tangling" is when two or more concerns are implemented in the same body of code or component, making it more difficult to understand. Changes to one implementation may cause unintended changes to other tangled concerns

pasta - Instead offices and public places will be equipped with access points, through which hand-held computer users will be able to communicate with the existing infrastructure.
Our thesis is that the most profound property of a PDA is not its size, nor its "mobility", but the fact that it is private. In the PASTA project, we investigate different aspects of private machines in distributed systems.
(The PASTA project is a joint project between researchers at the Departments of Computer Science at the Universities of Pisa, Italy, and Tromsø, Norway.)

obsessed - To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic
- influenced or controlled by a powerful force


From all of these definitions I come up with the following:
There is an autonomous mode that when triggered will change ways that items are scored. There will be a game piece that will be controlled by the loading of some objects. when the game piece reaches it's goal then a green light will come on opening another area for the final task.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

USPS? As in United States Postal Service? I may have to eat my words here but that doesn't sound very likely. FIRST is an international organization and the United States Postal Service does not cover shipping in Canada, Brazil, Israel...or any of the other countries to the best of my knowledge. As a branch of the federal government I don't think it could even if it wanted to.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

John could be right. I believe there is a gentlemans agreement between the postal services. I can get things from the US faster than here in Canada.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I bef to differ.

http://www.usps.com/global/welcome.htm

And at the bottom, just so you don't assume Global is a fancy name for a non-global service, there is an International Shipping Price Calculator.

Katy, I'll feed you your words along with some complimentary Krispy Kreme's if that's ok.. :rolleyes:

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Could the surface be slippery and/or bumpy. My dad seems to think fun noodles and picking them up and placing them in a goal off the ground.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

five 'bots tangling with pasta

Could there be five bots put/tied together some how and they have to work together to get a task done??

Re: Official FIRST Hint declassification
 

[quote=Grayswandir-75]i think there will be possibly a third alliance introduced this year as well as a hill or mound.

There was the mention of pasta. As well as green.

Pasta is one of Italy's biggest foods, green is on the Italian flag. The Italian flag it broken up into 3 sections, green, white, and red 2 of which are associated with the colors of first if you look to the first logo.

Italy also has allot of mountains which relates to the green heights

I also thought italy...i just didnt know how it related...i like ur thinking..

Re: Official FIRST Hint declassification
 

Has anyone thought about how many sections of leather there are on a football and there shape if they were laid flat.

Are they in the shape of a shovel?
Are there 5 sections?

Re: Official FIRST Hint declassification
 

Someone on my team mentioned the "Octopus" game. Where you hold hands and get all tangled up and then you have to get untangled. Something to that effect....maybe we have to untie something.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

2 Quick things:

Hints are fun and all, but most likely we'll be looking back at this in 3 days and saying, "Oh, of COURSE." That being said, please don't let me stop you from having fun; I myself think it's a great venture. I just wouldn't want anyone to think too much is going to come from it.

KISS: when deciphering things, keep it simple- fanciful explanations /are/ fun though.

Re: Official FIRST Hint declassification
 

I'll admit I say this with almost no experience building manipulators, but that seems /unlikely/. Human fingers are /fairly/ well designed for untieing nots. We can bend them lots of different ways at lots of different points. Building a manipulator with anywhere near that amount of complexity isn't feasible.

I think =)... maybe I'll be eating my words in 3 days.

Just my 2cp

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I don't think so.

People hated 4vs0, and I see this as being a safety hazard contrary to the entanglement clause.

Has anyone figured out anything about this hint?

--Petey

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

ok
five 'bots tangling with pasta-what can you have in spaghetti? meat ball...therefore the game will be with balls

a game piece obsessed with a shovel's show- what does a shovel show? a hole in the ground. therefore we will have to drop[ something into a hole of somesort

and seeing Montana's green heights- Montana...has mountains and stuff in it. there will be a hill of somesort in the middle of the field that we will drop the balls in.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

The only connection that could be drawn between DSATKB and the impending game would be if they recorded the music for the game animation. None of the members of the band work for FIRST or are on the GDC (well, at least I didn't see an Ozzy Kamen on any list I've ever seen), so I just can't see a connection.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

The only thing I can draw is that there are three vocals, three rhythm guitars, and three lead guitars, plus two extra (bass and drums). That's five groups (vocals, rhythm, lead, bass, drums).

Could we expect three groups of three with two other things. What those other things are I don't know.

But I bet they're related.

*random*
How does the bass player get to the after party?
He follows the drummer.
How can you tell if a stage is level?
If the drummer drools out of one side of his mouth more than the other side.
*random*

Re: Official FIRST Hint declassification
 

Football's have 4 sections they look kind of like this ().

Link