Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

I think the main problem you would have with the bumble balls (besides batteries) would be resetting the field. Turning on a few dozen of those balls for every match would take a while :p

Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

A new concept on the "chicken goals"...

The goal would be to keep them in your zone. the zones for each team would be signigcantly darker than the rest of the field. The chicken goals would have a light sensor (or ir) to tell if they are in a teams zone, or in the center. When they are the center they will either be not movine, or staying it it. If they are in a zone they will be moving erratically until they're out. This would require teams to really grab on and control these chicken goals.

Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

Just as a notion, what if there were some sort of disabling task that robots could complete on the field?

Imagine that four balls were placed on the field. Robots can place those balls in a goal placed in front of each drive team that disables that team's robot when activated. Each successive placement of a ball gets more points--for Aim High, let's imagine 5, 10, 15, and 20.

This brings out some ridiculous strategies. The obvious idea would be to disable your opponents quickly, but what if you were to wait until 25 had a big load of balls, or 222 was stuck right on your ramp? Suddenly, their once-prime position has backfired, and they can't do a thing about it. A team with a box on wheels or a tipped might want to go ahead and disable to claim what they can, but it's not automatic--someone has to go over there and drop that ball in.

Sure, that could create the weakness of a three-team alliance getting disabled. I'm sure there's ways around it--either make the third ball for an alliance a non-disabler, or end the match when one full alliance is disabled. (Who wants to miss out on their numbers advantage?)

Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

What if the 4 balls had some weight to them. Like 5, 10, 20, and 30 lbs and you had to lift them up and place them on something above the ground. The heavier balls would have to be lifted higher, just like the StrongMan event in which you do the same thing. But the twist would be that you don't know who's disabled. It could be one of your teammates or not and it could even be you. With the disabling there would only be a set limit and not the whole match time. Again this would be a very hard and different strategy that team would have to come up with.

Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

Biy, I like this idea! However cool it would be though, I think that having to continuously reset the heavy balls throughout an entire day might be a problem for the crew. Secondly, where game objects are typically harmless to get hit by, these would be a completely different story. But it would be fun.

Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

I could see alot of harm coming from this style of play, especially if you can disable an entire opposing alliance. A team could simply build a robot that could disable the other alliance within the first 10 seconds. The matches would be (I think) un-exciting, and it seems to go completely against the idea of working together and not trying to disable your opponents.

The disabling might work if it was only for a little bit and not everyone on your alliance could be disabled. I still see this as kind of a malicious strategy though.

Now if there was a game element that allowed you to "sacrafice" your robot temporarily and allow your alliance to get some kind of bonus, that could be interesting. For example, there could be a pressure pad that you had to drive your robot onto. As long as the pad was active your alliance would have some kind of bonus (an extra goal activated, doubling points for a certain scoring object, etc.), but the bonus goes away as soon as the pad is inactive again. This would be similar to disabling yourself, except you can still do something if designed right (a really long arm for example).

Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

Yes but also teams "could" just build a robot that does nothing and just sit there to get there team some bonus points, so if they were to do something like that it would have to be more challenging for teams like a high goal or bar like in 2004. if they were hanging bonus points would be added for the length of time but with a max of like 15-20 sec. I don't know just a idea.

Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

Hmmm... I don't think this has been done before, but it would seem to be the ideal game piece...

Frisbees!

They're cheap, difficult to break or otherwise mangle, easy to get a hold of, would create an interesting game, would create an entirely new, never experienced game piece, and even if flying, would be relatively harmless!

I can envision a game similar to this year's in terms of dynamics, but it would still be just as new, exciting, and challenging as any other game.

Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

Now the real question to that one is are the robots simply collecting the frisbees, or throwing them? :D

Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

This might be a little late, but there's always next year's game.

I like the idea of a game with a particularly dynamic field environment. The last two games didn't have that. Games with mobile goals did. It would be even more interesting if the moving/movable elements were obstacles.

What if the field had sets of movable walls? The walls would be organized in a certain number of rows across the field (probably three to allow enough room for movement), in a number of short sections per row. They could move along tracks, which might be an obstacle for robots to drive over, but they could still work. The purpose of the tracks is to keep them in the same three lines. Robots could slide them back and forth and drive between the sections. The idea is similar to the board game Shuttles, but I can't find a picture of it.

This would allow for a number of robot mechanisms: robots could move the sections using horizontal wheels, arms, or just by pushing.

It wouldn't be simple, but I think there would be ways to create the track and the sections. The only problem is that if the walls are tall, it would be hard to make them stable enough to be moved without getting knocked over.

Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

I finally figured out what I realy want to see in FRC next year. A field and game that is safe without the need for penalties/DQs to make it safe.

Anyone agree?

Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

They also used the bumble balls in the 2002 game called Warp X just in case KoKo Ed comes up with another name - with an X - :)
Sorry Ed.....

Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

(cough)aimwellkindahigh(cough) (hack)nopenaltiesallday(wheeze) ;)

All joking aside, few things would make me happier than to see some form of chute/corral/whatchacallit that robots and humans have no chance of interacting with. Aim High was certainly better than FIRST Frenzy, thanks to the mesh keeping folks off of the light, and leaps and bounds ahead of Triple Play (although that comparison is apples to oranges), but there was still that possibility.

What about a variation on the this year's center goal? Put a ramp up to the hole for balls (or, for your game Dave, inflatable clowns), then have them roll down and around a barrier into the human-player-accessible area. Suddenly, incursion doesn't seem so bad, and you can keep a count with a simple photogate.

Re: [Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks
 

A circle field with 3-4 alliances of two teams per alliance.

I would like to see a 3 alliance game.