Who likes this years challenge?
 

I have a poll on who likes this years challenge?

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

Aside from the ramp/elevation scoring, it seems very difficult. But then agian, I've only helped build 675's Aim High robot (Cthulhu, pictures later maybe), and Aim High was kind of easy if you didn't include target tracking (Which Cthulhu didn't).

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

I think the thing shaking would make in difficult to put the ringers on and the 15 points at the end too would be hard!!!

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

please search, there are many threads out there with a discussion to this years game.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

Personally, I like this challenge. However, it is the first one I have ever done! But I HAVE watched one other competition, and it was GREAT! Go team 1290!:D

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

It's my first compition also but i saw videos of last years event and i watched them and i liked last years event but this years event is crazy!!!!!!!!!

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

I honestly don't like it. It should be a game, this is just pure human strategy. The robots will be very simple so the only thing setting apart team's is their strategist.

FIRST has always been a sport, more or less, where you essentially "build" the player. Last years game was the perfect example of this, as well as the year before that. The games were based mostly on robot performance, features, design, and a little bit of driver skill - which is what it should be. This is a ROBOTICS competition, isn't it? The robot should be doing the work and playing the game for the most part.

This year everybody's robot will more or less be the same - there is no room for different designs. Your robot either needs to be able to score, or push the scorers. The rest is all human based strategy (i.e. where to put the tubes).

Aim High, and Triple Play, were possibly the best games ever created by FIRST, IMO. They allowed many robot designs to work, and were just $@#$@#$@#$@# fun to play. This year's challenge is essentially playing 8x3 tic tac toe with no diagonals, and you need to do this with a robot....like I said this is all going to lie on human strategy, unlike last year where the robot had to score as many points as it could (letting the robot do the work!).

This is my junior year in HS - next year will be the last FIRST competition I compete in as a student and direct part of the team. I will be in charge of everything next year - I really hope that FIRST comes up with something better than this year's game for my final year (I'll come back as a mentor though!).

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

Yeah True I guess they wanted to get away from the balls into something different they wanted everybody to design for!!!!!!1 :)

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

I couldnt agree with you more and I would also like to add one more point...


When I joined FIRST, the game was Triple Play. I explained the game to a lot of people who werent involved and they all greeted it with the same neutral response, which was something like "its cool, i guess". Even after showing them the videos of Triple Play matches there was still something large that was missing when you saw the game if you werent a part of it. But when I showed people the Aim High game, it was universally agreed that the game was "really cool". It was fast paced, it played like a sport, there were great plays (just like sports), it required a game plan, and there were multiple ways to score and be effective.


I am not saying that FIRST should design its games to be "cool" at the expense of being a good challenge. But being that one of the missions of FIRST is to attract people to the organization, it seems to me that designing a fast paced, sport-resembling game would be the best thing. Even as a veteran, who is hardcore into FIRST, I was dissapointed that the game doesnt appear to be as exciting.

I believe the record number of rookie teams is, at least part, due to the fact that Aim High was such a cool game. I could not find one person that would not want to watch the final matches, even if they were the least motivated person on the team.

There has to be a way to keep the same level of excitement and game play as Aim High while adding in new challenges.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

While I agree this probably isn't as "exciting" to some as Aim High was, I think it still has some very cool aspects, such as the robot lifting at the end. Of course I still think it will be exciting, it's all just opinion; Triple Play was a better game than Aim High to me.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

A good example of one such thread

And I think you guys need to give this game a chance. It's been one week, and already you guys think we will only see one or two stock robot types. The GDC worked really hard on this game and I think it will be awesome.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

its a good game but it could be better. my first impression was. 'thats it? we only have one huge game element and bunch of rings.' after reading the rules you see how challenging the game really is. and how a single placement of a spoiler can change the whole game/outcome. overall a 7 outa 10 good game could be better

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

I couldn't disagree more. There will be many, many different designs. Also, you scoring isn't as easy as you are saying.

Even more, you could argue that Aim High only had two designs as well.

I did not like this game at first, but it is growing on me and I really like it now.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

I understand how hard they worked on this years game, it just doesn't compare to Aim High. It's not fast paced, and like I said, its more mental than anything.

I guess they had to give us this type of game, to change things up a bit. I can understand that. If they created a game similar to Aim High, then the rookie teams this year would be at a even greater disadvantage than the veteran teams who are familiar with last years game....I just wish it was a bit more exciting and "sport like".

Comparing Aim High to Rack n' Roll, in simpler terms, would be comparing Basketball to Tic Tac Toe. Which one would you rather build a robot to do...

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

This years game is kind of simple compared to the other games because its pretty much already been done (1997). The whole 1 ring at a time makes it kind of boring because you dont have the promise of teams (such as beatty or wildstang) grabbing 12 at a time and scoring them all in 2.3 seconds :)
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I also think that this year is going to be interesting and it gives a fair chance for anyone to win unlike last year where you almost needed a camera to do good ( tripletts are an enemy to that theory ). I really hope that there is good support for this years game because every year is fun and you get the feeling of teamwork and planning which helps you get ready for other things in life.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

I don't know i find this game to be alot about strategy but that doesn't mean the robots have to be simple there could be some very complicated desgins out there because as everyone knows ther are going to be teams ou there who will be trying to score and raise two bots and i would really like to see some of those bots because there is no doubt in my mind that those bots will look amazing :cool:

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

I'm in a rookie team and we watched the vids from last years competition. I thought, "Oh, shooting balls into a hoop. Pretty simple." Then they unveiled this year's and I thought "Holy crap!!!"
I commend NASA for their ingenuity...and sense of humor.:D

I also can't wait to see some of the designs for getting these 'bots off the floor. Thing is you can't really plan how well you can do it 'cuz you don't who's on you're alliance unitil after it's finished. I have a feeling these 'bots will have to be very adaptable to the situation.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

I didn't like the game at kickoff. But, it is slowly getting better, the game has more strategy to it. And we really won't know how the game really is until we get to the competition. Like in 2005 when we thought that the strategy would be to cap the highest, but it was really how fast you could cap. In less than 2 months we will find out, hopefully this game will get better. I also don't think it will be an easy game for spectators to understand. Last year was exiting to watch, and it was entertaining, this year i feel won't be as good, but i could be wrong.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

I agree here. There a lot more to this game than meets the eye and I think there's even more potential in regards to the 'fun factor'. Anything can happen...

Besides, strategy has a lot to do with collaboration and teamwork and isn't that a huge aspect of engineering?

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

It gives more of a chance to other teams yeah by your shooting balls last year with 3 or more this year your only are alould to pick up 1 ringer and score it. The key is to how fast your going to score it!

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

Out of the years that I've been affiliated with Team 1279(which is the past 3 years.) This is the worst out of all of them but it is still a pretty good game. My favorite is still the tetra game but I ain't complaining about this one.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

What was the Tetra game about??

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

You HAD to discover the poll function didn't you lol

I think everyone should spend more time building the robots than expressing our thoughts about everything else.

Fun or no fun, we won't find out until the competitions start, I like a good challenge, and there's more to it than just simple this year

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

lol

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

I think this year's game has the potential to be pretty interesting. I always find the methods for game piece manipulation to be the most interesting feature of a year's robots. This year with ringers looks to be interesting, especially since we're provided with the vacuum (though my team judged that to be impractical).

Earlier a comment was made about there being two types of bots: scorers and scorer pushers; and furthermore made it sound like this was a new thing. Pardon me, but that's the exact definition of many many matches I saw last year.

Spam.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

Although I am not officially on a FIRST team anymore, I like this game a lot since it keeps it simple. With the huge influx of new teams these past couple years, a game like this is good for getting them into the true mix of FIRST.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

This year's game is okay as far as fun factor and excitement but nothing close to last year's game which was my personal favorite. I predict that there will be fewer sucessful robots than last year.

To me, this year's game seems too similar to Triple Play.

It also features the hardest (except tripple play) autonomous yet. It is arguably also one of the most useless.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

Every year they put in some element that makes scoring a little tricky... some detail which makes an otherwise simple task more challenging. This year, I feel they have too many little things like that. the swinging rack, which rotates, and has little 'stingers' on each arm to make it more difficult to put the tubes on... it's just too much for me. It seems like there is so much making it hard to score usin the tubes, and so little making it hard to score with ramps. normally the game designers make the most challenging task the most rewarding, but I don't see that so much this year.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

I like to look at a couple of different perspectives when the game challenge is presented.
One that I look at is the team's reaction. Enthusiasm, discussion, different views presented by new members as well as veterans and mentors. This year, we've had a great deal of all of this in a healthy productive way.

Another perspective that I look at is this - if everyone is happy and humming right along without questions or discussions - then I get a little nervous. The game challenge is just that, a challenge, and can be approached from many different angles, many different ways. It is going to be a lot of fun to see what all of the teams come up with this year.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

Yeah I personelly like games that have balls in them. My favourite sport is basketball. :)

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

Last year, 90% of robots were boxes with a pitching machine, game play was straight forward, and matches decided in autonmous mode. This year, we are getting two games for the price of one, large challenge (hopefully not to high for rookies), so much stradegy my brain spins, and the threat of breaking robots from small heights. I haven't seen a game this good since Raising the Bar in 2004. Big thumbs up to FIRST.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

This is reminiscent of Triple Play (my favorite game), so I like it!

I do wish that you could possess multiple game pieces at once, though.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

but the game is very simmilar to the 1997 game Toroid Terror. The only thing is the rack is moving and you had to make rows to score for this 2007 season!

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

If that's true, pay attention to the older games to kinda predict what the next comp. is gonna be!:)

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

Not really. They both have innertubes and a center structure. There was no robot lifting or autonomous mode. The way the score was calculated was very different. Torroid Terror was like many old FIRST games in that it had a nearly impossible to follow system of multipliers. :rolleyes:

I personally like this year's game. The only problem is the rack is so big, it cuts our practice area in half. :(

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

not that I'd click it, but I like how you put the "I do not like this year's game" option...>_>

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

Yeah but it's simliar to the game with the Center rack and innertubes and all!!!! :)

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

I believe that this year's game is going to be pretty difficult. If you think about it the rack appears to be very hard to see around. That will make it sort of difficult to score on the other side. Also, if you have to place a game piece you will probalbly have to have some sort of extension or a really long arm. When you are trying to score points by lifting there is always the chance that you could get caught on the other side of the field. The space between the side of the arena and the rack is not very big. Scoring by lifting may be very hard because you will always have to rely on your alliance partners in order to score a lot of points in the last part of the match. The multiple lights might also make it hard to target in autonomous mode and in manual mode.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

It is a lot like the game two years ago, but I like it just because it promotes a lot of teamwork.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

There's no option for "I don't like it."

This poll does not properly represent the gamut of choices!

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

The last option means I don't like it because it meanss how are we surpossed to do this so like confusion!!!!

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

I think this year game is borning for the crowds to watch. It comes down the scoring. When you have to sit down with a pen and paper, to keep track of the score and not just watch the game, i think you developed a game with to complex of a scoring system. Just like robots K.I.S.S.

Re: Who likes this years challenge?
 

Yeah This years game I think isn't as good as last years with the balls and major action!!!!!