Team Update #1 is posted
 

The Update is listed but the link is not operating properly...

Re: Team Update #1 is "kind of" posted
 

I compared the two and they deleted <G36>, the Home Stretch rule.

Re: Team Update #1 is "kind of" posted
 

The link is now updated and it works. Update #1 can be found here.

-dave

**FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

Greetings Teams: When modifications are needed for the Competition Manual, the applicable section will be updated and the revision changed. In order to communicate when changes are made, as well as explanations as needed, we will publish a “Team Update” and post it on the FIRST website. The updates are authored by the Game Design Committee (GDC) and are the official word from FIRST.
Team Updates will be posted weekly on Tuesday and Friday throughout the 2008 FRC season, so be sure to check the page for news.

Note: Email blasts will not be sent each time a Team Update is published. Team are responsible for checking the site on the days indicated.
There will be occasions when there are no changes to the Competition Manual or other information to convey, thus a Team Update will not be published.

Team Update #1 is now published and available at http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc...nt.aspx?id=450

Go Teams!

Re: Team Update #1 is posted
 

Well there you go.
<G36> is gone and peace is restored to CD.


















yeah right.:rolleyes:

Re: Team Update #1 is posted
 

That's a nice thing to know, rule G36 was making everyone crazy.

Re: Team Update #1 is posted
 

At least it's one less thing to worry about...


Lets see Infinity-1 equals.... Infinity. :)

Re: Team Update #1 is posted
 

finally...

Re: Team Update #1 is posted
 

yep, just like i thought.

Re: Team Update #1 is posted
 

Why the crazy huge space?

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

I hate to be even the slightest bit negative (as I welcome this update) but I am a bit concerned with how fast this update came about. Maybe it was a mistake in the first place, but it seems that these kinds of rule changes will have very dramatic effects on the game play and strategies of teams. Maybe they were trying to make sure this fundamental change would not happen after teams had started to build designs dependent on the existing rules.

Hopefully this update alone will clear up the rules enough to allow the robot design to be decided upon without too much worry about a future update changing what we would want to build. Another week or so and many people will have invested a lot of time into specific strategies.

Re: Team Update #1 is posted
 

couldn't you feel peace and serenity looking at that white space?

it was like the sound of a hundred thousand FIRSTers going "Shhhhhh..." at once....

-Leav

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

Our team was having a big debate on whether you were allowed to carry the ball over the overpass-nice to see that resolved immediately, although I am now was wrong (did that make any sense at all?)

Re: Team Update #1 is "kind of" posted
 

Thank you!!!:yikes:

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

I like the gracious professionalism demonstrated by FIRST in giving credit at the bottom of page 2: I understand that this was caught too late to make the final release, but kudos to FIRST, the GDC and their helpers for updating this so quickly.

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

Yeah!! Death to Rule <G36>!! Perhaps the most hated rule ever (OK, this year)!!:D

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

Well... using something that Dean said... "when $@#$@#$@#$@# happens" it must be cleaned...

It's good to see that first is always ready to listen the teams... and in such a short time... that was a realy messing rule...

Can't wait for the regionals to see the game being plaed...

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

I agree.

Although <G36> certainly added some very interesting dilemmas to the game, it did cause some unnecessary complications as well. We'll have an easier season because of this one deletion.

Don

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

I think everyone here would like to say: Thank you FIRST you totally got it right this time!

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

G36...that was easy to settle!

I thought there was going to be a riot or global robot wars or something over that rule.

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

I really appreciate the GDC responding to this so quickly.

In my professional experience, no technical document of this length and complexity is ever perfect in the first draft released to a large population, no matter how much peer review and checking you do. There's always something found when people who weren't on the design team start looking, and we are a huge group of highly motivated reviewers.

I'm always amazed at the thought and attention to detail that goes into making these strange and complicated games. Now that they've taken the degree of difficulty down a notch from nearly impossible to do everything to just extraordinarily difficult, I think it's going to be a great game. If we play it well, it should be a lot of fun to watch, too.

Thanks, FIRST!

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

Thank you, FIRST.

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

To be honest I was hoping G36 would have stayed. It would have forced teams to be even that much more innovative in how they got that ball down without being over 6 feet in height. The most obvious way was to hit it from underneath with the other ball. But there are 3 or 4 that I thought up the past two days.

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

Personally, I think the note at the end of the update refers to everything except G36. No one here, except Dave, knows whether that was an oversight or not. I'm led to believe that it was a rule that was revised prior to kickoff but not included in the final manual due to the fact that both the animation and the mock game included robots extending above 6'. That's just a guess though.

I'm sad to see it go. I thought that it was a unique challenge and really promoted scoring and made it very difficult to maximize points in hybrid mode. Now that it has been eliminated, there are many more defensive possibilities that are completely legal...not necessarily a bad thing, but not necessarily in the original intent of the game either. While I welcome an easier hybrid mode, I'm still shocked to see this drastic a change.

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

I'm a rookie, but was a bit surprised at some of the slopiness I noticed. It just doesn't bode well when the word "stretch" is spelled three different ways in the same paragraph (Sect. 6.2.1., 2nd to last paragraph). I would have expected that a simple spell check would have been done, for something like this.

Well, at least they've resolved some key problems with great speed. Thanks, GDC!

:)

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

I almost want to make a shirt that says "R.I.P., <G36>"

That being said, I like the fact it's gone. A lot less to worry about now.

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

We are in a small crowd. I was looking forward to seeing robots hurdle over the opponents' overpass, or raising one trackball up to knock off the other. Also it would have been interesting to see how many teams would have taken the 10 pt penalty to keep other teams from getting 12 points in the end game as many here speculated.

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

Have you considered that perhaps the manual is defining three different HOME STRETCHes? :D "Sorry, ref. We thought we were in the home strecth. Now it's clear that we were in the home strectch. We're sorry; it won't happen again."

All in all, I'm impressed, as always, with the quality of the manual and the speed with which the FIRST leadership moved to correct any errors. Thank you so much!

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

Hows this work for you?





Couldn't resist. :D


The funny thing is, I might actually wear that shirt if someone gave me one! :yikes:

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

Still no mention of a source to purchase Trackballs. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr........

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

I too will miss G36. Everyone was complaining about how easy this game is and than they cheer that G36 is gone.
MAKE UP YOUR MINDS!!!!! :ahh:

No one seems to want a challenge anymore. Maybe we should drive around the track in an orderly fashion.

*dons flame suit*

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

I also will miss <G36>.;) I suspect that it would have been impossible to judge, but the strategy implications had me going. Will your opponent give it to you early just to deprive you of the 12 points at the end? Can you take it early and score enough to survive the 10-point penalty? Can you get all the way round in hybrid mode and get the ball for 6 pts and no penalty? Do you know what your opponent is capable of, or intends to do?

I saw it as a differentiator among the really best teams.... :D :D

But in real time, I wondered how the judges would handle it without lasers.:ahh:

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Important – Team Update #1
 

The Lane Divider is six feet tall. All the referees had to do was watch to see if the robot was taller than the Lane Divider. But none of that matters now. :)

-dave