Re: Simulated Season
 

For a more "modern" game style, I'd suggest 2005. It's 3v3, has one primary scoring object, and has autonomous. Biggest variance compared to recent games is the lack of bumper rules. There also isn't a real end game that you have to design for, just a positional bonus that any alliance with reasonably sized robots and functional drivetrains could accomplish.

For a completely different experience, you could reach back into the 2v2 era. I particularly like 2004, with its multiple scoring aspects, important end-game, and significant human player role. It's really different than the games of the past few years and can (and has) been scaled down the Vex scale.

Re: Simulated Season
 

[quote=Lil' Lavery;1058618]For a more "modern" game style, I'd suggest 2005. It's 3v3, has one primary scoring object, and has autonomous. Biggest variance compared to recent games is the lack of bumper rules. There also isn't a real end game that you have to design for, just a positional bonus that any alliance with reasonably sized robots and functional drivetrains could accomplish.
QUOTE]


I loved 2005 and initially I was going to reccomend it as well. The field is easy to mock up, game pieces can be built easily, and the field was pretty much flat (some teams got stuck on the raised plastic triangles).

However I was thinking since we are coming off of an Arm/Elevator game year it might be more valuable to try something different like ball manipulation. Every few years the GDC seems to include herding balls, teams that can do it quickly have a huge advantage.

Re: Simulated Season
 

You could use the game pieces from last years VEX game (Roundup) and play a game similar to this year's FIRST game or the 2007 game, Rack & Roll.

I like using the VEX products and game field based on cost and size. You could put it almost anywhere.

Re: Simulated Season
 

Has anyone thought of creating multiple off season events with this in mind? Put together a fake build season starting at the end of May using one of the past games from FIRST and let it run until October or so. Then have competitions around the areas.

I think it would prove to be very valuable to all teams, and the increased time span would allow teams enough time to train any new kids who jump in during build season. There also wouldn't be a time crunch so teams could still focus on their typical off season schedule.

This might be something to seriously consider.

Re: Simulated Season
 

I know that, for my team at least, affording to build an off season robot like this would be a stretch... However, we do go through the planning/initial design phase every year before kickoff. Pick an old game (http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...t.aspx?id=4094) and give it to the kids like it was kickoff. They spend several hours planning and talking about the game strategy, and (time permitting) can even work out some basic design ideas on paper. Once they're done, we go find some video's from that year (preferably from Einstein) to show them how the game ended up being played (how close were they on strategy?) and what design aspects were important in winning robots. It's easy and cheap to do, and helps create that leadership framework you're looking for.

Re: Simulated Season
 

I would definitly recomend 2006 "Aim High", in my opion it was the best game to play, with a pretty good end game. the constant scoring of balls going into the top net made everyone cheer constantly! This was also my first, FIRSt competition i attended (in gr 4).

Re: Simulated Season
 

I'd suggest using Vex kits, splitting students up into subteams, re-run a past "Savage Soccer" event. Past rulesets can be found in the archive section.

Savage Soccer
We had Über-tubes before there were ubertubes!:D
http://users.wpi.edu/~savage/Archives/2004/rules.html

Re: Simulated Season
 

Perhaps if cost is too much of an issue, you could just CAD the designs. We are hoping to do this summer, where students try to CAD their dream robot. We are focusing on the 2011 game to learn from our mistakes but we way also try the 2006 game to get students used to designing robots that can store multiple gamepieces. Our goals are slightly different, mine is to teach as many students CAD, improve their skill and use it with design methodology.

Re: Simulated Season
 

Definitely redo the 2005 FRC game Triple Play with Vex; it's very easy to scale all field parts down to 1/3 scale and build Vex robots to interact with them.