[rsegrest]

This may have already been stated however I am not sure this discussion (which has evidently been going on for two years) is in the right place. It seems to me that the majority of the comments posted here are by mentors. This is perhaps a discussion that should take place out of the eyes of the students who are here because they love this program and it's difficulty. That being said...

Regarding the GDC and rules changing etc. This issupposed to be a 'real world' engineering experience. If you ask anyone who has worked in an engineering firm on a large project. They will tell you that until the project is completed everything is in a state of flux and you don't get all the information until the project is submitted to the firm (and even then it can change according to the needs of the customer). Generally speaking the customer doesn't have an engineer sit in on their initial planning meetings. They bring in the engineers after they have a solid idea of what they want. This is the way I see the GDC working.

Oh, and, when has there ever been a game in which there wasn't a need to redesign if you wanted to score the bonus points. If you feel the minibot is that important then refocus your design. Often times the most successful teams are focusing their attention on doing one thing extremely well.