[IKE]

There are a lot of neat ideas, but personally, I think many go too far. The 3 objectives everyone seems to agree on are:
1. Slightly less restrictive penalties.
2. More emphasis on tubes.
3. Less emphasis on minibots.

I think some great ideas have been posted on #1, so I would like to discuss 2 and 3. The bottom row needs to be worth more. Currently they is very little incentive above bragging rights for that row. I would go with 2 pts, just like the middle. This would likely cause a fill of top, bottom, then middle. Also, this makes a logo on that row worth 12 points. I will return to this in a moment.
Minibots need a winner. Otherwise it looses a lot. It however does not need a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. In the grand tradition of first, let's reward the winner, and give the others a nice concellation. As far as point values go, I would award 2nd - 4th 10 points. This is less than a full mid or lower logo, but more than the third tube to complete that logo (that last tube is worth 12- 2*2=8 pts.). The question is then how much to award the winner of the minibot race. Depending on the emphasis level, I would go with 15 or 20 pts. 20 would be more in line with the historical significance, and 15 would be the minimum.

The other change I would do is the winner is the tower that gets 4 lights. To get the 10 points, you just have to hit the top because the sensors are not 100% reliable.

The changes along with relaxing the penalties should make for some really exciting game play, and allow foe better endgame strategy/optins.