Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber
Al, I also have to ask: Does anyone know if the GDC and the KOP Engineers coordinate to make sure that the game is tailored to what motors we have available and vice versa?
|
Andrew,
Not to my knowledge. If you take a long look back at previous games, none depended on a specific motor for play. If you check (I have, obviously) you will see many winning robots over the years that had only a few of the available motors. I think one year, a robot had only three motors total. While I have several favorites that are no longer part of the KOP, there other ways to skin a cat.
I can tell you this, the KOP engineers work for Bill and Bill is part of the GDC. Kate is a KOP engineer and on the GDC. You can draw your own conclusions on the discussions across lunch and coffee in the office. I don't know how the GDC operates during game design but I would expect them at some point to build a couple of prototypes to see if their ideas actually work in practice. We really haven't had a game that couldn't be played yet so they must be doing something right.
All we really have to know is that
all teams get the chance to use the same subset of motors each year. As to the rumor about the CIMs being dropped, I won't get excited until that Saturday afternoon after New Years. Remember that even if I did know the real answer I can't and wouldn't tell you. The same for the folks at AndyMark. We play by the same rules.
As to the other discussion, you need to keep in mind the power curves, operating choices and peak efficiencies. You can obviously make an FP work efficiently and make more power than a CIM run way off the curve and heating up. Remember too, the motor windings is where the I^2 * R losses mount. In every motor we use, the path for that heat is through the shaft and bearings or through radiation across the gap to the magnet structure. In some of the smaller motors, a fan moves air through the gap/armature and carries away some heat. In the CIM the case is sealed so no air moves to pull heat out of the case.