Quote:
Originally Posted by EricH
As follows:
Q&A is not the rules. Correct? However, Q&A does interpret the rules, and give guidance on following them.
The difference between last year and this year is that this year, the ruling is in the rules, not the Q&A. Admittedly, it is in a blue box, AKA "intent and clarification", but it is still in the Manual.
Note too that the word "overtly" is used. Slight variations from level with the ground would probably be OK, you made the effort, but going from 10" (at the top) down to 7" (at the top) over the span of an 8" bumper would raise flags.
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So, between 2013 and 2014, the definition of "overtly deviate" has changed.
This is horrible and extremely frustrating for me, as our team has designed our pickup off of an angled bumper. We figured that since this EXACT SENTENCE allowed angled bumpers in the past, it would again allow angled bumpers in the future.
Here's the rule which allowed them in 2013, and disallows them in 2014. If this can happen for this rule, who's to say that a all of a sudden roughtop tread is a traction material, and all roughtop wheels are illegal?
Quote:
There is no explicit requirement that BUMPERS be perfectly parallel to the floor, however the
requirement that BUMPERS be constructed per Figure 4-4, the vertical cross-section, does implicitly
mean that a BUMPER should not overtly deviate from this orientation.
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To begin with, this is just the GDC being lazy and copying a sentence from next year's manual and not giving an answer. This really doesn't answer the question at all.
The first part (there is no explicit requirement that BUMPERS be perfectly parallel to the floor) is fine. It means "nowhere does it say bumpers must be perfectly parallel to the floor".
The next part "however the
requirement that BUMPERS be constructed per Figure 4-4, the vertical cross-section, does implicitly
mean that a BUMPER should not overtly deviate from this orientation." A vertical cross section of an angled bumper would have the pool noodles be slightly oval shaped.
In 2013, an oval would not be considered "overtly deviated" from a circle, which makes sense, as a very slight oval could be mistaken, by everybody's favorite "reasonably astute observer" as a circle.
In 2014, an oval does "overtly deviate" from a circle.
If they're making changes like this, I'm begging for them to let us know before halfway through build season after we've wasted a lot of time and money building three sets of nice angled bumpers. But we'll be keeping our angled bumpers, because I'd be willing to bet that between now and the end of build, there's a chance that the definition of "overtly deviate" will change again.
In 2013, we made 4 competition bumpers (red/blue, angled/nonangled) and two practice bumpers (angled/nonangled) because of unclear rules
This year, we've made 3 angled ones, and again, because of THE SAME RULE, we're making 3 more. This sucks. Can the GDC get any more unclear?