View Single Post
  #54   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 03-03-2014, 15:23
Mr. Van Mr. Van is offline
Registered User
#0599 (Robo-Dox)
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Granada Hills, CA
Posts: 350
Mr. Van has a reputation beyond reputeMr. Van has a reputation beyond reputeMr. Van has a reputation beyond reputeMr. Van has a reputation beyond reputeMr. Van has a reputation beyond reputeMr. Van has a reputation beyond reputeMr. Van has a reputation beyond reputeMr. Van has a reputation beyond reputeMr. Van has a reputation beyond reputeMr. Van has a reputation beyond reputeMr. Van has a reputation beyond repute
Re: How can you help GDC make this game better?

After playing in week 1, here are my suggestions:

1. Move the human player box back so that it is nearly physically impossible for a person to reach out into the safe zone (or the field perimeter or wherever you want to make the penalty start). This is a SAFETY ISSUE. You can't have a penalty which is inconsistently called be your safety system. Design the safety INTO THE FIELD SETUP. (This is equivalent to putting a guard to prevent access to a pinch point vs. telling people "be safe!"). One is true safety - the other is more safety theater.

2. Place a piece of clear polycarbonate over the pipes above the driver station. Balls bounced back out of the goals quite often. Since very, very few teams have a full regulation field, it was quite a surprise for many when their carefully tuned shot bounced right back out of the goal. Since the practice fields do not have these bars, it was pretty difficult to try to fix the problem.

The first change would ideally be made by making the pipes that separate the human player from the field longer so that the player was physically kept further from the field. I understand that this might be problematic (i.e. costly), but a very simple solution would be to move the tape marking the box further from the field. We are used to playing games (basketball, baseball, football, soccer, etc.) where the field is not defined by an invisible vertical plane, but by where your feet contact the field itself and keeping your feet in a zone is something that many more people will be able to DO as well as understand.

The second change is a simple set of several polycarbonate sheets placed over the two pipes above the player station. A few well placed holes and a few cable ties or straps and that should be good to go.

Both of these changes would make the game much more spectator friendly, and allow teams to play in a more "natural" way. They also do not require any sort of major re-writing of rules or penalties.

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox