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Unread 10-03-2014, 06:22
TheMadCADer TheMadCADer is offline
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Re: Petition: Lower technical foul values to make this game better

A lot of people seem to be hung up on the safety factor of the human players, but I don't think that's a valid argument for keeping the foul, I'd say its more of an argument against using humans. This is a robotics competition.

What I think the GDC should have done was make every team build an inbounding robot along with their normally fielded robot. At the times where the pedestal is dark in the game as-designed the inbound robot is disabled and the human player pre-loads it with a ball. When it is enabled you have a single button (built in, right next to the E-stop) to initiate a preprogrammed inbound action, then the inbounder is disabled once the ball is back in play (when a ref enters the first assist). To ensure the inbounding robot cannot activate while being pre-loaded, only the human player can push this button. Inbound robots would be allowed to freely extend into the field and touch alliance robots.

Ambitious teams could build inbound robots capable of catching and place them down field to do the popular truss catch routine that currently uses a human player. This could earn a small point bonus (say, 5 points to an inbound robot and 15 for a normal catch). Inbound robots placed down field would be enabled at all times and would allow for the human player to act as a third driver with inputs limited only by the current operator console space limits. These robots would be roped off with a safety barrier during the match. If no inbounder is placed down field and in all other cases, balls that exit the field will be thrown back into play with reckless abandon by field reset crew members at a significant distance from the field. If you want to keep control of your ball, then keep control of your ball.

The six week build period is busy enough without an extra robot to design and build. As such, inbound robots would not be bagged and are not subject to withholding allowance rules.