Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrea C.
Let's imagine for the sake of argument that the GDC didn't want to alter the point structure of the game or bother with color-coding noodles, but also didn't want Noodle Agreements to be a factor. What if FRC simply asked teams not to entertain any kind of Noodle Agreement? In your opinions, would the honor system prevail, or would there be backdoor dealings? Would suspicions of shady pacts damage reputations and relationships, or would teams trust in the honesty of their counterparts?
(My first post on Chief Delphi -- please be gentle!)
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Welcome!
If the GDC asked us to eliminate all noodle agreements, I think we'd still get at least the normal bell curve of teams who agree, teams who rolled their eyes at TNA to begin with, and teams who will defy the GDC for personal gain.
Entering my 11th season overall and 9th season as a driver coach (maybe...) this is why I think so. I've been asked to ram other robots in an attempt to break them. Teams have asked me to throw matches since it would help their ranking and ours didn't matter at the time. A team once asked me to try to split up an eliminations alliance by throwing a match. In 2013 a couple of alliance partners hoarded discs so they could make less than 20% of their full field shots, even after agreeing that we'd split the discs evenly amongst the alliance. In 2014, an alliance partner tried to take our autonomous ball out of our robot so they could try their 2-ball autonomous since they didn't want to "take a chance" on our ~80% shot rate after very few matches.
Each year, we've performed in roughly 20-30 matches, and each year there were 1-2 where these examples of non-GP behavior occurred. Thus if the GDC relies on GP-based adherence to their desires about TNA, I think teams will still encounter it at competition.