Things I learned from webcasts:
1) This year there are more HD webcasts and fewer "potato" quality webcasts than in years past. That is a good thing. In particular, the Michigan, PNW, and Dallas webcasts were phenomenal. Although I don't know why Dallas had to disable embed, meaning you can't watch alongside other events on The Blue Alliance.
2) I found the black-on-white numbering scheme to be very difficult to read from afar, particularly when numbers can be mounted at any height. Some teams had them low, some high, some on large panels, others taped onto superstructure. The high numbers were the worst to read, because of all the visual clutter in the background at that height. And black on white does not pop whatsoever against the gray aluminum structure that 80% of FRC teams use. I guess this is one downside of extremely liberal robot rules...with bumpers, you always know where you need to look. #bringbackthespinnylight
3) The litter mechanic is my least favorite part of this game, and maybe my least favorite FRC game mechanic ever. Human players have long been a part of FRC, and I have no problem letting them directly contribute to the score. But the noodles become land mines for both alliances, blocking access to totes and recycling cans, invalidating swaths of the scoring ramp, and getting lodged in drive trains. There is nothing inspiring in watching an effective robot get a "noodle flat tire" or be unable to load because of a piece of litter (and it is basically impossible to design a robot that is totally impervious). I also find it simultaneously depressing and ironic that "throwing your trash into your neighbor's lawn" is in many ways just as effective or more effective than recycling
It's certainly easier...
4) This game did not pass the "wife" test (my litmus test for the crowd-pleasing-ness of a game is to show it to my wife). The scoring was easy for her to understand, but she did not find it interesting to watch in the least. (As background she really liked 2006, 2011, 2012, 2013; tolerated 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2014; and despised 2009).
5) I do not know how the refs are supposed to judge the state of 3 robots, 3 yellow bins, and 3+ recycling cans simultaneously and instantly at the end of autonomous mode. There were times on the webcast where I swear I saw an auto stack in contact with a robot (the scorer or a partner) at the end of autonomous, but the points were awarded anyways.
6) One more thing about webcasts...many events cut from the field feed to the "Thank You Sponsors" roll the SECOND that the match ended, meaning that the viewer could only guess whether that last second cap was successful, or whether that precarious stack finally tumbled...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ichlieberoboter
I saw quite a few penalties called when teams tried to do coopertition and accidentally knocked the yellow totes to the other side of the field while stacking them.
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Imagine how great it would have been if the yellow totes were the only game object that a robot
was allow to transfer to the other side of the field without penalty. Not only would this eliminate the (questionable) penalty for trying and failing to co-op, but it would have given rise to a new class of "tote catapult" robots during elims! Stacking high? Better be ready to protect them...