I am hoping for lots of small spherical game pieces.
I want the field to look like a mixture of a rugby match and a popcorn popper.
Whiffle balls would be excellent. They are cheap, not very dangerous if they "go rogue" and head for the stands/refs, easy for all teams to get extras and easy to see from the stands.
Scoring could be done by simple sensors. Don't you love saying oxymoronic
things like "simple sensors"? Have the balls go through a hopper and then fed into a machine that spits them back out into the middle of the field. Keeping the balls moving would not only be cool to watch it would is more exciting than static game pieces.
As an added challenge you have two different colors of balls and the scoring depends on the bots sorting them and shooting them into the correct goals. This will allow more advanced control systems to play a greater part in the competition without keeping teams with less controls experience from not being able to compete.
This years game was challenging in terms of engineering design, allowed greater variability in robot chassis design, and was most importantly about as exciting as watching paint dry. I was fascinated the first time I went into a freight sorting hub for UPS. I did not at any time think to myself "Wow! I would rather watch this than watch Hockey!" I want defense to return. Place enough obstacles in the field to keep the speeds down (and consequently the amount of damages done). But please oh please let there be at least some sort of defense. Even if it there is no contact at least allow blocking.
Also... It could be an interesting twist to require the bumpers to cover 100% of the perimeter of the robots. At the same time set the lower edge height requirement at about 8 inches. This allows the game pieces to fit underneath. This will encourage the design of pick up mechanisms that are less exposed to being damaged by "exciting defense."
As the game for next year is likely already planned out this has been a fun exercise in what if.
On another note: As TheModMaster8 mentioned in another thread - hovercraft style locomotion. I want to build competitive hover-bots.