In keeping with the "recycle" theme, made it more valuable to process litter than to cast it. This would also have encouraged some noodle manipulators. How about another "white" can in the middle of the field, and each noodle delivered there is also six points?
Downplayed or eliminated the canburglar arms race. The IRI rule that each side may not contact the RCs on their left side during auto is certainly one good way to do it.
Make the inverted totes and totes on the step valuable enough to provide a good race during teleop.
- I know this won't be popular with a lot of teams, but the easiest way to do this would be to reduce the number of totes available via HP stations, and possibly to reduce to one or zero HP stations. That is, starve top teams for totes just as much as for RCs.
- Another possibility along these lines would be to eliminate the step, and provide a "white zone" in the middle where robots of either alliance may enter during teleop, and where most of the RCs and totes start. Of course, you'd need bumpers and would eliminate tetherbots, which was a neat departure for the year. Maybe this would lead to separate "extractor" and "stacker" designs.