[Chris is me]

Overall I think the GDC basically nailed it this year, and I disagree with a lot of the suggestions already posted for a variety of reasons that I probably shouldn't get too into lest I derail the thread. The height restriction is important, the secret passage as is was good, etc etc.

1. Make the drawbridge and sally port out of clear polycarbonate instead of opaque polycarbonate. The "extra challenge" of limited visibility isn't worth it. These make the game worse, not better. It will still be hard to see through a transparent obstacle with glare and reflections anyway.

2. Allow defensive robots to shoot balls out of their own courtyard. Right now you can hoard balls in your opponent's courtyard, and your opponent has relatively few options for dealing with those balls. If the defender is allowed to shoot those balls in the general forward direction, even all the way to their own courtyard, it allows for another kind of defense that is a lot more exciting than being a wall or pushing. The restriction on shooting from the neutral zone forward would still be there.

3. Dead robots shouldn't be able to be pushed from one zone into a protected zone and then incur penalties for being there. Not sure how to fix this in the rules but as they are written now a dead offensive robot can be pushed into the secret passage and hit repeatedly for free foul points with impunity. 228 learned this at NE Champs.

If I think of more I'll post them, but I think that's a good starting point.