I thought my earlier post sounded a bit Polyanna, so I went through the entire thread. Most of the recommended changes would have clearly messed with the game balance. I'm not going to comment on the equipment issues; they're not really the GDCs provenance. Based on the takeaway from our drive team, I suspect that (as inspectors have said for years) most of the disconnects are on the robot side. I'm going to consider the game as the Q&As treated it, not as it was in January.
Here are the few suggestions I felt were at least worthy of comment; the others would have (IMO) wrecked the game balance. The two adjustments that I actually endorse are in
red, and another that I like but can't work around is in
orange..:
- Eliminate audience selection: I get that it's silly, but its also relevant. The marketplace is fickle, and we need to recognize it. Keep it!
- Transparent drawbridge and Sally Port: they were a problem, but they were a symmetrical problem. I wouldn't be against changing it, but it's not really an improvement.
- Dead robot fouls: If a robot dies or is disabled where it may repeatedly cause foul points, that's a problem for the team/alliance that has the dead robot. If the opposing alliance were to push the dead robot into a place that will be a foul, that should have been a G11. Perhaps a change in implementation, but not in the rules.
- Make tipping legal: I would be in favor of the following rule, or more likely exception to G24: If a robot is tipped as a result of bumper-to-bumper interactions, and the other robot's bumpers are within the bumper rules, G24 is not applicable.
- Make dividers between the defenses and batter thirds more visible: OK, provided they're still clear enough to allow the referees to do their jobs.
- Allow a driver station clamp (or suction cup to the front screen): I don't see in the rules that it's forbidden, so unless it's been enforced as illegal no change is required.
- Reduce the bumper zone window: The bumper zone is 8" high, and bumpers are required to be 5" +/- 1/2" high, resulting in a minimum of 1" overlap. This is probably a tiny bit too small, though I don't think this was the cause of most of the tipping we saw this year; I saw very few bumpers with a lower edge below 6" off the carpet on level ground.
- Field Reset is too difficult; timing is too tight: Yes, I get it. I don't know what to do about this one without modifying the game beyond recognition.
- Have dedicated scorekeepers in addition to referrees: in my mind, this falls on the "game execution committee" side. Sounds like a good idea, but (IMO) a bit outside the scope of this question.
- Eliminating rules based on intent: That would be a great place to take things in theory, but living in Louisiana (one of the two states with criminal code law, and the only one with civil code law in the U.S.), and having a brother who was killed by violence, I know directly that while rules based on objective conditions sound like a great idea, the results are less than stellar.