[Joe G.]

Game thoughts/predictions:

-Yay for volume gamepieces!

-I can't remember the last time a FIRST game had two totally independent, repeatable, and worthwhile offensive tasks outside of endgames with no one-before-the-other dynamic, no one-is-always-better-than-the-other dynamic, and no obvious means to do them in sync or with the same mechanism. Fuel specialists and gear specialists are going to be the norm, and will make both qual schedule dynamic and alliance selection interesting. At a high level, alliances will go for a two shooter+gear specialist dynamic.

-Throughput is as/more important than accuracy. This makes low goals more appealing than the scoring initially indicates, and makes a lot of traditional shooter mechanisms nonviable at elite level. However, some teams are going to build a double barreled wheeled shooter, if not a straight-up gatling gun. And it's going to be spectacular.

-It's going to be interesting to see how viable hopper load only designs are. I like the way that the game encourages ground loading, by having one trigger release two bins, with the robot size limits making catching two nonviable unless you enlist a partner.

-It's a tiny detail, but I love the way low goal auto scoring works, where 9 fuel scored low is worth exactly the same as 10, but 9 low+one high is a bonus. This will help fight the dynamic where teams with high goal autos that are still iffy on reliability are pressured by themselves+others to abandon it entirely and play it safe. They can score 9 low, and get a nice bonus from 1 high, while testing and fine tuning every match to eventually put more high. Similar dynamic for the final cycle of teleop.

-Another tiny detail that will have big impact: Legal ground-scraping bumpers. This will help a lot with robots getting high centered on the fuel, but also result in a lot of carpet damage.

-Great call on the Recycle Rush equivalent high goal.

-I hate to say it because I love the element, but I predict Ri3D is going to largely ruin the rope climb. It's a ludicrously original element with little/to applicability for any mechanisms previously used in FRC games, yet doable in a number of ways, even though many teams are now thinking "how can that even be done?" Usually, that's a recipe for a season full of crazy ideas, some of which work great, and some of which fall flat. In a few days, I expect us to have a couple of relatively similar passable solutions, influenced heavily by the time constraints they operate under and probably taking over the robot real estate more than they need to, and I expect a lot of this to trickle down to the teams. The powerhouses will do their own thing and excel/amaze us with their rope climbing, but I'm setting my hopes for wildly diverse designs like the 2013 or 2007 endgames spawned relatively low. Of course, more teams will get up the rope than might have otherwise, but I don't think that's the goal FIRST has in putting these ludicrously original elements in the game.

-However, I love the precedent of "bring your own chunk of field with you, as long as it meets certain specifications" It's pretty small and seemingly inconsequential this year (at least until someone discovers SuperGripRope), but I've been advocating for this as an element of game design for years, and am so excited to see this concept explored more in depth in future seasons.

-The pilot has a lot to do. Train your pilots well, there are going to be a lot of silly mistakes made in center field in early events.

-This is the first year since 2013 where I think you can be an elite team without being able to do everything on the field. However, I'm worried that unlike 2013, where every task had its own merits and a relatively even distribution emerged, that we may see an undersupply of effective ball specialists compared to gear specialists, especially as performance increases throughout the season and their relative importance shifts. I predict that this game will have perhaps the most dramatic difference of all time between week 1 events and the championship(s) in how the game is played.