[ColleenShaver]

I think the most important things about 'changing' the game is you don't want to create a change in the game that would render some team's robot or initial strategy useless... team's put in much time and effort into their robots and many may not want to do any changes, especially for one competition.

However- here are some suggestions I made for changes to Battlecry when the staff asked for suggestions from all participating teams. The only change being made so far for BC4 is making the elims best 2 of 3 (the right change I think, worked well at Rally this weekend as well):

- Instead of a reduction of points for KOH: Maybe rather than lessen the points for the top, offer a 'Zone Zeal' twist to the game:
Robot in gray carpet: 5 points
Robot in colored carpet: 10 points
Robot in mesh area: 15 points
Robot in HDPE: 25 points

It encourages teams to always get their robot out to the field (5 pts for not moving), plus it gives incentives to teams to build and guard stacks as opposed to just dominating the hill. It would also create some other interesting scoring scenerios (for instance, trying to move into a colored zone at the end points vs. the amount of points you would negate for any bin you were touching) while offering alternative strategies. Of course, the manner of scoring would have to be kept in line with this year's game (as opposed to Zone Zeal) where if you were touching the gray and colored carpets you would get 5, rather than 10, points [You get 25 for the top and none for touching the mesh at all this year, in 2k2 you got the benefit of higher scoring zone if you were touching both]. It would offer stackers, guarders, and OH's some new opportunities for score increases.

- Switch the robot starting positions such that one red and one blue start on each side of the field (rotate robot start positions 90 degrees basically). Obviously, warning teams ASAP would be appropriate for autonomous mode designs, but it could add some excitement to the game. Teams could choose which robot lines up in which position/side of the field.

- Move the 10 seconds of HP time to the end of the match. Would force a new and interesting on-the-fly strategy capability of the students. Change the penalty for not getting off the field in 10 seconds to HP bins not counting (any stacks or points from those bins placed by alliance HPs would be ignored), and the penalty for not being off in 20 seconds a score of zero (rather than robot being shut off). All other human player rules would stay the same including entering and exiting the field through gate, stepping only in colored areas, placing only in colored areas, no throwing of bins, and no contact with robots.

Just some new ideas to consider. Make sure any thing that may affect rules is clearly thought out before and the rules appropriately cleared up to avoid and issues that wouldn't be covered in the regular FIRST rulebook.