Here's my idea for a new game. It incorporates alot of the things that the FIRST community wants in a game (more HP involvement, continued autonomous mode, stairs, different game pieces). I call it:
Capture the Noodle
Here's the 30 second explaination. Each alliance has a goal on their side of the field. They get points for the noodles they have in their goal at the end of the match. They also get points for their bot being in their home zone at the end of the match. Finally, an alliance can multiply its score by raising noodles into the air at the end of the match.
Now, how about some details?
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|...|.......|......|......|...|
|...|.......|____|......|...|
|R.|..O.....____...O..|B.|
|...|.......|......|......|...|
|...|.......|......|......|...|
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That's the best drawing I can do of the field. Time to explain. The two O's are the goals, each only about 3' high. The zones at the far ends are the scoring zones for each alliance. R means red, B means blue. In the middle of the field there are two 6" high raised platforms (stairs, if you will) with a 4' alley in between. Human players are in zones positioned like in this year's game.
Each alliance starts with 5 of it's noodles in it's goal and with 3 at each HP station. 8 neutral noodles are also scattered on the stairs; 4 are on each.
Since the easiest task for an alliance will be defending its own noodles, they only get 1 point for each of their own color noodles in their goal. The neutral noodles should be next easiest to score, so they are worth 2 points each. The toughest noodles to score would be the opponent's, so those are worth 3 points. Each of the alliance's robots is worth 5 points if it is in its own zone at the end of the match. Finally, the entire alliance score gets an (n+1) multiplier for each of its noodles raised 8 feet in the air at the end of the match. If one of its noodles are raised, they get their score doubled. Two noodles raised triples their score. And so on...
The QP system will stay the same as 2003. There are 15 seconds of autonomy at the beginning of the match followed by 2 full minutes of human control.
I see many interesting strategies emerging from this game. Teams who can't climb the stairs easily will have to negotiate a nifty little bottle neck in the middle of the field. I can see situations where a team would raise an opponent's noodles in the air to maximize their QP. And just handling noodles in the first place will pose quite a design challenge for teams.
Any and all feedback is welcome as always!
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This is a repost (with minor edits) of what I wrote in
this thread. There was some really good discussion there about the 2004 game. This is a good time to resume that discussion, but I suggest everyone at least check the other thread to see what we all thought was important 5 months ago.
Just over 4 months 'till kickoff!
George