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Originally Posted by Gary Dillard
Matt I'd have to debate you on several of your assertions.
First, on the point that the game has become more complex. On the contrary I would say that the requirements have changed such that any robot with a working drive train can score points. Look at '97 (placing inner tubes up on a high goal), '98 (placing balls up on high bars), '00 (placing balls in a high trough AND hanging. If you couldn't do any of these things, your contribution to the score was ZERO! At least with the last 2 games a rookie team can get their robot moving and contribute some points - they can have the goal of building a mechanism to take it a notch further but it allows every team to compete and get some satisfaction.
Second, on loosening the parts requirements I would disagree it allows more complicated robots to be made. I would contend that it allows more teams to make complicated robots. This is very much tied to the allowable cost amount - I think having a larger amount helps the rookie teams and small teams much more than the highly funded big teams since they are usually much more engineering and manufacturing resource limited. Consider if you had to design and build your own winch versus going out and buying one, or how much additional complexity it would require if you had to work around sloppy bearings versus precision ones. And as a veteran if I've already designed a lift or arm before I can crank one out alot faster, regardless of what part limits are in the game.
I sometimes refer to this as the "SECOND" competition, because it takes your entire first year (and then some) to figure out all the lessons you need to be competitive. Are teams quitting after their rookie year because they didn't win the championship? No, they become veterans who do better each year. I loved the game this year. We chose not to build a 2x ball handler this year because of resource limitations, but there were enough aspects of the game where we could focus our efforts and be very competitive.
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My issue with the games isn't that individual components are getting more complex (if anything, the more recent games have one part that's easier than they were in the past). The problem I have is that there seems to be a part of the game which is much harder. The veteran teams (and, unfortunately, I wouldn't include all teams that have been around for a number of years as veteran teams as many don't reach the level of sophisication of other teams) usually have no problems accomplishing these tasks. It's the non-veteran teams who usually aren't able to complete them. You simply aren't able to win by just having a moving robot (or at least you can't with any level of competition). We shouldn't be encouraging rookies to just build a robot that moves. We shouldn't make the tasks so hard that rookies fail. We should instead aim at the level where it's not accomplishing the task that's the differentiator but how well the task is accomplished.
You're right by saying that veterans will always have an advantage over rookies. That's completely true. However, we can work to lower the some of the advantage that the veterans have over rookies.
As for the parts rules, I don't think it will take additional complexity if you have to make more of the things yourselves. Instead, I think teams won't try to build as complicated robots. If I'm not able to use precision bearings where I'd like to, I'll have to design something that doesn't require precision bearings (i.e. a simpler device that doesn't require such small tolerances). Or, I'll have to save money somewhere else by reducing the complexity there so that I can use precision bearings where I want to. By reducing the price limit it requires teams to make more trade-offs over expensive parts so that there will be less expensive parts overall. Less expensive parts generally means less complexity.
I should say that my suggestions by no means will be a silver bullet. They aren't going to fix everything but I think they would be a step in the right direction.
Matt