FIRST is shying away from stationary playing fields now that it has 17 regionals. If every field costs $3,000 to build, and you have to build it 17 different places... yeah, you can see where that's going. That's why they were with the "mobile" goals... which, if you ask my team (who had to lug them routinely up and down 2 flights of stairs for storage and practice), aren't very mobile.
I'd personally like to see a shifting playing field like the original game, Maize Craze. Playing a game in corn would just be so cool. Then you have playing fields being more equal - tried and true teams that know how to get the most traction possible would be on a somewhat equal level with the rookies who have to think up designs on how to handle a shifting field.
The water could work... just 1 or 2 inches though. Enough to slow 'bots down and make drivers think about racing through. I think if there were some rules applied to inspection, more of a pool game could work, but once again we come to the problem that radio waves don't like going through water.
I think FIRST should make a game that has so many obstacles one team can't possibly do all of them (leading many teams to try). You know, sort of like Lego League - every field has tons of objectives, and robot's don't have to do all of them.
At least, however, I think we need to change what the playing field is made of. Carpet's getting kind of old, and everybody knows how to do well on it now. Maybe linoleum, or tile?
While I'm dreaming, I also want the game to get more electronic and programming focused, so some automation should be a requirement
