I have no problem with the size of the penalties. The really high ones are there just to keep the humans safe. That being said, I feel like FIRST should follow some of its own advice and follow the spirit of the rule. I've heard stories of robots that were obviously not playing defense or trying to cause any trouble to a robot in a loading station and were still given the 30 pt penalty. Something which very often turns the game around. Now, I dont' think the penalty should just disapear though if you accidentaly hit a robot in a loading zone. As has been said above you should steer clear. I feel like a 10 pt penalty in situations where robots were obviously not trying to interfere with the other robot is a good idea. Some sort of intermediary gap between "oops, i lightly touched you by accident, now i'm going to lose the game" and "I'm trying stop you from getting a tetra, lets go for one last second ram before they get into the loading zone. "
Also while I know penalities are part of the game, I feel like a major part of good game design is creating a game where the players are encouraged to test the boundaries of what is possible. This especially goes for FIRST competitions. Lasts year game penalities were almost never given, because teams never had a reason to break them. This year there are reasons to break them, even if you're not supposed to. Its almost like a war of psychology between game designers and the players.
Of course, besides the whole penalty issue, I think this years game has been shapping up to be a lot of fun.
