[Jim]

great ideas!

I like the idea of plywood flooring on the existing field layout. Traction limited, cheap, durable. FIRST can designate a grade of plywood like they did for this year's carpet to ensure consistency.

Now, create a 4'x4' or 4'x8' grid on the field with 2x4's. Use steel angle covering the corners of the 2x4's (similar to this years steel angle on the goal edges). The 4x4 sheets of plywood nest in the grid. If a sheet is damaged, it can be lifted out and replaced.

With 1/2" ply nested in the 2x4's, there would be a height diff of about 1 inch to cross to get around.

I like the idea of a short period of autonomous play at the beginning. This would be a good tie in to the lego league folks way of playing.

Frisbees are a good choice of playing pieces. Just call out a minimum and maximium diameter, rather than specifying a specific brand. A frisbee would require a very low lying device to manipulate, but the 2x4's would require that there is some ground clearance to get around.

I think 2 on 2 is good for many reasons. However, if it could be done without getting too confusing logistically, "3 on 3" or "4 teams of 2" would help accommodate the growing number of FIRST teams at the competitions and/or allow longer matches.

Goals: perhaps there could be a goal that could accommodate frisbees being dumped in as well as vertical slots worth more
points.

An arrangement like this would create a lot of challenges to the teams, but still allow a scoring format that would "spectate" well.

Those are some of my sane ideas and here is one out of left field just to ruminate over:

No wheels or tracks-"walking robots only"

I can't wait for next year.