Here's my attempt at a 2006 competition design. I present:
Starry Sortie!
The game is played on a field shaped like a five-pointed star. Five robots play at a time - two on red alliance, two on blue alliance, one on green "alliance." Yes, this poses issues with final alliance pairings which I attempt to solve below, note the use of the word "attempt."
Here's a hasty and horrible drawing I made to help illustrate:
Driver Control vs. Autonomous Mode
Driver control and autonomous mode operate simultaneously for the entire match as follows:
Red and blue robots are always under driver control, and the green robot is always under autonomous control. (This may raise some issues with team assignment during competition, assuring each team gets equal numbers of fully-autonomous vs fully-non-autonomous play, but I haven't really come up with a good solution for that.) Driver stations are marked "Red DS" and "Blue DS," respectively.
The green team may NOT bring controls/joysticks to the field. If an emergency shutoff is required for safety reasons, the green human player merely steps off the pressure pad for the rest of the match and hits the emergency shutoff switch. The human player and a coach are the ONLY members of the green team allowed on the field during a match.
Match Duration
The duration of each match is the familiar two minutes (120 seconds).
Game Play
Robots start out in the boxed areas within the star's points. The circles throughout the field are the goals. I envisioned 3" diameter PVC pipe. Goals within the home areas (star points) are, let's say, 4' tall, whereas those within the main field (pentagon) are, let's say, 7' tall. Game pieces are of course star-shaped, with a 4" diameter PVC pipe running up and down the middle (not on the flat side, so the heights of these would be roughly half of what Triple Play's tetras are). These will be colored red, blue, and green. The object is to stack the game pieces on the goal posts. (4" diameter PVC pipe fits nicely over 3" diameter PVC pipe, yes?)
Human Players
Like Triple Play, each team will have a human player standing on a pressure pad which disables the robot if it is not activated (the squares on the bottom of the star). Each pad will have a stack of the appropriately colored game pieces next to it. The human player will step forward with a game piece and load the robot (note that he or she does not have as far to travel as in Triple Play).
Defense
5 kickballs each of the appropriate color (the size of the yellow balls at the side of the "Raising the Bar" field) will be placed at the star points, around the back goal. (25 balls total -- 10 red, 10 blue, 5 green.) A robot may take one of the appropriate color balls and balance it atop any goal, effectively preventing any more star stacking on that goal. Other alliances may knock these balls off, but, once placed, the same alliance cannot remove it.
Center Hanging Goal
12 feet above the exact center of the playing field will be a small pentagon-shaped object with five short 1" diameter PVC pipes protruding downwards. The star pieces will be able to snap flat into this device, but in such a way that only one star may be placed there.
Goal finding
At the bottom of each goal post will be 5 IR beacons arranged in a pentagon. These will flash at different frequencies depending on which goal. The green robot may use an IR sensor to find a specific goal this way.
Scoring
Each star stacked on a 4' tall goal post = 1 point for appropriate color alliance.
Each star stacked on a 7' tall goal post = 2 points for appropriate color alliance.
Each row of 4 goal posts "owned" (a la "Triple Play") by an alliance = 10 points for that alliance.
Each goal post "capped" by a kickball = 5 points for appropriate color alliance.
Each robot in appropriate color start zone at the end of the match = 10 points for that alliance.
Star in center hanging goal = 30 points for appropriate color alliance.
Green Fairness Multiplier -- Green "alliance" scores twice the amount of ground points (2 points for 4', 4 points for 7', 20 points per row, 10 points per cap, and 20 points if in start zone), but still 30 points for the center hanging goal. This attempts to accomodate for the fact that there is one green robot versus two red and two blue robots.
Penalties
Pinning = -10 points
Intentional tipping = -20 points + auto DQ for entire alliance
Human loading zone infractions (such as touching the robot or loading when the robot is not fully in the loading zone) = -5 points each
Removing same color kickball from previously capped goal post = -5 points
Intentional human player interference between alliances = -10 points for alliance + auto DQ for team involved
De-scoring opposing alliance's stars = -10 points each
An Attempt to Solve the Problem of Alliance Pairing during Final Matches
The "Green alliance" as well as any green game pieces will disappear during finals. Instead, each alliance will consist of 2 teams. Best 2 out of 3 matches. Both alliances will have one autonomous robot and one driver-controlled robot. It is up to the alliance to strategize as to which team to put in the autonomous position (same team every time or alternate?).
Fin.
So, what do you think? I think I'm far more insane than anyone who has posted to this thread so far. It definitely would take more than 30 seconds to explain to a TV audience, so maybe it's too complex.