[bheller]

Instead of just presenting a game idea first, one should detail the requirements of a "good" first game. My criteria:

-"vigorous interaction" between robots
-opportunity for a wide variety of robot types
-scoring can be explained in 3 sentences
-same size as last few years' field
-exciting for entire length of match
-offensive and defensive aspects
-reasonable field cost
-TV friendly!

Before reading further, please look at the .jpg 3-D rendering of the field. It'll make the rest of this email make tons more sense.

My ideal game would combine elements of the 2000 game, which was the most exciting in my mind, with many totally new ones. One of the best features of that game was the potential to steal balls. This year, it was just too difficult to remove balls or goals from an opponent's grasp. The "robot slam dunk" bar-grabbing aspect was great, except that some robots would lock onto the bar and could not be removed, with 1:00 left in the game or so. Games in general are more exciting when the outcome can be changed suddenly, in the last few seconds. Think about it, when a basketball game has a minute left, and one team is down by 15 pts, it ceases to be exciting. But when a final basket can put the team ahead, you watch until the end of it. Also, height adds an element of risk to the game that would increase interest to your standard tv/audience viewer. For a robot, three feet is a significant drop, one that adds significant risk.

The game, to be called "Football-fumblin' Fever" (FFF), can have its scoring described to any viewing audience in three sentences:
1. For QP's, a losing alliance gets its own points, a non-loser (win or tie) gets the sum of its own and its opponents' points.
2. An alliance get +1 pts for its own-colored footballs, +3 pts for its opponent's-colored footballs, -3 for black footballs, and +5 any yellow footballs in its own bin.
3. "King of the hill" (a robot entirely on the raised yellow platform) at the end of a match gets +20 pts.

Here’s a description of the game in words, if the render is not clear. Same size field as past few years. 2v2, robots start on diagonal sides of field. Large fixed lexan bins on each side. The footballs are standard NFL size, with a piece of retroreflective tape attached around the center. The playing surface is mostly carpet, except for the ramps, which are a more slick surface, such as acrylic, linoleum, etc. The yellow bars are thick iron, and are supported at the base so that they can hold up 260 lbs (I would really love to see pipe-traversing robots! It’d be an incredibly interesting and useful ability). Five black balls are held by the human players. Seven each of the red and blue are on the field, and three yellow balls are in each trough. The yellow king of the hill square is raised 1” off the neighboring surfaces for ease of scoring. The yellow-square to yellow football ramps are pretty steep, while the full-field-width ramps are a shallower angle. As many rules as possible have been removed to simplify the game. For example, interaction with any surface should be allowed, provided it does not damage the surface. One addition: for the first 5 seconds of the match no human contact with the robot is allowed, to promote autonomous behaviors. Footballs are used in this description, but traffic cones are also a GREAT idea. Heavier 2-foot cones could replace the yellow balls, and smaller 1-foot ones could replace the other footballs.

I can immediately think of a huge number of robot types: “ape” robots, speed-demon football collectors, football thieves, blockers, chasm-crossers, bully robots, football shooters.

A note to Dave Lavery’s question: you could put scales in each bin. With an accurate scale and limited number of differently-weighted footballs on the field, the bin contents could be established reasonably easy. Red and blue balls would weigh differently, but that’d be ok. Real-time scoring (though not final) would be great! It’d really make the FIRST game more attractive to viewers.

A note about using real-world tasks in the game: what a great idea! Examples on how to modify this game: instead of the field-width ramps, stairs could be used, or maybe each bin could be hinged with a doorknob that has to be turned, and would release all the balls.

A few problems I can think of with this game: one, the finals would be different from QP matches. Four different colors of ball may be excessive, and negative balls may not be “in the spirit of FIRST.” I doubt whether red and blue are even necessary. Also, the three-foot chasm may cause robots to break. To that, I say: too @$%$#in bad!!! Design a robust robot and you won’t have that issue!

The trough area is intentionally blind to operators. Maybe the balls should be in random positions there, to encourage automatic football collection? I think the “area blind to operators but not to robot” approach hold promise for autonomous behaviors, but I can’t think of the best way to implement it.