[Billfred]

Funny you should start this thread right now, Dave--I was just thinking about this the other night.

I've only seen pictures and video of the 2001 game, but the concepts of forcing the robots on a side to work together is something that appeals to me. On the other hand, there is something to be said for defense and having a winner and a loser and all those other things that an NvN game brings to the table.

So imagine a field around the size of the Aim High field. The field is divided into thirds the short way (think Zone Zeal) by speed bumps of some sort. Robots can not drive over these speed bumps except if there is no functioning robot on the other side due to things such as tipping, an E-Stop, or a no-show (or as laid out later).

On the left side of the field is a collection of small balls of two sizes, lined up in the middle of the section. For our purposes, we'll say 20 soccer balls and 20 13" kickballs. (Each alliance station also receives ten of each.)

In the middle are a line of twelve bins made of PVC and lexan (or luan, for the team version), about two feet square and three feet tall with a PVC handle at the top that a robot could grab. The PVC should slide well enough on the carpet to keep teams from having to hunt down expensive casters, yet remain light enough to be picked up by a determined team. On the right side of the field is a shelf four feet high, two and a half feet deep, and as wide as the field. One side is painted red, one side is painted blue, and there's a divider between the two, enough to make a bin placed on it tilt one way or the other.

Autonomous begins with robots starting from opposite corners of their sections. Lights on each side of the field (red for balls, green for bins, blue for the shelf) allow teams to align themselves where they choose to be. In the remainder of the match, robots (which are functionally the same size as this year) are trying to get balls into the bins and onto the shelf. Each bin on the alliance's shelf is worth one point, tripled for each ball within the bin. Bins that a robot is holding on to (meaning off the floor and at least partially within the robot's starting footprint) are one point, doubled for each ball within the bin.

When the clock is down to the final ten seconds of the match, the no-crossing-the-speedbumps rule is dropped. Robots make the mad dash across the field to get under their shelf for a twenty-five point bonus.

Granted, autonomous and human players aren't quite as important as in years past with this setup, but the robots become more interesting. Teamwork is required in a big way, and scouting becomes essential to get a good alliance for the finals. The field is easy to replicate in team-sized bits, and nobody's had to pick up two similarly-sized balls before. A loaded bin's weight should require more than a mere rehash of teams' Triple Play arm, and the shelf height forces teams to make design choices--do you want to hold more bins for the multiplier, or fit under the shelf? And the scramble for the shelf should make all of the drivetrain nuts happy, since the robots will need both controllability to maneuver in tight spaces while still keeping that explosive speed in the end.

So that's my idea.