[Kims Robot]

So I read through the whole thread and I keep seeing people going back on forth on "its torroid terror" or "its not torroid terror".

Now perhaps I'm not in the ranks of the great strategists of Wildstang or Simbotics, but I think part of the issue with this game is that the robots really could be exactly the same as old robots. For me, at this point, I like to be excited about designing something new, after we ship, I want to be excited about more detailed strategy. Yes I know there is more in it, but our first step is always to come up with the basic ways to do the game challenges...

You could take designs from a robot that could lift big balls, or from a torroid terror robot, and use it, exactly as it was. Therefor the challenge only lies in the strategy.... and the whole reason I love FIRST is for the engineering, not for the game (then I would have been a football coach)... as a systems engineer, we look at something a customer wants and if there is already something to do it, then we just buy it off the shelf (COTS). If there isnt, then we have to engineer something new. Its the smartest thing to do... if you know something works well, use it, don't reinvent the wheel.

That said, obviously FIRST is really about the students, so this will be a challenge for all my students. I look forward to seeing their ideas, but personally, this game doesn't excite me that much because I know I could just research old robots or use our torroid terror design, combined with our camera from 2005, and have a robot that easily scores.

I dunno... thats just my thoughts now. And my first thought was ARGH we have to buy new batteries again (just stocked up last year)! lol.