Quote:
Originally Posted by Tetraman
Where did the incredible game designs go from 4+ years ago go? The games are getting a lot more simple for outsiders to understand, but in the simplicity there isn't enough room for incredible innovation and hurts teams in the longer run. All the designs of summer projects have basically gone to waste unless you made a drive train that turns fast. I do enjoy the idea of something new, but when you get down to it, this game can turn out to be another stack attack where whomever can build a robot that can go over the line faster wins.
|
While I personally think that the 2004 FIRST Frenzy game was arguably the best FRC game ever, I strongly disagree that games of late has stifled innovation. If anything, the level of sophistication and innovation has only grown over time. With the addition of items like the Kitbot to the KoP and companies like AndyMark, gone are the days when just getting a robot that drove was a major hurdle for some teams.
As an avid fan of
Top Gear, and with mechanical design being my personal branch of robotics (CS is my second favorite), I really love this game. I loved Triple Play, just because teams could build nice mechanisms and score, score, score without having to really worry about defense. The best defense is a strong offense.
Now this year, not only do we have racing, but now we have rules that encourage us to try cool mechanical designs for manipulating the huge trackballs without worrying that the game will degrade into a defensive pushing match, a la Stack Attack.