[Scott Carpman]

A few notes after watching 5+ hours of Overdrive...

-Scoring Display...even when viewed on a large screen projector, the numbers do not show up clearly. FIRST should englarge the entire scoring panel so the number of hurdles and pushunders are very clear. The lines counter should also not dissapear the instant teleoperated begins, as this important stat is crucial for scouting.

-Tipping over...to all top heavy bots: if you can add weight on the bottom to cancle out your giant heavy arms, do it. Once a bot tips, play becomes uninteresting and akin to merging lanes on the highway.

-Catapults...while Suffield did not have as diverse of a selection of bot styles as i hoped, the catapult style proved itself to be very advantageous if done right. Arm bots need to almost latch onto the Overpass to hurdle, and merely getting close to the OP is not as easy as it seems. The catapults ability to launch while far away makes them lethal.

-Hybrid...if you have no idea how to do it, ask another team to help you program a dead reckon linecrossing code. Some teams just stood in place for the 15 seconds instead of collecting the easiest 4 points in the game. Just remember the value of 1 line now instead of 8 later.

I'm still not impressed with the game, but I'm waiting until Hartford is over to render my judgement.