Quote:
Originally Posted by bduddy
(Rant copied and pasted from another topic-I've been ranting quite a bit lately, forgive me for recycling  )
The obvious effort to even the playing field in this game is, while well-intentioned, going to have the opposite effect. It is strikingly similar to what has happened in Formula 1, which used to be practically open in terms of car and engine design. However, lately there have been increasing efforts at regulation and standardization-some of them have been for safety and some to cut costs, but many have had as a stated goal the improvement of competition. However, they have had the opposite effect. In the past, teams could come up with really innovative ideas to provide an advantage, and many did; famous examples of which include the Tyrell P34 and the Brabham BT46B "fan car", which ironically enough is apparently banned in this competition just as it was in real life. These days, however, in order to eke out any improvement, F1 teams must do hours upon hours of expensive wind tunnel work, use gigantic simulators to test any part thoroughly before even considering trying it, and basically spending millions upon millions of dollars for improvements of tenths of seconds.
Lunacy will be similar-IMO, the most important factors in this game will be the human player, the drivetrain, programming, and the driver. The first factor is essentially a wash, despite some concerns over "basketball players" or the like. But the rest will not be. Sure, many teams will have to rethink their drivetrain and we will thankfully see the disappearance of the "trick" wheels, but the veteran teams will still have an advantage. We all know that. Programming will be even worse-I'm sure you have all seen the talk about here about traction control, anti-lock braking, and all the other three-letter abbreviations standard on new cars of the day. How do expect any programmer new to FRC to handle any of that? And given the new surface and quickly disappearing game pieces, the only drivers that will have much practice will be the ones on teams that can afford the game field, and in these economic times, there are not many of those. |
Sorry for the big quote, but insomnia and lack of sleep has gotten to me and I can't be bothered to edit. Proper punctuation and grammar is already hard enough
I have to say, I quite like this year's game. Makes me wish I still was in FIRST, but well, 3 years into college and I don't even have time to help mentor a team. You do know the changes in F1 were done to help level the playing field for new teams? Same reason why WRC went to S2000 rules. Reduce cost and complexity for new teams to emerge. Same concept with the 2009 game.
I do agree with you about the limiting of innovation, but only for motorsports. That's a whole story in itself, but with FIRST it's totally different. In the past FIRST has only really banned specific innovations because it's not safe or it's causing problems (like the use of filecards for traction in 2002, and the entanglement rule).
It's true that racing teams have to spend countless hours on engine dynos and windtunnels to extract milliseconds off of lap times, but that's because motorsports technology is quite advanced and has reached a peak. The competition has been the same for year on end, you race a car around a track. With most large technological innovations already discovered, it's going to take a lot of work to produce a significantly less amount of achievement... basically technological advancement is reaching the peak of it's curve where more work equals less result.
But it's different with FIRST, the game changes every year. More so with this year, as mentioned above they've pretty much wiped the slate clean. If anything this competition will give rookie teams more of a chance to catch up. For years there has been more or less a "right" way to build a drivetrain (take 254 for example, or I guess what's called the west coast drivetrain). That 6wd platform has been serving many teams well, which is great. But this game has nerfed it, quite a bit. I can see making some people unhappy because well, now they have to redesign their drivetrain. But that's part of the challenge right? Everyone else has to redesign their drivetrain, no one has the advantage of a knowing how to build and execute a battle hardened system, so I see that as lessening the advantage gap between the veteran teams and the rookie teams.
It's undeniable that veteran teams will always have some advantage over a rookie team, but this applies everywhere. Just be happy that this is FIRST, where veteran teams are willing to help rookie teams that ask for help. In professional motorsports it's not as nice.
Ultimately, in my opinion. It's great that FIRST has managed to close the gap between this advantage without stomping on too many people's toes. I noticed that someone mentioned in a different thread about a lack of defense. Defense is fun alright, being destructive in a legitimate way is always entertaining but well, that's not very challenging, haha. Defense isn't really gone, I think FIRST has just been doing what they've been trying to do and make it less of a contact-ordeal and more of a strategic defense ordeal.
Lastly I don't really see the significant advantage with a swerve drive system, especially in the video posted. The competition trailer has fixed wheels for starters, along with a lot more weight. The threads posting about tank steering having problems is only an advisory that using old methods is no longer going to cut it, goes back to what I tried to explain above. Correct me if I'm wrong, though.
Anyways wow that was a big mess, sorry... For those who managed to read through it all I applaud you. For those who managed to read and understand it... well I guess I can give you a pat on the back.