I can say without a doubt that this is the best FRC game I've ever played, but that's misleading as it's my only year in FRC
Anyhow, this game was amazing.
Likes:
The rule prohibiting robots from having manipulators extending past the bumpers. Not that I disliked the ability for robots to do so in other years, but stuff like this and the limited wheels made teams have to think hard about their designs. Also how hard would it be to just have a sheet of Plexiglas fold down over your goal?
Allowing pinning and ramming was a brilliant GDC move. In an already extremely strategy oriented game, being able to not have to count to 5 and let off a robot helped teams be able to outplay other robots that had the technical edge. I guess the robot version of "brain before brawn"?
Dislikes:
The field was too small. I realize part of this is to fit in a high school gym (though honestly i prefer the larger-than-life feel of a stadium but I digress), and part of this is to make nowhere to hide, but it seems like there were a lot of mechanisms that did not get to see the light of day simply because a robot was always a second or two away ready to mess you up. In particular, 1986 had an extremely innovative, oddball robot that achieved a 33 and a half foot empty cell delivery. I always have a soft spot for a truly unique robot that does something better than everyone else even if it's easily messed up, and I'm glad they got to go to Atlanta so more teams could have a look.
Quote:
Originally Posted by katd30
Some sort of input, a hopper and then a dumper.
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Well, "some sort of input", "a hopper", and "a dumper" varied dramatically between teams. Look at say 1625 versus 217. You could probably say that all robots in 2007 other than pure lifters had an arm that grabbed and placed tubes.
Quote:
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Having human players was nice since it got more students involved on the field, but then the strategy focused less on robots and more on humans. That's kinda nice if it was in the real world with human robot interaction except you just spent 6 weeks on a robot and then you only use your human player... Doesn't make a lot of sense to me...
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If you're only using or primarily using your human player, at least when you got to Atlanta, you're not going to win the match. The farther up the chain competition went, the emphasis grew more and more on the robot itself, to the point where in the final match half of the human players just loaded robots.