Quote:
Originally Posted by eagle33199
But then what about the rookie teams? How do we make something so complex still accessible to them? How do we give them the time and resources needed to run their code on prototype/test robots in order to work out the bugs?
Our team has only been around for 4 years. I can still remember our first year, and the sheer joy we had the first time the robot actually moved. We tried to do an autonomous mode that year, but we didn't have the experience, as a team, to be able to do it.
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I was about to make this point exactly. While there are many users here on CD (and out there on FIRST teams across the globe) who are certainly capable of creating some good autonomous code, many teams simply cannot. This includes a fair number of veteran team.
This unfortunately is what I believe to be the reason that this years autonomous mode provided no real reward for good autonomous programming. As always, the GDC is stuck in an endless debate over balancing difficulty for those with the skill to create advanced autonomous robots and keeping the game accessible to those without that skill.
I really don't know how to fix the problem. I agree with most of the posts here that one of the first steps is to get more dedicated computer science mentors involved. I also believe that the GDC needs to significantly redesign the game process to better accommodate advanced autonomous modes.