[RSN] Give Us Your Q's for Frank to Answer Tonight!

[Francis-134]

After a great premiere of check_in last night, we're really looking forward to the GameSense Holiday Special with FRC Director Frank Merrick tonight at 9 ET!

After we finish our discussion with Frank on STEAMworks, we'll be doing a little Q&A with the viewers. So if you've got questions on how this year's game came to be, post them in this thread! We'll pick the best and ask Frank a few on the show TONIGHT at 9 PM ET at twitch.tv/FRCGameSense . We will also be accepting questions live as always via our chat-bot.

NOTE: This is not a chance to ask your FRC Q&A system question on what is or is not a rope, or whether velcro is a good rope.

[Hitchhiker 42]

At what point in time is the initial idea for the game created? How early do you start on each year's game (many years in advance or...)

[Bkeeneykid]

Going off Mark's question...

How did the creation schedule for STEAMWORKS compare with STRONGHOLD or Recycle Rush? Was it further ahead of schedule, behind, about even?

[mman1506]

What's your reasoning behind deciding to omit some parts of the field drawings?

[Lil' Lavery]

Are we to expect "themed" games for each upcoming season in the near future?


What led to the concept of having students ON the game field during live matches? How much heartburn was there about that decision?


Are we to expect vision obstructions for drivers to become the new norm in FRC game design? Is it an intentional feature that's being designed into the game to up the engineering challenge, or simply a byproduct of other game design priorities?
(Follow up: If an intentional feature, how much weight is given to spectator experiences? Upping this particular engineering challenge often comes at the direct detriment of spectator experience, as the quality of on-field play is lowered by drive teams having limited visibility."

[Sperkowsky]

Did you guys consider mini bots in the creation of the game? The entire theme seems to point towards them. Rope climbing mini bots using only the default ropes would have been a fun challenge.

[ATannahill]

Do you like the prisoner dilemma design challenge? (teams have to choose one of two game aspects to focus on without knowing what other teams will focus on, risking too many or too few gear/fuel focused bots)

What process will field reset utilize to count 50 fuel balls per hopper container?

[VIKotic Dave]

Do you enjoy building the game as much as we enjoy playing it ?
Do you sit back a play the game with other FIRST employees sometimes?
If so how well did you do?

[VIKotic Dave]

Originally Posted by VIKotic Dave

Do you enjoy building the game as much as we enjoy playing it ?
Do you sit back a play the game with other FIRST employees sometimes?
If so how well did you do?

That should be "sit back and play..."
I can not find a way to edit.
They do not call me omd (old man Dave) for no reason.
The team also has "idf" (it's Dave's fault)

[Hitchhiker 42]

To Frank: Why Steamacrits?

[jaredhk]

When will we see major updates to (S)TIMS? There are clearly improvements in the works but most of what we've seen so far has been minor and registration is still a very involved process.

[rsisk]

Any chance we can just decide that releasing team versions of the field drawings before kickoff does not give away that much of the game but could be beneficial to teams who want to start day 1 with field elements?

[Eric Scheuing]

Originally Posted by ATannahill

What process will field reset utilize to count 50 fuel balls per hopper container?

1... 2... 3... 4...

In all seriousness though, I'm curious about the answer to this too.

[MARS_James]

Originally Posted by Eric Scheuing

1... 2... 3... 4...

In all seriousness though, I'm curious about the answer to this too.

there will probably be 1 person for each hopper who is assigned two clear totes, while the current match is going on they are counting our 50 fuel for each tote, they then deliver the 2 totes to each hopper during reset.

I am guessing field reset and field clearing will be two different roles withing the field reset crew

[The Doctor]

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen wiffle ball?