Bill's Blog, 5/11/11 "Wait, Did he say pool"

[Joe G.]

I loved the "end early for bonus points" element of Diabolical Dynamics, and since then, I've always thought dynamic lengths of periods would be an interesting game feature. For example, a 10 second auto, which gets extended to 30 seconds if the robots accomplish a certain task. Or a long autonomous, where the first robot to accomplish a task gets switched to teleop early, while their opponents remain in autonomous for a while longer. If done right, it could give top notch programmers a chance to really shine, while reducing the "boredom factor" from 6 robots that sit still autonomously.

[BigJ]

Originally Posted by Joe G.

I loved the "end early for bonus points" element of Diabolical Dynamics, and since then, I've always thought dynamic lengths of periods would be an interesting game feature. For example, a 10 second auto, which gets extended to 30 seconds if the robots accomplish a certain task. Or a long autonomous, where the first robot to accomplish a task gets switched to teleop early, while their opponents remain in autonomous for a while longer. If done right, it could give top notch programmers a chance to really shine, while reducing the "boredom factor" from 6 robots that sit still autonomously.

I... I really like this. I want this.

[Jared Russell]

Two ideas I like:

1. An autonomous mode of variable length. For example: if your robot achieves one task in the first 15 seconds, autonomous mode gets extended by 15 more seconds. Or, take a page out of 2001's playbook, and let teams hit an "E-Stop" to manually transition from auto to teleop, giving them incremental bonuses the longer they stay in auto mode (would only be realistic with rules/a field that prevents hostile contact during auto mode). It is important that we don't unilaterally install a 30+ second autonomous period, simply because nobody wants to look at stationary robots for that long.

2. Slightly smaller fields (say, 20x40) and 2 vs. 2. Design so that each regional/division can host two fields that alternate play. Less down time, more matches for each team, easier to see what is going on/scout (3 vs. 3 can get hectic), and more flexibility in fitting the fields into a venue.

[Ryan Caldwell]

I think its interesting he said Winnow the pool and not Narrow down
win·now (wn)
1.
a. To separate the chaff from (grain) by means of a current of air.
b. To rid of undesirable parts.
2. To blow (chaff) off or away.
3. To blow away; scatter.
4. To blow on; fan: a breeze winnowing the tall grass.

Aim high with a industrial fan behind the goal?

[rsisk]

Originally Posted by Ryan Caldwell

I think its interesting he said Winnow the pool and not Narrow down
win·now (wn)
1.
a. To separate the chaff from (grain) by means of a current of air.
b. To rid of undesirable parts.
2. To blow (chaff) off or away.
3. To blow away; scatter.
4. To blow on; fan: a breeze winnowing the tall grass.

Aim high with a industrial fan behind the goal?

Guys, you're treating this like a Dave Laverly game hint!

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by rsisk

Guys, you're treating this like a Dave Laverly game hint!

We have to. We not going to get any more GDC hints from Dave Lavery.

[Jon Stratis]

If they go to longer matches, it's really going to be a stretch to have robots competing as actively as they are now on the same batteries... maybe they'll be giving us some new, higher capacity batteries as well?

I can't see them doing anything with ice, as people have mentioned on here... It would simply be too expensive to create/maintain a mini hockey rink in non-hockey venues. Likewise, they'd have a hell of a time convincing some venues (like basketball stadiums) to allow them to have large vats of water on the field for a water game - not to mention difficulties from filling up the pool between matches as water spills out!

I'd say it's much more likely they'll have a game object that we have to throw or shoot (maybe something like a wiffle ball?) through air currents (air currents... water currents... references to water?). How cool would it be to have 100 wiffle balls spilling across the field, with 6 foot high target goals surrounded by rotating fans so the currents are constantly changing?

[Carol]

Or Bill may just be having fun with us, to give us something to do in the long months until kickoff......


Last year the GDC committee started (I think) in June or July, so they are not starting all that much earlier this year. And the fact that everyone was already together in one place probably made it convenient to to then.

[pandamonium]

Winnowing associates with wind currents.

What object logically associates with wind currents?

Kites?

no I am not saying we will have to build a robot that can fly kites but maybe perhaps some kind of air goals...

[MagiChau]

What about an enclosed cage with fans blowing balloons around. The robot would have to move around game pieces to cover fans to redirect game pieces into a scoring box. Don't know how possible this is but it sounds fun.

[Robby Unruh]

I doubt the GDC even knows what kind of hint Bill has "just gave out" because they just started meeting, what, a week ago?

[JesseK]

If we had an incentive to leave autonomous early this year, we might not have seen the 2 or 3 tube autonomous attempts this year.

I like the idea of an autonomous-mode extension for completion of a task, somewhat: keep the extension & bonuses reasonable, then take the equivalent amount of time away from teleop so match cycles are predictable. The idea would extend the life of interesting autonomous routines, and let the teams without auto-modes play teleop sooner. The downside is that it'd grow the disparity between well-resourced (mentors, sponsors, etc) and low-resourced teams.