[BB] The wooden beams have started creaking

[Rangel]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

While I doubt this year really will be a "water game", your speculation on the Titanic seems very accurate, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was the actual game! Now.... What could that mean for an FRC game???

A water game without the water... Titanic is very heavy and made out of steel. Relates to all the hints so far and could easily be made into a game with the field materials. Very interesting indeed.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by ~Cory~

We had loComotion by Little Eva down pretty well last year...

And you do realize that you just proved his point, don't you?

We had "Locomotion" dialed in pretty well. What we didn't know was what that word meant in relation to anything else. It's been that way for every single hint we've ever had--we've gotten some aspect of it, but never all of it.

Also, that was an official hint, in the form of a picture; anything read in Bill's Blog is not an official hint unless he specifically says it's an official hint.

For reference, this is the progression of official hints for a while back, by game year. If I included unofficial "hints", you'd be reading until Kickoff 2013.

2011: Picture of Little Eva with a column. Traced to be "Locomotion", which was very close to the game name, "LogoMotion". (Trying to remember the second hint...)

2010: 2x CAD of field areas/elements. The first led to speculation of a track for something to roll down; the second led to (incorrect) speculation of a target (mis-interpreted piece of the picture) and (semi-correct) speculation of an extra gate and open space.

2009: Riddle from Bill, which when traced, led to ice (via Zamboni; referred to the regolith), the game object's maker, towing a trailer, and something else. All accurate, but we never thought we'd have a lunar theme and be scoring in towed trailers...

2008: IR receiver board (#1), much confusion (resolved to be a robot part). GPS coordinate (#2), Tortoise and Hare sculpture in Boston (race).
"Vets hurdling FIRST tetras", anagram of the decryption password without punctuation.

2007: Picture clue showing a game object on a scoring peg. Much speculation on the number 5, which was in the middle, but the real clue was around it. Someone did come up with the answer.

2006: Riddle in a "circular" shape. Someone got that it led to "Just Shoot Me", which was part of the game, but what was "me" and what about all this nonsense about 5 'bots, pasta, a game piece obsessed with a shovel's show (see reference above) and seeing Montana's green heights (lighted CMUCam vision target above the goal, but prompted speculation about both the state and the quarterback)

2005: Riddle involving amethyst and the only 2 players to make an unassisted triple play in major league baseball, leading to the game name, Triple Play.

2004: Line from Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven". There were stairs on the field.

2003: The equation of a parabola. The scoring equation.

[Francis-134]

Just gonna put it out there that it is probably not going to be a game referencing the Titanic, as that was one of the largest accidents/humanitarian disasters of all time.

[sanddrag]

If the game gets heavier, our wallets get lighter.

[JohnSchneider]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

If the game gets heavier, our wallets get lighter.

Not if youre building a practice field

[Ninja_Bait]

So, about this Titanic game. It just doesn't seem to fit the profile of an FRC game. The only anniversary-themed game that I can think of is Lunacy, for the 40-year anniversary of the moon landing. Which is a very sciencey event, unlike the catastrophic sinking of the Titanic.

The other thing is that we have gotten water game hints in the past. EricH forgot to mention in his list that in 2009 we also got a picture of a red herring and a luna fish, which pointed towards the name of the game. But everyone was thinking water game.

One thing we haven't had in a while is moving field elements like seesaws. I think we should expect them, based on the massive amount of field parts coming in.

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by EricH

2011: Picture of Little Eva with a column. Traced to be "Locomotion", which was very close to the game name, "LogoMotion". (Trying to remember the second hint...)

The 2nd hint last year was the FIRST logo.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by Rangel(kf7fdb)

A water game without the water... Titanic is very heavy and made out of steel. Relates to all the hints so far and could easily be made into a game with the field materials. Very interesting indeed.

Not only that, but with the re-release of the movie, we've got another hint.















The 2012 game will be three-dimensional.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Tetraman

*cry*

I was trying to do some math on this, knowing what I do know about the tape, but I can't really be so sure about so many variables that trying to determine how many tapes there are to spread across each event and off season event hurt my brain.

Just for the record- off-season events do not get tape with the field. We have to buy all of the tape ourselves that we use for both the field, and taping out the queuing areas, etc.

The carpet tape can be a little pricey, but is used only to connect the two pieces of carpet together.

Gaffers tape on the other hand is heavily all over the field and costs a decent amount per roll (~$25 if i remember correctly). We spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars just on tape every year when we host the Beantown Blitz.

-Brando

[HumblePie]

One thing that gets the wooden beams creaking at my house is when somebody climbs the stairs. We haven't had stairs lately....could be time!.

BTW, I thought the primary engineering "achievment" re: the Titanic was welded steel compartments that would isolate leakage from a hull breach. Very little wood in that ship...

[PhilBot]

Originally Posted by Hallry

Is polycarbonate always used on the fields (if so, for what?)?

To keep the water in the tanks

Hint: Tidal Wave .....

Hint: Keep things Flowing...

Maybe use the Kinect to detect the human players "swimming"...

Just saying...

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

...you use a crap ton of tape.

Is that an SI unit?

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

Is that an SI unit?

I believe it's an Imperial unit. The SI version would be 'crap tonne'.

Back on topic, does anyone know how much Gaffers tape is on one pallet? I couldn't imagine them stacking the rolls taller than 4 feet or so... From there it'd be pretty easy to figure out how many rolls, then how many feet, then how many feet per field and so on.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by thefro526

Back on topic, does anyone know how much Gaffers tape is on one pallet? I couldn't imagine them stacking the rolls taller than 4 feet or so... From there it'd be pretty easy to figure out how many rolls, then how many feet, then how many feet per field and so on.

Depends on the width of the tape. I've seen as small as 1/2" and as large as 8". IIRC FRC usually uses 2" or 3".

[Racer26]

Well, in my experience, pallets are typically 4x4, stacked ~4-5ft high.

From that, and the per-pallet weights, we could approximate material density, which could give us some insight into what materials the "game-specific" stuff is.

8000 lbs of 1/4" polycarb is 472.3m^2, assuming I did the math correctly. (based on 1.21g/cm^3).

27ft x 1m of polycarb for the alliance walls, times 2 alliances per field times 19 fields is 312.7248m^2, leaves 159.5752m^2 of polycarb.

18" x 54ft sidewalls *2, * 19 = 285.9538m^2 of polycarb. This means that its either not all 1/4" polycarb (anybody know what thickness the walls have been in past?), or I screwed up the math somewhere.