Possible Stuck Balls

[Peyton Yeung]

The return of the pokey stick is near

[Dave McLaughlin]

Originally Posted by Tubatroopa

The return of the pokey stick is near

While I share the same sentiment, I can't figure out how you'd go about getting the pokey stick to the hoop to unclog things...

[Bob Steele]

I think they will have to drill some pokey holes...

[Dave McLaughlin]

Seems like I could have pokeyed a fair few number of holes in the field design and testing the GDC did. Have no fear though guys! The GDC took half as much time as usual to make this game so we already have next years half thought through game done!

[Dancin103]

I don't think this is possible for multiple reasons, but that's just me. The bottom of the net is tied to the plexi.

[Dave McLaughlin]

Originally Posted by Dancin103

I don't think this is possible for multiple reasons, but that's just me. The bottom of the net is tied to the plexi.

Until we get some hoops and just test things it really is just your opinion against mine, but after watching this video from 0:30 to 0:38 I think that during times like auto when 6 balls are potentially going in the same hoop in very rapid succession the fact that the bottom of the net is anchored and so narrow will only increase the propensity of the balls to jam.

[Alan2338]

I think it is a possibility for the balls to get stuck underneath the bridge. When rolled out of the station, the lane goes right underneath the bridge.
The net is definitely possible too.

[Nuttyman54]

971 has successfully accidentally gotten this scenario to happen when two balls were shot at approximately the same time into the hoop. It's easier than with real basket balls because the relative size to the hoop makes it easier to get two of them into the basket at the same time.

The bottom of the hoop was not tied down, but I agree with Dave that that's irrelevant, based on how it happened. The basketballs are similar to the poof balls surface finish and they really like to stick to eachother in tight spaces. They just love to get stuck in funnels (even the orbit balls would jam in funnels, and these are much worse offenders).

I don't think it's going to be as common as the jammed goals in 2006 (aka every time a lot of balls went in) but I do think it will happen, and possibly often enough to merit a pokey stick.

[Ninja_Bait]

The pokey stick this year will probably be more like a toilet auger that can snake up the ball returns.

With regards to Alan2338's post, there is a sloped piece of lexan to prevent balls from getting trapped under the bridge.

[donnie99]

The other consideration should be that these balls are smaller than real basketballs and when we lightly dropped one through a brand new net tonight, it had no problem going through, so I don't think this will be as big a problem as it might seem.

[MrBasse]

poking up from the bottom seems like it would cause issues with the ball sensors that read scoring...

Having this issue is going to be a great addition to planning scoring with your alliance, especially during autonomous. If everyone shoots at the same time and the same target the balls will all interfere with each other anyway. Just means you need to plan better to make things quickly and easily adjustable in your methods.

[Tetraman]

Seems to me, that with 4 hoops to score in, you are just going to have to deal with clogs as they happen and aim for the other three hoops. You might have to cooperate with your alliance partners that your shots don't interfere with their shots and make a clog.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

I think figuring out what the standard operating procedure will be is a good Q&A question.