Do you LIKE the game this year?

[nssheepster]

I don't think anybody asked if the group likes the game this year. I mean, we all like robotics, but do we like this game, specifically? Hence the above poll.

[Ninja_Bait]

I like it as a technical challenge. A lot of thought and precision work has to go into making effective scorers, more so than previous years IMHO. It has taken much more design work than I thought it would. It's also an interesting strategic challenge. There are a lot of ways to win, and a lot of ways to lose, and it is difficult to pinpoint a "best" strategy.

Also, no minibots!

[Koko Ed]

I hold my opinion til after the scrimmages so I can see how the game looks with actual robots playing it. But from what I've seen so far I like it.

[bf2416]

I like it, it leaves a lot of room for creativity in both the loading mechanism and the shooter itself. That, however leads to a lot of design disagreements early on though, lol

[missledojer217]

I like the game but not a lot of the rules. like no touching other robots or its a penalty.

[onecoolc]

I like this game, but not as much as I liked Lunacy!

But I think I'll hold most of my judgment until we get the chance to play on a field. I can't accurately judge the game as a whole based off of the one robot we're making. Gotta see it played with the other five.

[Moros]

I have always liked the fact that FIRST puts out games with two aspects. By That i mean a regular gameplay (shooting hoops, in this case) and a possibly game-changing final task (balancing on the bridge).

The Hybrid period is also pretty cool, since it includes programming other than the "make the robot move, then the programmers go twidle their thumbs" kind of challenge, and includes something new (the kinect)

Overall, I think that this year's game is quite good, and includes numerous engineering challenges that will teach students the think outside the box.

[nssheepster]

Wow, only 53 so far. Maybe I needed another option. "Don't care about this poll."...

[Brandon Zalinsky]

Originally Posted by onecoolc

I like this game, but not as much as I liked Lunacy!

The words "2009" and "Lunacy" are not words in 1058's dictionary... It never happened.

Anyway, I like the game for the balancing and scoring aspect, and I love that they ditched the minibots. However, I don't like how the balls are different densities, adding just another layer of complexity to an already complex game.

8.5/10.

P.S. Yo GDC I'm happy for you and I'm gonna let you finish, but Aim High was the best FRC game of all time!

[SteveGPage]

As a veteran team, we LOVE it! I've always wanted another game similar in nature to "Aim High"! I think the public will like this game, especially in the regional elims and at Championships when you have several teams that can shoot.

Now to my concerns about this game, and it really doesn't have anything to do with the way the game was designed. Aim High had a couple of ways to score, including the corner goals, where you could drop balls into the bottom goal for a single point. We were a relatively young team at the time (I think it was our 4th season), and while we could occasionally score in the upper goal, we also knew we could score in the lower goal, and we could play defense. As we discovered in Aim High, building a shooter is not a trivial task, and building one that can shoot from more than one spot on the field is going to be even harder. However, since that is the main object of this game, teams are going to try to build just that, and, like we were in 2006, many will be very ineffective. We did do a good job of scoring in the 1-point goal, and playing defense. It was enough to get us selected as a 3rd round alliance pick.

Like Aim High, this game still has those opportunities for teams to score points, without having to build a complex shooter. Rookie/younger teams should be building a bot that has the capability to climb and balance on the bridge, and that they make that a priority! 10 balancing points is 3 made shots at the high goal, 5 made shots at the middle goal, or 10 made shots at the low goal! Yet, since we are still in the middle of the build season, hope springs eternal, and many teams I've worked with say "We want to be a shooter, and we 'know' we can do it." Some may very well do it, but many won't, and will spend a large part of the match trying to score a single shot.

Hopefully, teams will work to build bots that can at least get some of those "easier" points:
* Bridge balancing, as mentioned above
* Dumpers into low/mid goal (can be done easily from the front of the fender, or from the side where the fender and alliance wall meet)
* Simple shooters, maximized to shoot from the spots mentioned above (that's what we did in Aim High)

If they do those types of things, we see some good matches, otherwise I fear we will have some matches where the only points come from the penalties, if they can even cross the bridge/barrier to put them self in position for a penalty.

Overall, I rate it an 8/10 - Aim High would be my 10!

[nahstobor]

Absolutely love it. From a coaches perspective, there are so many different strategies to win a match.

Also this is the first time I can think where the game will drastically change between qualification and playoffs. You may see teams with excellent shooters in the qualification rounds turn in to ball runners during the playoffs to mimic 25, 968 and 195's "A-Bomb." The fact that the bonus for the bridge between qualification and playoffs will drastically change the game.

[Gdeaver]

I'll reserve judgement to I see the game played with the referring. I worry that this game could become a game of tag and that more points are scored with penalties than by baskets. I like the base game. The rules are questionable. I would not like to to ref this game.

[Clinton Bolinger]

Game seems like it will be a decent game for spectators to watch. It will be really easy to explain to people outside of the FIRST community.

However, I am not looking forward to the unnecessary drama of the Co-opertition Bridge.

-Clinton-

[LinuxArchitect]

Originally Posted by missledojer217

I like the game but not a lot of the rules. like no touching other robots or its a penalty.

I would have preferred to see the protection of the key limited to all wheels above the front line of the key. Limiting defense to blocking dunk shots seems too limiting.

[JesseK]

I love this game.

• Incredible flexibility in design (dumpers, shooters, 'placers')
• Incredible flexibility in strategy (dance around the key, bump vs bridge, all-star vs support)
• Defense built into Offense (like 2010 -- gobble their balls up and fire them to your side)
• Anti-aggressive rules regarding defense (key/alley) so we don't need drive trains that push

I keep thinking of new strategy tidbits every day.

The only thing that I question is the automatic and irreversible real-time penalty system, which will probably subject more than a few matches to subjectivity and selective memories across the 3,000+ qual matches.