Game Hint Hint

[Taylor]

Seriously - when competition rolls around, the Mayan 'prediction' will be a distant memory. The 2013 game will not include that at all.

[Donut]

Originally Posted by dodar

What the hint really means is that at the end of every match, a giant solar flare will destroy the field.

...another year with Einstein communication issues ...

[wilhitern1]

Originally Posted by JB987

May be worth checking out some of the Mayan games ...

Pok-a-tok would really shorten the tournament. And (possible) leave a lot of robot parts strewn about...

Neal

[khussein]

it's a water game.

[Hadi379]

Maybe theres a relationship between the mesoamerican numerals and the scoring system for this years game. If you follow link, notice the Hieroglyphics on the right. Maybe each configuration of bar and dot represents how the game pieces can be configured, which would then give you the appropriate point value.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoame...can_nume rals


Alot of people have speculated a stacking game, and this kind of supports that theory as well.

[Gary Dillard]

You have to put your team number on your bumpers in Meso-American Numbers (4" Stroke X 3/4" wide, of course)

[Gary Dillard]

Originally Posted by Sean Raia

Also, they are releasing this game hint on the day(21) that corresponds to the number of the game (this will be the 21st game).
Just an interesting tidbit

Close - it will actually be the 22nd game

[Danny Blau]

With all this talk of 'The End' and making predictions:

what about a stop the clock early end game like in 2001, except this time you have to tell the field personnel before the start of the match how much time you need for the end game. That would really be interesting for the scouting/strategy people.

Danny

[BigJ]

Originally Posted by Gary Dillard

Close - it will actually be the 22nd game

Not if you start counting at 0.

[Sean Raia]

Originally Posted by Gary Dillard

Close - it will actually be the 22nd game

Ah wow, don't know why I didn't see that.

I agree though, that we should certainly drop the Mayan/End of the world theme. I doubt FIRST would use that silly, misinterpreted prediction as part of a worldwide robotics competition theme.

I think focusing on WHY they released a hint about a hint, and what's in the wording of the hint, is at least on the right track.

[coalhot]

Water Game!

[DMetalKong]

Originally Posted by Donut

...another year with Einstein communication issues ...

Just to sidetrack a bit, more important than the Game Hint Hint was the update on solutions that are being implemented after the issues with Einstein last semester. This specifically stood out to me:

Originally Posted by 'Next Steps' Update

C. The Driver Station and Robot now support a Test mode to help facilitate teams testing robot functions
prior to and between matches. This new mode can be used to actuate individual outputs or whole
subsystems of the robot.

D. A new Robot Builder tool will be released to aid teams in constructing their robot code around the
subsystems of the robot, then test each of these subsystems using the SmartDashboard.

There are a bunch of other improvements, but these alone stand out as huge positives that are coming out of the investigation that will be of major benefit to teams.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by coalhot

Water Game!

The 6WD fish on that shirt will not pass inspection -- bumper rules. Sorry.

Or ... just maybe ... revised bumper rules? Could it happen?

[Walter Deitzler]

Lets think about the other hint for a second.

Rick Astley at 3:00 in the "Never Gonna Give You Up" video. We speculate that this might just mean more autonomous period, an extra 30 seconds of it.

But with the end of the world (12/21) being tied to this hint, we have interpreted something new about the end game.

Maybe the hint means a longer endgame, an extra 30 seconds to do whatever the endgame task is. This could mean a more difficult or complex endgame.

Thoughts?

[Saberbot]

Originally Posted by LedLover96

Lets think about the other hint for a second.

Rick Astley at 3:00 in the "Never Gonna Give You Up" video. We speculate that this might just mean more autonomous period, an extra 30 seconds of it.

But with the end of the world (12/21) being tied to this hint, we have interpreted something new about the end game.

Maybe the hint means a longer endgame, an extra 30 seconds to do whatever the endgame task is. This could mean a more difficult or complex endgame.

Thoughts?

What about an Auto/Hybrid endgame? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't remember a game where it has been done before.
It would be neat if there was one thing that varied that required one team on the alliance to use the kinect. I can see this being very exciting to watch, except for matches/events with teams with low programming skills.

Edit/Expansion:

This caught my eye while re-reading the blog post:

Well, I’m looking at a game hint right now, and, wow! That is one nice game hint. But we’re not quite ready to release it yet. We’ll be doing that on 12/21.

What if there were an element on the field that released part way through the match? I am imagining something similar to the 2004 ball release, but on a timer that activated it words the end of the match. It would be really cool to see the field change right before an autonomous endgame, and it would certainly present a large challenge.