2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!

[holygrail]

Here are the things I think are important for the info we have so far.
1. I think the significance of the 12/21/12 release date is that if you add the 1s and 2s together you get 3/3/3. Three groups of 3.
2. This was game hint 3, even though you really have to stretch to assume that there were two other official hints.
3. Pi was the key to decoding the hint (a version of 3)
4. The Rick Astley video was from exactly the three minute mark
5. This doesn’t have to do with three, but the box dimensions on the chassis are smaller this year.

Okay, so here is what I think it all means.
I think we had correctly figured out that the 3:00 mark on the Rick Astley hint means that we will have 3:00 matches this year. This bothered me because I, like most people (I think) would rather play more matches rather than fewer.

But if there are 3 alliances of 3 robots each, you can still have each robot play about 10 matches in qualification rounds with only about 2/3 of the matches. Usually at a 60 robot regional, you have to play about 100 matches for each robot to be in 10 matches. With 9 robots on the field, you only need 67 matches to do the same thing. I don’t even want to think about what this means for scouting though.

Fewer, longer matches also means more time with robots on the field and less reset time. Also, more interesting for the spectators.

This also goes along with the smaller robot dimensions. To have more robots on the field, they need to be smaller.

3/3/3 – 3 robots, 3 alliances, 3 minute matches

As for the nature of the game, I feel like it is much more speculative. I do feel like there may be a big tower in the middle of the field for something, but I wouldn’t bet much money on that thought. I feel more confident about the idea that you will have to hold up something heavy since it is (kind of) in both clues. The Rick Astley song – “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down” and in the cypher “A dinner missed, holding weight.”

[Steven Donow]

Before everyone jumps ahead for thinking 3 alliances,(and if it's already been said, sorry, didn't read through every post in the thread) in the Veteran/Rookie KOP Difference chart, rookies get "Bumper Material Sets, Red and Blue, 2". That, to me, debunks 3 alliances. My opinion on the three could be three definitive divisions in the game modes (which also has probably been said), in that it's Auto/Hybrid, Teleop, and then End Game, where it's explicitly defined that you HAVE to do the end game task and ONLY the end game task, which is a contrast from previous years end games.

[dellagd]

Originally Posted by Shifter

Good work gyroscopeRAPTOR on the pi thing!

One possible reason for using "pi" as part of the hint, maybe each team gets one of these in this year's KoP.

As far as the "DINNER MISSED", I don't know from Bill's Dec 20, 2012 blog who from the FRC staff was missing. An older list of FRC staff appears in an April 27, 2011 blog but there are multiple different names on the two lists.

Already experimenting with the Raspberry Pi over here for the 2013 season. Ours will prove quite useful I think.

[Qbot2640]

Originally Posted by stevend1994

Before everyone jumps ahead for thinking 3 alliances,(and if it's already been said, sorry, didn't read through every post in the thread) in the Veteran/Rookie KOP Difference chart, rookies get "Bumper Material Sets, Red and Blue, 2". That, to me, debunks 3 alliances. My opinion on the three could be three definitive divisions in the game modes (which also has probably been said), in that it's Auto/Hybrid, Teleop, and then End Game, where it's explicitly defined that you HAVE to do the end game task and ONLY the end game task, which is a contrast from previous years end games.

That is a very interesting idea about the possible true meaning of the "3"...I too thought it unlikely that 3 different alliances would compete simultaneously. For one thing, I could not imagine a finals bracket mechanism that would work.

If this scenario is true, though, I think the division would instead be to separate autonomous from hybrid. I have been saying since last year that Microsoft would probably be pushing hard to get the Kinect to be more heavily used, perhaps this is the way that will happen. I think the dynamics of regular play vs. endgame that we saw last year was pretty good...for example, 1717's machine - while an awesome balancing robot - was such a good shooter that they would choose to let the other two bots balance, and they could easily rack up more than the difference by continuing to shoot. I look for a regular play - endgame mix of that same "choose your strength" variety.

[gabrielau23]

A ROSE, KISSED
SINGER GREAT
A DINNER, MISSED
HOLDING WEIGHT

Well, the first two lines of the poem match up to give us one hint: Seal.
How about the second two lines combined? A dinner missed, holding weight. I think the robots becoming smaller is a plausible explanation, but I, for one, wouldn't welcome it. I think that size is definitely one of the best parts of FIRST. When I'm sharing robotics with people who aren't in FIRST, my first question is always, "What do you think we're building?" Their answer is inevitably something similar to a RC car. When I tell them that we are building 28" x 38" x 60" robots, their jaws just drop.

[Sean Raia]

Originally Posted by Jeffy

Please propose an alternative then.

There has been a lot of progress made in deciphering the hint in the last couple of pages.
I think the interpretation "Fish Scale" for the second part of the riddle is correct, Now how do we relate Seal to Fish Scale?
THAT
or a "Dinner missed, holding weight" is trying to tell us that the Seal missed his regular dinner of fish so he can hold a ball and "Never let it down"

[gabrielau23]

Originally Posted by Sean Raia

There has been a lot of progress made in deciphering the hint in the last couple of pages.
I think the interpretation "Fish Scale" for the second part of the riddle is correct, Now how do we relate Seal to Fish Scale?

Seals eat fish, so maybe we're weighing what our "sealed" bot has consumed? So we'd be placing stuff into our robot and then lifting ourselves to score points in the endgame?

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Sean Raia

There has been a lot of progress made in deciphering the hint in the last couple of pages.
I think the interpretation "Fish Scale" for the second part of the riddle is correct, Now how do we relate Seal to Fish Scale?

Maybe the more you put onto/into the "fish scale" it unlocks a seal of something.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Sean Raia

There has been a lot of progress made in deciphering the hint in the last couple of pages.
I think the interpretation "Fish Scale" for the second part of the riddle is correct, Now how do we relate Seal to Fish Scale?
THAT
or a "Dinner missed, holding weight" is trying to tell us that the Seal missed his regular dinner of fish so he can hold a ball and "Never let it down"

They had that in the 2004 game didn't they? Like you had to put a ball in a box during auto and it released like a million balls from above the player station.

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by stevend1994

Before everyone jumps ahead for thinking 3 alliances,(and if it's already been said, sorry, didn't read through every post in the thread) in the Veteran/Rookie KOP Difference chart, rookies get "Bumper Material Sets, Red and Blue, 2". That, to me, debunks 3 alliances. My opinion on the three could be three definitive divisions in the game modes (which also has probably been said), in that it's Auto/Hybrid, Teleop, and then End Game, where it's explicitly defined that you HAVE to do the end game task and ONLY the end game task, which is a contrast from previous years end games.

It's true that there's no difference with rookie's getting a third color that veterans would not, BUT, what if they give material for a 3rd bumper to ALL teams? It wouldn't be listed as a differential among the teams.

[CalTran]

Return of the human player pad? XD

Something else for the threes...what about like in 2006 with auton, offensive, and defensive? They are trying top make hybrid more important, though the lack of rookie connects is a but hindering...and I doubt Microsoft would donate another 3k kinects.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by coalhot

This is all speculation.

Um, yeah. That's the fun.

Seal is a pretty solid clue, and since seals live in water, water game.
A Dinner Missed shows fish. Fish live in water, water game.
And at 2012 CMP, a member of the GDC said "Water bottle game", there's a recording of it.

Oh, and 3 is important: There will be 3 teams on each alliance.

See you Jan 5th!

[Brad Morton]

I think the "Dinner Missed" phrase relates to the play "Dinner for One". In the play the often used, operative phrase is "Same procedure as every year".

[runneals]

Originally Posted by dodar

They had that in the 2004 game didn't they? Like you had to put a ball in a box during auto and it released like a million balls from above the player station.

Yah... That would be cool to have a game with a bunch of balls, but it would also be a pain I would think... and last year we had a game with a bunch of balls, so wouldn't they want to change things up a bit?

See the animation here.

[Jay O'Donnell]

If you look at the first and third lines, they both start with 31 and end with the sequence 2341415326, which adds up to 31.

It's probably a coincidence and has no relevance, I just found it interesting.