Team Update 2-19 and FRC Blog - Week 0 Observations and Stop Build Day

[techvikesmom]

Soooo.... humans throwing discs over the player station at a target 54 feet away is a greater safety hazard than a 28" tall robot launching a disk using a flywheel spinning at 5000+ rpm? Huh?

AGREED!!
OR a possible 120 pound robot falling 60"???

Again, frisbee throwing change affects us and many other teams. This is my 4th year with FIRST and every year these updates/rule changes are very frustrating. Every year we feel that our strategy plan is challenged by these changes and we do get pass the "initial shock" of the changes.

I also want to say this program has changed our son and our students' lives to the better to what we have exposed them too.

[QuackAttack177]

Originally Posted by techvikesmom

Soooo.... humans throwing discs over the player station at a target 54 feet away is a greater safety hazard than a 28" tall robot launching a disk using a flywheel spinning at 5000+ rpm? Huh?

AGREED!!
OR a possible 120 pound robot falling 60"???

Again, frisbee throwing change affects us and many other teams. This is my 4th year with FIRST and every year these updates/rule changes are very frustrating. Every year we feel that our strategy plan is challenged by these changes and we do get pass the "initial shock" of the changes.

I also want to say this program has changed our son and our students' lives to the better to what we have exposed them too.

I agree completely. When the first robot falls and hurts someone (hopefully never, but there is always the possibility) are they just going to get rid of climbing? I doubt it. They will find a SOLUTION to the problem. I see no reason why they cant do the same for the problem they face now.

[Jay Trzaskos]

Let me start by saying that I feel awful for the human players who might feel that they are now unable to actively affect their teams’ success during the match, and cannot show off a skill set that they have been working on over the past 6 weeks.

But for some perspective, I’m 6’4” and played competitive ultimate in college for multiple years. I haven't spent any time throwing discs full field this year, but last night I tried putting 30 seconds on the clock to see how many backhands I could throw (rapid fire) that distance. I stopped after about 10 seconds and 12-15 discs because I only managed to get 2 to stay in the field. I entirely understand the GDC’s decision to limit the number of discs haphazardly attempting to enter the field in the last 30 seconds.

Now, I understand that some teams have been planning and practicing with specific throws that fit their floor pick-up strategy. I know that if I had done hammer throws my percentage would have increased, but I was operating under the assumption that teams would prefer to have the discs landing right side up, effectively voiding the effectiveness of that throw. My throws also may not have been from an optimum position behind the drivers station.

You have to look beyond the scope of how this affects one quarter of your teams match. You have, minimum, 8 days to rethink your strategy for competition. Take the time to sleep on it, look at the broader issue. Your HP may be able to hit his throw with some degree of accuracy, but what about the other 5 (over-zealous) students out their hucking discs as hard as they can and hoping they hit something.

I believe that the GDC expected some amount of discs to leave the field during the last 30 seconds, what I don't believe is that they should have expected the reckless abandon with which some teams would throw them. I especially don't believe that they expected students to be throwing the discs without even looking at the field. There is certainly no reason that any robot or human player should be launching discs above the drivers station wall either. Unless you have done almost nothing to control the accuracy of your shooter.

We have all been focused on our robots and our strategies for 6 weeks straight, now take some time to truly look at the game as a whole and decide for yourself if, over the full spectrum of teams competing, you think this change is so incredibly unfair of the GDC to make? We’re trying to draw people into our community by focusing on our actions and our attitude, there isn’t a whole lot going on in this thread that speaks positively about either of those attributes. All design is an iterative process; the GDC iterated the game design in order to fix a specific and unforeseen safety issue. Please move past this and start thinking about how you can iterate your match strategy and adapt to fit this change.

[PVCpirate]

I think it's just too hard for a referee or spectator at field level to keep track of all the different frisbees coming from the human players in all 4 corners of the field. This way, all the frisbees are being launched by robots on the field, so it's easier to see the where the shots are coming from.