[FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint

[mechanical_robot]

Originally Posted by Willem Bohrer

Attachment 15625

When you put the three destinations stated thus far into google maps you form a triangle.

Any three points will form a triangle. Just like any 5 points will form a pentagon and so on.

[themccannman]

Originally Posted by Abhishek R

Pretty sure that the hint just gives people something to put their energy into while we *patiently* wait for January 4th.

In other words, the hint is supposed to be extremely obscure so that you can just see how close you may have gotten once the actual challenge comes out. I doubt anyone has ever gotten any real, even minuscule advantage.

That's exactly what it is. Think about every game hint we've ever gotten, would knowing any of them in advance give you any advantage at all? Knowing that there's going to be a pyramid to climb, or a ball or tube game doesn't really give you an advantage at all until you know the specifics of the game rules.

[theCADguy]

Originally Posted by Abhishek R

Yeah, I was just about to say that. Still, important to note the number 3.

As for three, maybe each string of numbers hints to a different aspect of the game. For example, one pair of numbers seemingly corresponds to a sign about reducing weight limits. The other strings probably represent other aspects of the game such as scoring objects, field dimensions, etc.

[dellagd]

I'm liking that the different ways of graphing the points form a triangle, then box, then sphere though.

That being said I'm still partial to the "weight limit" sign because, come on, that's pretty perfect and its not a common sign...

[theCADguy]

Originally Posted by dellagd

I'm liking that the different ways of graphing the points form a triangle, then box, then sphere though.

That being said I'm still partial to the "weight limit" sign because, come on, that's pretty perfect and its not a common sign...

Triangle, Square, and Sphere...

The game pieces may be inspired by the FIRST logo, just as they were in Logomotion.

[katelyndrake]

I started wondering if the date the clue was posted could have any connection. Since 1963 seems to be referring to the year I searched for December 20th, 1963 (also, the post is the 50th anniversary of this date). This came up as the day the Berlin wall opened for the first time allowing people to visit relatives on the other side.

This could be a completely irrevelant finding; however, I can't help but think of some kind of game element dividing the field/alliances allowing robots to pass through at certain spots. When I was looking through this thread I found this post which talks about transporting to Berlin. Could this possibly be some sort of coincidence as well?

Originally Posted by RegaCaska

15806 is Zossen Germany. Looking on the wikipedia page:

"Between 1901 and 1904, Zossen adopted the use of different high-speed vehicles, such as electric locomotives and trams, for transportation to and from Berlin-Marienfelde. These vehicles were powered by an alternating current of 15kV and used a variable frequency. The power was transmitted by three vertical overhead lines."

Overdrive?

Other than this I haven't found any other connections that haven't already been pointed out. Maybe someone else might have a thought on this?

[pandamonium]

The hint can be about any part of the game and since quite honestly I don't think we are in the right ball park yet I have been working out an idea that the hint has to do with scoring or ranking.

high scores big numbers would imply there is a multiplier element to scoring such in 2007.

perhaps the alliances matter as well as the position number and your score is divide by your opponent.

R1 8234 / B1 57, R2 61126 / B2 1963, R3 62326 / B3 15806

It would be hard for judges to score this unless there were specific game pieces or goals for each.

Other concept each alliance has two scoring objects lets say circles then during end game everyone scores triangles and your Qualifying Rank score is
your squares / over your oponents triangles...

[Mitchell1714]

Originally Posted by theCADguy

As for three, maybe each string of numbers hints to a different aspect of the game. For example, one pair of numbers seemingly corresponds to a sign about reducing weight limits. The other strings probably represent other aspects of the game such as scoring objects, field dimensions, etc.

Autonomous /Teleoperated / End Game
This could be something.

[cadandcookies]

It might be worth mentioning because of the Dr. Who connections:

In the Dr. Who Christmas Special, The Runaway Bride, the case uses Segways to get to an ancient spider nest.

Just saying: Spider game.

(yes I took this game hint as an excuse to watch a marathon of Dr. Who)

[Hobo]

A little late to the party, but I figured it was about time for another reorganization (been going through this thread and getting a little lost along the way):

What I believe was the latest summary was from post 279 on page 19 by Thunder910; here's an abridged recap of that:

(1) Using the numbers as zip codes, they point to cities with a connection to baseball
(2) Using the numbers as zip codes, they point to cities that have passed the Olympic torch
(3) Andy Baker uses a baseball bat in a video for Robot in Three Days
(4) In the KoP apology letter, they use the baseball analogy "Our apologies for the two strikes this weekend, we promise our next swing will be a home run."
(5) Hex, statistics, ASCII and Morse have not come up with anything consistently intelligible
(6) The first two numbers' simplified, irrational forms are the hex codes of green and blue, respectively
(7) Karomata created a theory revolving around Phil Fish
(8) When plugged into Google Earth (or Maps?), there are three images that show a shopping center sign including Security First, a map including First Baptist Church, and a sign saying "Weight Limit Reduced 25% Effective Jan. 1st to May 1st."
(9) The game piece pattern for this year would indicate a ball-based game
(10) The game type pattern, which was already broken by Ultimate, should have continued to give a non-abstract game, but technically makes us overdue for one

Now it's time to number the (more concrete) game theories!
(1) Baseball
(2) Hockey
(3) Something more abstract

Football and a Logomotion like game have also been mentioned, but they have had less traction than the other theories so far. Granted, that doesn't discount them at all.

From reading a lot of these posts and my own (very brief) experiences, I believe that FIRST games, now especially, will not only seek to provide a good, fun challenge but also make FIRST and STEM more accessible to more people.
To be frank, racing games, stacking games, puzzle-like games and even just varied scoring methods and multipliers makes games harder for non-FIRST people to sit down and watch FIRST events (so does a non-working automatic scoring system, but that's a bit less controllable).
Rebound Rumble was a hit because of how straightforward the primary scoring was, and Ultimate Ascent followed that trend. That is why, I believe, part (10) about the game type trend broke; it's because they realized that creating non-abstract games with visually logical scoring can fulfill their goals better.

In addition to the game type, I think that it is probably more logical to follow the non-game hint hints, such as the video and letter references, than to be suspicious of them. Since they are unified, and previous non-game hint hints such as a KoP specification change (2013) indicating smaller robots were pretty straightforward as well, it would make sense.

Opinions in general: part (9) indicates we're due for a ball game, fulfilled by the baseball game supported by (1), (3) and (4); (1) and (8) also support each other due to their connection with maps, and (8) does contain several references to FIRST. Security First = Safety First, but the church is still mysterious. (8) also indicates much lighter robots, at a 90lb. cap.

General notes: / can stand for division, a space in Morse, or an or symbol. Commas separate lists, pauses in speech, coordinate systems, and the beginning and end of sets. Mapping them out as three Cartesian points is guaranteed to create a triangle; mapping them as a 8 3D points (/ as an or) is guaranteed to create a rectangular prism (as long as the options are different). Apparently, mapping it in Wolfram Alpha gives a sphere.

Keep in mind that, as a poster whose post I've lost said before me, the GDC must have backwards designed this hint, providing a barrier to (8); how would they have gotten those numbers to pinpoint those locations?

And finally, remember that this is a source of mostly entertainment and not competition. Even if we pulled out the right game, the only real benefit is being able to laugh about it afterwards, so let's have fun with this!

P.S. I didn't discuss the photo of Dean, Woodie and Don, sorry! I sort of went with the whole "There Are No Game Hints In This Photo" warning. To be frank, there's too much symbolism to pull from photos that don't have overt messages (they're taking a photo, there's a green screen, they have chairs etc.) to get much concrete stuff anyways.

[kcy0511]

With all the triangle talk I decided to try searching pyramid with each number. One of the results was for a company called Pyramid Plastics in Rockford ,IL. I am still trying to make more connections though.

[Hobo]

So I tried to edit my post, but my internet is currently too bad to do that it seems.

Things I forgot: I did believe that the 16:08 timestamp could have something to do with a hex to oct conversion, but that got me nowhere. There have been attempts to perform simple correlation translations (e.g. A=1, B=2...), as well as varied Morse translations, and then ASCII translations, etc. (e.g. I tried Hex/Oct to Dec/Dec then to ASCII and got this unintelligible "!!STX[Start Text]/G, 'LACK[Acknowledge]/VT[Vertical Tab]', (SYN[Synchronous idle]SO[Shift Out]/DC1[Device Control 1]EOT[End Of Transmission]").

[czielinski]

I feel like we may be overthinking it. I know this is FIRST but it could be much simpler than we're making it. But I do believe that the game will be much more simplistic and the coincidence with the sign is very strange as well

[bbradf44]

Has anyone tried looking at the legs of the triangle? Either on a chart or as points on a map? Could bring something, probably nothing, but its something else to look at

[rabridges]

Good evening Team

Here is what I have done to try and crack the code of the next season’s game hint.

Using the order of operations:

8+2+3+4/5+7=20.8

6+1+1+2+6/1+9+6+3=34

6+2+3+2+6/1+5+8+0+6=38

Then I divided each answer by 8:

20.8/8=2.6

34/8=4.25

38/8=4.75

Then I plotted the points in different arrangements Here:
http://hotmath.com/learning_activiti.../3dplotter.swf


x=2.6 y= 4.25 z=4.75
x=4.25 y=4.75 z=2.6
x=4.75 y=2.6 z=4.25

The attached image is what I got.