The Not So-Secret Secret End-Game

[AndrewPospeshil]

Judging by the broadcast this year, I can say with some certainty that there will be an added endgame this year. When will it be introduced? That remains to be seen. But the truth of the matter is that this is one of the "worst games" FIRST has come up with in years. Many people keep comparing it to Overdrive, and rightfully so. They're both devoid of endgame (OD only had a bonus at the end for leaving the ball on top), although OD's robots were at least fast and exciting, mimicking a race track. What does AA have... oh yeah, passing some balls with little to no action outside of the obvious bashing-and-crashing. Plus AA uses recycled game elements from '08 and goals from '13. I might believe there's no secret endgame were there a reason for there not to be. But let's face it. Every year FIRST gets better at what it does, and there's no reason for them to produce something this shallow. Sure it's a fun and interesting game but it really pales in comparison to Ultimate Ascent.

There were some balance issues mentioned relating to Ri3D and pro teams far outscoring rookie teams, which explains the heavy focus on alliance cooperation this year. But there's nothing new. Nothing to make you say "wow, I sure remembered that year!" unless you're talking about how disappointing it was.

We all saw the broadcast. So many hints. "He thought.... He GOT..." and Woodie's comments about

• how they're always making things new and exciting
• how they're trying to make things like the real world (engineers always have shortened deadlines, wrenches thrown into their plans, etc etc)
• how they would literally be changing things between competitions

There's a chance they could add some other element to the game, but at this point it's just not up to the high standards FIRST has set (and met) for itself. More things to consider:

• Trusses are way more expensive than necessary; a simple flat barrier would do the job just fine
• What do the human players do again? Pick balls off the podium, pop 'em back into the field?
• Speaking of pedestals, why are they so unnecessarily fancy? A simple yes/no doesn't need lights, just waiting for the ball to hit the floor behind the drivers would also suffice

I understand if and why you believe there's "more depth to this game than you care to fathom" or some educated-sounding stuff like that, but the evidence is right there. This game is missing something, and has a lot of extra fluff. Something's coming.

(pardon me if I sound incredibly rude, it's 1:30 and I'm exhausted lol. good luck to all of the teams out there, we're gonna need it!)