How can you help GDC make this game better?

[Ken Patton]

1. Need to free up the Refs to allow them to watch the action - not manage the sidelines and the input devices. It was sadly comical to watch how overloaded the hard-working refs were at Southfield, with keeping the iPad stands from tipping over, handing balls to human players, getting out of the way of reset workers, occasionally ducking from errant shots, watching the action, communicating to each other, and entering input into their iPads. It made for inconsistent calls because many infractions were unobserved, while other infractions were observed and called. Solution: scorekeepers with iPads set back from the field.

2. Improve consistency of calls by better training for the Refs in three specific types of infractions: opposing teams controlling another alliance's ball (please just be consistent), inconsequential robot protrusion outside the field (either call it all the time for all robots, or let teams get away with it when it has no impact on a catch or an inbound), and intrusion into other robots (Southfield was horribly inconsistent on this). Solution: better training for refs who are enabled by 1. to watch the action.

3. Improve consistency of the lighting up of the pedestals. The "reaction time" of the field seemed to range from instantaneous (no visible delay at all) to long (~~5 seconds), with the occasional situation where hundreds of people in the stands are shouting "ball!" and the refs hardly seem to notice. (We had an FTA tell us to take the ball off an unlit pedestal after waiting ~15 seconds one time). Solution: be consistent in how you light up the pedestal, every time, and move the pedestals to somewhere more visible to all (I heard someone suggest this yesterday - a great idea).

Consistency is the most important thing in my opinion.

Ken