[FRC Blog] Week 1 Review

[Rynocorn]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Moo.


He is on the blog site hitting Refresh every 12 seconds or so...

Daannnnggg that's how he beat me, I was refreshing every 13 seconds I'm disappointed in myself

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

I was pro-"return at the point where it left the field" until I read that paragraph.

Frank, please make this a thing.

I thought about this... in a lot of ways I think it would be a great solution... it would also need to be done carefully so that a HP knows the right moment to enter the ball. I think this might be a nice time-saving measure though.

[Brandon_L]

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

I thought about this... in a lot of ways I think it would be a great solution... it would also need to be done carefully so that a HP knows the right moment to enter the ball. I think this might be a nice time-saving measure though.

Im sure something along the lines of "on ref approval, a ball located next to the human player may be entered into play when a ball exits the field" can be enacted.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

Im sure something along the lines of "on ref approval, a ball located next to the human player may be entered into play when a ball exits the field" can be enacted.

If they make this change I'll be okay with it but didn't other teams realize that the field reset crews would be slow at returning balls and how big of a time hit it was going to be to lose your ball out of bounds (also how much of a bounce it is to force the opposing alliance to lose their ball out of bounds). We have been talking about this since day 1.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV

If they make this change I'll be okay with it but didn't other teams realize that the field reset crews would be slow at returning balls and how big of a time hit it was going to be to lose your ball out of bounds (also how much of a bounce it is to force the opposing alliance to lose their ball out of bounds). We have been talking about this since day 1.

Weird bounces and odd angle shots lead to more balls out of bounds than you might think. It's hard to plan for, especially for balls bouncing off robots after a truss shot.

Free advice to everyone, put a human player in every zone!

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Weird bounces and odd angle shots lead to more balls out of bounds than you might think. It's hard to plan for, especially for balls bouncing off robots after a truss shot.

We did infact plan for this, that's why we never planned to truss to the open field, or if we do we know we risk wasting time. I'm not saying that we have won't have mistakes but carelessly throwing the ball to no one is not the smartest move in this game and as everyone has now learned comes with risks.

Anytime the ball is not controlled by a member of your alliance, robot or human, you risk losing a lot of time.

[Abhishek R]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Free advice to everyone, put a human player in every zone!

Seconded.

[TheMadCADer]

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV

From the videos (example) I watched it looked like Granite State District had the human players wearing vests. Does anyone know who initiated this practice?

Not sure, but I've been suggesting it for a little while now. Didn't realize it had already been put in place somewhere.

Still, those vests need to be distinctly Red or Blue to make it easy for the reset crew to figure out the nearest human player of the correct colour.

[jsasaki]

Refs

Refs have lots to do in this game, and in some cases are having trouble keeping up. We’re working to recruit more refs to get an extra set of eyes on the field. This additional ref will help watch for things the other refs may miss while they are entering information on their touchscreens or are otherwise occupied.

As with any High School sport, refs can’t call what they don’t see. Refs are being trained to give priority to watching for scores and assists over watching for fouls. There will always be more spectators watching each individual robot than we have refs on the field. Some fouls will be missed, but we are working to minimize this by reducing the need to call fouls in the first place – through the rules changes last night - and by adding those additional refs.

Refs are trying their best. Lets hope teams remember this when they are trying to fight their case and a ref just didn't see it happen.
Cant wait for week 2!

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV

From the videos (example) I watched it looked like Granite State District had the human players wearing vests. Does anyone know who initiated this practice?

That was a brilliant move by the GSD crew. They're actually the FTAA vests with colored tape covering the "FTAA" but also denoting the alliance the HP is on. This way it's easy to find the HP to give it to.

We're planning on rolling this out to all the NE events!

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by TheMadCADer

Not sure, but I've been suggesting it for a little while now. Didn't realize it had already been put in place somewhere.

Still, those vests need to be distinctly Red or Blue to make it easy for the reset crew to figure out the nearest human player of the correct colour.

Has anyone found a source for Red and Blue vests/pinnies or anything else that would be simple and cheap? Amazon has a ton of them in youth sizes but finding ones that fit adults at a reasonable price has been challenging. We might just make our own before our first event.

[plnyyanks]

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV

Has anyone found a source for Red and Blue vests/pinnies or anything else that would be simple and cheap? Amazon has a ton of them in youth sizes but finding ones that fit adults at a reasonable price has been challenging. We might just make our own before our first event.

Check out some sports (maybe specifically soccer) apparel brands/stores. Training pinnies are pretty common items, I'm sure you can find some cheaply somewhere.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by plnyyanks

Check out some sports (maybe specifically soccer) apparel brands/stores. Training pinnies are pretty common items, I'm sure you can find some cheaply somewhere.

We've looked, they had red/yellow but not red and blue. Maybe some other sporting goods stores but not the one around us.