IRI Rule Changes

[IKE]

but if you eject the ball out of the field, you get a foul.

[Kevin Leonard]

Another thing- this isn't really a rules change, but more of a logistics change:

Can the referee stands be moved?
Currently, where they were at championships, they were completely in the way of human player actions at some points. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to be standing right where the referees were while I was competing at championships. We literally may have lost a match because I had to attempt to complete a play around a referee and really couldn't.
It's obviously not the referee's fault that the stand were located right there, but it was a problem that I hope would be fixed for IRI.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard

Can the referee stands be moved?
Currently, where they were at championships, they were completely in the way of human player actions at some points. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to be standing right where the referees were while I was competing at championships. We literally may have lost a match because I had to attempt to complete a play around a referee and really couldn't.
It's obviously not the referee's fault that the stand were located right there, but it was a problem that I hope would be fixed for IRI.

That was really annoying at championships. At all the Ontario events we would have the referee tablets right in front of the gate, and would move them into the HP zone during field reset to give access to the gates.

[Tartan47]

Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard

Can the referee stands be moved?
Currently, where they were at championships, they were completely in the way of human player actions at some points. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to be standing right where the referees were while I was competing at championships. We literally may have lost a match because I had to attempt to complete a play around a referee and really couldn't.
It's obviously not the referee's fault that the stand were located right there, but it was a problem that I hope would be fixed for IRI.

I would also like to suggest this change. I could be wrong but I believe at the 2 regionals we attended the referee stand and referees were right next to, but outside of, the hp box.

On Galileo the referee stations and referees on the seating side were centered on the end line of the hp box. More than a few times refs got hit with truss balls that then careened further out of the field. That seems like a bad situation for both the teams playing and the referee who got hit.

[Richie_Richter]

Increase catch points to 20 or 30. The way it is now, it's almost always not worth it to attempt a catch. Even if you have a robot that's very good at it. (Ex. our robot.) The point bonus is not worth the risk of having to chase the ball around the field and retake possession. It's much safer to just go to the human player and re inbound.

Also please give some slack to G28. So many of these were called in Archimedes.

[Max Boord]

Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard

Another thing- this isn't really a rules change, but more of a logistics change:

Can the referee stands be moved?
Currently, where they were at championships, they were completely in the way of human player actions at some points. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to be standing right where the referees were while I was competing at championships. We literally may have lost a match because I had to attempt to complete a play around a referee and really couldn't.
It's obviously not the referee's fault that the stand were located right there, but it was a problem that I hope would be fixed for IRI.

Good idea. I knew form watching the live streams that refs and cameramen had a tenancy to screw up human players and expected it to improve witch it did not. Also if I was bumped while lining up a shot to human player, I would occasionally bomb the ref or the tablet. (they are ball proof as far as I can tell) but moving them out of harms way might be a good idea.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Tartan47

I would also like to suggest this change. I could be wrong but I believe at the 2 regionals we attended the referee stand and referees were right next to, but outside of, the hp box.

On Galileo the referee stations and referees on the seating side were centered on the end line of the hp box. More than a few times refs got hit with truss balls that then careened further out of the field. That seems like a bad situation for both the teams playing and the referee who got hit.

At the first regional I reffed, the ref stands were inside the rails of the HP barrier and couldn't be moved. The refs were either in the box or in the gate area.

At the second one, the stands were much more mobile (AKA outside the HP barrier), so we took to putting 'em--and ourselves--in the gate area during matches.

[Thad House]

At 2 districts I went to, the ref stands were on the back corner of the HP safety barrier, and pointing at the gate openings. At the 3rd district I went to, the ref stands were inside the barrier in the safety zone. In the quarter finals, a G21 red card was called because a robot touched it, and the in the finals they were really close to calling another one. The ref stations at minimum need to be outside of the safety barrier.

[Peter Matteson]

Allow teams to play multiple balls at once with the caveat that they can't get assisits while running multiple balls. This would actually allow for interesting strategy choices on how to play the game.

[karomata]

Originally Posted by Peter Matteson

Allow teams to play multiple balls at once with the caveat that they can't get assisits while running multiple balls. This would actually allow for interesting strategy choices on how to play the game.

That would be interesting to see which strategy is more effective.

[rees2001]

Originally Posted by Meredith Novak

This.

Yup.

[evanperryg]

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV

Allow a ball to be taken off a pedestal at any time but penalize an alliance for inbounding the ball early before the assist lights go off.

Really like this. It would take some of the stress off refs and field volunteers, and it would shorten the transition between cycles. The only issue I can think of would be if a human player inbounds a new ball, expecting a robot to score but it misses. I think the extra ball could basically be treated as an auto ball if this occurs.

[cgmv123]

Originally Posted by evanperryg

The only issue I can think of would be if a human player inbounds a new ball, expecting a robot to score but it misses. I think the extra ball could basically be treated as an auto ball if this occurs.

This would be a foul, because the assist lights won't turn off until a ball is actually scored.

[MechEng83]

I think having 6 balls in auto might "break" the game and give a disproportionate advantage to multi-ball auto teams; but maybe 4 balls? This introduces an interesting element of making a decision which robot gets an extra ball (if any) without making everyone think they HAVE to have a multi-ball auto.

Also, as a hypothetical, could you imagine 6 balls on each side that all miss? 12 balls on the field would be absolute mayhem.

[Shifter]

Originally Posted by Richie_Richter

Increase catch points to 20 or 30. The way it is now, it's almost always not worth it to attempt a catch.

Rather than increase the points for a stand-alone catch, perhaps add a bonus for the "perfect" cycle (three robot possessions + truss + catch + high goal, all with the same ball). Under the original scoring system such a cycle is worth 60 points. Applying a 40-point bonus for each perfect cycle would encourage the excitement of robot catches while providing trailing alliances the potential for a come-from-behind-last-second win.