Fouls that "Didn't Affect the Outcome of the Match"

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by M. Lillis

Just like football has rules that change coaches challenges under 2 minutes, maybe FRC needs rules about the value of penalties in the last 30 seconds. Make technicals 50 pts for the first few minutes. Then in the final 30 seconds decrease the value of a technical to something more manageable, like 30 pts. This makes penalties more manageable, based on the time left on the board.

Not that everyone agrees with the value of the penalty points (see: Spanking the Children), but the reason they exist to get rid of the situation where "taking a foul" is advantageous. If offering different foul point values at different times in the match, it could create a situation of intentionally taking a foul for net gain.

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Not that everyone agrees with the value of the penalty points (see: Spanking the Children), but the reason they exist to get rid of the situation where "taking a foul" is advantageous. If offering different foul point values at different times in the match, it could create a situation of intentionally taking a foul for net gain.

This is absolutely true. The problem with this year's game was that the penalty value required to avoid certain behaviors varied with the number of ASSISTS the opponent had. 50 points worth of fouls are needed when the opponent's ball has 3 assists on it, but no more than 20 are needed when there are no assists on it. A better way of assigning penalties this year would have been:
FOUL value = 10*(# of ASSISTS that the opposing alliance currently has)
TECHNICAL FOUL value = 20 + 10*(# of ASSISTS that the opposing alliance currently has)

Given, this would have made the game even more complex, but I think the grand majority of teams would have preferred this since it likely would have reduced the penalty points considerably. Also, some values would have to be worked out for autonomous and autonomous balls.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by inkling16

FOUL value = 10*(# of ASSISTS that the opposing alliance currently has)
TECHNICAL FOUL value = 20 + 10*(# of ASSISTS that the opposing alliance currently has)

Given, this would have made the game even more complex, but I think the grand majority of teams would have preferred this since it likely would have reduced the penalty points considerably. Also, some values would have to be worked out for autonomous and autonomous balls.

That would actually be a pretty cool idea, for something like this. (GDC, I know you're reading CD. If something like Assists is done in future, please consider this carefully.)

Now, here's the thing: The refs would have to enter the foul quickly. No waiting until the end of the match, and hopefully no scores in between calling and entering. That's kind of the tricky part. A button to enter the foul on the scoring screen would work--dunno why this wasn't incorporated in the first place other than maybe lack of room.

That said: I really like this one. FMS already tracked assists automatically, why not allow it to vary fouls based on assists? One tweak is that I'd have a "base" foul score--thus, if no possession established, or in automode, it still hurts. Let's say that the base foul score is 10 points. The other is that I'd call fouls based off of one alliance's assists, and technical fouls off of all assists on the floor at the time--that is, both alliances' assists. (Translation: Commit a technical at the wrong time and OUCH! to the OUCH!--I can see something like a 70-point foul being possible there.)