[FTC]: 2014-2015 Game Guessing

[MattRain]

Any guesses on the game for this year?? What would you like to see?

(yes I get it, water game of course)

[FTC7584]

I'm going to guess the robot is going to have to put some sort of small object into a goal of some sort, because that's what they've done for the past few years.

I really haven't seen any hints so far, so I have no idea of any specific challenges.

Maybe there will be some sort of lifting challenge?

We'll know for sure in three weeks, when kickoff happens.

[safiq10]

Now I am a huge fan of Hotshot and it seems that they have increased the velocity shoot height from 4 ft to 5ft.

So if I had to guess its going to be HOT SHOT PART 2!

If the game is similar to hot shot my best advice would be look towards 2012 FRC.

[Nemo]

Four years in a row without shooting stuff - we are due!

[MattRain]

FTC posted a picture on there Facebook and a vine to twitter, showing around the workshop, and stopping at a sign. There are foam pads on the table. Maybe the whole field isn't covered in foam tiles, like the "face off" year.

[FTC7584]

That's a possibility.

Still seems like they cut down the amount of hints they're giving by a lot this year, or at least making the hints more difficult to find.

[orangemoore]

Originally Posted by FTC7584

That's a possibility.

Still seems like they cut down the amount of hints they're giving by a lot this year, or at least making the hints more difficult to find.

I think there will be more soon. OR at least I hope.

And don't get me started on how FTC is hinted more directly than FRC has been

[DanielH]

I've really been disappointed by the game hints this year, instead of actually giving real game hints, they've had regular blog posts which presumably have hints hidden inside of them. While this could be okay, I feel that the "hints" (if they exist at all) have been so small and meaningless that nothing can really be pulled from them.

Nevertheless, as an FTC fanatic I have reviewed them extensively and have posted beneath a number of phrases that seemed awkwardly worded, and could perhaps have a game hint aspect to them.

Move full steam ahead
Drums up
Hanging out
Running a set
Knockout
Packed
Rolled with the punches
Dive
Bug bite
Ramp up (Recurred twice)
Fueled
Journey
Hanging out (Recurred twice)



Also, I found this quote to be interesting:

"Good scientists, explorers, engineers, inventors, and even chefs - they all know that accidents often lead to amazing discoveries"

Why would they throw "chefs" into that list?



The two potential hints that I noticed hidden within the pictures were:

The floppy disc that Mr. Carr is wearing in the July 17th picture which could indicate a game element similar to a floppy disc (I mention this as it stuck out to me every time I looked at the picture even though the picture is supposed to be about Mr. Carr as the disc was centered directly in the middle of the picture and was a bright red.)

I also noted the second picture from the July 29th blog with the volunteer kneeling next to the field. The first thing I saw in that picture was that little green car, which definitely stuck out to me.


Among blog post titles I found the title "Building Team the Heat It Up and Keep It Cool Way" to stand out. The name of the team featured in the blog is "Heat It up and Keep it Cool" so I doubt that middle section means anything, however the word "building" at the beginning and (especially) "way" at the end don't seem to have any particular function in describing the article. This would indicate to me that they could be meant as hints


Finally, and by far the most compellingly, I found the change in the game manual to the vertical shooting limit of four feet instead of three to indicate that their may be a shooting challenge, or at least a challenge in which you may wish to shoot objects.


In conclusion, I'm not sure what to think of the potential hints I've noticed. I cannot detect any common threads or themes in the hints so I really have no clue what to guess the challenge is. However, if I had to guess, I would guess it is a game which involves launching the game element because we haven't had a "shooting" game in a while, because of the Neil Armstrong quote because he is associated with flying, and most importantly because of the change in the game manual.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

[wgardner]

August 28 post:
"Reflection - Your Key to Self Improvement" shows a picture of 3 team members of the "Basilisks" in a photo which otherwise seems to have little to do with the article.

If I remember correctly, the Basilisk was the animal in Harry Potter and other ancient lore that merely petrified you if you saw its Reflection, rather than killed you outright. And I think the way you kill a Basilisk is to make it see its own Reflection?

Coincidence? Red Herring? Other thoughts on Reflections and what that could mean? Do I win a dollar if this year's game field has mirrors all over it?

[MattRain]

Why is stand in caps? According to posts today, there are a few clues floating around between the blog, facebook, and twitter. Last year it seems like there was a lot more clues..

[MattRain]

The West Super Regional Contact just posted this. Thats alot of boxes for one field.

[blazing130]

Team 130 wants to know what is it with the stealth wheels at andy mark

[Nemo]

Originally Posted by blazing130

Team 130 wants to know what is it with the stealth wheels at andy mark

They're cheap, easy to use, and good? At least, that's why some of my FTC students thought after I bought some for them to test on last year's robot.

[BSV]

One of our FLL kids was reading the FLL rules today and noticed that two pictures of parts of the Cascade Effect field were actually leaked out early in the FLL manual on page 13:

http://www.firstlegoleague.org/sites...e-FINAL-v2.pdf

a couple of weeks before the FTC kickoff. Anyone else catch that?

[safiq10]

Originally Posted by BSV

One of our FLL kids was reading the FLL rules today and noticed that two pictures of parts of the Cascade Effect field were actually leaked out early in the FLL manual on page 13:

http://www.firstlegoleague.org/sites...e-FINAL-v2.pdf

a couple of weeks before the FTC kickoff. Anyone else catch that?

HAAHA ohh that's hilarious! I was right about to go see the FLL team I mentored last year to see how they were doing, but I decided to go home and take a nap. I later found out they read the manual that day.
I wish I skipped that nap.