2015 HINT DISCUSSION

[tindleroot]

Many game hints are actually just name reveals. 2011 revealed "Logomotion" and last year revealed "Assists", and I think 2013 did a similar thing.

[Michael Hill]

Originally Posted by tindleroot

Many game hints are actually just name reveals. 2011 revealed "Logomotion" and last year revealed "Assists", and I think 2013 did a similar thing.

"Recycled Robots"

[GKrotkov]

Originally Posted by tindleroot

Many game hints are actually just name reveals. 2011 revealed "Logomotion" and last year revealed "Assists", and I think 2013 did a similar thing.

Then the game name will have something to do with change? I wonder how the showing of previous years could fit in with that.

[dibblec]

Could the reference to "Change" be as simple as sorting game pieces based on size or color like sorting change? Still could leave open for shooting or picking up and placing. If the 1997 and 1999 video repeat was not a mistake, it was based on placing game pieces. Add into this the new linear actuators that iR3 has come out with along with the linear actuator that was in First Choice, could support a pick and sort type of game. I also find it interesting FTC's game is "Cascade Effect" which if you have a change sorter, they have a "cascade effect" when sorting. Has FIRST ever had similar games between FRC and FTC in the same year?

[Wyatt Jordan]

I do not believe the GDC will re-use the 2014 game because:
1. It would be SO boring, even with a major change, and if they are going to make a major change they might as well call it a new game
2. Huge advantage for veterans (again unless there was a major change but again that would just be called a new challenge
3. They already returned the trusses to whatever company they rented them from, someone said this earlier in the thread I forget where

If we follow the pattern of the past 3 years' challenges:
2012: shooting round balls, easy to pick up/manipulate/shoot
2013: shooting frisbees, harder to pick up/manipulate, still easy to shoot
2014: shooting massive ball with tons of drag, much more difficult
2015: shooting some object that is oddly shaped, hard to pick up and shoot, a football, maybe a football challenge, my team (3941) has been discussing this idea for about a month now

However there is something to be said for having 4 years of shooting in a row. This does mean people like me (in their senior year) will have had a shooting challenge every year in FRC, Do you think the GDC would think it was bad to have all shooting challenges and try to mix it up? Or keep what was working in the past regardless of the lack of variety?

Now looking at the hint. I believe the footage mix-up for the 1997 and 1999 challenges was not a mistake, definitely something there. Also I believe there might be a hint in the scores of the matches, however would FIRST have enough footage to search through to find specific numbers for the beginning games? Probably not, however they definitely have enough footage from the past few years to get the scores they want, so at some point the scores in the challenges may start to have more meaning. I'm suggesting that point is 1999 because that is where the mix-up is.

Of course we are assuming someone spent some time making this hint if the there is a message in the game scores. Maybe I'm over-analyzing but if you remember the 2013 game hint that definitely took several complex steps to solve, just a thought, let me know what you guys think

[Duffy509]

Originally Posted by Wyatt Jordan

Now looking at the hint. I believe the footage mix-up for the 1997 and 1999 challenges was not a mistake, definitely something there. Also I believe there might be a hint in the scores of the matches, however would FIRST have enough footage to search through to find specific numbers for the beginning games? Probably not, however they definitely have enough footage from the past few years to get the scores they want, so at some point the scores in the challenges may start to have more meaning. I'm suggesting that point is 1999 because that is where the mix up is.

I M almost certain that FIRST has all of the major matches from all the years recorded. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they had every match recorded.

[g_sawchuk]

The statement about the field size not changing is correct. If they reused the game, I would hate it unless they modified it well enough. Guess what though? They showed all the years of change. Change happens every year. What if the change is that there is no change? That would be a change. However, I feel that change could refer to the 6 division at Einstein. I think different alliance sizes would be cool, but making it work with the same size field seems unrealistic.

[matthewdenny]

Originally Posted by GrifBot

The statement about the field size not changing is correct. If they reused the game, I would hate it unless they modified it well enough. Guess what though? They showed all the years of change. Change happens every year. What if the change is that there is no change? That would be a change. However, I feel that change could refer to the 6 division at Einstein. I think different alliance sizes would be cool, but making it work with the same size field seems unrealistic.

To the vast majority of teams that never get to Einstein, this wouldn't really be much change. Heck, each year most teams don't even get to elims.

[AndrewPospeshil]

Just my opinion, but I feel the '97/'99 mixup was not on purpose nor does it have any significance. Frank responded "Whoops." which makes me think it was actually an accident - I don't think they would acknowledge the key hint in the video while it might not've been so obvious? Then again he could be helping out and pointing out that that was what we shoud've been looking for.