The Noodle Agreement

[Andrea C.]

I am not a fan of the Noodle Agreement. I believe that it unnecessarily detracts from the mission of the game to the detriment of teams making the effort to meet its challenges through engineering. Hard-earned points scored by robots performing very complicated tasks should not be overshadowed by humans inflating scores by tossing noodles on the field. As the game manual stands right now, though, it is a legitimate scoring strategy that must be considered.

I appreciate all the thought given by other forum members to potential solutions to this dilemma, and think a couple of them are good ways to preserve the integrity of Recycle Rush. I had a different thought that I haven't seen come up yet, though, and I'd like your opinions on it:

Let's imagine for the sake of argument that the GDC didn't want to alter the point structure of the game or bother with color-coding noodles, but also didn't want Noodle Agreements to be a factor. What if FRC simply asked teams not to entertain any kind of Noodle Agreement? In your opinions, would the honor system prevail, or would there be backdoor dealings? Would suspicions of shady pacts damage reputations and relationships, or would teams trust in the honesty of their counterparts?

(My first post on Chief Delphi -- please be gentle!)