The Noodle Agreement

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Andrea C.

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!)

Welcome!

If the GDC asked us to eliminate all noodle agreements, I think we'd still get at least the normal bell curve of teams who agree, teams who rolled their eyes at TNA to begin with, and teams who will defy the GDC for personal gain.

Entering my 11th season overall and 9th season as a driver coach (maybe...) this is why I think so. I've been asked to ram other robots in an attempt to break them. Teams have asked me to throw matches since it would help their ranking and ours didn't matter at the time. A team once asked me to try to split up an eliminations alliance by throwing a match. In 2013 a couple of alliance partners hoarded discs so they could make less than 20% of their full field shots, even after agreeing that we'd split the discs evenly amongst the alliance. In 2014, an alliance partner tried to take our autonomous ball out of our robot so they could try their 2-ball autonomous since they didn't want to "take a chance" on our ~80% shot rate after very few matches.

Each year, we've performed in roughly 20-30 matches, and each year there were 1-2 where these examples of non-GP behavior occurred. Thus if the GDC relies on GP-based adherence to their desires about TNA, I think teams will still encounter it at competition.

[Andrea C.]

Originally Posted by JesseK

Entering my 11th season overall and 9th season as a driver coach (maybe...) this is why I think so. I've been asked to ram other robots in an attempt to break them. Teams have asked me to throw matches since it would help their ranking and ours didn't matter at the time. A team once asked me to try to split up an eliminations alliance by throwing a match. In 2013 a couple of alliance partners hoarded discs so they could make less than 20% of their full field shots, even after agreeing that we'd split the discs evenly amongst the alliance. In 2014, an alliance partner tried to take our autonomous ball out of our robot so they could try their 2-ball autonomous since they didn't want to "take a chance" on our ~80% shot rate after very few matches.

I'm speechless. I truly did not expect that. I'm sad to hear it, frankly. In that case, I hope that the GDC tweaks scoring in such a way as to remove any incentive to participate in pasta pacts.

[jvriezen]

Too bad the "The Noodle Agreement" wasn't called "The Litter Agreement" then it would be abbreviated "TLA" which is a TLA (Three Letter Acronym)

In any case, I predict, as many others, that it won't survive past this coming Thursday.

[Ceering]

Keep in mind there are 3 teams per alliance, so your team would have to convince not three but FIVE other teams to do it. If you can manage to do that, I'll be impressed.

[XenObliv]

It will be a challenge to persuade five teams to agree to simply GIVE the opposite alliance points. For so long the games have been win or lose, change is hard, as a result it will come about slowly.

[Ceering]

Originally Posted by MrJohnston

I really don't like the noodle agreement. If the rules are not changed with an update, my team will participate - those noodle points will really weigh heavily into scores in preliminary rounds. Good robots that do not participate in the agreement will be eliminated. Frankly, I really don't like this.

I would really like to see the rule changed: unprocessed litter on my side would cause my team a four point penalty.

I agree that would be much better, however, I think a 2 point penalty would be a bit more reasonable.

[jtrv]

fun game when both teams can just throw stuff on the ground and wait, then get +40 each...

[The_ShamWOW88]

Frank just posted a Team Update regarding this...

[Madison]

Originally Posted by The_ShamWOW88

Frank just posted a Team Update regarding this...

Link?

[dellagd]

Originally Posted by Madison

Link?

The team updates (web viewer) does have something listed under today's date on the table of contents. I cant see the info though.

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...ated-documents

[ScottOliveira]

Originally Posted by Madison

Link?

http://contentviewer.adobe.com/s/FIR...02.html#page_1

Only seems to be up on the web viewer, not the pdf.

[ScottOliveira]

Originally Posted by dellagd

The team updates (web viewer) does have something listed under today's date on the table of contents. I cant see the info though.

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...ated-documents

For the web viewer you have to use the down arrows to get to another page, simply scrolling won't work (a poor design in my opinion).

[The_ShamWOW88]

Originally Posted by Madison

Link?

This should work.

They haven't updated the rule yet but they're working on a rule change.

http://contentviewer.adobe.com/s/FIR...02.html#page_0

[Jon Stratis]

It looks like it hasn't posted to the website yet, but it came up in my iPhone app a few minutes ago.

It's a long note about colluding in noodles, how the GDC considered it but thought it would happen very much, how they wanted to keep the rules simple, how they see it as detrimental, and ending with a note that it is something they will be addressing in a future update.

Screenshot attached, not sure how readable it will be.

[nxtmonkeys]

Awww! I was looking forward to walking around at competitions and asking people if they had heard the "noodle news" and giving them a pamphlet on the noodle agreement.

It only lasted about two days.