2016 Football Game

[rick.oliver]

Originally Posted by galewind

being that superbowl 50 is next year, I wouldn't be surprised.

Come on now, don't tell me I'm the only one that predicted that this year's game would be football, named "FIRST Down"!

You are not.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...00#post1462000

I'll give you the name, though

[smart1]

Originally Posted by galewind

being that superbowl 50 is next year, I wouldn't be surprised.

Come on now, don't tell me I'm the only one that predicted that this year's game would be football, named "FIRST Down"!

I like Flea flicker but First Down is a better name.

[Kuhnahtt]

This year's game was fine, and still competitive, but I feel like FIRST games should be less complicated and more easy to understand for the average person. When FIRST adds all these specific rules and ways to perform an action, it really limits creativity of robot designs. (Not to say there wasn't some really cool ones!)

[ImMoMo]

Having a football oriented game would attract tons of press coverage!
Wouldn't it be cool if it worked like one of the robots was the QB, and other a WR, and the final robot trying to play defense?

[MaGiC_PiKaChU]

Originally Posted by ImMoMo

Having a football oriented game would attract tons of press coverage!
Wouldn't it be cool if it worked like one of the robots was the QB, and other a WR, and the final robot trying to play defense?

I expect more a shooting game involving football-shaped objects with an endgame... just like rebound rumble or ultimate ascent

[Jacob Bendicksen]

Originally Posted by ImMoMo

Having a football oriented game would attract tons of press coverage!
Wouldn't it be cool if it worked like one of the robots was the QB, and other a WR, and the final robot trying to play defense?

Originally Posted by MaGiC_PiKaChU

I expect more a shooting game involving football-shaped objects with an endgame... just like rebound rumble or ultimate ascent

I agree with Pikachu...as cool as it would be to have different roles, this would severely limit the number of possible alliances, especially if those roles were FIRST-defined. I'd expect much of the challenge of a football game to come from developing a mechanism that can effectively collect, orient, and shoot a football.

Ultimate Ascent had the only irregular flying game pieces that I can think of, and Frisbees are a lot easier that footballs to deal with.

[dmorewood]

Originally Posted by asid61

Remember that thread a while back about breaking the world record for how fast a hockey puck could be shot with a robot?
Safety glasses aren't going to stop a puck moving at 120mph.
Same with baseball and softball.

Sooooooo it's called a foam hockey puck. I use them all the time for off ice training and it would make the game far more difficult to design for because they don't react like a normal puck.

[kyle_hamblett]

Originally Posted by MikLast

not interconnected enough. needs more spook.


Seriously though, i dont think football would happen. too easy to figure out and i just dont see how that would work well.

Footballs are an entirely new shape, and while they might be easy to figure out, it could allow for them to put in another harder element. Example: 2013. Shooting Frisbees is pretty easy, but climbing 10ft into the air, not so much.

[ImMoMo]

Originally Posted by kyle_hamblett

Footballs are an entirely new shape, and while they might be easy to figure out, it could allow for them to put in another harder element. Example: 2013. Shooting Frisbees is pretty easy, but climbing 10ft into the air, not so much.

I agree, with footballs being the irregular shape that they are, it might pose a new challenge, although I'm sure FIRST will think of some other game elements to further complex the field and strategy!

[logank013]

Well hockey and baseball sound extremely dangerous unless the balls are made of rubber or foam and, soccer was done back in 2010 I think so, I think football sounds like the best contender of those options.

[jtrv]

I think it could be field hockey, rather than the typical puck-based hockey. With some durable foam-ish (whatever material, just not something that will be shredded in four seconds) balls, they could put goals at different heights for varying points, much like years past. Ground goal 1pt, mid goal 3pts, maybe a high goal (with a net over that area for safety or whatever) for more points.

I think hockey would really allow for more diversity in strategy and builds. Defensive bots can try to be a powerhouse, with a 6 CIM west coast drive and just push people out of the range of the goal. There could very well be goalies, if the goals are wide enough. Offensive bots could either try to be powerhouses and move defense out of the way (us in 2013...) or agile and try to move around the defense, with something like a lightweight mecanum drive.

Some rules would be you can't have the ball touching your robot more than X inches off the ground for N seconds or more, shooting from beyond half-court is extra points, human players can inbound C amount of balls at a time, robots can only possess or control Z number of balls or less at a time, etc.

I think the strategy involved in beating an alliance would be a VAST improvement over 2015.

[RobLikesRobots]

Originally Posted by galewind

being that superbowl 50 is next year, I wouldn't be surprised.

Come on now, don't tell me I'm the only one that predicted that this year's game would be football, named "FIRST Down"!

I approve of your name choice!

[Canon reeves]

I could see a football game that didn't allow the kind of manipulation we would expect. As previously mentioned, football launchers already exist, and could be easily mimicked. However kicking a football into a goal or goal post would be harder to mimic, and be kinda interesting, especially if teams had to be so close to shoot, and the end game was climbing the goal post.

I get a feeling that they will shoot for a spectator sport game filled with contact, but I have no doubt there will be plenty of game pieces to manipulate. Maybe a really interesting terrain with shooting footballs into small goals, and the equivalent of a high goal being a very small opening.

[fargus111111111]

I think it would be cool to have a football game where throwing and catching gained extra points but interception was not allowed, like 2014, and the farther the two robots were from each other, the greater the bonus, how this would be measured I am not sure but maybe have several lines in the field, aka yard lines. There would be a rule that would prohibit using wheels to shoot the football, making the shooter design far more interesting. The footballs, with this rule, would be full size foam because my team and I'm sure others have shot many of those little footballs, with relative accuracy, out of our t-shirt shooter. Some of the balls would start on the field while others would start in the human player station. A hole would be provided for the balls to be entered through and human players could only attempt to score during autonomous. The final "goal" for the balls would be like a field goal, between two uprights. The field goal would also provide the end game. Robots could not touch the single pole that supported the two sides. Simply hanging from the cross member would score, say ten points, while managing to climb the sides would score more depending on the final distance from the floor to the robot. And to make this a little harder, robots could only touch two "zones" at a time, meaning that they could not reach from the floor to the side pole, they must hang from the cross member first. Despite some comments on this thread, I think that american football could be adjusted to a robot game. I would love to see the return of the endgame and robot to robot interference and cooperation. While this is a cool idea we must keep in mind that next year is an important year for FIRST. It is the end of the single champs era and it is their 25th year. They are sure to do a FIRST themed game similar to what they did back in 2011.

[MoistRobot]

No football! Skee ball! With bowling balls! Fun!