Official FIRST Stronghold Teaser!

[CadetGizmo]

"Launching January 9th."

Flying game confirmed.

[IronicDeadBird]

Okay I think I read all the posts man you guys can take an object and run a mile with interpretations...

So here are my observations / thoughts the questions I asked in my head and thought them through. Again nothing is known so this is all guess work but hey lets add some hype.
Problem: Why does the blueprint look... wrong.
Answer: Just right off the bat it looks too long and too skinny to be a full playing field. Plus it isn't even symmetrical. If this were to be the field and it did actually have a different "footprint" making venues have to change because the venues aren't all standardized in what kind of building they are in, or like how big of a space that building has. They use what they can get that works.
Solution: Assume that the blueprint is a fraction of the field. http://https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-RZBaph-OvydjNsS3RTTnRsX00&usp=sharing that is a link to a folder with the blueprint mirrored and flipped where the blue print is 1/4th of the field and where it is 1/9th of the field. There is that weird like angled line on a page full of relatively straight lines so I put that weird angle line where I saw it in past games, like the tote chute. I know other configurations are possible and I just chose to mock it up these ways because it is 8am and I am not doing all of them.
Result: You know have a field with 4 zones. King of the hill and capture the flag don't have to be limited to two teams a popular variant I played at a summer camp is called four corner elimination where each corner has a ball and to win one corner must get all the balls. The equivalent here could be still 1 ball per corner just 4 balls on one side. Of course this doesn't solve the issue that in capture the flag and 4 corner you actually have to reset the field after every score and that would be a logistical nightmare.
The other thought I had is that the advantage of capture the flag with 2 points per team and 3 robots per team is that you can't just stall out a game by turtling up. If each side dedicates one robot to defending each corner that leaves one robot free to roam. That robot needs to then overcome the defending robot and the roaming robot on the other side in order to make progress. So take a robot off defense, now all of a sudden you have an open objective with no robot defending it and two robots out to make some plays. That is actually a fun dynamic to watch and see where objectives open up and you dart around and react to the opponents moves in real time.

Also I will be disappointed if FIRST blows the medieval theme without having some form of jousting...
There is actually another important field variation worth discussing but it is seriously too early in the morning for me. I'll compose my thoughts and add it onto here later.

[JacobD]

Originally Posted by Oblarg

Getting it to work reliably through competition certainly is.

Last year, we spent more time at competition debugging fritz-y webcams than anything else on the robot. Eventually we had to give up and continue without camera feedback.

Yeah, my team had the same problem. We were using too much bandwidth in a match and there was only one volunteer in the entire competition that knew how to fix the problem. Then, our next match the code wasn't loading on the robot so we didn't move...

[autobot]

Originally Posted by Hallry

Teaser Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVLdJdoKK2E

Website Link: http://www.usfirst.org/node/4174

I have no idea. But it looks exciting!!!

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by Comandercaorenn

What is on that Blue Print. It may describe how the field may be laied out on the [00:12]. give me some ideas.

Good catch and question!

(I'm sure some of what I am about to say has been mentioned already, so please forgive the redundancy.)
It does appear to have complete symmetry about the mid-field line. Very typical for a FRC two alliance field.

Depending on how you interpret the markings, there may be ramps at both ends as well as scoring platforms similar to this year's.
Although, the "ramps" may be human player loading stations with safe loading zones on the far side of the field from the ramp top.

Notice the flag on top of the tower at 00:05 but missing at 00:27.
Red and Blue flags=Red and Blue Alliances.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by CadetGizmo

"Launching January 9th."

Flying game confirmed.

Boats are launched too. Into water.

[BBray_T1296]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

Boats are launched too. Into water.

Video games are launched. Early access game denied.

Gabe Newell is now on the GDC.

[GeeTwo]

Launching? Who do we know on the committee? Oh, yeah, Dave Lavery, that guy who's day job is with...NASA.

Space game! ;->

[amannababanana]

Optimistic:
Multiple "flags", 3 alliances. Alliance A has the flags in their base, alliance B and C sort of work together to capture all of them. Alliance A scores based on how long they can defend the flags. Once all the flags have been taken, whichever alliance captured the most flags gets to defend. Possible obstacles that can be pushed. Really hoping for more emphasis on autonomous, but I don't know how it would work for that.

Pessimistic:
Alliances push around towers to prevent the other alliance from scoring in them, Lunacy-style.

[amannababanana]

The preview seems more like the preview for a web game than an FRC game. The robots obviously have to connect to USB ports on the field and play videogames autonomously.

[Navid Shafa]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

Launching? Who do we know on the committee? Oh, yeah, Dave Lavery, that guy who's day job is with...NASA.

Space game! ;->

Is he back on it? I thought he stepped away the same time as Woodie...

[TechWaffle]

I think it will be robotic tents. They do show a lot of tents in the trailer!

[CanadaQapla]

According to this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J5aHLeVa4A , the blueprint is of "a pair of shoes and some rope" so I wouldn't put so much faith in that blueprint.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Navid Shafa

Is he back on it? I thought he stepped away the same time as Woodie...

He even stepped away from doing the animations (side note: Bring Back Dozer!) as of last year.


That being said, Dave remains on the Executive Advisory Board, as does Woodie (and there are a large number of other people who you'd probably recognize on that board).

[Navid Shafa]

Originally Posted by EricH

He even stepped away from doing the animations