FIRST Stronghold Game Explanation.

[MooreteP]

Here is a two page document that I made to explain this years game challenge to the uninitiated.
FIRST Stronghold Game Explanation

I hope we can use this to increase the enjoyment of our friends, families, and community members who may be attending our tremendous time vampire.

Please provide feedback on how it could be better. Keep in mind that the real estate is limited.

[alephzer0]

Looks pretty good.
So you copied the important parts and put them on one document?

[GeeTwo]

Two suggestions:

At the end of the first page, change:

and finally surround, scale and capture the tower.

to

and finally surround, capture, and optionally scale the tower.

Second (and probably what you had in mind), print on two sides of the same page and laminate them! This would be great at demos and to have on hand for visitors as well as tournaments.

[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by MooreteP

Here is a two page document that I made to explain this years game challenge to the uninitiated.
FIRST Stronghold Game Explanation

I hope we can use this to increase the enjoyment of our friends, families, and community members who may be attending our tremendous time vampire.

Please provide feedback on how it could be better. Keep in mind that the real estate is limited.

I would suggest making it substantially simpler -- no need for 'periodic table' for instance. The key elements of the game for the uninitiated:

The FIRST Stronghold game is played with three robots on the red alliance vs three robots on the blue alliance on a 54 foot long field. Alliance colors are indicated by the color of robot bumpers which is the where the team's number is displayed. The game theme is a medieval castle 'capture' game.

To capture the opponents castle robots must overcome several obstacles (much like an 'obstacle course') The various obstacles the robots must drive over, under or through are called 'defenses.' Before the match, alliances choose three of the five defenses that will protect their own castle and tower. A fourth defense never changes, and the fifth defense is chosen at the beginning of each round by the audience and is the same on both sides.

Each alliance is attempting to weaken the opponent's defenses by crossing them and also attacking the opponent's tower by shooting boulders into the castle. Colored lights on the defenses and on the tower go out as each is weakened. A defense must be crossed twice to be be defeated, and eight boulders must be scored into a castle tower to defeat it.

In first first 15 seconds, robots are pre-programmed (with no human control) to start the attack, and successes earn bonus points if done at this time.

In the middle and end of the game, students control the robots with joysticks or game pads from behind their castle walls at the ends of the field. The castle they are attacking is at the opposite end of the field, adding to the difficulty.

Near the end of the game, robots can drive on the ramps at the base of the castle (called 'battters') or climb the castle wall-- both gain more points.

When selecting defense obstacles before the match starts, teams will consider several factors such as difficulty their opposition has shown crossing specific obstacles in past matches, visibility considerations (tall obstacle's obstruct both teams' view of the field.) They might also try to predict what obstacles they will face, and choose the opponent's defenses accordingly to minimize sight line obstructions.

There are lots of other rules that dictate where robots can and cannot go, how they can move and shoot boulders, when they can run into opposing team's robots, and so on. For example, an alliance may only use one robot to stay back and defend their own castle, and attacking robots must carry boulders across defense obstacles one at a time before using them to score.

[michchinn]

This looks like a great document. It’s very informative.

Here are a few suggestions:
It might be a good idea to describe what it means for a robot to scale e.g a robot must grab a rung and pull itself above the low goal.

If you need more space on the paper for information, you might be able to remove the title from the Periodic Table of the Defenses.

Probably the second page can be written with lowercase words rather than the manual style capitalized words. The audience will be reading for information, not to lawyer the rules, and lowercased words are the norm in prose.

The penalty information seems unnecessary to me. Perhaps descriptions of breaches and captures would be more useful.

In the third paragraph on the first page, the word “during” should be capitalized.

I would remove the figure and table labels. They aren’t too relevant to the general audience.

[MooreteP]

Thank You everyone for your suggestions.
I have now posted Revision 1.

Let me know what would make Revision 2 even better.

[GeeTwo]

IMO, Rev1 is better than rev2.
Breach and capture are not defined, or even hinted as to what they are. Perhaps I'm looking at things differently approaching bedtime than I was in the afternoon, but the omissions this afternoon seemed necessary to get down to a two page document, but the omissions in the current version seem likely to give family and friends the wrong impression as to the rules.

What I definitely do like about both is the highly graphical nature. Keep the periodic table. Keep the field layout. The damage lights to the defenses and tower can perhaps be reduced (e,g, cropping out certain states or just focussing on one defense), but not eliminated. Try not to increase the word count more than a few percent, and then only if you're giving more information necessary for a casual observer.

[MooreteP]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

IMO, Rev1 is better than rev2.
Breach and capture are not defined, or even hinted as to what they are. Perhaps I'm looking at things differently approaching bedtime than I was in the afternoon, but the omissions this afternoon seemed necessary to get down to a two page document, but the omissions in the current version seem likely to give family and friends the wrong impression as to the rules.

I think you mean Rev 0, the original, vs. Rev 1. Both are still available.
I am working on Rev 2, addressing your comments about Breach and Capture.

Could you PM me with specifics about wrong impressions that I may have imbued Rev 1 with?

Please keep the comments coming. I have a couple of hours of "out-of-bag" time on this Game Explanation.

[Boltman]

First off thanks! Saves me time. Love the guide attempt. Its a great thing to produce.

Basically try to write it so a 5 year old can understand or 85 year old it and know the basics of game play. So that the reader with that guide in hand is understanding what they are seeing. It can be confusing think back to Day 1.
For the audience this the their Day 1.

Perhaps simplify for the reader the six areas of the game that matter over two days of viewing the game.

0. Defensive selections
1. Auto "big points"
2. Crossing and breaching attempts
3. Castle weakening
4. Endgame (last 20, scales, challenges, captures)
5. Elimination captains and selections

16 Main scoring plays: 8 on outer works, 8 on the castle per match.

Also explain "audience selection of defenses" and when it occurs "You get to cheer for your favorite"

Finally explain what teams are after (Auto points/Ranking points) to qualify for the Eliminations. Then a tournament of best eight alliances to see who goes to World Championships.

Remind the reader they can visit the pits!

Simply explain the basics for the reader..

Matches are 2:30 first :15 auto

RP are for ranking high (Win 2 , Breach 1 , Capture 1) "Ranking Points are the best"

RP help you "rank high" and get you to Eliminations and there pointss go way up for Capture and Breaches ! 8 alliances face off.

Defense takes two crosses to destroy.Outer wall breach for RP is any 4 defenses destroyed by crossing twice.

Weakened Castle for is any 8 boulders scored on it. Their flag will fall.
Only weakened Castles can be captured with three bots surrounding it at end for a RP

Last 20 seconds robots can get taller than 54" to try to Scale for an extra 10 points.

Extra points available for High Goal shots and Scales!

............................

Pictures are good but you need to "explain" in on sentence or so what the importance is of them, or the reader won't care. Less is more!

Make the reader comfortable understanding the very essence of Stronghold...think like a novice reader and create a document for them.

The basics that make the viewing of the game more fum for the reader.... NO complexity, spell things out and WIFFM
Whats in it for me if I read it.

Something they can pass around and another reader "gets it" in under 1 minute , getting it makes it a better experience for them. Remember this is not for those that know its for those that do not know.

[jvriezen]

Looks better. Since the score screen will be right in the face of the uninitiated, it might be better to spend some real estate explaining the score screen with a graphics for in match and final score screens-- the tower strength numbers and defenses crossed portions particularly. I.e. they are looking for tower = 0 and 4 white bars as a good thing! (Game score needs little explanation)

I think understanding the scoring screen is far more interesting and valuable to your audience than knowing there are 4 categories of two defenses each and knowing the specific names of the defenses or specific point values for different actions. Noting that auto scoring and end game scoring pays off better than mid match scoring is useful though.

Note that the teams in Quals want to win matches, but what is really important is ranking points and the win and the green check marks on the final score screen denote that.