[FRC Blog] The 2017 FRC Season Teaser and More!

[ctt956]

Originally Posted by Richard Wallace

• So in Frank's picture, the 2001 Discovery crew is headed for Jupiter. That's in the movie; in the book they headed for Saturn. This is fiction, albeit excellent fiction.
  
• Real discoveries are still being made by exploration rovers on Mars.
  
• I wouldn't want to replay Lunacy -- the Moon is a harsh mistress!
  
• Venus is hot, caustic, and generally not a place to go unless you breathe carbon dioxide and drink sulfuric acid.
  
• Mercury? Well, deep underground you might commune with a Harmonium, ala Sirens of Titan. More fiction.
  
• Neptune and beyond, things get too distant and dark.

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All things considered, I think Mars is the best extraterrestrial setting for an FRC game theme. Maybe Phobos, home the Leather Godesses? (Yeah, I had that game back in the days of 5.25" floppies.)

Jupiter -- Maybe a bigger field? Saturn; maybe more ring-shaped tubes? Or ice?!

[WinterPoet]

A teammate of mine has suggested it will be a water game, but instead of water it's gonna be stomach acid.

All jokes (I mean very valid theories) aside, I'm definitely a fan of the strangely shaped objects theory. As far as theme, which most people agree will be reflected in the objects, I'm more a fan of the space theory than football. Mostly because . . .

A) sports will not exactly resonate with a lot of the FIRST community. I'm not saying there aren't sports fans in FIRST, especially since I'm a bit of a hockey nut, but the same simply can't be said for all of FRC. I know most of my friends in robotics don't care about sports at all.

and

B) There's been a lot happening in space lately. NASA's had a couple of exciting announcements lately, and while FIRST plans this in advance and certainly didn't randomly decide on a space theme because NASA was in the news, we've known about the Juno mission since 2011. If they were going to do something football, I feel like it would have made more sense to do it last year when SuperBowl 50 happened.

Of course, there''s a tiny part of me that is just screaming that it's not going to be space or sports, but like, a food-related game where competitors have to grocery shop and then cook a meal for Dean all via robot and in the normal time. Because, y'know, FIRST can't make it easy for us.

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

If they decide to do a space theme such as Mars, I think it would be pretty cool if instead of using regolith, they put omni wheels in the kit and require that only omni wheels may touch the ground to simulate reduced gravity. Would still fit the theme but also allow drivers to maintain control of the robots. I wasn't around during Lunacy but it sounds pretty awful from what I here.

[Hitchhiker 42]

The game will be held under the night sky. One of the challenges will involve a telescope.

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by WinterPoet

Of course, there''s a tiny part of me that is just screaming that it's not going to be space or sports, but like, a food-related game where competitors have to grocery shop and then cook a meal for Dean all via robot and in the normal time. Because, y'know, FIRST can't make it easy for us.

Dean's Grocery Games?

[Andrew Schreiber]

Jelly Babies?

[Roger]

From 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film also apparently predicted our preference for staring at mobile screens rather than talking to each other.

In defense of the movie and book, Frank came to the wrong conclusion about staring at mobile screens in the future. The scene shown has Commander Bowman and Pilot Poole are watching their first in-flight news conference (on BBC 12!) since leaving lunar orbit. They have been traveling for around three weeks at this point, and expect to arrive at Jupiter after a total of 259 days. They are on different work shifts, trained (and picked) to be comfortable being alone, in a long, hopefully boring job. (In the book, they admit they are just janitors.) They probably know everything about the other since training together and know instinctively what the other will do. What would they talk about? "How was work today?" And all the Earth drama is 78 million miles away.

In the movie as a whole, there's not much screen watching. Dr Poole is playing chess with HAL and Dr Bowman sketches. Dr Poole looks absolutely bored watching a transmission of his parents giving birthday greetings. Earlier in the movie, on his way to the Moon, Dr Floyd calls his daughter on Earth, and converses with his Russian friends (or rather, tries not!). Okay, the off-duty stewardess is watching Judo(?) on tv on the way down to the Moon, but does briefly converse with the on-duty stewardess. Even the man-apes are discussing the weather with each other

By the way, probably the better prediction book/radio and tv series/movie is the five-book trilogy The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

I predict about a month ago that the 2017 game will try to be the total opposite in nature from the Medieval 2016 theme, so I was pleased to see the "future" references in Frank's Blog. And going out on a limb to say a more open field. But as Disney is creating it, I can't go wrong saying it will be very good. I can't wait to get my muscles toned doing field reset.

[Hitchhiker 42]

As a serious prediction, many of the FIRST games generally follow a similar theme. Cases in point:

• 2015 - Trash theme (Trash tek, Recycle Rush, Waste wise)
• 2016 - Medieval theme (Res-Q, Stronghold)
• 2017 - Animals?

EDIT: FTC seems to be a better indicator than FLL, so we might just have to wait until September 10th for the FTC release. Maybe the teaser will be released the same day.

[Basel A]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

I predict that huge chunks of kickoff dialogue will be borrowed from Firefly and Serenity.

Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle

[TheBoulderite]

Originally Posted by Hitchhiker 42

As a serious prediction, many of the FIRST games generally follow a similar theme. Cases in point:

• 2015 - Trash theme (Trash tek, Recycle Rush, Waste wise)
• 2016 - Medieval theme (Res-Q, Stronghold)
• 2017 - Animals?

EDIT: FTC seems to be a better indicator than FLL, so we might just have to wait until September 10th for the FTC release. Maybe the teaser will be released the same day.

Res-Q didn't really have a medieval theme to it...

[Christopher149]

Originally Posted by Hitchhiker 42

As a serious prediction, many of the FIRST games generally follow a similar theme. Cases in point:

• 2015 - Trash theme (Trash tek, Recycle Rush, Waste wise)
• 2016 - Medieval theme (Res-Q, Stronghold)
• 2017 - Animals?

EDIT: FTC seems to be a better indicator than FLL, so we might just have to wait until September 10th for the FTC release. Maybe the teaser will be released the same day.

Originally Posted by TheBoulderite

Res-Q didn't really have a medieval theme to it...

Waste Wise was the FLL Jr. of Trash Trek.

The better example I think is Climbing Game - FIRST Res-Q, FIRST Stronghold, Animal Allies (there is a climbing wall), though this spans two different competitions years, so did Recycle Rush / Trash Trek.

[orangemoore]

Originally Posted by TheBoulderite

Res-Q didn't really have a medieval theme to it...

Yeah...

I'm not really sure how it relates to a Medieval theme.

Also there was this that showed up on the FTC website.

[ctt956]

Originally Posted by orangemoore

Yeah...

I'm not really sure how it relates to a Medieval theme.

Also there was this that showed up on the FTC website.

Maybe FTC games are more similar to the previous year's FRC game?

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by ctt956

Maybe FTC games are more similar to the previous year's FRC game?

Don't think so. From what I saw of Res-Q at Maker Faire this year it looked pretty different from Recycle Rush.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by frcguy

Don't think so. From what I saw of Res-Q at Maker Faire this year it looked pretty different from Recycle Rush.

Yea its nothing like it. Res-Q didn't really remind me of any past FRC game. Maybe future though?

Mountain Game 2017