Eliminating "Start Build Day"

[Lil' Lavery]

This is 100% not "trolling." While this thread was obviously meant as a parallel to Stop Build Day discussions, it is meant to be legitimately discussed. That's not to say I 100% support removing Kickoff, but I think discussing it is at least as worthwhile as discussions focused on removed Stop Build Day. More to the point, I hope that discussions regarding this topic can end up highlighting someone of the implicit assumptions being made in all of these discussions.

As for design re-use, it's allowed only for designs that have been released publically. Same as with robot code. Qualifying what counts as a design and the enforcement of using previous designs is entirely unenforceable. Highlighting that issue was partially aimed at showing that kickoff is already a bit of a soft start date, similar (but not to the same extent) to bag day being a soft stop.

However, there is currently a hard and fast rule regarding fabrication and construction prior to kickoff. In some cases, to the point of lunacy. If you follow the rules to the letter, you're not allowed to use a COTS component that you've previously assembled. You're technically not allowed to re-use the Talon SRs that you crimped connectors onto the year prior or a wheel you already riveted a tread to. Rules like that can cause budget teams to have to spend additional money on and devote resources to items like gearboxes, speed controllers, camera gimbles, wheels, etc.

Originally Posted by NShep98

I can't really say kickoff is "artificial" in the way Stop Build might be for some teams, especially since the rule right now is you can't use anything made/developed before kickoff unless it is publicly available. Mess with that rule too much, and I fear we will get the same complaints as we do with Stop Build, that high resource teams will be getting that much more time than other teams.

How many high end teams do you see using a drivebase design that's not optimized to the game? I think it's obvious there's a contingent of teams that use kit drivetrains with little (or no) adjustments for the current challenge, and that many of those teams could benefit from having more time to build and test their chassis, drivetrain, and electronics without taking time away from their manipulator efforts.

Originally Posted by NShep98

Additionally, one could argue that the reason FTC and VRC have such significantly longer seasons is because they are meant to be less intense than FRC. Part of the appeal of a "six week build", even considering the time available after Stop Build, is the idea of having such a limited amount of time for the challenges FRC offers.

This is one of the cruxes of the debate. Is the "high intensity" an integral portion of the FRC experience? Could removing the "high intensity" build allow for better integration of FRC into students and mentors lives? Could FRC be integrated right into school curriculum if it wasn't a 6-13 week sprint? Would removing the "high intensity" decrease the value to participants? How much more time has to be added to the build season to make it lower intensity? Is adjusting stop build day enough? Would it have to be a year round activity?