Putting two and two together...

[Andy Grady]

I was rummaging through some posts, and I came to quite the realization this afternoon...I think I know one of the big catches of the game!

Lets study the evidence...

First, I made a post in the "Bringing Rules Back" thread in which I stemmed off of Ken Leung's idea of using the stop button during the match...

"Or here is a kicker...how about an autonomous button. Say for instance, in addition to the 15 second Auto period at the beginning of a round, you hit a button and you close out the final 15 seconds of the round in autonomous mode for X extra points...

...Whew...on second thought, I think it would give me more of a headache during the build period....too much work. Dave Lavery, please ignore this post if you have just read it."

After I created this post, none other than Mr. Lavery decided to have a little fun with us...

"Too late!!! (or should I say "just wait"? ) Heh heh heh..."

Then today, I noticed this in his signature...

Yes, there are two paths you can go by
But in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on.

Now, I thought about this a little, and then I realized...two roads, still time to change, stop button autonomous, just wait....it all makes sense now! My official guess...you have a choice! Here is how it works. Round begins, and with it, so does autonomous mode. For every, say...15 seconds in auto mode, you get 10 points. You can bail out of auto mode at any time by pressing a little green "go" button. If you manage to pull out the whole round in autonomous, thats alot of points. Or, of course, you can strategically decide to forgo autonomous, and run the round by control for less points. This all of the sudden adds a certain element of fairness to rookie teams, while giving autonomous geniouses an edge!

I've got you Dave! I cracked your little puzzle! er....or not...we'll see! Either way, for the amount of fun you have had on this board, messing with everyones head, you are definately my hero!

Good Luck,
Andy Grady

[Chris Hibner]

Yes, there are two paths you can go by,
but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on.

For those of you that live in a cave, this is taken from "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin. Could this be thrown in to imply that there will be stairs in the game?

[KenWittlief]

Twenty two!

[Madison]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

Twenty two!

Is that the number of threads started to discuss the same thing?

[Andy Grady]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

Is that the number of threads started to discuss the same thing?

I think that the autonomous button idea is a very valid idea that hasn't been discussed in depth yet. I feel that maybe, just maybe, Mr. Lavery wants us to think that because the song is "Stairway to Heaven" that there will be stairs in the field, instead of taking the near litteral meaning right from the lyrics. 2 Paths, but you can change the road you are on...

I guess im trying to spark conversation about the possibility that FIRST may be going for the concept of getting teams to run a full match autonomously.

[IMDWalrus]

All I know is that I'm confused as to what the lyrics mean, I can't wait until Saturday...

...and I've listened to "Stairway to Heaven" far too many times in the past day.

[KenWittlief]

two paths...

maybe you can let your bot run in auton mode for as long as YOU choose - and you get a higher score the longer you stay in auton mode

maybe even you can let it run for the whole match? or switch to manual overide from the bridge? (just in case)

[PMGRACER]

Studying the bill of materials today and reading the "Stairway to Heavan" hint, I wondered if there will be some sort of turntable in the middle of the field. We have done ramps, bridges, limbo bars, but never a turntable! What the heck are you going to do with 3 casters anyway? I also think there will be some sort of platform to get the bots' up onto. There are too many sheets of 4'x8' plywood not to have a platform. Also there are enough 2x12's to build some sort of riser. That is all I'm going to speculate on. I'll just be patiently waitng till Sat for the suprise.

[Matt_Kaplan1902]

I really like the idea that the longer oyu stay in auto mode the more points you get. I also think that their will be some sort of step-up, similar to the '99 puck, but a little higher and cannot be moved around.

Maybe there will be a goal that if you lift onto the platform you get a multiplier

Can't wait for that curtian to rise on saturday.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

I think that the autonomous button idea is a very valid idea that hasn't been discussed in depth yet.

I don't think the speculation here is any more or less valid than the speculation that's happening everywhere else. I don't understand why it needs a separate thread, however. That's all.

[Andy Grady]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

I don't think the speculation here is any more or less valid than the speculation that's happening everywhere else. I don't understand why it needs a separate thread, however. That's all.

Well M, what I was trying to accomplish here was to spark conversation about an idea that I felt got lost deep in a thread. The idea of giving teams a choice to either run a full round in autonomous mode, run a partial round, or not run one at all, has the potential of making the game very interesting. When I posted this thread, I was hoping to spark up some good positive conversation about the pro's and con's of having a game with this kind of autonomous structure. Of course when you post speculation about a game, it is always hit or miss because people either bite and want to talk about it, or they decide to ignore it, reguardless of the thread. I created a seperate thread because I feel that highlighting certain ideas and aspects of the games for conversation, is better for the community as a whole than continuously feeding off the negative crap that tends to find its way to the board on a continuous basis. Its what this board was founded on since its creation. I know for fact that most of the wonderful role models that grace this board, i.e. Andy Baker, Joe Johnson, Raul, etc...would love to see less negativity here, and more of what the Chief Delphi Forum is truely all about, good solid meaningful discussion of ideas and FIRST concepts. The less positive meaningful conversation we spark, the more of a chance that people like these will find the idea of posting on this board as a waste of time.

My appologies for the firefight here M, but I took offense to your post. I feel I always try my best to keep things interesting on this board. But it takes people like you to help make those subjects truely work. The best way to do that, I have always found, is to analyze, not criticize.

Good Luck,
Andy Grady

[Joe Matt]

From what I've read and heard, It's my guess that we will have a level playing field this year. No ramps, no stairs.

[MichalSkiba]

Hmm, 10 points per 15 seconds of autonomous? Assuming that there will be 2 minute matches, a team can earn 80 points by spinning in circles for 2 minutes. We never got 80 points (not QPs) last year! It would definatley be a really neat challange, but could get very boring if the auton is dead reckoning. As I had said before in another thread, programming a triangulation routine (as well as oriantation) would be quite something, and I honestly don't think it would fit in the RAM, let alone the A.I. Perhaps if you had it at the end of the heat, with the choice of doing 15/30 seconds of auton for a multiplier or, say 25+ points, then it would prove for a much more interesting game. Looking back on last year's game, teams could either enter auto for a muliplier or defend thier stack or try to climb the ramp (the later would make thier stack vulnerable and could allow the game score completely if that stack was knocked over.).

Thats my $0.02 PLN.

[T967]

Some mean terrain! That's all I gots to say. No more wimpy, low torqued, tiny wheels! Just Huge, Rubber burnin', Pnuematics! YEAH!! More Treads! Yeah! High Ground clearances! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monster
truck
rally!!!!!!!!!

I'm way to ready to go!