[Official 2005 Game Design] OK, so YOU design the 2005 game...

[Koko Ed]

OK here is my idea with a very hastily made attachment that hopefully will explain what I had in mind.

[SilenceNoMore]

I'd like to see another game like the 2003 game where FIRST moves away from the ball/goal concept, which has dominated most FIRST games. 2003 was a great departure from that formula, and pretty much put everybody on a level playing field in terms of design. In my opinion, the problem with using balls and goals over and over again is that it allows veteran teams to re-use old designs and puts many newer teams at a disadvantage.

If FIRST could use something other than balls, boxes, and goals to win points in 2005, I think it would be a challenge for almost every team.

[Hieb]

Just thinking of something I'd be interested in trying to work out -- With a purpose similar to that of the bar in this year's competition, have one or more (but not enough for all teams) raised platforms for the robot to be sitting on at the end of the competition. Something table-like that the team would not be able to simply roll up like a ramp or even climb like stairs. Maybe at a height of 4 feet, with a footprint not much larger than the 30 x 36. One disadvantage I see though is the amount of carnage if the competition is as physical as some of the matches I saw this year-- 130lb bot falling 4 feet would definitely require some durable construction.

[Ali Ahmed]

Ok here it goes. The field will the same size as this year for obvious reasons. It will be kind of like 2002's game where there are different zones, but the middle zone will have 3 bar like this year running the width of the field. About 6 feet of the middle will be higher then the sides maybe going a little higher like 10 ft. the other ones coulb be 8 ft. the middle will be 4 ft. wide. under the middle bar the platform will have a small passage about 40 inches wide. just enough for a robot. Ok thats just he middle. The rest of the field will be regular carpe and on each side of the field there are 2 goal type things but they will basically poles on a wheeled platfrom. One of the poles will be 8 ft. high and the other one will be 6 ft. So a total of 4 goals. the goals will be colored for each alliance. it will the regular 2 team alliance thing. your alliance's goal will be on the other side of the field. The goals will be circle with a diameter of 35 in. Ok in the four corners of the field there will be a stack of 8 semi-inflated inner tubes. these will be worth points in the goals. If you det it in the 8 ft. goal it will be worth 10 pts. and in the 6 ft. goal it will be 5 pts. For the bars in the middle you will obviously be hanging from them, but hanging will only count if at least one of your goals is one your side with at least 2 tubes in it. If one goal is on your side, that being the side closer to the player station, the hand counts for 50 pts. and if its 2 goals then its 100 pts. There will also be 4 tubes in the player station for the human players to put in the goals. Now for an overview. So there are 4 goals on the field, 2 are yours and 2 are the opponents. there are four stacks of 8 semi-inflated inner tubes in the four corners of the field. in the middle, running the width of the field there is a 4 ft. wide, 6 inch high platfrom with a 40 inch break in the middle. on that platform are 3 bars. The middle 6 ft. of the bar is 10 ft. tall and the rest is 8 ft. tall. the game will run for 2 min. with a 30 second auton in the begining. So there is my design that i cameup with while typing this.

[Jack Jones]

A very important item in Dave’s ground rules is that:

“The game should be audience friendly and presumably TV-friendly”

IMHO, it’s the thing that stands in the way of FIRST reaching it’s full potential of having a team in every high school. No way could any of the y2k+ games have been explained in 30 seconds to the general public; and, even to those of us who know what’s what, they just didn’t come across on TV.

The reason why is that, with so many objectives, there’s something going on all over the place – a kind of inexplicable mayhem that mono-vision can’t capture.

So, I suggest a single object for manipulation (E.G. a puck) and a single purpose (E.G. the goal). To control to the degree of difficulty and to add some eye-candy, there could be moguls, tunnels, ramps, and/or etc.