[Official 2006 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks

[care_hardy]

After hearing several of the names given to past FIRST games, including "Stack attack" and "Raising the Bar", a few things occurred to me... 1) the recurrence of stacking (or piling) of objects in most games and 2) the idea of putting bars to another use. Using those two basic thoughts, here's what I've come up with.


The goal: Create a ladder. For those of you who enjoy the names of the different games each year, this one's got lots of opportunities for a play on words.

The field: The central feature would be a ladder structure missing its rungs. In short, posts with rests attached to them will scatter the field on which tubes will be placed. Depending on the level of difficulty desired, these ladder skeletons could be placed in clusters or at different heights. Other obstacles like a ramp may be added to increase difficulty.

The object to be manipulated: Tubes (possibly made of the same material as the tetras were this year) with something on the ends to prevent them from slipping off of the rests. Length mary vary depending on how much driver skill will be emphasized (shorter ones = more difficult to place). I haven't thought out yet how these will be picked up or loaded on to the robots.

Challenges: Designing a robot that can accurately pick up and place the tubes at varying heights, and possibly having to control your robot while on a ramp or other obstacle.

Scoring: Points are awarded for the number of tubes placed, whether the team/alliance occupies a full ladder (much like the tic-tac-toe aspect of Triple Play) and what ladder skeleton it is placed on (read: more difficult to get to? More points)

Penalties: Penalties will be distributed for unnecessarily, and intentional, rough contact. Teams would not be allowed to remove another team's already-placed tube. If they do so, accidentally or intentionally, that amount of points will be deducted from their final score.

There are still a few kinks to work out, but that's what I've come up with thus far. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the Game Design Committee comes up with for the 2006 season! Hopefully we'll see a few new elements in the game that will result in very unique robot designs.

-Care