Back to balls.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by dlavery

Hmmm. Funny you should mention that. Somebody once told me that Tammy Trimble used to be a majorette...

-dave

September 19, 2005: It's begun.

Hmm...I was wondering what FIRST was going to do with all that PVC pipe from this year's tetras.

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by dlavery

Hmmm. Funny you should mention that. Somebody once told me that Tammy Trimble used to be a majorette...

-dave

Yes, but we all know that Tammy has traded in her 1st baton for 324 of them.

AB

[AmyPrib]

Well, whatever object they choose, I do hope it goes back to a multi-tasking game. 2003 seemed very one-dimensional (at least it ended up that way), 2004 was awesome, 2005 was pretty 1-D again. I like seeing huge variety in robots, being able to see robots that really compliment your own. And have multi-D game really allows for that. I found 2004 to be extremely exciting to watch, and very diverse robots and strategies, compared to '03 and '05. And '03 was too easy to watch and figure out the score, while '05 was the opposite. I found '04 to be a great middle.

I have been watching video from '92 through '05, and they have used balls a LOT. Split opinion - depending on the game tasks, balls would be a great comeback, but it's very interesting to see new objects, and new robot designs that haven't been done before.

[mechanicalbrain]

I would like to either see a combination of shapes or possibly no shapes at all. Like maybe a obstacle coarse!

[vadyr]

well i think we can all agree that is going to be some sort of simple shape (triangle, rectangle, circle, etc) because its not like they would have us do something crazy like dig tunnels in a sand pit! and it definitley wont be water...every year someone on delphi starts the thread about how they are going to involve water....i dont think that FIRST is that crazy.... water + robots + electricity = not for FIRST.

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by vadyr

every year someone on delphi starts the thread about how they are going to involve water....i dont think that FIRST is that crazy.... water + robots + electricity = not for FIRST.

Well...what if there was no electricity?

Wetzel

[Bcahn836]

It is hard to tell what FIRST will come up with next. No one expected tetras for this year and i bet no one except dave and a few others will know what the game objects are until january, although it is fun trying to guess.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

Well...what if there was no electricity?

Wetzel

SsssshhhhH!!!! Jeff, I told you that was a secret! You aren't supposed to let anyone know about that. If you are not careful, you will slip and tell them all about the "no fasteners allowed on the robot" rule!

-dave

[jdiwnab]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

Well...what if there was no electricity?

Wetzel

Gerbils! Great renewable energy resource!

[Squirrelrock]

Originally Posted by dlavery

SsssshhhhH!!!! Jeff, I told you that was a secret! You aren't supposed to let anyone know about that. If you are not careful, you will slip and tell them all about the "no fasteners allowed on the robot" rule!

-dave

PLEASE TELL ME YOU'RE JOKING!


I don't care if you're lying, just say it!

[John Gutmann]

through all the years they have used balls it has been very interesting to watch and play because, if you drop a ball you have to chase it and everything is everywhere, which makes for better stratagies. Balls are easier to manuever and to design for.

in '05 if you dropped a tetra you could literally sit there in the same spot the whole match trying to pick it up, while with balls even if you mess up it is more interesting

in '03 with the bins they were much bigger and harder to maneuver around due to their size. I think '03 was more interesting then '05 in some aspects, but in '05 at the end of some matchs(like at FLR with the leaning tower of tetras) everybody is on their toes. Compared to '03 where youjust had to put bins around.

By far '04 was one of the best years I have ever seen matches from because there are so many elements, you have to push the balls to get the to your human player, and you have so many ways to score and get bonuses that alot of teams went so many different ways. Some teams could hang some could caps goals, but '04 was also very suspenseful at the end of a match when you had 4 frobots up on the bar and all 4 were straining to stay up.

If FIRST wants to make it exciting they need to add some vertical and horizonal elements to it. For example in '04 vertically you had throwing balls, capping and hanging, and horizantally you have moving balls, blocking balls entry points(to the human player), moviung goals, blocking from hanging, and the dreaded step up to the bar. it just had so many elements to desgin for.

At the reveal of the '05 game i was a little disappointed that it wasnt as good as '04 but hopefully they will do it this year

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by dlavery

SsssshhhhH!!!! Jeff, I told you that was a secret! You aren't supposed to let anyone know about that. If you are not careful, you will slip and tell them all about the "no fasteners allowed on the robot" rule!

-dave

Welding isn't a fastener though

[vadyr]

Originally Posted by Wetzel
Well...what if there was no electricity?

interesting comment...i mean, its impossible...but i guess nobody really thinks of that. and i liked what sparksandtabs was saying about the comparison of the games. i really liked this years game though...but only when you had efficient robots out there...when u had 3 of the same design, and that design wasnt too great, it was sort of boring because they just tried to pick up a tetra the whole time or something...but like when 56 and my team and quite a number of other teams (sorry, im tired and i cant think of specific teams) were out there and were able to stack 9 tetras a match, it was soo fast paced and auxilarating......but besides that little flaw in the game, i thought it was good.

the comment about saying having balls in the game makes it more interesting is so true. with spheres in the game, anything could happen! they go everywhere! i remember going to RampRiot in the fall and because it was a little more lax than a regional competition, it was really a riot! it was just chaos sometimes on the field...but thats FIRST for ya!

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by vadyr

interesting comment...i mean, its impossible...

Very few things are impossible. A great many things are impractical, but not impossible.

You can have the robots operate under fully mechanical power.

Wetzel

[vadyr]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

Very few things are impossible. A great many things are impractical, but not impossible.

True. In the workd of FIRST, nothing is impossible. I didn't really mean impossible, just impractical, like you said. But it would be really interesting to see a game without electricity....but I don't want to do it, just watch. lol