FVC Game???

[Rich Kressly]

Originally Posted by Billfred

This makes me think two things:
1) The field will be more FLL in nature than FRC (in that there are multiple sub-tasks, as opposed to the relatively few tasks FRC robots have)
2) There will be some sort of individual bonus on the field, such as the 1.1 multiplier from 2001.

Povocative thoughts, but...
some of this has no counterpart in FIRST history

[Schmoebot]

[quote=Rich Kressly]OK Kids, now that everyone knows there's going to be regional events, what's the game going to be like?

HINT 1: It's not a replay of the previous FRC game
HINT 2: Inflatable Clowns come in small sizes too

Inflatable clowns are shaped like Russian stacking dolls. The game is not like the previous FRC game in that the robot does not stack tetras on top of the goal, but rather picks up nested objects and moves them to a scoring area. OK, I don't have a crystal ball. When will the real game be announced?

[Steve Howland]

Originally Posted by Rich Kressly

It's not a replay of the previous FRC game
Inflatable Clowns come in small sizes too
Too much to do for every match to be the same.
When is an alliance not an alliance?
some of this has no counterpart in FIRST history

An alliance is not an alliance when:
a. Only one member of the alliance gets points for completing an objective
b. All robots must compete for one specific object/area, especially toward the end of a match
c. The alliances change (or are created/disbanded) partway through the match (or only revealed afterwords)

Too much to do/variation of matches when:
a. There are plenty of possible objectives in each and every match, and the creators believe that no robot will possibly be able to do it all
b. Many different objectives will be prepared but during each match only some of them will be available (certain areas of field closed off or only some objects placed on field)
c. Some object are put into game only at certain intervals (some very close to the end, perhaps) and robots will have no chance of getting all of the tasks complete by then

Inflatable Clowns come in small sizes too:
a. Those mini nemo-fishes are some kind of scoring object
b. Rich is just trying to confuse us

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by petek

Going from Rich's and Dave's posts, I figure the game just has to have these!

I would be funny, but... FIRST usually picks playing field components that can be bought with relative ease. I'd think that the Vex challenge would be either 2 vs. 2 or 1 vs. 1 vs. 1. I don't think that there would be any more than four teams at once on the field, because there is only 10 radio crystals available for use with Vex.

Also, I don't think that the 2006 FVC game would be like FLL. There is only one team on a FLL field at a time (although there are two field back-to-back), so everything (almost, okay except for the thing which straddles the two fields every year) in FLL is designed to be done by one team.

You can do some pretty amazing things with Vex, so I would not be surprised if there was a simple and a complex task to do in the new FVC game. A simple task may be pushing cubes or tennis balls or PVC pipe thingamajigs into a scoring zone. A complex task might be taking these and applying a scoring multiplier - like capping them or loading them into a rasied scoring zone or scoring a set of playing field pieces in a specific order. (Like smaller pieces atop larger pieces, similar to the Tower of Hanoi)

Also, since the programming module came out, this year's FVC game will probably take aim to utilize some of the new sensors. There will most likely be autonomous. I'd keep my eyes open for line following and ultrasonic-based tasks in autonomous. There will most likely be a bonus score/match score multiplier for doing something special in autonomous. (Like triggering a device, scoring a playing field component, etc.)

Now the only thing left is to ascertain what the playing field component will be. These might be blocks/cubes, tennis balls (although I doubt they will do balls since they did last year), rings/hoops, pipes/tubes, beanbags, footballs, or muon-based polygonic flux capicators (whatever that is ). But then again, how well do we really know FIRST? We can only be certain that FIRST always throws a curve ball when it comes to game design. The only problem is guessing where it will go this time.

[Rich Kressly]

Only hours left until it's time to know!

At this point some of you have earned almighty guru points ...
Some of you pay attention to the actual capabilities of the Vex products...
Some of you have also come up with some ideas the FVC Game Design Committee bounced around, but did not use...

However, there have been no correct guesses at an actual scoring object that is a very commonly found item. I wonder if anyone can sniff this one out before release????? I'll also purchase and ship a Vex Omni-Wheel Kit to anyone who can guess how final team rankings are going to be calculated in the FVC game. In fact, just get close, and the Omni's are yours.

get you final thoughts in tonight ...

[Billfred]

Final guesses, eh?

It will be one of the following:

1) Soda cans, emptied (and cleaned) with the tab snapped off. (I mean, soda cans are common--I've got five sitting around my side of the room right now. ...although I probably shouldn't admit that.)
2) FIRST buttons
3) Something that can be constructed from the Vex kit itself.

As for the rankings, I'll bite...the accumulation of your opponent's points, win lose or draw, over all seeding/qualification/whatever they call it matches.

[Arefin Bari]

Alright here I go...

Ping pong balls, Triangular object, Rectangular object, Floppies.

The winner gets the double score of the team that loses.

or winner gets their score and the loser's score.

[Steve Howland]

Ranking Calculation (wild guess because a normal one would not include the omni-wheel offer):
1x individual objectives + 2x lowest team's score + 3x team objectives completed

Scoring object:
marbles, bottle caps, paper clips, light bulbs

[Schmoebot]

Originally Posted by Rich Kressly

Only hours left until it's time to know!

Some of you have also come up with some ideas the FVC Game Design Committee bounced around, but did not use...

However, there have been no correct guesses at an actual scoring object that is a very commonly found item. I wonder if anyone can sniff this one out before release????? [/size]

OK, I'll bite. If the committee bounced the idea around, but did not use it, the scoring items are not balls. The only common item I can think of that is sniffed out, and easily carried by a VEX robot, is a tissue box. Scoring is most exciting when the winning alliance's score is increased by the value of the losing alliance's score. Can't wait until tomorrow to find out what the game is!

[Ken Delaney 357]

Originally Posted by Rich Kressly

OK Kids, now that everyone knows there's going to be regional events, what's the game going to be like?

HINT 1: It's not a replay of the previous FRC game[/size]
HINT 2: Inflatable Clowns come in small sizes too [/size]


After the game is released we'll come back to the thread and award almighty guru points for the closest guesses.

Explain hint 2.

[Rich Kressly]

Originally Posted by Ken Delaney 357

Explain hint 2.

How can I if there's no explanation?
The should have been a hint not to take it seriously
People have been working to get those inflatable clowns in FRC for years so I thought I'd toss that in there.