2006 Official Game Hint Discussion

[EricH]

Remember the hint's first line: "five 'bots tangling with pasta"

Pasta could mean almost any shape (or even shape changing--try wetting pasta with water and see what happens). Lasagna noodles anyone? (flat with wrinkled edges)

By the way, why wasn't anything except "Montana" capitalized in the hint? Any ideas?

[Joe J.]

I like the idea of footballs as the game pieces:
They are:
A. small enough that they can be herded by the robots
B. large enough to make for easy field cleanup/reset
C. very durable
D. fairly cheap (name brand ones look to be about $15 off brand one could be less than $10
E. an odd shape FIRST hasn't used before

I'm seeing a game like this:
Two alliances red&blue each has 2 or so goals Theres X red footballs and X blue footballs in some kind of hopper loading system and the robots either have to heard them to the human player or the human player to the robots. As for the scoring, You get 5 points per football of your alliances color in your goal and 3 for each football of your opponents color in your goal. (5 x 3 = 15 *)
theres also several lets say 5 green footballs that up off the ground and during auto mode the robots had to find these green footballs and score them in the goals, they'd be worth maybe 15 points(*)

I know kind of sounds like 2004 but it would really depend on what the field looked like.

(*2006 game is FRC's 15th, the clue is structured into 3 lines and contains the number 5)

I remember reading something about Montana's grassy plains and the flag has a grassy plateau on it maybe the platform (if there is one) has a surface that is green, artificial grass maybe (a lot of football fields are surfaced in artificial grass, including the Georgia Dome)

[skimoose]

I'm leaning towards the mulligan (golf term for redo) part of the equation, rather than a golf ball itself.

Elgin does that mean these are the new referee uniforms?

Don't football players tangle over a fumble? Or how about a rugby scrum? Then there's also the shovel pass. Also, just because the scoring object is football shaped who says its US football? Here's my favorite version of football, Australian Rules Football. Is this tangling?

They have an interesting goal scoring system using four vertical posts for different scoring possibilities. Hmmm, maybe I'll work this into my game thoughts>

[EddieMcD]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

five bots
+ 2001 format
+5vs0
+1vs1vs1vs1vs1

(underlined for emphasis)

Uh, Elgin, you spelled that wrong. It's "five 'bots".

Eagle Master convinced me that the apostrophe is there for a reason (specificially, he said it could be the symbol representing prime).

[Doug G]

Originally Posted by Kit Gerhart

How about six foot lengths of 2 inch PVC pipe?

I too was thinking about 6 or 8 foot lengths of 1-2 inch PVC coming up from the floor or from a moveable goal and robots either navigating through them or placing scoring objects (footballs) within them. That's what I first thought of when I read " 'bots tangling with pasta". PVC is cheap and widely accessible by all teams.

"Five 'bots" won't mean five robots competing, probably just five robots that fit into a given area like atop of a ramp or platform where the "pasta" is.

Those are my thoughts....

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by EddieMcD

(underlined for emphasis)

Uh, Elgin, you spelled that wrong. It's "five 'bots".

Eagle Master convinced me that the apostrophe is there for a reason (specificially, he said it could be the symbol representing prime).

Prime has yet another meaning. In the game of backgammon:

What is a "prime"?

A prime is a sequence of six consecutive blocks. When a prime is in place, none of the opponent's checkers can move past as long as the prime remains intact. That's because a checker can't touch down on a blocked point and never moves more than six points in a single hop.

http://www.bkgm.com/rules/rul-faq.html

[Not2B]

5 'bots...

Could it be a 6 robot game but only 5 footballs?
or
Only 5 spots for robots at the end-game. They will have to tangle (fight) for those 5 spots, as someone is not going to get one.

It says 5 'bot tangling, but that doesn't mean the 6th bot isn't doing something else.

(But I still think it's 2v3, with some wild way of making the teams or a wild way of scoring the match)

[phrontist]

Prime is also the term that denotes the derivative of a function

So we have 5 fewer or greater bots

[EddieMcD]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

Prime has yet another meaning. In the game of backgammon:

What is a "prime"?

A prime is a sequence of six consecutive blocks. When a prime is in place, none of the opponent's checkers can move past as long as the prime remains intact. That's because a checker can't touch down on a blocked point and never moves more than six points in a single hop.

http://www.bkgm.com/rules/rul-faq.html

Wouldn't that also support the 3 vs. 3 (6 robots, two alliances) format though, just like the prime number definition?

[Henry_Mareck]

Yea, it would support a 6 robot game (in my opinion)
I think there is allmost no chance of 3v2. I think 1v1v1v1v1 is more likely.
if it was 3v2, then there would have to some sort of a balancer, and some people would disagree that "the balancer" made it truly balanced. Balanced alliances without equal teams on each alliance would be a matter of opinion on what you think is more important. for example - whats worth more- advantage of numbers or advantage of game pieces worth more points? There is no right answer.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Game Hint

five 'bots tangling with pasta

There's been some talk about how "prime" is a common way to denote a derivative. Well, if we go back to our introductory calculus course, we remember that the derivative of a constant function is precisely equal to zero. 5 is a constant.

Hence,

5' = 0

Therefore,

five' bots tangling with pasta
= zero bots tangling with pasta

... Just something to think about

[Arkorobotics]

Originally Posted by Karthik

There's been some talk about how "prime" is a common way to denote a derivative. Well, if we go back to our introductory calculus course, we remember that the derivative of a constant function is precisely equal to zero. 5 is a constant.

Hence,

5' = 0

Therefore,

five' bots tangling with pasta
= zero bots tangling with pasta

... Just something to think about

There you go! I was waiting for that idea to come up.

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by Karthik

There's been some talk about how "prime" is a common way to denote a derivative. Well, if we go back to our introductory calculus course, we remember that the derivative of a constant function is precisely equal to zero. 5 is a constant.

Hence,

5' = 0

Therefore,

five' bots tangling with pasta
= zero bots tangling with pasta

... Just something to think about

Or perhaps we can be a little creative using information other people have given:

5' = 5 + 1
5' = 0
5 + 1 = 0
5 = -1

negative one bots tangling with pasta

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by Adam Richards

negative one bots tangling with pasta

Silly Adam!

You can't have negative robots!



...Or can you...

[Nuttyman54]

whoa...that's almost zen-like...