what objects do you think would be fun to play

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by 1885.Blake

Let's try a little gedanken (thought experiment)....

Anyone who thinks sand would make a good thing to have within 100 yards of a FIRST competition, should imagine sprinkling just a little over their robot (on the Victors, transmissions/gears, bearings, conveyor belts, treads, etc.) (maybe get a little into the driver's controls too) and then imagine trying to use the robot.

Now, tell me if you have changed your mind. :-)

Nothing smaller than a ping-pong ball inside or outside of containers please.... This includes water, even if it distilled and consequently is non-conducting.

Even something as big as ping-pong balls is asking for lots of trouble if they escape containment while above a robot(s).

Blake
PS: If you remain unconvinced, get permission to destroy a robot, and then try the sand experiment. :-) :-)

I guess you havn't heard about 116's robot surviving the torrential downpour at IRI 2005....

[=Martin=Taylor=]

What if instead of manipulating the game pieces the human players WERE the game pieces!

Now that would be interesting... Not to mention extremely dangerous...

[amos229]

Originally Posted by Hachiban VIII

What if instead of manipulating the game pieces the human players WERE the game pieces!

Now that would be interesting... Not to mention extremely dangerous...

wow. thats an interesting mental picture. I think whatever first decides to use it shouldnt be a seasonal item such as the pool noodles. good idea but hard to get for us folks up north who are looking at several feet of snow in january.

[Nuttyman54]

What if the robots had to manuver such that the field elements moved and/or manipulated the robots?

[Éowyn]

Originally Posted by Nuttyman54

What if the robots had to manuver such that the field elements moved and/or manipulated the robots?

Yeah! "FIRST: Indiana Jones style!" Only the penitent shall pass...

[Qbranch]

no no no... if you really want to have fun... transporting the HUMAN PLAYER has to be part of the game...

-Q

[Koko Ed]

How about using Genia as a game object?
Kind of like caputue the flag.
First team to capture Genia and bring her back to their zone wins the match.

[AndyB]

We so need to go to bumble balls. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Those were sweet.



Now who can't say that wouldn't be awesome.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by AndyB

We so need to go to bumble balls. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Those were sweet.



Now who can't say that wouldn't be awesome.

I already had and they already did .
I still think they would be great.

[Peter Matteson]

The barrel comments remind me of the good old "barrel o' monkeys" I had when I was little. I think it would be interteresting to have a game obeject along that lines when you hang the object to score but longer chains were a multiplier.

I have thought that a water or sand score by weight type of game would be interesting, the concept never seemed practical though. Using the robots themselves as scoring objects would be interesting. Laps around the field, entering a certain area, triggering touch sensors to "own" areas of the field.

That said however I think this year is a football or a cylinder. I was thinking frisbee but they aren't easily manipulated for a fast paced game, which has seemed to be an important trend the last few years.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I still think they would be great.

I wonder if bumble balls might make repair/reset crews just a little crabby..they are a whole lot of fun.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Jane

I wonder if bumble balls might make repair/reset crews just a little crabby..they are a whole lot of fun.

How many did they use in Best per game?

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

How many did they use in Best per game?

Let me research it a little, Ed....
One thing I'm thinking about is the difference in size and power of the robots.
I'll be back.

Back but not very helpful - 24 per round for Bumble Rumble, high maintenance little fellas with their battery - dead battery stuff. So backup, replacements were probably costly and time consuming with people needed to replace the batteries. Also, to my knowledge, the body is hard plastic though the 'nubs' are not - if they crushed, cracked, it would be plastic shards. High maintenance game pieces. When they played Bumble Rumble in 1994, there were 23 teams total in BEST. When they played Warp X in 2002 which also had bumble balls as one of the game pieces, there were 475 teams, I believe.

[amos229]

only thing with bumble balls is that they suck up batteries. every two matches would need new batteries. now dead bumble balls would still be fun to play with.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by amos229

only thing with bumble balls is that they suck up batteries. every two matches would need new batteries. now dead bumble balls would still be fun to play with.

I'm sure somebody in FIRST could come up with an inexpensive, relaible power source.