[Official 2007 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks

[GMKlenklen]

Maybe have a drive train-heavy event that would require movement around a partially raised Field (like ramps here and there), some of which the driver would not be able to see directly from their position (you would have to have a camera on your 'bot!) and also, have the robot manipulate something while in a "blackout zone" (the place where driver has no direct vision of his/her robot) Only thing is, monitors are expensive and web cam type video feed is poor resolution! (kit of parts can fix this???)

It could be cool if they took some places and instead of carpeting, made it have linoleum or something. Drive train heavy.

[Billfred]

It's been said that inspiration comes from many places, CD-Media being one of them:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/13975

Now imagine that, but with two robots conjoined through some means (say, gripping a shared piece of steel pipe) for a multiplier or other bonus.

[Bongle]

For the field, I think several shallow pyramids would be interesting hazards to drive around. Teams might have to design suspension or 'lifted' robots in order to quickly navigate around them and not bottom out on the pyramids. Boxes on wheels could just drive around them. They would be durable, not require anything electronic, be duplicateable by teams during the build season, and would be a nice change from ramps or elevated flat bits. The drivetrain that my team used this year for aim high could very well have successfully served them in 2003, 2005, AND 2006. Terrain mixup is a good thing.

One single large pyramid in the center instead of a ramp for the final 'robots end here for a bonus' piece would be interesting, or maybe 4 smaller robot-sized ones so that the teams have to play musical chairs when the match ends.

Actually, I'd be interested in any kind of 'rough' terrain. Something that requires real drivetrain innovation to go over it quickly and reliably.

Actually, having less space for the final piece than there are robots would be interesting regardless of what shape it is.

[Billfred]

It might have similar themes to Aim High in some regards, but I'd love to see a game that involved processing the game piece in some form.

The example that comes to mind would be to have stations where teams received (small) balls of five different colors. Four of these stations would only have one color come out, while the fifth would have a mixture of colors in addition to its color. (Why? Teams would have to sort the balls to get a proper supply of the fifth color.) Human Players would put buckets into position Triple Play style with some specification on it, say, three green balls, two blue, and one red. The robot would have to dispense exactly that many of those balls, then place the bucket in a scoring position.

Scoring would be based upon the difficulty of the spec (one-color buckets are easier than three-color), with some multiplier for the fifth color since it requires teams to sort the balls (using the CMUcam, presumably). For more fun, offer two scoring positions: one that is safe, and one that offers a bonus but can be disrupted by the opposition. You could get more points in the risky zone, but a well-equipped opponent could empty your bucket or taint it with extra balls.

[evanisthat!]

How about a combination of the best of the previous games, a big ramp in the middle of the field like stack attack. Big goals that robots shoot balls into, but only from on top of the ramp, and the goals can be stacked on like in 2004 with the 2X ball. You could cover the other alliance's goal so they couldn't score unless they freed the ball. This would cause a ton of action on the ramp, and a good amount of strategy and manipulator innovation.

OR

A big see-saw in the middle, that is also a ramp, and is perpendicular to the long side of the field. It would have 2 hanging goals, one on each end, and the object would be to fill the goals with game pieces to get the ramp to tilt in your favor. Other robots could try and balance it by getting on the other side of the ramp, and you could shoot or dumb the game pieces (probably heavy balls) from anywhere on the field into your goal. Tons of strategy, innovation, and "king of the hill" style fights. There would also be a limited number of game pieces to be scored, thus once the goals are full, the game dynamic changes entirely.
Who knows, lets do it all underwater too!

108

[Joel J]

What about a tesseract? I'm just saying it, because it sounds cool.. I can't actually think of how it would be used as a game piece.. maybe some sort of demented goal?



FIRST in "4D," sounds good.