2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast

[Tim Arnold]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

No game can be remotely investigated through the game hints, so I won't try. But I am disappointed that there isn't a riddle...

Good list, but the one thing that you seem to have missed is the filename (2007Clue1.jpg). I personally think that we shouldn't write off the possibility of there still being a riddle. My guess is that game "clue" != hint, and will likely have a small series of images to tease us, either until the game or just the riddle itself.

[capnrmorgan]

I think it is like five spots on a die. I believe there will be 5 circular platforms, 4 corners and one middle that you will have to end at (poss. bonus for middle) with one robot that is odd man out. Could be scoring positions 5 goals in a 5 dot die pattern. Or giant fuzzy dice for the game piece. (It would fit the triangle, circle, square theory. Just more to think about.)

[Jimmy Cao]

I think there'll be 5 robots, all competing over 1 objective, with no alliances.

My reasoning: There is a big 5 in the picture (duh), and that is written over a large metallic plate. That plate, in my mind, represents this "objective". I think this objective has something to do with climbing something.

Just my 2 cents.

It'll be fun, no matter what the game ends up being ^.^

[Eldarion]

I am personally going to reserve judgement until tomorrow.

The first thing this reminded me of was those old black and white countdowns to the start of a show. The countdown always started at "5"...

[Dan Zollman]

We already know that water isn't safe for robots, especially since incidents during gameplay are unpredictable and it's considerably more difficult to design a water-safe robot.

With all the past discussion of the water game idea, I think the clue was intentionally made to hint at water because they knew we'd try to interpret it that way. It was inevitable that the clue would falsely hint at a water game.

On a related thought, this is another possibility for the game:

There will be five diamond plate cylindrical boxes, set up in two antiparallel lines from smallest to largest for each alliance, with the lines in a lengthwise orientation on either side of the field. Five zones separate the cans in pairs. Four tori are placed on the edges of the middle zone. Robots must pick up the small cans and transfer the contents of the can from one can to another and through the tori in order to put the contents into a funnel on each end of the field.

The smallest cans are filled with...jello powder! The funnels attach to pipes that lead to tanks of water (hence the water clues) and the field automatically prepares the jello for the award winners.

[Mike Starke]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

A blue inner tube scored in a goal that has a diamond plate bottom with the point value of said goal painted right inside of it. (i.e. 2004 when point values were painted right on the balls).

Totally agreed.

But I also have another point. Today in our intro to robotics class, all we did was look at the picture. We all seemed to notice hula-hoops in the blue portion of the picture. It looks like there's a whole bunch just stacked on top of each other, in a non organized way.... just another thing to think about...

[ecg.logan]

obscure...yes

oddly fitting...yes!

a 5 on a diamond hill appears to be what we have in the pictorial clue

http://tampa.golfnation.org/hole716

maybe there's a clue out on that golf course!

[akshar]

so many great ideas!
1) if it was to be a king of the hill type game, with raised platform, there would be alot of pushing aka lots of penalties. also where would the offence come in on said event?
2) free for all would result in the same correct? i know in past games before alliances were introduced this is how it was, but that was with fewer bots and why would FIRST go back in time?
3) what if the imagefile name 2007clue1 has a 1 in it just to throw everyone off and have everyone look forward to the next clue (please robot gods...let there be more)

my input: 3 v 3 alliance game. 5 different goals, with different lights, so the cameras will have to be able to distinguish the colors (hint from 2006 nationals), one goal maybe goal 5, will be the toughest to win points in, and when this happens, a robot from the opposing alliance will be disabled at random for 5 seconds.

thats all

[DCA Fan]

The blue in the back reminds me of the beanies from a few years back, maybe they're on the return?

Also, the picture looks like a frame from the game animation, so my guess is that the 5 is depicting a game element. I was playing with the possibility that we would have to stack objects onto the diamond stud plates for points.

A pity we don't have a word clue to play with.

[aksimhal]

How deep should we look into the game clue?

five 'bots tangling with pasta
a game piece obsessed with a shovel's show
and seeing Montana's green heights

This was last years clue. The only part I saw that applied to the game is the "seeing Montana's green heights" part (meaning the ramp). The number 5 was used too, but with no connection to the game. The only reliable thing I'm getting is that we will be using diamond plate again

Any Comments?

[Donut]

I know there has been alot of speculation that this year will be an underwater game.

But just because it's hinting at water doesn't mean it UNDERwater. Perhaps this clue means there will only be a layer of water a few inches high covering the entire field, and raised diamond-plate disks will be above the water level? Perhaps an island hopping/race type game?

I'd also like to say I'm proud to see this thread reach over 260 replies in less than 12 hours, we're definitely going to beat last year's official clue thread.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by aksimhal

How deep should we look into the game clue?

This was last years clue. The only part I saw that applied to the game is the "seeing Montana's green heights" part (meaning the ramp). The number 5 was used too, but with no connection to the game. The only reliable thing I'm getting is that we will be using diamond plate again

Any Comments?

Wrong on both counts--"Montana's green heights" referred to the high goal, and the five referred to the number of robots on one side of the field during an offense period (three scoring, two defending, one on the other side as a backbot).

[woody]

Originally Posted by Billfred

Wrong on both counts--"Montana's green heights" referred to the high goal, and the five referred to the number of robots on one side of the field during an offense period (three scoring, two defending, one on the other side as a backbot).

And the pasta was the pool noodles in the bumpers.. More water nonsense!

Anyway, we've got to be less detailed in our speculation.. you'll just give the GDC to many ideas for future games!

[EricH]

I'm going to say that this is from the animation (as has been said already.) However, I'm also going to say this one thing....

TRIPLE REPLAY!!!

Let's see here: 5 can refer to anything, but the 2005 clue was on baseball. It looks like a goal from 2005 is in the bottom right corner. I'm going to guess something has changed a bit, though.

Other thoughts:
Post 5 in the Game Design thread has a game that is pretty good, possibly played on diamond plate.

The fifth game was suggested by Billfred (last year's "winner"), but is a little crazy.

Then again, the 4th game involved 5 moving goals.

Oh, no, I'm losing my mind already!

[Ian Curtis]

Last years hint was quite relevant. Let's take it line by line, shall we?

five 'bots tangling in pasta
There were five robots actively playing, who had the option of protecting themselves with pool "noodles".

a game piece obsessed with a shovel's show
This is a reference to David Spade's "Just Shoot Me", because that was exactly what we were doing to the balls

and seeing Montana's green heights
Reference to the CMUCam obviously, I also interpret it as referencing the high goals. Although I suppose it could be taken as the ramp.

As for this year, I find the 5 periods thing to rather interesting, although I'd rather we see the return of a two period game, autonomous and just plain old operator control.