Drive Systems... ...The FIRST Arms Race?

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by Billfred

2) Create game objectives that value finesse and agility over pure brute force. Rack 'N Roll, Triple Play, and (to an extent) FIRST Frenzy can arguably meet this criteria. Aim High, Stack Attack, and Zone Zeal couldn't to the same degree. Make it so we've got to move fast to score well, and we'll do it.

I disagree with you about Rank 'N Roll encouraging a maneuverable drive train. If you don't have the stickiness and the power to stay put when someone is trying to push you this year, you will have no chance of being able to score a tube. precision manipulation with an arm requires a stable base, and if a team is trying to nudge you, they probably will be able to.

I want to see games with more variety and strategic possibilities. I think adding the three different weight classes of robots this year was a really interesting idea. What if they took the idea even further and limited classes even more? We might see even more innovation and teams working to fill specialized niches, as in the 2004 game. The past three years there has been a single viable objective for teams. This year starts to change that a bit with the idea of a "carrier robot", but there really isn't enough differentiation.

Force teams to do something other than push hard and do one thing well.