[Official 2008 Game Design] OK, so YOU design the 2008 game...

[Billfred]

Alright, might as well take a stab.

The Field

FIRST has only three years on the current field border, so we'll stick with the same basic shape. Out of purely selfish concerns, driven by the inability to really move around in the queue at the Palmetto Regional without encroaching on the playing field, we'll knock a few feet off the length of the field and make it 27'x50'.

Two wide strips of velcro are added to each player station wall, to which 36 balls are attached. Balls come in three sizes--one about the size of a tennis ball, one about the size of a Poof ball from Aim High, and one about the size of a kickball from FIRST Frenzy (though much lighter). The number of each type of ball (12) is predetermined, placement is not. Fifteen more balls are lined similarly across midfield. Robots start in a zone on each side of this line.

There is a Velcro-covered board over each alliance station wall, about four feet high. Above the board is the vision system light, and below it is a trough for balls that miss their mark. Balls that enter the trough roll into a bin in the player station, where they are joined by any balls not pre-loaded before the match for the human players to throw at any time during the teleoperated period.

Finally, there is a tape X placed on the carpet about four feet in front of each vision system target. More on that later.

The Robots

For the most part, the robots remain the same in basic construction as their siblings from the Kitbot era. Since the field's a little shorter, knock an inch or two off of the robot starting sizes. (If you want to stop teams from having their drivetrain in the CNC machine ready to start right after Kickoff, here's your chance.)

The Game

The object of the game is to get more balls onto your alliance's boards on the far side of the field than your opponents.

Each alliance receives five small balls, five medium-sized balls, and five large balls to pre-load. Robots can only move on the side of the field nearest their alliance station in autonomous--no going beyond the other alliance's starting zone, lest they be penalized. Robots can attempt to score on their opponent's boards in autonomous. Whoever has fewer balls on their board following autonomous gets a twenty-point bonus and the end-game advantage, but the balls on the board still count at the end of the match. (Strategy now becomes crucial, as you want to win this bonus without offsetting it too much with points for the other side.)

Following the autonomous period, robots continue to attempt to stick balls onto their own boards for the remaining two minutes. The manner of sticking is irrelevant--human players may try and throw one on, robots can build an arm to go around the trough and stick directly, or robots can dust off their shooter wheels and attempt to connect long-distance. At the same time, robots can attempt to steal off of their opponent's boards, either elegantly (plucking them off into a hopper to score directly) or through brute force (squeegeeing them off into the trough). Balls attached to the board are worth three points each regardless of size--the wide variation in sizes is simply part of the game challenge.

Finally, with ten seconds left in the match, five of the six vision system targets will shut off. The one remaining light will be over a board of the team that won the autonomous period--if there was no winner, then this becomes random. Robots now charge for the X in front of that particular light. The team with the end-game advantage, obviously, can see this light; the team without the advantage will either have to use the vision system or react to where they think their opponents are headed. The alliance whose robot is closest to the center of the X gets an additional twenty points.