2008 Game- Overdrive

[Chant_358]

What are your opinions on the 2008 version of FIRST?

[IrreAma]

This will prove to be an exceptional game that will host many new opportunities!

[Ericgehrken]

Speed and robustness are going to be crucial this year.
This is an amazing game.

[Éowyn]

Wow! This . . . is gonna be fun.

[Bongle]

Pros:
-Has easy-to-do things (drive in circle) as well as hard-to-do things (hurdling trackballs). This is a big improvement over 2007, which required fairly complex manipulators.
-Easy to explain at a high-level: "drive in a circle"
-The no obstruction rule will remove (or at least reduce) the intense (and IMO boring) defense seen last year
-Will be a good spectator game owing to its high speed nature
-After this year, most every team should have a solid drivetrain design, since this game is so drivetrain-heavy.
Cons:
-Could be a real box-on-wheels game: I missed the point values for various actions, but a trivial solution might be to simply lose the game piece and drive in a circle at top speed. This may prove to be a disincentive to game piece development.
-The game score will not be immediately obvious to someone watching in the stands. Where in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007 games you could determine the current score (or at least who was winning) at a glance, 2008 will require viewers to have watched the whole match to know who is winning.

I think I'll love it this year.

[Jaime65]

My first thought was “wow – seems pretty easy.” I havt not watched all of the game because my NASA broadcast kept freezing. However, so far it seems pretty interesting. I never thought FIRST would design a racing game. Now that I think about it there really isnt much that needs to be rest after the games. I usually voulnteer as a field rester at competitions. I guess I will find something else to do. I cant wait! Good luck everyone.

[Branden Ghena]

New drive train
SWEET

[Jon K.]

Originally Posted by Bongle

Pros:
-The game score will not be immediately obvious to someone watching in the stands

I am not so sure about that however because they were talking about the real time scoring so they may show up on the screen better than in past years considering the huge need for the real time to be flawless.

[Molten]

Could someone post a link to the manual?

[dantheflipman]

At first it looked easy to our entire team, but now as we get into the details it looks like its going to require far more strategy then we thought

anyone know how much the ball weighs?

[Éowyn]

Originally Posted by Molten

Could someone post a link to the manual?

http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc...nt.aspx?id=452

I made a stupid mistake and forgot to download it earlier. The site hasn't even loaded for me yet.

Originally Posted by dantheflipman

At first it looked easy to our entire team, but now as we get into the details it looks like its going to require far more strategy then we thought

anyone know how much the ball weighs?

I don't know. They looked like they were bouncing fairly easily, but they could still do some damage. Better build those bots well!

[fredliu168]

What prevents a team from throwing the opposition's ball out of the areana? Also, how do refs rule if your blocking the roadway.

[Molten]

Same here. How long until their server crashes? That would be a good poll.

[Jon K.]

Originally Posted by Molten

Same here. How long until their server crashes? That would be a good poll.

A couple of minutes probably... if not already... You would think they would get a boost on everything for today and tomorrow every year.

[vivek16]

I downloaded the manual yesterday...

NO CIMS!?!?!?!?!?! arrgh.... the world has gone mad.

-vivek

EDIT: no cims in the kop but apparently the robot parts says the kop has the chalupas...