why I don't like this year's game

[Waynep]

Originally Posted by galewind

The solution to FIRST challenges should never be about coming up with the "l33t drive trainx0rz to pwn all teh newbz who try to play the game". It isn't about trying to come up with loopholes to the rules. The amount of "hawt robot on robot action" is not what we should gauge our opinions of the game design on.

In years past, rookie teams, or teams without resources, that were unsuccessful at making a manipulator would make wonderful alliance opponents, because you knew that robots without a solid means to participate would be minor nuisances at best.

In this year's game, they've CONSIDERABLY raised the difficulty of the challenge, while simultaneously raising the accessibility factor of the game to less-experienced or less-technical teams. These little bots can now be a factor in the scoring of the game, and can continue to play both an offensive and defensive role with a half-working machine (even if its a team who had a manipulator that broke during practice rounds).

The real challenge for the veteran teams is to maximize their score potential through a more carefully thought out hybrid period, and by consistently being able to maximize every scoring opportunity they can. An let me tell you, I can't WAIT to dig into that IR board.

I honestly wonder at this point whether or not this game will get a bit more boring to watch as the season progresses, but it's too early to tell.

I agree with everything that Chris said. I LOVE this game and am really looking forward to seeing it played. Last year at the MC luncheon at the Championship, Woodie asked all of the us what we thought about the '07 game. My complaint to him was that the game didn't provide the gratification, reward, and sense of individual offensive contribution in each match for the younger teams with less resources, technological know how and experience at the most precarious times of their existence. Making a good ramp wasn't trivial and you had to rely on your alliance partner; handling the tubes and building an arm was deemed to difficult for many of the teams. Let's just say that things happen and don't always work out and I saw a lot of disheartened faces after matches (5 regionals and the CMP worth). In talks with Dean and Woodie, all 3 of us agreed that this problem had been addressed and felt really good about it.

Building sustainable teams is a huge issue in FIRST. Sure we gained 300 or so teams this year, but how many teams did we lose? It's not a statistic that we want to talk about or highlight, but it's an issue that all of the FIRST community particularly the seasoned teams need to consider. These younger teams are the majority and part of the future of our program. While I encourage free exchange of ideas and opinions. I think it is our responsibility to try to limit or carefully qualify and explain the negatives so these younger teams do not get discouraged as they see the veteran players complaining, while making the effort to be positive on these forums and in our encounters with these teams throughout build and competition season. The overall level of play is only going to get better if we transition more young teams into experienced confident vets. As talking to Jane Young this past weekend reminded me, we need to show them that the glass is half full, not half empty, and challenge them to fill the remaining space.

Further reasons why I like this game:
On the other side there were escalating challenges for the more seasoned teams. This is one of the largest game objects we have had in FIRST and among the heaviest, the slick cover adds a whole new dimension to the use of large balls. Designing a game to provide an attainable challenge for teams across the spectrum is difficult. But I think the GDC nailed it and I thanked everyone of them I could at the kickoff.

It's easy to dismiss this game as silly and NASCAR like, which btw there's nothing wrong with. I wanna go FAST!!! But more importantly the GDC payed a lot of attention to the fluidity of the game. I really think we'll see a lot of movement and not just in circles with the many ways the teams can tackle this year's challenge. The catch and release clause for teams rolling the ball across the line was well thought out, not allowing the teams to just capture a ball and drive around for the entire match. There's dimension and depth to this game which should provide for a lot of visual excitement.

I'm thrilled about hybrid mode. The GDC really made this period worth it in the scores. I can't wait to see what kind of combination control inputs/methodologies teams come up with. The challenge of simply driving over the your start finish line to score points in this period is fantastic. This encourages all teams to move in this period. There is no reason we should see robots take a static defensive position during the hybrid period as we've seen in the past. Veteran teams it is my challenge to you before and at the regionals that NO ROBOT GETS LEFT BEHIND in hybrid everyone DRIVES at the very least to attempt to cross one or two lines. Just giving them the code doesn't count. I fully expect you to help them understand the commands, answer their questions, leave them with the confidence that they can do it to, and if they have questions you'll be there to help them.

This game encourages creativity and challenges us to think across the board with something for everyone. For that reason it's a winner in my book. I'm ready to be amazed by what teams come up with. The question is will you be open minded enough to be inspired by this game and what solutions the FIRST community presents too?