My Thoughts on the FTC Platform Change

[Joe G.]

I agree with nearly everything said here. It appears that FTC is moving from being FTC to being FRC's minor league. Over the past few years, FRC has moved in, what is in my opinion, a very good direction, with additions such as the kitbot. It has narrowed the gap between my team and well funded teams in as many ways as possible. The only insurmountable difference remaining, to us, is time. We cannot put in the time that other teams can into their robots. Vex allowed for this.

This new kit looks like half-scale FRC. This sounds like a good thing to teams that can already easily do FRC. But to teams that struggle like mine, it seems scary. We already have six weeks of sleep deprivation, we see the fall vex competitions almost as a resting period.

I also agree with Artdutra that an open-material FTC would be bad. My team's most advanced tool is a table saw. The most advanced tool we have ever had a need to use in FTC is a power screwdriver. There are teams out there with CNC 5-axis mills. As of now, these are not needed for FTC. Considering the mission of FTC, allowing more materials would widen the gap between the teams that can afford to take advantage of this to an extreme. As I said in an earlier thread on this topic, it would be like giving us 5 kitbots to make our FRC robots from, and then only asking nicely for teams to not use any metal beyond this.

Our FRC team of about 35 members fields FOUR FTC teams, as well as teams in independant competitions like savage soccer. $1000 for the base kit, plus extra parts, plus entry fees, the costs for a single team are beginning to look like FRC.

And finally, every improvement listed is meaningless in my eyes. I have never stripped a vex gear. I have never unintentionally bent a piece of vex metal. I have never had a vex robot damaged in-match due to anything other than my mistakes. I have never wished for a faster processer, and have had horrible experiences with the NXT. The Vex system is more than capable of fullfilling the challenges given in FTC so far, which have been just as challenging as any FRC game. If it ain't broken, don't try to fix it, especially in a way that will ruin the experience for many teams out there in the process.

EDIT: Just saw the new blog post. Although I am relieved that it is intended for no machining to be required, it dosen't mean that it can't be done. The arm here looks to have a lot of "blank" metal. Vex really has nothing further that can be done to the parts. This looks much further from that than I would like.