Thoughts on Overdrive

[lingomaniac88]

Originally Posted by waialua359

Imagine a robot playing defense on a human player.
End result: Not pretty!

No human player would ever step onto the field without the robots disabled. The key phrase: DISABLE THE ROBOTS.

[Dan Petrovic]

The game was pretty boring to watch for most of the competition. However, once it got to the point where alliances were putting up huge points, that's when it got more interesting. That's what's going to make IRI interesting

The balance between hybrid, teleop, and end game was pretty good. No section was worth more or less than it should be. (I'm looking at you, autonomous of 2006 and end game of 2003 and 2007).

I wasn't a huge fan of the loss of the human player, though.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by lingomaniac88

No human player would ever step onto the field without the robots disabled. The key phrase: DISABLE THE ROBOTS.

Han Solo said, "droids don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose." Han Solo never played FIRST.

[JoshD]

This years game was challenging in some ways that people didn't think of before hand (like us).

1. Penalties were a key factor in a lot of matches (cost us at least half of ours if not more).

2. It was crowded. While we did assume this was going to happen, when all of those robots and balls were moving around, things were prone to jamming up, a lot.

3. A design that worked in the shop didn't necessarily work on the field. We found this out when it took to long for our bot to hurdle. We just stuck with placing the ball and knocking them down.

4. Strategy was key to bringing down the top alliances. If you didn't communicate early on and get your stategy straight, you were in trouble. We never got our stategy down (we kept trying to suit our partners needs first), and while our scouts did a great job on paper, they couldn't remember the robots without the sheet in front of them.

This year was a big learning experience, and next year we can only do better since we finished in dead last.

[Danny McC]

It was a very good game all around. From the time kick off was to the competition, I learned to love the game for what it was. There was a lot of great robots out there and this competition made it easiest for even rookies to come out and even have a chance at doing good. The only thing I had a problem with was some discrepencies(spelling) with the rules about letting robots play to their full potential. But the season is over(until off-seasons) and it was a great time. Nothing can be done about the problems we had and I hope everyone had a great time at competitions.

[IKE]

We happened to go to 3 of the more "competitive" regionals. Midwest, West Michigan, and Great Lakes regionals. At those regionals the game play was generally very good. Part of this was due to the Kettering Rookie Regional. This let the rookies work their bugs out so they could be big help at the regionals. I did not watch much video from other regionals, but judging from the scores of some regionals, I could see where it could be really boring.

That being said I really liked this years game. When played well it was extremely exciting to watch and was easy for others to follow. One of our mentors had a great suggestion for the IRI. Hopefully they will take us up on it as it will make the matches really exciting.

[Chief Samwize]

To be honest, when I first saw the game at kickoff I didn't really like it that much. But now that the season is finished and I have time to look back I think that Overdrive turned out to be a great game. There was the perfect balance of robot interaction and independent scoring which is one of the features I really liked. All in all, another great season.

-Sam

[Athleticgirl389]

I thought Overdrive was... entertaining... seeing how I like NASCAR Like all other games, Overdrive had several objectives as people has said already. However, it seemed that a robot could be built to either hurdle the ball or drive around the track; and most of the robots went for the hurdle. Any robot could hurd the ball and kick it under. What disapointed me most, mainly in Atlanta, is most alliances from all divisions in eliminations, being comprised of three hurdling robots.

"Defense" - I saw a few alliances where two would go around and score the ball while one played "defense". I say "defense" because they did stall or stop the opposing alliance. I thought this game's focus was NO defense what so ever - the robots going around the track (ya know, like NASCAR... no one just STOPS on the track and plays defense for their team).

Lap Bots - Not being biased here (since we had a lap bot) but lap bots DID make a great asset to an alliance (like 2016 in Atlanta for Newton). I was thoughly surprised to see so many 3 hurdling robots all over. Sure the main point or w/e was to get the ball over, but there was also another goal just to zip around that track as many times as possible and aid the alliance with points. Face it... 2 balls per alliance and 3 robots... it aint gonna work out.

Autonomous/Hybrid - One of the best parts in my mind. Given the hybrid, teams could somewhat control what the robot was going to do and where it was going to go. Even teams with JUST and autonomous mode did a great job at getting across the lines.

Penalties - I felt that some penalties were called too much and some not enough. I was never a fan of the line penalty from the start. It's really hard to see across the field to see how cloes your robot is to that line. And if you were going around the field and something got in your way, you couldn't continue unless you backed up, sometimes over the line, to continue playing the game. And back to the defense comment... watching down links and being at regionals and Championships, I saw times where a team was playing "defense"... again, that wasn't supposed to be there.


It may seem that I'm complaining about certain teams doing or not doing one thing, and I kind of am. However, Overdrive's purpose was to be offensive and fast paced for all 6 robots on that field. As the game was played, that didn't seem to be the case and defense came back. I was really excited when I saw the kickoff video to hear it would be RoboNASCAR year... it kind of lived up to my expectations because it was mainly fast paced and exciting... just some small things occured that brought it down as a game. If I was to overall rate Overdrive... I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Athleticgirl389

I thought this game's focus was NO defense what so ever...

The Game Design Committee thought otherwise.

[sgreco]

Han Solo said, "droids don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose." Han Solo never played FIRST.

Imagine wookies on the playing field

[JaneYoung]

Overdrive had a learning curve for everyone who was open to it and even those who were not. The learning curve is still there. The off seasons will reveal even more, I think.

That's the great thing about these games in that they continue to reveal their potential when played. The GDC rocks.

[s_forbes]

Overdrive was a good challenge and fun to watch, but it wasn't as good as some of the past games. I think one of the reasons for this is the fact that there are only four game pieces (even though they are pretty big ones). The way the game was set up, the two bots that sat out without a ball were mostly confined to running laps, which isn't very exciting from a spectator's point of view.

In past games there were tons of game pieces, meaning that all robots could be doing something at the same time on the field (more action!). And if they didn't/couldn't handle the game pieces, they were at least able to play some amusing defense (more than in overdrive).

Overall I think that overdrive just didn't have as much robot/game piece and robot/robot interaction as it could have... but it was still fun.

[kristenliz_28]

This being my rookie year I can't compare OD to previous First Events. However this organization is so much fun to be a part of and compete in. I learned so many useful things that will help me later on in life during the build season and the competitions.

[BBnum3]

I didn't personally feel that it was as exciting as the last two years, but Overdrive was definitely a lot of fun to watch when played well.

No matter what the game is, there will always be an elegance and efficiency of the top robots that puts my jaw to the floor.

[The Megan 2207]

I loved Overdrive. Last year being my team's rookie year, I don't have much to compare, but I enjoyed this year's objective and I thought that a lot of teams came up with some great designs. It was a lot easier to explain than Rack-n-Roll, but I did not like how many matches were determined by penalties. Overdrive was fast-paced and exciting. I also enjoyed seeing so many teams participating in the hybrid period. Last year I did not see many robots trying autonomous, so this was particularly fun.