[Official 2008 Game Design] New Technology Discussions

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Cory

My suggestion:

For 2009, don't do anything that relies on functions of the new controller--since they probably won't work right, out of the box.

Echoed after recalling the bugs of years past. Edit: On second thought, I'll qualify my echo: Don't do anything that relies on the new controller's functions and can't be rigged up easily to work through more primitive means.

That said, suppose that teams could park a robot in a loading zone that loaded red and blue balls from a feeder (think Half-Pipe Hustle) in random order. (The refs would have this knowledge for sanity's sake.) Slightly lower in the loading zone would be a rejection bin for balls of the other alliance's color; teams would receive some benefit from depositing the rejects correctly and leaving with their own load.

I did enjoy seeing a drive-forward autonomous mode be successful this year. From what I've seen, years where that is a viable option (see also: Aim High) have been pretty good years for autonomous. Whatever the game is, I'd be happy to see that be a choice (though not necessarily the best choice).

Lastly, if you want to talk incentive for autonomous: Suppose the winner of the autonomous period (by whatever definition you prefer) got a five- or ten-second period at the end of the match to themselves (read: where the other alliance was disabled). Every single season of the autonomous era, such a boost would be a very interesting change in how the endgame was played.