[Official 2008 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Originally Posted by AndyB

I like MVL's game this year hahah. A ramp, not necessary rotational like in MVL, but still, extra points for when the ramp is titled towards or away from your side. It would make for a great battle depending on the bonus value.

Our team created its own vex competition this year to train new members.

The game consisted of two boxes, one open-end up, and the other open-end down. Robots had to drop ping-pong balls into the open-end up box and climb onto the top of the open-end down box.

The trick was that these boxes were taller than the robots. The only way you could climb onto the bonus box was to push a mobile ramp into position and climb up, you could also use this mobile ramp to climb up to the scoring box and pour a load of balls in. However, some teams found other ways to acomplish these tasks without use of the ramp.

I think this could be a very interesting game-peice in the FRC competition. Perhaps the ramp could be on casters - similar to the puck in 1999.

[Cooley744]

KEEP HUMAN PLAYERS!!! It gives more people a chance to be on the drive team!!!

[joeweber]

a tread mill under a bar that the robot must run its wheels to release a ball than must collect that ball and return it to a human goal location. Have a rope on the other side the robot would have to pull to release a ball to return it to the human goal location. turn a handle to release a ball and return it to a human goal. basicly you would have 4 or 5 tasks that you would have to do to release a ball. the robots would have to take turns at the item they do well or be good at all. 6 robots and only 4 or 5 tasks would make it fun. some harder tasks would have balls worth more points.

[cbudrecki]

Originally Posted by Ryan Foley

2) Lots of possible game objects: footballs, bowling pins, frisbees, trash cans, 55 gallon drums, wheelbarrows (wow those would be hard to control), pool noodles, empty 2 liter soda bottles

Hmmm... empty 2-liter soda bottles.... I see lots of teams having MAJOR sugar rushes during build season. Or grab your mentos and put on a show!!!

[AndyB]

Maybe FIRST will just take 148's Tumbleweed and use it as the game piece for next year.

[gblake]

Require driver-to-driver (or wireless between robots) collaboration in the form of simultaneously pushing widely separated buttons, turning nuclear launch keys, putting game pieces into goals, etc.

Give more points the closer the actions are to being simultaneous, thereby encouraging wireless automated coordination.

Give more points for three-bot collaboration than for two-bot.

Do this so that an alliance's weakest robot is as important as it's strongest, and the entire alliance (in a bigger sense, the entire FRC "community") is motivated to make that weakest bot perform well.

Or,

Only allow (maximum) scoring by one or two robots of an alliance after another robot on that alliance has very recently done (or while the robot is doing it) some dissimilar action that enabled the maximum scoring to take place.

Do this to encourage the interesting specializations that occurred in the Rack-N-Roll season, without creating "idle hands" during the first parts of a match.

This would also motivate the entire community/tournament_field/alliance to assist that weakest team.


Blake