Game Hint #2

[Booksy]

Originally Posted by ExarKun666

You are describing a child's play toy type game, but there is still the question of how to implement a rough terrain in that as well as camera, personally I don't think that's it.

Rough terrain: put it on the ground, put robot on terrain. done.
Camera: Colored holes and colored objects say, each team has 3 different coloured blocks and they have to put those blocks into the correct hole at the end of the field. This color could be recognized by the camera in autonomous.

[Steven Sigley]

did someone say rough terrain?

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=70519

[ExarKun666]

Originally Posted by Booksy

Rough terrain: put it on the ground, put robot on terrain. done.
Camera: Colored holes and colored objects say, each team has 3 different coloured blocks and they have to put those blocks into the correct hole at the end of the field. This color could be recognized by the camera in autonomous.

Could work, but just the mere fact of trying to do that autonomously would be hard to program for, unless they were at a set area, but then you would have to pick the object up just right, I don't rly see it, it's a good thought, but from what I've read, I don't see this as the game...but don't let me squish your imagination.

[Booksy]

Originally Posted by ExarKun666

Could work, but just the mere fact of trying to do that autonomously would be hard to program for, unless they were at a set area, but then you would have to pick the object up just right, I don't rly see it, it's a good thought, but from what I've read, I don't see this as the game...but don't let me squish your imagination.

To start, I don't really think it will be that either.

That said, My idea was have a robot start with the piece and just choose which bin/hole to put it in.

[EricH]

If Bill was faking, I would suggest a new photoshop victim to Heidi. After what she put Dave through... Or better yet, see if Dave wants a new challenger on Krispy Kreme eating.

Bill is the FRC competition director. I think he is on the GDC. Bill's Blog has been recognized by FIRST as the official regular update channel (or something like that).

And last year's first hint was sent directly to teams. People thought it was a joke/prank at first. Then FIRST came out and said "Yes, it is from us" and people quieted down a lot. It did take a day or three, though.

I'll call shenanigans if it isn't acknowledged/disavowed by my Statics final. That's Tuesday, 7:00 AM MST.

[ExarKun666]

Originally Posted by Booksy

To start, I don't really think it will be that either.

That said, My idea was have a robot start with the piece and just choose which bin/hole to put it in.

Oh well that is different then what I thought you were originally thinking of, srry misunderstood your original idea. But yeah that could be more of a possibility, a very interesting possibility, and would be more likely the game, then what I originally thought you meant, but with that said, I still do think, even with this idea, it prbly won't end up being the game, but who knows?

[Booksy]

Originally Posted by ExarKun666

Oh well that is different then what I thought you were originally thinking of, srry misunderstood your original idea. But yeah that could be more of a possibility, a very interesting possibility, and would be more likely the game, then what I originally thought you meant, but with that said, I still do think, even with this idea, it prbly won't end up being the game, but who knows?

I wouldn't be to afraid to bet that we are all wrong.

[ExarKun666]

Originally Posted by Booksy

I wouldn't be to afraid to bet that we are all wrong.

Yeah me either, it will most likely be a game that all the hints pointed to, and it will be really obvious, and there was no need to over analyze it or anything, then I would just laugh, or it might be a game that might relate to the hints in a way that no one thought of.

[calieanZET]

Originally Posted by Zflash

Thursday, December 11, 2008
Game Hint # 2

Good Morning Teams,

Take your machine out of the shop on Colorado in Paramount;
stop by and get connected on Central in Phoenix;
drive by and make a pickup on Minnetonka in Minnetonka;
then head to the field on Evergreen in Dover.

23 Days until Kickoff
See you then


Posted by Bill at 7:02 AM 0 comments

I am not sure about the rest of the clue but I have an idea about the "get connected" part of the clue. Given that NASA is a big sponsor of FIRST, NASA is planning a new set of moon missions, and the first hint was a moonfish; perhaps there is a period of the game where the new camera must be used to connect to a scoring element, and that cannot be seen from the driver station. Similar to what was done during the Apollo missions, when the Orbiter had to dock with the lunar lander, via a remote "targeting" display, that could be located on the driver station. Perhaps during the autonomous/hybrid period, the robot is meant to do it automatically, but you are given the ability to make some minor corrections. You can never infer the entire game from the clues, and I am most likely completely wrong, but this would be a cool use of the new cameras abilities.

[ExarKun666]

Originally Posted by calieanZET

I am not sure about the rest of the clue but I have an idea about the "get connected" part of the clue. Given that NASA is a big sponsor of FIRST, NASA is planning a new set of moon missions, and the first hint was a moonfish; perhaps there is a period of the game where the new camera must be used to connect to a scoring element, and that cannot be seen from the driver station. Similar to what was done during the Apollo missions, when the Orbiter had to dock with the lunar lander, via a remote "targeting" display, that could be located on the driver station. Perhaps during the autonomous/hybrid period, the robot is meant to do it automatically, but you are given the ability to make some minor corrections. You can never infer the entire game from the clues, and I am most likely completely wrong, but this would be a cool use of the new cameras abilities.

That would most definitely be a cool autonomous portion of the game, and the camera, I am almost positive, will be used in some way to detect an object for scoring, but to detect an object like the Apollo missions, is a new thought, that is actually interesting.

[Booksy]

22:16:40!

Can't wait any longer. Opah now controlling all system resources. Total system failure in 5... 4... 3... 2...

[njamietech]

maybe (reffering to camera use and bonus portion) we will not have autonomous or hybrid.

maybe there will be a period at the start of the match where there are curtains in front of the drivers station window and we have to use our cameras to see.

then (maybe) there will be a pause as the curtains are lifted and the bonus portion ends and we return to our normal mayhem.

and for the technical details, the curtians will be on motorized rollers (like the screens in some theaters (not movie theaters...Stage theaters)).

scary thought.

[RoboGeek99]

Originally Posted by njamietech

maybe (reffering to camera use and bonus portion) we will not have autonomous or hybrid.

maybe there will be a period at the start of the match where there are curtains in front of the drivers station window and we have to use our cameras to see.

then (maybe) there will be a pause as the curtains are lifted and the bonus portion ends and we return to our normal mayhem.

and for the technical details, the curtians will be on motorized rollers (like the screens in some theaters (not movie theaters...Stage theaters)).

scary thought.

that would be so cool...and that is the best guess at a good use of the fancy new camera we are getting

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by 1jbinder

On Bill's blog, the first hint is a link to the FIRST website. This one is just posted there. For all we know bill could be pulling are leg. It might just be me but this is pretty suspicious.

I doubt very much that any of the people involved in designing the game or engineering the field would ever joke about a game hint. They might make a joke with a game hint, but the hint itself will be a real hint. Bill Miller is one of those people and is in a position to decide what information will be released when.

While the FIRST engineers are people like anyone else, they also have a high and sometimes lonely calling. Imagine working with only a few other people for most of a year and not being able to tell anybody about it. I have been there, years back when I worked in The Dark World. In some ways it was very exciting, but in the end it was more frustrating than anything else, and I still can't talk about some cool stuff except to people I don't see anymore. But they have it worse, if teams don't like the game they hear about it from 10,000 people, and will continue to hear about it for years to come. I've seen FIRST people shudder at the mere mention of a tape measure, people who weren't even involved with FIRST in '02. (newbies are encouraged to research the "tape measure controversy" of 2002)

To purposly put up a "joke" would seriously damage the credibility of the poster in the FIRST community. Something the FIRST engineers want to avoid at all costs. They understand just how much this means to all of you and they truly want to do a good job. They are not going to blow it for a chuckle.

I like Elgin's interpretation. It fits the clues, and only tells us that the flow if the event will be similar to years past. Which is a fancy way of saying nothing at all. Just the kind of thing I expect from the GDC.

[Booksy]

Originally Posted by RoboGeek99

that would be so cool...and that is the best guess at a good use of the fancy new camera we are getting

I think the best use of the camera would be for autonomous. Driving around robots with joysticks isn't very robotic, more RC. I think we need a longer Auto mode, and a camera would make that possible(er).