Next Year's Game?

[David Sherman]

I feel that FIRST should return to carpet being the main floor. It reduces cost for teams in making practice fields and for FIRST in making the competition fields. The game needs to be much more spectator friendly, being able to tell what is happening on a basic level for people who aren't in FIRST. I agree on the less restrictions, this year the robots were forced into a limited number of configurations. It would be nice to see the return of size and weight classes like in 2006 Aim High. Human players should not be able to win a match for a robot that can't score, and be the majority of offense in the match. Maybe have one robot have a secondary goal attached such as the trailer per alliance while also having main goals in the field. Have a recyclable scoring piece, too often was the action limited or stopped due to a lack of orbit balls on the field. Autonomous mode having a task to give a team a greater advantage at the beginning of match such as 2004. Have three scoring type pieces, one being a sphere (ex 2006) as the main piece but worth the least. Have a square like piece that is limited and gives more points or some sort of bonus. The third piece being a triangle like shape that would behave similarly as the square piece scoring wise. The sphere being recyclable throughout the match and the other two pieces being limited in quantity and possibly time at which they can be played. Keep the penalties to a minimum and they should not throw the match heavy in either direction. Have goals accessible by navigating over a different type of terrain for each different goal. An example of this would be a hole above the player station at each end, a ramp or pull up bar used to bring the robot up to score the other piece and at each corner a place for the third game piece. Also please lets have a cheap and easily accessible set of game pieces, my vote Nerf balls!

[EricH]

Optional bumpers. Please.

Failing that, I'll take bumper rules that are crystal clear from Kickoff.

The readily available game piece is a great idea. Could that return?

Oh, and could the GDC keep Dave, Aidan, and Bill from dropping hints for a year?

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by EricH

Oh, and could the GDC keep Dave, Aidan, and Bill from dropping hints for a year?

Too late

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Vikesrock

Too late

Nah, those are old hints and don't count. Amethyst was 2005, banana and clownfish are standard Dave gags from year to year (Havabanana Productions does the game animation each year...)

[JoeyTNT280]

Yay I'm not the only one who found the 15 point Super Cells to be too much power for the human players. I would love to see more originality. This years game had very few ways to do things well it was either Archimedes' Screw or a step up with bands of some sort there were far too many robots with a design that I had seen before.

[DarkFlame145]

I would like to see:

-3 Alliances, 2V2V2. It would make things more interesting and different.

-Some kind of an hazard in the center or staggered around the field.

-Autonomous points please, something that will let us be real creative with auto. mode.

-No more balls, no more tubs, nothing round...... maybe bins again? It's been a while since we have had bins.

-Rules that wont limit how we can build.

-Something that is really fun to watch from the stands.

-Or maybe a combo for a few games like; In Auto mode you can take a stack of bins (already loaded) to an area of field , then drop them (while still being stacked). One robot has a trailer attached to it while another robot has to stack bins on it. The other alliance and knock/remove the bins from the trailer. Then for bonus points at the end the robot with the trailer must climb a steep incline and park the robot on top.

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by EricH

Nah, those are old hints and don't count. Amethyst was 2005, banana and clownfish are standard Dave gags from year to year (Havabanana Productions does the game animation each year...)

I knew about the banana and the clownfish. The amethyst was the one I was missing, that was a bit before my time.

[BPetry234]

They wouldn't ever do an underwater game just because of where would you do it? Most regionals are played in high school or college gyms that wouldn't be able to hold up the massive amount of weight of a pool. Plus think of the cost of that much water and then what would you do with it?

It's easier just to stick to the ground.

I love the idea of uneven game fields. Ramps, holes, whatever. It really adds complexity to the game if lets say you have carry a large game piece around to score.

[Chicken_Combo]

Would be nice to see some more autonomous oriented challenges, as well as less impact from the human players....

[Janucik]

I like the Ideas of a feild that gets randomly changed for each match and the 2v2v2(even though this would make getting stuck with partners that are unmoving or break harder on the teams aligned with them).

My biggest wish is that autonomous scoring means something. I realy liked seeing bots that scored in auto even if they missed half and i think the should have been rewarded for that rather then get the same that they would have in tele.

[EricH]

2v2v2 would probably result in 4v2.

A little story that has been told before:

In 1998 (the last year of 1v1v1), there was an interesting occurrence. Top seeds on Friday didn't make it into the elimination rounds. None of them. FIRST started examining the matches and noted that the two lower-seeded teams were ganging up on the higher seed and causing them to lose. This could not be shown to be intentional, by the way, but was what was observed. 2v1 sound fair? (Well, unless you get 67 or 71 or 217 as the 1, but even then...)

So in 1999, the announcement was made that since collusion could not be prevented, it would be required. Meet the alliance system!

[dman14]

How about auto at the end of tele-op? That would make a different challenge, and it can have a strong auton/endgame in one.

[commodoredl]

I'd like to see a bonus worth quite a bit (30-50 points) in the form of some object that can be possessed by a team throughout the match, and that would be awarded to the alliance possessing the object at the end. To balance the score, a team holding the object could be unable to score points for the main objective. This could allow for a Capture the Flag element for the game.
It would also force teams to choose whether to design their robot to score, hold the bonus, or both, and strategize about when to stop scoring and grab the bonus.

Also, return to the auto-bonus, end to convoluted bumper rules, and a carpeted surface please.

[s_forbes]

Originally Posted by dman14

How about auto at the end of tele-op? That would make a different challenge, and it can have a strong auton/endgame in one.

Neat idea, but I think it would result in an anti-climatic ending for a lot of matches. The last few years have all had end-game bonuses that sometimes require desperate maneuvers from the drivers, and it makes for exciting endings.


For next year's game, I really want to see something other than a flat field. It's been too long since the last time we had field elements to climb on.

[smurfgirl]

The Championship may be over, but we still have several months left for offseasons- it's not over yet! However, if we're going to start thinking about next year so early on, I'll throw in what I'd like to see. I generally like games where strategy is very important to gameplay. I'd also like to see some task or game bonus that is very difficult to complete and carries a very high value or multiplier.