I have a dream of a new FIRST

[Todd Derbyshire]

What would happen if for a spin this year at kickoff each team is given a letter. The letter corresponds to an aspect within the game that your robot must handle. And better yet what happens if you get to a regional and you are paired up with a partner for the duraation of that regional that could handle the other aspect of the game you couldn't. Talk about teamwork. Would this be something that Dean and Woody would do to us?!

[sanddrag]

I don't think I would like having game assignments. I like the freedom of design and randomness of the game. That's what makes FIRST fun and every team unique.

[Ashley Weed]

Originally posted by sanddrag
I don't think I would like having game assignments. I like the freedom of design and randomness of the game. That's what makes FIRST fun and every team unique.

I agree that it wouldn't be as much fun. I would be afraid the game wouldn't be fun to watch, like last year. There was no excitement because everyone was working together. No one had the guts or purpose to do anything different or exciting because they would hurt themselves in the proccess. Unlike this year when contact returned to the game! 'GO MOOSE'

[Ian W.]

i think the best game is something like this year's, but less on the traction side. you need a fast-paced game, with some (not all) smashing, but along with a big strategy side too. that way, the general public says, wow, that robot just smashed so hard into the other! and we say wow, great strategy and blocking! and so on. i think something that was based more on manuverability and speed would be more interesting also, because a giant robot with filecards just isn't that interesting to some people (sorry 71, but you know it's true). the general public only likes fast, destructive thigns, or so it seems, so it would make sense to cater to them, at least a little, too.

[Dan 550]

But smashing is fun...and you'd be suprized at how much traction you can get from just 8 inch skyway kit-casters. Torque-to-floor can be best achieved with good old rubber compounds. And smashing can be strategic...at least when I'm driving.

[Ashley Weed]

Originally posted by Dan 550
. And smashing can be strategic...

I have found this very true from my experiences too! And it is also entertaining when you have completely lost a match, are boared, and want to have some fun! (Sorry #25!)

[Dan 550]

Heh. It's useful for points scoring when you need to strategically re-position a disabled bot to actually score some points...

[Ian W.]

the best is when you need to reposition a goal, and you're all the way on the other side of the field, with like 10 seconds left, and your robot goes about 11 feet per second. the extrusion will never be the same...

then there was the time the english team tried to smash us, but got oen caster stuck on our robot, so we dragged them all the way across the field, almost into our homezone. they got lucky though, because they weren't touching the ground. if we had another second, we would have gotten 10 more points . we still won anyway.

another good time for smashing is when anyone was up against RAGE. i was watching the webcast from UTC, and one match, this tiny robot beat RAGE, because they just kept pushing and smashing RAGE back. without any balls or goals, RAGE was in trouble.

as long as you can have some good reason behind smashing into other things, go for it. but don't throw a match, just so you can slam that other robot who you hate into a wall. just not worth it. now, if you can slam them into a wall as part of the strategy, then it's all ok .

[Dan 550]

Another time it's been useful to smash is to just bop the balls all over the place to make sure the quick ball gatherers aren't so quick all the time. Then you can strategigically move and keep them where you want them...

[Wetzel]

Originally posted by weedie


I agree that it wouldn't be as much fun. I would be afraid the game wouldn't be fun to watch, like last year. There was no excitement because everyone was working together. No one had the guts or purpose to do anything different or exciting because they would hurt themselves in the proccess. Unlike this year when contact returned to the game! 'GO MOOSE'

I disagree.

The whole balanceing bit was exciting.
"They got it!! no..not quite...all..ll..l.m.oos...t..YES!!!!WOOOOOOOOO!!! !"

And plenty of times I watched the clock...why arn't tehy stopping stop the clock stop teh clock arghhhh


But as to assigned game functions, sorry, but ewwwww.
There goes half of the design phase, and therefor more then half teh creativity.



Wetzel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stu-BOT!

[Todd Derbyshire]

umm... yah 2001 was great insert silent sarcastic golf clap here

[Dan 550]

Balancing was the only truly exciting part of the 2001 competition. Well, that and the field and bot fires in Philly, but those were sparse and definitely non-strategic. And the entire points and multipliers system was crappy and difficult to understand. This year was amazingly better than 2001. Keep it crowd-pleasing, and we'll keep having more fun each year. Guaranteed.

[purplehaze357]

Originally posted by Todd Derbyshire
And better yet what happens if you get to a regional and you are paired up with a partner for the duraation of that regional that could handle the other aspect of the game you couldn't. Talk about teamwork. Would this be something that Dean and Woody would do to us?!

uhhh-uhhh...this is not good....considering this inadvertinly happened in philly and it wasnt cool...i would hope that they wouldnt do this to us...i like the "random pairings"

[Dan 550]

at kickoff each team is given a letter. The letter corresponds to an aspect within the game that your robot must handle. And better yet what happens if you get to a regional and you are paired up with a partner for the duraation of that regional that could handle the other aspect of the game

NO! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

Okay, now that that's out, let me elaborate.

1: My team just finished restructuring the mentor part of it. We have three mentors, but before we had four, the "chief" mentor being the biggest moron on the planet, of course. he always had an idea. That wasn't his flaw; he occasionally even had a good idea. His problem was that he acted like a king, and what he said went. We had to fight him all the way, the other mentors generally staying out of things. He's been voted off the island recentl, and all is blissful. The letter would make things not so blissful, as the team as a whole isn't making a decision that we should make.

2: I am personally in favor of maximum alliance variety, and I would protest a pairing with just one robot, most likely. I think you should have to take the random good with the random bad, as we have to each year, and I like it that way.

3: Dean and pals would never do anything like the suggestion at the top of this thread anyway, so it doesn't really matter much, does it?

[purplehaze357]

Originally posted by Dan 550

2: I am personally in favor of maximum alliance variety, and I would protest a pairing with just one robot, most likely. I think you should have to take the random good with the random bad, as we have to each year, and I like it that way.

3: Dean and pals would never do anything like the suggestion at the top of this thread anyway, so it doesn't really matter much, does it?

*nods in agreement*...