Game Possibilities

[Robert Cawthon]

Originally Posted by Mr_I

[*]Strong alliance partners would have the ability to accurately discern one particular type of object; "dream teams" would consist of three 'bots, one of each type.

We can't count on a dream team. It seems to me that the best bet for a bot would be one that could do 2 or maybe all three. It would be our luck to get on a team that all three bots would be able to do the same thing. The exact opposite of the dream team. Its just our luck.

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by Mr_I

Running wild with the recycling idea ...
The field is covered with hundreds of recyclable objects (say, Crackerjacks, Haagen-Dazs cups and Diet Coke cans), scattered all over. The robots have to pick up as many as possible and deposit them into appropriate containers (plastic, cardboard, and metal). Two of each trash type bin, one for red team, one for blue. Scores are easy to calculate: +2 points per object in the right bin, -1 per object in the wrong bin. (Double the points during the 15 seconds of autonomous mode.)

Strategies could include:

• Dumping objects in the wrong bin of the other alliance (to cost them points)
• Blocking the bins of the other alliance
• Strong alliance partners would have the ability to accurately discern one particular type of object; "dream teams" would consist of three 'bots, one of each type.
• The objects could be as simple as different colored balls (nerf, poof, kick, etc.), or as complex as spheres, cubes, and cones (each shape different colors, have to be sorted by shape? )
• Objects could start above the player stations (a la FIRST Frenzy, 2004), to encourage randomness

Okay, that's 2 minutes of thought.

Oh wow. You just explained my theory almost exactly the way I had imagined it.

One of our mentors, after seeing my activity in the "game hint" threads a few months ago, suggested that I work with our strategy team to make a mock game to practice before kickoff. Myself and the strategy group leader spent the entirety of a meeting sitting out in the hall creating a game. The actual idea never really took off, but our game was pretty much the exact same as the one you just described.

We had two game pieces - boxes and cans (representing cardboard/CrackerJack boxes and aluminum cans - the game pieces could be as simple as foam cubes and spheres), both in red and blue. The red alliance would try to sort the cubes into a red bin designated for cubes, and the spheres into a red bin for spheres, and the blue alliance would be doing the same with their game pieces. You would get points based on the content of your bins at the end of the match. Penalties would be taken if you placed a red sphere in the red cube bin, etc, but not if you had a blue sphere in one of your bins. Bonus points if your cube bin contains ONLY your alliance's cubes, or if your sphere bin contains ONLY your alliance's spheres.

The roadblock we ran into was field size :/ Room for the bins, game pieces, AND robots? (unless the bins were stored overhead, or stacked creatively)

[Fe_Will]

I think this years game wont have any "pieces" at all. No pieces means much less to reset between matches easing the 10 qualifying matches per team dilemma. Maybe we are manipulating the field itself? Or a maze? Or king of the hill?

[jamie_1930]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

I don't think you are looking at the right scale ...

... Consider a 1/2 filled trackball

That sounds better because the whisperings I had heard people were talking about having 1/2 filled containers about the size of a 2 liter bottle. Although In my opinion it should (at least I hope) be a game in which other robots have to depend on one another to score. For instance a couple years ago if you could have on robot go on top of another you could score points and I think it would be very interesting to see something to this nature. Like if you had to use a robot as a ramp in order to get the other up ontop of a raised platform to drop gamepieces into a scoring area.

[unobtainium-42]

Originally Posted by Mr_I

Running wild with the recycling idea ...
The field is covered with hundreds of recyclable objects (say, Crackerjacks, Haagen-Dazs cups and Diet Coke cans), scattered all over. The robots have to pick up as many as possible and deposit them into appropriate containers (plastic, cardboard, and metal). Two of each trash type bin, one for red team, one for blue. Scores are easy to calculate: +2 points per object in the right bin, -1 per object in the wrong bin. (Double the points during the 15 seconds of autonomous mode.)

That's very similar to what I was thinking. I made a simulation before I read this...

The scoring system doesn't quite work yet.

[Adam.garcia]

Originally Posted by squirrel

Because right now there are an infinite number of things it could be.

After kickoff, the number drops significantly...to the number of game rule updates

Unfortunately, I agree. It is very interesting seeing all these predictions. I think that every year, FIRST focuses on a different aspect of the robot. From experience, the regolith really threw me off.

I was wondering, does anyone think the FIRST "shapes" theory will help predict this year's game?

[arob9119]

well they have already used the triangle (from "Triple Play"), the circle (from "Rack 'N' Roll"), and the square (from "Stack Attack")

So, I doubt they will use any of the "shapes" in this years game

[Nin_estarSaerah]

The "shapes theory" is that there is some patten to the shapes used as game pieces, right?

Well, the last 4 years the shapes have been round, the last two they've been balls. Perhaps time for a change? Something square again, maybe?

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Personally, I'm still waiting for the traffic cone shape