2011 Red Herring #1

[JohnBoucher]

Originally Posted by pandamonium

what if tennis balls aren't the game piece at all what if they are the game surface just like a 2 inch layer of corn was the game surface for maze craze. Robots in a ball bit I can not think of a more diabolical challenge than that it's even worse than fake ice

What a way to tear up a drivetrain !

[Wildcat]

in connection to the 4 discussion and the tennis ball, maybe it means that we will be playing on a field equivalent to a full size tennis court since it is about .4 times larger than a standard frc field

[RoboDesigners]

Ok, I'm not on an FRC team, and this is my first "Game Hint" season while being on CD, so some of my ideas may not be that great...

General ideas:
1. Ball bucket - Game field has 6' (or higher) polycarb walls and is filled to 3' with different sized tennis balls (hint 2). The game is cooperative, with each set of alliances trying to empty as many tennis balls over the side as possible. In the finals, the team are competitive, dumping as many tennis balls into the other alliance station as possible.
2. Robots must be made of LEGOs (hint 1) or some other odd material.
3. Robots must play tennis
4. 4 teams allowed on the field at a time. (2 per alliance)
5. From my general impression of this forum, dLavery seems to be the type who would post cryptic things for no reason, therefore, my best idea is that he just wanted to have fun and make us go crazy speculating...

[ATannahill]

Originally Posted by RoboDesigners

5. From my general impression of this forum, dLavery seems to be the type who would post cryptic things for no reason, therefore, my best idea is that he just wanted to have fun and make us go crazy speculating...

We have a winner!

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by Bjenks548

He could also be giving us a hint to what its not... not a sphere. If you look at the last 3 games they have all been spheres. This means that no current students will have worked with anything other then spheres (I know a ton of mentors have been around 4+ years).
Again with the not theory, they said they would not be celebrating the 20th anniversary of FIRST (I thought i read that somewhere) but would wait for the 25th anniversary celebration. Just the sort of thing to throw us in the complete opposite direction.

But we have worked with different varieties of spheres (different sizes and textures). I hardly consider the 2009 orbit balls as balls. As much as I would love to work with something that I cannot find the diameter of, I can't help but notice that the game pieces are getting progressively smaller.

I also don't mean to hijack the thread, but I know it'll come up eventually: http://www.pennreels.com/ (third link that comes up in a Google search for "Penn" - the first two were for the University of Pennsylvania). While I agree with what Chris said in another thread, and that it's probably just a tennis ball and brand has nothing to do with the hint, I do think that involving reels would make for an interesting game (entanglement issues aside).

[TD912]

Penn? Pens? Playpen?

Reminds me of this XKCD:
http://xkcd.com/150/

Odd "grownup" references aside, could be something to do with fences or walls? Or contained areas?

Maybe even a raised container above the field, something like this but a bit sturdier? http://www.target.com/A401010-Balloo...dp/B000Z55P1O/

4? 4 teams? Maybe back to a 2v2 game? Doubles tennis?

Or maybe something to do with the felt texture of tennis balls?

[apalrd]

Originally Posted by RoboDesigners

...dLavery seems to be the type who would post cryptic things for no reason...

Correct. (Ever hear of his morse code from last year?)


My thoughts on 4:
Pure cooperation (think 2001) with 4 teams per match and alliance.
-Maybe its making us think of this game, where teams specialized.

2004 game (FIRST Frenzy)
-Small balls
-Large balls
-Stationary goals
-Movable goals
-multi-level platform
-Hang from the bar
This means that we could have to do a lot of different things, and each team will have to specialize.

4 ways to score (Maybe 4 goals of various levels of difficulty)

4 game pieces (balls of 4 different sizes)

My thoughts on tennis ball:
It's not a ball game
It's not tennis balls
The robots are tethered like in Maize Craze (I certainly hope not)
Corn (Maize Craze again)


My thoughts overall:
Lots and lots of game pieces, possibly of various sizes
Multiple ways to score
Specialization, like the 2001 and 2004 games?

About the GDC's "Diabolical Twists": the 2001 game was called "Diabolical Dynamics".

About the bruise on Carla's ankle: The bumper level is back down where it used to be, no bumps. (the current bumpers are just below knee level, not around ankle level)

Apparently the kit can accommodate the game, so the game won't be unachievable for a kitbot (In 2009, you couldn't score if you were just a kitbot. In 2010 and 2008, you could).

[Cyberphil]

I have a speculation for you all:

What if it was not the actual ball he was referring to, but rather the stringy material on the outside of the ball. I am sure that material would be easily picked up by hook Velcro.

Lets see how far this goes. . . .

[Zholl]

Originally Posted by Cyberphil

I have a speculation for you all:

What if it was not the actual ball he was referring to, but rather the stringy material on the outside of the ball. I am sure that material would be easily picked up by hook Velcro.

Lets see how far this goes. . . .

two things come to mind with the velcro idea. this children's game with these frog gun things that have tongues that shoot out when you pull the trigger, and they have velcro on the end of them that you use to snag these little flies (I'm looking for a picture, but I can't find it), and then this

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by Zholl

two things come to mind with the velcro idea. this children's game with these frog gun things that have tongues that shoot out when you pull the trigger, and they have velcro on the end of them that you use to snag these little flies (I'm looking for a picture, but I can't find it), and then this

I don't know of that children's game, but I do know of this one. For those not familiar with it...it's like playing catch with a baseball, except the "mitts" are circles with hook velcro to latch onto the tennis ball, which is what is being thrown around. Not sure how you could incorporate that into a game safely, though.

[MattC9]

Remember the game hint from 2009? fish? water game no. (sorry guys) 2010 ball return part? tracks? no. Dave always has a hidden message, and it seems to be about the field. 4" bumps on the field this year giant dome in the center? to me that would be pretty cool.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

What a way to tear up a drivetrain !

Who said anything about having a drivetrain?

[Bjenks548]

Originally Posted by Karibou

But we have worked with different varieties of spheres (different sizes and textures). I hardly consider the 2009 orbit balls as balls. As much as I would love to work with something that I cannot find the diameter of, I can't help but notice that the game pieces are getting progressively smaller.

I have to disagree, when we looked took the orbit balls as compressible spheres. In fact I can only think of one team (1918) that used a hook for their ingester to manipulate them in any other way then a compressible ball.

[Wildcat]

Originally Posted by EricH

Who said anything about having a drivetrain?

since the 4 clearly stands for 4" of water the robots have to float in meaning we wont need drive trains

[Cyberphil]

You guys are still thinking balls. I am thinking much more broad.

I am picturing multiple shapes (Cubes, Spheres etc) covered in that material. Maybe I am just speculating too much. Thats probably the case. Haha!