Mini Bot - displeasure

[Andy A.]

Originally Posted by EricH

They turned a mousetrap car competition into an FTC competition.

Ah, I see. It didn't occur to me to not get the FTC mini kit, although now I can see why some teams might not. I hadn't planned on using the motors, but I figured the mini-kit might have something useful down the road.

I never seriously believed that FIRST would allow projectile minibots, and I fairly doubt anyone else did, but I am terribly disappointed by the lack of springs or other stored energy. My intention had been to pursue a flywheel design, something I think could have been done safely and would have been very fun to watch. And flywheels sound wicked cool.

I can agree with a lot of the displeasure being voiced (now that I'm not so confused!). I was psyched when I saw the mini bots at kickoff. The shine has definitely worn off now. It went from being a really cool challenge within the game to playing FTC. I guess I play in FRC because I like the access to more powerful options and more technology. Limiting me to FTC's bag of tricks makes me wonder why I'm not just playing in FTC (or, better yet, in one of the VEX based games). As it is, it seems like the winning mini-bot design is the one that bears as little resemblance to FTC as possible, which can't be what FIRST was striving for here.

Thank you for the clarification, though. It seemed for a moment that the team update might have had more insidious implications then I thought. I really can't keep all this FTC, Vex, Tetrix, NXT etc. stuff straight. It all looks like erector sets to me!