2006 Official Game Hint Discussion

[Michelle Celio]

Originally Posted by Arkorobotics

Idea!

five 'bots tangling with pasta >>>> POOL NOODLES!! There flexible and you can buy nearly anywhere. >> http://www.poolcenter.com/pooltoys_n...water_logs.htm

a game piece obsessed with a shovel's show>> pool noodles piled up infront of you like the shovel show picture? > http://www.philadelphiawriters.com/a...ire_shovel.htm

and seeing Montana's green heights >> ????

Pool noodels wouldnt be durable enough for long periods of play they have a tendancy to fall abart (i know from exprericance) and there for would have to be replaced which is just not econmical

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by Safarley2901

Thats about all i have come up with, Though I wish people would read the entire thread, instead of posting things over and over again.

What would be nice is if someone (moderator) could go through and consolidate all the similar posts so that someone new doesn't have 12 pages worth to read through, and invariably ends up repeating something (because they're not crazy enough to read the entire thing)

[Safarley2901]

Originally Posted by Grayswandir-45

additional aliance
in terms of general ideas. yes that seems to be the consensus

Not really, I've only found a couple of people who think there is going to be an additional alliance. I'm still banking on the 2v2 idea.

***

Originally Posted by nuttyman54

What would be nice is if someone (moderator) could go through and consolidate all the similar posts so that someone new doesn't have 12 pages worth to read through, and invariably ends up repeating something (because they're not crazy enough to read the entire thing)

True I wasn't trying to be a gerk, but the pool noodle thing was brought up on the first page, they could atleaset read that. But its really not big deal i guess. :-p

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by Grayswandir-75

what about the idea of an additional alliance
other then that yes that seems to be the consensus

there's been too much debate about whether or not there will be an additional alliance for me to consider it as "agreed upon"

[Rickertsen2]

I think that if there is vision this year, it will be easier. Last year very few teams pulled it off. If the camera is to make a comeback, the target will be more obvious and easier to manipulate. I found that getting to the tetras last year was the easy part. I never managed to grab them once i got there.

[Andy Grady]

Here is a goofy but fun game idea to go along with the 5 Bots theories...

2 v 2...two alliances...thats 4 bots.

The goal is robot number 5...fully functional with controls at each alliance station...

Autonomous mode is a race for the green button on top of the hill...

First alliance to hit it, gains control of the goal.

In other words you can drive the goal wherever you want for the whole match as a bonus for hitting your autonomous...giving your alliance a slight advantage.

...the plot thickens..mwahahaha

[JoeXIII'007]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

Here is a goofy but fun game idea to go along with the 5 Bots theories...

2 v 2...two alliances...thats 4 bots.

The goal is robot number 5...fully functional with controls at each alliance station...

Autonomous mode is a race for the green button on top of the hill...

First alliance to hit it, gains control of the goal.

In other words you can drive the goal wherever you want for the whole match as a bonus for hitting your autonomous...giving your alliance a slight advantage.

...the plot thickens..mwahahaha

That sounds too true.

But I'm still thinking that there will be a house robot like Robot wars and Battlebots have, except not for fighting purposes.

[Drew Hopman]

I don’t know if this is at all possible, but maybe there are going to be 10 robots on 5 teams….. I think that the ifi controller can handle up to like 35……this would give more games to each competition…. Maybe mixed in with a ball bit on top of a raised platform..

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

Here is a goofy but fun game idea to go along with the 5 Bots theories...

2 v 2...two alliances...thats 4 bots.

The goal is robot number 5...fully functional with controls at each alliance station...

Autonomous mode is a race for the green button on top of the hill...

First alliance to hit it, gains control of the goal.

In other words you can drive the goal wherever you want for the whole match as a bonus for hitting your autonomous...giving your alliance a slight advantage.

...the plot thickens..mwahahaha

well...that would certainly be itnteresting....i don't know how feasible, but interesting nonetheless

From a practice field standpoint there are less problems than with a "house bot"...being that for practice you just need said green button. but it does present the problem that an entire field should be buildable with just parts from Home Depot...which could be a problem

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by Drew Hopman

I don’t know if this is at all possible, but maybe there are going to be 10 robots on 5 teams….. I think that the ifi controller can handle up to like 35……this would give more games to each competition…. Maybe mixed in with a ball bit on top of a raised platform..

wooooooooooooooooooow...and i thought LAST year's field was crowded...i think this is improbable due to the field size requirement (venue problems)

props for thinking outside of the box tho

[Safarley2901]

Yea the ten robots on 5 teams would be sorta WAY TO BIG :-p. (and 5 *10 isn't 35 either :-p)

[Steve W]

5 'bots

link from NASA http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast29may_1.htm

[henryBsick]

Okay,
I TOLD myself I wouldn't make ANY assumptions about the game this year based upon the clue, so I won't... yet.
BUT
Can anyone get anything at all out of this link posted by Arkobotics?? I mean... it is a "Shovel's show..."

[Petey]

Originally Posted by phrontist

That would be great!!!

A few thoughts, added as I've perused the threads.

A) There is a very real significance to

'bots

that I can't figure out. You know they've puzzled over this hint for ages. There is no way that contraction (complete with apostraphe) is insignificant.
B) I liked the "Montana Green (power)" idea, but then I realized that the green in the hint was not capitalized like a pronoun would be. Again, this would not be overlooked. This says nothing about the Joe Montana connection, of course...I think we will see a connection in hindsight (footballs? god I hope so). Me? I'm going with a "butte" in the center of the mountain, with a CMU cam.
C) I don't think we will see straight PVC pipes. There is no "tangling" involved in uncooked noodles. And I HOPE we aren't going back to tethers.
D) I wasn't around for the last placebo game, but the hint of a sentient gamepiece and an odd number of robots seems to suggest such a device.

Or, it could tie back in to what was suggested during the other thread--that perhaps autonomous mode might come at a different time than usual. Could one robot be disabled? Nuttyman may be right--the Joe Montana connection could be moving the autonomous mode to the end.

Yes! Because what is the 4th quarter of two minutes? The final thirty seconds!

HANG ON!

Originally Posted by gabrielse

What does a shovel have to show? A hole.

Will this year's game involve negative obstacles?

Brilliant! This ties in perfectly. No, artdutra, we don't have to worry about digging into a hole, because we can already assume, based on Montana, that there will be a raised surface. If you place a hole in a raised surface, it isn't necessarily subterranean, globally speaking.

E) I'm liking the 1984=Montana's 1984 connection in terms of 2+2=5.
F) Skimoose--sharp catch on the shell (not equal to) spaghetti but still pasta note, and the football analogy. You can't get tangled in shells, but it could be a colloquial use of tangling, more like interacting with.


Ok, done.

Here's my idea:

A center goal raised and ramped. There is a hole in it's center--this is the destination for the footballs that are the game pieces (obsessed with the shovel's show? Possibly a reference to the ancient physics theories of Xenophanes (sp?), a Greek philosopher who believed that gravity was explained by a desire of inanimate objects to be with their like. Rocks fall because they want to be with the ground, which is more like rocks than air, etc.)

Bots can take a defensive stance of blocking the hole without actually entering it or ascending to the plateau (or Butte, or capital of Montana) that is the top of the (square? pentagonal? hexagonal?) large raised goal shape thingy.

The autonomous mode will come at the end of the match. Robots will use the CMU cam to drive towards the ramps of the central goal and rest upon the ramp (HDPE?) of the central goal at the end of the match for bonus points.

This keeps human players from having to throw balls up (e.g. unintentionally at refs/scoring table/audience) as they would to throw through a hoop. Footballs are complicated to corral and roll. Robots will be primarily gatherers (to funnel footballs to their human players) or defenders (which seek to prevent balls from entering the central storage area.)

One thing I can't figure out:

2x2? (2+2=5 1984 reference?)
2x2x2/3x3? (maybe one bot is randomly disabled every few seconds?)
1x1x1x1x1? (applying Darwinism to the robotics competition, where the weak band, in a laissaiz faire fashion, to overtake the strong?)

But other than that...I think my game fits the hint. A few concerns:

A) Hey, I'm probably totally wrong
B) Doesn't incorporate the baton idea hinted in the previous hints thread, unless maybe those are alternate scoring/defensive mechanisms.
C) I don't think the field will be pentagonal.

Can't wait to see what happens. But if they're football, I'm gonna be pissed...they have to wait until I leave to use the type of ball I'm most accurate with

--Petey

p.s. It's 10:20 PM. Santa hasn't come yet, but Dave Lavery and the GDC brought me a headache for Christmas!

Yes, that's a SA smiley. Hopefully I won't get the tranny image for bandwidth leaching SA sometimes gives. If it is...mods, it ain't me fault.

[Safarley2901]

Who knows, There are lots of interpretations of the clue this year. But it's 10:17 Pm on christmas eve, and im going to bed. Goodnight all. And Merry Christmas