What do you think of this year's game?

[Robert Cawthon]

Now that we have had some regionals, for those who have played, what part of this year's game do you like and what turned out to be 'not so good'? My regional was in the first week and the only thing I really saw was that the balls got stuck under the bridge too easily and didn't want to come out. I understand they tried a fix. Other than that, I enjoyed the game. Easy to understand for the uninitiated audience and it moves fast enough to keep it exciting for the experienced watcher.

Anyone else have any comments or kudos?

[hammerhead_399]

I really enjoy this year's game. The only concept of the game I do not like is the Coopertition bridge being somewhat over powered in the ranking system. The concept of the bridge is incredible, being that you have to work together with the opposing alliance. I just feel it pushes teams up the rankings too much.

[Jack Jones]

Originally Posted by hammerhead_399

I really enjoy this year's game. The only concept of the game I do not like is the Coopertition bridge being somewhat over powered in the ranking system. The concept of the bridge is incredible, being that you have to work together with the opposing alliance. I just feel it pushes teams up the rankings too much.

Then try to be one of those teams. If every match ends with a coop ballance, then it will be worth nothing.

[bduddy]

This game is hard - there's no easy scoring task like there have been in years past. This results in qualifying matches, at least in the first 2 weeks, that could probably be sold as an effective cure for insomnia. But in eliminations and hopefully in later weeks, I think this is the most exciting game in several years. The only downside I can really think of are the G28/etc. penalties, which I'm not sure were really necessary (Aim High did fine without them...)

[Koko Ed]

I really like this game-alot. It is exciting. Suspenseful. Intriguing and most of all fun to watch. The first game in a long time that could surpass 2004.

[Steven Donow]

Having seen the game in action as both a spectator and player, I'm a lot more excited to watch this game play out over the season, in contrast to the initial, "It'll be cool on Einstein".

It's such a dynamic game, it's great to watch at both the highest and lowest levels of competition. The fact that FIRST made bridge balancing not directly an endgame(ie. you can, in theory, do it whenever you want during a match) contributes to this. Just watching a robot try to balance is great, and even if it goes on for a whole minute, it's just a fun thing to watch. Hybrid feels quick-paced and exciting (high-scoring too), and teleop is just competitive and fun. While an initial read-through of the rules told me that defense wasn't going to be such a major element/such a common thing for teams to be great at, I was proved dead wrong.

The coop bridge was something that on the morning of kickoff, I thought was absolutely ridiculous and crazy and a terrible, lame idea of FIRST's that no one would use or care about. Week 1, I saw teams doing it and thought, "Wow, it's out of hand how this is being used to launch teams up the ranks". However, I did find it interesting that it was being used so much. Week 2, as a player of the game, I fell in love with the bridge (and not just because it helped our seeding). It is just plain fun. Talking to your opponents before a match about the match itself (versus just talking technical stuff about your robots) was such a delight and an awesome experience, as was attempting to communicate across the field. FIRST made an excellent call on adding the coopertition bridge, it just adds a dynamic to an already great game.

Overall, this game is awesome. Will.I.Am. might have said Logomotion was dope, but regardless of whether or not it's a word, this game is even doper, and one of the best in a while.


*For the record, the only other games I've been actively involved in where Breakaway and Logomotion, and somewhat a spectator for Rack N' Roll, Overdrive, and Lunacy(which I absolutely love)

[Squillo]

Having just returned from our first (and only) competition, I have to say I *love* this year's game. It was challenging to all the teams - the more advanced teams could use camera tracking to auto-shoot those high hoops, work on brakes and auto-balancers (and strategies for the triple balance), and build mechanisms to go over the 'bump', while less sophisticated teams could do things like feed balls, build a ball gobbler and some kind of shooter or 'dumper' (ours actually worked pretty well, and the "robot of awesomeness" at the Hawaii regional was definitely 1056's gorgeous - and VERY successful - dumper - deserving of the awards they won and truly inspiring), and balance on the bridges, sometimes with help from others. Even a rookiebot without any shooter or gobbler or anything fancy (or a bot having technical issues with the fancier mechanisms) could be valuable as a balancer.

And, it was REALLY exciting and fun to watch as a spectator. Almost always something going on, and lots of suspense over the balancing. Even a balanced bridge could tip... or a robot could jump off of it (like ours did in one practice match - oops - I think it was suicidal for a minute, but fortunately it got some counseling and didn't try that again).

And once the balance was made, if it was still early, there was usually shooting going on to watch. The scoring was intuitive (except for the coop bridge, but that was cool on its own, see below). I feel that the field elements were well designed so that the challenges were there but not too hard to overcome. There were tradeoffs - a dumper was possible and a more 'sure thing' for scoring, but not into the high baskets. A "fender shooter" might have been easier than a key shooter, but there was the risk of defense. Defense was possible but had risks, so that it kept the game interesting but didn't turn it into battlebots or damage a lot of our expensive hardware.

The coop bridge was genius. It did get some 'meh' robots into alliance captain slots (which can always happen when you play in alliances), but mostly it rewarded teams that won AND then did something even more. It celebrated cooperating with the opposition in true FIRST style.

Another thing I liked was the weight given to hybrid/autonomous. A nice reward for the programmers, not only the extra points but also using it as the second-level ranking.

My hat is off to the GDC on this one. Einstein will be awesome, I think.

[Hawiian Cadder]

I love every part of this game except for a few parts

1) The steel beam across the field, we chose early on that we would not be crossing the bump, that crossing the bridges would suffice. I think that crossing the bump consistently carries the risk of tipping or becoming damaged as a trade off to bridge only crossing, but was too difficult for teams without the capability to cross the bridge. I think that something that took longer to cross while being easier on the robots, with less risk of damage involved would have been better.

2) The lowest basket saw almost no use from lower level robots, I think the entire basket rack should be higher by 18 - 36 inches, thus forcing a noticeable trade off between accurate 2 point shots from the fender, or longer range 3 point shots from the key.

3) While most teams didn't play any real D-fence it would have made a HUGE difference this year, with more robots able to cross the field reliably and quickly I hope to see more D-fence played at CMP as it becomes clear that triple and double balances are fairly easy to defend against. I think that the danger and dificulty involved in crossing the bump caused a dis-proportional amount of scoring robots this year. If the bump were for example a 12 inch tall triangular prism, I think more robots would be able to cross, and the game would be more balanced at a regional level.

[pfreivald]

I love this game. The engineering challenges are difficult*, the game is fun to strategerize** about, fun to play, fun to watch, and easy for observers to understand.

Oh, and they eliminated the 'brick on wheels' defense -- you had to be able to complete at least one of the engineering tasks besides driving around in order to play any defense.

*I'm surprised to see no rookies go for the 1-point basket. It would have made the difference in quite a few games.

**not actually a word

[Taylor]

I've seen Triple Play, Aim High, Rack 'n Roll, Overdrive, Lunacy, Breakaway, Logomotion, and Rebound Rumble. RR is by far the most exciting to watch, and quite high in game strategy / robot design. No matter the score of the match, the endgame is always edge-of-your-seat exciting.

Arguably, Friday morning matches tend to drag a bit, but that's the case with every game.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I really like this game-alot. It is exciting. Suspenseful. Intriguing and most of all fun to watch. The first game in a long time that could surpass 2004.

At the halfway point of the season I think it's safe to say: we have a winner.
I am practically shaking with excitement of the prospect of what I will see at events like MSC, the Championships, Battlecry, MARC and obviously IRI.
I can't wait!

[sgreco]

I have mixed feelings about the game. I like defense, I miss games like 2007 where the scoring was centralized and the robots really had to work together against the opposite team rather than just competing on opposite sides of the field with minimal defense. That said, the problem I mentioned is prevalent in qual matches, but not so much in elims.

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by sgreco

I have mixed feelings about the game. I like defense, I miss games like 2007 where the scoring was centralized and the robots really had to work together against the opposite team rather than just competing on opposite sides of the field with minimal defense. That said, the problem I mentioned is prevalent in qual matches, but not so much in elims.

I think minimal defense is a strategy problem, not a game problem. We played lots and lots of defense at both of our regionals, and did so effectively. From direct defense of fenderbots (pushing and shoving) to ball denial (pick 'em up before they can and feed them forward and/or knock them into your alley; block their inbounder bounce-shots) to bridge denial (more pushing and shoving), we never had a dull moment in-game.

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

I think minimal defense is a strategy problem, not a game problem. We played lots and lots of defense at both of our regionals, and did so effectively. From direct defense of fenderbots (pushing and shoving) to ball denial (pick 'em up before they can and feed them forward and/or knock them into your alley; block their inbounder bounce-shots) to bridge denial (more pushing and shoving), we never had a dull moment in-game.

Agreed, I have seen a lot of defense in Rebound Rumble! In many cases, it is very effective.

I simply love this game. It has given me more "OH MY GOD!" moments than any other game I can remember. Seeing a triple balance win a match by one point. Watching balls scored so rapidly they jam into a net. Seemingly every match has a dramatic last second "will it or won't it" balance moment. Human player hail mary's that turn a tied match.

So far it has already pulled to the front of my "all time" list, and that's before District/World Championships/IRI season.

[ZeroGAdam]

Well, I have known about FIRST because of my Dad for about 10 years now... He was a mentor for team 381 back from 2002-2008 and brought me along to the competitions. Since 2004's FIRST Frenzy, I have not seen another game that has been comparable to it because of the diverse challenges and fast paced really large spectacles (kickballs dropping from above the driver station, 4 on the bar, multiplier ball shoved in a "netbot," etc.) that would occur. I mean it was amazing, and ever since then, no game IMO has ever topped that. That is until I saw this game in person.....

The rewards for Hybrid, Coopertition, and Cooperation among your alliance (which is always important) is now even more critical because of the nerve racking bridges. The basketball theme tied into it also makes it one of those 30 seconds or less games that you can explain to a spectator who really isn't associated with a team. The only small complaint that I have is that the triple balance is worth maybe a little too much....

But defense can prevent it from happening and the challenge of it alone just sways me to say, that is why it is worth so much. The only reason I'm saying this is because of the fact that when an alliance pulls it off, they will most likely go on to win their rest matches, but I'm sure there have been matches where and alliance has tripled, but lost some ways down the road.

Overall, I think this is a great game to watch and will be very interesting to see how it evolves even more so at MSC, MAR Champs, and Nats!!!