The Not So-Secret Secret End-Game

[Dylan_Barton]

Originally Posted by Lewis Nerone

Team 4269 picked up on this as well. Wonder if it has anything to do with FIRST completely redesigning the 2013 game (Ultimate Ascent), and this was recycled from the original 2013 game. So to make up for lost time, FIRST threw out this generic game with the intention of adding something halfway through the build season.

Just a thought though...

If you really want to see a similar game, I would suggest looking up the 2008 game, Overdrive, as we (2987) found that it is quite similar to Aerial Assist. We have gotten some helpful tricks from game videos of Overdrive, as well as mixing our knowledge of Aerial Ascent last year.

[Michael Hill]

Still not too late for FIRST to announce a secret end game!

Hear me, FIRST? IT'S NOT TOO LATE.

[Tom Ore]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

Still not too late for FIRST to announce a secret end game!

Hear me, FIRST? IT'S NOT TOO LATE.

Maybe we should suggest some: land the ball on the truss - 50 pt bonus.

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by Tom Ore

Maybe we should suggest some:

Last second game-winning truss shots worth 100 points.

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

Originally Posted by inkling16

Last second game-winning truss shots worth 100 points.

What's funny is that doesn't change the outcome of the match since its only game winning shots.

[TKM.368]

Last 10 seconds hot goals.

[dubiousSwain]

Make a goal or truss in the last 10 seconds and get an amount of points based on your team number.

[David8696]

Any robot that, in the last 5 seconds of the game, bounces the ball off the truss, catches it, and scores it in the high goal immediately wins Einstein.

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by TKM.368

Last 10 seconds hot goals.

This one is interesting on the surface. May be right in line with a truss-shot bonus in the last 10 seconds.

[ToddF]

Not specific to the end game, but for the Championships, truss catches should have their point value raised from 10 points to at least 20.

[BigJ]

Originally Posted by ToddF

Not specific to the end game, but for the Championships, truss catches should have their point value raised from 10 points to at least 20.

20 is the max it can be changed to. That said, I expect catches to move up to 15 or 20, but would not be surprised if they stayed the same.

Originally Posted by Scoring Blue Box

As competition at the FIRST Championship is typically different from that during the competition season, FIRST may alter each scoring value at the FIRST Championship by up to ten (10) points.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by ToddF

Not specific to the end game, but for the Championships, truss catches should have their point value raised from 10 points to at least 20.

It is the one scoring aspect that is totally out of line with risk to reward. However I don't know if it was intentional or not, like shooting into the pyramid goal last year or climbing up to the third rung in a time longer than 25-30 seconds.

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by Rangel(kf7fdb)

What's funny is that doesn't change the outcome of the match since its only game winning shots.

Shhh. That's the secret within the secret endgame.

[bbradf44]

Seems like a strong possibility to me too. During the kickoff I remember Dean talking about trying things over or having to redo certain parts of the robot. I can't remember exactly when. Or maybe my memory is just blurd from the big morning

[Grim Tuesday]

Much of our team has a similar opinion -- that Aerial Assist seems rather bland and marks a departure from the design elements of the games in the last few years:

• FIRST has been attempting to move to games that are easily accessible to an arbitrary audience -- like Rebound Rumble or Ultimate Ascent. This was in response to the inexplicable Logomotion where a person not in FIRST had a hard time understanding or getting excited about the game.
• FIRST has been moving towards more and more live scoring and penalties and it seems like a direct step back go back to referee scoring
• The last few games have seemed very well put together (Pyramid doubles as end game and lining up device, top of pyramid had climbing goals and shooting ones etc...) but this one has "missing pieces" -- There has to be another point to the truss and the goalie as the OP mentioned.
• Rules last year were very well written with few inconsistencies, this year we have quite a few weird things (what happens if a robot dies while holding the only ball? Not to mention the absolute mess that is the definition of possession that the poor referees have to call)
• Aerial assist does not do a good job of describing the game. What is the aerial part?
• The gamepieces are not very common or easy to get; they are also quite expensive.

Back at an FRC Live! I went to, Bill said the GDC keeps a game in backup in case they run into a major problem with the game they were planning to play (ie supply problems). I feel like this is a backup game from circa 2010/2011. They definitely had something more in mind with the truss but cut it for some reason; I assume it was the part that was supposed to be aerial -- maybe a skyhook reverse ascent (descent) from the truss to the ground to start the match.

Changing the game sure would be a game changer, by definition.