Suggestions for resolving stuck balls

[jvriezen]

In Team Update #1, the GDC has indicated they are working on how to deal with stuck balls. Let's crowd source some ideas for how to resolve it.

My idea is that if the (head) ref deems that a robot is holding a ball and is not actively making meaningful progress in playing the game (passing for assist, truss toss, scoring attempt) after a reasonable amount of time (5 seconds?), the ref can declare that ball 'dead' and a new ball can be introduced. The original ball is now just field debris and any scoring done by it will be manually deducted. Any ball coming to rest on the truss is also declared dead immediately.

This would cover the cases of dead/disabled bot, stuck ejector as well as the hopefully unlikely 'throwing the match' scenarios.

If a ball is stuck in a bot and the ball declared dead, that bot can then still 'herd' or even carry a new ball (however unlikely) without penalty in order to gain assists.