[FRC Blog] The 2017 FRC Season Teaser and More!

[tjf]

http://www.firstinspires.org/robotic...easer-and-more

Originally Posted by Frank Merrick

The 2017 FRC Season Teaser

is coming.*


Science Fiction Predicting Future Gadgets

I was watching a very old episode of Doctor Who recently and started thinking about the extent to which science fiction can predict consumer items we pretty much take for granted now.

Check out the ‘iPads’ in this still from the classic 1968 sci-fi movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.


From 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film also apparently predicted our preference for staring at mobile screens rather than talking to each other.

Or check out these ‘Beats’ headphones on Cybermen from Doctor Who. Can you imagine the bass you’d get out of these things? A few minutes with these and your grey matter would be reduced to parfait, no joke.


Cybermen from Doctor Who: Rockin’ some serious Beats since 1966

Makes me wonder what we’re seeing in today’s science fiction that 50 years from now we (well, not me, but maybe some of you) will look back at and say “oh, yeah….”


Frank

*As everyone knows, there are three scientifically objective levels of greatness:

1. Not great

2. Pizza great

3. Pizza and Wings great

This teaser is going be Pizza and Wings great. With a side of Fried Pickle Chips.

[frcguy]

Start up the rumor mill...

Maybe we'll have a sci-fi element this year?

[D.Allred]

Originally Posted by frcguy

Start up the rumor mill...

Maybe we'll have a sci-fi element this year?

Yep. We'll be staring at screens instead of the field. (Oops. Already did that in for Stronghold!)

[tjf]

Personally, I think they'll try and have a Space game without the pitfalls of Lunacy (long before my time, but I've heard regolith thrown around.)

Best of luck to Frank and the GDC. Hype boosters now at ~15.01%.

[Drakxii]

Sci-Fi... Greasy food... Lunacy 2.0?

[messer5740]

Originally Posted by Drakxii

Sci-Fi... Greasy food... Lunacy 2.0?

Not going to lie- totally geeking out right now about the sci-fi element!

[pandamonium]

I totally read that blog differently then most it seems. I think he is not telling us that the theme is sci fi. I think he is saying that we basically have already accidentally predicted it. What game theme and elements has the community been predicting? Seems to me like one of those odd shape games inflatables or footballs? When I think of pizza, wings, and fried pickles I totally think of watching football.

[ctt956]

Originally Posted by pandamonium

I totally read that blog differently then most it seems. I think he is not telling us that the theme is sci fi. I think he is saying that we basically have already accidentally predicted it. What game theme and elements has the community been predicting? Seems to me like one of those odd shape games inflatables or footballs? When I think of pizza, wings, and fried pickles.

Wait...I think you're on to something there...Here's what I've predicted and seen other people predict:

• Cubes
• Stars or something with points/spikes
• Inflatables
• Mobile goals/scoring locations
• Denim
• Water
• Tight spaces on the field
• Mostly open field(maybe something in the middle like 2014?)
• Not many obstacles
• Maybe a maze-like structure?

For themes:

• Space
• Ice/winter
• Football
• Water
• Wild Wild West

So which combinations is it?

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by ctt956

Wait...I think you're on to something there...

So which combinations is it?

I predict that huge chunks of kickoff dialogue will be borrowed from Firefly and Serenity.

[Richard Wallace]

• So in Frank's picture, the 2001 Discovery crew is headed for Jupiter. That's in the movie; in the book they headed for Saturn. This is fiction, albeit excellent fiction.
  
• Real discoveries are still being made by exploration rovers on Mars.
  
• I wouldn't want to replay Lunacy -- the Moon is a harsh mistress!
  
• Venus is hot, caustic, and generally not a place to go unless you breathe carbon dioxide and drink sulfuric acid.
  
• Mercury? Well, deep underground you might commune with a Harmonium, ala Sirens of Titan. More fiction.
  
• Neptune and beyond, things get too distant and dark.

-----

All things considered, I think Mars is the best extraterrestrial setting for an FRC game theme. Maybe Phobos, home the Leather Godesses? (Yeah, I had that game back in the days of 5.25" floppies.)

[ctt956]

Originally Posted by Richard Wallace

• So in Frank's picture, the 2001 Discovery crew is headed for Jupiter. That's in the movie; in the book they headed for Saturn. This is fiction, albeit excellent fiction.
  
• Real discoveries are still being made by exploration rovers on Mars.
  
• I wouldn't want to replay Lunacy -- the Moon is a harsh mistress!
  
• Venus is hot, caustic, and generally not a place to go unless you breathe carbon dioxide and drink sulfuric acid.
  
• Mercury? Well, deep underground you might commune with a Harmonium, ala Sirens of Titan. More fiction.
  
• Neptune and beyond, things get too distant and dark.

-----

All things considered, I think Mars is the best extraterrestrial setting for an FRC game theme. Maybe Phobos, home the Leather Godesses? (Yeah, I had that game back in the days of 5.25" floppies.)

Jupiter -- Maybe a bigger field? Saturn; maybe more ring-shaped tubes? Or ice?!

[WinterPoet]

A teammate of mine has suggested it will be a water game, but instead of water it's gonna be stomach acid.

All jokes (I mean very valid theories) aside, I'm definitely a fan of the strangely shaped objects theory. As far as theme, which most people agree will be reflected in the objects, I'm more a fan of the space theory than football. Mostly because . . .

A) sports will not exactly resonate with a lot of the FIRST community. I'm not saying there aren't sports fans in FIRST, especially since I'm a bit of a hockey nut, but the same simply can't be said for all of FRC. I know most of my friends in robotics don't care about sports at all.

and

B) There's been a lot happening in space lately. NASA's had a couple of exciting announcements lately, and while FIRST plans this in advance and certainly didn't randomly decide on a space theme because NASA was in the news, we've known about the Juno mission since 2011. If they were going to do something football, I feel like it would have made more sense to do it last year when SuperBowl 50 happened.

Of course, there''s a tiny part of me that is just screaming that it's not going to be space or sports, but like, a food-related game where competitors have to grocery shop and then cook a meal for Dean all via robot and in the normal time. Because, y'know, FIRST can't make it easy for us.

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

If they decide to do a space theme such as Mars, I think it would be pretty cool if instead of using regolith, they put omni wheels in the kit and require that only omni wheels may touch the ground to simulate reduced gravity. Would still fit the theme but also allow drivers to maintain control of the robots. I wasn't around during Lunacy but it sounds pretty awful from what I here.

[Basel A]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

I predict that huge chunks of kickoff dialogue will be borrowed from Firefly and Serenity.

Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle

[Peyton Yeung]

Lunacy 2.0?