2006 Official Game Hint Discussion

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

Originally Posted by Billfred

I'm not so sure.

Imagine that next year's game is a glorified game of Capture The Flag. (This wouldn't happen, as the FPS gamers would all travel to Virginia to praise and thank and maybe even worship Dave for bringing CTF to FIRST, meaning we'd all really be up the creek for manpower.) Suppose further that whichever robot had the flag received a bonus for however long it could stay on a particular patch of field without being moved off or having the flag taken away by another robot. Granted, defending the aforementioned flag isn't particularly relaxing, but it'd still be sitting there.

I'd like to build on this a bit and connect it back to some other ideas.

Billfred makes some great points: think about CTF. It's a lot of teamwork. Each alliance would need a very good idea of their game plan, and assign individuals to protecting the flag, capturing the flag, and doing whatever other stuff needs to be done.

Personally, I don't believe that this is the only element of the game. However, I remember in 2003 you got more points for having the movable goal on your side, correct? So maybe they are bringing back something like this, except with more value.

In either case, this makes me think of swimming pool noodles. If it's a relatively large game piece, it would be easily visible by the audience. If anybody has other leads, add on! Woo for speculation! And only a few more days now!

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by Eugenia Gabrielov

However, I remember in 2003 you got more points for having the movable goal on your side, correct?

that was 2002 and you got 10 points for the goal being in your zone and 1 point for each ball in the goal

4.5 more days

[Gundamx92000]

the comment was made "sitting somewhere isnt very exciting". think of it this way, while the robot may not tootally be "relaxing" think of a King of the hill like 2003. At the end, the robots "sitting" on top of the ramp was awarded points. That was plenty exciting! perhaps theres a stronger connection than thought? farfetched, yes, but crazy enough to have potential.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by drew.fineberg

a game piece - obvious, and strait forward

I was considering today how little attention this part of the clue is receiving. Why isn't anyone looking closely at it? A "game piece" could be many things -- a chess pawn, a die, a horseshoe, etc. If it's so obvious and straightforward, then tell us what it means.

[kc8nod]

I'll add my bit to the confusion and speculation.

a game piece obsessed with a shovel's show

Shovel is a synonym for Spade.
David Spade is the first name that comes up when you search the IMDB.
David Spade was in several television shows.
So what kind of game piece could be obsessed with "Saturday Night Live" or "Just Shoot Me"?

I hope I have muddied the waters further, thank you.

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by kc8nod

I'll add my bit to the confusion and speculation.

Shovel is a synonym for Spade.
David Spade is the first name that comes up when you search the IMDB.
David Spade was in several television shows.
So what kind of game piece could be obsessed with "Saturday Night Live" or "Just Shoot Me"?

I hope I have muddied the waters further, thank you.

"Just Shoot Me" was mentioned earlier (page 1), but there was no explaination...maybe this is what M.Krass was hinting at

Originally Posted by M. Krass

I'm not one to care about the hint so much -- I have enough things to worry about, I guess. That said, y'all are amateurs

For your consideration: "Just Shoot Me," and "8 Simple Rules".

[Sidney San Martín]

I'm also trying to edge back into CD, and haven't been able to read the many pages of posts. (I was away from internet for a week before now.)

This may have been said and is probably wrong, but somehow "obsessed with a shovel's show" makes me think of a shovel's capacity. Maybe you gain an advantage from large shovel capacity, trying to pick up many tiny gamepieces which all "want" to be in the shovel? Then again, that would cause cries of "there's a flurbie stuck in the transmission!" (Assuming they had any chance of being called flurbies).

"Seeing green" does make me fear the CMUCam, but I could get lucky and have it be something else.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Nuttyman54

"Just Shoot Me" was mentioned earlier (page 1), but there was no explaination...maybe this is what M.Krass was hinting at

Indeed, it was.

[Tyrah]

It sounds to me like were back to climing and a game of keep away but also think simple

[Henry_Mareck]

There is a family guy episode titled: "8 simple rules for buying my teenage daughter"
Just throwing it out there.
And if anyone called Stairway to Heaven "obscure", there is a slight chance i would kill them.

[Sparks333]

This is one interpretation that I like...

The game piece will be tubular, maybe a length of PVC. Consider for a moment how hard that is to work with: just picking it up would make for an interesting driving challenge.

You will have to place the tubes in a hole to score (Game piece obsessed with a shovel's show: I think of a shovel's show as being a hole or a trench, that sort of thing). Again, think of the driving complexities. Lots of creative potential there.

There will be a green target over the hole that has autonomous implications (Ignoring the Montana bit, the rest can be interpreted as something green high up, which points toward the CMU cam. Yay!)

The '5 robots' bit is a little confusing, and I don't even want to try to take a stab. The best idea I have heard here, however, is the 2 vs. 2 with one neutral bot. I can't see a 5v5 (field's too small) or a 1v1v1v1v1 (after FIRST's teamwork spiel? not a chance).

Call me boring, but I've noticed that not many of the game hints are based on obscure trivia (unless you want to call 'Stairway to Heaven' obscure). I have also noticed that there is no clear game ideas gained from the hints (Again, 'Stairway to Heaven' pointed to a 6" step). May as well just wait.

Sparks

[dhitchco]

Ya just gotta luv and admire the creativity of everyone responding. This thread has made my new year start off with a good laugh.

I concur with many of you who think that the "noodles" will become game pieces not obstacles...why?
safer and more lightweight than the tetras
industructable (lots of tetra repairs last year)
easy-to-source (less parts shortage for PVC pipes than last year)

I also consur with those of you who think that these game pieces might be stored in some sort of a "bowl" on the field where the robots have a "feeding frenzy" to grab the pasta noodles...what might eb interesting is individual competition, but with two appliance "home bowls" where 1,2,3, or even 4 teams could stash their retrieved noodles?

I also concur that "green mountains" might be carpeted & ELEVATED elements on the playing field; maybe even visualized by the camera during auto mode to climb a ramp of some sort? Auto mode MUST remain at the beginning of the round for all the reasons you have stipulated.

ps: Wal-Mart is already sold-out of swimming pool noodles.......ha, ha, just kidding. Wait until Sunday!

[ggoldman]

Montana's Green heights:

Montana Green is an actual evergreen plant. According to the link below, it has an ultimate height of 20'. It seems to me that they like having us reach tall

Edit: do a search for montana green


Look Here

Addition # 2: Noodles---

Upon a froogle search for Noodles -- I found that they are a very popular style of golf balls....something else to think about.


Happy clue hunting!!

Gabriel Goldman

On my way to PhD in mechanical engineering ....5 more years!!

[dez250]

Hungry Hungry Hippos?

[Katy]

Originally Posted by JoelP
Well, the controls are disabled during autonomous, so it wouldn't really matter if the drivers were still thrashing away at the controls like maniacs or not.

The thing is that (supposedly) if you hit the reset button a whole bunch of times in autonomous you can regain control of the robot. I believe that is why the rule was made in 2003 that the drive team has to stand a given distance from the controls.