2006 Official Game Hint Discussion

[amos229]

according to dave the fish picture is for the 2007 game to warn us of a water obstacle, however who can believe dave

[amos229]

"In response to Michelle's idea(don't know how to quote), maybe there are 5 big goals in the shape of bottles? as for tangling...maybe the game pieces are tied to the goals or something? =) my two cents"
i am definatly agreeing with five goals but going with the noodle idea i think it will be more like corrals. one thing no one has discussed is human player options. the shovel could be discussing some kind of challenging course representing a show for the shovel"human player" to put on

[Nuttyman54]

has anyone given any more thought to the Hula Hoops pictured here? it occured to me that there is hoop-shaped pasta which looks strikingly like hula hoops. I personally don't think they will be, but just thought i'd throw it out there

[Michelle Celio]

Originally Posted by Nuttyman54

has anyone given any more thought to the Hula Hoops pictured here? it occured to me that there is hoop-shaped pasta which looks strikingly like hula hoops. I personally don't think they will be, but just thought i'd throw it out there

I've actually tought about it but tought that i'd be to obvious, i mean i think the point of the clue is to get us thinking and totally confused, i dont think that they would put that out in the open like that.

[Jon Jack]

I was thinking today and came with the following thoughts:

What ever this years game is I think it will be a multi-demensional game. Triple Play, while fun to play, was pretty one demensional... You could either cap or place a tetra under a goal, or defend. From looking at the last two lines of the hint, I think that FIRST might be adding more to this years game in the means of scoring. Meaning that there will be more than two ways to score, and a lot more strategy involved.

When thinking about what the game could be I thinking about some of the things FIRST has to take into account when designing a game: How much money would the game cost? How easy would the game be to reset and run? How safe is it for teams, much less robots? How easy is it to transport? Can every venue handle such a game? How easy would it be for teams to replicate? How challenging is it for veteran teams?

In asking myself these questions, this is what I came up with:

When it comes to the field, I don't think that FIRST is going to dramatically change the field from the last couple years, simply because they have quite a bit of money invested in fields and those fields can be used for a wide variety of games. Team San Diego built a field that was pretty close to spec for this years Battle at the Border and it wouldn't be too hard to make the field wider or longer. I think the shape should stay the same.

I don't think that a multi-level field will be easy to transport, setup, reset, repair, take down and transport again. Plus it would be terribly hard for a team to replicate... Plus with fewer teams joining each year FIRST needs to make sure that fields are easy to replicate so teams can hold scrimmages and try to attract more schools to FIRST.

I think that there is a 95% chance that the game will not be water based... Something about electronics, a lot of water and people, I don't know. Personally I can't wait for the year FIRST has a water game. One of our engineering mentors and his dad (also a mentor) used to build boats

Alliances should stay, but there might be more teams per alliance. There should be two alliances with an even number of teams... Could you imagine what alliance selection would be like if alliances were uneven?

When it comes to the game object FIRST has to make sure that the object is challenging for veteran teams, but easy enough for rookie teams (we don't want to discourage them). Exersice balls probably aren't going to be used for a few years, footballs on the other hand would be a different story. FIRST has never used footballs, so just like tetras teams would have no prior experience manipulating footballs. What other box, circle or triangle shaped objects has first not used in the past?

[amos229]

as for a 3d field i am thinking a feild like stack attack with a slippery surface(bannanna in picture) and a ramp ("mountain") with green distractions for the cmu cam("green mountain" and fish in picture)

[Ian Curtis]

I did a Google image search for Butte and I found some that didn't have slanted sides, but rather near vertical sides in almost all cases. Therefore, I think that this year's game will not have inclined surfaces, but rather a platform (with the top being higher than three feet) with a bar at one, much like the steps in FLL's 2004 challenge, No Limits. The object? Reach the top of the platform before the match expires and you recieve extra points instead of a multiplier (or maybe a fixed multiplier like 2x or 3x) becuase frankly, TV audiences don't like doing multiplication (especially with decimals) when they could be adding.

Originally Posted by jjack

I think that there is a 95% chance that the game will not be water based... Something about electronics, a lot of water and people, I don't know.

I'm all for water games, inflatable clownfish games, or whatever other kind of game FIRST could invent. However, the logistics of filling a 60x40 foot tank of water even a foot deep are astronomically nightmarish (that's a lot of buckets ). So a water game WILL NOT happen, unless regionals are moved to facilities with Olympic Sized swimming pool facilities (which we know they aren't this year).

[Petey]

Originally Posted by iCurtis

I did a Google image search for Butte and I found some that didn't have slanted sides, near vertical in almost all cases. Therefore, I think that this year's game will not have inclined surfaces, but rather a platform (with the top being higher than three feet) with a bar at one, much like the steps in FLL's 2004 challenge, No Limits. The object? Reach the top of the platform before the match expires and you recieve extra points instead of a multiplier (or maybe a fixed multiplier like 2x or 3x) becuase frankly, TV audiences don't like doing multiplication (especially with decimals) when they could be adding.

That does make an awful lot of sense. Buttes tend to be plateaus.

I'm all for water games, inflatable clownfish games, or whatever other kind of game FIRST could invent. However, the logistics of filling a 60x40 foot tank of water even a foot deep are astronomically nightmarish (that's a lot of buckets ). So a water game will not happen, unless regionals are moved to facilities with Olympic Sized swimming pool facilities (which we know they aren't this year).

Yeah. Can we end the water game speculation now?

Originally Posted by skimoose

It's not Joe Montana the clue is refering to, it's actually refering to Frank Zappa's masterpiece; "I might be moving to Montana soon... Gonna be a dental floss tycoon" 5 bots tangling with dental floss!

By Jove...

Good as inference as I've heard from anyone.

Originally Posted by Fruity Pebbles

I think we've all just about had it with this clue, and i think we need to listen to the "Quotable Adam" as he puts it...

Just a little skippit of our IM

Adam - 1341 (10:37:38 PM): hey, what's up?
Me (10:37:45 PM): thinking about you know what lol
Adam - 1341(10:37:54 PM): haha give it a rest
Adam - 1341(10:38:00 PM): you won't figure out the game
Adam - 1341 (10:38:02 PM): no one ever has

I disagree, "Quotable Adam." Last year, CDers figured out the basic tetrahedral part of the game, in that things would be pyramid shaped. We didn't figure out the tic-tac-toe thing, but that couldn't be expected.

--Petey

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by Arkorobotics

Tape? Pasta???

3 fish??? why 3?

actually, it looks like there're are four fish...boy, PETA's really gonna be on their case next year

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by Nuttyman54

actually, it looks like there're are four fish...or it might just be part of the robot....

That's a banana.

[amos229]

looks more like a bannana, maybe representing a slippery surface like a couple years ago. the three fish are distracting the blue robot, maybe theres some distraction for the cmu cam

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by amos229

looks more like a bannana, maybe representing a slippery surface like a couple years ago

you mean you guys haven't seen pipe fish?

[dez250]

bot Pronunciation Key (bt)
n. A software program that imitates the behavior of a human, as by querying search engines or participating in chatroom or IRC discussions.

[Andrew Blair]

Hey, I think ArkoRobotics is onto something:


So, look at the shovel: What's it pointing at(shovel's show)? ORO - What type of past sounds like ORO? ORZO! And by the way, orzo is a long, rice shaped object. Almost like a football. It also means barley in Italian, which is even more football shaped!


Coincidence? I think not! So, it seems there is reasonable evidence that we are using footballs this year. This definently supports the baton hint interpretation. But, decide for yourself. Wouldn't be the first time we were all wrong. The ORO is also kinda on a butte type thingy, once again supporting the butte type field obstacle. Eh, sounds pretty sound.

Dave, kudos to you and the GDC! It would probably take me the entire off-season to create the game hint, let alone the entire game! Like Elgin said, it seems like much of the things you post are thought out and significant. Well, alot of them are thought out...

[Jon Jack]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

Hey, I think ArkoRobotics is onto something:


So, look at the shovel: What's it pointing at? ORO - What type of past sounds like ORO? ORZO! And by the way, orzo is a long, rice shaped object. Almost like a football. It also means barley in Italian, which is even more football shaped!


Coincidence? I think not! So, it seems there is reasonable evidence that we are using footballs this year. But, decide for yourself. Wouldn't be the first time we were all wrong. The ORO is also kinda on a butte type thingy, once again supporting the butte type field obstacle. Eh, sounds pretty sound.

Dave, kudos to you and the GDC! It would probably take me the entire off-season to create the game hint, let alone the entire game! Like Elgin said, it seems like much of the things you post are thought out and significant. Well, alot of them are thought out...

One word: Brilliant!

less than two weeks left until we find out for sure.