Ball Recirculation Question

[KenWittlief]

windwarrior has a valid point. If your alliance strategy is to win by controlling who is on the ramps at the end, then you dont want to put balls back into play

esp if your robots cannot score points with them, or you can only score 1 pointers and your opponets can score the center goal.

[psycho7]

all valid points but has anyone considered the fact that if during autonomous mode your opposing alliance gets alot of points in and you get none, and you do not reintroduce the balls into the field, chances of winning the match are zilch. my personal feelings are thus, "lets all be nice people and GIVE THE BALLS BACK TO THE ROBOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by dhitchco

Side goals:
As soon as one of your balls passes through either of the side "mouse hole" goals, it gets scored one (1) point for your alliance, but that ball (now in the corral box) become property of the opposing alliance and ANY of their 12 people can reach into the corral(s) and use the ball(s) to relaod their robots and/or the three human players can use those balls to manually shoot over the wall into either side goal at YOUR end of the court. The rest of their alliance can ONLY touch/pass-around balls, not shoot over the wall.

That's not entirely true. The Human Players are the only ones allowed to have balls enter play. Seeing as the robots are "in play" and on the field, only the human player is allowed to give balls to the robots. This also being, the only way to get balls to the robot is over the wall.

[dhitchco]

Oops,

Lil Lavery is right. The 12 people can toss balls back and forth to each other all day long, but ONLY the three designated human players can toss the balls over the wall.

a) How do you identify the three human players?
b) Assume you can't "substitute" human players from drivers during a match; what if a HP get's side-lined or falls down or whatever.
c) What happens if any of the 12 people in the station leave the "box" of the station?
d) What happens if a player falls out of the box (with or without a ball in his/her hands)?


Hey, what happens if the human players get mad at a driver and start to pummel him/her with balls BEHIND the glass wall (funny!)

[MikeDubreuil]

Originally Posted by dhitchco

c) What happens if any of the 12 people in the station leave the "box" of the station?
d) What happens if a player falls out of the box (with or without a ball in his/her hands)?

Originally Posted by <G33>

HUMAN PLAYER Shooting Zone - The HUMAN PLAYER must remain behind the STARTING LINE and within the ALLIANCE ZONE when they are entering a ball onto the field. Each violation will result in a 5-point penalty.

Originally Posted by <G34>

HUMAN PLAYER/COACH/DRIVER Out of ZONE - All team members must stay within their ALLIANCE ZONE during the match. Each violation will result in a 5-point penalty.

If any player removes themselves from the zone its a 5 point penalty. If the human player isn't in the zone, and behind the white line and throws a ball into play its a 5 point penalty.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Nuts4FIRST

My current interpretation is that only balls scored in the center goal can be touched by the human players and returned to the field ONLY IF you interpret the words “chute” and “ball return” to be synonymous. Balls in the corner goals are kept there until the end of the match, there is no "exit chute" that returns the balls to the human player.

Technically, the "chute" for the corner goals is the sloped ramp on the interior of the Ball Corral in each corner, leading from the goal hole down to the floor. But even without that specific detail, it is clear that the Human Players are able to retrieve balls from the Ball Corral and enter them into play. Given the game animation, the game demonstration shown during kick-off, the game description, and the manual narrative, this should be evident to all those concerned.

<edit/delete>

OK, I was about to go off on a tear using the original post as a perfect example of the difficulty in writing clear, unambiguous language that effectively communicates an idea without requiring prose the length of a dissertation. But I counted to 42 decided to just leave it this way:

Please, folks, just lighten up and apply a judicious amount of common sense to these discussions. Most of these concerns really are easily resolved by applying Occam's Razor. If they cannot be so resolved, then save them up and ask the question on the FIRST Q&A system as soon as it comes back up (hopefully, just a little while longer...). Now repeat after me: it is just a game. It is just a game. It is just a game...

-dave

[dhitchco]

Good comments by Dave,

I think that some of the fun in bantering about "what-if" scenarios is OK. Any REAL serious questions about the rules MUST be posted by each team's offical representative via the FIRST Q&A system.

If a rule is to be clarified, it will be done so via the official updates.

But, just as the case in the real world, EVERYTHING that has ever been written (including the US constitution) is up for "interpretation".

So, as long as the conversations are kept amicable and under the umbrella of philisophical and educational "gracious professionalism", then let the knowledge and information flow freely.