Who likes this years challenge?

[astephen68]

lol

[Levin571]

Although I am not officially on a FIRST team anymore, I like this game a lot since it keeps it simple. With the huge influx of new teams these past couple years, a game like this is good for getting them into the true mix of FIRST.

[Eldarion]

This is reminiscent of Triple Play (my favorite game), so I like it!

I do wish that you could possess multiple game pieces at once, though.

[astephen68]

but the game is very simmilar to the 1997 game Toroid Terror. The only thing is the rack is moving and you had to make rows to score for this 2007 season!

[Agent 108]

If that's true, pay attention to the older games to kinda predict what the next comp. is gonna be!

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by astephen68

but the game is very simmilar to the 1997 game Toroid Terror. The only thing is the rack is moving and you had to make rows to score for this 2007 season!

Not really. They both have innertubes and a center structure. There was no robot lifting or autonomous mode. The way the score was calculated was very different. Torroid Terror was like many old FIRST games in that it had a nearly impossible to follow system of multipliers.

I personally like this year's game. The only problem is the rack is so big, it cuts our practice area in half.

[Michael Hill]

not that I'd click it, but I like how you put the "I do not like this year's game" option...>_>

[Matt234]

I believe that this year's game is going to be pretty difficult. If you think about it the rack appears to be very hard to see around. That will make it sort of difficult to score on the other side. Also, if you have to place a game piece you will probalbly have to have some sort of extension or a really long arm. When you are trying to score points by lifting there is always the chance that you could get caught on the other side of the field. The space between the side of the arena and the rack is not very big. Scoring by lifting may be very hard because you will always have to rely on your alliance partners in order to score a lot of points in the last part of the match. The multiple lights might also make it hard to target in autonomous mode and in manual mode.

[Ansem Retort]

Originally Posted by Steve Howland

A good example of one such thread

And I think you guys need to give this game a chance. It's been one week, and already you guys think we will only see one or two stock robot types. The GDC worked really hard on this game and I think it will be awesome.

I agree here. There a lot more to this game than meets the eye and I think there's even more potential in regards to the 'fun factor'. Anything can happen...

Besides, strategy has a lot to do with collaboration and teamwork and isn't that a huge aspect of engineering?

[Agent 108]

Personally, I like this challenge. However, it is the first one I have ever done! But I HAVE watched one other competition, and it was GREAT! Go team 1290!

[astephen68]

It's my first compition also but i saw videos of last years event and i watched them and i liked last years event but this years event is crazy!!!!!!!!!

[Justin M.]

I honestly don't like it. It should be a game, this is just pure human strategy. The robots will be very simple so the only thing setting apart team's is their strategist.

FIRST has always been a sport, more or less, where you essentially "build" the player. Last years game was the perfect example of this, as well as the year before that. The games were based mostly on robot performance, features, design, and a little bit of driver skill - which is what it should be. This is a ROBOTICS competition, isn't it? The robot should be doing the work and playing the game for the most part.

This year everybody's robot will more or less be the same - there is no room for different designs. Your robot either needs to be able to score, or push the scorers. The rest is all human based strategy (i.e. where to put the tubes).

Aim High, and Triple Play, were possibly the best games ever created by FIRST, IMO. They allowed many robot designs to work, and were just $@#$@#$@#$@# fun to play. This year's challenge is essentially playing 8x3 tic tac toe with no diagonals, and you need to do this with a robot....like I said this is all going to lie on human strategy, unlike last year where the robot had to score as many points as it could (letting the robot do the work!).

This is my junior year in HS - next year will be the last FIRST competition I compete in as a student and direct part of the team. I will be in charge of everything next year - I really hope that FIRST comes up with something better than this year's game for my final year (I'll come back as a mentor though!).

[astephen68]

Yeah True I guess they wanted to get away from the balls into something different they wanted everybody to design for!!!!!!1

[CircularLogic]

Originally Posted by Justin M.

I honestly don't like it. It should be a game, this is just pure human strategy. The robots will be very simple so the only thing setting apart team's is their strategist.

FIRST has always been a sport, more or less, where you essentially "build" the player. Last years game was the perfect example of this, as well as the year before that. The games were based mostly on robot performance, features, design, and a little bit of driver skill - which is what it should be. This is a ROBOTICS competition, isn't it? The robot should be doing the work and playing the game for the most part.

This year everybody's robot will more or less be the same - there is no room for different designs. Your robot either needs to be able to score, or push the scorers. The rest is all human based strategy (i.e. where to put the tubes).

Aim High, and Triple Play, were possibly the best games ever created by FIRST, IMO. They allowed many robot designs to work, and were just $@#$@#$@#$@# fun to play. This year's challenge is essentially playing 8x3 tic tac toe with no diagonals, and you need to do this with a robot....like I said this is all going to lie on human strategy, unlike last year where the robot had to score as many points as it could (letting the robot do the work!).

This is my junior year in HS - next year will be the last FIRST competition I compete in as a student and direct part of the team. I will be in charge of everything next year - I really hope that FIRST comes up with something better than this year's game for my final year (I'll come back as a mentor though!).

I couldnt agree with you more and I would also like to add one more point...


When I joined FIRST, the game was Triple Play. I explained the game to a lot of people who werent involved and they all greeted it with the same neutral response, which was something like "its cool, i guess". Even after showing them the videos of Triple Play matches there was still something large that was missing when you saw the game if you werent a part of it. But when I showed people the Aim High game, it was universally agreed that the game was "really cool". It was fast paced, it played like a sport, there were great plays (just like sports), it required a game plan, and there were multiple ways to score and be effective.


I am not saying that FIRST should design its games to be "cool" at the expense of being a good challenge. But being that one of the missions of FIRST is to attract people to the organization, it seems to me that designing a fast paced, sport-resembling game would be the best thing. Even as a veteran, who is hardcore into FIRST, I was dissapointed that the game doesnt appear to be as exciting.

I believe the record number of rookie teams is, at least part, due to the fact that Aim High was such a cool game. I could not find one person that would not want to watch the final matches, even if they were the least motivated person on the team.

There has to be a way to keep the same level of excitement and game play as Aim High while adding in new challenges.

[Donut]

While I agree this probably isn't as "exciting" to some as Aim High was, I think it still has some very cool aspects, such as the robot lifting at the end. Of course I still think it will be exciting, it's all just opinion; Triple Play was a better game than Aim High to me.