Next Year's Game?

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Bertman

I personally would like to see
1. no required wheels or supplier
2. move autonomous to the last 15 seconds of the round
3. no exotic type surfaces
4. no burdensome penalty system
5. continuation of challenging fun
6. Multi-level field

Originally Posted by Chris is me

They're not going to make the game have the same variables every year. This is basically "undo everthing they did this year and make it back to the way I'm comfortable with", which FIRST isn't in the interest of doing. They want no one to be comfortable in this competition, that's where people learn the most.

I would hardly say this is undoing everything they did last year.

The required wheels or suppliers is a concern of a couple people I know, plus, some wheels/parts are better suited to play styles, it is just letting us choose. I mean, what if, because Google is a supporter of FIRST we were required to use Sketchup to design our robot. Would you have a problem with that? Same concept with the wheels (Not saying AndyMark had anything to do with the decision)

Autonomous to end of match, hasnt been done before. I think it would be cool to have to figure out where you are and get to another point (randomly chosen at the start of auton of course)

No Exotic Surfaces does not mean "Go back to carpet" it means that we need to have a surface that is readily available to teams and cheap. Plywood, Cement etc. I would prefer NOT to see another game where the flooring for a field costs more than we spend on our robot. (397 builds robots from raw materials and the KOP so we don't incur huge costs in the robot)

4, and 5 were done this year*

A multi-level playing field has not been done since 2006 had its pair of ramps. The ramps were not really integral playing field components like 2003's ramp.


*5 could be argued by some people but let us not get into that debate there are other threads for that.

[EricVanWyk]

Originally Posted by Jared341

This idea has a lot of potential.

Thanks Jared!

An idea with less potential: Controlled recycling of game pieces. Imagine the "goal" is a hopper of sorts with a "release valve". A team could send a special packet over wifi to release/fire the pieces.



Also, I wouldn't mind the limited return of regolith, if it is more limited. For example, a central contested region. Or, imagine Overdrive with regolith on the ends of the field. I'd just like to see mixed-mode.

[Rob]

I think this is a fantastic concept as a high level idea to build a competition around. I think This is probably the best game idea I have heard described in a long time. Add in some sort of auton mode to release game pieces and some spectacular endgame action and this is pretty cool!

Originally Posted by EricVanWyk

How about live ball sorting? It sounds rather lame at first (ha!) but hear me out:

Take the game piece (spheres, cubes, nerf footballs or whatever it may be) and color e.g. half white and half black. The one alliance wants white pieces in goal A, black in goal B; the other alliance wants the opposite. Put the goals on opposite ends.

This does a few things:
Adds a weird twist, could be fun.
Makes the difficulty of vision tasks more intrinsic and less dependent on lighting.
Lots of interesting sort options: presort+hoppers, "turret sort" (change target as pieces line up in the turret), "cerberus sort" (two heads that each remain locked on a target), "belch sort" (change turret speed based on whether or not you want the ball to go in), "driver sort" (only pick up the "correct" color), etc.


A third and fourth unsorted goal may be added with decreased points, to give teams a low-bar achievable target.

[TJ Cawley]

Originally Posted by mikelowry

underwater, yes. But what about floating on top of the water? Boats anyone?

exactly. why not make a boat-like robot that has to accomplish a certain goal? like, while having the body, float on the water, why not have the objective to retrieve something from the game floor, which is under water?

[1086VEX]

Originally Posted by TJ Cawley

exactly. why not make a boat-like robot that has to accomplish a certain goal? like, while having the body, float on the water, why not have the objective to retrieve something from the game floor, which is under water?

that would be cool! then you'd end up with some neat teather bots like in '02..just mini subs

[Bertman]

Would that be virtual water?

[tsiersema]

i am hoping for a game with a cubed object this year and have like stairs or a ramp that you need to go up and over a bridge and drop the cube on something or in something. This year was a good game, in this years game, the idea was KISS, which I think is in almost every game. This is my first year but from what team mates have been talking about they are just hoping for nothing to do with a ball this coming season

[TJ Cawley]

Originally Posted by Bertman

Would that be virtual water?

no. real, what humans are 70% make of, H20
the real challenge would be to accomplish the goal, without sinking your robot's brains, because water and electricity do not mix. you'd have to encase the brains and make sure that you could keep it dry. it be sort of a "recover the shipwreck" idea. like how some sunken ships are brought out of the water, or examined in the water because the ship was too big, like... hmm i dont know... the titanic? just an idea.

[notsteve]

how bout a game with like random objects? like junk yard style

i mean, for example, lets say the game is simple and scoring into your goal at the other end of feild. the game peices that need to be put into the goals? different peices of oversized plastic fruit! like a big round orange, a bunch of grapes, a banana, they have differen't shapes and stuff so whatever kinda arm/thingy you use to pick up has to be very versitile.

you never know what your team would have to collect, like on role of dice you get a random fruit that gets you the bonus points for the round, and the rest just regular like one point or something.

[IKE]

Originally Posted by notsteve

i mean, for example, lets say the game is simple and scoring into your goal at the other end of feild. the game peices that need to be put into the goals? different peices of oversized plastic fruit! like a big round orange, a bunch of grapes, a banana, they have differen't shapes and stuff so whatever kinda arm/thingy you use to pick up has to be very versitile.
.

I think I played that game back in the 80's. There was a little Yellow Robot whose goal was to navigate a maze and gobble up a simple scoring piece for a stock number of points, and then big bonuses were given for gobbling up fruits. What was the name of it????

[Zflash]

Originally Posted by TJ Cawley

exactly. why not make a boat-like robot that has to accomplish a certain goal? like, while having the body, float on the water, why not have the objective to retrieve something from the game floor, which is under water?

NURC http://www.h2orobots.org/

which by the way some members of our team have wanted to compete in for sometime, however Arizona where the comp is held does not look to be in our future anytime soon. Who knows anything could happen.

[dragonrulr288]

Originally Posted by IKE

I think I played that game back in the 80's. There was a little Yellow Robot whose goal was to navigate a maze and gobble up a simple scoring piece for a stock number of points, and then big bonuses were given for gobbling up fruits. What was the name of it????

Hmm.. Pacman? No, that cant be it!!
but you have to admit, it would be an interesting idea....

[IKE]

Originally Posted by dragonrulr288

Hmm.. Pacman? No, that cant be it!!
but you have to admit, it would be an interesting idea....

I would play a Pacman based game as long as we get to keep our Killer bee Yellow.

Personally I think it would be fun to process bed pillows. I know they had the floppies that one year, but I think it would be fun to just try to process and score standard pillows with a Robot Proof pillow case.

Insert some sort of clue about falling asleep on the job.

[Kimmeh]

Originally Posted by notsteve

how bout a game with like random objects? like junk yard style

i mean, for example, lets say the game is simple and scoring into your goal at the other end of field. the game pieces that need to be put into the goals? different pieces of oversized plastic fruit! like a big round orange, a bunch of grapes, a banana, they have different shapes and stuff so whatever kinda arm/thingy you use to pick up has to be very versatile.

you never know what your team would have to collect, like on role of dice you get a random fruit that gets you the bonus points for the round, and the rest just regular like one point or something.

Hehe, sounds like a robot scavenger hunt!

It combines different object shapes, and the playing field could be split up into room like segments. That means that you would have to use a camera to find the objects. The alliance with the most items wins.

[RoboMaster]

People on this thread have mentioned no bumpers and such, and while the discussion has faded, I would just like to add something that I think is important. People on this thread were constantly saying that bumpers matter because of damage to robots/don't matter because damage to robots doesn't happen. I would like to say that they are also there for human safety reasons. Having a 120lb robot smash it's metal frame into your shins or something else around the room is not a pleasant experience.

Autonomous mode at the end sounds interesting. I like pool noodles and safety cones, but you can't get neither of them very easily...(pool noodles in January?? and where could you ever by safety cones?)

I also like the idea of a big wall in the middle that you can't see around. Teams could go around using their cameras, or teams that want to go simple can stay on their side and get points. They could especially do defence agains the other alliance's robots that come around the wall.

How about if FIRST builds these little movable platforms which are basically flat moving dollys (not the ones with handles that you tip) with strong boards on top of them. If at the end of the game your robot is on top of this platform, bonus points! That seems like a really interesting challenge.

And maybe a game where you don't have to drive around with wheels (stationary robots). It's kind of hard to think of a game where you could do this and make it fun for the crowd, but it's thinking outside of the box.

I agree that a water game is totaly unpractical. But I thought once that the game pieces could be large water-tight boxes partially filled with water. The robots would have to transport these by picking them up (maybe they could push them...). The big deal is that they are heavy, awkward, and if a robot stops, the water has a lot of momentum and sloshes around in the box, making it hard to manuver and actually stop. Oh, and tinted water that you could sense with the cameras.

I like the pillow idea. Maybe large bags/beanbags with hard-to-break fabric/netting? Or balloons! Decrease points if you break them!

Have a big rectangular box that is just barely bigger than the robot size limits. If a robot manuvers itself into this box through an open face on one side at the end of the match, bonus points!

NO BALLS FOR GAME PIECES!!! GIVE US SOMETHING UNIQUE!!!