09-04-2005 19:47

Alex Cormier

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

thats one sweet field. how big is it?

also could you explain a little about the game/field elements?

09-04-2005 19:52

dk5sm5luigi

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

The rules of the game are more less exactly the same as last years FIRST Robotics Competition game except 1/3 scale. So you could read the rules from last year. They changed how much hanging is worth from 50pts to 20pts and how the balls on the sides work, other than that pretty much identical.

09-04-2005 19:55

sanddrag

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

To be honest when I first saw the robot kit I wasn't too impressed with this new Vex program but now that I see the field that looks totally awesome. I'm sure it will be great fun!

Edit: do you have a pic with a robot in it. Proportionally (from memory reference of the robot size), it looks like it would be quite difficult to move the mobile goals or pick up the big red balls.

09-04-2005 20:00

Rich Wong

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

That is excellent!
Can't wait for next season when VEX becomes official.
(Note to self: must find a VEX Team)

09-04-2005 20:00

mtaman02

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

i was about to say the same thing that it looks very similar to Raising the bar except its a smaller revision too bad last years robots can't compete =)

(EDIT) The again just noticing the person standing in the background last years robots would be total giants on this field

i'd have a blast

09-04-2005 20:02

dk5sm5luigi

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

Instead of finding a team you should start a team. It doesn't take that much time and it is a lot of fun to help high school students work with robots. These teams only have about 5 or 6 students so I am sure you can handle that.

09-04-2005 20:03

The Cyborg

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

That is so adorable how they made a mini-version of last year's game for the vex challenge . Is there only one team competing on each side or are there alliance partners? It seems judging from the other pictures that the robots are too large in size for a two on two. I can't wait to see this in Atlanta! It will be so cool! I wish my middle school had something like this (besides FLL) when I was in middle school.

Awesome field, awesome competition, I love it!

09-04-2005 20:08

spears312

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

Looks really cool...

And suspiciously familiar .

Can't wait till Nationals to see how this Vex stuff pans out. Hopefully, if things look good, Heatwave will sponsor a team next year.

09-04-2005 20:08

dk5sm5luigi

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

The competition is 2 on 2 just like last year. The robots are 30% of the full size robots while the fields is 33% so they do look a little larger but not much.

09-04-2005 20:17

Tytus Gerrish

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

HOLY CRAP! that's cool

09-04-2005 20:17

The Cyborg

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

Hmm, might be a little bit more of a squabble to hang at the end....
Thats pretty cool!



How do those small balls work? Does a human player throw them?
Is there also an autonomous mode too?
That is so awesome how they are doing this!

EDIT: Whoo! 65th post!

09-04-2005 20:18

Alex Cormier

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

are there little hp's like last year? i see a hole in the same spot.

09-04-2005 20:22

dk5sm5luigi

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

Those small balls work fine, the human player recieves them through the hole the same as last year and then throws them over the 6 foot wall infront of them. There is no autonomous mode this year .

09-04-2005 20:25

Joe Johnson

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

Whoa! Is that THE field (the one FIRST will be using) or a practice field you built?

It looks great in any case.

Joe J.

09-04-2005 20:30

Tom Bottiglieri

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

Maybe teams can use this to train their freshman how to build a robot. Freshman could work with a sophomore and junior team member to do everything for Vex. This way, every team member has something to do, and they will learn robotics basics, and be better trained to start working on the robot in 10,11, and 12th grade.

09-04-2005 20:32

BrianBSL

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

Its the real thing, came straight from FIRST & Hatch, along with a crew of people to run it. The scoring software worked well and had none of the problems that it had been having with FRC competitions. The only issues were some problems with the ball dump early in the day.

09-04-2005 21:06

sanddrag

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

For anyone who has built a Vex robot and practiced with field parts, have you picked up the big red ball? Can you move the mobile goals? To me, those things look very hard to do for these somewhat frail little robots.

09-04-2005 21:11

David Kelso

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

If you used the new field, did the pipes on the sationary goal stay in place or did they open up and move all over the place as the game progressed?

09-04-2005 21:15

dk5sm5luigi

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

They did open up a little but not that often. Since the goals are so low compared to the height they are thrown from the back board doesn't make too much of an effect since by time it gets to the goal it is mostly a downward action. So to answer the question every now and then balls did go through the back.

09-04-2005 21:28

Francis-134

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

Wow, that field looks much better than the one we made. I can't wait to see all the teams compete in Atlanta.

09-04-2005 21:32

Arefin Bari

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

wow... this is so cool. I want to build a robot which can control the mini 2x ball and can hang. This should be fun to work on...

09-04-2005 22:40

Rich Wong

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

So is this a sign of things to come- VEX challenge will be last year’s FRC Challenges; just rescaled?
Next year’s VEX with be VEX-Triple Play?

09-04-2005 22:54

Ken Delaney 357

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

Is this competition going to be for middle school or high school students or both? I want to start a VEX team at the high school where I teach. I just ordered a VEX kit for myself to get things in motion. I e-mailed my interest to FIRST but did not get much of a response other than "wait till the fall when the pilot program is announced". In my opinion it was kind of short sighted. Things are crazy during September for teachers and students, the sooner they can get information to us the better. I know the school budget for next is already written. If I want to field a team I am going to have start fundraising, but without any specifics I can't really get permission to do so.

09-04-2005 23:07

theory6

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

Hmm those holes in the ten point balls could work well with some of the really cool end effectors of this year's game. Too bad it would be a really tight fit

10-04-2005 11:04

Rabbit222

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

WOW! That is really sweet! I really like how FIRST used last year's game as a vex game. Could it be possible that FIRST will make the yearly Vex challenge the previous year's FIRST game? That would be sweet to see those little things manipulate tetras. Smaller ones of course! I can't wait to see it in action @ Nats. Good luck to the Vex teams!

10-04-2005 11:23

tiffany34990

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

WOW!! that's soo cool.. i wanna play even more now!! vex is gonna be great for those involved! i can't wait till championship to see this closer..this is so cool...good luck to the vex teams out there and have fun!!

10-04-2005 13:42

Koko Ed

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

So if they do a mini version of Triple Play next year are they going to have a little animatronic action figure carry the tetras in the human player zone?

10-04-2005 18:30

dk5sm5luigi

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

I can't say what the plan is for the future but I know this year there are middle school and high school teams competing. I would also have no clue on the price and I don't know think FIRST knows yet either. Each team this year has four kits to work with where they can't use parts from more than three kits on their robot. The fourth kit is a spare if something breaks. I don't know if they plan on making the kits part of a registration fee or if you have to supply your own. From my understanding FIRST Vex Challenge is supposed to be a cheaper alternative to FIRST and also a feeder to FIRST so with any luck they won't make it too expensive.

10-04-2005 19:21

Erin Rapacki

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

I would expect FVC games to differ from FRC games in years to come. My guess is, that for this year, they decided to bring back an old game because there wasn't enough time to develop a completely new game that they know would play out well.

11-04-2005 00:11

Pin Man

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

I wish they picked us to be a team... We signed up but didn't get in...

11-04-2005 01:55

tkwetzel

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

Actually, if FIRST expects to use the VEX challenge as a starter program for the FRC, it would be helpful for sudents to see what the larger robots did the year before. It will give them a little bit of a head start, since they are most likely just learning about how to build a robot (not completely true for this year...but hopefully for future years). I would not guess either way if they will use the previous year's FRC game or if they start to develop FVC games seperately or have the same game in different scales. They could do any of those and have them each work out very well.

11-04-2005 12:27

Elgin Clock

Re: pic: 2005 Vex Field

So... it is not EXACTLY 1/3 scale then eh? 6 ft wall? I don't remember the wall last year being 18 ft tall..

Makes sense to not scale them though.. what good would a 2 ft wall be to follow the same rules as last year? It would be easy as pie.