In the Ringtones folder of DLC Pack 3, there is a ringtone called 321LiftoffFIRST. Could this be the new start-of-match callout, similar to 3,2,1, Charge in Stronghold? If so, could this be more evidence for drones?
I was thinking more of mini-bots when I heard this ringtone. Perhaps we will have mini-bots at the beginning of the match this year. Possibly having it so that the robot is enabled after the mini-bot completes its task (mini-bots only autonomous?). Just speculation…
I think it is more of a reference to an End Game, or Game Goal.
Of the top of my head, we need to load enough game objects into a bucket of sorts to cause something to lift off the ground. (A robot maybe?)
Specifically, that was the countdown from the Apollo 11 mission. The very same Apollo 11 that landed on the moon! Regolith? 
Seriously though, Rockets and SteamPunk? it will be interesting to see.
I think this is going to be a great game. Can’t wait for kickoff!
Also based on wall papers, it appears that FIRST is definitely trying to focus or attention on the idea of flight.
The crowd cheering also supports the idea of a flight based endgame.
Not possible considering Frank himself said that the timing of auto was not going to change - too many teams already sit out of auto for them to miss even more of the game.
Maybe it’ll be the password to the encrypted manuals this year, nobody tries it because it’s too obvious, and there is a simultaneous facepalm across the world as the manual password appears on screen.
Sounds more like evidence that flying blimps will be a theme of the game. Maybe we are shooting them, maybe we are assembling gears and cogs to allow a single one to lift off for each alliance.
This sounds like an interesting concept. If teams had to put so many game heavy game peices into something to lift an alliance partner, this would create an opportunity for a critical strategy decision. The lighter you are, the easier to lift your bot.
I do like this is dynamic a lot, but could get really ugly regarding cheese caking (“hey, we are going to pick you but you have to remove everything you spent the last 3 months building. thanks!”).
“We’ll pick you, but only if you run this TileRunner we fitted with 775pros instead of your real robot on the field.”
Lifting alliance partners again, circa 2007?
Lift off the ground? They’re mocking us with puns!
Well, this is Frank we’re talking about.
A really cool game would be to put game pieces (maybe with different weights?) into a bucket that is connected to a platform on a teeter totter type thing. Robots spend the entire match placing game pieces into the bucket and then drive onto the platform for the ‘end game’. At the end of the match, the bucket engages the platform and will raise the platform is there is enough weight in the bucket (or the platform is light enough). A significant bonus (similar to capturing a tower in 2016) will be given based on if the platform raised and how many robots are on the platform.
In terms of design, teams will have to decide to build a really light robot or a heavy robot that scores a lot. During the match, alliances will have to make the decision to have 0, 1, 2 or 3 robots drive on the platform based on how much weight they think they have in the bucket, making the end game extremely exciting to see if they made the right decision.
If next year’s weight rule is like last year’s:
You might have (for examples) a 120 pound robot with 90 pounds of removable mechanisms, or a 20 pound robot core with a 20 pound set of mechanisms and an 80 pound set of mechanisms.
…or you may want to invest in the stock of Pelican cases…
I think you might be on to something. Maybe the game will be filling the buckets with “water”, which goes to a “boiler” to make steam, which drives the platform up. Now that I think about it, it could be a bit of a platformer game with several levels and elevator platforms.
As cool as that might be, I find it unlikey the GDC would make a game with field components as complex as that. Generally speaking teams need to be able to replicate the field components to practice and design with. Having to build a (semi)funcitonal elevator mechanism for a practice field sounds like a nightmare to me.
True. Maybe it could use something commercially available though, like these. Lifting robots from their centers would make for an interesting challenge… Or, as mentioned in other threads, there could be a train. Maybe this train will be fueled by items placed somewhere on the field, and the train will transport other items.
Yeah. This could operate in reality more like the 2012 bridges*, though. Maybe there are several on the field with the ones on ramp platforms having less advantageous fulcrums or rotational stiffnesses. Each alliance has to make the strategic decision where to load game pieces and climb (and block).
Alternatively, all these complicated interconnections could be done in the “story” rather than in real physics. It’s not like we actually broke the castle by throwing real boulders at it every match, or physically destroyed the defenses we breached (usually). And this is the year of STEArtM, after all. Plus as a referee, if you give me a choice between an actually really heavy game piece and a foam ball named “Boulder”, I know which one I’m choosing.
*I know, I know. But at least it has precedent; maybe the newer version would be better to build.