•Each alliance will only have two trailers in play rather than the standard three trailers, reducing the number of trailers per match to four total.
•Each alliance will have the option of picking which of the two robots in the alliance will have trailers attached.
•Each alliance will have the option of picking which of their starting three positions have the trailers in them.
The free running robots will have color designations on them which identify which alliance they are part of.
Suspension of rule G14:
•There is no penalty in subsequent matches for scoring differentials in prior matches
Decrease in total number of Moon Rocks in play:
•The total number of moon rocks in play for each match will be reduced by three per team or nine per alliance
Super Cell Modification:
•One super cell for each alliance will have a Baltimore crab designation that is clearly visible to all.
•This super cell will be worth 25 points if scored rather than the 15 point bonus for a standard super cell.
Alliance Selection:
•The top eight team will pick their first alliance partners in accordance with standard FIRST alliance selection practices. The third alliance partner will be chosen by lottery.
Interesting changes. The trailer rule might screw up a few teams that designed their robots around it, though (many wide body teams put their center of gravity as far back as possible to make turning easier, which leaves them vulnerable to tip without a trailer). It’ll be interesting to see what Lunacy’s like with accidental tipping back in the picture.
With only two trailers, I can also see a lot more filled trailers and supercells bouncing out.
What is the purpose of removing a trailer? As stated before, most teams designed knowing that they would have a trailer on their robot. How does it make the game better, i.e. what was wrong with the original game the necessitated this change?
Similarly, a robot without a trailer will be a huge scoring threat. Imagine a top-tier team with double the maneuverability.
Well I didn’t come up with these changes, but I think that the idea was to increase the scoring threat. After all, both alliances will have one un-trailered robot. I think it will make for a more exciting match!
Arguably, it’s harder to drive without a trailer than it is with one. Most drivers only know how to drive with a trailer’s added weight and motion constraints which leads them to over shoot certain moves without the trailer. If anything, those robots without trailers may slow an alliance down… Just my 2 cents though.
The rule changes seem interesting, to say the least.
My guess is that they changed the rules to meet a physical limitation. They have a limited number of trailers and balls. If the goal was to increase scoring, why reduces the availability of the scoring devices (balls)?
No, I think that we are using the NASA Goddard field. The trailers were reduced, I’m guessing, so there would be more scoring action by the “free” robots. And if the moon rocks were reduced, I’d say its so that the trailers don’t fill up too fast, leaving room for super cells at the end. The super cells are intended to play a more powerful role, because the “crab-super-cells” count as more.
I think what will happen is the game will turn in to all the teams bunched up on the side by the outposts trying to prevent EC collection. If there are really only 18 Moon rocks in play (how I read it, could be 3 per robot starting loaded…), one team per alliance will start with 7 in their robot, because I think they meant to, but didn’t change that rule. That robot will score its 7, the human player will be even more important as it will be essential that the HP scores the 2 moon rocks that don’t go into the alliances “scoring robot”. From there it will come down to getting those EC through and not letting your opponent do the same.
If any team has an EC auto mode they will likely be dominant…
(EDIT: not that it would be too difficult for a team to set up counter auto modes to stop whatever teams do this…)
I think it is kind of unfortunate how they do the second alliance partner selection, as 177 will tell you the third pick can often be just as or more important than the first… (less so in regionals, but it is still very important)
In all, very interesting rules, creating a very unique experience…
No, the moon rocks will be reduced by 18, still leaving 102 of them on the field. Its just that each team will start with 17 orbit balls instead of 20, big deal;)
Maybe it’s just me but I’m not sure there are many teams who didn’t design their robot around there being a trailer. (Long body robots just became rather helpful alliance partners now!)
I don’t think enough balls have been removed from play. You lost two trailers at 20 balls per trailer and I can only assume you would want to lose that many balls for each trailer lost. So take out 40 balls total and you should avoid the possibilities of running out of space to score. On that note with three scoring robots and only two targets per side I see the trailers filling very fast and the last bit of tele being all about positioning for the super cells. I think this was far too large a change for what was a perfectly OK game to begin with.
Each trailer can actually hold somewhere around 30 - 35 balls in “real world” competition scenarios, regardless perhaps his modified Lunacy isn’t designed for trailer filling? Perhaps the risks and rewards of power dumping in both trailers 10 seconds into the match versus the last 10 seconds are something for the drivers and coaches to weigh. I dunno if that was the intent of the designers though.
(This reminds me… sometimes it might be best to take a 3/4s full trailer when the rest are empty and “bait” a dumper into capping it off, allowing you to use that robot with their trailer for less risky defensive action. And less Supercell scoring targets?)
Thought that’d be worth adding, you know. That’s actually my favorite part of this year; where last year the third pick had a good chance of making little difference in a lot of matches, in Lunacy it became vital consistently.
This technique of eliminating 1 trailer per alliance worked at BR^2 and it turned out to be pretty interesting. It put more strategy into the game because it made the teams figure out which of their robots would be more defensive. This element really added a nice twist to the game and it should add a nice twist down in Baltimore as well
Yup, Bridgewater-Raritan Battle Royale, otherwise known as (BR)², was an inaugural off-season event held this past June. Similar two-trailer style play was used, as well as the addition of 6 super-cells per alliance.
Well, we’ve all played the game (again and again) so why not have some fun playing with the game itself? After all it is an off-season event and is supposed to be fun!
BTW, I’ll be your field supervisor for this event and trust me, my head will be spinning before it’s over!
But the bottom line is… The Park School has a beautiful campus to spend the day on, there will be lots of action and some pretty good competition, and BoB is always fun. So come on out and play!
That’s actually my favorite part of this year; where last year the third pick had a good chance of making little difference in a lot of matches, in Lunacy it became vital consistently.