Or a walk off.
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Weāve always made our own, but thatās pretty darn convincing.
Also:
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Just a question (and slightly off topic Iām sorry)ā¦ do COTS vendors get insider information on the game before it comes out? Seeing as EVERYONE is making elevator kits, it would seem they know something we donāt. For example everyone released Rapid React specific COTS mechanisms last year on the reveal day, I specifically remember the WCP Greyt shooter and turret coming out not long after the game was revealed.
It also could be the fact that weāve had all these shooting games in the past and its been speculated its a placing game, but it wouldnāt make sense for a company to spend a bunch of money developing and getting ready to sell something that isnāt going to get bought if the game doesnāt use that type of mechanism.
They do not in any way, shape, or form get insider info.
However, we can make educated guess on what type of game it could be. We know how FIRST designs games and which teams work on them. Then we look at past games to see a certain pattern. But you got to take all of it with a grain of salt. Also, a lot of these COTS items came out during years which the game didnāt require them. For instance the original WCP elevator came out during a shooting game (or close to it).
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Then how do they stock game pieces?
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Well @Andy_Baker will have to correct me here but FIRST calls up Andymark and tells them a shipment is coming, how much it weighs, unit count, and the general space it will take. Theyād probably also give general shipping info without actually saying what it is.
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Just because you have a game piece doesnāt mean you know the game. Destination Deep Space had balls, but wasnāt a shooting game, for example. Itās true that a company like AndyMark sells game pieces for us. Whatās not clear is how they get them - does first say āhereās a part number, go get what you think you wantā, or are they just a middle-man. FIRST can easily say āWe expect demand for the game piece to be X, theyāre going to cost you Y per piece, how many do you want?ā, and then deliver them to AndyMark in late December for stocking their shelves.
Knowing Andy, I expect he takes the confidentiality of the game and game pieces very seriously. If someone at the company has to know what the game piece is, heāll try to make sure they learn it as late as possible and keep that knowledge as contained as possible. If you just have a couple of people who know the game piece (someone in charge of purchasing, a couple people in the warehouse unloading the trucks, for example), itās pretty easy to make sure they donāt talk to the people responsible for designing products, for at least a few weeks 
Plus, keep in mind the product lifecycle here. The time investment to not only design a part, but then test it, iterate on it, set up manufacturing for it, perform additional QA before ramping up full production is significant. Itās not something they turn around in a month to get products out the door.
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Can you elaborate on how you are able to state this so definitively?
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Silly me, making a definitive statement on the internet. Do I believe thereās some people out there that know? Probably. Can we say it most likely doesnāt affect us here in any way? yeah probably. If you reason it out and think about it ādo vendors have insider knowledge and making products we need for the next gameā thatād mean EVERY vendor could spoil things just by having coinciding products. Also, do you think any vendor here would be like āyeah we get insider info and we made this mechanism for it!āā¦noā¦nor do I think they will specify any amount of insider info if they have it. That would break confidence and thatād be no fun.
On a later note, Iāve been on CD awhile and have seen multiple times @R.C , @Ryan_Dognaux , and many other say no, they do not get insider info.
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Absence of evidence is not evidenceā¦
Iām also laughing hysterically at the idea that Andy is going around blind folding the warehouse folks so they canāt see the game pieces. I heard Andy personally put duct tape over @Nick_Lawrenceās mouth to make sure Nick doesnāt say anything.
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I think Andymark manufactured significant portions of last years field. They put out a survey asking how many āmajorā field elements teams would buy, and then sold a competition high goal last season. I thought that officially hatch panels were Vex products back in deep space (and obviously required some design).
I donāt know exactly what big suppliers know, but itās obviously not nothing.
To be honest, Iād like to see but suppliers know the game before kickoff. That way they can have enough stock on usefull stuff for the season.
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In my head I was separating vendor and supplier and never wrote it out (not that they are completely different). Itād make sense that the people actually manufacturing the game pieces or field components would have some knowledge of what the game is.
Also, I donāt want Nickās mouth duct tapped shut. I think Nick is really cool.
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This makes a lot more sense now. I think you can probably even extend this circle a bit further too.
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Noā¦ That is not how it works.
What happens is that right after Kickoff, @Andy_Baker orders all the parts and then has them delivered before Kickoff using Einstein Express!
As far as Iām aware, suppliers who have close ties to FIRST get some limited amount of info before the season starts. The amount of information is limited and I think has been decreasing each year. I think itās hard to make definitive statements when this, like so many other things in FIRST, are kept secret.
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yet you still havenāt run it over with your subaru 
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2013: Flat field
2014: Flat field
2015: Flat field (except for the scoring zones, which didnāt require teams to climb on them
It wasnāt a huge leap of faith to guess that 2016ās game might feature some sort of terrain. Also, creating T-shirt cannons to be used at sportsball games were the rage among teams at that time; even if the Rhino tracks werenāt useful for the FRC game, there would be interest among offseason projects.
While it would have been a potential coincidence, FIRST confirmed that they did give information about the 2016 game to suppliers:
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Well with new info (new to me) Iād like to update my opinion on the matter. Turns outā¦they do but itās murky who knows what and when.
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