Looks like a chain “4 bar”? Efficient.
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Yeah it is! I might try to make a ball hopper part soon, basically on the side of the battery it would be a hopper from the HP station and loads into the pipe.
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I am going to “update” the rules to include the 1 of each game piece limit in the FRC Blog. So a hopper wouldn’t be needed. But a ball grabber would.
So only one pipe but you can have multiple balls? I thought the point was to load like 4 balls into the pipe
You can put more in after the pipe is placed!
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Hi, I’m here to rot your brain even further.
FIRST Overdrive was closer in time to Maize Craze than it is to Reefscape.
If you’re an alum over the age of ~31 who joined a team in your freshman year of high school, more than half the existence of FRC has been since you started participating.
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i wasn’t even there for those games, crescendo was fully my first ever frc game but that still breaks my brain. (i simply appreciate old frc)
Ref-Escape: the most egregious penalties unnoticed by the ref, the more points you get!
In all seriousness, this looks like such a great game. I’d be psyched to have something like this in 2025!
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As a late 30-something who did FIRST in high school and Overdrive was the first game I mentored…. STOP IT. lol
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Overall, tho this is such a cool concept
If this ends up being the actual game, that would be super cool — but unlimited balls would be cooler
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I have some constructive feedback for ya, Zook!
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I think the pipe feeder stations are way too close to the “clean zone” of the opposing alliance. It seems too easy for your opponent to just roll a game piece into their opponents zone at the last minute and deprive them of the 5 point bonus…
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Speaking of which, awarding 5 additional points per team for both spaces being clean doesn’t actually do anything – no real motivation to let your opponent’s stay clean. Maybe this should have resulted in a ranking point instead of just regular points. If awarding a ranking point, then game pieces need to start in the clean zone to be cleared, to avoid teams opting to not move at all just to get an RP.
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I feel there’s no enough action in the corners of the field, and will just be a place that stuck balls just start piling up. Putting angular rails at the corners prevent a pile-up, but more importantly, need to find a motivation for a team to utilize (or defend in) their own side of the field other than the very middle to collect tennis balls.
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Again, what’s with the ball bin? Scoring there doesn’t earn any more points for your team (relatively) unless this game is based on high overall scores instead of “winning” a match by earning more points than your alliance. It could still be another motivation for RP, but needs to have something to work towards in elims.
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The protected zones seem too close to the climbing area. I feel like robots in their own protected zone could interfere with robots trying to climb – maybe that’s the risk? Regardless, there are only 2 movement zones for 6 robots, which will create a huge choke point (I assume one cannot or should not try to drive over the pipe holder) while the rest of the field is basically un-utilized.
All points valid! Back to the heart of this “game”, I just wanted to make something around picking up pipe. Not reading the limit on game piece handling really messed things up.
To respond to the points:
- Yeah, not well thought out. Maybe I was thinking that the 5pt was if their OWN pipes were clear? And the passages are too narrow, allowing for a bottleneck if teams want to avoid a blockade.
- I think there was an RP thought in my head about end of the game, and if a threshold was met… then I got tired. For the pipe, maybe there is a limited number of Blue pipes, so if a Blue pipe is in the Red clean zone, it’s a wasted scoring opportunity for Blue. And if there is an RP for points total, that may entice teams to keep their pipes from rolling into their opponent’s clean zone? Maybe.
- The field is WAY too empty. I like the idea of deflectors. Also I had the idea of some pipe or balls (of the 9) being placed on the field on steps of varying heights pre-match.
- The point of the ball bin was for some sort of RP. But I neglected writing anything. I also like the idea of there being a way that low level teams can score the “easy” game piece. Tennis balls dropped into pipes, or launched into a bin pretty easy for most teams. Perhaps there’s a center wall that separates Blue and Red sides of the bin. And if total balls scored in both bins exceeds a level, an RP or some other bonus kicks in.
- Yeah. You run into two protected zones overlapping based on general robot size. Red robot in their feeder protected zone contacts Blue robot climbing on their platform… free climb? tech foul for red?
I will meditate on these ideas and may make some mods. But, in the end, a pick & place game with some sizeable reach and a rigid tube game piece was the goal.
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