I was thinking about what could possibly next year’s game when I noticed there might be a pattern.
The pattern follows the FIRST logo; square, circle, triangle.
2003: Stack Attack (used rectangualar tubs for scoring objects)
2004: FIRST FRENZY (used balls as scoring ojects)
2005: Triple Play (used tetras as scoring objects)
Now I’ve only been part of this since 2004 but I was able to find out about 2003.
Please let me know if this pattern is consistant with earlier years of FIRST
If there is a pattern post what kind of scoring object there was.
The 2002 game also featured balls and movable goals like the 2004 game, to the best of my knowledge the goals were moveable and the robots had to put the balls in the goals not a human player.
Alright, using what I know about FIRST, it seems that there’s a continuous swing from the experimental to the traditional. Some things (autonomous mode) come back for later games, others (4v0 gameplay) don’t.
Consider the innovations:
1992: Well, everything. 1993: Carpet (which was new at the time), radio control
1994: Shooting balls into a goal 1995: Real-time scoring (as opposed to scoring after the field comes to rest)
1996: Balls into a goal 1997: Inner tube scoring objects
1998: Balls, 1v1v1 1999: Alliances, Floppies
2000: Balls again, but with IFI control system 2001: The 4v0 game (albeit with balls)
2002: Balls yet again 2003: Bins, Autonomous mode
2004: Balls, goals…etc. But we do get C-based IFI gear and IR 2005: Tetras, 3v3, Vision
There is a definite pattern to this…anyone wanna guess?
Though I have a feeling it wont go into Squares Rectangles or Boxes Etc. next year
Why?
Because last year FIRST liked the idea of capping, this years game expanded the idea of capping and arms on a robot
After seeing other the giant steps FIRST has taken (Better autonomous / Vision systems / 3 on 3 alliances, Tetras) next years game will most likely be somehting else they would like to expand on…
or maybe some other crazy thing with like Stair climbing or something odd like that!!!
Stair climbing is old and busted. The ultimate stairs were in 1999, where you had to get on top of a movable platform. And last year with some pretty big steps. I vote ladder climbing is next on the list.
i still want to see a PVC cube or even better, capped PVC pipe segments, a big game of pickup sticks, each goal could have a differnt way to get a pvc pipe into it to make it a huge challenge
Co-Opertition First? - 2000: Scored by placing balls in stationary goals and by successfully hanging off the chinup bar - Matchup:2v2
Diabolical Dynamics - 2001: Scored by placing balls in mobile goals / balancing the bridge w/ or w/o goals w/ or w/o robots on the bridge and retreating to the end zone by the end of the match / or match may be ended by teams pressing the e-stop and gaining a time multiplier - Matchup:4v0
Zone Zeal - 2002: Scored by placing balls in mobile goals and teams defending them in their corresponding zones and using a tether like device or the robot itself to go back to the home zone for points - Matchup: 2v2 Notes: First year for Retro-reflective tape
Stack Attack - 2003: Scored by stacking bins and using the highest stack as the multiplier stack - Matchup:2v2 Notes: First year for Autonomous mode and C Programming
FIRST Frenzy Raising the Bar - 2004: Scored by placing small balls in mobile or stationary goals and capping those calls with 2X multiplier and by successfully hanging off the chinup bar - Matchup:2v2 Notes: Second Year for Autonomous and C Programming, First year for IR Beacons
Triple Play - 2005: Scored by capping tetras around the field (Tic Tac Toe type of rules) get 3 of the same color in any direction and gain extra pts, Capping the vision tetra / retreat back to the home zone for extra pts - Matchup 3v3 Notes:Third Year for Autonomous and C Programming, First year for Cameras
I am going to apply Russell Logic to this situation and see what happens.
2003=four sides
2004=one side
2005=three sides
The logical conclusion is that next year we will have to play with objects that have two sides. Please dont think too much about that. I just realised tetras have four sides and cubes have six… Ill just play it safe: I predict that next year we will have a water game.
I noticed the pattern with the logo the day of kickoff! Coincidence? Who knows. The whole idea of the FIRST game is to be unpredictable. My guess is that they won’t be following a trend… but that’s nothing but a mere guess. :rolleyes:
considering that FIRST has only been around a short while now, it seems improbable to extrapolate a pattern or conclusions with such a small data set
also, i doubt they would make any patterns, b/c the heads of FIRST know how smart the kids are that participate in the competition, and they know that at least one would figure out the pattern, if they figured out a pattern, the 6 weeks could almost become null because a team could design months in advanced if they knew the competition
also, there seem to be a lot of ideas flying around here, so you guys should know about Occam’s Razor:
In its simplest form, Occam’s Razor states that one should not make more assumptions than needed. When multiple explanations are available for a phenomenon, the simplest version is preferred
here the simplest explanation is that there is no pattern
I saw we just wait to January and watch the NASA kickoff feed screensaver/background to see what the playing piece looks like since they displayed it this year…I wonder how many people thought nothing of it, I know i did (ofcourse, this is my first year so i had no idea what to expect).
whoops sorry for the mix up. I coulda swore though 2003 had c programming. oh wells, just another way of telling me i’ve been outta the game for too long.
as for a pattern, the only pattern which really isn’t a pattern is FIRST seems to like balls espicially the soccre size ones
maybe next year will be inflatable clowns and a water game - object don’t deflate the clown.
I think any pattern between games is because even when you have people as creative as FIRST does running things some ideas tend stick around and become recycled. I think we alternate between circles squares and triangles frequently because…well you mentally put them in a strong connection with FIRST. I think most of these patterns are from people looking at a game and saying “what could we do differently” and you kind of bounce between opposites.
If I had any chance to guess at the game next year I would go for cheap, durable and accessible field components…mostly because I really want to see it and so I pretend it will happen
It is probably roughly the time that they will give us a blocked field again. Either a bar to go under or a barrier to go over…or something to climb up… This year there was nothing in your way aside from goals and last year we had a fairly open field as well (at least more open than 2003 or 2001.)
I don’t think there will be so many people so close to the robots again…it made too many penalties. If they had something like a box with an open lid actually in the field they could have the back of the box open for loading…and have it just be in the rules that if any robot is within 5 feet of the box (maybe a semicircular line at that point) the box won’t reload. It could be strategic too if you could control when a team gets parts to load
I’m hoping that we get a taller driver’s station because at the Pacific Northwest Regional we came awfully close to capping a driver.
I bet you next year’s base code will be very complete and detailed.
I bet you next year’s autonomous will not be any harder but it will probably be longer.
And I bet you I’m totally wrong…but sounding smart/making noise is far to much fun to not do it.
I think FIRST will next try to use a triangular object once again. It seemed from 2000 - 2002 nothing but balls were used. I don’t know what do you guys think?
