We just got a heap-load of carpet (thanks to Don Knight and Team 60 for helping us get it!) and next season will be the first time we have a large area of carpet to practice on. That, and water/dust will interfere with field and robot electronics and make the field setup more complicated. And ice certainly wouldn’t be too popular here in AZ since it wouldn’t last long. All good reasons why carpet is king! More slippery plastic surfaces like in 2003 and 2004 would be fun though.
Whaaa? Could you elaborate? I don’t know anything about games before 2002 and this sounds interesting.
I would like to see a change in the field but to a more manageable surface other than water or ice. You have to keep in mind the field setup and take down times. Water or ice would be hard to manage but I would love to see how teams protect their electronics and stuff. Dirt or mud wouldn’t be that bad but it would be messy, you would see a lot of dirt in the pits too. I say make the whole field out of panels of HDPE.
Maybe recycled tires. Or the whole floor covered in “river rock” type small boulders. Something irregular. Something that needs suspension or artiulation of the drive system of some sort. Or maybe a field with a pit of PlayPlace plastic balls.
EDIT: The more I think about it a long trough (pit) of playplace balls (deep) that splits the field in half would be awesome. And the only way to score is on the other side. I bet getting across those would be harder than you think because you wouldn’t sink to the bottom, yet the top is not rigid/stable. Hrrrmm…
Maize Craze from FIRST’s first (I think) year. The field was a hexagon filled with corn. I think. I don’t know anymore than that.
Obviously, I’m not too sure either… :rolleyes:
And I’m going to have to say carpet is what’s it’s going to be. FIRST doesn’t seem to do “messy” things. (Just think if they penalized for “damaging the playing field” :ahh: )
from the videos that andy baker has that i have seen and from what i have been told. It was infact called maize craze and it involved driving around in corn and collecting tennis balls, there was only 1 competition that year, none of the regional stuff we see today, and the robots were tethered. Some of the robots still exist, but i can only assume that they are merely museum pieces now.
Last year at the Battlecry@WPI offseason they brought back some of the originals and made a scaled-down field. Then between certain matches they had matches with the original robots, tethers and all. There are pictures of it here.
I think those options are cool and all, but not practical (as discussed in other theads. I like obsticals on the field that make things more interesting. Like in 2000, there was that large goal/ramp/bar structure in the middle of the field. you could go under the goals and over the ramp - lots of fun. The teeter-totter bridge in 2001 was alright with the bar you could go over/under. I wasn’t a big fan of the platform in 2003 - there was too much falling off the steps.
I think it would rock if there was some sort of elaborate obstical course on the field. Something other than flat ground. Ramps are deffinetly the way to go so everyone can play without giving much thought to field mobility. having ramps or other barriers on the field make it really interresting to watch. If the scoring or robot interaction isn’t exciting, or is too complex for a person off the street to understand, it is still fun to watch robots traverse different terrains.
I think the 2001 game with the bridge in the field was the most fun. Even if you had no idea what was going on, it was fun to watch how different teams would get their alliance across the field. All 4 'bots can’t fit on the bridge at the same time, so someone has to reset the bridge for someone else… really fun stuff to watch even if you didn’t understand the scoring of the game.
It also gave a good mix of complexity for the more advanced teams. If you want to get everyone over to the other side of the field as efficiently as possible, the more advanced teams learned to do things without the ramp (Robocong from 25 was the coolest in my mind). Also, Wildstang (111) became the ramp moderator to ensure efficient use of the ramp. Lots of roles for everyone!
Ooooo, such a tough decision… I think the water would be cool but I doubt it would ever happen, who decides what goes as far as the field and game play? Is it Dean Kamen that makes the final choice?
I know chances of anything BUT carpet or something very manageable (i like the sheets of slick stuff idea) are slim, but i figured it would be cool to see something a bit more complex. Personally, i would like to see a rock or moonscape surface myself, that wouldn’t be too “dirty” but still give an off road feel to the game.
There’s a FIRST game committee that makes the decissions with regards to the game design and rules. I expect either Dean Kamen, Woodie Flowers, or Dave Lavery is head of the committee, but that their votes count just like the other members’. If anyone else knows more about the process I’d love to hear about it.
Whatever the game is I do think the field should be bigger. It get’s cramped especially with six robots on the field at a time.
And though this is my rookie year I got to see last years field at the Brunswick Eruption earlier this year, and I do prefer last years field. It gave a team more options. Do you want to herd balls, cap those whatchamacallits with the bigger yellow balls, hang your robot (which was much more dramatic to watch than anything I’ve seen in this years game), or all three?
**[RIGHT]We’re the Hammerheads, it would only make sense that we have a water comp. we’re great swimmers.
On a serous note. Yes the field was cramped this year and I believe they did make it bigger but next year for all we know it could just be two teams on the field (its size doesn’t really concern me to much) its all part of the game. [/RIGHT]**
Water is defintly not going to happen… As much as I would love to see it… But I mean robots, high schoolers, and water is not a great mix… I would like to see something with tunnels and or something like that…
Tunnels would be cool. Possibly something like the 2003 center structure, but a tunnel with game pieces underneath. Robots could use the CMUcam to find the game objects.
