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Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Where’s Dean
Good Morning Teams,
I know teams are starting to give serious thought to the 2010 season. Before you spend too much time planning and preparing, I want to remind everyone: don’t assume 2010 will be anything like 2009. I’ve already mentioned in this blog that we’re reevaluating everything from the kit of parts to the website. So, like Heraclitus said “the only constant is change”. (Well, what he actually said was in Greek, but that’s what he meant.)
Have you heard about the about the new Public Service Announcement Keanu Reeves filmed for us? The Marketing Department is encouraging TV stations across the country to play it, so if you see it in your area, let me know.
Our Kit of Parts Engineer and my Deputy Director are both at NI week with Dean this week. Dean will be giving the Thursday Keynote “Inspiring Present and Future Engineers to Innovate”. Kate and Frank will be connecting with Engineers from around the country promoting FIRST and recruiting support for FRC.
We received 433 responses to the Kit of Parts survey. Thank you to those of you who participated. We’re taking your input seriously.
I don’t think that the game will change throughout the round, as much as this is stating that every aspect of FIRST will change. As he says websites will change and with that, the criteria for other aspects might change: chairmans, events, heck the robot size and weight could change for all we know(more weight would be nice:rolleyes:)
I think that the 2010 Chairmans guidelines are out, and that they are the same as 2009 roughly.
I think that when Bill says that 2010 will be nothing like 2009, he means that something basic will be changed, like the alliances, or a previously unseen game piece.
Also @BrnedanB: We’re all hoping that the weight limit increases!
An idea I’ve had forever was the game would “evolve” as the regional progressed, where after a certain number of rounds a new something would be added to the field, and then again something else would be added and so on.
That’d be really cool, but wouldn’t it also cause the teams who had all of their matches later in the tournament to be put at either a serious advantage or disadvantage (depending on whether the extra something made the game easier/more difficult).
How about this: what would happen if there were game pieces of all different shapes and/or colors. What if during the game the values of pieces scored fluctuated. Like say…for the first minute squares are worth 2 points circles are worth 5 and after the first minute passed they switched. The only thing is that it would make tallying the score absolute heck so I doubt they’d do that.
I like this, only instead of changing per minute, the points and places to score change each match, yet still maintain an equal balance for qualifying points ect.
I have a completely unfounded feeling that our regional travel choices will somehow be more limiting this year. Whether its by hard rules, encouragement, or financial incentives, they could stretch the donation farther by limiting the shipping of robots.
If you think about donated shipping in terms of miles, then FIRST could service more teams for the same donation amount, my encouraging more teams to compete locally, especially for their second regional.
Perhaps FIRST as we know will change to fit the times? With most teams being hit by the economical situation we’re in it’d be a smart decision by all to begin cutting costs where ever possible, and we’ve already seen this with the new entrance fees. Also, rumor has it that the District System will be implemented outside of Michigan, allowing for smaller, lower budget events with more matches and a similar level of excitement. I think the concept of change needs to be applied to FIRST as a whole, rather than just the game.
Personally I’m interested in seeing if any other states end up adopting a system similar to the one used in Michigan in the coming season. I’m not sure if you were referring to a similar idea, but last year almost all of the events were local (local here being within two hours driving). That meant that shipping costs were were more or less the cost of getting a trailer for comps (I’m not totally sure on this fact, someone correct me if I’m wrong).
Yes, areas with large concentrations of teams, like PA, NJ, etc. could do a Michigan style system. Less concentrated areas would have to do something modified. But I have no foundation for my guesses, so I’m going to stop talking now.
What if the score gets affected by a period of time? Back in 07, we got points for having tubes in a row or in a column where the number of tubes in a row, or x, would have your score be 2^x.
In the same manner, what happens if you gain more points as the time progresses? The simplest implementation of this would be king of the hill. Whichever robot is on top is gaining points as time goes on. But this could also be true for game pieces that sit on a platform or robots who sit in a particular section of the field.
Didn’t the 2001 game or the 2000 game, whichever had the the 4 robots on one alliance have this same idea of the quicker you completed the task the more points you got?
At least I thought it did, I just watched a couple of videos and didn’t read the rules or anything of the kind.:o
I can definately see why that wouldn’t have been well liked. One of the best parts of the games I’ve seen (overdrive and lunacy) was the potential for the game to be winable by either team up until the very end (this seemed particularly true in lunacy due to super cells and dumpers). The idea of a team “completing” its task before time is up seems like it might make for pretty short and boring matches. It’s one thing that I’d rather didn’t change.
“The only constant is change” is a hint that probably applies to every season of FIRST.
I honestly think FIRST looks on Chief Delphi and makes a game based on what everyone’s summer projects are. Basically, this year’s game will have no tactical advantage to a swerve drive. Bold prediction?
