Neutral game objects-I like this, teams will be able to fight over balls instead of just going for their own color
Throwing-Good challenge, but it will be hard on set up crew to pick up missed shots
Autonomous- No user interaction!!! 4 preloads/robot
18 inch limit in the ENTIRE match. I do not like this one bit. Starting constraints are good, but getting larger is part of the challenge. This also stops most defensive robots.
–Expansion horizontal in your own corner-I see lots of confusion over this about on the line and such.
–height expansion in last 30 seconds. This sounds like round up again. In competitions with multiple fields running, it will be hard to hear the audio signal for your own field.
Driver control loads- Once again the joy of putting objects into a robot during the match-(can be taken either way)
No descoring of goals. Does this include your own goals if you want to up the score of a ball?
2 pneumatic tanks. I would have thought that with lifting your partner they would remove this.
And the big one-teams may not possess more than 4 game objects at once. Possessing is defined as
which will draw a lot of QA questions
VEXU
You can use:
"An unlimited number of plastic 3D printed parts, each less than 3” x 6” x 6” "
-This rule is very nice, I will elaborate on it in a future post on this thread
Full Field specs are not out at this point, so I will be estimating
Known:
Ball: 4" diameter made of FOAM
Large Goal height: 26 inches
Large goal appears to have a back board for a few inches
Balls are in stacks of 4, you can only hold 4 at a time. Will be nice for skills runs Design
Because you can not extend greater than 18 inches, the max height of a catapult arm will be 18 inches. It would be able to be flat both ways though if in your zone because it would be horizontal expansion. I do not think most teams will go over 18 in height because it only works in the last 30 seconds of the match.
These expansion rules also stop shots from being blocked.
If a robot is about to throw, an opponent will try to hit them at the right time to change the throw. Computer software will help here.
The 2 main designs will be catapults and sling shots.
Standard partner methods will be a feeding robot and a robot that throws/lifts the small one.
Autonomous
Autonomous bonus is 10 points-this is very little compare to the rest of the point values of scoring in a high goal, but many points compared to a low goal.
Does elevating your partner count in autonomous like hanging in Toss up?
Autonomous and elevating will be the deciding factors in early competitions as they are worth the highest points and are easiest to get.
I think teams will want to grab the orange balls as they are worth more to prevent the opponent from getting them. pushing them over to your side would be good enough for this as a single orange ball is worth the autonomous bonus.
Scoring
Assuming a robot could score a regular ball in the high goal every 10 seconds they would score about 50 points. Now if this same robot was just a cortex that could be lifted easily, it would also be worth 50 points. I forsee this happening a lot early in competitions.
Later, groups will want to build a simple but semi effective device that can be lifted so that you get the 50 points for elevating.
Now if you were to make a robot that could throw quickly and accurately, you could offset the 50 points quickly. Now if a robot is able to hang on the wall-see below, a single robot could do this with 1 motor to be low elevated.
Lifting your partner
Rules state that you can touch field perimeter. Can you use this to lift yourself? or would this be considered latching to a field object?
Robot can not be touching any field elements-I assume this means that it can not be holding balls at the end???
Some kind of lock will be required to hold up a robot most likely.
Robot sizes are the same as previous years. Height limits are relative to robot size.
45 second autonomous period- seems good for this game. With neutral objects collisions over objects could affect autonomous. 45 seconds seems like a good length allowing some teams to recover from collisions but not take up full match.
Can driver control loads be used during autonomous??? If yes teams just shoot from tile the entire time.
Unlimited 3D printed parts each of a size of 3x6x6:
This is the rule that I am most excited for. Theoretically a team could print an entire robot and screw it together, and add electronics!
The game objects for this are small: This means that they are easy to carry around in a car in a bag, but are also likely to get lost. Balls are made of foam. If squished/stepped on will they rebound?
I wonder if there will be extra balls in the game object kit?
Cloth net-easy to transport, will it rip or wrinkle badly?
Pipes-look like same pipes as previous games.
Previous kits have cost $500. There is not much to this game, if it costs this much, I think people will be overpaying.
Between the goals is a nice place to put a monitor. Throwing should not be directed at it making it a rather safe location.
How will balls change during season??? Worlds always uses new game objects. As a season continues objects change. Smooth plastic becomes more rough, sacks get soft. When you go from those objects to new ones at worlds normally bad stuff happens. With throwing being a large part of the game, I predict bad things will happen.
Balls leaving the field: Balls roll. If thrown out of the field by mistake. Staff will have a very fun time trying to catch them
Field reset. Depends on friction between balls and floor. With one sitting on top, it may be hard to set it up.
Preloads/driver loads-events may want to have a bucket for these so they don’t roll away
Audio/timing: This will be important because of the rule about extending height in last 30 seconds to above 18". At large events, it may be hard to hear this if multiple fields are running. Field monitors will be helpful.
Yes the 3D printing rule this year was make or break for me. I’m insanely glad that the RECF / GDC listened to my (and others) borderline blowout on this last year.
I love the way they worded this and it’s implications. It’s perfect.
The game is very interesting. It’s simple, easy to explain, easy to ingest. Shoot balls into the net that’s your color, hit the top bit and get more points. Couldn’t be easier, but that’s very tricky and I’m sure it’ll yield some interesting designs.
As for the 1x3x1 c-chan, it’s been 1458 days since I suggested it and it’s finally happening!
Unlimited 3D parts, a game with a mostly open playing surface and my 1x3x1 chan. Pinch me, I must be dreaming.
I agree, I wish that we could expand the robots, though I do understand why they are doing that. Also, basically you can only expand when picking up (or attempting to) your alliance? I also think that it is interesting that (from what I understood) there are no floor goals. It will be interesting to see what teams do when their lift (upper half now I suppose) stops working work on field
For VEX U, I think one immobile or barely mobile robot (the 24") dedicated to shooting completely across the field accurately + an extremely, stupidly fast and lightweight 15" robot dedicated to collecting objects is the way to go.
Honestly thinking an H drive for the stupid fast robot may be best here. Like one motor for strafing and at least three per side. Build it with an arched plow in front and just ram into the piles of balls, line up four internally and head back to the shooter.
Worth noting that since the 24" doesn’t leave the climbing zone, it can grow as much as it wants and is an excellent candidate to lift the smaller faster robot at the end of the match.
As a team that used all steel last year, I can say that I’m not a fan of the whole lifting thing. It’s going to be more than a bit tricky weight- wise. I do like the shooting though, it seems to work well in FRC, so why not here?
Did they announce this information or was a game manual released and I haven’t found it yet? In ethier case I’ve obviously missed something haha Cheers!
Cheers!