While discussing possibilities for next year’s game with others, I thought of a pretty cool idea for a future game.
A common requirement for vex games is that they have to be easy enough for beginning teams, yet still challenging enough for experienced teams.
So, the new game I thought of would be named Vex Ascension, where the goals would be boxes of sizes 0.5 ft by 0.5 ft, 1 ft by 1 ft, 1.5ft by 1.5ft, and 2 ft by 2ft that are stacked inside of each other and are located near the 4 corners of the field. The cool part of this game would be that the goals would rise certain distances at certain times. For example, the smallest and innermost box (0.5ft by 0.5ft) would initiate it’s climb in autonomous and would be worth the most if scoring objects were to be put inside. (There would be no need for an autonomous bonus.) Then the next level could rise after 30 seconds of the match has elapsed. And finally the third of the 4 scoring boxes could rise after 1 minute has passed. Each box could rise 1ft above each succeeding one and therefore the highest box would be around 36" high, challenging enough for experienced teams.
The playing objects could be anything: balls, tetrahedrons, etc. and could be descorable.
I think that this game would be very interesting. What do you guys think?
I was thinking that Vex could use those lifts that some chairs use to rise up (dunno what they are called though).
The field would be, for the majority, open although something special could be in the middle but I haven’t thought of anything yet.
And yes I know, I wish I had thought of it earlier. Maybe I’ll make a game animation for next year since this game design could use almost any game objects.
The name Ascension makes me think that there should be some sort of climbing structure in the middle of the field. We’ve seen ladders and elevated platforms before, but what about some kind of spiral-staircase structure? A robot that can climb stairs is something that would be hard to build, so the point value of getting up the staircase should be high.
I would think this would be expensive… However i did have an idea about the rising goals before. I was thinking what if goals were on pulleys. As weight is added on one side, one goal would be pushed down, while one goal would raise up. Now how to apply this to a game could be interesting
It would be cool if instead of a pulley, there was a balance in the middle of the field with one blue side and one red side with baskets 30 inches up, so whoever scored on their side first would cause the balance to tip to their side. This would make for some interesting strategies since whomever got their game object inside the balance first will have a big advantage early on since the red has to score on a super high balance to bring it down to a more manageable height.
Another interesting factor is if robots get points the higher up they travel on the beam. As a result, they need to displace more and more game objects for a high endgame bonus. Or maybe they need to then raise those objects high for an endgame bonus that gets harder the more effecively you play the opening/middle
