I was trying to find specific rules on how big you are allowed to be. I originally thought you had to fit in an 18^3 box through out the whole round other than last 30 seconds in climbing zone. that’s when I ran into these 4 rules that don’t seem to make sense together.
Robots may expand beyond their starting size constraints after the start of a match.
If a Robot has expanded beyond its 18"x18"x18" size limitation and is outside the Climbing Zone it is responsible for any type of Entanglement that occurs with an opponent. If an expanded Robot becomes Entangled while fully within its Climbing Zone, its opponent would be responsible.
<SG10>Robots may expand beyond their normal maximum perimeter of 18" by 18" only while completely within the volume of the Climbing Zone. Robots may expand above the 18" height limit while completely within the volume of the Climbing Zone and with less than thirty seconds (0:30) left in the Match.
<SG3> A Robot may not expand beyond a volume of 18 inches wide by 18 inches long by 18 inches tall at any point during the Match, with the exception of the allowance listed in <SG10>. Minor violations of this rule that do not affect the match will result in a warning. Egregious (match affecting) offenses will result in a Disqualification. Teams that receive multiple warnings may also receive a Disqualification at the head referee’s discretion.
Since the official Q&A isn’t open yet I’ll try explain my interpretation of these rules. From my understanding the confusing part comes from the difference between the Game rules, the rules and the Specific Game rules, rules. The initial rule you’ve quoted is a rule and is probably identical to what it is every year. The rest of the rules are Specific game rules and work within the rule. So although it states we can expand outside 18" the specific game rule explain the situations when it’s allowed and how rulings will be made.
From this we can work out that;
-Expansion horizontally is legal at any time the robot is in the climbing zone
-Expansion vertically is only legal in the last 30 seconds and the robot is in the climbing zone.
If you then leave the climbing zone you are then responsible for any entanglement that occurs.
Are we allowed to expand in the climbing zone and only the climbing zone any time during the match height wise? and only horizontally in the last 30 seconds? The way I read it is that you are allowed to leave the climbing zone expanded as long as its the last 30 seconds, am I wrong?
Robots may only expand outside of 18"x18"x18" while completely within the volume of the Climbing Zone.
Robots may only expand vertically with less than thirty seconds (0:30) left in the Match.
In other words, at any point during the match, a Robot completely within the volume of the Climbing Zone may expand outward outside of their 18"x18" perimeter. Only with thirty seconds left in the match may a Robot completely within the volume of the Climbing Zone expand vertically.
This is only my interpretation, but to me this is exactly how the rules are worded.
Though as for expanding in the zone and then leaving, I doubt that would be legal, but that rule about entanglement outside the climbing zone makes me question my interpretation of that.
I feel this is going to make the game quite interesting on how people may try to score.
After reading what Jordan wrote and rereading <SG10> (several times) I think his interpretation is correct. I’ll edit my original post when I get chance.