Recently, I have seen many peoples great ideas, including BO3 vs BO1, referee training, replays, and so much more (water game ) . It got me to wondering, what would you all say, if you could choose one NEW thing, that you would want VEX or the RECF to do. Note that I am not saying anything about the practices of either, and I respect both very much, but I wondered what you guys would say is the one important or fun idea that would be great to see implemented. It doesnāt have to be practical, just something fun, new, or creative. I especially want to see what EPs and coaches have to say. Thanks a ton for your answers, there are a lot of people who would want to see them!
I would LOVE to see emcees playing ābrownie pointā games between matches. It involves the spectators and helps fill in gaps between scoring or timeouts
Okay, Iāll bite. Iām from a very rural area. We have 200 kids in our school, from 7th-12th grade. For us to compete, we have to travel, on average, around 3 hours. This makes for a six-hour round trip. There are not enough VRC teams within 2 hours of us to fill a competition. It would be nice if the RECF would recognize that every situation is unique and work with the region to find solutions, instead of trying to cookie cutter the solutions. I think this could also work in place where there arenāt enough competitions. The Oct. 1 deadline, to submit competitions, while great for setting up state competitions, also doesnāt take into account growth in the region.
I also wish that the RECF would take into more voices when making large changes. How hard would it be to send out a survey saying, āThis is the problem that we are encountering, these are some solutions that we have brainstormed. What are your thoughts?ā By doing this, it would stop a good deal of the grumbling. First, the affected parties would know WHY the changes are being made, and we all know that many heads working together can come up with many wonderful ideas. I think the āreplay threadā is a great example of this. With many voices coming together and talking about their perspective, then we all can get a better idea of how everybody is feeling.
Iām sure that Iāll come up with more, but thatās whatās on my mind right now.
@daddycrusader, being from a very populous area, I never thought of that sort of thing. Thanks for sharing, and I fully trust that the RECF will come up with something sooner or later to help out! You should really reach out to Dan directly, and I bet that he will have something good to say.
@Gameoa Not at all! I am predicting that VEX already has this somewhere in the pipelineā¦
They used to do this at the summer EP Summitt, but they havenāt done it recently. All decisions seem to be made prior. Likely due to the fact that VEX continues to grow and at some point it is hard to do.
Iād love to be able to buy those sick new white wheels and red gears/sprockets than the v5 clawbot has separately. the red/black/white of the new robots looks so much better than the green/grey/black of the old bots.
Iād love to see the auton period 5 secs longer. Make it 20 seconds. I think it would be awesome to see what these kids could do with just five more seconds.
Iāve thought about that before. 5 seconds doesnāt seem like much, but the increase in auton competitiveness would skyrocket. Iād really like to see that. However, I highly doubt RECF would ever do that, as it makes it harder for the entry level teams, which they seem to care about most.
In regards to this - I think they should make a basic competition code for the Clawbot that has a simplistic autonomous code (changed for each game as needed) already on it. There have been several times over the years where my team members have stepped in and helped an entry-level team code a quick program in a short time period. When doing so, they sit with the other team and walk them through all the steps & encourage them to modify it at home - most of those teams have been so surprised at how easy it was! Just like building the Clawbot itself - the point is to start with something very specific & simplistic, then to start making minor modifications (make the claw different, adjust how long a time it goes forward, etc), then be ready for major changes.
Making the auton period a bit longer but giving a starting code (for instance, on TP a code that drives forward from the front starting and hits the low flag) might inspire those entry-level teams to expand their knowledge in that area.
Iām not sure premade autonomous would be the best idea, however maybe more accessible vex-sponsored introductions to programming could help. However, getting VCS its first update might should be a first priority, given modkit doesnāt even have a competition template.
Iād love to see more signature events pop up from time to time. I really loved the idea of teams from different regions come together for one competition for a worlds spot.
As @1320D_Programmer mentioned, Iād love to see an increase in terms of autonomus timing. I feel it would motivate teams to focus more on the programming / autonomus actions portion of VEX, as I myself usually leave that part out or unfinished .
I donāt know for sure, but I think it was because many teams only had very simple autonomous routines and often all four robots had finished well before the 20 seconds was over. this then caused a significant wait while the clock counted down to 0.
) . It got me to wondering, what would you all say, if you could choose one NEW thing, that you would want VEX or the RECF to do. Note that I am not saying anything about the practices of either, and I respect both very much, but I wondered what you guys would say is the one important or fun idea that would be great to see implemented. It doesnāt have to be practical, just something fun, new, or creative. I especially want to see what EPs and coaches have to say. Thanks a ton for your answers, there are a lot of people who would want to see them!
