During the REC Foundation Season Contingency Town Hall Webinar on September 16th, we had the pleasure of previewing our plans for a “live remote head-to-head” gameplay platform. If you missed it, be sure to check out the video here:
Now, VRC and VIQC games are not designed for this type of “one-robot-per-field” environment! So, in parallel with the technology development, the GDC has been working on a set of rule modifications that can be applied to live remote head-to-head tournaments.
The final, official rules will be released in a supplemental Game Manual Update on October 1. However, to help you start visualizing what remote gameplay will look like, we wanted to provide some high-level previews of the changes.
Obligatory disclaimer - the information in the bullet points below are not final, not complete, subject to change, and provided as a preview only. This has not been written in formal Game Manual legalese (intentionally), there are some things still being worked on (that are not listed below), we will not answer Q&A’s about this forum post (although I’m going to stick around in this thread), etc.
VIQC Rise Above
- One team / robot per field, two Teams per Alliance
- New starting field layout - only six Risers of each color, instead of nine
- In-match gameplay remains the same
- To score Risers and Completed Rows, the two fields are “combined”. For all intents and purposes, you can picture the two Teams’ fields being stacked on top of each other and scored as one “Alliance field”.
- For example, if Team A has scored one of the three Risers needed for a Completed Row, and Team B has scored the other two, then this would be considered a valid Completed Row for the Alliance.
- To score a Completed Stack, the Stack must be completed by one Team on their own field.
- For example, if Team A has one Riser in a Goal, and Team B has two Risers in the same Goal on their field, this is not considered a Completed Stack.
VRC Change Up
- One team / robot per field, two Teams per Alliance, two Alliances playing head-to-head
- Same starting field layout as a standard match
- All scoring is “cumulative” between the two Teams on an Alliance. For all intents and purposes, you can picture the two Teams’ fields being stacked on top of each other and scored as one.
- One way to visualize it would be a “Red Alliance field” and a “Blue Alliance field”.
- The “Red Alliance field” and “Blue Alliance field” are scored independently of each other, and compared against each other to determine Ownership (more details below).
- The rules for the Autonomous Period and Autonomous Win Point will be philosophically the same.
- The Autonomous Win Point criteria will be calculated using the new “Ownership” scoring described below. There may be some minor verbiage tweaks to accommodate this.
- There may be minor logistical tweaks involved with the remote environment (e.g. marking “ready” to move to Driver Control).
- Balls of your Alliance’s color are worth 2 points when Scored in a Goal.
- Balls of the opposing Alliance’s color are worth 1 point when Scored in a Goal.
- Connected Rows are worth 9 points.
- Ownership of a given Goal (for the purpose of determining Connected Rows) is given to the Alliance with more points Scored in that Goal. (example below)
- If a Robot is contacting a Goal at the end of the Match, then all Balls in that Goal are worth double points.
- This applies both to raw point values, and determining Ownership.
- This applies to both Teams’ fields - i.e. the “Alliance field” receives the “doubler” on that Goal, not just that Team.
- This rule will have many “benefit of the doubt” and “intent of the game” details to aid with referee judgment calls. (no “paper tests” over a webcam, we promise)
- There are no Possession limits.
I know… It’s a lot to take in. Here is an example of how this will be calculated. If you look at one particular Goal on all four Teams’ fields, and they have these Balls Scored in them, then this is how you would determine Ownership:
If Red Team A was contacting their Goal, thus earning a “doubler”, it would be calculated as follows:
Let’s go play some robots!