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FIRST Power Up

Spectrum watched the 2018 FRC teaser tonight in our lab and we have some initial reactions. 
Elevation Changes
  • Power UP – makes it pretty obvious that robots will have to climb something,
  • that may be stairs like the student walks down in the beginning of the clip or it could be ramps that robots have to drive up.
  • There are stairs/ramps in the poster and on top of the arcade machine

Coins
  • Collecting them as a game piece
  • Discs/Frisbees/Disc Golf Discs
  • If you turn in coins your human players can put out different game pieces based on the amount of coins.
  • Possibly scoring in coin slots
  • Tiny coins (like 1in or less)
  • Large coins (2 ft or bigger diameter)
  • Coin dispensers on the field, so you have to pull something, push a block, hit something, to release more coins (hoppers?)
  • 500 = Coin Amount on the field?
    • (Searches for “500” in google did not return any relevant results)

Power Ups = changes or bonuses mid match
  • Bonus points
  • Get certain items or score in a certain order and then there are multipliers. Similar to ubertubes in 2011
  • Unlock certain parts of the game or objectives after scoring or completing objectives
  • Possibly get to choose which power ups to use each match
    • Audience selection of power ups?
FIRST Logo on poles (similar to logo motion)
  • Possibly hanging logos like 2011
  • Maybe have to get logo pieces off the poles instead of putting them on
  • 4 out of 5 games on the machine were pick and place games
    • 2005, 2007, 2011, 2017 (not 2016)
Misc
  • Human players score the game pieces on the side of the field similar to pilots placing gears this year.
  • Size changes?
  • The power ups may allow your robots to expand to a taller or larger size.
  • Inflatable robots (unlikely but cool)
  • Video Game Mechanics
  • A lot of things are possible with video mechanics.
  • Mystery boxes
  • Co-op elements
      • Intra alliance co-op elements were it takes multiple robots on an alliance to do something
      • Inter alliance co-op similar to 2012/2015 (hopefully not)
  • Barrel Jumping/Ladder Climbing

Just for Fun
  • Fire Alarm = Lava Game

– Spectrum


Source: Spectrum

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