Thoughts? (on rule points)

[fleet130]

So would carbonated water would be okay to use?

The rules do say "water", not "carbonated water" Again, my best guess is; it would be OK if you use only the properties of the water. If your usage depends on the C02, it would not. Judges could therefore automatically disallow it based on: "If you're not using the CO2, why use carbonated water?"

Any answer here can only be a guess. The only person who can answer this type of question with any degree of certainty is the one who will be judging you at your tournament.

[Primate]

Thank goodness New York's rule clarifications are explicit and non contradictory:

[DeltaHat]

Nice!

[aubrey048]

About the rules . . .

I heard that this year a ball has to go up a conveyor belt (or something like that) and you get points for every second it stays on the conveyor belt. Is there a maximum amount of time that the conveyor belt can be moving (i.e a cap on how many points you can earn for that task)?

[rockhound]

About the rules . . .

I heard that this year a ball has to go up a conveyor belt (or something like that) and you get points for every second it stays on the conveyor belt. Is there a maximum amount of time that the conveyor belt can be moving (i.e a cap on how many points you can earn for that task)?

There is a max in points that can be earned by the moving mass but not in the amount of time the moving mass moves.

[Melkor6000]

I know this is not quite pertinent to the conversation at hand, but it merits some consideration in any case...

The way the rules read makes it more favorable to a competitor to enter the event with a device that is within specs, but has only two steps, and has a TSL that matches it!!!
I was up until 1 in the morning the night before the regional competition, which was yesterday, trying to make that darn machine work, but nothing aside from the mousetrap and the flag worked 100%. So, I tied the bar from the mousetrap to the pin holding the flag down, and called it a night after typing up a 2-step TSL. The result was 6th out of 10 teams (and a medal for it), because 1 was outside specs, another team entered a pineapple, and two teams' first actions set off their last action inadvertantly. So, for what it's worth, if you need to make a Mission Machine at the last minute, have less steps, make them work, be within specs, and have a TSL, because the rules favor procedure over being visually impressive. Thankfully...

[aubrey048]

I have a question:
My SO team is at my house right now and we are trying to figure out the monofilament task. It says in the instructions that the line breaking must release a mass, and we have it rigged so that the breaking of the line releases a depressed switch. I consider this "releasing a mass," but I'd really like to know for sure if this qualifies as performing the task correctly.
Any thoughts?

[Sir_L_Jenkins]

I suppose it depends really on the judge and their definition of "mass" (I guess you could even argue that the fishing line is a "mass", but not a smart idea), to be safe you could attach a really small weight to it just so you can point out where the mass just in case.

[aubrey048]

Our judges saw the fishing line as a mass.

[maggymay]

About the rules . . .

I heard that this year a ball has to go up a conveyor belt (or something like that) and you get points for every second it stays on the conveyor belt. Is there a maximum amount of time that the conveyor belt can be moving (i.e a cap on how many points you can earn for that task)?

There is a max in points that can be earned by the moving mass but not in the amount of time the moving mass moves.

I know you (aubrey) have probably already built/competed, but wanted to mention that yes, there is an internal bonus for getting this step to work for 30 seconds(I think that's what it is), but *in addition* there is the Ideal Time Bonus and for us this step is practically the only adjustable step among the MP Tasks. Oh, and that it doesn't have to be a conveyor belt.

I know this is not quite pertinent to the conversation at hand, but it merits some consideration in any case...

The way the rules read makes it more favorable to a competitor to enter the event with a device that is within specs, but has only two steps, and has a TSL that matches it!!!
I was up until 1 in the morning the night before the regional competition, which was yesterday, trying to make that darn machine work, but nothing aside from the mousetrap and the flag worked 100%. So, I tied the bar from the mousetrap to the pin holding the flag down, and called it a night after typing up a 2-step TSL. The result was 6th out of 10 teams (and a medal for it), because 1 was outside specs, another team entered a pineapple, and two teams' first actions set off their last action inadvertantly. So, for what it's worth, if you need to make a Mission Machine at the last minute, have less steps, make them work, be within specs, and have a TSL, because the rules favor procedure over being visually impressive. Thankfully...

Oh YEAH, that is about where our MP event-team is at right now...fewer tasks that we know/think we can achieve, leave off the ones that are too hard for us/aren't consistently working. I don't care if it's only 2 or 3 or whatever...I want the blankin' thing to completely work every. single. time.