Operating tutorial for Team 624 (Cinco Ranch High School, BP, and Oceaneering) Scoring/Real-time strategy software:

Click to Skip Tutorial and Go Directly to Scoring/Strategy Software --->

**Click here to download program**

After you click on the "start playbook" button from the main screen, the following screen will appear. Select the appropriate scenario by entering in the scenario code (0 to 3) for each time interval. As the game is running, the scenarios will change depending on the time interval. For a detailed explanation of what the scenario codes are, click on the "LEGEND" button at the left side of the screen.

The last two options on the screen, "Largest allowable score difference in scenario 1" and "Minimum Opponent score for scenario 1" apply to those time intervals with 1 as the selected scenario only. Since scenario 1's goal is to maximize the opponent's score while maintaining the lead, the largest allowable score difference parameter tells the program to only suggest those actions which translate to a lead for your alliance that is under, in this case, 20 points. Minimum opponent score for scenario 1 tells the program to only suggest those actions which help the opponent team to increase their score beyond, in this case, 5.

If scenario 1 is selected for a certain time interval and the home alliance (you) is losing, the program will automatically switch into "Maximum override mode", where it will suggest plausible actions to help your alliance get back into the lead.

Normally, leaving the settings as they initially appear will suffice.

Click the button at the bottom right to start the game. Please note, once the game begins, there is no way to pause the timer.

This is the screen you will see during competition. It contains the buttons used to manipulate the actions during the game.

From the left, the region of the first three columns (it is five rows long) are your goal controls. Looking out onto the playing field, goal 1 (the leftmost column) is the leftmost goal, 2 is the center, and so on. It is ESSENTIAL to remember which goal is which number, as in competition they will get moved around. The first row represents a goal in the farthest zone, where your alliance will score the number of balls in the goal but not the 10 points for the goal itself. The second row represents the goal in YOUR goal+ball scoring zone. The middle row represents the neutral zone, where nothing counts (goals initially start here). The fourth row represents where your OPPONENT'S alliance scores 10 for their goal and whatever balls they have in that goal. The fifth row counts only for your opponent's balls they have in their goal. To move a goal from zone to zone, click the arrow in the appropriate row of the column of the appropriate goal. A check mark will appear on top of the arrow button indicating the location of the goal. If a goal is in the neutral zone, the background of the neutral goal will appear purple (as it does to the left).

The numbers appearing below the arrow buttons will be explained later.
On the right side of the playing screen, the beige cells represent balls in the goals. The grey number in bold to the left of each row is the number of balls in that goal. The rightmost arrow in the "U" formation represents" adding FIVE balls to a single goal at a time. The button immediately left of the "+5" button adds balls one at a time. The button the left of that subtracts one ball from the goal, and the leftmost button subtracts 5. So to add 6 balls to goal 2, one would click the right most button of the goal 2 box once, and click the +1 button (second from the right) once for a total of 6 balls. Each goal keeps an independent ball count.

Below the ball counters, in the faded green and pink colors, are the number of robots in each zone. The right arrow adds a robot to a home zone. The green represents the number of robots in YOUR alliance's home zone (counting for 10 pts each), the red represents your opponent.

Note: It doesn't matter who's robots are in which zone, for example, you can have 3 robots in the green zone and only one in the red.

Below the two-minute timer are four buttons numbered 0, 1, 2, 3. They allow you to OVERRIDE the scenario you originally picked for that time interval if the need arises. The scenario codes are the same as before. <---HIGHLY USEFUL.

So for example, if your team has a large lead early on and you do not want to wait until 1:30 for the scenario to change, simply press 1 to change the current scenario to "Minimize win difference while maintaining lead".

The current scenario is displayed in the text box below where the scores are displayed.

The green score is the score for your alliance, red is your opponent's score.

Finally, the stop button allows you to reset the program for the next use.

AND THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STUFF!!!

The value of this program is not its ability to keep score (any old program can do that). It is its ability to suggest actions for the driver to take to maximize QP's.

As you can see to the left, there are several red lines under certain buttons. Given the situation and the scenario, the program will suggest certain actions that are WISE to follow. In this case, the game has just begun and the program is suggesting the alliance to take one or more of the goals into the scoring zone. It is also recommending that we place a robot in the scoring zone. Now this may seem like a "duh" kind of situation, but it's just an example. When the scenario changes to "minimize score difference", which essentially tries to maximize your QP, the suggested actions are INVALUABLE!

And one last thing. The pairs of numbers you see below each button in the goal sections are what the scores would look like if you were to put a goal in that location. They will change according to the number of balls in each goal (the numbers get pretty icky, so usually you should just follow what the program suggests via the red lines)
 

Good luck to all the FIRST teams!

You are welcome to use this scoring applet during the matches and we encourage you to spread the word about this program to other teams; however, please do not attempt to alter the coding of the program. Also, if you use the program for your own team, we'd love to hear from you! Visit our website at Http://www.cincorobotics.com and drop us a line!