At Saturday's Game Play 7 Strategy meeting, we started a discussion on the purpose of the human player "spy". In particular,
- what does the spy do?
- what can the spy do?
- who is the spy providing information to? (the alliance or just the spy's team?)
- what methods of signaling will the spy use to whoever or whatever is the recipient?
Some examples of possible uses for the spy and problems with the whole spy effort:
- overhearing the conversations of the opposing alliance about what they will do. We may need a large set of signals for this. Besides, the actions of the opposing alliance is mostly in front of the drivers so they can see what's happening. Perhaps some defense might be possible the spy can tell which defenses are targeted next.
- the alliance needs someone to watch the spy. Whoever is doing that is not paying the same level of attention to the field. Maybe this can be another human player from another team.
- watching for loose Boulders - the spy could help with locating loose Boulders that a driver has a hard time seeing from across the field of play. A simple card of some sort with quadrants can tell the story.
- the spy may control a robot from the spy box. Only non-powered means are allowed. Is there a reason for wanting to do this, probably using the video camera? Would this help with shooting the Boulder? or Scaling?
One word: lightsabers.
Real Jedis can apply here !
http://www.boston.com/entertainment/2016/02/23/live-your-jedi-dreams-enormous-light-sword-battle-the-boston-area-this-spring/IeQjcAqiAqnuQQ3hPOplhO/story.html?p1=well_Entertainment_subheadline_hp