Generic Contest Discussion

[Seasider]

It was TC6 all the way back in 2015.

it was titled the Sbrick competition but you could use PF too for those of us who didn’t have an Sbrick.

Rules were to build something with 4 functions and 2 IR receivers … equivalent of what an Sbrick does.

yes you had to provide a video demonstrating the functions

 

 

Edited August 22, 2023 by Seasider

[msk6003]

11 hours ago, Jundis said:

Not a new idea, but did we do a Control+ only TC?

I know the new electronics are not that welcomed by most of us, but maybe we can promote them a little with a future contest?

To not make this a pay2win, maybe online 1 standard control+ hub allowed and max of 4 motors. But built the model as you wish?

I said C+ contest also everytime before. Rule is also same as yours but after many reject from everyone, I don't have any more hope and dreams.

The key reason most people rejected it was that it was going to be a Mindstorms contest, but in the first place Mindstorms is also a sub-genre of Technic and a topic covered in this forum, so why not?

 

But if we do it, I hope all powered up and C+ line hub is allowed. Include spike prime/51515's 6 port and spike essential's 2 ports, and It also includes the wedo 2.0 hub, which probably no one will ever use. If it's allowed, I will make 100% scale of studless 8485 Control center II.

Edited August 23, 2023 by msk6003

[SaperPL]

@Jim is there a place where are previous contests are linked? If not, wouldn't it be good to have a pinned post with all previous contests where you could reach the contest description and entries? I remember someone posted a compiled list from the beginning to a specific contest some time ago in this discussion, but it's not the same as some pinned access to historical list of contests.

[Jim]

6 minutes ago, SaperPL said:

@Jim is there a place where are previous contests are linked?

Yes. there is.

6 minutes ago, SaperPL said:

If not, wouldn't it be good to have a pinned post with all previous contests where you could reach the contest description and entries?

Have you checked if there could be a logical pinned topic with this information? 

[SaperPL]

15 minutes ago, Jim said:

Yes. there is.

I think I ate "all" in my sentence. My point was is there a thread listing all previous contests that is pinned...

Can you point me in the right direction? I may be blind/not knowing where to look for it. I don't see anything like that pinned in this section. Unless there is an index thread for whole forum will all sections/themes contests?

19 minutes ago, Jim said:

Have you checked if there could be a logical pinned topic with this information? 

I did try looking for it through search function assuming that it will be a topic that has technic and contest in its title, but I didn't notice anything like a list of contests.

[Jim]

4 minutes ago, SaperPL said:

I did try looking for it through search function assuming that it will be a topic that has technic and contest in its title, but I didn't notice anything like a list of contests.

Try looking at the currently pinned topics. Not a lot of them. You will figure it out  

[SaperPL]

2 minutes ago, Jim said:

Try looking at the currently pinned topics. Not a lot of them. You will figure it out  

Yep, I'm blind, thanks! .

It's like with the saying that goes: The Best Place To Hide A Dead Body Is The Second Page Of Google :D

[Jim]

3 minutes ago, SaperPL said:

Yep, I'm blind, thanks! .

It's like with the saying that goes: The Best Place To Hide A Dead Body Is The Second Page Of Google :D

Or in our caste; The Best Place to Hide a Pinned Topic is at the Top of the Topic List  

[howitzer]

If there was a PU contest I'd hope that the rules allowed also RI/Spike hub and sensors, in addition to Technic hub and motors. The restriction of max 4 peripherals (sensors/motors) is fine though.

[gyenesvi]

I guess it would be okay to allow all available hubs/HW elements to be used to enable as many participants as possible, however I think it would be important to differentiate a contest that is about programming/robotics/automation (i.e. Mindstorms) with PU stuff from a contest that is about RC models (i.e. Technic), in order to be able to properly compare entries. Both sound interesting, but they sound quite different to me.

So which of the two are you guys thinking about? I would personally be interested in both, have hardware for both. I have never really used my Mindstorms set for good, a competition would be a nice excuse. However, I suspect more people have PU HW for RC stuff.

[Jundis]

7 minutes ago, gyenesvi said:

So which of the two are you guys thinking about? I would personally be interested in both, have hardware for both. I have never really used my Mindstorms set for good, a competition would be a nice excuse. However, I suspect more people have PU HW for RC stuff.

Exactly my thoughts. I see myself more in the RC group, never been that interested in coding. Surely this would be the more attracting TC.

Maybe even then get a rule to include at least 1 mechanism appart from driving and steering, or we will see many 2 and 3 motored vehicles I guess. :D

Even in normal cars, a lifting spoiler, convertable action or suspension change would make it more interesting from a technical perspective.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Jundis

[SaperPL]

Since you're already dropping ideas for future contest: Fixed size requirement doesn't necessarily need to mean a small model. A 1:8 or 1:10 supercar-sized contest could be interesting as we have some experienced builders doing those here from time to time. From my perspective it would be clear how big your model needs to be to compete against others this way. Such requirement might mesh well with RC-based contest as well :)

[allanp]

Suggest ideas all you want, @Jim will likely read but not comment so as to not give people an early advantage.

[Akassin]

About the Mindstorm Contest: Are you sure you want a contest with 5-6 participants again? (not so long ago there was a TC23). I have been on this forum since 2019 and all these years, with every discussion of the competition, I have heard requests for a GBC competition. And when this moment came - we got 6 participants (at the same time there was only one participant who is professionally involved in GBC). Mindstorm theme may be even less popular

[Jim]

53 minutes ago, Akassin said:

About the Mindstorm Contest: Are you sure you want a contest with 5-6 participants again? (not so long ago there was a TC23). I have been on this forum since 2019 and all these years, with every discussion of the competition, I have heard requests for a GBC competition. And when this moment came - we got 6 participants (at the same time there was only one participant who is professionally involved in GBC). Mindstorm theme may be even less popular

Agreed. I am thinking about simply allowing electronics for the next contest instead of a dedicated electronics contest.

1 hour ago, allanp said:

Suggest ideas all you want, @Jim will likely read but not comment so as to not give people an early advantage.

Yup. O wait, I just commented  

[gyenesvi]

2 hours ago, Akassin said:

About the Mindstorm Contest: Are you sure you want a contest with 5-6 participants again?

That's what I fear too.. so an RC contest sounds more promising.

1 hour ago, Jim said:

I am thinking about simply allowing electronics for the next contest instead of a dedicated electronics contest.

That might make some happy, but in my opinion comparing / judging manual models vs motorized models is hard and often meaningless, unless it's another "recreate an existing model's functionalities" contest, because then the criteria is to compare each to the original, not to each other. In a dedicated electronics contest, the RC capabilities of models can be compared. That coupled with a scale constraint can make the competition interesting and the comparison easy / meaningful.

[SaperPL]

1 hour ago, gyenesvi said:

because then the criteria is to compare each to the original, not to each other.

The will still be compared to each other if both recreate the original to the same degree...

1 hour ago, gyenesvi said:

That coupled with a scale constraint can make the competition interesting and the comparison easy / meaningful.

Yep, the specific scale, not necessarily small (although it seems to have shown good results with TC18 and few others) is something that works well.

[msk6003]

7 hours ago, Akassin said:

About the Mindstorm Contest: Are you sure you want a contest with 5-6 participants again?

Considering most people has least 1 C+/powered up hub nowadays and the distinction between Mindstorms and Technic is blurry, we can do C+/powered up contest but also allow to use spike/51515 hub.

But most of people don't own sensor so allow sensor is maybe some unfair.

7 hours ago, Akassin said:

And when this moment came - we got 6 participants (at the same time there was only one participant who is professionally involved in GBC)

Only reason why I'm not enter GBC contest even I requested some time is just not allowed pure system module.

[Ngoc Nguyen]

A couple of years from now when there are more micro panels, perhaps we can do a technic recreation x small car contest: recreate a speed champion set in Technic small car scale.

[MangaNOID]

On 7/25/2023 at 3:21 PM, Jim said:

I can already tell you that next contest will have color restrictions 

 Build something in grayscale from a certain movie franchise…

[HorcikDesigns]

Well, maybe it was discussed here before - tool/household appliance/gear - simply everyday objects (no weapons!) contest might be something fresh and out of comfort zone for many of us. It also might be nice to include smaller parts of bigger machines (like side mirrors from car
You want to build model of favourite engine? go ahead, without wheels attached but with detailed camshaft. Hope that someone builds you some oil pump. 
Adjustable side mirror or car seat with all fancy knobs you know from high-end cars? yes, of course.
Washing machine? What are you waiting for?
Hand mixer or kitchen robot? Hope you will be allowed to disassemble it after presenting it in kitchen.
Chainsaw? Hope you do not shoot presentation video in Texas, that might interfere with the no-weapon rule 
Hand held drilling machine? great, will there be BI for this MOC?
Working Camera with lens? Well, if you use only original LEGO parts, then you're already a winner. :D
Sewing machine with working mechanism? Well, dark magic is not prohibited...
mower? it is not a vehicle even when it has wheels, but do not make it garden tractor.
And so on.

What do you think about it?

Edited August 24, 2023 by HorcikDesigns

[Jim]

1 hour ago, HorcikDesigns said:

Well, maybe it was discussed here before - tool/household appliance/gear - simply everyday objects (no weapons!) 

This is actually the idea for my first contest. But then TLG suggested to do a Triple Build contest. We have never done this anymore. We will definitely do this one day, but it's not at the top of my list right now. 

9 hours ago, gyenesvi said:

That might make some happy, but in my opinion comparing / judging manual models vs motorized models is hard and often meaningless, 

I don't agree with you on this one. For me, adding motors and electronics doesn't add much in terms of the build. This is one of the main reasons I mostly don't allow electronics. People tend to think they can do special stuff with electronics, but most functions can be made manual. For me, it's mostly about the build and the functions. These functions don't need to be operated electronically to make a good model.

But I am interested to hear other people's thoughts on this matter.

[Seasider]

I think the Powered vs Manual is an interesting discussion. My view is that in terms of public vote a Powered set will always beat its Manual equivalent just because “it’s cooler”, even if it may be more of a challenge to create the manual set. Powered models also look better in videos as you don’t have clumsy human hands in the video.

But another one I find interesting in competitions is “licensed” (a design from a company in the world) vs “own design”, again the “licensed” model often gets more of the public vote.

[Jim]

7 minutes ago, Seasider said:

I think the Powered vs Manual is an interesting discussion. My view is that in terms of public vote a Powered set will always beat its Manual equivalent just because “it’s cooler”,

You might be right about this. Is this something we can backup/prove with results from previous contests?

[gyenesvi]

26 minutes ago, Jim said:

I don't agree with you on this one. For me, adding motors and electronics doesn't add much in terms of the build. This is one of the main reasons I mostly don't allow electronics. People tend to think they can do special stuff with electronics, but most functions can be made manual. For me, it's mostly about the build and the functions. These functions don't need to be operated electronically to make a good model.

If you are only looking at the functions and build techniques then yes, I agree with you that there's not that much difference, and that could work in case of a jury vote, but as @Seasider notes, on a public vote, the RC one will likely get more votes just for being cooler. Also, the play experience is very different for the two, and voters may relate to that as well.

Another thing to consider is that if space (scale) is constrained then motorized models are a much bigger challenge than manual ones, simply because you need to place all the electronics in a small space, and that just got more difficult with PU, as components got more bulky. Also, often motorized builds need better framing and more sturdy building techniques in order not to fall apart under torque. So I think the challenges and building techniques required are different, and that could be the focus of a competition.