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I just briefly looked over the rules, and I noticed they gave us choices on which tasks we wanted to do. I really like this idea, but I feel like the implementation is worrisome. If I'm not missing something, there's no point in attempting any of the 20 point tasks. They don't seem significantly easier than most of the other tasks, and you automatically give up 10 points, even if you complete the task.

Is there any advantage to picking the easier tasks?

If you are new to SO and don't have much engineering experience, successfully accomplishing the easy tasks is far better than failing completely at the hard ones.

I'd still much rather convert circular motion to linear motion than try and turn a screw.

so we only get the points for 8 tasks?

sj wrote:so we only get the points for 8 tasks?

In 2.d.ii, it says: "Teams may choose up to 8 additional tasks from 4.b. - 4.m. These may occur in any order." Seems to imply that it's actually illegal to choose any more than eight tasks. But under 6.h, it says teams earn "20, 30, 40, or 50 points for the first time each lettered task from section 4 is successfully completed," so it would seem like you earn points for every task you complete, whether or not you limit yourself to eight.

My guess is they just forgot to specify in the scoring section that you're only allowed eight tasks. But I'll definitely submit a clarfication--it would suck to lose 80 points because you only did the specified number of tasks and another team did all of them and still got credit.

You should put in a clarification for that.

Primate wrote:

sj wrote:so we only get the points for 8 tasks?

In 2.d.ii, it says: "Teams may choose up to 8 additional tasks from 4.b. - 4.m. These may occur in any order." Seems to imply that it's actually illegal to choose any more than eight tasks. But under 6.h, it says teams earn "20, 30, 40, or 50 points for the first time each lettered task from section 4 is successfully completed," so it would seem like you earn points for every task you complete, whether or not you limit yourself to eight.

My guess is they just forgot to specify in the scoring section that you're only allowed eight tasks. But I'll definitely submit a clarfication--it would suck to lose 80 points because you only did the specified number of tasks and another team did all of them and still got credit.

As written, it seems to me that the rules say that they would actually earn points for completing more than eight additional tasks - however, they would also have a construction violation. Therefore, they would be placed in the second tier and ranked well behind you.

Does anyone know when the timing is stopped for the whole event? Is it stopped when the balloon and sign start to rise, or is the time stopped when the balloon and sign stop rising?

Samus wrote:Does anyone know when the timing is stopped for the whole event? Is it stopped when the balloon and sign start to rise, or is the time stopped when the balloon and sign stop rising?

Neither. It is when the bottom of the sign goes above the highest point in your device.

DeltaHat wrote:If you are new to SO and don't have much engineering experience, successfully accomplishing the easy tasks is far better than failing completely at the hard ones.

Also, with difficult tasks you run the risk of them not working, which leaves you not only with NO points for that task and a 15 point penalty on top of that (for adjusting the device).