Oolite Bulletins

How about making a long range route. You start at Tionsla and fly through a hoop. Then a time recording starts. This is also stored when you save. You then have to fly a certain route. The OXP plans a route. In each system you have to visit there is a hoop or waypoint you must fly through. On destination your time is recorded and outputted to a txt file. You can then see the times you where on each waypoint. There could be also other participants ( a sort of long range racing ai's). To choose the route is up to the player. is it quicker to scoop or fly to a station. It's up to you.

The times could be posted at the bulletin board.
Could anything like this be done?

Nice idea. And should be doable.

It should be the space equivalent of Paris-Dakar and a journey full of dangers. It should be even more joy if a planning system chooses random planets with at least 20 jumps or more between them. Commanders could be lured to the rally via a source galactic news. When you get on the podium one should get price money!

... and perhaps there could be a big increase to a player's cargo contracts reputation, too, if this can be done -- after all, the player will have proved him/herself one of the fastest pilots around. *That* would be a nice benefit: gaining access to the lucrative contracts without having to go through the bulk haulage route.

*That* would be a nice benefit: gaining access to the lucrative contracts without having to go through the bulk haulage route.

Double good idea: That would also enable players with ships with small or even no cargo space to aquire the lucrative contracts: They don`t need to haul 100 tons first, and gem stones fit into every cockpit ...

What about such races happening periodically, in all the eight galaxies?

Good idea!
Perhaps this races can be added to the mission screen.

The organizers sometimes demand the player to fly a certain class . (For example in real live in Le Mans racing you have LMS, GT1 and GT2 classes LMS being the fastest)

Example:

NEWS FLASH

TIANVE-TO TIONSLA starting tomorrow. Vehicle class MAMBA racer.

The route is as follows Tianve to Tianve Hoop 1> hyperspace to....

Price money:

- $$$$ credits for place 1 and access to .... cargo contracts
OR a (enter ship name here)

Any scripter can script a short test (time trial) race with the docking of Corolius as waypoints? Or by using the rings?

I think a couple rings would need to placed in the space lane of each system to prevent using your jump drive while avoiding all the action. This idea reminds me of the Ocean of Fire endurance horse race from the movie Hidalgo. Just finishing alive is a success. Racing through dangerous anarchy and feudal systems would be part of the challenge.

Rings in every system would mean the sunskimming tactic would be out of the question. And the the player wouldn't be able to pick the route -- which, given the non-linear progression of jump times, where the route with the fewest jumps isn't always the fastest, would be a shame. But there needs to be something to stop the player dodging all the lanes, or just refuelling at Convenience Stores and jumping on (although that said, the presence of a Con Store could make one system more attractive than another, and we'd want to encourage smart tactics).

Hmm. How about, on a longish route (say, 12 jumps) having three ring-checkpoints, rather than one in every system? These systems would need to be flagged on the long-range chart, though. Lane-dodgers (a sensible tactic when time is of the essence, after all) would need to keep a close eye on where they were. The checkpoints could be selectively positioned in dodgy systems...

Select systems sounds like a good idea to me and realistic in terms of how old fashion endurance racers were conducted. The fuel tank oxp will also have to be reconciled.

Since players won't be competing against each other, is it necessary to worry overmuch about what OXPs they have installed? Con Stores, AstroFactories etc. all offer shortcuts, as players can refuel there without going into stations. And some players will have uber-fast ships. The fuel tank -- since it costs the player money to use -- probably isn't that big a deal. Like lane-dodging, and indeed blowing away any slowcoaches you get stuck behind when you can't inject past them, any tactic should be "legitimate" in race terms.

Balancing the difficulty of the OXP will be tricky, but the race shouldn't be pitched too close to impossible if it's going to be an option for new(ish) players. The main challenge would come from the astute selection of checkpoints, designed to test combat (and running-away!) skills.

We don't have to worry about other human players, but someone will have to figure out what a winning time is versus a 2nd or 3rd place time in the script. I'm not advocating the "banning" of fuel tanks in the race, just that they'll have to be considered when deciding how fast is fast enough to win.

And some players will have uber-fast ships. The fuel tank -- since it costs the player money to use -- probably isn't that big a deal.

Just a quick idea here, but what about different racing leagues, and you have to win in the lower ones to get into the harder and faster ones?

From a formula 5 where you can win with a Cobra MkIII without fuel tanks to a nightmarish formula 1 where you need an impossibly fast ship with no missiles but a rack of fuel tanks to have any chance of winning?

And you`d have to win formula 5 to get into formula 4 etc.

matt634 wrote:

We don't have to worry about other human players, but someone will have to figure out what a winning time is versus a 2nd or 3rd place time in the script. I'm not advocating the "banning" of fuel tanks in the race, just that they'll have to be considered when deciding how fast is fast enough to win.

Ah, I see. But does that mean that players might need the Fuel Tank OXP installed in order to succeed?

Lestradae wrote:

Just a quick idea here, but what about different racing leagues, and you have to win in the lower ones to get into the harder and faster ones?

This might be doable -- there could be a time factor calculated on the top speed of the ship.

I'm not sure whether all of this should be scripted in the OXP itself.

Wasn't the basic idea that everybody races for himself, and then may post his time here on the board? So there is actually no "winning", as far as the OXP is concerned. It doesn't give you a message in the end, that you are winner, or have the second or tenth rank. It just gives you your time.

And if you post that time together with the information, which ship you are using, then it's up to all of us to evaluate the "rank" of this time with the given ship.

Just don't let us over-complicate things in the first place.