Forums » Suggestions

Trident Battle Race Track

Sep 05, 2014 greenwall link
*yeah yeah another suggestion for the bin*

The idea would be a sector that contains a race track for tridents. However, entrance to the sector would only be allowed through a separate staging area for participants and observers. Results of race battles would be tallied in an all-time list reflected on the VO website.

-Race track staging sector would contain four super structures into which trident captains would have to park their ships, as well as a single superstructure for observers.

-10 second countdown to start race would initiate after a 2 minute delay following the last trident entering a super structure. After countdown, tridents and observers would be teleported to the race track sector.

-Observers would be transported to an enclosed observation deck overlooking the track. They can warp out and return if desired through the observation staging area (which would be operational during active races only). Laser turrets shall be placed in proximity to the staging area to prevent people from drifting out of box and interrupting race.

-Only tridents can be in staging sector, so any additional gunners or support craft would need to be docked in trident. Once in race sector, undocking is immediately allowed. Non-tridents in the trident staging area will not be warped into race track.

-Winners of the Trident Battle Race are determined not by time, but by who crosses the finish line first. Any destruction of opposing trident or PKs are gravy on top.

-Race track should be a tube with enough of a diameter for two tridents to fly side by side, but not so big that it passes the clipping boundary and or lags sector. Layout of track should be simple, with 3-5 turns at most.

-Once they enter, Tridents and support ships cannot warp out of sector until they have exited the race track via the exit point, and then travelled the requisite additional 3000m.

-If killed, players cannot return to the active race track. They can only return as observers.

-A new race cannot be initiated until previous race has been concluded.

-Race times are capped at 2 hours. If players remain in race sector for longer than 2 hours, they will be instantly killed. Sector will then reset (erasing any cargo dropped).

-Direct access to the Trident Battle Race Track is prohibited (i.e. from a sector other than the staging sector).

-At least two tridents must start a race for it to count. Single tridents can race as practice, but crossing finish line wouldn't generate a win.
Sep 05, 2014 Conflict Diamond link
Dude, next time just write the code for them ;)

+1 to trident-sized racetubes
Sep 05, 2014 Lunchfoot link
+1 Me like it.
Sep 06, 2014 DeathSpores link
There be no safe place in the game, why do ye want to build one?
+1 fer racetrack
-1 to anything that prevent any kind of disruption.
Sep 06, 2014 TheRedSpy link
...and toss it in the bin!
Sep 06, 2014 Pizzasgood link
-1. Too magic.
Sep 06, 2014 Death Fluffy link
+1

The 'magic' described is no more 'magic' than one would expect to find at any real world sporting event.
Sep 06, 2014 greenwall link
No surprise that the pirates don't like the idea.

The entire idea behind a religious adherence to "no safe place in the game" is self-defeating. If there were not supposed to be any safe place, then the devs wouldn't have created the newb training sectors.

This is one of the reasons most of the events the devs hold aren't successful. They try to hold events like capture the flag and destroy the fleet, only to have noobs and griefers appear and disrupt the event. Honestly I find it a little perplexing how the people who disrupt those events for some reason still respect the rules of NW.

But regardless -- trident battles and races and such have been desired by the playerbase ever since the trident appeared, but they rarely have come to fruition because of difficulty with planning or silly fears of losing their trident. Putting in place a semi-controlled arena situation for tridents not only would generate a lot of new interest from a content perspective, but also diminish the "end game" nature of building a trident (i.e. gives us new things to do with the trident).

Races could take place at any time and attract people from all over the universe to come and watch and see in real time what VO can be like. Wagers could be made on the outcome. We could have a new metric for nationalism. Etc etc.
Sep 07, 2014 Pizzasgood link
The newbie sector is the only safe place, and calling it a "place in the game" is somewhat of an exaggeration since you can't really return to it. For all practical purposes, it is pre-game.

I have never seen griefers at capture-the-flag events. The reason those fail is because the programming behind them is eternally broken. I can't really speak for the recent non-CTF events since my schedule conflicts with the weekly thing they've been doing lately, but my assumption would be that the ones that get crashed end up getting crashed because they were poorly designed. Piracy and even wanton murder are intentional parts of the game; events need to be designed with that in mind.

Returning to the actual topic, this is Vendetta, not Gran Turismo. Magic race tracks that teleport people to unreachable places are simply not appropriate. If that means you can't have perfectly safe Trident races, too bad. Do you enter a football game and then bitch and moan when people refuse to accommodate your desire to have an interpretive dance session halfway through?
Sep 07, 2014 greenwall link
The newbie sector isn't the only place that's "safe" -- Latos M7 is also essentially a safe zone, intentionally (and with great effort) made that way by the devs. Additional safeguards the devs put in place are the defensive turrets, as well as the revenge-without-repercussion feature. And by the way you can totally return to the newbie sector.

If pirates wanted to be able to sabatoge a race, all they have to do is bring their own trident. If pirates want to kill all the observers all they would have to do is jump into the observer box.

So again, this notion that pirates should be able to go anywhere they want without restraint is bogus. The sandbox nature of VO is not in danger of dissolving if we add something that has a bit of structure.

Furthermore, there is obvious precendent for race tracks in VO. They are an established feature, complete with statistical tracking and badges. Making something similar for Tridents only makes sense, since they are essentially the end game for VO players.
Sep 07, 2014 DeathSpores link
Latos M-7 is not a safe place we raided it before when it was created we could raid it again if we could bother.
No entierely safe place is a trade mark of VO, start changing that and ye'll end up playing hello kitty online, then be sure i would use CrazySpence trick and start rammin' ye to the swimming pool or the sea :p.
Race sectors are an original part of vo and they have always bin unprotected.
Sep 07, 2014 greenwall link
Latos M7 isn't safe? psh. Nobody bothers raiding it because it's a waste of time unless you have actionable intelligence there is activity there - something that is more rare than samo dropping from a levi. And I'm guessing most pirates are not going to bother with making a reactor just to get a waypoint just to be able to find the damn entrance.
Sep 07, 2014 DeathSpores link
sure but there are no game mechanics that prevent you from doin' that.
Sep 07, 2014 Pizzasgood link
"Latos M7 is also essentially a safe zone, intentionally (and with great effort) made that way by the devs."

What great effort? They added some fog and put the station far from the sector center. Trivial. And no, it is not a safe zone. It is a place where attacks might be a little more tricky to pull off, but they can be pulled off. There is no magic preventing people from even accessing the place.

"Additional safeguards the devs put in place are the defensive turrets, as well as the revenge-without-repercussion feature."

So what? Those measures might make my job more difficult, but they don't just say, "Lol, this is a magic trident-only place that you cannot possibly access any other way!"

"Furthermore, there is obvious precendent for race tracks in VO."

No shit, Sherlock. Note that those race tracks are out in the open in greyspace, and anybody who wants to can come along and chuck avalons at it while you're racing. Nobody is complaining about the idea of trident-sized race tubes and a separate ranking for tridents-only. The complaints are about making it magically prevent access.
Sep 07, 2014 greenwall link
The devs made a huge station, fogged it, placed it way 20k from your jump in point and made the waypoint very difficult to access -- that takes effort and would only have been done to make it difficult if not impossible for people to get to in a casual manner -- AKA an essentially safe place for those building a trident.

And rin, your idea that there shouldn't be "Trident-only" accessible locations is extremist and just shows you are too lazy to build a trident. If you want to get in, build a damn trident.

This whole idea is to facilitate something that people have wanted but will never happen on it's own.

Trident battles are so rare now, and when they do happen it usually results in the team with fewer players running off to avoid having their trident destroyed. This would FORCE people to have it out, equalize the teams, and add an additional competative element.

Believe me, I'm not under any illusions this suggestion would actually happen. But this game needs to start changing to accommodate the desires of the majority of players and stop pandering to old ideals that do nothing but keep it from flourishing.

Note that those race tracks are out in the open in greyspace, and anybody who wants to can come along and chuck avalons at it while you're racing. Nobody is complaining about the idea of trident-sized race tubes and a separate ranking for tridents-only. The complaints are about making it magically prevent access.

You know quite well that nobody would bother doing that to the exising race tracks because they are a solo endeavor that people do in stealth. A Trident Race would be a public affair and thus be more prone to griefers and disrupters.
Sep 07, 2014 Pizzasgood link
Why do you keep acting like the small measures the devs have taken that make things only somewhat more difficult are somehow equivalent to making things literally impossible?

And no, I am not being extremist. You are being elitist. I have a ship and a gun. That is all I need to go anywhere I fucking want. If you want to stop me going somewhere, shoot me down. Why is this such a hard concept to grasp? Nation space is supposed to be safer than greyspace (not totally safe, but safer), therefor the devs made it harder (not impossible) to access at low standing. This is the same thing. You want a trident racetrack. Fine. But you don't get to make it magically impossible to access with other ships. If you want to keep non-tridents out, mount some fucking guns and shoot the non-tridents down. Border turrets, guard bots, whatever.

Also: People can be sneaky when doing a trident race, just like they can be sneaky when doing a non-trident race.
Sep 07, 2014 greenwall link
I wouldn't be opposed to have the trident race space guarded by an envelope of insta-kill laser turrets as opposed to an impassible wall, since they would essentially have the same function.

How is it elitist to ask for a place that restricts ship types? Currently there is only one place in the entire universe that allows Tridents to dock. Are the dev's elitist?

You are only crying about a trident only "gate" concept because you don't have one, nor do you want to build one. It's totally possible to build on in the game. It's arduous, but it's possible.

VO is more than PVP with a little fighter ship now, it needs to start looking and feeling like one.
Sep 07, 2014 Pizzasgood link
We don't need magically restricted areas to "support" trident gameplay.

This has nothing to do with me not having a trident. I just think the idea of a magical gate is completely inappropriate for this game. As are instakill lasers anywhere other than the training sector.
Sep 08, 2014 Sterrre link
I don't know what you guys are going on about, but +1 for trident sized race track