SRV Racing Tracks*

[PiLhEaD]

It seems that racing competitions would be a reasonable thing to have naturally developed in the bubble, or out at Colonia, or anywhere.

There could be either FDev defined tracks on a selection of planets with a mix of conditions and gravity to contend with or, perhaps better yet, player created and shared tracks and challenges.

The 'tracks' could be various in nature: as per rallying, a point-A to point-B dash (with or without intermediate time gates); as per track racing, a defined circular course with numerous checkpoints to pass through; as per x-sports, with jump gates to clear. (Feel free to add your own ideas!)

This seems to be a fun thing to implement and, as per below*, hopefully not 'expensive' either. Maybe bundle it into a larger release/update to throw the community a bone, esp those not interested in the Thargoid narrative, and have a few CG competitions?

* This was actually done, very early days, by some talented modders in the community, and was (as best I recall) fully functioning, including timing gates and leader-boards. They approached FDev for permission to release it to the wider community and were told to cease and desist. The idea was never heard of again. Regrettably.

 

[Factabulous]

I do wonder if it would end up like the racetracks in Star Citizen: the same 5 players go racing every day and really like it - everyone else ignores it and wonder when elevators will stop killing people. I think maybe it would

Anyway - who's for some CQC?

 

[zimms]

@Alec Turner @Ozric
A new recruit, ripe for the taking!

 

[Fizzatron]

I think there is a 'mod' for Elite that works for racing. I wouldn't put much hope in Frontier implementing it in the game, however I would be way more inclined to go SRV racing than playing CQC myself. With onfoot features and concourses in the game, I think there is good reason to believe that adding a pod racing type track to the game could be a matter of extending what's already there vs. making something entirely new. While they're at it, it would be great to see the same happen for CQC, and actually have it implemented in the game as a place to visit and congregate.

 

[Factabulous]

Nah - they should do the reverse-Add ELW, but it's a separate mode like CQC. Same with Ship Interiors. Only way I can see them getting done as the main game really doesn't like being changed.

 

[sgurr]

It seems that racing competitions would be a reasonable thing to have naturally developed in the bubble, or out at Colonia, or anywhere.

There could be either FDev defined tracks on a selection of planets with a mix of conditions and gravity to contend with or, perhaps better yet, player created and shared tracks and challenges.

The 'tracks' could be various in nature: as per rallying, a point-A to point-B dash (with or without intermediate time gates); as per track racing, a defined circular course with numerous checkpoints to pass through; as per x-sports, with jump gates to clear. (Feel free to add your own ideas!)

This seems to be a fun thing to implement and, as per below*, hopefully not 'expensive' either. Maybe bundle it into a larger release/update to throw the community a bone, esp those not interested in the Thargoid narrative, and have a few CG competitions?

* This was actually done, very early days, by some talented modders in the community, and was (as best I recall) fully functioning, including timing gates and leader-boards. They approached FDev for permission to release it to the wider community and were told to cease and desist. The idea was never heard of again. Regrettably.

There's a 3rd party app called EDCopilot which has various SRV time trials built in as well as one for ships. Courses created by Alec and a few others
The app does loads of other things too, monitor mats, running commentary on where you are and what's mats are available, if a scanned planet has geo/bio signals (much faster than the game), route plotting etc
Can find it at:

Elite Dangerous virtual assistant | EDCoPilot

EDCoPilot is a virtual assistant software application for use with Elite Dangerous on the PC. Give voice commands or access features via the UI. Vastly reduce the need to remove the headset when playing in VR.

www.razzafrag.com

(Razzafrag is the developer)

There's also Buckyball which just finished a race last weekend, but there will be another one running between Christmas and new year.


Edit: and lastly if live racing is more your thing the Elite Racers will also be having an event before year end, date tbc.

 

[Alec Turner]

Putting a pin in this thread for when I have more wifi and less gluehwein.

Prost!

 

[PiLhEaD]

There's a 3rd party app called EDCopilot which has various SRV time trials built in as well as one for ships. Courses created by Alec and a few others
....

Ah - I'll take a look - many thanks!!

 

[sgurr]

Ah - I'll take a look - many thanks!!

I replied cause I knew Alec was away but turns out he can't resist any mention of the SRV (and neither can I to be fair)

The app does loads more stuff than I said, and Razzafrag is actively supporting it, responds stupidly quickly to bug reports and suggestions, and is generally a sound chap.

 

[Ozric]

I do wonder if it would end up like the racetracks in Star Citizen: the same 5 players go racing every day and really like it - everyone else ignores it and wonder when elevators will stop killing people. I think maybe it would

Anyway - who's for some CQC?

Well we've had over 40 individual people take part in races for the championship we held this year, including some who've only found out about us in the last month or two. Considering that's just us advertising ourselves and via word of mouth, I'd like to think there would be more regulars if it was to be found in game.

I think racing would go down much better in Elite because it's collaborative competition, rather than trying to destroy someone competition

* This was actually done, very early days, by some talented modders in the community, and was (as best I recall) fully functioning, including timing gates and leader-boards. They approached FDev for permission to release it to the wider community and were told to cease and desist. The idea was never heard of again. Regrettably.

As this is the second time you've brought this up recently I am just going to clarify that the person making that mod was knowingly scraping the game's memory, which is a breach of the EULA and ToS. When they initially approached Frontier they were told to stop, but they refused, carrying on in the hope that collecting more support would make Frontier change their stance. Which it didn't.

 

[PiLhEaD]

...
As this is the second time you've brought this up recently I am just going to clarify that the person making that mod was knowingly scraping the game's memory, which is a breach of the EULA and ToS. When they initially approached Frontier they were told to stop, but they refused, carrying on in the hope that collecting more support would make Frontier change their stance. Which it didn't.

Thanks and fair doohs, your memory is clearly better than mine on this. I wasn't trying to poo-poo anyone, nor suggest that FDev weren't completely within their rights.

It's just that an external dev (or two) had knocked up a viable solution that seemed (to me at least) like a fun thing to have implemented in-game, and so it was frustrating/unfortunate to see the whole idea get binned 'along with the bathwater'... \o/

Anyway... what about those hula-boy/girl bobbleheads that no-one ever promised me....... [SmugMode]...I do however have a DBOBE bobblehead...[/SmugMode][WinceMode]...along with a Cobra IV...[/WinceMode]

 

[Jack Winter]

Hula-Dave..

 

[aRJay]

Putting a pin in this thread for when I have more wifi and less gluehwein.

Prost!

Wouldn’t he drink Vin Chaud?

 

[Alec Turner]

Currently parked off the Christmas market in Rudesheim with better wifi. While I agree that it would have been nice for FD to embrace racing as an integral part of the game, luckily for us the community stepped up to the mark from the outset. The Buckyball Racing Club been running regular racing events since the game first launched and have just finished our second annual racing championship. Our races are typically week long time trial events which mean people can get involved on any platform and at any time of the day that's convenient for them and their time zone. Additionally there's also the Elite Racers group who are more about live in-game head to head race events. They've been dormant for a while following some key members moving to Star Citizen (where they founded the XGR racing group) but the group is now under new management and promising to start back up again.

As has already been mentioned by Sgurr there’s also a really excellent utility developed by @Razzafrag which does LOADS but includes fully automated time trials. There's currently over a dozen available (both ship and SRV) and more are being developed all the time. I'll dig out some links in a minute so you can see how these work in practice.

On the subject of FD doing more for racing, Tom Kewell did post at the start of the year that his resolution was to try and get racing into the game. I spoke to him at ECM and he had been working on his own time developing some prototype stuff. Sadly (tragically in fact) Tom may now be looking for new employment following the down turn in Frontier's fortunes so community organised racing is where it's at for the foreseeable future. Luckiky community organised racing has never been stronger!

 

[Alec Turner]

Check out the following forum thread for plenty of examples of how the EDCoPilot time trial system works.

Discussion - EDCoPilot adds new "time trial" racing feature to the huge list of things this "virtual cockpit assistant" can do

I feel a bit preumptious posting this forum thread since, despite EDCoPilot having been around a long time, I only discovered it relatively recently. However it seems not to have a forum thread of its own and I desparately wanted to share its new "time trial" racing feature with the community...

forums.frontier.co.uk

The thread should also have all the links you need to download and install EDCoPilot.

 

[PiLhEaD]

Check out the following forum thread for plenty of examples of how the EDCoPilot time trial system works.

Discussion - EDCoPilot adds new "time trial" racing feature to the huge list of things this "virtual cockpit assistant" can do

I feel a bit preumptious posting this forum thread since, despite EDCoPilot having been around a long time, I only discovered it relatively recently. However it seems not to have a forum thread of its own and I desparately wanted to share its new "time trial" racing feature with the community...

forums.frontier.co.uk

The thread should also have all the links you need to download and install EDCoPilot.

Thanks Alec, much appreciated mate.

 

[Fizzatron]

On the subject of FD doing more for racing, Tom Kewell did post at the start of the year that his resolution was to try and get racing into the game. I spoke to him at ECM and he had been working on his own time developing some prototype stuff. Sadly (tragically in fact) Tom may now be looking for new employment following the down turn in Frontier's fortunes so community organised racing is where it's at for the foreseeable future. Luckiky community organised racing has never been stronger!

If that turns out to be the case, very sad to hear about Tom Kewell, all the best for the future and I appreciate what you brought to the game. Hopefully it isn't! o7

 

[Jack Winter]

Yes, it would be very sad to see Tom leaving Frontier. He has been there from the beginning of ED (apart from a stint elsewhere).

Best wishes to him and all the rest affected by recent difficulties!