For whatever my opinion is worth on this, I think you're within your rights to make "common sense" adjustments for unforeseen gaps in the rules, especially when they completely break the race.
Maybe just put a sensible cap on the bonus that reflects how much you think the extra ingenuity it takes to reach it is worth?
What exactly is wrong with a negative time?
@Aken I wouldn't worry too much about you not seeing this coming. People are always trying to find loop holes
I seem to remember a certain cunning cmdr Bruski found a loop hole in 4001 regs and got a wing mate to drop a beacon at the landing coordinates.
I think it is great that the race gets people coming up with these ideas but obviously it leaves you a little problem with the scoreboard.
You could just have a third scoreboard for the SCB runners perhaps or just a new column to indicate SCB/heat sink usage?
As has been said, that's both some amazing effort put in to take advantage of the 'loophole' in the rules and also very difficult to anticipate and then 'fix' so that the race is not broken by what was intended to be a nice bonus, not the defining element of a player's race time. I thought about heat sinks being used in Unlimited when going through the rules but not about using other modules to generate heat. It need not be confined to SCB: thermal vent lasers that don't hit will also cause overheating. In addressing the issue, ideally you don't want to leave the race 'broken' but the cunning player who spotted and was able to take advantage of the rules needs some credit - they were honestly trying to win. The point of the exercise in having the bonus was to have some skill at work in attaining it - if all people need to do to have negative times are to stack SCB and heat sinks then it will be the one who stacks the most who wins - flying skill would become irrelevant. I interpret the intention as being that the heating needs to fundamentally be a function of the player's will to push the limits in daring/risky/reckless/dangerous flying, not min-maxing a build to generate heat. There are several options:
- A hard cap on the bonus that can be achieved. This could be set high enough such that anyone who has used modules to generate heat gets some credit for their efforts, without breaking the race by having negative times.
- A limit on heat-generating modules, such that the heating that can be generated is limited. Whether this limit is zero or not is another issue, as stated above.
- A separate scoreboard (like those for jumping) comparing heat values. This can be combined with a hard cap on the bonus race time and also gives some credit to the inventiveness of those who built heat generation into their loadout.
It's a difficult choice but talk it through and hopefully you can find some way of balancing the race and rewarding the inventiveness of some of the competitors. I don't see this as being an issue to blame people over - it really is hard to see the consequences of all the rules.
Originally Posted by Jhyrryl(Source)
Originally Posted by Edelgard von RheinOriginally Posted by furrycat
Honestly, yesterday evening I was at the end of a quite stressful day and I probably carried most of it over to the forums. First thing I saw this morning was the above message from Jhyrryl, and effectively today I can't see what could possibly be the problem in having negative times. The keyword was the one used by furrycat: shenanigans(a thing I'm quite fond of actually).
My current line of thinking is the same as Edelgard's, I really feel like applying some last minute bonus caps or change of rules for the sake of having a "normal" scoreboard would do more harm than good. It's not like the Adder board is completely normal either, with that big bold time from SushiCW at the bottom. Also, in the end the runs using this "exploit" are only three, two from Bruski and one from furrycat: expect them to be placed in a special "Heat Crazies Podium"...and sorry furrycat, I'm afraid Bruski left you the lowest step of that, and by a fairly large margin.
Stubbed out a race thread for Nebulocity. I'll have full details in there within 24 hours so that people can start putting their builds together asap.
Daang, I hope engineering is allowed, those places are NOT near each other.Originally Posted by Jhyrryl
Yes.Originally Posted by BruskiWhich is why I want to give as much lead time as possible for building out ships.
Alright, the full details are up, sans FAQ. If anyone wants to submit some fake runs to the Google form to help make sure it's working properly, I'll include your name in the credits!Originally Posted by Jhyrryl
Anyone who is looking for something to do while waiting on the next race, the Race Marshalls are preparing for war in the HIP 22858 system.
Also, I wanted to remind people of furrycat's work to help in coordinating BGS stuff, so that this thread doesn't get bogged down in political info.Originally Posted by furrycat
STOP PRESS
Location: Sol, Earth, United Kingdom landmass, somewhere near Old Kings Cross, London metropolis
Pool tournament
Games played: 11
Final score after 10 matches: Alec - 5, Furrycat - 5
Deciding match: furrycat
Other notes: Alec considered chickensh%t tactics of setting pool table on fire for maximum heat bonus but decided it wouldn't be sportsmanlike.
Re-match will be snooker.
Time: yet to be announced.
o7 sir ... well played!
Envy.Originally Posted by Alec TurnerSTOP PRESS
Location: Sol, Earth, United Kingdom landmass, somewhere near Old Kings Cross, London metropolis
Pool tournament
Games played: 11
Final score after 10 matches: Alec - 5, Furrycat - 5
Deciding match: furrycat
Other notes: Alec considered chickensh%t tactics of setting pool table on fire for maximum heat bonus but decided it wouldn't be sportsmanlike.
Re-match will be snooker.
Time: yet to be announced.
o7 sir ... well played!
I know nothing about snooker, but used to hold my own at a semi-pro level in 8-ball. Used to.
