Looking at the forums, you can see we have lots of races going on, why not make it official and make a race track in the game?
This could be as quick and dirty as placing nav beacons around an asteroid field with a station close by in sequential order (Think Res site only it's a Race instance in super cruise, with a station a few light seconds away, so racers can exit station, and make a short jump to the race site, where there are beacons placed in order - Race Beacon 1, Race Beacon 2) or more elaborate with custom meshes and in game support to make certain pilots fly the correct route and start at the same time. There could also be community goals based around this, bringing in materials, clearing out pirates, etc.
You could easily break this up into phases, so that it doesn't interfere with the main game development, for example:
CG 1: Bring in raw materials for the race track. The amount brought in can determine if there's just one track, or more in a system, and how complex. This take minimal development time, as it can be accomplished with in-game assets, beacons would just have to be named and placed.
CG 2: As racing gains traction, there is a desire for more accurate tracking of the racers at the track, needing computer components or some other technology piece. This would be where you add in game support for starting timers, and ensuring racers don't skip checkpoints (possibly triggered by a comms activity? Comms - Racing - > Start race) then using timers to clock times. Stretch goals could allow for time trials, etc, and maybe a Racing Schedule in game that gets updated once in awhile, helping to fill the "mile wide inch deep" issues players complain about). This would take more development time, but just monitoring system activity from the 1st CG and how often races are held there would help you prioritize it against Horizons content and other features.
This could be as quick and dirty as placing nav beacons around an asteroid field with a station close by in sequential order (Think Res site only it's a Race instance in super cruise, with a station a few light seconds away, so racers can exit station, and make a short jump to the race site, where there are beacons placed in order - Race Beacon 1, Race Beacon 2) or more elaborate with custom meshes and in game support to make certain pilots fly the correct route and start at the same time. There could also be community goals based around this, bringing in materials, clearing out pirates, etc.
You could easily break this up into phases, so that it doesn't interfere with the main game development, for example:
CG 1: Bring in raw materials for the race track. The amount brought in can determine if there's just one track, or more in a system, and how complex. This take minimal development time, as it can be accomplished with in-game assets, beacons would just have to be named and placed.
CG 2: As racing gains traction, there is a desire for more accurate tracking of the racers at the track, needing computer components or some other technology piece. This would be where you add in game support for starting timers, and ensuring racers don't skip checkpoints (possibly triggered by a comms activity? Comms - Racing - > Start race) then using timers to clock times. Stretch goals could allow for time trials, etc, and maybe a Racing Schedule in game that gets updated once in awhile, helping to fill the "mile wide inch deep" issues players complain about). This would take more development time, but just monitoring system activity from the 1st CG and how often races are held there would help you prioritize it against Horizons content and other features.
