I'm honestly trying not to be negative, but as a racer, I feel that NPC additions would be really, really bad. Real-time, regular-space races right now are community events, and the participants put a lot of practice and effort into learning how to fly appropriately. Tracks are discussed, tips and tricks are traded and it's a great vibe. Winning a race is a real achievement, because you've beaten other people who are exceptionally good pilots and who've practiced a lot to get as good as they are. It's an
awesome buzz. A huge part of that comes from the community around it.
Beating an NPC would be, as it is in a HazRez fight between an NPC and a top-tier skilled PvP pilot in a fully engineered build, all but worthless.
Sure, there's things that could help, and believe me - more help would be fantastic. But pre-built racetracks stuffed full of NPCs could easily end up as much of a challenge to the racing community as the how the PvP crowd would descibe low-intensity res sites.
I worry that if we had NPC-stuffed prebuilds, 'racing' could easily be perceived as what you do at these rather than the events that've been developed by, organised by, and flown by, real players.
I can't stress this enough. The
existing race community would hugely benefit from tools to support inclusion and greater involvement of real pilots. It also needs more people to get involved and have a go. This isn't a discussion about something 'new'. It's an entirely viable gameplay choice as
right now, as things stand, albeit one that is often overlooked and under-resourced within the trade-combat-exploration paradigm, and requires significant investment of time, effort and practice to 'git gud'. It's
hard to fly a 900+m/s ship around a tight technical track, and rebuys are absolutely assured, especially with others bumping into you and all the debris from exploding racers! This is how it should be, imo.
I'm honestly passionate about this, because for me personally - racing is pretty much the best thing about the game. The community is awesome. The skills are specific. The organisation and development of courses requires a talented eye and an understanding of how race ships fly under race conditions between real racers. It's not overly serious, there's zero salt, and folks are super-helpful and happy to support you.
That's here, now. We just need some tools to improve things a bit.
Recognition of racing as an actual playstyle would be great. Thanks to Alec for opening the thread, and it's been great to see the ideas and contributions so far.
If you want to get involved, the next ERF event is 25th August. Here's our discord...
https://discordapp.com/invite/52vptDU