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Racing Gate Elements


Ripper

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Racing...

 

You could script a solution with sensors, but I believe there's a couple problems with that.

 

1. The track could be very large, so staying in range of the "start/stop" gate in order to keep the LUA timer active may not be reasonable.

 

2. A scripted solution would run on each players PC. Opening the possibility of cheating.

 

3. How does the owner of the race track keep a record of individual times, if they're ran on other players computers?

 

If NQ developed "gate elements", all of these concerns could be addressed at the same time.

 

Plus, with combat possibly not being in the initial release, what else are you gonna do?

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Racing...

 

You could script a solution with sensors, but I believe there's a couple problems with that.

 

1. The track could be very large, so staying in range of the "start/stop" gate in order to keep the LUA timer active may not be reasonable.

 

2. A scripted solution would run on each players PC. Opening the possibility of cheating.

 

3. How does the owner of the race track keep a record of individual times, if they're ran on other players computers?

 

If NQ developed "gate elements", all of these concerns could be addressed at the same time.

 

Plus, with combat possibly not being in the initial release, what else are you gonna do?

Or, just have it be a player ran thing. 

 

Step 1 : Build a "Tunnel Track" on a planet, going all over it.

 

Step 2 : Have people race with their own vehicle through the tunnel, possibly have exposed sections on cliffs after a long acceleration for "drifting".

 

This would require some collisions mechanism though, so the game does not become a bumpcar ride.

 

 

Best Race = Death Race :P

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Racing...

 

You could script a solution with sensors, but I believe there's a couple problems with that.

 

1. The track could be very large, so staying in range of the "start/stop" gate in order to keep the LUA timer active may not be reasonable.

 

2. A scripted solution would run on each players PC. Opening the possibility of cheating.

 

3. How does the owner of the race track keep a record of individual times, if they're ran on other players computers?

 

If NQ developed "gate elements", all of these concerns could be addressed at the same time.

 

Plus, with combat possibly not being in the initial release, what else are you gonna do?

 

Could you just keep the script for the timer and lap counter on each of the vehicles, instead of at the start/stop gate? And make it so that those driving can't edit the script; the owner of the track is the one that makes the script and puts it on everyone's vehicles (in the case that the participants are making their own vehicles).

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Maybe there could be some kind of multipurpose script-able elements that would work for this.  But it would by cool if it could have a visual component that was specifically meant for racing.

 

Maybe some combination of a script-able sensor and a holographic projector would work.  The distance limits that they've mentioned for scripting would be a problem though. 

 

I'm all for anything they can give us, to do with the stuff we build,  other then beating each other over the head with them.  Especially stuff that utilizes the editable environments too. 

 

I'm really hoping at some point they can add some kind of mini games, or maybe we'll be able to make it happen ourselves with the weapons and elements they give us.  But something like a futuristic Mini Golf or Bocce Ball style game that encourages people to build courses and relax and appreciate the different environments would be fun.

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This sounds like a job for the DICE technicians. ;)

 

There are many ways this can be done. The start/stop gate is plausible as long as it can read the time and the crafts ID as it passes through the gate.  The script does not need to be on the craft itself, but maintained by an impartial judge that remains at that gate.

 

Will there be games inside DU?  Yes there will be. Feel free to pop by if you haven't already and leave your thoughts on what games you want to see in DU.

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This sound like you are overthinking it, if there is a race and its a reasonably serious thing you have a race martial supervising, you don't always need a technological solution to everything.

 

If its a casual thing then you use the honor system

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This sound like you are overthinking it, if there is a race and its a reasonably serious thing you have a race martial supervising, you don't always need a technological solution to everything.

 

If its a casual thing then you use the honor system

 

 

By that logic why would we even need ships or weapons then? 

 

We could all just hop off the arcships and hang out playing bongos and waiting to be eaten by the local wildlife.

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Well if the devs don't implement something like that (which most likely won't happen for release), then you have to simply take times with good old clocks and rely on players acting as referees. You simply can't assume that every bit of block, voxel, technology or possible script for such races will be implemented. That's why I would plan for a 100% manual system and a rule set which covers this. You can work from there and come up with maybe more and more ideas on how to use actual game mechanics to automate certain stuff.

But assuming that everything should be possible from the start is just overbearing

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Some of these builders are going to NEED a solution that doesnt rely on the subject opinion of an outside observer. They're attempting to build the best performing ships to compete in the marketplace.

 

Also, who's gonna stand around and watch the same player race a dozen times while the builder performs a tweak to his ship between each race.

 

Also, if you look back at Star Citizen's racing. They had problems with ship spawning at the starting line.

 

Timer based races resolve the spawning issue AND outside observer issue. But this requires racing gates. "Starting", "Middle", and "Finish" gates. Then I'd link them to a top 10 scoreboard.

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Some of these builders are going to NEED a solution that doesnt rely on the subject opinion of an outside observer. They're attempting to build the best performing ships to compete in the marketplace.

 

Also, who's gonna stand around and watch the same player race a dozen times while the builder performs a tweak to his ship between each race.

 

Also, if you look back at Star Citizen's racing. They had problems with ship spawning at the starting line.

 

Timer based races resolve the spawning issue AND outside observer issue. But this requires racing gates. "Starting", "Middle", and "Finish" gates. Then I'd link them to a top 10 scoreboard.

Yeah, well, probably not at release. If ever. Only because you want it, doesn't mean you get it. When the devs have time for it after the first big patches of the game (cvc, survival, stargates, ftl drives,...) 2 or 3 years after release, you may have a chance.

 

Except: you start making plans for this to work without any element (yeah it sucks standing there and watching, but then again this is what YOU want with those races). Then you'll see in beta what could be automated. Make this thing big, advertise it, have a huge fan base of those races (24h of Alioth, the alioth classics,...), organize many races with many participants in beta. Then, and only then, you might have a good reason for NQ to tackle that problem of yours. There are 1000 more pressing and important issues for now

Oh and besides: you don't spawn anywhere in DU with your vehicle, you have to fly anyway to the start because there is no teleport or spawn there. This is no instances game

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Some of these builders are going to NEED a solution that doesnt rely on the subject opinion of an outside observer. They're attempting to build the best performing ships to compete in the marketplace.

 

Also, who's gonna stand around and watch the same player race a dozen times while the builder performs a tweak to his ship between each race.

 

Also, if you look back at Star Citizen's racing. They had problems with ship spawning at the starting line.

 

Timer based races resolve the spawning issue AND outside observer issue. But this requires racing gates. "Starting", "Middle", and "Finish" gates. Then I'd link them to a top 10 scoreboard.

I really don't get your problem with what Lethys said.

 

 

As for your idea, it depends on how the devs code the Scripts logic in the game, for example, if networks can be established, that expand the "need be near" by linking "near" DPUs to one another, thus, making it possible for a version of what you ask to be done, although, the RAM requirements for such a wide-scale scripted behemoth could be quite taxing.

 

And since DICE has no clue of how to tackle the issue, I'll keep the idea to myself and contact you in alpha if I figure out how to implement this.

 

I'll probably opt for the good old "if they reach the finish line in one piece, they win the prize" kind of race, roman chariot races style.

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And since DICE has no clue of how to tackle the issue, I'll keep the idea to myself and contact you in alpha if I figure out how to implement this.

 

I'll probably opt for the good old "if they reach the finish line in one piece, they win the prize" kind of race, roman chariot races style.

 

Ah, Twerk mouthing off as per usual with no actual idea of how the game is going to be implemented instead of giving constructive feedback, everything just has to be barbs and breakdown. You go girl. (Some slippage back into hold habits there.)

 

That said, I am in favor of the simplest type of race suggested by Twerk: First one able to cross the finish line.

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Definitely a challenge.

 

But regardless of what players feel as important for an expansion, let's take a look at your actual situation. The first obstacle you already describe yourself. How do you deal with it? ATMLVE has already delivered you the solution. 

 

To avoid possible fraud attempts, you will work with RDMS. The gates get superior rights while you create a driver group.

Consequently, the hierarchical order would be: Owner > Gate > Driver

 

The drivers are proactive = They automatically trigger the scripts at the gate.

The gates are reactive = you react to the incoming driver.

 

I do not know if you ever programmed a game. But to transfer data between two points (or levels), you should build a game state machine for your purpose. A separation of global and local variables becomes necessary. The drivers would be local and the start / end gate global.

 

Study this link to understand the idea:


 

I strongly recommend that you join LUA programmers. It is a big hurdle to do it alone. Especially since the programmers can tell you what is possible and what is not. (Lua technically doesn't have OOP syntatically)

 

And what you have to find out in the game as early as possible:

- Are the results overlapping when several sensors are placed next to each other?

- What is the radius of the sensor? Is a vehicle detected with speed X?

- What is the radius of LUA? Maybe you can place a screen only at the first / last gate?

 

These are 3 questions that come to my mind. But you will definitely have to start small. The others have made examples where the absolute lowest common denominator is.

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Ah, Twerk mouthing off as per usual with no actual idea of how the game is going to be implemented instead of giving constructive feedback, everything just has to be barbs and breakdown. You go girl. (Some slippage back into hold habits there.)

 

That said, I am in favor of the simplest type of race suggested by Twerk: First one able to cross the finish line.

If someone makes it to the finish line that is. We should hold betting options like "No Winners". That'll be a good jackpot :P

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Excellent points SirJohn85.

 

I'm wondering if we can use the RDMS to issue a timestamp.  Each gate would be scripted to only apply the timestamp if the previous gate timestamp existed.

After running the race, the start and finish timestamps are compared and could be submitted for ranking on a leaderboard.

 

We really need more information on RDMS, LUA Scripting, and Sensors.

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Excellent points SirJohn85.

 

I'm wondering if we can use the RDMS to issue a timestamp.  Each gate would be scripted to only apply the timestamp if the previous gate timestamp existed.

After running the race, the start and finish timestamps are compared and could be submitted for ranking on a leaderboard.

 

We really need more information on RDMS, LUA Scripting, and Sensors.

A good question ... os.time, os.sleep, os.difftime ... That would be handy.
In the worst case, you can put a local "timer" on the driver, which you activate with a button from the gate.
 
Example:
- All the drivers lined up. - Button 1 is pressed - Vehicle timer = 0
- Countdown is running - 3 - 2 - 1 - Go!
- At the Go! a further event is triggered, which triggers a boolean variable and thus allows the timer to be incremented. (Of course, a tick function should run in the background, so that this does not count up arbitrarily.)
 
But is anything at all possible? It is known, that the elements communicate with each other - but what about player data?
I have not seen a command block that reads or saves custom data.
 
If it does not exist, the whole idea is no longer relevant. :D
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You guys overthink this. Just make checkpoints across a planet and have judges waiting and recording the racers as they pass by the checkpoints. Really. You - or the Devs- don't have to automate everything.

 

I honestly do not have a big desire to discuss this.
 
This is the nice thing about a community. You have an idea, people come together and think about how to solve a problem with existing resources. Even if everything is on paper at this stage of development, one has to point out the questions to be asked in order to check the feasibility. Ripper asked for an element, instead we offered him solutions, which he should pursue.
 
None of the answers are wrong. Because it is a sandbox game.
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It WOULD be nice to have an area to talk about LUA scripting without naysayers saying "that'll never work", "not in the initial release", or "just hire a dozen guys to stand around 24x7 and watch ships fly by."

Problem is most people confuse Lua script with magic.

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Because races take place 24/7 apparently. 

 

The server's up 24/7.

 

People around the globe will be playing 24/7.

 

So YES, races will happen 24/7.

 

If you and your buddies want to race from point A to point B.  There's nothing stopping you.  If you want something a little more professional, come to "Ripper Racing"!

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The server's up 24/7.

 

People around the globe will be playing 24/7.

 

So YES, races will happen 24/7.

 

If you and your buddies want to race from point A to point B.  There's nothing stopping you.  If you want something a little more professional, come to "Ripper Racing"!

 

 

Global game? Global organisation. Or, assign smart server time races, like we organise fleets in EVE, like 6:00 PM GMT on on a day, is a perfect time to organise races.

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