[Suggestion] Custom Race Tracks

[Andur.9275]

Hey everyone! :)

 

For all of you, that don't like reading long walls of text: This thread is a(nother) suggestion to let people be more creative in game, specifically to let them create their own mount / roller beetle races and share them with the community without using third party tools like tacO.

I'd love to know, what you guys think about the idea. :)

 

What is the main reason, that keeps people playing a game?

To me it is enjoying the game itself - sounds quite obvious, doesn't it?

You could add things like having a good time with friends and guild mates as well, but if you are running out of content, that won't be enough in the long run imho.

How can it be achieved, in a theme park oriented MMO, that people won't lose interest?

Well, the developers could try to deliver new content fast enough, but we all know that this isn't possible. Even if they invented an intelligent algorithm to randomly create new content, it will be too generic and repetitive - No Man's Sky is the best proof that this method alone doesn't work (yet).

So, the simple answer is: Add some sandbox elements to the game and let the players be creative.

 

I know, that only a small percentage of the player base is interested in (roller beetle) racing, but I guess that the following ideas are rather easy to implement, because most of them are already available in game. So let me explain what came to my mind and why my ideas won't bother those, who have no interest in the mount races at all.

 

I am thinking of a tool, which sets - when activated - an invisible (to others) marker at the current coordinates and keeps this location (including the area 300 units around it, so that two markers can't be too close to each other) save for the creator for seven days.

Within this time it let's the player enter a new private copy - totally free of events, monsters and NSCs - of the actual map where he / she is located in.

The copy of the map will be static from now on and won't change, if the parent map will be altered.

If the seven days have elapsed, before the player was able to create the track, the copy as well as the reservation of the marker will be deleted.

Additionally players will be limited to one racetrack per map for obvious reasons.

As the players enter their copy, the following will happen:

 

* At first the creator determines which kind of mount(s) will be allowed for the track, so there won't be a way for others to use a griffon on a track made for springers.

Then the tool gives the player the ability to spawn all entities / objects needed: the start, the finish, the (numbered) gates in-between and NSCs associated to mount races.

I'd suggest, that players at least have to spawn three of the numbered gates to create a valid track. I have in mind, that the tool realises that by giving the player new skills which represent one of the entities, that can be dropped via the ground targeting system (like the warrior's banners), or - even better - by giving access to the same system, that is used for guild hall decoration. The best way here is to give players the as much freedom as possible. Mid-air and underwater gates shouldn't be ruled out.

Of course all elements, that were already placed should be deletable or moveable afterwards until the track is finished.

* Once the players have finished the track, they get to the second phase of the creation, where they enter the number of laps needed to finish the race (let's say one to five) and practice their own track to set up the lap time, which will be used to determine the time needed for the daily gold, silver and bronze achievement (let's say gold is at 110%, silver at 120% and bronze at 140% of that time).

Considering the rewards: I honestly don't know what kind of rewards the daily achievement should give. Should it be a common reward like unidentified gear / race medals or should it contribute points to a new ranking system including titles like in PvP?

People shall be rewarded in some way (besides of having fun) but should not be motivated to create racetracks only to farm the rewards, though.

* When the creators have set up their lap time, they will be able to release the track for the community.

At the moment they decided to do so, several things will happen:

 

* Creators will lose the ability to edit their track, except the option to delete it permanently.

* The track will be named automatically (to prevent offensive names) like "Andur's racetrack" (the format could be like (account name)'s racetrack, or (character name)'s racetrack).

* A node, similar to the nodes which are used to enter an instance of the personal story, but just in another available colour (e. g. orange), will become visible at the reserved coordinates on the mega servers. It can be seen (in the world and on the maps) and be used by the community to enter the instance.

* The track will hold a leader board similar to those we all know from the official races with two important exceptions: It will additionally show the name of the creator and the complete list of the top 100 drivers (or maybe even 1,000, if that doesn't mean, one has to scroll for several minutes to reach its bottom).

 

Last but not least: Of course there has to be an option to hide all orange nodes for everyone, who have no interest in racing and don't want to be bothered by them.

 

So this is basically my idea, what do you think about it?

 

I think, besides of keeping the racing community fresh and alive, it holds many advantages because:

 

* It might be an interesting way to keep other aspects of the game alive, too (think of using a similar system for private housing) - and that with relatively low effort.

* Poor RP-players won't be disturbed by maniac race drivers thrashing through their favourite locations.

* Big events won't scale up, because of us being around.

* Race drivers themselves won't suffer as much from lag and frame drops as they would, if the tracks were implemented in the open world.

* Happy race drivers will (probably) buy more beetle skins (give me a dyeable beetle with two rally stripes and a number (like 53 ?) on it's side, come on).

 

Keep on racing,

Andur

 

P.S. As a bonus, I'd like to introduce the track I want to create in LA. I hope it isn't too similar to any of the tracks already created by the community and of course I hope you enjoy it as much as I do:

[https://abload.de/gallery.php?key=j6BlEyGL](https://abload.de/gallery.php?key=j6BlEyGL "https://abload.de/gallery.php?key=j6BlEyGL")

 

 

 

[WhatLiesBeneath.9018]

You can make races in guild halls

[Andur.9275]

> @"WhatLiesBeneath.9018" said:

> You can make races in guild halls

 

True, but that's not the same. You have got to know someone from the guild to have access the race track and there won't be such things like an official leader board.

Another reason I'd rather like to see races linked directly to the maps is, that building a track in a guild hall can be very expensive.

 

edit: typo

[Randulf.7614]

That sounds like they'd need to make all new tech and for really little gain. A few people might enjoy it, but I don't think races have much longeivty in them. We saw that withe beetle ones which died off unbelievably quick

[Andur.9275]

> @"Randulf.7614" said:

> That sounds like they'd need to make all new tech and for really little gain. A few people might enjoy it, but I don't think races have much longeivty in them. We saw that withe beetle ones which died off unbelievably quick

 

I really think that most of the needed tech is arleady there (nodes to enter a copy of a map, the system to place objects in the world, elements required for the races). Sure, there will some extra work to do, but I'm pretty convinced, that my ideas will keep the racing community occupied for a very long time.

 

And think about all the possibilities that come along with my idea:

 

* There could be private housing instances, where the players can freely choose the place of their home.

* There could be a possibility to enter a map where one player (or more) take the role of an open world boss and the rest will have a real challenge in that fight - not just autoattacking until the gold reward pops up.

* There could be tower defence maps.

 

The list could go on and on, if you're only creative enough and all of a sudden you have a whole bunch of possibilities, where people can entertain themselves (which gives the devs the time to create the next big thing or to care for the game's balancing). ?

 

edit: added another possibility