Squid Racing

[Byron Cavendish]

After trying to run a (semi) competitive squid race, I found some successes and failures in the system. The details can be found here https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,4765.0.html for anyone interested or seen at http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRobandDanShow/videos

What I'd like to discuss with any participants, casters, or viewers are their thoughts. How we can improve, what they'd like to see, what we can ask of Muse, etc.

[Thomas]

I ran a moderately successful Squid Race some time back. There was a few kinks, mostly with the scheduling. Here's the ruleset I used:

https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,4428.msg74312.html

And a video of the event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHYuRJGDHq0


The ultimate goal was to set this up similar to the Hephaestus, with an ongoing League and races every weekend or so as teams accumulated points to earn their spot in the finals.

I like the check point system, as this allows for a lot of flexibility. Penalties for killing and such were in place, and teams were individually timed on the chance that someone died, and to allow for penalties if players broke the rules. (Using mines too soon, using too much tar, skipping a checkpoint, etc).

Weapons were restricted to the Mine Launcher on the front and side, with a flare that was not allowed to be used on the back. This is to make it a little more challenging than just dropping a lot of mines behind the ship. Mines were chosen as they damage everyone, while things like flares and harpoons can only effect ships on the 'enemy' team. This prevents people of the same team color working together in some fashion to knock out the other 'team'. So you can have 4-8 teams instead of only 2.


Problems with this method is that you need some more refs, there's a lot more set up. I took screen shots and did videos for each of the tracks to show the specific checkpoints and clarify some rules. Winners are not immediately declared at the end of the match, as you have to apply penalties to teams that broke the rules. For my squid race, this was mostly with teams slightly skipping over a checkpoint.


Something that might make squid races more fun is not allowing the use of kerosene, moonshine, or phoenix claw. This gives the ships more opportunity to use the weapons and tar, instead of going for pure speed and having their crew camp the engines. More chaos and action will occur. However, tar use should be regulated. As with 4 ships racing, the last place ship is going to have a hell of a time catching up through 3 trails of tar cloud.

[Queso]

As a pilot in Thomas's race, the major issue I encountered was a single unclear checkpoint. We were always going to be running a straight speed strat regardless of other rules however. It seems other teams did the same. Having risky options is a lot of fun, although my engineers may have been having a heart attack going through the pipe in canyons. Honestly I think speed focused is more fun, since it's not something that really gets done in regular games. Too much combat could be detrimental.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Probably best wait till Muse adds an official gametype and fixes the squid. But it isn't bad trying to refine the gametype. Submit it to Muse and maybe they'll be able to get started faster.

Honestly you'll never see me in a race event till the old squid is back. Every time I think about it, I think about how fun it could have been. Then I get irritated. So ultimately I'd rather avoid it than write another essay to Muse. Why my squid is called "Fuyukai"

[Milevan Faent]

Probably best wait till Muse adds an official gametype and fixes the squid. But it isn't bad trying to refine the gametype. Submit it to Muse and maybe they'll be able to get started faster.

Honestly you'll never see me in a race event till the old squid is back. Every time I think about it, I think about how fun it could have been. Then I get irritated. So ultimately I'd rather avoid it than write another essay to Muse. Why my squid is called "Fuyukai"

Old Squid? What happened to it that you don't like?

EDIT: Also, slightly more on topic, are there any Squid Races going on right now? This sounds like something that could become a bigger event, perhaps with races going on regularly as part of a Season, perhaps even weekly. Assuming that anyone is willing to run it to that extend of course.

[Dutch Vanya]

Probably best wait till Muse adds an official gametype and fixes the squid. But it isn't bad trying to refine the gametype. Submit it to Muse and maybe they'll be able to get started faster.

Honestly you'll never see me in a race event till the old squid is back. Every time I think about it, I think about how fun it could have been. Then I get irritated. So ultimately I'd rather avoid it than write another essay to Muse. Why my squid is called "Fuyukai"

Old Squid? What happened to it that you don't like?

Oh, i thought you were the expert on this game.

[Milevan Faent]

Probably best wait till Muse adds an official gametype and fixes the squid. But it isn't bad trying to refine the gametype. Submit it to Muse and maybe they'll be able to get started faster.

Honestly you'll never see me in a race event till the old squid is back. Every time I think about it, I think about how fun it could have been. Then I get irritated. So ultimately I'd rather avoid it than write another essay to Muse. Why my squid is called "Fuyukai"

Old Squid? What happened to it that you don't like?

Oh, i thought you were the expert on this game.

I am an expert on this game, in it's current state. I can hardly be blamed for not knowing how it was ;p

[Spud Nick]

1.2 patch notes

- Rebalanced ship acceleration/speed profiles
-- Top Forward Speed (fastest to slowest): Squid, Goldfish, Pyramidion, Galleon, Junker, Spire
-- Forward Acceleration (fastest to slowest): Squid, Junker, Goldfish, Spire, Pyramidion, Galleon
-- Top Turn Speed (fastest to slowest): Squid, Junker, Goldfish, Spire, Pyramidion, Galleon
-- Turn Acceleration (fastest to slowest): Squid, Spire, Junker, Goldfish, Pyramidion, Galleon
-- Mass (largest to smallest): Galleon, Pyramidion, Spire, Goldfish, Junker, Squid
-- Vertical Acceleration (fastest to slowest, all top vertical speed is 12m/s): Squid, Spire, Goldfish, Junker, Pyramidion, Galleon

Wow the squid sucks! oh wait... It's number one in almost all of these categories.... Wow looking at these stats the squid would be a great racing ship. How come nobody has made a competitive squid race?

[Thomas]

Old Squid? What happened to it that you don't like?

EDIT: Also, slightly more on topic, are there any Squid Races going on right now? This sounds like something that could become a bigger event, perhaps with races going on regularly as part of a Season, perhaps even weekly. Assuming that anyone is willing to run it to that extend of course.

I'd be interested in doing that. One of the goals for the little squid race I ran was to get a feel if anyone was interested in seeing it become a bigger event, ideally a Squid Racing Season/League that occurs over a length of time. It was mostly designed to be able to adapt for that. We would have to make some slight adjustments, namely in making sure the course is clear and obvious, possibly tweaking the other rules to be easier to follow.

The only thing left is finding a good time for it. Most big events occur over Saturday, and it would be difficult to get a section of time just for Squid Racing. Sunday is completely taken up by the SCS. We could go before the SCS, but then we have a very strict time limit (which shouldn't be a problem really). We'd probably lose the Aussies, since that's a really bad time for them. Another option would be Friday evening, but that'd be difficult as well. Too early and those in the Americas are still at work or school, and too late in the evening and everyone the EU is getting ready for bed.

But as long as there's enough interest in doing it, we can make it work out.

[Milevan Faent]

Old Squid? What happened to it that you don't like?

EDIT: Also, slightly more on topic, are there any Squid Races going on right now? This sounds like something that could become a bigger event, perhaps with races going on regularly as part of a Season, perhaps even weekly. Assuming that anyone is willing to run it to that extend of course.

I'd be interested in doing that. One of the goals for the little squid race I ran was to get a feel if anyone was interested in seeing it become a bigger event, ideally a Squid Racing Season/League that occurs over a length of time. It was mostly designed to be able to adapt for that. We would have to make some slight adjustments, namely in making sure the course is clear and obvious, possibly tweaking the other rules to be easier to follow.

The only thing left is finding a good time for it. Most big events occur over Saturday, and it would be difficult to get a section of time just for Squid Racing. Sunday is completely taken up by the SCS. We could go before the SCS, but then we have a very strict time limit (which shouldn't be a problem really). We'd probably lose the Aussies, since that's a really bad time for them. Another option would be Friday evening, but that'd be difficult as well. Too early and those in the Americas are still at work or school, and too late in the evening and everyone the EU is getting ready for bed.

But as long as there's enough interest in doing it, we can make it work out.

Yeah, the best times on the weekend are already taken. A time slot during the week may be an option, though it requires aiming for after school/work. I'd definitely be interested in this. Originally, my interest in Squid Racing was because of my desire to start a sort of Daily Event type of thing, where there would be a special event going on every day, though most of the idea seems somewhat silly in retrospect. I certainly can't come up with enough ideas myself to support what I was trying to do.

[TrainingDummy]

I would absolutely love it if a Squid racing league became a real thing 

[Squidslinger Gilder]

1.2 patch notes

- Rebalanced ship acceleration/speed profiles
-- Top Forward Speed (fastest to slowest): Squid, Goldfish, Pyramidion, Galleon, Junker, Spire
-- Forward Acceleration (fastest to slowest): Squid, Junker, Goldfish, Spire, Pyramidion, Galleon
-- Top Turn Speed (fastest to slowest): Squid, Junker, Goldfish, Spire, Pyramidion, Galleon
-- Turn Acceleration (fastest to slowest): Squid, Spire, Junker, Goldfish, Pyramidion, Galleon
-- Mass (largest to smallest): Galleon, Pyramidion, Spire, Goldfish, Junker, Squid
-- Vertical Acceleration (fastest to slowest, all top vertical speed is 12m/s): Squid, Spire, Goldfish, Junker, Pyramidion, Galleon

Wow the squid sucks! oh wait... It's number one in almost all of these categories.... Wow looking at these stats the squid would be a great racing ship. How come nobody has made a competitive squid race?

Don't make me start...seriously. You were around pre 1.2 weren't you Spud? If not I wouldn't be surprised with your reply but if so, you must have some memory problems. The 1.1 Squid compared to 1.2 Squid is like comparing a horny rabbit race to a snail race.

People talk of the spire as a glass cannon but the squid back then was worse, a true tissue paper fighter. You couldn't ram with it or even touch ships without either losing a huge chunk of health or blowing up. To counter that it had speed and handling which outclassed everything. Nothing could catch it. You could only catch a squid if you out piloted it with tools and ships could counter it with tools but if your piloting ability was crap, all the tools in the world wouldn't mean anything. Its how Brick and I met and started flying together. He was the only Pyra pilot who would ever keep pace and not give up when they'd see my squid. I'd often beat him out in 1v1s but he'd make me work for it.

1.2 cut the speed, maneuvering, and accel by over 50%. To answer this, Muse took months to "fix" hydro and chute, which are still overall broken. Then before that they gave the squid an HP buff because it was pretty obvious no one could fly the tissue paper snail without dying horrifically every time you overshot and nudged a wall because the engines aren't responsive anymore.

You want good racing, quality fun with high speed action, get Muse to patch back in the 1.1 Squid. The current squid is an ABOMINATION and should have it's name changed to denote how crappy it is compared to it's roots.