I've come up with a format for Vendetta's own racing league, because I've found that head to head racing in VO can be extremely intense and very competetive. It's also an aspect of VO that I hope to bring more attention to. I'm hoping in the future, when VRL takes off, Guild software can help me get money to distribue to the winners of races so winning the races can have a signifigant reward.

I plan to have organized, sponsored racing events with Prizes and bets much like the Deneb Universe races.

I've found that racing head to head in the tracks of VO is more competetive with slower ships, like EC's and entry level light fighters. To regulate this I have come up with racing classes and formulas which I believe are balanced.

Combat racing will also be included. Thus, an issue arises where two racers of the same nation cannot compete.

The solution: To be a member of VRL, to participate in combat racing one must have a character with tanked home nation standing so he/she may damage and take damage to and from anyone. Formulas do not require levels highter than 3/3/3/-/-/, so leveling will not be too much of a pain, if you start an alt.

Here's what I've come up with VRL's initial format:

Vendetta Racing League

"Pure Race" Class formulas:
Racing on a selected track with up to 6 racers. Weapon usage is restricted entirely. the pilot with the fastest lap time is the winner. All racers must line up at the gate before the race starts, and hit the boost as soon as "GO!" is called by the race official.

Pure Stock EC
Qualifying ships:
"Out of the box" stock EC-88.

NO removing of ANY equipment from the ship once its purchased. The EC-88 must have the free battery and gov-issued plasma cannon equipped.
Shooting is allowed in Pure Stock EC, though it will likely not be done since all energy in the small battery will be needed for racing.

Pure Super EC
Qualifying ships:
EC-88
EC-98
EC-101

Any equipment configuration is allowed

Pure Melange
Qualifying ships:
Centurion Mk I
Centurion Mk II
Vulture Mk I
Vulture Mk II

Any equipment configuration is allowed

Pure X-TREEM (By invitation only)

Unrestricted

"Full-Contact" Race formulas:
Racing on a selected track with up to 10 racers. Weaponry is restricted per-class. Racer with the fastest lap time is the winner, All racers must line up at the gate before the race starts, and hit the boost as soon as "GO!" is called by the race official. Combat class and formula is preselected.
Each pilot MUST equip a qualifying weapon for the race. No empty ships!

Weapon Formulas:

Formula A "Energy-limited"
Qualifying weaponry:
All Ion Blasters
All Phase Blasters
All Plasma Cannons
All Flechette Cannons

Formula B "Energy-Unlimited"
Qualifying weaponry:
All Energy Weapons allowed EXCEPT the Gatling Turret

Formula C "Fireworks"
Qualifying Weaponry:
YellowJacket
Firefly
Stingray

Classes:

Full-Contact EC:
Qualifying ships:
EC-88
EC-98
EC-101

Full-Contact Melange:
Qualifying ships:
Centurion Mk I
Centurion Mk II
Vulture Mk I
Vulture Mk II

Full-Contact Extreme
Qualifying Ship Classes:
Warthog
Hornet
Wraith
Atlas

I'm very excited to have VRL take off. I need individuals to help me get a guild together for the record.

If you're interested, msg "Akire Azimuth" or "Apex Azimuth", or post here that you're interested and tell us what your alt is(or will be)if you have one.

I will be talking to my friends in IA to help me get a portion of IA's forum dedicated to VRL where we can post player stats, winnings, and events.

I'm very serious about this. I see prizes in the millions in the future where people can enjoy extreme competition somewhere other than the battlefield.

sounds fun. but leveling ANOTHER alt is not in my game plan.

Then race in the stock EC-88 class, leveling won't help in that class.

the first few events will probably be Pure Stock EC, and Pure Melange. And their combat equivilants possibly. That doesn't require more than 2/2/2/-/- at the MOST.

Do you HAVE to have an alt for this? I think you may attract more people if that was not necessarily a requirement. Just have more races without weapons.

Also: shouldn't winning be based on who trips the finish line first? Otherwise you could technically wait until all the other racers got a head start, and still clock the fastest lap without having to worry about interference.

Otherwise this looks very, very cool :) Well thought out. I'd be happy to donate some of my own trading money to the guild for prize money once it gets going. I loved bus racing in Sedina D5 with a1k0n, that was a blast, and I'd love to see racing in Vendetta get bigger!

__Phaserlight: "Also: shouldn't winning be based on who trips the finish line first? Otherwise you could technically wait until all the other racers got a head start, and still clock the fastest lap without having to worry about interference."__

-I agree and I've already thought about this, I'm working on a rulebbook for VRL, and one of the rules is requirement to trip the line on go.

players must line up close the gate and when "GO!" is called, each player MUST trip the timer, or be disqualified. If I got Dev help in the long run, we could maybe have a way to start a universal timer and some kind of a gate lock.

The trouble with positional win-calls, is determining who may have crossed the line first if the race is very close (Trust me, they get close, I had a race with A1kon that was under a 0:00.03 difference)

__Phaserlight: "Do you HAVE to have an alt for this? I think you may attract more people if that was not necessarily a requirement. Just have more races without weapons."__

-Not necessarily for Pure races, and also not necessarily for combat races, as long as your home nation standing is tanked, so you can damage anyone. I may need to clarify that in the above post... Thanks Phaserlight!

As you know Apex, I'm in. My alt isn't created yet...but it'll be "SmittensTehBusRacer"

> as long as your home nation standing is tanked, so you can damage anyone.

I'd like to see some "International" league competitions, where you would compete against the other nations, but not your own. That would make is so players wouldn't have to use an alt, or tank their home nation standing.

I have International, multi-nation races planned for the future, but at the moment, I'm not sure we have enough participants for such a race.

The first few events are going to be Pure race anyway, combat racing isn't my primary concern at the moment. People need to get accustomed to racing through the tubes before combat racing can be anything but total chaos.

For your concern about having enough participants, I think you might be able to attract more if you don't require either an alt specifically for racing, or tanking home nation standing. I might be willing to create an alt, but I'm not keen on tanking my home nation standing, or spending time leveling up an alt that I would only use for racing. I would be more willing to use one of my existing characters.

> The first few events are going to be Pure race anyway, combat racing isn't my primary
> concern at the moment. People need to get accustomed to racing through the tubes before
> combat racing can be anything but total chaos.

No combat makes the standing issue moot, but the way you describe the "pure race" classes above could be clarified, I missed the "Weapon usage is restricted entirely" bit the first time I read it, but picked up on "Shooting is allowed in Pure Stock EC." Also, I think you overestimate how much turboing the EC-88 would do in the race, I think there'll still be enough energy for shooting.

Oh, and total chaos can be fun too, y'know.

Also, I think you overestimate how much turboing the EC-88 would do in the race, I think there'll still be enough energy for shooting

If you're going for first place, trust me--no. Though I did get second place once by hanging back and shooting everyone but the first place person...

Shooting in Pure EC would be pointless and foolish, really. people have done it, the player doing it just bugs everyone and ends up getting last place because they kept running out of juice.

And players don't necessarily need an alt. they just need a char with tanked standing to do combat racing.

So as long as we don't intend to do combat racing, we don't have to tank standings? This sounds interesting.

http://www.vo-wiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Race_tracks#Vendetta_Racing_League

I added this to the wiki as this league is a great idea. Hopefully it will stick around and not be just a passing fad!!!

Thanks for adding VRL to the wiki, johnhawl218!

I'll be sure to keep VRL in the works, I won't let you down!

/bump