I promise, this will be the last Death Race post for awhile. The last few weeks, especially last week leading up to the race, have been exhausting and I just want to get back to playing Eve for awhile. That isn't to say I didn't enjoy myself, or it wasn't worth the time and effort - it was. But whew, I'm kind of glad the first one is out of the way.
I learned a tremendous amount by doing this and I think I managed, with much help and support, to put on a great, enjoyable and fun event for my fellow Eve pilots. That was the ONLY goal. Period. Did everything go off without a hitch? No, of course not. As the saying goes, anything done for the first time creates a demon. And we did have a few demons show up, but only a few, and those can be easily dealt with next time. In fact, I already have some ideas on how to improve the race experience and get the heart pumping even more.
After two days of reviewing the video and other supporting materials, my biggest mistake has come to light. This isn't just a fault on my own shoulders, but also a fact of life in Eve. We are constrained to some degree by the game itself, the mechanics, the limitations of the UI design, the lag (even though we didn't see much of that, thank you CCP) and other factors beyond anyone's control. Many have asked for a final race result posting and I would enjoy nothing more than to be able to give it to you. Believe me. But sadly, I can only CONFIRM the top 14 finishes:
1 - Persephone Astrid
I learned a tremendous amount by doing this and I think I managed, with much help and support, to put on a great, enjoyable and fun event for my fellow Eve pilots. That was the ONLY goal. Period. Did everything go off without a hitch? No, of course not. As the saying goes, anything done for the first time creates a demon. And we did have a few demons show up, but only a few, and those can be easily dealt with next time. In fact, I already have some ideas on how to improve the race experience and get the heart pumping even more.
After two days of reviewing the video and other supporting materials, my biggest mistake has come to light. This isn't just a fault on my own shoulders, but also a fact of life in Eve. We are constrained to some degree by the game itself, the mechanics, the limitations of the UI design, the lag (even though we didn't see much of that, thank you CCP) and other factors beyond anyone's control. Many have asked for a final race result posting and I would enjoy nothing more than to be able to give it to you. Believe me. But sadly, I can only CONFIRM the top 14 finishes:
1 - Persephone Astrid2 - Jirock
3 - John B'dlam
4 - Histocomp
5 - Mamba Lev
6 - CaptainHeroUK
7 - Cyras DeValera
8 - Angor Mau
9 - Abrafo Alger
10 - Schmetterflug
11 - Agile Nakajima
12 - Manasi
13 - Mar Gregorios
14 - Flash Granola
Why only 14? For one thing I am a perfectionist who believes in quality and honor, I believe without those I shouldn't be organizing anything to begin with. So yes, I could say anything and post the list of finishers and who would question me? Other than myself, and that would be enough. (Anyone who might doubt that should know that I distributed 1.45 BILLION in ISK yesterday, and that doesn't count prizes. Every single cent collected was given away.) The fact is that after #14 enters local several factors make it nearly impossible to confirm anything.
• I was stupid and left local on icon view. As you can see from the post image, my local is full at that point and racers are still entering local. I admit that wasn't something I thought about ahead of time and one detail I missed. Local count is going up and I'm missing racers at around the #18 mark.
• We obviously experienced some local lag, in which racers were jumping into system and not showing up on local. This DID NOT START until after the #14 racer entered local however. This is very clear from the videos and logs. And since only the top ten racers got prizes anyway, I was happy to hear that.
• Number one thru fourteen is very clear and confirmed. So those finishes are official.
Now, what do we do about this next time? First of all, the actual finish gate will be one jump short of the finishing system. In other words, racers will continue one more jump thru the finish line. This will keep local from filling up with racers, who will be filing up the next system over. Simple and elegant. Secondly RJ will have his local on collapsed view. Just those two easy fixes should eliminate any issues in the next race finishes.
I also have another idea (Which will have to remain secret) that will increase the amount of violence in the next race. It isn't called Bath of Blood for nothing! Each race will be a little different than the last, but the basic format will continue. Everyone seems to have had a blast and enjoyed themselves tremendously, and I want to make sure that stays true. I strived to keep the first one as simple as possible and not bite off more than we could chew.
Thanks to everyone for your kind comments and support of the event. You have proven, once again, what a great community we have here and that something positive can be built within the Eve Universe.
Fly safe. Fly fast.