Light Racer
Light Racer is one of the most popular software packages offered in the LionFire product library. The digital racing sport was initially released as a proof of concept for the communication layer of the virtual network, but rapidly grew into a cultural phenomenon that spread across the empire as the first truly interstellar sport in the Rogers Republic--and possibly the galaxy.
Origin of Light Racer
The LionFire virtual experience was originally developed to test the boundaries of the Ansible Network provided by the Mother Stone. It was clear that distributing a Gahnxite fragment to each connected device was unsustainable, so an alternative solution would need to be implemented for local network communication.
At the time, a litany of game developers had begun researching more efficient means of interstellar communication—something which had limited many industries to more regional content distribution. While it was possible to send data between star systems, it was far from instantaneous and prone to both interference and signal decay over longer distances.
The Gaming Commission was not the only organization to see the potential of an Ansible Network as a solution to this problem, but they were the first to bring such a solution to market.
Inspiration
The Light Racer game was based on a form of gladiatorial combat that originated in the Rhyno Confederacy colloquially known as the Death Race. The original sport was played primarily by criminals forced to compete for the pleasure of society's elite class. The contest featured a number of highly unstable hovercraft that were difficult to control and prone to crashing in violent fashion.
The main objective for competitors was to survive by any means necessary, which usually meant forcing rival racers to crash. Winners of the Death Race would be granted partial pardons for their crimes, and if they survived long enough, the most successful would be able to earn their freedom—though very few competitors lived to see such a reward.
Though the physical sport had been officially outlawed for some time, it was still well known, and the simple rules made it easy to translate to a modern DigiSport.
Version 1.0
The original version of Light Racer was, in many ways, a carbon copy of its gladiatorial predecessor. It pitted groups of 30 - 60 players against each other in a battle royale matchup. Unlike the physical sport, however, Light Racer's vehicles left a trail of energy in their wake that formed temporary walls designed to obstruct players' path through the playing field. Colliding with one of these walls would cause a player's vehicle (and their avatar) to erupt in a colorful explosion thereby eliminating them from the game, and the round would continue until only one racer remained.
Basic Rules / Mechanics
Light Racer was intentionally designed to be as simple as possible. At the time of its release, the Gaming Commission's goal for the product was to draw in as many players as possible with a game that was easy to learn and even easier to play. The first public match of Light Racer looked like an early alpha release] because that's exactly what it was meant to be—a no-frills preview of LionFire's potential.
Controls
Light Racer was developed to feature constant movement. Each player began the race in a small pen spread around the outer wall of a rectangular arena. After a short countdown, all the pens opened, and the racers were launched toward the center of the arena. Once the pens opened, players only had three controls available to them: Turn left, turn right, and accelerate.
Hardlight Trails
As they travelled around the arena, each vehicle left a trail of hard light in its wake. These walls would extend a set distance behind the racer creating barriers that other vehicles needed to avoid. Accelerating would increase the length of a player's wall, but moving at higher speeds made it harder to turn.
Takedowns & Spills
Crashes have been an integral part of Light Racer from the beginning, and they come in two varieties: A Takedown occurs when a racer collides with another player's barrier or vehicle. A Spill occurs when a racer collides with with their own vehicle's wall or an environmental barrier— such as the outer wall of the arena.
Player Stats
The first release of Light Racer included some rudimentary statistics intended to keep more competitive players interested during the testing phase. In addition to tracking the usual metrics such as victories and win/loss streaks, the Takedowns per Match (TPM) stat was a particularly popular badge of honor, as most players with an impressive win streak earned their title by avoiding other players during their matches.
Mods
Modding had long been a standard feature of games distributed by the RGC, but these mods were heavily regulated and generally developed my smaller organizations who had licensed modding rights directly from the commission. Unlicensed mods existed, but they rarely found their way into the mainstream market.
A number of the more popular mods from the earliest versions of Light Racer would eventually be adopted into the core rules of later iterations.
Roo
Roo was a wildly popular mod, and considered a must have by most of the game's early adopters. It added two additional maneuvers the the games vehicles and allowed players to either jump over or phase through an opponent's walls. These special abilities would charge slowly over time, but that charge time could be reduced considerably by scoring takedowns.
SHiFT
The SHiFT mod introduced environmental obstacles to the game in the form of evolving arenas. The match would begin on an open field, but as the race progressed, portions of the play area would rise and fall or crumble away forcing players to navigate an increasingly hostile environment.
Attrition
The Attrition mod altered the way racers' walls behaved and added two alternate configuration options to the game. The Decay mode added a timer to individual wall segments so that a racer's trail would fade away over time. The Persistent mode caused all wall segments to remain until the end of the game, which progressively reduced the playing field of the arena until there was simply no more room to navigate.
Software Versions
Popular Licensed Users
Other Versions
Neupert LRVM Skynet
The Neupert LRVM Skynet is a similar yet utterly independent product - developed by a government contract and is available for resale or licensing. The Skynet platform was based on the original Light Racer games when they were performed physically by convicted felons. When the Rogers Republic popularized the digital version of Light Racing, Skynet was slow to compete and is primarily only used in the Neupert Circuit.
OpenSky LRVM
OpenSky is an open-sourced version of the Neupert LRVM Skynet, but modified to use the LionFire ruleset. Most secondary schools and organizations within the Rogers Republic that hold Light Racer competitions use the OpenSky LRVM. There are also several plugins and expansion packs for OpenSky, some of which have been implemented into LionFire.
Illegal Versions
Several private syndicates run local Light Racing rings. Many of these syndicates utilize 'cracked' or 'hacked' versions of LionFire, even going to far as to leave LionFire branding in place to deceive clients into believing they are using properly licensed software. There are two popular cracks available that most illegal betting tracks use;
SelfControl
SelfControl was cracked by a Oddi Syndicate technician and is notable for being able to still use the RGC Ansible network without being detected. This is a massive benefit for criminal organizations as it alleviates infrastructure costs and helps disguise the illegitimacy of the signal.
The primary disadvantage of SelfControl is the control blocks put in place to keep Registry and Racer API data out of the network. This forces all health and safety checks to be removed and 'streakers' to sometimes interrupt games.
SorryNotSorry
SorryNotSorry was uploaded to the public OmniWeb by an unknown hacker and received much media attention when RGC won a substantial legal battle against file-sharing hubs and code repositories. Versions of SorryNotSorry still exist, but many versions now available on the OmniWeb are so laced with viral code it's too dangerous even to try and install the application.
Some technicians in the racing community maintain that RGC laced the most popular versions of SorryNotSorry with malicious code and let it slowly replace the 'legitimate' version.,