Oops, it occurs to me that I shouldn't use the word "perfect lap" because of its historical use in Wipeout games to mean a lap in which you haven't hit any walls or opponents.

What I really mean is, the "ideal racing line that permits execution of a lap in the shortest possible time in the absence of other players or weapons fire." In the perfect world, there would probably be only one ideal racing line-- but because players differ in their skill levels and choices of ships, there may be multiple ideal racing lines.

If you look at older racing games that have a large following, one continues to see better and better lap times being achieved. Mario Kart 64 was released in 1996 but lap times and race times CONTINUE to be improved, even very recently. This is a testament to the complexity of the MK64 gameplay and the committed (obsessive?) driving by its fans.

The barrel roll adds incredible complexity to time trialing in Wipeout Pulse and Wipeout Pure-- the number and position of possible barrel roll locations is very high, and varies based on play style, pitch control and ship selection. Nearly three years following its release, I don't believe that lap and race times are anywhere near reaching a plateau in Pure.

But if there were no barrel rolls, and players only had to map out one turbo boost point ('shroom spots' as we call them in Mario Kart) and hit as many boost pads as possible, we would see most experienced players achieving similar lap times after several hundred attempts. Cursory study of the "Arena" forum page and the time trial pages indicates that this isn't the case. Hell, I am a relative n00b at Wipeout and recently submitted some no. 2 and no. 3 lap times in Pure that were achieved with the Zone ship, of all things

I agree, Medusa, that speed per se adds difficulty and complexity to racing lines. But part of the reason is that, in Wipeout Pure and Pulse, speed increases air time, and hence opportunities for barrel rolls. Ideally, I would like a game that raced on Vector or Venom speeds, have many opportunities and strategies possible for obtaining faster lap times

Quote Originally Posted by Lance View Post
.... that's exactly the way real-life present-day racing is. Coming as near as possible to doing perfect laps despite the competition getting in the way and altering your lines is the challenge real-life racers face
This is another philosophy that I honestly haven't considered much My belief is that, ideally, there should be as much variation in possible strategy and execution as possible-- to provide incentive for continued innovation. But other folks may feel differently!