We're off to the races!!

Even though this is a text based game, it's really hard to get excited about a race you can't watch. Because this is a PBEM game, all actions are planned in advance and all results are viewed after processing. The above is a replay of a 5 furlong race between six horses. You can see it ends in a dead heat between Mango and Viking. Behind the scenes, the algorithm gave Viking the win as it finished the race stronger - even if at the same time - as Mango. This is where the different horse stats for phases become important. You want a horse that can finish strong at the end to win any tie break.

I'm also happy that race in this example produced a close finish. I have confidence the racing mechanism (see other blog post) is a good design that will produce some close racing.

Viking has one a race now so its next race will need to be against other horses that have also won exactly one race. Mango and the rest of the field can race again knowing they won't immediately come up against Viking.

As always - the display is minimalist at this point as the focus is on getting a functional PBEM game. Spit and polish and jazz comes later.  8-)

Be the first to join my Discord server to learn more and be an alpha tester.