Ace Racers SP

A Story by tsmspace

open-source story project

pasted from the github page for this project:: github - tsmspace - ACE-RACERS-SP

(from readme)

story development

The goal of this project is to create an open-source story platform for the purpose of developing some "plot options" and character options for the enrichment of a game universe or multiple game universes. Of course normal story formats are also welcome.

(from initial notes)

Tiny racing drones in space.

A very large vehicle with a pilot will need to achieve high acceleration and speeds to "feel fast" , however a very small vehicle that moves very close to objects around it can move at very humble speeds with very humble (realistic) accelerations and still "feel fast" in the FPV camera, because objects mere inches and feet away from the camera will move quickly across the screen.

A very large vehicle will also require very large objects to move past in order to percieve the speed. If a very large space racer were flying among land-forms, it would require very large mountains and deep chasms. However, if a very tiny vehicle were to move around land-forms, it would be able to have a similar experience moving past piles no taller than a person and chasms no deeper than a few feet.

The original concept is to have drone racing in space in the present day. To do this, a sub-orbital rocket carrying a few drones and an inflatable course would be launched on a hop that offers a few minutes of zero-G time. During this time, the course inflates, and the drones are released so that pilots on the ground can pilot the drones remotely around the course before the rocket and course fall back to earth.

The story concept is to justify land-forms in zero g.
Deep in space drifts a giant space station in the shape of a ring, designed for mining massive asteroids. The ring station spins to produce artificial gravity, and mining dust is piled into mountains around the ring, creating a vast wilderness where dust may be mined again later, or allowed to gradually be recovered into soil. The miners are excellent pilots of small craft, and a popular hobby is to race around the zero-gravity environments of the docks and nearby, flying through inflatable gates. Very rarely, however, it is critical for station maintenance to de-spin the station, creating a rare situation where these racing pilots can fly among the mountains of mining waste, as though through a planetary landscape, but with zero gravity to encumber them, allowing them to mesh deep space thruster racing, with mountainous surface style landforms.

(from tsmspace's plot outline points)

Plot outline points that I will use in my version of the outline. All ideas in this file are nonessential for the concept, and are merely a plot option. 

THe giant spin station has a new arrival. A massive upgrade project will see a huge space ship first dock to the station, and then be transformed into a new module for the station. In order to install the module, all of the station modules must be repositioned for stable spin. In order to do this, the station must be de-spun.

Most of the racers that will participate are already crew members of the station, although some participants have arrived with the station installation.

Under normal circumstances, shipping weight is a significant limitation, largely preventing the smuggling of large items. However, after the station is despun to dock the craft in the location it will be unpacked and assembled on the station, a large smuggled item is discovered and operations are halted to facilitate for an investigation and actions to be taken to deal with the item, causing a significant delay in the project, and leaving the station with zero-gravity for an extended period of time. 

Racers are now in the situation where they will have an undetermined amount of extra time to hold races, meaning they have the opportunity to fly constantly around the terrain for much longer than would normally be possible.