Why rails at the receiver can’t be cut
A design decision that came out of bot test runs: a small protected zone around the active receiver.
From the developer 2 min read Milestone date: Posted
In VELTRAIL your rail has to reach the active receiver before any pulse can score. The first version of the rules let rivals cut a rail anywhere, right up to the last step into the receiver. On 29 September that changed: rails of both teams within 1.6 metres of the active receiver can no longer be broken.
What the bots showed
We test rules with long series of matches between bots: 128 matches on each arena. Under the original rules, routes were cut very often — 96 to 98 times per match. With a guard of 1.6 metres, the size of the receiver itself, the same series looked like this:
- time with a working route to the receiver: up from 46, 42 and 40 percent to 52, 47 and 44 percent on the three arenas;
- cuts per match: down from 96–98 to 67–77;
- the first delivery of a match: earlier, from 16–18 seconds to about 14–17.
These are measurements on bots, not on people. They say the rule lets a route live long enough to matter. How it feels in human hands is something only players can show us — and we will listen.
Exactly what is protected
- Only the zone around the active receiver — the one that scores this round. The ring moves with it from round to round.
- A piece of rail counts as protected when its middle lies within 1.6 m of the receiver horizontally and within 1 m in height.
- It protects both teams equally. The fight moves to the approach, where rails can still be cut.
You can see the rule in the game: a ring of white shields around the active receiver, white collars on the protected rails, a small shield that pops up when you fire at one, and a short message for the shooter — “Rails at the receiver are protected”. The tutorial mentions it in step 5.
This is a deliberate change from the original design document, which had no protected zone at all. It was decided on 29 September and is part of version 1.0.