Community Event / Creation Buckyball Run A*: What do you do when a mountain is there? Move it.

[Ekol Tieja]

Well, I took a look at the stats of the new ships in the 1.3 Beta, the Diamondback and Imperial Courier, and decided to see how much of a jump range we can expect out of them with full tanks.

Ship	With Scanners	Without Scanners	Refuel Time
Diamondback (16T)	27.96	28.41	90s
Diamondback (8T)	29.09	29.58	45s
Imperial Courier (8T)	27.74	29.49	45s
Imperial Courier (4T)	29.89	31.94	22s

Thanks! I had doubts about the courier as a travelling vessel, because of how bad it was in the old games, but now I think I'm in for another attempt at buckyballin'..
(I just hope they'll fix it's heat problems during beta)

BTW can I even write an entry, before I have the ship?
---In case that's a yes:---
CMDR Ekol Tieja
Pygoscelis
Imperial Courier

 

[Takaru Minari]

54'688'851 Credits. Do you know what that can buy you? One heck of a lot of Ethgreze Tea Buds, that's for sure. I'm more of a tea person, you see.

You know what else 54'688'851 Credits can buy?

Spoiler

View attachment 38835

This.

A Saud Kruger Orca bought with a 20% discount at Irkutsk, Alioth.
It is equipped with a fuel scoop capable of refueling its 16T fuel tank in 27 seconds.
It can perform three jumps before needing to refuel.
It can jump 18.97 light years on a full tank.
It would take at least 1366 jumps to reach Sagittarius A*.
At an average of one minute per jump, this would take 22 hours and 46 minutes.
And it would require a complete lunatic to even think of doing this.
At least that's what the station attendant told me I was when he asked what I was going to do with an Orca.

So guess what I'm going to do?

Commander Name: Takaru Minari
Ship Name: Orcan o' Whoop-Asp
Ship Type: Orca
(I'm not even going to apologise for that name.)

 

[Rankaze]

Thanks! I had doubts about the courier as a travelling vessel, because of how bad it was in the old games, but now I think I'm in for another attempt at buckyballin'..
(I just hope they'll fix it's heat problems during beta)

BTW can I even write an entry, before I have the ship?
---In case that's a yes:---
CMDR Ekol Tieja
Pygoscelis
Imperial Courier

If they don't fix the heat problems, this will definitely be the Hard Mode version of the BBR A*. Scooping in that thing is dangerous!

That said, if they do fix it, I think the Courier might make a pretty viable exploration ship.

Mostly, though, it looks like one beastly smuggler. It's got so much power. Running four shield boosters for escaping from interdictions? Yeah, you can do that. And still have A thrusters and distributor and shield generator. And still have power for SCB's. And boost to at least the high 390's.

 

[FoxTwo]

Well if the Diamondback is within reasonable price range (meaning 10-ish million or less), I will probably take it out to Sadge Hell why not, I'm already taking the Vulture out. I'll race stuff that you guys won't touch

Personally, after looking at the specs of it... the first thing that struck me was... "Hmmmm a T6 with weapons". Seriously.

 

[Rankaze]

Well if the Diamondback is within reasonable price range (meaning 10-ish million or less), I will probably take it out to Sadge Hell why not, I'm already taking the Vulture out. I'll race stuff that you guys won't touch

Personally, after looking at the specs of it... the first thing that struck me was... "Hmmmm a T6 with weapons". Seriously.

I was trying to think of a similarly pithy way to describe the Courier, but couldn't come up with one. The closest I could get was, "Super-Eagle"

It's... take an Eagle, double the armament, massively increase the internal compartments and utility mounts, shoehorn in a size 4 powerplant and crazy powerful shields... and somehow only lose about 10% of the maneuverability. And that's the Courier.

It's the most fun to fly ship I've ever picked up.

 

[FoxTwo]

I was trying to think of a similarly pithy way to describe the Courier, but couldn't come up with one. The closest I could get was, "Super-Eagle"

It's... take an Eagle, double the armament, massively increase the internal compartments and utility mounts, shoehorn in a size 4 powerplant and crazy powerful shields... and somehow only lose about 10% of the maneuverability. And that's the Courier.

Gee and I thought the Vulture was the "Super Eagle"....

Anyway status update:

I have already taken off, and now about 1,000 LY (maybe slightly more) from Sol. The jump range due to combat loadout is causing me to stop at some unexpected unscoopables which my Cobra easily skipped the first time around on the same route

And, time per 1,000 LY jump is absymal - 1 hour. Well it's practically the same number of minutes as the number of jumps I needed to make for each 1,000 LY, which is more than 55 jumps. Each jump averaging 1 minute, and it's about 55 minutes per 1,000 LY for me.

So, I'm expecting to join Anuranium at the core in ... oh... 25-ish hours..... but realistically, I'm thinking 30 to 35 hours taking into account sleeping and eating time

 

[c64orinoco]

54'688'851 Credits. Do you know what that can buy you? One heck of a lot of Ethgreze Tea Buds, that's for sure. I'm more of a tea person, you see.

You know what else 54'688'851 Credits can buy?

Spoiler

View attachment 38835

This.

A Saud Kruger Orca bought with a 20% discount at Irkutsk, Alioth.
It is equipped with a fuel scoop capable of refueling its 16T fuel tank in 27 seconds.
It can perform three jumps before needing to refuel.
It can jump 18.97 light years on a full tank.
It would take at least 1366 jumps to reach Sagittarius A*.
At an average of one minute per jump, this would take 22 hours and 46 minutes.
And it would require a complete lunatic to even think of doing this.
At least that's what the station attendant told me I was when he asked what I was going to do with an Orca.

So guess what I'm going to do?

Commander Name: Takaru Minari
Ship Name: Orcan o' Whoop-Asp
Ship Type: Orca
(I'm not even going to apologise for that name.)

I say cobber, you have presented me with a dilemma.

Do I do the right thing for the community and help test the beta, or do I race you to Sag A* in my Orca "The Spanish Inquisition".

Hmmm. This is indeed a dilemma.

 

[Takaru Minari]

I say cobber, you have presented me with a dilemma.

Do I do the right thing for the community and help test the beta, or do I race you to Sag A* in my Orca "The Spanish Inquisition".

Hmmm. This is indeed a dilemma.

Well, given that I've got a six hour lead of about 6.5k light years by now, I don't think any Orca can catch up now - as such, if there's one thing I certainly won't expect to see at Sadge, it'll be The Spanish Inquisition.

 

[Gorgol]

I've been meaning to do this for a while. Finally Have found the credits and time.

Commander: Gorgol
Ship Name: Octavius
Ship Type: Anaconda

 

[Alec Turner]

Gee and I thought the Vulture was the "Super Eagle"....

Anyway status update:

I have already taken off, and now about 1,000 LY (maybe slightly more) from Sol. The jump range due to combat loadout is causing me to stop at some unexpected unscoopables which my Cobra easily skipped the first time around on the same route

And, time per 1,000 LY jump is absymal - 1 hour. Well it's practically the same number of minutes as the number of jumps I needed to make for each 1,000 LY, which is more than 55 jumps. Each jump averaging 1 minute, and it's about 55 minutes per 1,000 LY for me.

So, I'm expecting to join Anuranium at the core in ... oh... 25-ish hours..... but realistically, I'm thinking 30 to 35 hours taking into account sleeping and eating time

I'd been hoping to make a bit of a race of it but it looks like you'll be doing your final 1000ly just at I'm finishing my first (unless I can get hold of a Lakon type 8 between now and tomorrow morning).

Good luck out there!

 

[c64orinoco]

Well, given that I've got a six hour lead of about 6.5k light years by now, I don't think any Orca can catch up now - as such, if there's one thing I certainly won't expect to see at Sadge, it'll be The Spanish Inquisition.

Yeah.... There is that whole thing called the 'day job' that stops me doing a run swiftly. I was hoping to claim the honor of first Orca to Sag A*, but I think that one will be yours. I'll just have to hold the '85 Cobra claim.

Its only very rare that I get a chance to do a major run, public holidays, annual leave and permission from my 'copilot' & the cats are required.

 

[fergal]

in case anyone was wondering, I am about 18000ly from sol, but when I loaded the beta I was only about 100 ly.
Some people were worried they would have to fly all the way back to participate in the beta, you don't have to.

I didn't even realize it would give me all my ships, credits and ranks, I though it would just be a new blank game with a few credits.

 

[Esvandiary]

in case anyone was wondering, I am about 18000ly from sol, but when I loaded the beta I was only about 100 ly.
Some people were worried they would have to fly all the way back to participate in the beta, you don't have to.

I didn't even realize it would give me all my ships, credits and ranks, I though it would just be a new blank game with a few credits.

Were you 100Ly out before the weekend?

The save transferred to the beta galaxy seems to be quite a few days old (at least, I seem to be significantly poorer in the beta galaxy!) so it could just be that.

 

[FoxTwo]

Sigh... at 6,000 LY out, I got distracted for just a couple of seconds... and my Vulture got too close and dropped out.

Now 98% hull And I didn't even think about bringing AFMUs....

Oh yes, this is how high above Aucoks my original route on the Cobra was ... about 600 LY above...

Spoiler

And, that was why I never even knew about Aucoks until you guys ran headlog into it

 

[Glenn Ross]

OK, sounds like a fun way to spend a weekend, I'm in!
.
Commander: Glenn Ross
Ship: Asp Explorer
Ship Name: The Dove
.
Can't start until Saturday, but should be in place on the start at Wolf 359 by then.
.
What's this about Aucoks? Should I aim for it, or avoid it?

 

[Esvandiary]

What's this about Aucoks? Should I aim for it, or avoid it?

Avoid... Most definitely avoid! By the time you're about 1500Ly out towards Sadge, you either want to be at least ~50Ly above the plane, or some amount below it (haven't done it personally so I dunno how far you need to go )

 

[Takaru Minari]

[...] What's this about Aucoks? Should I aim for it, or avoid it?

Aucoks is the dark land, where the light of hydrogen-fusing stars shines few and far between. The Unscoopables are uncounted, the Replots are innumerable and the only thing that outstrips them is the amount of regrets held by starfaring Commanders for entering this accursed sector. Only the fool, the brave or the mad enters here of their own accord.

...so naturally, I headed right through it with my Orca because sanity is clearly not my forte.

[...] I was hoping to claim the honor of first Orca to Sag A*, but I think that one will be yours. I'll just have to hold the '85 Cobra claim. [...]

Huh, first the Sidewinder, now the Orca - I'm starting to feel like some sort of Buckyball Ninja, stealing peoples' First-To-Sadge right from under their noses.

 

[Erimus Kamzel]

Guess I'll be sticking with the Asp Explorer load out I was discussing in another thread earlier today then.

Good luck Alec

I decided to have a crack at this once 1.3 is live and is stable enough to play without post-release disconnects. Going to give it a shot in the Diamondback.

Commander: Erimus
Ship: Diamondback
Ship Name: Endeavour
Date: TBA

 

[Alec Turner]

Good luck Alec

I decided to have a crack at this once 1.3 is live and is stable enough to play without post-release disconnects. Going to give it a shot in the Diamondback.

Commander: Erimus
Ship: Diamondback
Ship Name: Endeavour
Date: TBA

Whooo! Welcome aboard Erimus. I can see it now ... a flight time stretching into weeks and months due to problems getting the right camera angles to capture the vast expanse of the Aucoks, delays while waiting for just the right sunrise shadows on the debug camera montage, a 15,000ly U-turn in order to go back for the long lens and a final stall one jump from Sag A while you wait for the second camera unit to get in place to film your arrival

Thanks for the good wishes - T minus 14hrs now!

 

[fergal]

Were you 100Ly out before the weekend?

The save transferred to the beta galaxy seems to be quite a few days old (at least, I seem to be significantly poorer in the beta galaxy!) so it could just be that.

I was in Alliance space, I spawned somewhere near Imperial in the beta.