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

[fergal]

Congrats Alec and FoxTwo.
I'm not even back to sol and my time has been bumped again
I'm 2000LY out now, and it feels really close. 1 week ago the furthest out I'd been was 600LY.
I've dropped into solo because the internet here has stopped even being a crawl. Fiber connection between Perth and Sydney seemingly has been chopped.

Have to go back into open when I hit civilization though, wouldn't feel right after flying to A* in open.

 

[Alec Turner]

Congrats Alec and FoxTwo.
I'm not even back to sol and my time has been bumped again

Do you know, I hadn't even looked to see where I was/will-be/would-have-been on the big board.
Oh ... sorry about that dude

Hmmm, so who's the next Asp down that I'm going to bump ... *scroll* *scroll* *scroll* ... cr*p! Don't worry fergal, my submission is never going to see the light of day!

 

[Rankaze]

I don't think I have ever posted this tip about the Galaxy Map here yet (or anywhere) but this is how I know whether a star on your route is scoopable or not.

1. Filter the map for star types
2. UNCHECK all scoopable stars (FOG KBAM or KGB FOAM, your decision)
3. You're now left with everything else that is unscoopable (and for explorers, stuff worth $$$) like T Tauri, Black Holes,... and er brown dwarves...
4. Switch your map to MAP mode and suddenly all stars disappear. If anything pops up on your route, THAT star is unscoopable... so the next step is up to you Otherwise your route should be a nice line without anything popping up on it.

Why did I do it this way? Simple.. because the human eye is such that we detect something "out of the ordinary" quicker... so if you uncheck unscoopables instead, then alot of things on your route will have a star and you can MISS a "hole" in your route... if however, the map is normally blank and your line normally unbroken... anything breaking it will catch your attention really quick.

This is a really great tip.

One problem you run into with the no-error-margin half-tank Hauler build I ran is that occasionally the star class shown on the map is not the same one you jump into!

This can happen on binaries where you have say, an M dwarf and a T Tauri. The system shows on the map as an M, but the T Tauri is more massive and you jump in on it. If it's a distant binary, you're in a world of hurt!

I've yet to find any sure method to avoid this risk.

 

[Rankaze]

Congratulations on arriving!

However, 911 actually does fit pretty well with my theory (although in this instance I think it's by chance)... You shouldn't be aiming for multiples, you should be aiming some way below a multiple.
However, when it's plotting as many jumps as it is for you per 1kLy (47 or so?) it's going to be an absolute mess, and pot luck - you'll lose "a little bit" of straight-line distance every jump, multiply that by 47 and who knows how much you need to subtract. It's a bit random for 25-odd jumps as it is!
I suspect what's happening with you is that you aren't encountering the problem due to short jump range; most of the reason it takes forever is that it has to try and calculate the last few jumps at a shorter distance, and with a 40Ly jump range that's a ton of stars to check. With a ~20Ly jump range, that's 75% fewer stars to check per jump, so assuming 4 short jumps that's 0.3% of the valid 40Ly routes to check!* Which would help to explain why you aren't hitting the issue.

* back of napkin maths, use with caution.

When I was on my way BACK, I found that 670 was a magic number for me. I was using 340 in the core on the way in, so perhaps the "fudge factor" below a true multiple grow somewhat as you add more jumps?

 

[Stern Winter]

So there I was, sitting at the bar in O'Mealleys. If you've ever been to Jemison Ring in Evena, it's the dark, smoky and windowless dive right under the large number 9 pad.
I looked down at the 'gauntlet'. In reality it was an old, torn workers glove, covered in grease and engine coolant. The owner grinned evilly at me through the haze. "You don't have what it takes, anyway." he said with a derisive laugh. I looked up a him, then back at the glove. "I must be crazy", I thought, "or drunk. Or both". Turning towards him I said "And my record is cleaned if I do this?". He just nodded and grinned at me again. The roar of a docking Anaconda drowned out all other noise in the bar., punctuated by the heavy clunk as it touched down. Slowly, as not to topple over or spill my drink, I got off my stool and bent down to pick up the glove. As I did, I looked him in the eyes. "All right. Sag A it is".

Pilot: CMDR Stern Winter
Ship type: Asp explorer
Ship name: "Cool Runnings".

 

[Alec Turner]

To commanders Gon, Hahmer and Stern Winter - Welcome.

Unfortunately ElectricZ has had to take a short vaction.

In his absence, make yourselves at home, help yourself to peanuts and take a moment to familiarize yourselves with the rules you'll find at the start of this thread. By all means make your trip to the galactic core and submit your details (with screenshots) but be aware that there will be a delay in getting the big scoreboard udpated. Do not panic. Help yourself to more peanuts.

 

[Ekol Tieja]

Just had a look at ED and it seems like the courier got added now:
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=607,,2-3I3m4s2C2C3m5A,4zM0Ke7OW02M2jw2UI
Judging from it, it's much like a Hauler.. Take those scanner away and it'll go even faster!
The big board also misses my entry, for some reason, (it has the diamondback though, am I missing something? Do you not believe the couriers sweet whispers?) so I'm reinstating me entry here.

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

Seriously hyped for 1.3 now. Who cares about grindy Powerplay, if you can grind scooping?

 

[Rankaze]

So there I was, sitting at the bar in O'Mealleys. If you've ever been to Jemison Ring in Evena, it's the dark, smoky and windowless dive right under the large number 9 pad.
I looked down at the 'gauntlet'. In reality it was an old, torn workers glove, covered in grease and engine coolant. The owner grinned evilly at me through the haze. "You don't have what it takes, anyway." he said with a derisive laugh. I looked up a him, then back at the glove. "I must be crazy", I thought, "or drunk. Or both". Turning towards him I said "And my record is cleaned if I do this?". He just nodded and grinned at me again. The roar of a docking Anaconda drowned out all other noise in the bar., punctuated by the heavy clunk as it touched down. Slowly, as not to topple over or spill my drink, I got off my stool and bent down to pick up the glove. As I did, I looked him in the eyes. "All right. Sag A it is".

Pilot: CMDR Stern Winter
Ship type: Asp explorer
Ship name: "Cool Runnings".

Welcome! Nice intro... I should write up some of the images I have of Jaryd sometime.

 

[Huita]

Can't send you PM - must be because of my infractions. Thing is, i learned about this after i already launched to Sag A (not from Sol either, but it's pretty close) but before i got there. I was unsure if it qualifies. I still am. Obviously i'm not going to break any records, but if i get into the scoreboard at all, it'd be nice. A bumper sticker, too. But eh, i could live with rejection, hehe. So anyway, does that count? And yes, more than a month passed. I said i wasn't sure.

http://imgur.com/a/3hZBL

 

[Trofimov]

I'm 780 ly from Sag A and I've spent the last 50 minute trying to get a plot, any plot at all, to register. Aaaarrrggghhh! If this takes any longer I'm going to get out and swim!

 

[Ekol Tieja]

You need to plot a lot smaller. When I flew the T7 there, I plotted the last few bits from the left hand screen, because the game would otherwise freeze randomly..

 

[coolruningc]

I dear you guys to go out this far!

View attachment 39750 View attachment 39752

You need to plot a lot smaller. When I flew the T7 there, I plotted the last few bits from the left hand screen, because the game would otherwise freeze randomly..

As you can see I still have 45 million light years to get home may be I should call me ship Voyager!

 

[fergal]

Just got to Ranger with 17.9 million cr in exploration data. Its pretty tedious selling the stuff, not sure it was worth the effort bringing it back.

I thought heading back was tedious, this is the real challenge.

 

[Trofimov]

You need to plot a lot smaller. When I flew the T7 there, I plotted the last few bits from the left hand screen, because the game would otherwise freeze randomly..

I'm down to plotting one jump at a time... Flying into the black hole as a way back home is going to feel very tempting, when I finally get there!

 

[Raiko]

I'm 780 ly from Sag A and I've spent the last 50 minute trying to get a plot, any plot at all, to register. Aaaarrrggghhh! If this takes any longer I'm going to get out and swim!

Rather than trying to get a plot to direct to Sadge play around trying to get a plot to any star within 1 jump of Sadge, then make the last jump manually.

 

[fergal]

Finally completed selling the data. Here are my before and after stats in case anyone is interested to know what they might earn for the trip to Sag:

I scanned a little bit on the way there, and used the advanced discovery scanner on every system.
On the way back I originally scanned stars and some planets, then started scanning only the stars, then I just used the advanced discovery scanner and jumped to the next system as fast as I did on the way to the middle.

I'm not made for exploration

 

[Trofimov]

I made it! 36 and a half hours, and there were even a pair of famous explorers there to welcome me



Anuranium and Tibeerius, lovely to meet you!

 

[Gon]

Im ready to depart on sunday, docked at Galileo with the ship ready to go

 

[Esvandiary]

Hahaha, wonderful timing from FD, picking the start of EZ's holiday to newsletter the Run.

Congrats Anuranium and Max Jacobs for making the newsletter!

 

[Raiko]

I made it! 36 and a half hours, and there were even a pair of famous explorers there to welcome me

View attachment 39762

Anuranium and Tibeerius, lovely to meet you!

Well done Trofimov!

One final thing... I'm speculatively intending to do another Anaconda run this weekend, with the 7A fuel scoop I can now afford. My main reasoning for this is that it will be cheaper for me to do the run now, get to the far end, blow myself up and sell the scoop after a rebuy, than it will be to just remove the scoop after 1.3 hits.
(It's speculative because I haven't told the other half yet... heheh.)

I'm still touring around the core - was planning to try and rush back for the exploration CG, but I knew I wouldn't get enough free time to get back by tonight.

If you do make a run this weekend, I'll try to pop back to Sadge to say hello.

------ EDIT ------
Also, in the absence of module storage I think I'm going to buy a second Asp so I can swap between exploration, trading and Buckyball configurations without spending a fortune in trade-in costs. I love the A6 scoop but the 10% fee will be nearly half the price of an Asp. (And it really bumps up my insurance premium for normal Buckyball Runs).