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

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End time

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Total time 18 hours 21 minutes 29 seconds

I will post more later
 

OK, hadn't spotted the significant details in that photo. What the ....

Alright, own up, where did you find the wormhole?

But seriously, that is one HELL of a time. Congratulations.

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Congrats. Under 9 hours is crazy, its so fast in fact it doesn't seem like it would have been much of an ordeal. Anyone could fly around for ONLY 9 hours :)

LOL ... yeah right, pfft, that's nothing ... try doing it in 15:22 (or even 18:21 ... well done crotalus!)
 
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I regret that my run has to be called a bust.
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At approximately mid-day on Saturday, at over 40% through the journey, my connection was lost. It was down until early sunday morning, and when I started up agin
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Insurance screen!
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Oh well, I have re-spec'd for trading and am working up the money for a T7. Once that is fully kitted out and I have the funds for both insurance and replacement cargoes I will trade in that until I can complete the hardcore exploration Asp I wanted, and I will then make the run again.
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Unfortunately that will be in 1.3, so may take a different tack anyway.
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On a related note, I did get 40% of the way there, and never saw more than a couple of unscoopables in a row the entire trip. I may have inadvertantly been bouncing top to bottom of the galactic disc the entire way, so I will have to do more research into the galactic map before I try again.
 
I regret that my run has to be called a bust.
.
At approximately mid-day on Saturday, at over 40% through the journey, my connection was lost. It was down until early sunday morning, and when I started up agin
.
.
.
.
Insurance screen!
.

Glory for some, disaster for others. Just another weekend for the Buckyball A*!

Sorry to hear about your loss tho', "connection lost" is no way for a pilot to get knocked out of the race. Hope to see you back here in the not too distant future commander.
 
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Total time 18 hours 21 minutes 29 seconds

I will post more later
Well done crotalus! That's an excellent time in a python. :D

Insurance screen!
Bad luck Glenn, a connection error is a rubbish way for your Buckyball Run to end.


I may have inadvertantly been bouncing top to bottom of the galactic disc the entire way, so I will have to do more research into the galactic map before I try again.
The key thing is to keep more of an eye on the grid numbers than the stars when plotting your next destination. You start at 0,0,0 and end as near as damnit at 0,0,26000; so you just need to keep plotting stars along that thick grid line heading "north" from Sol and to keep semi-aware of what level you're on on the Z-axis as you are heading towards Sadge.

Most of us have been travelling a little above or below the plane to avoid Aucocks problems, but you only really need to worry about the X and Z axes as you get within a couple of thousand LY of the end.
 
Glory for some, disaster for others. Just another weekend for the Buckyball A*!

Sorry to hear about your loss tho', "connection lost" is no way for a pilot to get knocked out of the race. Hope to see you back here in the not too distant future commander.
Thanks Alec. I'm not too worried, after all, it's not called "Elite: Harmless" and I'm not going to pansy out because of a little setback like this. Give me a few weeks to get some trading done to upgrade to that A6 scoop and take a look at Powerplay a bit, and I'll be back on the run again -and you can take that to the bank!

Bad luck Glenn, a connection error is a rubbish way for your Buckyball Run to end.



The key thing is to keep more of an eye on the grid numbers than the stars when plotting your next destination. You start at 0,0,0 and end as near as damnit at 0,0,26000; so you just need to keep plotting stars along that thick grid line heading "north" from Sol and to keep semi-aware of what level you're on on the Z-axis as you are heading towards Sadge.

Most of us have been travelling a little above or below the plane to avoid Aucocks problems, but you only really need to worry about the X and Z axes as you get within a couple of thousand LY of the end.
Thanks to you too, Raiko. Looks like I ought to maybe set course on a slow but steady climb until I am almost there and make the final leg a dive into the centre. I have heard about plots requiring to be shorter the closer you get to the centre, and this should minimise that problem. I had made a list of stars to target to set up each leg, but of course had no idea if I could actually plot these as legs until I tried.
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And, of course, a slightly different tactic may be possible once Powerplay has hit, but I don't know the viability of it anyway.
Is the largest part of the time it takes down to the 'jump' between systems? This seems rather likely to me, and will of course depend more on an individual internet connection and computer spec than ship loadout. If this is the case, then the technique of extending jump rance is the one to go for - less jumps mean less loading times, and with a poorer connection like mine, less chance of a disconnect!
If re-fueling is more of a time-sink, then the best possible scoop, best powerplant, and the additional fuel tanks of Powerplay may be an advantage.
 
Is the largest part of the time it takes down to the 'jump' between systems? This seems rather likely to me, and will of course depend more on an individual internet connection and computer spec than ship loadout. If this is the case, then the technique of extending jump rance is the one to go for - less jumps mean less loading times, and with a poorer connection like mine, less chance of a disconnect!
If re-fueling is more of a time-sink, then the best possible scoop, best powerplant, and the additional fuel tanks of Powerplay may be an advantage.

Putting aside the need to physically take a break occasionally (or perhaps not for some of you youngsters!) then yes, I believe you dead right (although clearly Cmdr Alot should have the final say). Essentially you're looking at ((26,000 / J) x T) where J is your jump range and T is the time it takes you from one jump to the next. You can increase J in outfitting and decrease T with a faster fuel scoop and honing your jump/scoop/jump skills.

In addition, every 1000ly (max) you need to plot a new route (in time R). You'll need to do this at least 25 times so getting good at it (and learning from experience about the best way to do this in the core when it slows down) counts for a bit too.

Finaly, I do indeed suspect that both T and R are affected a bit by your computer spec.

P.S. I think extra fuel tanks are a complete waste of time. You'll refuel regularly (if not at every scoopable opportunity) so whether you run with 90% full tanks or 90% empty tanks (on average) is kind of up to you (there are more than enough scoopables on this run). There is actually a case for taking a smaller tank to keep weight down and thus increase jump range.
 
Looks like I ought to maybe set course on a slow but steady climb until I am almost there and make the final leg a dive into the centre. I have heard about plots requiring to be shorter the closer you get to the centre, and this should minimise that problem. I had made a list of stars to target to set up each leg, but of course had no idea if I could actually plot these as legs until I tried.
Glenn your internet going caca , is a terrible way to bow out of the run, weve all tried here to gives tips so the run can be run more reliant on skill and endurance rather than luck.
I made sure my last plot was my magic number by plotting to a star that distance away from sadge on the previous plot...it was off by 3ly so i jumped to a close star and hopped the last jump.
my heart breaks every time I hear about a runner plotting for hours in the core. Ive been there, and its a frustrating thing to happen,

Esvandiarys contributed the best tips on finding your magic jump multiple number here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=138772&p=2151327&viewfull=1#post2151327
adjusting that as you travel should make plotting take seconds rather than minutes. Ez should sticky that on the front page.

heres some good tippage from Fox https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=138772&p=2151635&viewfull=1#post2151635

the quickest time requires the biggest scoop of course, in a conda with the A7 scooping over a ton of fuel a second it is possible to scoop all the fuel you need for one jump in the cooldown with heat only getting up to the 90's,
so 45ish seconds jumping 40.5 ly is possible in sequence.
theres a bit of a chat about time for one jump cycle here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=138772&p=2153266&viewfull=1#post2153266 with an i5 running at 4Ghz you should get 12-14 second jumps in witchspace, on average and of course that sometimes varies closer to the core. ive not seen any test results from slower processors if any one wants to post them if they have , cool. be good to sort out what the actual advantage is.

Takuru's done all the legwork on 1.3 multi tank shenanigans here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=138772&p=2295563&viewfull=1#post2295563
 
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P.S. I think extra fuel tanks are a complete waste of time. You'll refuel regularly (if not at every scoopable opportunity) so whether you run with 90% full tanks or 90% empty tanks (on average) is kind of up to you (there are more than enough scoopables on this run). There is actually a case for taking a smaller tank to keep weight down and thus increase jump range.

I'd just like to add to that bit about keeping weight down with a smaller tank. This of course won't be an issue with small ships like Corba and Haulers, but it makes a difference in bigger ships like Asps and Pythons...

I did a quick test recently, and outfitted my Asp with a 32 ton tank. I plotted a course using my BBRA* first leg. The plot came back with 35 jumps. I reduced it to a 16 ton tank, and the plot returned with 33 jumps.

Taking "2 jumps less" as the average over 1000 LY, that means it's 26 x 2 = 52 jumps less if you have a smaller tank. 52 jumps may seem "small" but if we take the average of 1 minute per jump (it's actually less, around 45 sec to 55 sec if you're quick), that is 52 minutes LONGER you spend jumping. Or 45 mins LONGER, even if you're very quick to chain your jumps together.

So you will have to decide if it's worth spending 52 minutes longer jumping to feel safe, or when 1.3 hits, carrying an extra tank will mean weighing you down more and increase your jump from "2 jumps more" to "4 jumps more", which could translate to 2 hours more jumping time :D
 
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Thanks for that. At least I know that currently I will NOT be winning any time trials in my Asp. A6 fuel scoop is the biggest I can fit, and I had stripped my fuel tanks down to 16T from 32T [3-4 full range jumps only] and dare not go any lower. I don't think I can reduce my 'in system' time by much more, but I swear that my hyperjump timings were much greater than most here seem to be getting. I know I am renting a hovel in a village without great broadband, and my connection is via wireless extenders from the owner's house [which seems to die any time either I or they switch on a microwave] but I was getting jumps that lasted well over a minute each, several times I swore that it had disconnected mid-jump only to arrive as I reached for Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
My computer is a good spec, and I don't have problems with off-line games, running any of the Batman: Arkham games at full graphics, but can currently do nothing about my connection.
 
I'd just like to add to that bit about keeping weight down with a smaller tank.

Anyone got the balls to do a one jump only set up, theres been plenty of talk of no unscoopables on my routes and what the aucocks are you talking about.
it is entirely possible to preplan every jump, maybe some plug in to pre calculate a route then copy paste it into nav would do it, if such a tool existed it would give a great advantage.
 
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P.S. I think extra fuel tanks are a complete waste of time. You'll refuel regularly (if not at every scoopable opportunity) so whether you run with 90% full tanks or 90% empty tanks (on average) is kind of up to you (there are more than enough scoopables on this run). There is actually a case for taking a smaller tank to keep weight down and thus increase jump range.
Yes, as discussed in the posts that robinjb linked to, of the faster ships the only real benificiary of the extra fuel tanks is the Asp, as it's not possible with the existing tank sizes to build a two-jump Asp. I'm pretty sure that both the Nomad and Big Bird used the same 36.54LY build, dropping the scanners and fitting an 8+2 tank configuration would give you a two-jump Asp with a 1.01LY range advantage over me and Esvandiary's ships.

Other than that, or perhaps a three-jump Anaconda, the extra fuel tanks are only really useful to explorers out on the rim of the galaxy. I'm planning to start heading galactic-east tonight to assist with the community galactic mapping project, but with my little 16t tank I'm not sure how far I can safely get.

Incidentally I was chatting to CMDR Marlon Blake yesterday while I waited for CMDR Alot to reach Sadge, and he was 38,000LY NORTH of me! :eek: Right on CMDR! o7

Is the largest part of the time it takes down to the 'jump' between systems? This seems rather likely to me, and will of course depend more on an individual internet connection and computer spec than ship loadout. If this is the case, then the technique of extending jump rance is the one to go for - less jumps mean less loading times, and with a poorer connection like mine, less chance of a disconnect!
If re-fueling is more of a time-sink, then the best possible scoop, best powerplant, and the additional fuel tanks of Powerplay may be an advantage.
I came to the same conclusion as Esvandiary in the discussions that robinjb linked. Your best jump-refuel-jump cycle time appears to be about 43s, but sometimes you lose up to a minute due to the witchspace tunnel.

An Asp with an A6 scoop can normally keep the tanks topped up by scooping during the cooldown period, but a run of unscoopables means that you need to play catchup and cook the ship a little extra. If my tanks were looking a little depleted then I'd normally glance at the next destination, scoopable meant that I'd be able to top up fully in the next system, unscoopable meant it was worth taking some heat damage to scoop some extra while the FSD charged.

An Anaconda with an A7 scoop can easily top up during cooldown/charge I'd imagine, although again you'd have to be prepared to take some heat damage when replenishing after an unscoopable.

The main things to remember are:
1) Take the 2A/3A reactor, rather than the D models unless you want to see what 300% heat looks like - we all roasted our ships during BBR6, but that was a slightly shorter race.
2) Do your very best to get the class A scoops, as well as the higher rate they scoop from further out, so again they buy you some extra time in your heat-management battle.
3) Whenever possible hit jump as soon as the blue cooldown timer disappears, even if it means cooking a little bit. :D
4) Take extra care around type O/B/A stars, they really warm you up.
 
Putting aside the need to physically take a break occasionally (or perhaps not for some of you youngsters!) then yes, I believe you dead right (although clearly Cmdr Alot should have the final say). Essentially you're looking at ((26,000 / J) x T) where J is your jump range and T is the time it takes you from one jump to the next. You can increase J in outfitting and decrease T with a faster fuel scoop and honing your jump/scoop/jump skills.

In addition, every 1000ly (max) you need to plot a new route (in time R). You'll need to do this at least 25 times so getting good at it (and learning from experience about the best way to do this in the core when it slows down) counts for a bit too.

Finaly, I do indeed suspect that both T and R are affected a bit by your computer spec.
Pretty spot on - some good ways to go faster are, in no particular order:
  • Get a better jump range
  • Get a better fuel scoop
  • Scoop faster/better/harder/stronger
  • Take fewer breaks (I think Kligg is the master at this :D)
  • Work out a good system for route plotting
  • Get a better PC :p
I think route plotting is somewhat affected by your PC spec; I've got a relatively beefy machine (i5 at 4GHz, 16GB RAM, GTX970) and trying to plot a "bad" route will still bring the galaxy map to a crawl. However, plotting a "good" route takes maybe 1-2 seconds (more like 4-5 for the last few right near the core).

theres a bit of a chat about time for one jump cycle here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=138772&p=2153266&viewfull=1#post2153266 with an i5 running at 4Ghz you should get 12-14 second jumps in witchspace, on average and of course that sometimes varies closer to the core. ive not seen any test results from slower processors if any one wants to post them if they have , cool. be good to sort out what the actual advantage is.

First off: I'm seeing the same sort of witchspace times as you, on a similar machine.
My theory is that the client needs to do the following things (plus a load more, I'm sure):
  1. Talk to FD servers to say "I'm going here" and find out information about the destination system
  2. Receive info from FD servers about the destination system
  3. Do Stellar Forge magic to determine bodies in system, their properties/position, etc
  4. Produce the stellar backdrop texture for the current system ("space")
  5. Produce the texture for the primary star, as well as any others within visual range
  6. Load you into the system
For a normal jump, I reckon 1 and 2 are done within a few seconds. The rest of the jump is Stellar Forge and texture generation - but I reckon (based on pretty much no evidence, bear in mind :D) that the textures will take a relatively long time. After all, it has to look outwards at everything local that you could possibly see, as well as how the background colours should look based on your current position in the galaxy. So, CPU and GPU probably matter here (how much each one matters depends on how much FD have managed to cram into shader code, I guess).

The nasty one, however, is when you're stuck in witchspace for a long, loooong time. I had a few on this run that ran up to about 45-50 seconds, and I had one on my first Asp run that took 75!
My guess for this one is that the game is stuck on 2 - it's waiting to hear back from the FD servers before it can even start doing the rest of it. I guess this because often I'll notice a small hitch about 8-10 seconds before I finally emerge from witchspace. This is the game getting the response and switching into "let's start making the pretty stuff" mode.
I don't think I've ever noticed this in normal space, at least not with such regularity as it seems to happen heading to the core. So, I suspect that the delay is caused when the FD servers have to generate the system information for the first time - i.e. you're jumping into somewhere nobody's been before. If the servers are under reasonable load, everything's fine, the process is done in a couple of seconds. But if the servers are overloaded, your request is stuck in a queue for however long, resulting in you being sat around looking nervously for Thargoids for the better part of a minute. :D

As you might have guessed, almost everything in this post is speculation - it's just my best guess based on evidence and educated guesses... Appreciate hearing everyone's thoughts! :)
 
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So you will have to decide if it's worth spending 52 minutes longer jumping to feel safe, or when 1.3 hits, carrying an extra tank will mean weighing you down more and increase your jump from "2 jumps more" to "4 jumps more", which could translate to 2 hours more jumping time :D
I'm definitely planning to make a run with 10t tanks at some stage.
 
Incidentally I was chatting to CMDR Marlon Blake yesterday while I waited for CMDR Alot to reach Sadge, and he was 38,000LY NORTH of me! :eek: Right on CMDR! o7
I noticed that after arriving... Zoomed out further than usual and was shocked to see a green dot all the way out the other side. Right on indeed!


I came to the same conclusion as Esvandiary in the discussions that robinjb linked. Your best jump-refuel-jump cycle time appears to be about 43s, but sometimes you lose up to a minute due to the witchspace tunnel.

An Asp with an A6 scoop can normally keep the tanks topped up by scooping during the cooldown period, but a run of unscoopables means that you need to play catchup and cook the ship a little extra. If my tanks were looking a little depleted then I'd normally glance at the next destination, scoopable meant that I'd be able to top up fully in the next system, unscoopable meant it was worth taking some heat damage to scoop some extra while the FSD charged.

An Anaconda with an A7 scoop can easily top up during cooldown/charge I'd imagine, although again you'd have to be prepared to take some heat damage when replenishing after an unscoopable.
That sounds about right... I didn't even try to match the FSD cooldown if I had to "double-scoop" - I'd wait to get relatively close to full, start charging, and maybe cause a few sparks on the way out - but not much damage and usually only 5-10 seconds lost.

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I'm definitely planning to make a run with 10t tanks at some stage.
Given the time you got in a 16T Asp, I am definitely looking forward to seeing what you can do with the extra jump range! :)
 
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