Community Event / Creation Planning an alternative to the Buckyball Runs

[Esvandiary]

I feel like Buckyball was electricZ's brand, and It wouldn't feel right using it without ElectricZ. I am ok with starchaser.

That was pretty much my feeling - to me the Buckyball name is very much EZ's and it wouldn't feel right to "hijack" it. I very much like the idea of the "Buckyball Racing Club" name for us as a collective though - it's recognition of what brought us together without the implication that We're The Captains Now.

 

[Alec Turner]

That was pretty much my feeling - to me the Buckyball name is very much EZ's and it wouldn't feel right to "hijack" it. I very much like the idea of the "Buckyball Racing Club" name for us as a collective though - it's recognition of what brought us together without the implication that We're The Captains Now.

^^^ this, absolutely. And I don't dislike "Starchaser", just wasn't sure I loved it. Actually ... it's growing on me

 

[adipose]

^^^ this, absolutely. And I don't dislike "Starchaser", just wasn't sure I loved it. Actually ... it's growing on me

Yeah, I was and still am unsure of Whether I like starchaser. It sounds like the name of a thirties pulp movie.

 

[drakhyr]

That was pretty much my feeling - to me the Buckyball name is very much EZ's and it wouldn't feel right to "hijack" it.

My feeling as well. I'm very happy for anybody to raise any alternatives to Starchaser, though

Edit: I also want it to be obviously special when the real Buckyball Run returns!

 

[robinjb]

just to throw up some alternatives that follow the extrapolation of 20th century car races.. as the buckyball did.

oddball 3000
the whiffleball run
the fireball run

im ok with starchaser but it needs more.. as you suggested Sam... starchaser series x.. or whatever.. prefereably I think it needs to stress the run part.. rather than race.
as we all know it can be a race but we don't want to exclude the nutters.
I quite like oddball 3000 ( from the film gumball 3000 ) as thatd make us oddballers.. as well as buckyballers. but im easy with what ever Drakhyr wants as more than half the battle is actually organising something.. as he has.
coming up with a name everyone likes will be next to impossible.

edit:- im totally jiggy with buckyball racing club presents ... too. but I still think we need Ez's blessing to even go near buckyball.

 

[Raiko]

Sorry I've not had chance to post anything today, Wednesdays are a busy day for me.

I really like the idea of "The Buckyball Racing Club Presents:......insert name of race here," and hope that EZ won't mind.

I do think that we should run the name by him first, but I think that it's great because it keeps the Buckyball name alive without ever stealing it. Buckyball Run 8, 9, 10, etc will still be waiting for EZ if and when he's ready to return. And as long as we're around any new competitors will know the name.

 

[Raiko]

Thanks for your comments Goemon, I've been doing a bit more research for the rares run race during my lunchtime, I've just quoted part of your post below to reply directly to:

... also your idea does include jumping and supercruising, which i like. i just hope you have in mind that you'll need distances, asp's or dbx can't go without fuelscopping (around 200 sc), everything else would nail down the ships taken for this down to asp ;-)

and in the end - all rares collected by a big fat t9 and the two winners gets it all delivered where they want it?

Regarding ships, in Buckyball Runs the Asp has actually struggled more over shorter distances, especially with multiple dockings required. It's tougher to get through the slot in a hurry than smaller ships and the medium pads are a big hit on times (7 seconds slower than small pads).

If I stick with my originally planned minimum cargo capacities (biggest rack that fits your 2nd internal slot) then the Asp would need at least a 32t hold, while the DBX and Cobra only need 16t and the Hauler, DBS and Courier only need 8t. The DBX will probably out jump the Asp, especially if you fit good thrusters, the hauler's always been hard to beat in a distance race with multiple dockings, and a Cobra or Clipper might be a safer choice it you hit the Old Worlds.

One thing that I have realised though is that the profit-per-second league will be better as just a profit per run table. Otherwise it'll just favour the fastest ships again. And it's more complex.

Anyway I did check and Jaques Station is over 170 Ly from any of the other stations on the current list.

This has caused me another worry for the "hauler challenge". We don't normally have scoops fitted for the Sidewinder challenge, but I'm not sure how close the closest station / outpost to Jaques Station is (I've not had chance to play today so I can't look at the Galmap). It's possible that a basic hauler with a 2A FSD wouldn't have the legs to get to and from Jaques Station - and Jaques Station might move next time there's an update to the game.

Regarding the prize, that's easy - everyone gets an imaginary bumper sticker just like in BBR1 to BBR7, and the winners gain the respect of their friends and rivals.

 

[Alec Turner]

I really like the idea of "The Buckyball Racing Club Presents:......insert name of race here," and hope that EZ won't mind.

I think that it's great because it keeps the Buckyball name alive without ever stealing it.

Yeah, that was my thinking too.

So anyway, I've been going over alternative names. It's hard isn't it. I guess that's why advertising people get paid a lot of money to spend months coming up with things like "Cillit Bang". Anyway, I keep coming back to one idea I had. Half the time I think it's rubbish and nothing and half the time I think it could just be something. So, you know how we refer to the toast rack on the front of the station? So how about ...

Burning Toast

Nah ... it's rubbish isn't it.

 

[mw_aurora]

I really like the idea of "The Buckyball Racing Club Presents:......insert name of race here," and hope that EZ won't mind.

Another vote for using "The Buckyball Racing Club Presents:......insert name of race here," if EZ agrees to it.

Although robinjb's thoughts about not using "race" in the title make sense...

"The Buckyballer Club"?

 

[Raiko]

Although robinjb's thoughts about not using "race" in the title make sense...

I agree. Although I've been very competive in the BBRA, I was probably one of the nutters at Buckyball-7 as the Asp was a dreadful ship to use. I was racing hard, but only to try and pip ElectricZ's great Asp time. All the serious contenders were in Vipers by the end, but I'll only ever enter an open-mode race in The Nomad, because that's my ship.

I did have a single attempt in a Viper last time, when I'd run out of insurance money and couldn't risk another run in The Nomad, but I made the Viper run in solo-mode. (I aborted half way, so never appeared on the leaderboard. Vipers are great for docking with, but after months and months in an Asp the best word to describe my Viper dockings was oversteer! )

I love it when a pilot turns up at a Buckyball Run in a totally unsuitable ship like a Type-9 and long may it continue!

"The Buckyballer Club"?

I like this. I do think that totally abandoning the name will diminish things a little, as it's ElectricZ and Bucky that brought together our amazing little community.

 

[johnUK]

What about "Friends of Buckyball" or "Bucky Friends present...."?

 

[Macros Black]

Race Names:

Rime with StarChaser:StarRacer
American stylish:Galaxy Cup, must rethink the bumper sticker...
Rednecky:NasStar
Latin:Galaxia Cursus

 

[reload]

Hey all - thanks for directing me here Raiko

Just as a suggestion, a series of themed challenges might be worthwhile considering? Nebulae are the most notorious tourist hotspots (along with Sag A*) for anyone with a class A drive and a fuel scoop, so why not make them the focus of a sub-class of rallies?

That'd give you:

"The Orion Run"
"The Crab Challenge"
"The Catspaw Rally"
"California Chase"

And so on ad nauseum - collectively under the title of the "The Buckyball Racing Club presents the Nebula Rallies"? Yep, the BRC gets my vote too

 

[drakhyr]

Key lesson from the first 48hrs: Names are hard .

"Buckyball Pilots' Club" could be an alternative to "Buckyball Racing Club". That said, I think it's OK to refer to a race - participants might be racing to beat their own best time, or be best in their ship type (or just show they can finish) rather than for the overall lead. A marathon is still a race, isn't it?

My personal preference would be to have another name for the race series itself. I would like the Buckyball Run itself to feel special. If the only thing linking our series of races together is the name "Buckyball Racing Club" (or Buckyballers' Club, or Buckyball Pilots' Club, etc), then they will be abbreviated as Buckyballs, and won't seem any different to the casual observer (i.e. the audience ). But that's just my 2p...

I quite like NasStar, and the Nebula Rallies are a good one to add to the list of race ideas.

I have checked, and buckyballracing.org, buckyballracing.club, buckyballpilots.org, elitestarchaser.org (and variants with different endings) are all available

EDIT: I've put some of the key ideas so far back into the first post in the thread.

 

[Hanekura Shizuka]

Ideas for races... have two. Maybe it's just the radiation sickness from wading through the neutron star field, but here's a couple of ideas.

1. Go far. That's it. In some amount of time (6 hours? 12? 24? A week?), how far can you fly from Sol? Bonus condition: If anyone runs into Thargoids, whoever runs into them first automatically wins, regardless of distance.
2. Mini-Desert Bus, also known as the "Gee, you think you're overdoing this trade run?" race. Take two stations about as far apart from each other in known space as you can get. How many times in a given week can you make the run between them? (I would have suggested Sol/Sadge over and over - a true Desert Bus scenario - but that would have been a bit extreme.)

 

[Raiko]

If we do avoid using Bucky/Buckyball in the name, then I do like Macros' suggestions, especially NasStar.

Does that mean that I'm Rednecky? As a European I've only ever watched a couple of Nascar races, but I enjoyed the Piston Cup in the Pixar Cars movie!

Ideas for races... have two. Maybe it's just the radiation sickness from wading through the neutron star field, but here's a couple of ideas.

1. Go far. That's it. In some amount of time (6 hours? 12? 24? A week?), how far can you fly from Sol? Bonus condition: If anyone runs into Thargoids, whoever runs into them first automatically wins, regardless of distance.
2. Mini-Desert Bus, also known as the "Gee, you think you're overdoing this trade run?" race. Take two stations about as far apart from each other in known space as you can get. How many times in a given week can you make the run between them? (I would have suggested Sol/Sadge over and over - a true Desert Bus scenario - but that would have been a bit extreme.)

Nice ideas, but for myself other than for the BBRA I really couldn't manage to find the time for a long endurance race, so I'd probably only enter races that are 30mins to 2 hours long. My rares race will likely take an hour or so, and I'm planning to enter the next St Valantine's Day Regatta (I was too ill last time) which took a couple of hours I think - Drakhyr won the last regatta, so he'd know how long it was!

That would be about my limit for length. I'd also struggle badly to manage to play every day during the week. I've really had a difficult time managing to fit in my BBRA runs, for the one last weekend I didn't sleep between Saturday morning and Sunday night as I was too busy during both days to fit even a quick nap in and I needed to do my run through Saturday night. I wouldn't have bothered if it hadn't been for the fun of challenging Drakhyr and mjmw after we'd chatted and helped each other so much.

I love the regular Buckyball Runs so much, because it's easy to find a couple of hours in the evening, on a few nights over the two weeks to get some runs in.

One long range race idea that you have given me though would be a "galactic rally."

The Galactic Rally:

Split the race into stages, so say Stage 1 could be Wolf 359 to The Coalsack via HIP 63835; then Stage 2 could be from The Coalsack to the Eta Carinae Nebula via the Statue of Liberty Nebula. And so on until you end up back in a station in settled space. Keep the route to the real nebulae on this side of the core, rather than using procedurally generated ones and it will include some spectacular sights.

Each stage could be completed in 30mins-2hrs in a Conda/Asp/T6/DB/Hauler, and they'd have to be done in order, but with a whole calendar month to complete the race, so you can find time to race regardless of how busy you are in real life.

By picking a start and finish, but directing racers through a single system midway you can ensure a navigational challenge (which EZ always manages somehow). For example HIP 63835 is specactular system and a minor navigational hazard (especially for inexperienced explorers); The straight route between the Statue of Liberty and the Eta Carinae Nebulae is a desert of brown dwarfs that makes Aucoks seem like refuel-central; The awesome NGC 7822 Nebula is close to the bubble but very hard to reach, the route mapper picks a very crooked route over the last 1000LY, so a skillfully plotted manual route with careful fuel scoop management could probably knock several jumps off an autoplot route.

There are loads of Aucoks type regions, navigational hazards and nebulae listed in the community mapping project, so I'm sure that we could plot out a spectacular tour of our side of the galaxy split into challenging stages.

(BTW: I've still not managed to visit the Crab Pulsar, so we're going there if I end up planning the stages!)

EDIT: Someone better with words than me could probably think of a name based on the Gumball Rally for this race.

EDIT2: Link to Erimus' Galaxy Mapping Project, for those who haven't seen it: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=116450

 

[Alec Turner]

The Galactic Rally:

Split the race into stages, so say Stage 1 could be Wolf 359 to The Coalsack via HIP 63835; then Stage 2 could be from The Coalsack to the Eta Carinae Nebula via the Statue of Liberty Nebula. And so on until you end up back in a station in settled space. Keep the route to the real nebulae on this side of the core, rather than using procedurally generated ones and it will include some spectacular sights.

Each stage could be completed in 30mins-2hrs in a Conda/Asp/T6/DB/Hauler, and they'd have to be done in order, but with a whole calendar month to complete the race, so you can find time to race regardless of how busy you are in real life.

By picking a start and finish, but directing racers through a single system midway you can ensure a navigational challenge (which EZ always manages somehow). For example HIP 63835 is specactular system and a minor navigational hazard (especially for inexperienced explorers); The straight route between the Statue of Liberty and the Eta Carinae Nebulae is a desert of brown dwarfs that makes Aucoks seem like refuel-central; The awesome NGC 7822 Nebula is close to the bubble but very hard to reach, the route mapper picks a very crooked route over the last 1000LY, so a skillfully plotted manual route with careful fuel scoop management could probably knock several jumps off an autoplot route.

There are loads of Aucoks type regions, navigational hazards and nebulae listed in the community mapping project, so I'm sure that we could plot out a spectacular tour of our side of the galaxy split into challenging stages.

(BTW: I've still not managed to visit the Crab Pulsar, so we're going there if I end up planning the stages!)

This, THIS, so much this! Definitely up for this, especially the Crab Pulsar which is on my bucket list following ...

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=166732

 

[mw_aurora]

The Galactic Rally

Yes, yes and more yes.

 

[Jez146]

Hi guys.

Very sad news for ElectricZ... hope whatever it is clears up and that he is back in the fold soon!

Saying that - wonderful news that you want to continue!!!

For what its worth, my vote for name goes to: Buckyball Pilots Club (presents...). It's simple, keeps its roots and if ElectricZ comes back there doesn't have to be an all change.

As for races, and I hope no one minds, but my understanding was that BBR8 was going to be a race around all the home systems/stations for each power faction... Like a circuit. Even more interesting if you are pledged to someone else The trick is going to be getting time stamps at each factions station. So a test would have to be whether someone from an opposing faction can get in to a starport or not. I even had a special sidewinder built ready for the race.

In terms of advertising, I am sure that this will all follow once the race etc. has been decided.

Well done all... looking forward to racing with you/against you!

Cmdr Jez146

 

[Raiko]

Hi guys.

Very sad news for ElectricZ... hope whatever it is clears up and that he is back in the fold soon!

Saying that - wonderful news that you want to continue!!!

For what its worth, my vote for name goes to: Buckyball Pilots Club (presents...). It's simple, keeps its roots and if ElectricZ comes back there doesn't have to be an all change.

As for races, and I hope no one minds, but my understanding was that BBR8 was going to be a race around all the home systems/stations for each power faction... Like a circuit. Even more interesting if you are pledged to someone else The trick is going to be getting time stamps at each factions station. So a test would have to be whether someone from an opposing faction can get in to a starport or not. I even had a special sidewinder built ready for the race.

In terms of advertising, I am sure that this will all follow once the race etc. has been decided.

Well done all... looking forward to racing with you/against you!

Cmdr Jez146

Hi Jez, thanks for joining the discussion and please continue - the more the merrier!

However, regarding EZ's BBR8 plans - we are specifically avoiding running our own version of BBR8 as we are rather hoping that EZ will return sooner or later and we were all looking forward to his next official race.

Having said that, I'll try to make sure that some of the rares used for my rares-race are spread amongst a few of the powers, with others outside of power-areas. The more tough choices the better.