Community Event / Creation Simbad Race to Sgr A*

[Leavism]

​

In hopes of promoting our community, Simbad is hosting a race to Sgr A*. This is probably the first time you’ve heard of Simbad, so we’d like to introduce ourselves. Simbad is an ED player group of new and veteran commanders that enjoy winging up for any and every activity. Our explorers enjoy occasional group expeditions, our traders wing up in their luxurious Cutters for extra trade dividends, our casual commanders just like hopping on to wing up and bounty hunt, while our more dedicated commanders play the BGS and help our minor faction grow. Simbad has built a friendly and welcoming community for commanders of all allegiances, playstyle, and experience to fly and share their love for the space-simulator. If you’d like like to be part of our wonderful community, join our Discord here!

So what’s this race?
Simbad is holding an unsolicited race from Sol to Sgr A*. It’s that simple. Fly any ship with any engineer modifications of your choosing from Sol (or Wolf 359) to Sagittarius A* and record your time for doing so. Yup, that’s it. It’s very similar to the famous Buckyball Race to Sag A* unlimited class. More detailed instructions will be included below.

What is Sgr A*?
Sgr A* is the abbreviation for Sagittarius A*. Simbad has no idea why Elite: Dangerous commanders keep calling it saggy a.

Prizes
This is where the hype gets real. We’ve got prizes!
1st Place & Beats the current game record: Elite: Dangerous 3rd Season Pass (when it’s available for pre-order)
1st Place but did not beat game record: Horizons Season Pass, or HCS Voice Pack, or one bobble-head/paint-job/paint-pack/ship-kit of any value.
2nd Place: One bobble-head or paintjob/paintpack under the value of $15.

How to Enter

1. Read this entire post before entering. We don’t want you missing any important points.
2. Read the Detailed How to Race portion of the post.
3. Click here and fill out our roster form as an intent to race!
4. Join the Simbad Race Discord so that you can get instant up-to-date changes that may come! Or if you need help with anything (i.e. turning on verboselogging, getting Federation ranking for Sol)

How to Race
Certain points need to be addressed first:

• You are allowed to use any engineer modifications.
• You are allowed to use FSD injections.
• The ship that you’ve entered into our roster must be the ship that you fly in the race. You may contact simbad.elite.dangerous@gmail.com to change your designated ship up until August 28, 2016.
• The race begins August 31, 2016 and will end on September 30, 2016. This means the first day you can submit a time is on August 31, while the last day to submit a time is on September 30, 2016 at 12:00AM Pacific Standard Time. You may attempt the race as many times between these two dates and submit your time as many times as you’d like.
• The clock starts when you leave Sol, and stops when you arrive in Sagittarius A*. Any time spent on breaks, work, off-game, etc. in between will count towards your time.
• We will be requesting screenshots of your start and end time, along with your netLog files. Enable netLog by:

1. 
   [*=1]Enable verbose logging. Video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFkLtf8abUE
   
   1. 
      [*=1]Navigate to your game directory. (D:\Program Files (x86)\Frontier\EDLaunch\Products\elite-dangerous-64) (Steam users go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Elite Dangerous\Products\elite-dangerous-64)
      [*=1]Edit AppConfig.xml and add to the Network section:
      VerboseLogging=”1”

​

​

Now to the instructions on how to race:

1. Arrive at Galileo in Sol or Lomas Orbiter in Wolf 359 with your ship ready. Dock.
2. Either record a video or take a screenshots (with F10) of your ship outfitting, along with the details of modifications you have.
3. Once you are ready for the race, take a screenshot (F10) or start your video capture that includes the in-game time that shows on the top-right corner of your canopy. Any other screenshots/videos that show another clock will not be accepted. Once the screenshot has been taken, undock and begin!
4. Fly to Sagittarius A*.
5. Upon arrival in Sagittarius A*, open up the galaxy map and take another screenshot (F10) showing your current location and time.
6. You’ve completed the race! Take a hardy drink and enjoy your fly back to the human bubble at your own pace.

You’ll notice that these instructions are almost exactly like the A* Challenge hosted by the Buckyball Racing Club. That’s because it is almost word for word the same instructions. We did this so that participants can compare their times with the participants of the Buckyball challenge.

Submitting Your Screenshots and netLogs
What is required to submit your time:

• Screenshot of your outfitting, including the details of any modifications you’ve made to your modules you took using F10.
• Screenshot of your starting time from your canopy you took using F10.
• Screenshot of your ending time from your galaxy map once you’ve arrived at Sagittarius A* that includes your current location and time.
• Any netLogs that were produced in the Logs folder.

How to submit:

1. Find your screenshots. Do not edit them.
   
2. Find your netLog files.
3. Compress the BMP and netLogs files into a ZIP with WINRAR.
4. Email the ZIP file, along with any netLogs located in D:\Program Files (x86)\Frontier\EDLaunch\Products\elite-dangerous-64\Logs to simbad.elite.dangerous@gmail.com
5. Wait for us to reply by email officially stating your time has been accepted or denied.

Failing to submit any of the above files could mean disqualifications from the race. Your screenshots must be the original BMP files. You must use the in-game F10 key to take a screenshot. If you recorded videos as your start and end time, the videos must be uploaded to Youtube with at least 480p quality, or they will not be accepted as a submission.

How to win:
Below are the requirements to win each place and its corresponding prize:

1st Place & Beats the current game record:
Prize: Elite: Dangerous 3rd Seasons Pass. Simbad will buy it for the winner once it becomes available.
Requirements:

• Have the fastest time for the race to Sgr A*
• Beat the current game record held by CMDR Allitnill of 05:29:35 by at least 60 seconds.

or

1st Place but did not beat game record:
Prize: Horizons Season Pass, or HCS Voice Pack, or one bobble-head/ paint-job/ paint-pack/ ship-kit of any value.
Requirements:

• Have the fastest time for the race to Sgr A*

There is only one 1st place winner. That winner either beats the current game record or not and will get the appropriate prize.


2nd Place:
Prize: One bobble-head or paintjob/paintpack under the value of $15.
Requirements:

• Have the second fastest time for the race to Sgr A*

How will Simbad be held accountable for the prizes?
It’s on our honor. If we fail to provide the prizes, treat us like we just killed a hundred Fuel Rats. The basis of Simbad and Elite: Dangerous as a game is its wonderful community. In no other game will you find a group of people willing to fly thousands of light years to transfer fuel and save a commander’s life or have community-run effort of over 1000 players traversing the dangerous void to reach Beagle Point. Simbad is happy to provide prizes and host this event because we hope it keeps the community enticed in the game.The Simbad community is filled with commanders passionate about the game, and we hope that if Simbad grows, so does the Elite: Dangerous community.

Ok I've got questions...
Join our Discord and state that you are a racer! You'll be given the appropriate tags and there you can contact Leavism to ask questions. Join our Discord here https://discord.gg/qedZAN5

EDITS:

• Allowed FSD injections

 

[Luke3107]

No offense, this a a good idea, but I'm struggling to see how this is any different from the long standing Buckyball A* Challenge??

 

[Leavism]

No offense, this a a good idea, but I'm struggling to see how this is any different from the long standing Buckyball A* Challenge??

Ah yes the *only* difference is the prizes. We even stated in the post that we wanted it to be similar because we wanted racers to compare times with the Buckyball A* Challenge, but ours just lasts a month.

 

[Luke3107]

No hostility meant. The images aren't showing on my tablet for some rreason so I saw no information on prizes unfortunately.

I'd like to sign up, but have no access to Engineer mods at the moment... Working on it though

 

[drakhyr]

You’ll notice that these instructions are almost exactly like the A* Challenge hosted by the Buckyball Racing Club. That’s because it is almost word for word the same instructions. We did this so that participants can compare their times with the participants of the Buckyball challenge.

Ah yes the *only* difference is the prizes. We even stated in the post that we wanted it to be similar because we wanted racers to compare times with the Buckyball A* Challenge, but ours just lasts a month.

Given that's the case, it would be nice to have a link included. So I hope you don't mind if I leave this here, and remind your participants to also submit their times as an entry in the Unlimited class of The A* Challenge.


I can also add a note to the opening post of the A* Challenge thread pointing here.

 

[cookiehole]

The images aren't showing on my tablet for some rreason so I saw no information on prizes unfortunately.

I think the font-color is set to black on a few paragraphs, that's why it's invisible with the black theme of the forums


Edit: I will probably do a run, although I don't know what ship yet.

 

[Raiko]

No offense, this a a good idea, but I'm struggling to see how this is any different from the long standing Buckyball A* Challenge??

Anyone who helps promote more maniacs making endurance race runs out to Sadge has my blessing.

BTW Leavis, it's a well established fact that in Buckyball circles that only perverts with telescopes call Sadge "Sgr A*":

Just so you know, astronomers abbreviate Sagittarius A* as "Sgr A*"

Oh who invited you back to the conversation? Anybody who knows Sagittarius A* personally calls him "Sadge." Only people who peep through telescopes from 26,000 light years away call him "Sgr." Perverts.

 

[Luke3107]

As I said, I didn't mean anything hostile about it, just some paragraphs were impossible to read on my device. My initial thought was that someone felt they had cone up with a new unique challenge and so I simply meant to point out such a challenge existed. Probably could have worded it much better though... :-/

That said, has the sign up date been missed? I initially planned on doing a Sadge A* run for the Buckyball Challenge earlier in August, but it was delayed and so I'm looking to do it September time instead, which falls within the time scale for this challenge. So by way of apology, I would like to sign up my Asp Ex the "Insert Name Here" with no engineer modifications. I know there's a registration form, just need to know if there was a cut off date before filling it out.

Fly Safe CMDRs o7

Edit: Also, as I am on Xbox, what does that mean in terms of proof, prizes and participation??

 

[Raiko]

I've only remembered to fill in the form today, I'm assuming that I'm just not allowed to change my mind about the ship I'm running as the only cut-off date is for switching ships.

Good luck Luke! Hopefully Leavism will tweak the rules to allow XBone players to submit screenshots. Does the xbox have verbose netlogging? At least your run will valid for the BRC A* Challenge anyway.

 

[Andurol]

Yeah, there's a lot of black on black. Didn't even think to try scroll selecting until I saw there were prizes. The Just click and hold the mouse button, scroll down, and now I could read it.


Good concept, Nice 1st place prize. But I think a buckyballer's going to win top 5.

 

[Luke3107]

Good luck Luke! Hopefully Leavism will tweak the rules to allow XBone players to submit screenshots. Does the xbox have verbose netlogging? At least your run will valid for the BRC A* Challenge anyway.

Fingers crossed eh? Unfortunately Xbox doesn't have any form of logging besides the ability to record stuff and take screenshots.

Still, gonna beat my 14hour time regardless I'm confident of that much lol. Thanks very much for the well wishes though

 

[Jenner]

Closed at request of OP.