Community Event / Creation Buckyball Racing Club Presents: Heavy Metal
- Thread starter ElectricZ
- Start date
Thanks for the Race, EZ!
And for the record, I almost forgot an outbound load during the type-6 run. Fortunately for me, I remembered at the last second.
And for the record, I almost forgot an outbound load during the type-6 run. Fortunately for me, I remembered at the last second.
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Many thanks to ElectricZ for staging a fun race and congratulations to cookiehole, AkenBosch and drakhyr for winning the different categories and well done to everyone who took part. o7
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It was fun to enter my T9 in a race for the first time but it did not feel that different to an ordinary trade run because when I have been trading I try to keep the best pace that I can. The T9 has a unique character that I am always happy to come back to for short hops like this course (I use my Anaconda for longer routes). I had hoped that my familiarity with how she handles would help but her grade 1 clean drives on D-rated thrusters (which have a mass reduction - I need the jump range for her regular trade routes) maybe were not racing spec and my T6 times demonstrate that I have a problem with loading times generally - but it was still fun to take part. Knowing where the station entrance is facing during supercruise is also a big help to the T9 - my times were much better than they would have been without it, as I could adjust my supercruise approaches to ensure I was close to arriving face-on, which saves a lot of time in a slow ship. I was not willing to take the risk of running shieldless or with reduced shields as I am just too attached to keeping her in one piece - no rebuys in over two years! (In contrast I blew up my first T6 on my second trip, with only enough cash for one rebuy of ship and cargo).
.
My trade route in my T9: Tuan Port ---Palladium---> Carpenter Gateway ---Clothing---> Tuan Port ---Palladium---> Teng Station ---Crop Harvesters---> Treshchov Ring
My T6 run on the board used Power Generators instead of clothing but the same route, although I switched to Clothing later and got a better profit.
.
It was fun to enter my T9 in a race for the first time but it did not feel that different to an ordinary trade run because when I have been trading I try to keep the best pace that I can. The T9 has a unique character that I am always happy to come back to for short hops like this course (I use my Anaconda for longer routes). I had hoped that my familiarity with how she handles would help but her grade 1 clean drives on D-rated thrusters (which have a mass reduction - I need the jump range for her regular trade routes) maybe were not racing spec and my T6 times demonstrate that I have a problem with loading times generally - but it was still fun to take part. Knowing where the station entrance is facing during supercruise is also a big help to the T9 - my times were much better than they would have been without it, as I could adjust my supercruise approaches to ensure I was close to arriving face-on, which saves a lot of time in a slow ship. I was not willing to take the risk of running shieldless or with reduced shields as I am just too attached to keeping her in one piece - no rebuys in over two years! (In contrast I blew up my first T6 on my second trip, with only enough cash for one rebuy of ship and cargo).
.
My trade route in my T9: Tuan Port ---Palladium---> Carpenter Gateway ---Clothing---> Tuan Port ---Palladium---> Teng Station ---Crop Harvesters---> Treshchov Ring
My T6 run on the board used Power Generators instead of clothing but the same route, although I switched to Clothing later and got a better profit.
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[size=+1]The Type-9[/size]
Although no one would ever describe the T9 as "graceful" - except our own Aken B. - she does have a charm all of her own. The difficulty being that under default conditions she is constantly fighting the flight computer, which "helpfully" tries to control her inertia. The T9 should be flown with Flight Assist off to minimise frustration.
[size=+1]Engineering[/size]
A jump range of 12Ly is sufficient for this course. That's easily achievable with a 6A FSD and gives enough overhead to fit 7A thrusters. I got a nice +30% modifier on dirty drive tuning giving me a laden boost speed in excess of 260m/s. Not fast but a lot better than stock.
That speed wouldn't be improved very much by lightening anything else so I stuck with a vanilla 5A power distributor - enough to chain as many boosts as are necessary to escape mass lock or as safe to maintain a slowdownable approach speed. Even my fuel tank and power plant were overspecced for the course.
[size=+1]Supercruise[/size]
Once in supercruise the novitiate T9 racer must unlearn what he has learned. In this ship the 6 second rule is generally worth adhering to. Slowing down from an overspeed condition requires a helping hand from a sizeable planet's gravity well and if you overshoot the station it is, as Polly put it, quicker to sell it and buy another that is headed in the desired direction than to try to turn around.
That isn't to say that we can't gravity brake at all. I had success waiting until about 1Ls out before throttling out of the blue zone and planet surfing. Any earlier and I would usually overshoot.
New with 2.3 we can see the orientation of stations in supercruise, albeit Marshburn's - maybe all Coriolis stations' - graphic doesn't actually line up with the station's exact rotation. Still it's close enough and lets us plan our approach in advance. This is very useful in the T9 which is reluctant to turn.
Carpenter in particular has a nice orientation, being almost flat when approached "over the top" of the planet. However after jumping from Banapityas it was often perpendicular to the ecliptic and needed a looping approach. Having the station graphic provided an essential clue as to which direction was correct from 300Ls away.
Marshburn itself has not one but two planets in close proximity, giving a decent slowdown and a chance to approach at a higher speed.
[size=+1]Trading[/size]
Crowdsourced commodity tracking databases such as the venerable EDDB can be used to plan a decent trade route. However they are not flawless, as veteran traders will know. Their data comes from the Frontier Companion API. Both it and the station's market screen show the prices for commodities which are a) supplied by the station, b) demanded by the station or c) carried by your ship.
As anyone who has ever traded rare goods will know, commodities that are neither supplied nor demanded only appear in the market listing at their source station unless you are carrying them. Such commodities can still be traded ... but you must physically take the item to the market to learn its price.
Palladium from Extraction and mineral extractors back from Industrial stations is a classic trade loop. Indeed, EDDB recommends it for this run. In this case, however, we can get between 200 and 300 extra profit on the unlisted military-grade fabrics which are supplied at both U Carinae and Sounti. I found that out the old-fashioned way, purchasing one of each commodity and checking the buy price by hand back at Marshburn.
What EDDB was able to figure out was that the profit margin on Gold was better than Palladium at Sounti.
Like most racers (that I saw on the course) I chose the closest stations to the jump-in star. They offered similar profits while being quicker to reach. What could go wrong?
Apart from running into another racer on the course... The route could be flown in any order so when the galaxy map showed a fellow racer heading towards one system I would choose the other in the hope of avoiding another T9. Not that that helps when we both return to Banapityas.
[size=+1]Pad selection[/size]
"It's a pleasure to see you again, Commander," says the traffic controller. So why are you giving me pad 2?
In general I tried to get pad 10, 25 (especially) or 40 at the back of the station so I could boost on the way in, maintaining what Lakon laughingly refer to as "speed" on approach while still having a chance to avoid overshooting the pad. Failing that I would accept 9 and 39 in the middle even though that meant having to manœuvre a little bit on the way in and out because of their rotation off centre.
With the T9 being so slow anyway it's easy enough to drift towards the slot with FA off then boost out while using lateral and vertical thrusters to cancel inertia.
[size=+1]Video[/size]
[video=youtube;0T8u5vdZuLk]https://youtu.be/0T8u5vdZuLk[/video]
With apologies to Bruski.
[size=+1]Closing thoughts[/size]
Thanks to ElectricZ for hosting. I spent a lot of time back in the day doing trading when it was actually a requirement for earning trade ranking so it was nice to revisit that activity armed with some racing experience.
It was frustrating to realise I missed out on victory because of an interdiction but that's racing. It's happened to all of us before and will happen to all of us again.
Although no one would ever describe the T9 as "graceful" - except our own Aken B. - she does have a charm all of her own. The difficulty being that under default conditions she is constantly fighting the flight computer, which "helpfully" tries to control her inertia. The T9 should be flown with Flight Assist off to minimise frustration.
[size=+1]Engineering[/size]
A jump range of 12Ly is sufficient for this course. That's easily achievable with a 6A FSD and gives enough overhead to fit 7A thrusters. I got a nice +30% modifier on dirty drive tuning giving me a laden boost speed in excess of 260m/s. Not fast but a lot better than stock.
That speed wouldn't be improved very much by lightening anything else so I stuck with a vanilla 5A power distributor - enough to chain as many boosts as are necessary to escape mass lock or as safe to maintain a slowdownable approach speed. Even my fuel tank and power plant were overspecced for the course.
[size=+1]Supercruise[/size]
Once in supercruise the novitiate T9 racer must unlearn what he has learned. In this ship the 6 second rule is generally worth adhering to. Slowing down from an overspeed condition requires a helping hand from a sizeable planet's gravity well and if you overshoot the station it is, as Polly put it, quicker to sell it and buy another that is headed in the desired direction than to try to turn around.
That isn't to say that we can't gravity brake at all. I had success waiting until about 1Ls out before throttling out of the blue zone and planet surfing. Any earlier and I would usually overshoot.
New with 2.3 we can see the orientation of stations in supercruise, albeit Marshburn's - maybe all Coriolis stations' - graphic doesn't actually line up with the station's exact rotation. Still it's close enough and lets us plan our approach in advance. This is very useful in the T9 which is reluctant to turn.
Carpenter in particular has a nice orientation, being almost flat when approached "over the top" of the planet. However after jumping from Banapityas it was often perpendicular to the ecliptic and needed a looping approach. Having the station graphic provided an essential clue as to which direction was correct from 300Ls away.
Marshburn itself has not one but two planets in close proximity, giving a decent slowdown and a chance to approach at a higher speed.
[size=+1]Trading[/size]
Crowdsourced commodity tracking databases such as the venerable EDDB can be used to plan a decent trade route. However they are not flawless, as veteran traders will know. Their data comes from the Frontier Companion API. Both it and the station's market screen show the prices for commodities which are a) supplied by the station, b) demanded by the station or c) carried by your ship.
As anyone who has ever traded rare goods will know, commodities that are neither supplied nor demanded only appear in the market listing at their source station unless you are carrying them. Such commodities can still be traded ... but you must physically take the item to the market to learn its price.
Palladium from Extraction and mineral extractors back from Industrial stations is a classic trade loop. Indeed, EDDB recommends it for this run. In this case, however, we can get between 200 and 300 extra profit on the unlisted military-grade fabrics which are supplied at both U Carinae and Sounti. I found that out the old-fashioned way, purchasing one of each commodity and checking the buy price by hand back at Marshburn.
What EDDB was able to figure out was that the profit margin on Gold was better than Palladium at Sounti.
Like most racers (that I saw on the course) I chose the closest stations to the jump-in star. They offered similar profits while being quicker to reach. What could go wrong?
Apart from running into another racer on the course... The route could be flown in any order so when the galaxy map showed a fellow racer heading towards one system I would choose the other in the hope of avoiding another T9. Not that that helps when we both return to Banapityas.
[size=+1]Pad selection[/size]
"It's a pleasure to see you again, Commander," says the traffic controller. So why are you giving me pad 2?
In general I tried to get pad 10, 25 (especially) or 40 at the back of the station so I could boost on the way in, maintaining what Lakon laughingly refer to as "speed" on approach while still having a chance to avoid overshooting the pad. Failing that I would accept 9 and 39 in the middle even though that meant having to manœuvre a little bit on the way in and out because of their rotation off centre.
With the T9 being so slow anyway it's easy enough to drift towards the slot with FA off then boost out while using lateral and vertical thrusters to cancel inertia.
[size=+1]Video[/size]
[video=youtube;0T8u5vdZuLk]https://youtu.be/0T8u5vdZuLk[/video]
With apologies to Bruski.
[size=+1]Closing thoughts[/size]
Thanks to ElectricZ for hosting. I spent a lot of time back in the day doing trading when it was actually a requirement for earning trade ranking so it was nice to revisit that activity armed with some racing experience.
It was frustrating to realise I missed out on victory because of an interdiction but that's racing. It's happened to all of us before and will happen to all of us again.
Regarding the highest income run I made...
Load from BANAPITYAS/Marshburn Dock, 532 x Gold
Load from SOUNTI/Teng Station, 532 x Mineral Extractors
Load from BANAPITYAS/Marshburn Dock, 532 x Palladium
Load from U CARINAE/Carpenter Gateway, 532 x Crop Harvesters
Unload at BANAPITYAS/Treshchov Ring
... and probably the most important point (I don't clearly understand how this happened), I haven't take any damage in the run!
Only expenses where Fuel 1250cr and 4x Heat Sinks for measly 100cr
The moment before restocking and refueling...
I used a 6A Fast Boot Sequence Level 5 FSD, as the the time was more important than the range in this case, but I don't know if it helped. I felt the time-to-jump more or less the same, but probably influenced by the mental state of "urgency-to-jump-cos-I'm-in-a-race".
Thanks EZ for the time to plan this fun (and nostalgic) race!!!
Congrats to the Winners!!
Load from BANAPITYAS/Marshburn Dock, 532 x Gold
Load from SOUNTI/Teng Station, 532 x Mineral Extractors
Load from BANAPITYAS/Marshburn Dock, 532 x Palladium
Load from U CARINAE/Carpenter Gateway, 532 x Crop Harvesters
Unload at BANAPITYAS/Treshchov Ring
... and probably the most important point (I don't clearly understand how this happened), I haven't take any damage in the run!
Only expenses where Fuel 1250cr and 4x Heat Sinks for measly 100cr
The moment before restocking and refueling...
Thanks EZ for the time to plan this fun (and nostalgic) race!!!
Congrats to the Winners!!
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Is there anyone that actually thought of it?
But I'm sure it wouldn't have made a difference, as you say. Let's do some rough maths:
- given my final profit of 1.773.101 credits, if I add the 10% that made the share of my pilot, I get 1.773.101 * 1,10 = 1.950.411 cr. (not the exact percentage I know, but close)
- now let's divide this for my time in seconds: 1.950.411 / 947 = 2059,57
See? Almost no difference at all.
Oh well, I wouldn't have fired him anyway, good ol' Harvey Bass got me out of the woods several times. He's the actual life support system on the Keelback.
Also, not counting the pilot's share, just doing the same run a day before would have meant a second place, given the current leaderboard. Saturday I did a multicrew run with a friend (he was curious about what I meant by "racing in a T9"), the final time was vastly underwhelming, but it netted me about 1.880.000 cr even taking the crew share into account (must have been something around 5-7%). The exact same run the day after gave 100.000 cr less.
Congratulations to the other T9 crazies, it's been a tight one. And hat off to furrycat, that 14:46
. You gave us all a run for our money, in the most literal way I could ever imagine (this also apply overall for the entire concept of the race. Awesome one ElectricZ!).Your Sunday must have been quite interesting then. Watch out for rebuys there! (especially if you're putting your car on the track
)Interestingly enough, I used a fairly opposite approach to landing pads in the T9 compared to furrycat. I found pad 02 to be the best for me, with also a preference for 39 and 17 and trying to avoid the far ones like 10 and 25. Given my time compared to his, I've no intention at all to question his choices!
My route for T9 and T7 in the last 2-3 days:
- Banapityas (Marshburn) -> Gold -> Sounti (Teng)
- Sounti (Teng) -> Mineral Extractors -> Banapityas (Marshburn)
- Banapityas (Marshburn) -> Palladium -> U Carinae (Carpenter)
- U Carinae (Carpenter) -> Crop Harvesters -> Banapityas (Treschov)
And for the T6:
- Banapityas (Yegorov) -> Gold -> Sounti (Teng)
- Sounti (Teng) -> Mineral Extractors -> Banapityas (Yegorov)
- Banapityas (Yegorov) -> Palladium -> U Carinae (Carpenter)
- U Carinae (Carpenter) -> Crop Harvesters -> Banapityas (Treschov)
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Is there anyone that actually thought of it?
But I'm sure it wouldn't have made a difference, as you say. Let's do some rough maths:
- given my final profit of 1.773.101 credits, if I add the 10% that made the share of my pilot, I get 1.773.101 * 1,10 = 1.950.411 cr. (not the exact percentage I know, but close)
- now let's divide this for my time in seconds: 1.950.411 / 947 = 2059,57
See? Almost no difference at all.
I shouldn't ... but ... ROFL. It was that image that did it - OMFG. Ah well, chalk that one up to experience for next time I guess. As you say, did anyone think of this before it was too late? (my money's on cookiehole ... if there's an angle to winning he usually finds it).
Finally my mathematics degree comes in useful!
Multiplying by 1.1 gives the figure you would receive if you made 1,773,101 plus a 10% bonus. Which is not the same as the original figure being reduced by a 10% deficit.
The correct calculation is to divide by 0.9.
Your original profit is reduced by 10%. If P is the profit earned from trading and your crewmate takes 10% your cut is P - (P x [10 / 100]) or P x ([100 - 10] / 100) = P x 0.9 therefore to calculate the actual profit given your share and the crew's percentage you must divide both sides by 0.9. So you would have earned 1,773,101 / 0.9 = 1,970,112Cr.
Which may or may not make you feel better.
For my runs, I stuck entirely to outposts. Despite meaning slightly longer supercruises in both Sounti and u Carinae, the outposts both offered better prices, and enabled faster docking / undocking. Plus of course meaning that I knew for certain I was doing a route that the Sevens and Nines couldn't!
Thus my route was:
Yegorov Dock (Banapityas) -> Reamy Dock (Sounti) carrying Gold
Reamy Dock (Sounti) -> Yegorov Dock (Banapityas) carrying Mineral Extractors
Yegorov Dock (Banapityas) -> Glidden Ring (u Carinae) carrying Palladium
Glidden Ring (u Carinae) -> Yegorov Dock (Banapityas) carrying Mineral Extractors
Running to outposts worked fine, except for my first few attempts last Tuesday morning - three of the first four docking attempts had pads blocked by NPCs (two leading to aborted race attempts, the other one being on return to the start from an aborted attempt!)
The change in markets between Sunday and Monday last week, from Banapityas Advanced Industries entering a Boom state, made a massive difference to profits. Prior to that I was making 2827 credits per tonne (and carrying Silver to Reamy Dock), afterwards that jumped to 3904 credits per tonne.
Seeing what other people have written, I am slightly kicking myself that I didn't actually think about starting and ending at different stations in Banapityas; I had ruled out Treshchov Ring on the grounds that the profits on the leg departing from there weren't good enough, I didn't consider just finishing there and starting somewhere else!
Thus my route was:
Yegorov Dock (Banapityas) -> Reamy Dock (Sounti) carrying Gold
Reamy Dock (Sounti) -> Yegorov Dock (Banapityas) carrying Mineral Extractors
Yegorov Dock (Banapityas) -> Glidden Ring (u Carinae) carrying Palladium
Glidden Ring (u Carinae) -> Yegorov Dock (Banapityas) carrying Mineral Extractors
Running to outposts worked fine, except for my first few attempts last Tuesday morning - three of the first four docking attempts had pads blocked by NPCs (two leading to aborted race attempts, the other one being on return to the start from an aborted attempt!)
The change in markets between Sunday and Monday last week, from Banapityas Advanced Industries entering a Boom state, made a massive difference to profits. Prior to that I was making 2827 credits per tonne (and carrying Silver to Reamy Dock), afterwards that jumped to 3904 credits per tonne.
Seeing what other people have written, I am slightly kicking myself that I didn't actually think about starting and ending at different stations in Banapityas; I had ruled out Treshchov Ring on the grounds that the profits on the leg departing from there weren't good enough, I didn't consider just finishing there and starting somewhere else!
Unlike most here, it did occur to me that I didn't have to start and end at the same station, so I departed from Marshburn and ended at Treschov. When building my route, I actually started with the destination and worked backwards from there, keeping in mind that it's sometimes better to earn less with one leg if another leg was much more profitable.
I also seriously considered smuggling nerve agents, but felt that planetary approaches would take too long, and NOT because a certain someone ended in the penalty box before I even got as far as a trial run.
My route was
Gold from Marshburn to Teng,
Mineral Extractors from Teng to Marshburn,
Palladium from Marshburn to Kubasov,
Crop Harvesters from Kubasov to Treschov.
Overall, a fun and profitable race. Pity I can't afford a Type-9.
Again, thanks for the race, ElectricZ!
I also seriously considered smuggling nerve agents, but felt that planetary approaches would take too long, and NOT because a certain someone ended in the penalty box before I even got as far as a trial run.
My route was
Gold from Marshburn to Teng,
Mineral Extractors from Teng to Marshburn,
Palladium from Marshburn to Kubasov,
Crop Harvesters from Kubasov to Treschov.
Overall, a fun and profitable race. Pity I can't afford a Type-9.
Again, thanks for the race, ElectricZ!
Thanks to EZ for an entertaining and unusual race
Looking forward to the next one.
Congratulations to the winners. Familiar faces all
Sadly, RL interdicted me during the weekends, so I could only race during the weekdays.
My trading routes were as follows:
To begin with, I hauled:
Palladium from Banapityas/Marshburn to Sounti/Teng,
Crop harvesters from Sounti/Teng to Banapityas/Treschov,
Tea from Banapityas/Treschov to U Carinae/Kubasov,
Crop Harvesters from U Carinae/Kubasov to Banapityas/Treschov.
Which was later optimized to:
Gold from Banapityas/Marshburn to Sounti/Teng,
Mineral Extractors from Sounti/Teng to Banapityas/Marshburn,
Palladium from Banapityas/Marshburn to U Carinae/Kubasov,
Crop Harvesters from U Carinae/Kubasov to Banapityas/Treschov.
A question remains: What will I do with my T9 now ?
Is anyone interested in purchasing a virtually new Lakon Type 9 Heavy, with less than 500LY on the clock ? There are a couple of minor scratches, but they will buff out easily
Looking forward to the next one.
Congratulations to the winners. Familiar faces all
Sadly, RL interdicted me during the weekends, so I could only race during the weekdays.
My trading routes were as follows:
To begin with, I hauled:
Palladium from Banapityas/Marshburn to Sounti/Teng,
Crop harvesters from Sounti/Teng to Banapityas/Treschov,
Tea from Banapityas/Treschov to U Carinae/Kubasov,
Crop Harvesters from U Carinae/Kubasov to Banapityas/Treschov.
Which was later optimized to:
Gold from Banapityas/Marshburn to Sounti/Teng,
Mineral Extractors from Sounti/Teng to Banapityas/Marshburn,
Palladium from Banapityas/Marshburn to U Carinae/Kubasov,
Crop Harvesters from U Carinae/Kubasov to Banapityas/Treschov.
A question remains: What will I do with my T9 now ?
Is anyone interested in purchasing a virtually new Lakon Type 9 Heavy, with less than 500LY on the clock ? There are a couple of minor scratches, but they will buff out easily
Reading a little would have prevented the loss of time and resources... As the names implies when you analyzes the name "Fast Boot Sequence"... means it start faster when disabled... not enhancing the charge time...
(As Cmdr furrycat posted in The Buckyballer's guide to Engineering....) [yesnod]
So that's why "I feel more or less the same"; because it is. [blah]
Thanks EZ for arranging this great race! o7
I'll only make a very short post-race report, partly because I'm on a secret mission until thursday, but mainly beacause furrycat just wrote everything worth writing.
The T9:
I hated this ship right from the start. But it kind of grows on you. Like a yeast infection.
I decided to use shields. It's quite common for me to bump into other things (including, but not limited to: belugas, stations, planets and other racers) when flying.
I am uncertain why I used a 5D shield when I could have used a 5A without any significant effect on speed and range. Spinal reflex, perhaps?
Since I got interdicted a lot (felt like that anyway) I used shock mines and heat sinks to avoid the rebuy screen.
Like furry, I checked the prices manually and found the military grade fabrics. This was my usual route:
Marshburn (Au) -> Teng (mil. grade fab.) -> Marshburn (Pd) -> Carpenter (crop harvesters) -> Treschov
The T6:
My very first run with the T6 was my fastest. Unfortunately that was before the boom, so the profit was... pitiful. It was never even submitted.
As the race reached it's final day, I took the T6 out for a spin again and used the following route:
Yegorov (Au) -> Teng (mineral extractors) -> Marshburn (Pd) -> Carpenter (mineral extractors) -> Yegorov
I was a lot slower than race day 1 (I blame bad habits from flying the T9), but the profit was still 2.5 times higher.
After reading post #232 I spaced and shot (yes, in exacly that order) my freeloading crewmember.
I'll only make a very short post-race report, partly because I'm on a secret mission until thursday, but mainly beacause furrycat just wrote everything worth writing.
The T9:
I hated this ship right from the start. But it kind of grows on you. Like a yeast infection.
I decided to use shields. It's quite common for me to bump into other things (including, but not limited to: belugas, stations, planets and other racers) when flying.
I am uncertain why I used a 5D shield when I could have used a 5A without any significant effect on speed and range. Spinal reflex, perhaps?
Since I got interdicted a lot (felt like that anyway) I used shock mines and heat sinks to avoid the rebuy screen.
Like furry, I checked the prices manually and found the military grade fabrics. This was my usual route:
Marshburn (Au) -> Teng (mil. grade fab.) -> Marshburn (Pd) -> Carpenter (crop harvesters) -> Treschov
The T6:
My very first run with the T6 was my fastest. Unfortunately that was before the boom, so the profit was... pitiful. It was never even submitted.
As the race reached it's final day, I took the T6 out for a spin again and used the following route:
Yegorov (Au) -> Teng (mineral extractors) -> Marshburn (Pd) -> Carpenter (mineral extractors) -> Yegorov
I was a lot slower than race day 1 (I blame bad habits from flying the T9), but the profit was still 2.5 times higher.
After reading post #232 I spaced and shot (yes, in exacly that order) my freeloading crewmember.
I may or may not have thrown most of my gaming rig down from the fourth floor. People below may or may not have been injured.
Thanks a lot for the clarification, I knew the maths weren't spot on (that's what the "rough maths" and "not the exact percentage but close" disclaimers were for), but I couldn't be bothered with getting around to do the correct calculations. This may or may not have to do with the fact that I'm as dumb as an ox, especially at maths.
Can't feel but respect toward everyone good enough to get a degree in any scientific subject, especially maths!*goes back to his cave to chip his flints*
A question remains: What will I do with my T9 now ?
Is anyone interested in purchasing a virtually new Lakon Type 9 Heavy, with less than 500LY on the clock ? There are a couple of minor scratches, but they will buff out easily
Ask Polly, if you left your T9 pointed in the right direction she might be interested in a purchase.
Poetic license at its finest.
My penalty box run was:
If a better pilot than myself could have shaved 5 minutes off my time (easily doable) with better profit (again, easily doable) they still wouldn't have threatened any of the top T-9 positions.
- Marshburn Dock (Banapityas) -> Andrews Depot (Sounti) with Bertrandite
- Andrews Depot (Sounti) -> Marshburn Dock (Banapityas) with Nerve Agents
- Marshburn Dock(Banapityas) -> Steinmuller's Folly (u Carinae) with Bertrandite
- Steinmuller's Folly (u Carinae) -> Marshburn Dock (Banapityas) with Nerve Agents
- Gravity for Andrews Depot (Sounti A 3) was 0.48G
- Gravity for Steinmuller's Folly (u Carinae AB 1) was 0.88G.
If a better pilot than myself could have shaved 5 minutes off my time (easily doable) with better profit (again, easily doable) they still wouldn't have threatened any of the top T-9 positions.
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"It's your one way ticket to midnight! Call it Heavy Metal!
Higher than high, feelin' just right! Call it Heavy Metal!
Desperation on a red line! Call it Heavy Metal noise!"
--CMDR Hagar
Just what it says on the tin. Grats to CMDRs Cookiehole, Aken B., and Drakhyr for coming out on top in their respective classes, and for everybody who came out to sacrifice some Lakons in the Buckyball Racing Club's Heavy Metal! Hopefully, for once, you made more money than you spent.
I had a lot of fun putting this together! I've always thought that racing was the path for any CMDR to become a better pilot, and in all the races the past few years you all have pushed ships from every manufacturer to the limit. It was really cool to give the Lakon line their due. When I first suggested this race, I wasn't sure if anybody would go for it. It represented a potentially costly event with slow moving, boring as hell ships, but in the end I think it turned out exciting as hell. Seeing fully laden ships fling themselves through the slot in your videos represented some supremely suspenseful moments. A highlight reel of the best hits and worst misses would be very entertaining indeed.
But it's all about the challenge, and of course anybody who calls themselves a Buckyballer wouldn't let a rebuy or two stand in the way of a good time. I'm glad it worked out - and also that (almost) everybody made a few creds off of it.
So, from an organizer's perspective, I wanted to do a race where trading was a factor, but speed was still as important, so thus was borne the Profit Per Second metric. I couldn't come up with a good way to balance the different classes, so early on I decided to make each Type it's own class even though everyone would record times on the same leaderboard. That being said, I had to pick a route.
I set about first trying to find a nice triangle trade setup... High Tech to Extraction to Industrial, Ag to Refinery to Industrial, etc. There were lots of candidate systems, but in order to make it far for the T9 and it's horrid laden FSD range, I had to keep the systems close so every route would be one jump long max. That axed a lot of candidate systems. Furthermore, I needed stable systems with strong economies and high security. I wanted some variation in market prices and commodities, but I didn't want anyone to be able to come in and wipe out a market, or worse, have some clown come in and put a system into lockdown through underhanded shenanigans, so I was instantly looking for systems with multimillion or billion populations. And finally, I needed systems that had a good mix of stations and platforms all within range of the jump point. I found a ton of interesting systems with all kinds of neat navigational challenges: white dwarves, binary and trinary planets, ringed planets, etc... but they all had supercruise distances of 1000 ls or more. I wanted a race that could be done quickly, and without the tedium of long times in SC.
I briefly considered the Lave cluster. It had a great combination of a variety of economies and high population, but also had longer SC times as well as the potential for crashing into passers-by who were just trying to collect rares. I'm a proponent of playing in open, but smashing up some poor scrub who is trying to just make a living is kind of a jerk move, so I kept the race in the sticks.
Banapityas/Sounti/U Carinae fit the bill, minus the economics. Close in stations, systems within 12 LY jump range, and good, strong economies with high security. Not having high tech around was a bit of a bummer, but doing out-and-back runs from Banapityas actually worked out in testing, and I was really, really happy to see CMDRs like Furrycat and Polly break away from EDDB to find the higher price goods. (As well as Jak for his inventive, but illegal attempt at smuggling. Too bad no one else tried.
) Anyway, thanks to everybody who participated and made the race a success. I learned a lot about handling a trade ship and even though I don't fly Lakon myself other than my beloved Asp Shipwrecked and Comatose, seeing how to handle big fat transports in supercruise will make handing any other ship a breeze. So, if any station master or local governor ever complains about damage done by having a Buckyball roll through, tell them to chill out and think of the educational value.
As part of the creative process, I did try to think of an easy, automatic way to weight the different classes that would have involved dividing PPS by cargo capacity. I'm glad I didn't - while it might be able to adjust the numbers to give each ship a "fair" chance against one another, each of the Lakons are different in their own way and should really be only measured against themselves. But, just for funzies, here's what the leaderboard would have looked like, taking cargo capacity into account by dividing Profit Per Second by cargo capacity:
Clearly the sixes would have had an advantage, as would anybody running without shields. Aken's T7 Holy Cow came closest to challenging the T6's, but given the quality of his run, it might have been hard to catch up. Cookihole's T9 run, however, would have had to close a much smaller gap. Based on this small sample size, and compensating for capacity, ton-per-ton, the T6 is the best performer. Math and statistic nerds feel free to prove me wrong or right!
Thanks again, and it was good to see a bunch of friendly faces on the grid!
Great race again EZ, say hello to Bucky - and remind him we're all waiting for Buckyball XI!
I passed it along, Raiko, and he asked me to post this specially recorded video response!
I tell ya, it gets you right here, doesn't it?
Best Run: 1932.05 PPS
[video=youtube;mUeyJwpKtPk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUeyJwpKtPk[/video]
Fastest Run 16:21
[video=youtube;-p4H-acjuFk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p4H-acjuFk[/video]
Spreadsheet
Things I Learned From Heavy Metal
a List by CMDR Bruski
Don't blindly trust third party tools
I relied too heavily on EDDB, and while it was very useful for optimizing trades in some ways, it failed to spot things like the Military Fabrics, which was a large PPS bump. There's no substitute for manual testing and notes!
For my best recorded entry I used Marshburn Gold -> Teng, Minerals Extractors -> Marshburn, Palladium -> Carpenter, Crop Harvesters -> Terechnov. Military fabrics would've been better by about 175 credits per ton.
Be sure to fully upgrade your ship BEFORE the race
Taking several hours in the middle of the race to go upgrade the T-9 thrusters was worth it (finally the Type-( can TURN!), but a giant pain. Procrastinate less SpaceBear!
Testing new trading approaches is worth it
One thing I haven't seen mentioned, how did people buy things at the station? I originally tried to land, hit "enter hangar" and complete buying before I got to the bottom so I could launch again immediately. I wasn't ever able to pull this off, so I ended up going all the way into the hangar, and then launching from there, which is a roundtrip of 45-50 seconds. However after some testing, I discovered if I traded while sitting on the pad, and then hit "launch" directly from the pad, I could get finished in as little as 30-35 seconds.
Having favorite pads is a good thing
Early on I figured out that pads 10, 25, and 40 were at the very back of the station, which seemed to be the best bet for landing and launching the Type-9. It might've taken a bit longer to get there than the middle pads, but on launch I was able to boost off the pad, which is a significant advantage given the normal aceleration of the T-9. It would be interesting to know if anyone tried pads 17, 2, and 32, as they're close to the front, but not right up against it like 24,9,ad 39. I personally found them too stifling and hit the bulkheads repeatedly when I tried.
Be sure to submit your runs before the race ends!
Otherwise you can't submit runs via the form and are punished for your procrastination.
Be sure to hit "record" before a run.
There's always "the one that got away". Also probably a good idea to put the recording software on the second monitor so you can double-check it during the race.
Even the T-9 can boost off the pad.
Initially I thought this was insanity, but from the back pads with the right alignment, at worst there's only a slight scraping o paint and hull as one heaves through the docking slot, and a second boost through the toast-rack.
Always question your assumptions and habits.
At first I tried the standard cookiehole approach from supercruise with the Type-9. It did not go well. However, with the advantage of station orientation displayed in patch 2.3, it was possible to align properly while still far away from the planet and get some gravity braking action in.
Will amend list if I think of any more. Thanks ElectricZ for the awesome race, and everyone else for showing up for the fun!
[video=youtube;mUeyJwpKtPk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUeyJwpKtPk[/video]
Fastest Run 16:21
[video=youtube;-p4H-acjuFk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p4H-acjuFk[/video]
Spreadsheet
Things I Learned From Heavy Metal
a List by CMDR Bruski
Don't blindly trust third party tools
I relied too heavily on EDDB, and while it was very useful for optimizing trades in some ways, it failed to spot things like the Military Fabrics, which was a large PPS bump. There's no substitute for manual testing and notes!
For my best recorded entry I used Marshburn Gold -> Teng, Minerals Extractors -> Marshburn, Palladium -> Carpenter, Crop Harvesters -> Terechnov. Military fabrics would've been better by about 175 credits per ton.
Be sure to fully upgrade your ship BEFORE the race
Taking several hours in the middle of the race to go upgrade the T-9 thrusters was worth it (finally the Type-( can TURN!), but a giant pain. Procrastinate less SpaceBear!
Testing new trading approaches is worth it
One thing I haven't seen mentioned, how did people buy things at the station? I originally tried to land, hit "enter hangar" and complete buying before I got to the bottom so I could launch again immediately. I wasn't ever able to pull this off, so I ended up going all the way into the hangar, and then launching from there, which is a roundtrip of 45-50 seconds. However after some testing, I discovered if I traded while sitting on the pad, and then hit "launch" directly from the pad, I could get finished in as little as 30-35 seconds.
Having favorite pads is a good thing
Early on I figured out that pads 10, 25, and 40 were at the very back of the station, which seemed to be the best bet for landing and launching the Type-9. It might've taken a bit longer to get there than the middle pads, but on launch I was able to boost off the pad, which is a significant advantage given the normal aceleration of the T-9. It would be interesting to know if anyone tried pads 17, 2, and 32, as they're close to the front, but not right up against it like 24,9,ad 39. I personally found them too stifling and hit the bulkheads repeatedly when I tried.
Be sure to submit your runs before the race ends!
Otherwise you can't submit runs via the form and are punished for your procrastination.
Be sure to hit "record" before a run.
There's always "the one that got away".
Also probably a good idea to put the recording software on the second monitor so you can double-check it during the race.Even the T-9 can boost off the pad.
Initially I thought this was insanity, but from the back pads with the right alignment, at worst there's only a slight scraping o paint and hull as one heaves through the docking slot, and a second boost through the toast-rack.
Always question your assumptions and habits.
At first I tried the standard cookiehole approach from supercruise with the Type-9. It did not go well. However, with the advantage of station orientation displayed in patch 2.3, it was possible to align properly while still far away from the planet and get some gravity braking action in.
Will amend list if I think of any more. Thanks ElectricZ for the awesome race, and everyone else for showing up for the fun!
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