Community Event / Creation Candy Crew Guild presents the Candyball Rally of Plutarch!

[SushiCW]

How much of this is luck?

My gut feeling so far is that it's mostly skill getting down to 10 minutes, then luck gets to be more and more of a factor in further improvements.

But it's also very possible that there some elements where I'm currently relying on luck but the right skill (which I currently don't possess) could make consistent.

Even then, on any run, there's at least some luck involved, because you never know when a rock will appear out of nowhere or a seemingly perfect bounce will inexplicably explode your SRV. And these things become more likely the faster you go.

 

[Alec Turner]

How much of this is luck?

Please excuse the generalisations and arbitrary bracketing and speaking for others here (this is all meant in a pretty tongue in cheek, lighted hearted fashion).

So, I reckon a "normal" player who poottles around in the SRV occasionally would take WELL over an hour to do this drive, maybe even two.

Then you've got people who've spent a reasonable amount of time in the SRV and know how to hop across the top of mounds on low-g worlds (and to not just struggle up and down all the hills). They're gonna take somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour.

Then you've got people who've done a bit of racing maybe, know about tilt boosting and are capable of putting it into practice for a fair portion of the run. They'll still go into donut spins and tumbles occasionally but can probably get the SRV up to 60 or 70m/s when they're on a roll. This is me and we take somewhere around half an hour.

Then you've got the people who've gotten really good at this and would win in races against the previous group. I'm thinking people like AkenBosch and Brabston here. They're in the 15-20m bracket and are pretty much what I aspire to at the moment.

And then you've got people like Nookie, Sushi and Raijiin.

I wasn't aware of this latter group until "Kick The Alien" and when I saw the times they were getting ... to be honest, at first, I found them pretty hard to believe (I don't mind confessing I looked damn hard at the evidential screenshots when those runs first started coming in ).

To get to the level of this last group, I would suggest requires almost zero luck. It's practice practice skill skill skill practice skill. It's about consistency and building the speed up incrementally from one near as dammit perfect jump to the next and basically not ******g up ever.

As for the difference between 6:36 and 7:51? Yeah OK, probably some luck in there. I dunno. How many times have you two run this route? (I was pretty amazed when you guys turned up to "Kick the Alien" and just dedicated yourselves to nailing that course, was it hundreds of runs? I know it was a lot!). No offence to Nookie but it might just be down to who's run the numbers the most? Or maybe Nookie is just an SRV god. Definitely one of those two!

 

[Alec Turner]

Then you've got people who've done a bit of racing maybe, know about tilt boosting and are capable of putting it into practice for a fair portion of the run. They'll still go into donut spins and tumbles occasionally but can probably get the SRV up to 60 or 70m/s when they're on a roll. This is me and we take somewhere around half an hour.

Speaking of which, here's my 27:37 run set to a bit of Oribtal.

[video=youtube_share;4-LUHZwQPs4]https://youtu.be/4-LUHZwQPs4[/video]

It's shocking to think that, even at 2x normal speed, this is still slower than the top runs!

Must. Consume. More. Candy.

Race hard Candyballers!

 

[SushiCW]

My 7:51 run was actually my second attempt (which feels super lucky). I've made about 7 since then. Only one was faster (would have been around 6:50), but disqualified because an unlucky late bounce changed my angle and sent me wide of the base. I think I've only made 4 runs where I didn't abort early (either I lost all my momentum and started over, or exploded) and 2 of those ended up missing the base.

The difference between the 7:51 run and the (disqualified) 6:50 run felt dominated by how lucky the bounces were / weren't.

 

[superflyguy]

i getting increassingly annoyed at my lack of skill! My first attempt 30:16 felt OK but i could see where I could improve and watching lots of videos has definietly helpped refine my tehnique. However every subsequent run has been slower! Only a bit slower but slower nevertheless.

I can comfortably get up to around 70 then I'll have a bad landing/jump and lose it all to a donut. repeat til Villalobos!

oh, well i'll keep trying. it's not as though i'm not really enjoying each and every run. Back to it this evening. I will break 30 and then try for 25. sub 10 is beyond me for now i only watch in awe

Keep on jumpin'
<-lightspeed->

 

[nookiemrsmith]

Actually finished runs all the way to the end, maybe 10, runs that I quit within the first minute probably 50, just self destruct and try again.

My first try I did a 6:50 but I missed the outpost at the end by a lot and had to try to get a good clean run, most of my attempts were between 7-8 minutes, and then I did a really good one when I was showing someone the track.

 

[Nitrogue]

Please excuse the generalisations and arbitrary bracketing and speaking for others here (this is all meant in a pretty tongue in cheek, lighted hearted fashion).

So, I reckon a "normal" player who poottles around in the SRV occasionally would take WELL over an hour to do this drive, maybe even two.

Then you've got people who've spent a reasonable amount of time in the SRV and know how to hop across the top of mounds on low-g worlds (and to not just struggle up and down all the hills). They're gonna take somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour.

Then you've got people who've done a bit of racing maybe, know about tilt boosting and are capable of putting it into practice for a fair portion of the run. They'll still go into donut spins and tumbles occasionally but can probably get the SRV up to 60 or 70m/s when they're on a roll. This is me and we take somewhere around half an hour.

Then you've got the people who've gotten really good at this and would win in races against the previous group. I'm thinking people like AkenBosch and Brabston here. They're in the 15-20m bracket and are pretty much what I aspire to at the moment.

And then you've got people like Nookie, Sushi and Raijiin.

I wasn't aware of this latter group until "Kick The Alien" and when I saw the times they were getting ... to be honest, at first, I found them pretty hard to believe (I don't mind confessing I looked damn hard at the evidential screenshots when those runs first started coming in ).

To get to the level of this last group, I would suggest requires almost zero luck. It's practice practice skill skill skill practice skill. It's about consistency and building the speed up incrementally from one near as dammit perfect jump to the next and basically not ******g up ever.

As for the difference between 6:36 and 7:51? Yeah OK, probably some luck in there. I dunno. How many times have you two run this route? (I was pretty amazed when you guys turned up to "Kick the Alien" and just dedicated yourselves to nailing that course, was it hundreds of runs? I know it was a lot!). No offence to Nookie but it might just be down to who's run the numbers the most? Or maybe Nookie is just an SRV god. Definitely one of those two!

ok fair enough

never done a race before, would have been going for the trundle along approach, not knowing about flying, feeling pretty good about my sub 30 time right now

not trying to discredit some of the amazing times that have come up, was watching the time of my last run and was still about 40k out when the best time had past

guess I'm doing this for fun now rather than a shot at the prize

I think part of the thing here is, same with other things, that I can do what feels to be a perfect run and yet still be way off the mark. hence all of the questions, to try and improve.

 

[Alec Turner]

did a really good one when I was showing someone the track.

LOL, I think it's traditional when "walking the course" to not set a new lap record! I hope your student was able to follow your tracks before the winds of time swept them away.

 

[Alec Turner]

ok fair enough

never done a race before, would have been going for the trundle along approach, not knowing about flying, feeling pretty good about my sub 30 time right now

And so you should, a sub 30 for a non racer is AWESOME!

guess I'm doing this for fun now rather than a shot at the prize

Welcome to my world!

Like all the races I've ever done it's an excellent opportunity to learn and improve and to meet like minded people. Looks like you and I are getting similar times ... last one to beat 25mins buys the drinks!

 

[ArchEmperor]

I love this Elite mini game! It is like a roller coaster.... or Planet Coaster in game!

 

[AkenBosch]

Then you've got the people who've gotten really good at this and would win in races against the previous group. I'm thinking people like AkenBosch and Brabston here. They're in the 15-20m bracket and are pretty much what I aspire to at the moment.

Ehm, yes, that bracket. Sorry, I should have posted this earlier this morning.

Cmdr Aken B.
The Tumbling Initiative
Time: 11:06

It works a bit like The Elder Scrolls games: do a thing long enough, and you'll level up in that particular skill eventually.

Spoiler

ok fair enough

never done a race before, would have been going for the trundle along approach, not knowing about flying, feeling pretty good about my sub 30 time right now

not trying to discredit some of the amazing times that have come up, was watching the time of my last run and was still about 40k out when the best time had past

guess I'm doing this for fun now rather than a shot at the prize

I think part of the thing here is, same with other things, that I can do what feels to be a perfect run and yet still be way off the mark. hence all of the questions, to try and improve.

That's the spirit! We should all be doing this for the fun first of all, and for all the gained experience and new abilities that come from that. Then, if one gets good enough to win some prize in the end, that's an added bonus!

I can say that I agree pretty much with everything that has been written so far with regards to the secrets of going fast: if I may add some completely subjective observations, at least for me the hardest part is actually getting to speed, up until 70-80 m/s is where it's easier to lose control or miss a right bounce and slow down/tumble/explode. Once I get in the 100+ m/s realm, I found jumps to be more dangerous for the hull of course, but also less demanding on the overall performance, it's very hard to screw a touch down so bad to completely stop or veer off course (that's my experience so far at least) once the speed is over 130-140, the problem actually being in keeping the thing on target and stopping it once arrived.

The more you make practice the more you notice that what seemed mostly luck before actually is a matter of skill, at the moment one of my "average to slow" run is in the 15-20 minutes range, so I'm starting to understand where do the times of of nookie, Raijin or Sushi come from. I still believe that the more you go under the 10 minutes for this one, the more luck becomes prominent though.

 

[Darth Raijiin]

The New Leader Board as of 20:00 gametime. Almost the end of Thursdays race day. I see a few more new times, and of course Nookie's time. I hope this doesn't discourage anyone. He can be beaten, sometimes. it's very rare, but can happen. He just has a lot of seat time. So go out there and show us what you're made of racers! Grats on those of you that have improved, keep it up, I believe in you. In other news, I have updated our donation tracker/site on Just Giving https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/CandyCrewGuild. We will be hosting our live stream on my twitch https://www.twitch.tv/darthraijiin on Saturday/Sunday, I have updated these details in the OP as well. We are also thinking of extending the prizes from first place to maybe up to 5th? stay tuned on that, as it's TBD. Anyway, I just got home from work, so I will be up for awhile still, get those times in, and I can update the board again tonight! good luck everyone.

Leader Board
​

​

#	Commander	SRV Name	Team	Best Time
1	Nookie Mr.Smith	Yellow Bellied Slider	Candy Crew Racing Team	6:36
2	Tannik Seldon	"That's Rough Buddy"		7:51
3	Brabston	Balloon Bag		13:22
4	Aken B.	The Tumbling Initiative		13:58
5	Bruski	Self Preservation Society		22:47
6	Nitrogue	Which way is up?		26:28
7	Alec Turner	Zorbalicious		27:37
8	<-lightspeed->	A Question of Prestige		30:16
9	DghostFly	The Thing	Candy Crew Racing Team	38:23
10	FoxTwo	The Gimped Noodle		38:49
11
12
13
14

 

[Nitrogue]

Ok goals for the race:

sub 25 time

sub 20 time (doubt ill get better at that)

Top 10 finish (doing well so far)

Beat a Guild member (also doing well so far)

Have Fun (if last night with ship stacking was anything to go by, already done)

Don't know whether to challenge the leader to a SRV vs FAS race (no boost on my part, just surface skimming)

 

[AkenBosch]

The New Leader Board as of 20:00 gametime. Almost the end of Thursdays race day. I see a few more new times, and of course Nookie's time. I hope this doesn't discourage anyone. He can be beaten, sometimes. it's very rare, but can happen. He just has a lot of seat time. So go out there and show us what you're made of racers! Grats on those of you that have improved, keep it up, I believe in you. In other news, I have updated our donation tracker/site on Just Giving https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/CandyCrewGuild. We will be hosting our live stream on my twitch https://www.twitch.tv/darthraijiin on Saturday/Sunday, I have updated these details in the OP as well. We are also thinking of extending the prizes from first place to maybe up to 5th? stay tuned on that, as it's TBD. Anyway, I just got home from work, so I will be up for awhile still, get those times in, and I can update the board again tonight! good luck everyone.

Leader Board
​

​

#	Commander	SRV Name	Team	Best Time
1	Nookie Mr.Smith	Yellow Bellied Slider	Candy Crew Racing Team	6:36
2	Tannik Seldon	"That's Rough Buddy"		7:51
3	Brabston	Balloon Bag		13:22
4	Aken B.	The Tumbling Initiative		13:58
5	Bruski	Self Preservation Society		22:47
6	Nitrogue	Which way is up?		26:28
7	Alec Turner	Zorbalicious		27:37
8	<-lightspeed->	A Question of Prestige		30:16
9	DghostFly	The Thing	Candy Crew Racing Team	38:23
10	FoxTwo	The Gimped Noodle		38:49
11
12
13
14

Ooops, this must have got lost in the "fence of text":

Cmdr Aken B.
The Tumbling Initiative
Time: 11:06

Spoiler

 

[superflyguy]

new submission from me.

i can happily say i smashed my 30 minute barrier and also swatted my 25 minute barrier! chuffed. I'm sure the mini race with AkenB helped (screenie included - i overtook him shortly after this but nobody needs to know about that )

http://imgur.com/a/QbjqF

I suppose i now have to set my sights on the sub 20 barrier. [hotas]

had my first really annoying exploderSRV. it went from 52 to 0 hull in one bounce a mere 8k from the finish, grrr. needless to say it spurred me on to the above time.

 

[AkenBosch]

Lucky evening for me!

Cmdr Aken B.
The Tumbling Initiative
Time: 09:18

Spoiler

 

[cookiehole]

I can comfortably get up to around 70 then I'll have a bad landing/jump and lose it all to a donut. repeat til Villalobos!

It was/is pretty much the same for me. I recently tried to focus more on finding a good landing spot instead of squeezing the last drop of boost out of the capacitor and I feel like my landings are getting more reliable due to that.

I can say that I agree pretty much with everything that has been written so far with regards to the secrets of going fast: if I may add some completely subjective observations, at least for me the hardest part is actually getting to speed, up until 70-80 m/s is where it's easier to lose control or miss a right bounce and slow down/tumble/explode. Once I get in the 100+ m/s realm, I found jumps to be more dangerous for the hull of course, but also less demanding on the overall performance, it's very hard to screw a touch down so bad to completely stop or veer off course (that's my experience so far at least) once the speed is over 130-140, the problem actually being in keeping the thing on target and stopping it once arrived.

I completely agree, it seems that above about 75 m/s there's a real bounce on landing that usually gets you back into the air pretty reliably.

My perspective on the luck aspect: I'd say a somewhat competent SRV pilot can get a pretty good run in with a lot of luck (for example I once had a Napier-Sommerfeld run where everything went just perfect and I did the 60-ish km in about 10 minutes instead of the usual 15-25 all of my other runs had). But at the same time an unlucky bounce or rock can ruin a run even for a pro.
Reliably reaching certain speeds (and thus times) takes skill and (especially) a lot of practice; and then the last few minutes and seconds are sometimes determined by luck. I think I did 27 runs in the Kick the Alien rally, to bring my time from 10 mins down to 8:21.

I did a couple of runs today. I struggled a bit with getting up to speed aswell as realigning the SRV properly instead of tumbling through the air.
New target: 15 mins.

SRV Name: Suspension Failure
Time until 300 m zone: 17:01
Time until crash into the settlement: 17:07
Time until being yelled at for the second time: 17:11
Screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/Qjg4v

 

[Birdnose]

Visiting relatives from out of town have kept me away so far, but I'm still hoping to get at least one run in before the event ends. It will be extremely unimpressive, I'm sure.

 

[Darth Raijiin]

The new updated, I think, Leader Board. [haha]

Leader Board
​

​

#	Commander	SRV Name	Team	Time
1	Nookie Mr.Smith	Yellow Bellied Slider	Candy Crew Racing Team	6:36
2	Tannik Seldon	"That's Rough Buddy"		7:51
3	Aken B.	The Tumbling Initiative		9:18
4	Brabston	Balloon Bag		13:22
5	Cookiehole	Suspension Failure		17:01
6	Bruski	Self Preservation Society		22:47
7	<-lightspeed->	A Question of Prestige		24:24
8	Nitrogue	Which way is up?		26:28
9	Alec Turner	Zorbalicious	Buckyballer	27:37
10	DGhostFly	The Thing	Candy Crew Racing Team	38:23
11	FoxTwo	The Gimped Noodle		38:49
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

 

[Raiko]

Cmdr Raiko
SRV: Bandit-One
Team: Buckyballer
Time: 48:17

http://imgur.com/a/tINaN

A sloooooowwwww time, but actually faster than I expected for my first run.
Hopefully I can smooth things out more and get down to 30ish minutes by the end.