Community Event / Creation Buckyball Racing Club presents The Lion's Back (2 - 10 September 3303)

Yes, that's absolutely fine (and probably recommended, as it ensures you capture everything but makes my job easier!).

I think this illustrates one of the reasons I am unlikely to ever reach higher than mid table in BB races. I am clearly just a bit too dim.

I had considered taking video screenshots in previous races but as they were all at stations taking one via keyboard key press wasn't really a problem. On this race I have had difficulty sorting out a routine to get screenshots of the space markers within the required range without going too slowly or overshooting and having to loop back. It never once occurred to me that I could simply fly past and pull the screenshots from a video afterwards[knocked out]

I don't know how much time I will get to fly today but I suspect this may save me quite a bit of time.
 
Okay, second attempt at the Regulation Adder submitted (a smidge under 20 minutes unless my math fails me).

Second attempt at the Open Unlimited failed spectacularly (1C Bi-Weaves, yeah right :rolleyes: )...

[video=youtube_share;4tcDj1Q5hwA]https://youtu.be/4tcDj1Q5hwA[/video]

EDIT: Reg. Adder video still being uploaded and processed so might be a while before it's ready.
 
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This will seem obvious, but I thought I'd put together a diagram for navigating a RES at Regulus 1.

https://i.imgur.com/OkGxx8K.png

It's a planetary ring, so it's very wide and not very thick. Your drop-out point is (a bit short of) where your trajectory would enter the ring. If you approach perpendicularly, you'll be closer to the marker when you drop out, and if you stay on that course you'll get to the edge faster when leaving (and thus escape mass lock sooner).
Yep, I figured out after a particularly bad Adder run (drop in at 15km) that coming in perpendicularly was VERy important.


There are two rings around Regulus 1.
https://i.imgur.com/GPBQajc.png

The inner, metallic ring is thinner than the outer, rocky ring. So try not to pick a RES in the outer ring. Discovered through trial and error, but I bet the math holds up if you calculate the area of both rings, assume that metallic asteroids are twice as dense as rocky ones, and then use that in combination with each rings 'mass to calculate the height of their hollow cylinders.
I...wait, what? You would also need to know the density of the material in the field, since they could just be closer together.

Hmm, maybe there isn't any density conversion.

https://i.imgur.com/OtMlPbb.png

Yeah, I'm not quite sure how that works. :-\

Wait, did you mean in the remaining <2+24 hours?

I also have to test that thick/thin tip about the ring, it looks like everything but obvious ;) (and would also explain the 5-7 km drop-outs compared to the 2-3 km ones).

I should be able to do some "testing" tomorrow, after having been away the last couple days...just yesterday I was enjoying the sun and a gentle wind while reading a book on a quiet seaside, a few hours later and I'm back in the dull city, overcast, 15 °C and intermittent rain...I'll need some more hours to recover from the trauma, trying to improve my times could be a good enough distraction.


I did about 45 minutes of "testing" last night, where I jumped in an out of different sites, all as close to perpendicularly as I could, from different sides of the ring.

My results basically found that although the distance from drop in to the beacon could vary, once I went through the beacon to the other side, the rings were of very very similar width.

InOutTotal Thickness
Hazardous55.510.5
High48.512.5
Res Middle28.510.5
Res Middle 255.510.5
Res Inner3811


As far as I can tell, the rings are always about 11km thick, but the beacon can spawn at different points in the ring, sometimes closer to one side than the other.
 
Thanks for a great race, Drakhyr!

I almost didn't make it, but I finally managed to squeeze in a couple of runs in the regulation adder today. I should quit my work. It's hampering my racing career.

Congratulations to winners, improvers and those who just had fun. o7
 
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And as the sands of time slip away, we all ask, where's cookiehole? The plot says that he swipes the lead about now!

tar-pulp.gif
 
Yep, I figured out after a particularly bad Adder run (drop in at 15km) that coming in perpendicularly was VERy important.
...
I...wait, what? You would also need to know the density of the material in the field, since they could just be closer together.
...
Yeah, I'm not quite sure how that works. :-\
...
I did about 45 minutes of "testing" last night, where I jumped in an out of different sites, all as close to perpendicularly as I could, from different sides of the ring.

My results basically found that although the distance from drop in to the beacon could vary, once I went through the beacon to the other side, the rings were of very very similar width.

InOutTotal Thickness
Hazardous55.510.5
High48.512.5
Res Middle28.510.5
Res Middle 255.510.5
Res Inner3811

As far as I can tell, the rings are always about 11km thick, but the beacon can spawn at different points in the ring, sometimes closer to one side than the other.
I probably had a bad piece of anecdotal evidence from my early runs, mistaking a bad entry angle for a thicker ring. On the calculations, you're ultimately right: we lack density info. It might be possible to extract it from planet data, but not sure it's worth the effort. :)
 
Nice race Drakhyr, I managed a last minute entry after a couple of runs.

Nice to have new location types to visit for a race.

Poor asteroid clusters, nobody loves them :) I had to clear my filters in order to see them again lol.
 
In traditional fashion, the final day of racing has seen a whole flurry of new entries.

In the Regulation Adder, Cmdr Jintosh managed further gains in Rose Raiona, improving her time to under 23 minutes. A short way ahead we find a late arrival from Buckyball veteran Cmdr Polly, whose single attempt in Naðr puts her in seventh place, just four seconds behind Cmdr Ozric.

At the top of the board the struggle has continued. Cmdr Bruski continued his march to improve his time yet again (though how The Pakistani Ambassador is still holding together after all the punishment she's taken, we'll never know), managing to sneak past Cmdr Jak, just. However, that's now third place, as newcomer Cmdr Edward Robinson has made a fantastic run in Federal Corvette (a name presumably designed to confuse traffic controllers and other shipping into giving him priority, which seems to have worked!), taking second place with a time of nineteen and a half minutes. Out front, though, remains Cmdr Aken B. Despite numerous attempts, Aken B. wasn't quite able to break the 19-minute barrier in Happy-Go-Bucky, ending with a final time of nineteen minutes exactly.

(I'm sure there's no substance to the rumours that Happy-Go-Bucky is being chased by the authorities of half a dozen systems in connection with a missing persons investigation (supposedly a Mr C. O. Okiehole), or that the ship's speed is being hampered by a mild infestation of cookiebots)

lionsback_sep10_adder.jpg


In Open Unlimited, Cmdr The Coat has managed an improvement of more than two minutes in the Anaconda G-SUNK. The Coat also submitted an entry for a Federal Corvette run (a real Corvette this time!), but as the Anaconda was faster that's the time that'll stay on the board (which also allows me to not worry about the missing nav panel in one of the screenshots).

In the middle of the board, there is a cluster of new entries and improved times. Cmdr Crotalus's attempt in the Asp Scout Hecla puts him in twelfth place, just behind Cmdr Markzx59's Asp Explorer Heart of Gold. Cmdr jumpingclear managed an improved time in the Orca Whale of a Time though that doesn't actually change his finishing position; a short way ahead the same is also true of Cmdr Hossi in the Asp Explorer Red Racer. A short way ahead of Hossi we find another Buckyball veteran in the form of Cmdr Stern Winter's Asp Explorer Polar Express.

Getting nearer the top, Cmdr ZX Spectrum has cemented his fifth place finish with an improved time in Down to Earth IV, managing to join the list of those under fourteen minutes with a final time of 13:45.

Cmdr Aken B., leader for much of the week, managed to squeeze a bit more performance out of the Bucket of Bolts to break through the 13 minute barrier. However, less than an hour and a half later, Cmdr Bruski returned for yet another attempt in RazorBear and this time managed to pull together an outstanding run to take the lead with a time of 12 minutes and 45 seconds.

lionsback_sep10_open.jpg


Well done to all, and thanks for taking part. Results will stay provisional through today in case any last minute corrections are required (and there's a run from Rankaze on Saturday night that might get added to the board if I get some evidence I can actually read!).

Next Buckyball Racing Club event will be Fat Tony's Festival of Racing, due 23rd September.
 
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So it appears that due to a combination of Youtube shenanigans and me being too busy to even check the forum since submitting my entry (so I didn't see Drakhyr's PM until tonight), that it didn't get counted. Well, for what it's worth, I ran a 19:17. :|

Oh, well.
 
Entrants will have seen that I was collecting some demographic information on the entry form; here are the (thoroughly unsurprising) results:

lionsback_chart1.png

lionsback_chart2.png


Note that the above charts are based upon a single data point for each commander.
 
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Entrants will have seen that I was collecting some demographic information on the entry form; here are the (thoroughly unsurprising) results:

http://www.buckyballracing.org.uk/images/lionsback_chart1.png
http://www.buckyballracing.org.uk/images/lionsback_chart2.png

Note that the above charts are based upon a single data point for each commander.

Cool - and I think we can all agree this time that, by ANY definition of the word, the "majority" played in Open on PC!

Thanks to drakhyr for yet another new and excellent race concept and for finding a use for those somewhat ostracized asteroid belt clusters (although that said, my filters are back on again now). It's a shame I mostly had to watch this from the sidelines (only managing to complete 3 laps in total). I think it's the first time I've had to balance fuel quite so precariously in order to shave a jump from my route, I probably spent more time outfitting and dumping fuel than actually racing in this one. Well done to all the winners and congratulations to all the first-time Buckyballers.

Still no sign of cookiehole huh? (I may have to revise the statement I gave to the new "Sagittarius Eye" magazine). Also, what happened to Mr Kirby?

Fly fast commanders and remember, when the Thargoids strike, you don't have to outrun them, you only have to outrun the other commanders in your instance!
 
Cool - and I think we can all agree this time that, by ANY definition of the word, the "majority" played in Open on PC!

Thanks to drakhyr for yet another new and excellent race concept and for finding a use for those somewhat ostracized asteroid belt clusters (although that said, my filters are back on again now). It's a shame I mostly had to watch this from the sidelines (only managing to complete 3 laps in total). I think it's the first time I've had to balance fuel quite so precariously in order to shave a jump from my route, I probably spent more time outfitting and dumping fuel than actually racing in this one. Well done to all the winners and congratulations to all the first-time Buckyballers.

Still no sign of cookiehole huh? (I may have to revise the statement I gave to the new "Sagittarius Eye" magazine). Also, what happened to Mr Kirby?

Fly fast commanders and remember, when the Thargoids strike, you don't have to outrun them, you only have to outrun the other commanders in your instance!
I'm going to guess that cookiehole is once again embroiled in school. Good man for taking care of priorities, if so. :)

I'm sorry that Mr. Kirby didn't get a chance to jump into the fray. Hopefully another time (soon).

Grats to the winners, well done to everyone else, and I'm looking forward to seeing all the new faces come back again!
 
Thanks for a great race Drakhyr. :)

I made a few runs last night, but couldn't improve on my time. I shaved a few seconds off in SC I think, but lost them by poor docking. I need to clip the slot on the way in to make the Asp slow down quickly enough, but kept missing - resulting in big clumsy slow-mo overshoots.

I also never worked out the best way to approach the asteroid cluster, did anyone do any timings? I ended up settling on a corkscrew approach with 4-5 seconds on the countdown, but my on my 'best' approaches my speed tended to drop into the blue zone just at the split second that the cluster moved off the screen. :(

Thanks to those overshoots, I'd have probably just been better off doing a straight 6-second approach to the asteroid cluster.

I gave up with an hour to go and popped over to the CG (where I spent my time overshooting in a Type-9 instead :))




Next Race - 23-SEP-3303 to 01-OCT-3303:

Buckyball Racing Club presents Fat Tony's Festival of Racing (featuring the Ironbucky Trophy).

Long time Buckyball racing fans and notorious mobsters jovial entrepreneurs Anthony "Fat Tony" Lonnegan and Enoch "Little Nuk" Lonnegan - aka the Lonnegan Brothers - invite you to join them for a week-long festival of Buckyball racing at Brash Orbital in the beautiful Siren System.

Festival events include a traditional short range scramble around nearby stations, a quick lap of the bubble for longer range racers and trips out to the Wasat Cup Rally course in neighbouring Wasat for those who prefer to fly things with eight wheels.

The festival will also feature The Ironbucky Trophy for crazy racers who think they can run all three events back to back without repairs and the return of viewers' favourite The Lonnegan Brothers' Scale of Hotness.

No banner yet - sorry I had less time than expected this weekend, and was having too much fun racing. :eek: I should have the new banner in a day or two. :)

If you fancy some racing before the 23rd, take a look at Jhyrryls post in the BRC thread.
 
I also never worked out the best way to approach the asteroid cluster, did anyone do any timings?

On the subject of timings, one thing I wanted to try if I'd had more time ... did anyone try just flying into the RES at full speed and then simply emergency stopping when they flew through the belt rather than executing a controlled approach (or is that simply what everyone was doing?).
 
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