Community Event / Creation Buckyball Racing Club presents: The A* Challenge

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drakhyr

drakhyr
The last few weeks have been rather quiet on this front, apart from a certain tussle at the sharp end of the Unlimited leaderboard...

hljQUUX.png
Cmdr AlexBrentnall's second attempt in Flagship of Eir managed to record the correct evidence this time, and shave six minutes off his previous transit time in the process. Frustrated not to beat Cmdr Alot, AlexBrentnall nonetheless secured his position just behind with a time of a little under 2 hours 20 minutes.

However star performance has to go to Cmdr Allitnil, who was determined to take back the overall record he previously held. Plotting a route to eke the maximum neutron boosts to Paradox Drive's impressive jump range, Allitnil came tantalisingly close to breaking the two-hour barrier (one wonders what would have been if the docking computer had been stripped out...). Nonetheless Allitnil has set a new Unlimited class and overall record of an impressive 2 hours, zero minutes and 58 seconds.

Looking at the history, I see Allitnil in March, Alot in June, Allitnil in September - looks like the ball is in Alot's court for a sub 2 hour run some time around Christmas? :D
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
drakhyr said:
The last few weeks have been rather quiet on this front, apart from a certain tussle at the sharp end of the Unlimited leaderboard...

https://i.imgur.com/hljQUUX.png
Cmdr AlexBrentnall's second attempt in Flagship of Eir managed to record the correct evidence this time, and shave six minutes off his previous transit time in the process. Frustrated not to beat Cmdr Alot, AlexBrentnall nonetheless secured his position just behind with a time of a little under 2 hours 20 minutes.

However star performance has to go to Cmdr Allitnil, who was determined to take back the overall record he previously held. Plotting a route to eke the maximum neutron boosts to Paradox Drive's impressive jump range, Allitnil came tantalisingly close to breaking the two-hour barrier (one wonders what would have been if the docking computer had been stripped out...). Nonetheless Allitnil has set a new Unlimited class and overall record of an impressive 2 hours, zero minutes and 58 seconds.

Looking at the history, I see Allitnil in March, Alot in June, Allitnil in September - looks like the ball is in Alot's court for a sub 2 hour run some time around Christmas? :D
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Congratulations again Allitnil, that's a stunning time! o7
 

Raiko

Raiko
Fendalton said:
Damn what was the Anaconda build to get 2h? I remember the old record being 12h in a Cobra.
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The two hour record is a heavily engineered Conda using neutron jumps and a little bit of j3 jumponium all the way - and flown by a damn good pilot.

But you really don't remember the old record being 12 hours in a Cobra. Trust me. :D
 

drakhyr

drakhyr
Fendalton said:
Damn what was the Anaconda build to get 2h? I remember the old record being 12h in a Cobra.
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The early records of ~12h were in AspX / Anaconda / T6 before engineering. The 2h above is with a highly engineered Anaconda (jump range over 62LY), but importantly using a route with lots of neutron star boosts, and FSD injection for the jumps that weren't neutron star boosted. Allitnil must have put in an awful a lot of prep work to get that time :)
 

Raiko

Raiko
Built just for jump range the top Condas are 70+ly ships, but the requirement for multi-jumps using neutron stars means that they need a big fuel tank and therefore can't use the smallest thrusters (afaik) which brings their range down - but I'm still stuck back in the old 9h-12h Asp-X days, I don't even have a racing Conda.

The planning needed for an optimal neutron star route is phenomenal, as is the concentration to make all those supercharged jumps without slipping up.
 
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Alex Brentnall

Alex Brentnall
drakhyr said:
The early records of ~12h were in AspX / Anaconda / T6 before engineering. The 2h above is with a highly engineered Anaconda (jump range over 62LY), but importantly using a route with lots of neutron star boosts, and FSD injection for the jumps that weren't neutron star boosted. Allitnil must have put in an awful a lot of prep work to get that time :)
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Probably ~70T fuel tank, 7A fuel scoop then everything as lightweight as possible with an AFMU or two.

This was mine, I imagine Allitnils is similar: https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/ana...DeivH2c4dreBAAAA.EweloBhBmSQUwIYHMA28QgIwV0A=

Possibly dropping the Powerplant down a few grades for a sniff more jump range and obviously slightly different engineer mods.

And yeah, I'm still trying to work out how people plan routes accurately enough without literally pre-flying the route. For me I can use maths to get the co-ordinate and jump-jump distance but i'm nowhere near working out the fuel use for jumps that aren't to max range and when I'll have to refuel... For me I spent probably a 3:1 ratio on planning to racing :p
 
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Allitnil

Allitnil
Here's my build: https://beta.coriolis.edcd.io/outfi...QwOYBskjpPQ&bn=Conda, Modded extreme range 5D

As Raiko says, it is possible to fit some engineered 4D thrusters to such a stripped down & engineered ship, but not with so much fuel.

Compared to Alex, the main difference is in the PP. Looks like he's got a low emissions mod on his 4A whereas I've got an overcharged on my 2A for virtually the same power level. Heat's not an issue with neutron boosting and not much of one when refuelling as I prefer to use M class stars, so for me the lower mass wins out (especially as I got a secondary mass reduction).

Alex Brentnall said:
And yeah, I'm still trying to work out how people plan routes accurately enough without literally pre-flying the route. For me I can use maths to get the co-ordinate and jump-jump distance but i'm nowhere near working out the fuel use for jumps that aren't to max range and when I'll have to refuel... For me I spent probably a 3:1 ratio on planning to racing :p
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I don't think it's remotely possible to get a good level of optimisation without scouting the route in person. It took me about 7 hours of game time to scout mine although it's only really the first and last couple of thousand LYs that really need thinking over. I use a spreadsheet to keep track of fuel levels so I know precisely how far I can jump and what fuel is left, even if the amount of fuel on my scouting run differs from the actual one (usually the case since I don't waste jumponium whilst scouting).

FWIW, here's the start of my route:

DistanceJump Type
Sol
279.51NCol 285 Sector RB-Y B29-7
128.69JPSR J1752-2806
261.78NCol 359 Sector NW-R b19-2
129.86JCol 359 Sector AQ-K b23-0
127.06JCol 359 Sector DG-O d6-17
234.85NCol 359 Sector TO-I d9-36
245.61NSwoiwns QY-K b40-2
119.19JSwoiwns JY-G d11-21
254.92NSwoiwns RF-D d13-7
268.33NBleia Eohn BK-C b2-0
131.57JBleia Eohn ZJ-Z d6
269.88NBleia Eohn JM-V d2-8
121.09JBleia Eohn ON-T d3-7

N = neutron boost, J = jumponium boost

Alex deserves the credit for the first couple of jumps as I nicked those off a video he posted ;). I'm running on reduced fuel load all the way until I get to Bleia Eohn JM-V d2-8 where I fully fuel as from there I'm using neutrons all the time apart from fuel stops. The last couple of jumps to Sag A* are also jumponium.

I did record the run but wasn't sure whether to post the video or not as when looking at it I saw sooooo many mistakes. Ah what the heck... :D

[video=youtube;MvU5s62cPXM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvU5s62cPXM[/video]

Sorry, no audio as I was listening to music during the run.
 

madbilly

M
I'm about as slow to react to stuff on the forum nowadays as I am at crossing the galaxy. Hey ho:
I submitted this to GalNet for publication two weeks ago. Yes, I'm months late, and it didn't get published. And the day afterwards Allitnil broke the record again! Now GalNet submissions are indefinitely suspended I might as well just post it here:

Race to Sagittarius A* hots up
Location: GalNet, or Sol, Wolf 359, Fullerene C60 and Kocab

Once again the record time for the Buckyball Racing Club's A* Challenge has been broken, and once again by CMDR Alot flying "Rhonda" the Anaconda in a remarkable 2hr 12min 13sec, knocking 20% off CMDR Allitnil's previous record. As is now de rigeur for the race, CMDR Alot used neutron-star-assisted FSD supercharging where just one tiny mistake can be fatal. CMDR Alot describes their approach to this risky manoeuvre as the "Jesus take the wheel" approach, "It's a little nerve-wracking to say the least, but it's very fast!" Thankfully Rhonda is reported to be in good shape, however the pilot's status is "Bloody exhausted" from the continuous level of concentration required.

With the Pilot's Federation expected to release an upgrade to the Universal Cartographics route plotter in the coming days there are rumours of several commanders training for a record-breaking attempt next week. Is sub-two hours possible? In CMDR Alot's own words, "it'd be completely mental to try and do another A* run, wouldn't it…? Good job that adjective is regularly applied to me, I suppose!"

CMDR Mad Billy, Buckyball Racing Club
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I was about to write one for Allitnil's record, highlighting the record being exchanged with Alot over the past year. Even with GalNet closed I might write it anyway, just for fun ;)

PS - I know that posting in this thread is redundant because my writing is nowhere near as good as Drakhyr's, but the idea was to get the event recorded in game. Now there's no more chance of that.
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
CaptainKirby said:
Still no sub-2-hours run? You guys got lazy on your ol' days! :D
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I did attempt to goad Cmdr Alot at the Expo bar (repeatedly referring to him as the 2nd fastest pilot in the galaxy) but currently there's an issue since 2.4 which he believes makes doing that currently impossible - namely the enforced delay timeout on FSD injection. We did then collar a fairly merry Adam Woods (I think it was Adam) and suggest that this delay should be removed. I'd put the chances of Adam remembering that conversation the next morning at around 1000:1 against! :p

Oh well, we tried.
 

madbilly

M
Alec Turner said:
I did attempt to goad Cmdr Alot at the Expo bar (repeatedly referring to him as the 2nd fastest pilot in the galaxy) but currently there's an issue since 2.4 which he believes makes doing that currently impossible - namely the enforced delay timeout on FSD injection. We did then collar a fairly merry Adam Woods (I think it was Adam) and suggest that this delay should be removed. I'd put the chances of Adam remembering that conversation the next morning at around 1000:1 against! :p

Oh well, we tried.
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Now I'm even more gutted I missed the Expo! [hehe]
 

Esvandiary

Esvandiary
Alec Turner said:
I did attempt to goad Cmdr Alot at the Expo bar (repeatedly referring to him as the 2nd fastest pilot in the galaxy) but currently there's an issue since 2.4 which he believes makes doing that currently impossible - namely the enforced delay timeout on FSD injection. We did then collar a fairly merry Adam Woods (I think it was Adam) and suggest that this delay should be removed. I'd put the chances of Adam remembering that conversation the next morning at around 1000:1 against! :p

Oh well, we tried.
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Can confirm the veracity of all of the above. :D

I've actually thrown Sandy a PM on the same topic, on the off-chance he's interested... I'll let you know if I hear anything.

Edit: Got a response, he's said they'll definitely be taking another look at the synthesis delay numbers (especially FSD boost). :)
 
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Raiko

Raiko

furrycat

furrycat
Raiko said:
I'm curious as the core route plotting issues were the most intense part of classic A* runs in 'good old days' - waiting for 98% to get to 100%. :D
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Plotting to the core is still slow with the new planner. hchalkley mentioned that the route is split into 1,000Ly chunks so the distance away you are when you start plotting doesn't really matter.
 
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