As I understand it, the (patched) DX has the highest non-engineered jump range. Why is the Anaconda still on top of the list? I read something about slow fuel-scooping? Can someone explain this?
I really feel, the DX should be higher up...
Yep, it's due to the jump range.
I'm not very experienced in the A* Challenge and don't have a lot of experience in the DBX when it comes to long range racing, but here's a back-of-the-envelope calculation to show the difference between the two:
The theoretical minimum number of jumps assuming perfect star placement would be 626 for the theoretical maximum Anaconda jump range and 620 for the DBX, so 4:30 min difference.
More realistic builds for the
Anaconda and
DBX would have a smaller difference in jump range, so the difference would be even smaller (I can't find the number of jumps for Hanekura's DBX record run, Alot did his run in 650 jumps if I'm not mistaken).
Now when it comes to doing ~650 jumps perfectly, even half a second lost per jump makes a difference of about 5 minutes over the full run. So it really comes down to being able to start the next jump at the exact point that the cooldown timer expires.
Slow scooping can prevent that.
The Anaconda needs 8 t for a maximum jump and can fit a 7A fuel scoop that fills the tank at 1245 kg/s, that means 6.43 s of scooping time per jump; just enough to dive in, scoop to full and get out of the corona while charging the FSD without taking heat damage at most stars with the right technique and practice.
The DBX needs only 5 t per jump, but the 4A Fuel Scoop provides only 342 kg/s, so 14,62 s scooping per jump! Luckily, the ship runs very cool and can stay scooping for a good few seconds while charging the FSD without overheating and also is more nimble so can pull out more easily. But the time difference for a full scoop is still too big to either avoid overheating (and loosing a few seconds every jump) or running into the problems that overheating regularly on such a long run can cause (FSD damage leads to failed jumps and repairs need a lot of time). The difference per jump with the two times on the board is around 6 s, so just a small bit less than the difference in scooping times.
So while the DBX definitely is the faster ship when you can afford overheating (for example in shorter races where you can repair at station waypoints before reaching a critical amount of heat damage), the Anaconda beats it in Endurance challenges due to the higher average speed.
Concerning room for improvement for the current times on the board: CMDR Alot managed to get
Rhonda very close to the theoretical limit and the record time probably won't change in the future, since there was a game update where you now arrive at the "correct" position relative to a star after a jump (as opposed to random), which means the target star on an optimal route will now lie behind the star you're scooping from and getting around in time while also scooping enough is now pretty much impossible.
The DBX doesn't suffer as much from the star position problem since there's more time spent scooping anyway, but I don't think there will be more than a few minutes to be shaved off knowing how fast Hanekura Shizuka is in this challenge.
So yes, it looks like the difference shouldn't be as big, but it's always surprising how complicated the influences on times in a race/challenge (even with a concept as simple as "do many jumps quickly") can get when the game mechanics are as detailed as they are in Elite
