Community Event / Creation Buckyball Racing Club presents Close Encounters (16-24 June 3304)
I'm not going to do a leaderboard update now, I'll leave you guessing until I do the final boards tomorrow 
What I can say, from the flurry of final day entries so far, is that times are tumbling in Open Unlimited, while in Scout class it is extremely close in places - a couple of seconds here or there could make all the difference.
While racing officially ends at midnight game time, I will be doing the results at some point tomorrow morning, so you will have at least six hours after that to sort out evidence and submit entries (if you complete a run before the deadline but need a little longer to get the submission evidence sorted, just drop me a PM to let me know). In practice, I will accept attempts starting before midnight GMT, even if they finish a little afterwards.
Good luck to all out there racing!
Me too!
What I can say, from the flurry of final day entries so far, is that times are tumbling in Open Unlimited, while in Scout class it is extremely close in places - a couple of seconds here or there could make all the difference.
While racing officially ends at midnight game time, I will be doing the results at some point tomorrow morning, so you will have at least six hours after that to sort out evidence and submit entries (if you complete a run before the deadline but need a little longer to get the submission evidence sorted, just drop me a PM to let me know). In practice, I will accept attempts starting before midnight GMT, even if they finish a little afterwards.
Good luck to all out there racing!
Me too!
After cmdr furrycat pointed out my mistake in judging the optimal jump range, I've decided to join the darkside for this race.
CMDR Raiko
Darkside (Diamondback Explorer)
Open Unlimited
Unfortunately I wasn't happy with racing a 62ly version of The Nomad.
I had one run last night (my first ever go in a Diamondback) and although I'm impressed with the DBX supercruise handling compared to the Asp-X, I embarrassingly still finished a second slower than my precious best, despite saving one jump. The thrusters are lacking a little, as I've not got any Selenium or enough stuff to trade for it and I've not needed 4A thrusters for ages.
I should have time for another run tonight.
CMDR Raiko
Darkside (Diamondback Explorer)
Open Unlimited
Unfortunately I wasn't happy with racing a 62ly version of The Nomad.
I had one run last night (my first ever go in a Diamondback) and although I'm impressed with the DBX supercruise handling compared to the Asp-X, I embarrassingly still finished a second slower than my precious best, despite saving one jump. The thrusters are lacking a little, as I've not got any Selenium or enough stuff to trade for it and I've not needed 4A thrusters for ages.
I should have time for another run tonight.
Last edited:
Well, I've made a second DBX run and that's all I've got time for tonight.
My run was roughly as rubbish as my best Asp run, but with a single jump less, so at least less than 23 minutes. I'm pretty sure I could get down to about 22 minutes in the DBX with a bit more practice, but sadly I'm out of time - early start tomorrow.
I'm actually still behind Edelgard and her amazing Adder run though! o7 cmdr!
My run was roughly as rubbish as my best Asp run, but with a single jump less, so at least less than 23 minutes. I'm pretty sure I could get down to about 22 minutes in the DBX with a bit more practice, but sadly I'm out of time - early start tomorrow.
I'm actually still behind Edelgard and her amazing Adder run though! o7 cmdr!
Given my most recent submissions of earlier today, this evening I was more than willing to best my previous attempt (I can imagine drakhyr knows what I'm talking about ), focused and ready to give my final best shot at the course:
- a light and quick dinner to be back at the computer as soon as possible
- boots up the PC while already mentally recapping bookmarks, jumps and scooping times
- starts all the flight suite and wears his gear: Joystick Curves ready, EDTracker ready and aligned, Opentrack started and working
- grabs his trusty Hotas X, ready to wreak havoc in a final storming of the leaderboards
- moments before launching the Steam ED launcher, notices his sweet, smart, better half playing his shared copy of Tomb Raider over Steam Family
- pondering the consequences of a possible break up, slowly and with a resigned stare puts away the hotas, take off the tracker and shuts down all related software
And this brings a close to my participation in this great little race. Best of luck to everyone still submitting before deadline!
(and if things didn't change too much during these last hours, drakhyr may imagine the effort it took to give up at that point...ah, the things we do for love...or in fear of retaliation, the two are closely related most of the time)
), focused and ready to give my final best shot at the course:- a light and quick dinner to be back at the computer as soon as possible
- boots up the PC while already mentally recapping bookmarks, jumps and scooping times
- starts all the flight suite and wears his gear: Joystick Curves ready, EDTracker ready and aligned, Opentrack started and working
- grabs his trusty Hotas X, ready to wreak havoc in a final storming of the leaderboards
- moments before launching the Steam ED launcher, notices his sweet, smart, better half playing his shared copy of Tomb Raider over Steam Family
- pondering the consequences of a possible break up, slowly and with a resigned stare puts away the hotas, take off the tracker and shuts down all related software
And this brings a close to my participation in this great little race. Best of luck to everyone still submitting before deadline!
(and if things didn't change too much during these last hours, drakhyr may imagine the effort it took to give up at that point...ah, the things we do for love...or in fear of retaliation, the two are closely related most of the time
)
I am finally getting the hang of these supercruise approaches, but not being used to dropping in lined up with the slot, I keep coming through way too hot and overshooting my pad assignment! Attempt just now ended with 6% hull integrity so I must be doing something right... but it was ruined at my second to last stop. On approach there was a Beluga stuck in the slot, no problem, I slipped past to land. But on departure, it had caused a pile up of THREE Belugas and a Cobra, completely blocking the exit until the station defenses cleared them all out!
oh well time for one more try to get a solid run in. o7
oh well time for one more try to get a solid run in. o7
Last day of my hol's today and I've just been catching up on the race action while I sit in the sun with my morning coffee and Nutella encrusted croissant. Really great to see so many racers new and old jostling for position here, only sorry I couldn't take a proper shot at this myself (glad to see the pace car time set a nice mid-table benchmark tho).
o7
o7
ah, the things we do for love...or in fear of retaliation, the two are closely related most of the time
LOL ... isn't there a quotes thread somewhere? Reckon this should go in it! [haha]
It's that moment you've all been waiting for (well, hopefully) - the results!
In Scout class, Cmdr Maya Fey improved her time in Magpie but nearly a minute and a half. She was understandably frustrated by the pirate in Votatini who attempted to interdict her during the run, which was the only thing that stopped her achieving her goal of getting under half an hour. This is also one of a few cases on the leaderboard where those few seconds have made a difference to the ranking. Cmdr Edelgard von Rhein, feeling that there wasn't much more to be pushed from the Adder in Open Unlimited, switched to Scout class with a final run, bringing Kage no Kagami home into ninth place, a mere three seconds ahead of Maya Fey.
The middle of the table sees a couple of improved times. Cmdr Stern Winter in Frozen Landing Gear improved his time by two minutes exactly, climbing past Bruski up the leaderboard. Stern Winter would have overtaken Cmdr Brother Sabathius as well, had Brother Sabathius not also managed to find some extra speed, a 33 second improvement keeping him just ahead into what ends up as sixth place.
Moving on to the podium, Cmdr turkwinif has joined for only his second BRC race (plus a couple of attempts at The A* Challenge). Turkwinif's scout Hey Ya! made great time round the course, despite some slightly scrappy docking approaches, and managed to squeeze ahead of Cmdr Elastul Ma'fer (Ozric) to take third place by a margin of just one second.
Talking of one second margins, you may recall that earlier in the week Cmdr Aken B. was just one second behind Cmdr furrycat, until furrycat managed to extend that lead out to a whole minute. Well, Aken B. has continued to push Slowpoke II in an attempt to close up and pass. The closing up has been successful, the passing less so, leaving Aken B. with a very good view of furrycat's main thrusters as he finishes only one second behind. That leaves Cmdr furrycat as the victor in the Scout class, with a time of 25 minutes 33 seconds.
In Open Unlimited, we start by welcoming Cmdr Moonlord to his second ever BRC race, inspired by seeing racers flying through one of his local starports. The Orca Journey Into Oblivion may not have been the ideal ship for this course, but we do try to be open for all, and Moonlord set a very respectable time of just over 26 minutes. A couple of places ahead of Moonlord, Cmdr Sulu posted an improved time in The Crimson Haybaler to only just over 24 minutes, though that wasn't quite enough to change his position on the leaderboard.
One commander who has changed his board position, by switching from his favoured Asp Explorer to the boringly popular (and boringly successful) Diamondback Explorer, is Cmdr Raiko. Switching to the Darkside enabled Raiko to improve his time by a minute and a quarter, jumping two places up the board in the process.
Just under a minute further up the track is Cmdr Darplata94. Despite multiple attempts in Rolled Gold, Darplata94 couldn't quite get past furrycat (though he did squeeze in another trip to Sagittarius A* to blow off steam in between!), in the end finishing just four seconds behind. That puts Darplata94 in fourth place overall, as there were two pilots who did succeed in getting past furrycat...
First of those is Cmdr Bruski in his Diamondback Explorer RazorBear. Reporting a very good approach to Big Pappa's Base, though a little scrappy elsewhere, with a bit of practice Bruski concluded a very good run with a final time of 21 minutes and 19 seconds. Bruski might have felt safely ahead of furrycat, but Cmdr Aken B. had other ideas about the top spot. Stripping his DBX Bucket of Bolts down even further, including the removal of shields which led to some loud and dent-making landings, Aken B. shot round the course at impressive speed, to take the lead as the only commander under 21 minutes, with a final time of 20 minutes and 52 seconds.
Well done to all, and thanks for taking part. Congratulations to Cmdrs furrycat and Aken B. (for whom I hope the victory in Open Unlimited will ease the frustration of that one second margin in Scout class!).
In Scout class, Cmdr Maya Fey improved her time in Magpie but nearly a minute and a half. She was understandably frustrated by the pirate in Votatini who attempted to interdict her during the run, which was the only thing that stopped her achieving her goal of getting under half an hour. This is also one of a few cases on the leaderboard where those few seconds have made a difference to the ranking. Cmdr Edelgard von Rhein, feeling that there wasn't much more to be pushed from the Adder in Open Unlimited, switched to Scout class with a final run, bringing Kage no Kagami home into ninth place, a mere three seconds ahead of Maya Fey.
The middle of the table sees a couple of improved times. Cmdr Stern Winter in Frozen Landing Gear improved his time by two minutes exactly, climbing past Bruski up the leaderboard. Stern Winter would have overtaken Cmdr Brother Sabathius as well, had Brother Sabathius not also managed to find some extra speed, a 33 second improvement keeping him just ahead into what ends up as sixth place.
Moving on to the podium, Cmdr turkwinif has joined for only his second BRC race (plus a couple of attempts at The A* Challenge). Turkwinif's scout Hey Ya! made great time round the course, despite some slightly scrappy docking approaches, and managed to squeeze ahead of Cmdr Elastul Ma'fer (Ozric) to take third place by a margin of just one second.
Talking of one second margins, you may recall that earlier in the week Cmdr Aken B. was just one second behind Cmdr furrycat, until furrycat managed to extend that lead out to a whole minute. Well, Aken B. has continued to push Slowpoke II in an attempt to close up and pass. The closing up has been successful, the passing less so, leaving Aken B. with a very good view of furrycat's main thrusters as he finishes only one second behind. That leaves Cmdr furrycat as the victor in the Scout class, with a time of 25 minutes 33 seconds.
In Open Unlimited, we start by welcoming Cmdr Moonlord to his second ever BRC race, inspired by seeing racers flying through one of his local starports. The Orca Journey Into Oblivion may not have been the ideal ship for this course, but we do try to be open for all, and Moonlord set a very respectable time of just over 26 minutes. A couple of places ahead of Moonlord, Cmdr Sulu posted an improved time in The Crimson Haybaler to only just over 24 minutes, though that wasn't quite enough to change his position on the leaderboard.
One commander who has changed his board position, by switching from his favoured Asp Explorer to the boringly popular (and boringly successful) Diamondback Explorer, is Cmdr Raiko. Switching to the Darkside enabled Raiko to improve his time by a minute and a quarter, jumping two places up the board in the process.
Just under a minute further up the track is Cmdr Darplata94. Despite multiple attempts in Rolled Gold, Darplata94 couldn't quite get past furrycat (though he did squeeze in another trip to Sagittarius A* to blow off steam in between!), in the end finishing just four seconds behind. That puts Darplata94 in fourth place overall, as there were two pilots who did succeed in getting past furrycat...
First of those is Cmdr Bruski in his Diamondback Explorer RazorBear. Reporting a very good approach to Big Pappa's Base, though a little scrappy elsewhere, with a bit of practice Bruski concluded a very good run with a final time of 21 minutes and 19 seconds. Bruski might have felt safely ahead of furrycat, but Cmdr Aken B. had other ideas about the top spot. Stripping his DBX Bucket of Bolts down even further, including the removal of shields which led to some loud and dent-making landings, Aken B. shot round the course at impressive speed, to take the lead as the only commander under 21 minutes, with a final time of 20 minutes and 52 seconds.
Well done to all, and thanks for taking part. Congratulations to Cmdrs furrycat and Aken B. (for whom I hope the victory in Open Unlimited will ease the frustration of that one second margin in Scout class!).
Spacebear Race Recap
Loadouts:
Scout Class
I think the max a DBS can go is about 30.40 ly https://s.orbis.zone/-vKhoqXW which does the race in 13 jumps. However, the breakpoint to 14 jumps is way below this, at 25.31 Ly (jump from Andhrimi to Mamaragan on the way to Iota Hydri).
That leaves us a bunch of room to play with, so I loaded mine up with a 2A PP, 4A Thrusters, 3A Distro, and a full size fuel tank, in addition to a 3A shield gen and 3A scoop, which all feel like huge luxuries in a range driven race. But it still gets 26.41 ly laden, and I can’t see what else I would even want to put on it.
https://s.orbis.zone/vVzb8TUN
DBX is going to be king for unlimited this race, given the amount of landings and departures (ruling out a conda) and breakpoint between 6 and 7 jumps at 61.72 Ly from Iben Hub to Big Pappa’s Base.
While staying with enough range from that breakpoint, I managed to put on
2A PP, Low Emissions 1 Stripped Down
4A Thrusters, Dirty Drag Drives 5
3A Power Distro, Eng Focus with Super Conduits
Full size fuel tank
4A Fuel scoop
3D Shield generator Enh Low Power 5, Stripped down.
This left me very close at 62.04, in fact, when I went around the ourse the first time with a disco scanner still on I had to downsize my fuel capacity to 14 tons just me make sure I was underneath it.
https://s.orbis.zone/34p7vddf
Plotting:
I used EDTS https://bitbucket.org/Esvandiary/edts to plot everything, this race was super straightforward, so I’m not even sure it was strictly necessary, but it did work nicely for finding out those breakpoints.
Also I used a different route from the given one, Kuchner - Big Pappa’s - Iben - Robert Aitken - Valigursky - Kuchner (or the reverse). With the Razorbear that meant 6 jumps, with the RazorCub, 13. The default course shows the RazorCub with 14 jumps, I tried leaving white dwarf boosting on as I ran the course each way with the RazorCub, but while it did find one to boost off of, it didn’t reduce that legs jumps from 3 to 2, so it wasn’t worth doing (that I could find).
Planning:
I input all the waypoints as bookmarks (Sadly deleting those from a previous race, can we please have more bookmark storage Frontier! I want to see my bubble populated with all the waypoints of Buckyballs past.)
I created a new race in Livesplit, and input waypoint names. I currently split my times every time I drop in from supercruise, as I leave the dock, and when I complete charging the first jump out from a waypoint (In, Dock, and Out respectively). Perhaps I should make a guide to setting up Livesplit, because on a race like this I found it incredibly valuable to easily compare my times to previous runs, and see whether I was ahead or behind schedule, which also gave my instantaneous feedback on the approaches I was trying.
I consumed caffeine.
I put on an odd selection of playlists, since I couldn’t find anything great for matching the race theme.
Normal Space:
Start on a good pad
Boost off the pad, and often until you exit mass lock
Exit perpendicular to the largest masslock, either straight out of the station, or perpendicular to the asteroid rings.
Select good pads when possible.
Deploy landing gear early. Way early. Oh my gosh who designed the landing gear for the DBS, do they have to ship it from Wolf 359 every time it deploys?!
Run the entire race without station refueling, and select “launch” as soon as you touch down to reduce turnaround time to the shortest possible.
Ignore all speed limits, and bump all Belugas (they’re worth bonus points ).
Hyperjumps
Do them fast.
Scoop when possible to avoid needing station fuel, but make sure it’s hotscooping (while FSD is charging) to avoid any time loss.
Supercruise:
Oh man, I don’t even know.
I remember when I as first starting Buckyball racing, and I asked the old hands like Cookiehole and Furrycat when numbers they used for supercruise approaches, and was frustrated when it turned out it was more of an art than an exact science. And for this race? It’s all about “feel”. Which is wishy washy as hell, but it’s true. And it feels so good when you get it right. And so terrible when you don’t. (let me just go slingshotting past Valigursky agaaaaaaaaain bye!)
So here’s my videos and notes.
2127: More entertaining to watch, better approaches on everything except Big Pappa
<span style="font-family: Arial">[video=youtube;xtsNwFaHDhQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtsNwFaHDhQ[/video]
2119 Actual best, best Big Pappa Approach, and Kuchner smooth as silk.
<span style="font-family: Arial">[video=youtube;tEgUOX6oKyk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEgUOX6oKyk[/video]
Notes on approaches:
Valigursky:
Impossible to brake enough. I ended up skirting past the red giant (this ended my last Scout attempt when I nicked it’s corona the tiniest bit and WHAM, no racing for you silly spacebear.)
2119: 3:10-4:20 Tried not using the red giant for braking, didn’t work too well, also was too aggressive on final approach and ended up half looping.
2127: 3:20 Perfect braking on the red giant, but still going too fast, ended up doing a helix in past the planet at 0:03, probably a bit too much braking at the very end, but ended up with a decent slot path.
Robert Aitken:
Straight towards it until 0:30, then a spiral in, trying to keep Time To Arrival at 0:03, barreling in a more direct line as necessary, and trying to jank sideways at the last bit to possibly get a wee bit closer to the slot.
2119: 10:10-10:58 Not so hot, perpendicular to the slot, bit slower than necessary.
2127: 10:00 - 10:40 Most of this approach seemed to be at 0:04, which oddly allowed me to take a more direct path into the gravity well, and also by the end I kinda scooping under the orbit of the station for a nice slot path.
Iben:
Dodge the rings, come in close to the planet for some serious braking.
2119: 14:00-14:50 Bit of a slow approach at 0:04, ended up bleeding off a bit too much by the planet, but not bad.
2127: 13:40 - 14:30 Avoided the ring, came in nice and close to the planet at 0:02, almost straight on to the slot, felt good.
Big Pappa’s:
Come in way faster than feels safe, the gas giant will slow you down a lot. Also make sure to end up on the correct side of the rings for slot approach, going around the rings or the asteroid takes way too much time.
2119: 17:42 - 1825 Passed the planet at 0:03-4, probably braked a bit too much, but that allowed me to full throttle straight into the ring,, and made up a TON of time compared to my previous run.
2127: 17:10-18:10 Passed the planet at 0:04-5, too slow, and had to curl around the rings for approach, not very good.
Kuchner To be added later, I'm tired and need to go to bed.
Loadouts:
Scout Class
I think the max a DBS can go is about 30.40 ly https://s.orbis.zone/-vKhoqXW which does the race in 13 jumps. However, the breakpoint to 14 jumps is way below this, at 25.31 Ly (jump from Andhrimi to Mamaragan on the way to Iota Hydri).
That leaves us a bunch of room to play with, so I loaded mine up with a 2A PP, 4A Thrusters, 3A Distro, and a full size fuel tank, in addition to a 3A shield gen and 3A scoop, which all feel like huge luxuries in a range driven race.
But it still gets 26.41 ly laden, and I can’t see what else I would even want to put on it.https://s.orbis.zone/vVzb8TUN
DBX is going to be king for unlimited this race, given the amount of landings and departures (ruling out a conda) and breakpoint between 6 and 7 jumps at 61.72 Ly from Iben Hub to Big Pappa’s Base.
While staying with enough range from that breakpoint, I managed to put on
2A PP, Low Emissions 1 Stripped Down
4A Thrusters, Dirty Drag Drives 5
3A Power Distro, Eng Focus with Super Conduits
Full size fuel tank
4A Fuel scoop
3D Shield generator Enh Low Power 5, Stripped down.
This left me very close at 62.04, in fact, when I went around the ourse the first time with a disco scanner still on I had to downsize my fuel capacity to 14 tons just me make sure I was underneath it.
https://s.orbis.zone/34p7vddf
Plotting:
I used EDTS https://bitbucket.org/Esvandiary/edts to plot everything, this race was super straightforward, so I’m not even sure it was strictly necessary, but it did work nicely for finding out those breakpoints.
Also I used a different route from the given one, Kuchner - Big Pappa’s - Iben - Robert Aitken - Valigursky - Kuchner (or the reverse). With the Razorbear that meant 6 jumps, with the RazorCub, 13. The default course shows the RazorCub with 14 jumps, I tried leaving white dwarf boosting on as I ran the course each way with the RazorCub, but while it did find one to boost off of, it didn’t reduce that legs jumps from 3 to 2, so it wasn’t worth doing (that I could find).
Planning:
I input all the waypoints as bookmarks (Sadly deleting those from a previous race, can we please have more bookmark storage Frontier! I want to see my bubble populated with all the waypoints of Buckyballs past.
)I created a new race in Livesplit, and input waypoint names. I currently split my times every time I drop in from supercruise, as I leave the dock, and when I complete charging the first jump out from a waypoint (In, Dock, and Out respectively). Perhaps I should make a guide to setting up Livesplit, because on a race like this I found it incredibly valuable to easily compare my times to previous runs, and see whether I was ahead or behind schedule, which also gave my instantaneous feedback on the approaches I was trying.
I consumed caffeine.
I put on an odd selection of playlists, since I couldn’t find anything great for matching the race theme.
Normal Space:
Start on a good pad
Boost off the pad, and often until you exit mass lock
Exit perpendicular to the largest masslock, either straight out of the station, or perpendicular to the asteroid rings.
Select good pads when possible.
Deploy landing gear early. Way early. Oh my gosh who designed the landing gear for the DBS, do they have to ship it from Wolf 359 every time it deploys?!
Run the entire race without station refueling, and select “launch” as soon as you touch down to reduce turnaround time to the shortest possible.
Ignore all speed limits, and bump all Belugas (they’re worth bonus points
).Hyperjumps
Do them fast.
Scoop when possible to avoid needing station fuel, but make sure it’s hotscooping (while FSD is charging) to avoid any time loss.
Supercruise:
Oh man, I don’t even know.
I remember when I as first starting Buckyball racing, and I asked the old hands like Cookiehole and Furrycat when numbers they used for supercruise approaches, and was frustrated when it turned out it was more of an art than an exact science. And for this race? It’s all about “feel”. Which is wishy washy as hell, but it’s true. And it feels so good when you get it right. And so terrible when you don’t. (let me just go slingshotting past Valigursky agaaaaaaaaain bye!)
So here’s my videos and notes.
2127: More entertaining to watch, better approaches on everything except Big Pappa
<span style="font-family: Arial">[video=youtube;xtsNwFaHDhQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtsNwFaHDhQ[/video]
2119 Actual best, best Big Pappa Approach, and Kuchner smooth as silk.
<span style="font-family: Arial">[video=youtube;tEgUOX6oKyk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEgUOX6oKyk[/video]
Notes on approaches:
Valigursky:
Impossible to brake enough. I ended up skirting past the red giant (this ended my last Scout attempt when I nicked it’s corona the tiniest bit and WHAM, no racing for you silly spacebear.)
2119: 3:10-4:20 Tried not using the red giant for braking, didn’t work too well, also was too aggressive on final approach and ended up half looping.
2127: 3:20 Perfect braking on the red giant, but still going too fast, ended up doing a helix in past the planet at 0:03, probably a bit too much braking at the very end, but ended up with a decent slot path.
Robert Aitken:
Straight towards it until 0:30, then a spiral in, trying to keep Time To Arrival at 0:03, barreling in a more direct line as necessary, and trying to jank sideways at the last bit to possibly get a wee bit closer to the slot.
2119: 10:10-10:58 Not so hot, perpendicular to the slot, bit slower than necessary.
2127: 10:00 - 10:40 Most of this approach seemed to be at 0:04, which oddly allowed me to take a more direct path into the gravity well, and also by the end I kinda scooping under the orbit of the station for a nice slot path.
Iben:
Dodge the rings, come in close to the planet for some serious braking.
2119: 14:00-14:50 Bit of a slow approach at 0:04, ended up bleeding off a bit too much by the planet, but not bad.
2127: 13:40 - 14:30 Avoided the ring, came in nice and close to the planet at 0:02, almost straight on to the slot, felt good.
Big Pappa’s:
Come in way faster than feels safe, the gas giant will slow you down a lot. Also make sure to end up on the correct side of the rings for slot approach, going around the rings or the asteroid takes way too much time.
2119: 17:42 - 1825 Passed the planet at 0:03-4, probably braked a bit too much, but that allowed me to full throttle straight into the ring,, and made up a TON of time compared to my previous run.
2127: 17:10-18:10 Passed the planet at 0:04-5, too slow, and had to curl around the rings for approach, not very good.
Kuchner To be added later, I'm tired and need to go to bed.
That's been fantastic. So fun!!
My first attemp was like 36 minutes... But over the weekend I really improved. :O
I am patting myself in the back "Well done, clumsy little pilot".
Lucky for me I still have a long way to go. Yaaaaaaaay, that's not over.
I will keep flying in the limited class... There are two games here: how well you fly, and how well you engineer your ship. I want to focus in improving my skills now (and not get confused by different configurations of ships). In the future, when I am happy with my piloting, I will focus in the ships.
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it a lot, I will be there for the next one. And meanwhile... I will be doing the previous ones by myself.
Fly fast
o7
My first attemp was like 36 minutes... But over the weekend I really improved. :O
I am patting myself in the back "Well done, clumsy little pilot".
Lucky for me I still have a long way to go. Yaaaaaaaay, that's not over.
I will keep flying in the limited class... There are two games here: how well you fly, and how well you engineer your ship. I want to focus in improving my skills now (and not get confused by different configurations of ships). In the future, when I am happy with my piloting, I will focus in the ships.
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it a lot, I will be there for the next one. And meanwhile... I will be doing the previous ones by myself.
Fly fast
o7
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Please do!
I've been meaning to ask for a while what you were using as a timer, although I'd always assumed that it was something that you'd created for yourself.
I'll be installing livesplit tonight and having a play with it, but I'd definitely appreciate a guide.
Thanks to drakhyr for running a very challenging race with some interesting supercruise approaches (and scenery, although I didn't stop to admire it... except during the odd accident). o7. It was also very frustrating with repeatedly obscured jumps that required running the race at just the right time to avoid, which was not possible for me in Scout class (and I tried both directions!). It's a race that I put a lot into and got a lot out of, so it was certainly worth it!
.
I chose the Adder simply because I had been enjoying flying it during the Small Worlds Expedition 3 but it is a good choice for the course. I know the top four are DBXs but it was a bigger surprise to me that no one ran a Hauler on this course. At any moment I was expecting the words 'Explodes on Contact' to feature on the leaderboard in a sub-21 minute time... . I thought the Hauler might have the range to undercut my Adder by one jump and, with Enhanced Performance Thrusters, make up for the possibility of someone running a 62LY Asp or DBX. It is the Enhanced Performance Thrusters on my Adder that enabled me to get under 23 minutes, certainly.
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For this race I did record my times for each leg, by hand after a session from examining my screenshots (might have to look at the software Bruski mentioned in future!). I recorded the times I set down on each pad, as I would have submitted them. At first, I also recorded time from aborted attempts but after Wednesday I was pushing too hard and started flying like a total muppet, so I stopped. My best time was actually my 13th complete run but after that I only managed to complete the course six times in my Adder (and I only got the DBS round once!). Also, after Thursday, I had serious problems due to an AV update that stopped me from having any hope of producing competitive times on my laptop (a 50 second wait to load the station instance is game-breaking, for racing, and I wouldn't want to play normally like that either). I used the family desktop for my DBS run (a similar CPU speed, slightly more memory, but slower graphics, so it has 5-10 fps less than my laptop, about 15-20fps which is about the minimum for a race like this).
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My best individual times for each leg were (in brackets is the time from the run that is on the leaderboard and the number of jumps for that leg):
Kuchner Vision --> Robert Aitken Orbital: 6:22 (6:24, 2 jumps)
Robert Aitken Orbital --> Iben Hub: 3:28 (3:32, 1 jump)
Iben Hub --> Big Pappa's Base: 4:15 (4:18, 2 jumps)
Big Pappa's Base --> Valigursky Orbital: 5:44 (5:44, 2 jumps)
Valigursky Orbital --> Kuchner Vision: 2:27 (2:36, 1 jump)
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Taking off from Kuchner Vision I eventually decided that pad 13 was optimal. I was checking the time until the countdown started and at best managed this exactly 30 seconds after taking off. Pads 12 and 43 were also very good, being only one second behind but pad 36 had an obscuring building in front that needed to be cleared before boosting, which meant my times were, at best, 2 seconds slower than from pad 13.
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My approaches to Robert Aitken Orbital (RAO) were improved thanks to the experience of the Chicken Run race: I treated it like approaching a high-g surface base. For each approach I spiral in with the timer on 0:03 to 0:04 as this helps me to locate and line up with the docking slot but this is very tricky to do at RAO and I considered it OK to arrive perpendicular. I found that I did better trying for an angle of 50 degrees with respect to the horizon and to just aim straight at the station with the timer on 0:04 with 50% throttle. At first you accelerate and the engine strains (the timer can even drop to 0:02) and you think you'll collide with the planet (which you do, if you are slightly off on your approach angle to the station so that it drifts out of your field of view) but then the gravity slows you down just enough that you can meet the safe drop criteria. It's tough to get this approach just right and often when I did the exit jump was obscured, which was very frustrating.
.
Iben Hub was an easier approach and I produced more consistent times here. My best runs were where I grazed the edge of the planet's drop zone after coming in hot with the timer on 0:02 to 0:03. The spiral approach is a big help here and I was usually able to arrive facing the docking slot. This actually makes the landing itself harder (in a fast ship with 600+ m/s on boost) and I had to change my approach to landings and hope for a favourable pad allocation.
.
Big Pappa's Base was deceptively tough to approach in supercruise and I only managed it well a couple of times. It was crucial to arrive on the correct side of the base here because it would take a long time to fly around dropping out to the rear of the station. The best approach was to angle close to the gas giant and maintain the timer on 0:03 and let the gravity slow you to 0:05 but there was only a small margin of error to get this right and I messed up many times, often settling for a wider, safer approach that would lose 10+ seconds compared to the optimal. A fast ship really helps at this base to clear mass lock, so this was a good stop for my Adder, if I managed it right.
.
Valigursky Orbital was the only station where I was worried at any time I might smash into the parent star, rather than the planet. I managed my approaches really well at the start of the week here but then started fluffing it badly. It is important to be a bit relaxed sometimes and pushing it too hard here just results in either a crash or an overshoot. A spiral run in maintaining 0:03 to 0:04 was straightforward early in the week and there's only a limited amount of help you can get from the planet by gravity breaking here, so the main thing is to make sure you are aligned with the docking bay.
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Kuchner Vision was another supercruise approach that, like Iben Hub, is mainly a problem if you are pushing too hard. I usually managed this well, spiralling in at 0:03 to 0:04 and skimming the edge of the orbital cruise zone to arrive face-on, if done right. If I was crashing into the planet here, it would be a sign to take a break and get some coffee... .
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My Adder was engineered heavily for the Small Worlds Expedition, so I was able to get around the course in 8 jumps. She is also rigged for cool running. Her key fittings were:
3A FSD: grade 5 long range, mass manager
3A Enhanced performance thrusters: grade 5 clean drives, stripped down
1D Power Distributor: grade 5 engine focused, cluster capacitors
2A Power Plant: grade 1 low emissions, thermal spread
2D shields: grade 5 enhanced, low power, lo-draw
Other fittings were lightweight (and due to lack of storage space I had chaff and heatsink launchers but at G5 lightweight this didn't make any difference)
Her boost speed is 655 m/s, according to the outfitting screen but in practice she needs a double-boost to exceed 640 m/s. The distributor can just about manage a triple-boost but it's only really needed leaving Big Pappa's Base. The Adder slows down quickly after boosting, which makes landing easier and I could double-boost upon dropping into the station instance. Her jump range on a full tank is just over 43 LY. With a 3A scoop I did not need to refuel at a station and only needed a very small amount during the course, so I had no worries about losing time refuelling.
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Congratulations to furrycat and Aken B. for outstanding performances to gain victory and well done to everyone who took part! Fly fast! o7
.
I chose the Adder simply because I had been enjoying flying it during the Small Worlds Expedition 3 but it is a good choice for the course. I know the top four are DBXs but it was a bigger surprise to me that no one ran a Hauler on this course. At any moment I was expecting the words 'Explodes on Contact' to feature on the leaderboard in a sub-21 minute time... . I thought the Hauler might have the range to undercut my Adder by one jump and, with Enhanced Performance Thrusters, make up for the possibility of someone running a 62LY Asp or DBX. It is the Enhanced Performance Thrusters on my Adder that enabled me to get under 23 minutes, certainly.
.
For this race I did record my times for each leg, by hand after a session from examining my screenshots (might have to look at the software Bruski mentioned in future!). I recorded the times I set down on each pad, as I would have submitted them. At first, I also recorded time from aborted attempts but after Wednesday I was pushing too hard and started flying like a total muppet, so I stopped. My best time was actually my 13th complete run but after that I only managed to complete the course six times in my Adder (and I only got the DBS round once!). Also, after Thursday, I had serious problems due to an AV update that stopped me from having any hope of producing competitive times on my laptop (a 50 second wait to load the station instance is game-breaking, for racing, and I wouldn't want to play normally like that either). I used the family desktop for my DBS run (a similar CPU speed, slightly more memory, but slower graphics, so it has 5-10 fps less than my laptop, about 15-20fps which is about the minimum for a race like this).
.
My best individual times for each leg were (in brackets is the time from the run that is on the leaderboard and the number of jumps for that leg):
Kuchner Vision --> Robert Aitken Orbital: 6:22 (6:24, 2 jumps)
Robert Aitken Orbital --> Iben Hub: 3:28 (3:32, 1 jump)
Iben Hub --> Big Pappa's Base: 4:15 (4:18, 2 jumps)
Big Pappa's Base --> Valigursky Orbital: 5:44 (5:44, 2 jumps)
Valigursky Orbital --> Kuchner Vision: 2:27 (2:36, 1 jump)
.
Taking off from Kuchner Vision I eventually decided that pad 13 was optimal. I was checking the time until the countdown started and at best managed this exactly 30 seconds after taking off. Pads 12 and 43 were also very good, being only one second behind but pad 36 had an obscuring building in front that needed to be cleared before boosting, which meant my times were, at best, 2 seconds slower than from pad 13.
.
My approaches to Robert Aitken Orbital (RAO) were improved thanks to the experience of the Chicken Run race: I treated it like approaching a high-g surface base. For each approach I spiral in with the timer on 0:03 to 0:04 as this helps me to locate and line up with the docking slot but this is very tricky to do at RAO and I considered it OK to arrive perpendicular. I found that I did better trying for an angle of 50 degrees with respect to the horizon and to just aim straight at the station with the timer on 0:04 with 50% throttle. At first you accelerate and the engine strains (the timer can even drop to 0:02) and you think you'll collide with the planet (which you do, if you are slightly off on your approach angle to the station so that it drifts out of your field of view) but then the gravity slows you down just enough that you can meet the safe drop criteria. It's tough to get this approach just right and often when I did the exit jump was obscured, which was very frustrating.
.
Iben Hub was an easier approach and I produced more consistent times here. My best runs were where I grazed the edge of the planet's drop zone after coming in hot with the timer on 0:02 to 0:03. The spiral approach is a big help here and I was usually able to arrive facing the docking slot. This actually makes the landing itself harder (in a fast ship with 600+ m/s on boost) and I had to change my approach to landings and hope for a favourable pad allocation.
.
Big Pappa's Base was deceptively tough to approach in supercruise and I only managed it well a couple of times. It was crucial to arrive on the correct side of the base here because it would take a long time to fly around dropping out to the rear of the station. The best approach was to angle close to the gas giant and maintain the timer on 0:03 and let the gravity slow you to 0:05 but there was only a small margin of error to get this right and I messed up many times, often settling for a wider, safer approach that would lose 10+ seconds compared to the optimal. A fast ship really helps at this base to clear mass lock, so this was a good stop for my Adder, if I managed it right.
.
Valigursky Orbital was the only station where I was worried at any time I might smash into the parent star, rather than the planet. I managed my approaches really well at the start of the week here but then started fluffing it badly. It is important to be a bit relaxed sometimes and pushing it too hard here just results in either a crash or an overshoot. A spiral run in maintaining 0:03 to 0:04 was straightforward early in the week and there's only a limited amount of help you can get from the planet by gravity breaking here, so the main thing is to make sure you are aligned with the docking bay.
.
Kuchner Vision was another supercruise approach that, like Iben Hub, is mainly a problem if you are pushing too hard. I usually managed this well, spiralling in at 0:03 to 0:04 and skimming the edge of the orbital cruise zone to arrive face-on, if done right. If I was crashing into the planet here, it would be a sign to take a break and get some coffee... .
.
My Adder was engineered heavily for the Small Worlds Expedition, so I was able to get around the course in 8 jumps. She is also rigged for cool running. Her key fittings were:
3A FSD: grade 5 long range, mass manager
3A Enhanced performance thrusters: grade 5 clean drives, stripped down
1D Power Distributor: grade 5 engine focused, cluster capacitors
2A Power Plant: grade 1 low emissions, thermal spread
2D shields: grade 5 enhanced, low power, lo-draw
Other fittings were lightweight (and due to lack of storage space I had chaff and heatsink launchers but at G5 lightweight this didn't make any difference)
Her boost speed is 655 m/s, according to the outfitting screen but in practice she needs a double-boost to exceed 640 m/s. The distributor can just about manage a triple-boost but it's only really needed leaving Big Pappa's Base. The Adder slows down quickly after boosting, which makes landing easier and I could double-boost upon dropping into the station instance. Her jump range on a full tank is just over 43 LY. With a 3A scoop I did not need to refuel at a station and only needed a very small amount during the course, so I had no worries about losing time refuelling.
.
Congratulations to furrycat and Aken B. for outstanding performances to gain victory and well done to everyone who took part! Fly fast! o7
Ozric
Volunteer Moderator
Thank you very much Drakhyr for finding, organising and running this race. I once again find myself astonished by how close some of the times have been, especially in the Scout class! While there was a bit of a gap between second and third, the fact that first and second and third and fourth were separated by just 1 second each is remarkable! And on a side note, I'm gutted I was pipped to third place by just one second. A huge congratulations to turkwinif for grabbing the final podium spot from me.
Once again, it's been great to see so many new faces and ones who have only done a race or two before and hopefully we will see you at many future races too!
That's great news! Knocking off over 6 minutes in your first race is a very good improvement. On the point of two games, that is the reason I always fly in the stock classes. I only have one ship that I've really engineered and that's my exploration Asp, I don't really have the desire to engineer all my other ships (other than FSDs and Power Distributors). I actually find a few of the ships no longer are fun to fly when they're heavily engineered, they seem to lose something of their soul in the process.
But by having a go at the races again, watching the gravity braking videos on the website and learning from the various tips and tricks people share in the race threads, you will find that you'll improve all aspects of your flying abilities not just in the races themselves.
Once again, it's been great to see so many new faces and ones who have only done a race or two before and hopefully we will see you at many future races too!
That's great news! Knocking off over 6 minutes in your first race is a very good improvement. On the point of two games, that is the reason I always fly in the stock classes. I only have one ship that I've really engineered and that's my exploration Asp, I don't really have the desire to engineer all my other ships (other than FSDs and Power Distributors). I actually find a few of the ships no longer are fun to fly when they're heavily engineered, they seem to lose something of their soul in the process.
But by having a go at the races again, watching the gravity braking videos on the website and learning from the various tips and tricks people share in the race threads, you will find that you'll improve all aspects of your flying abilities not just in the races themselves.
There has been a late submission in the Scout class (run completed just after 5pm yesterday, submitted just after 9:30 this morning...), which shakes the leaderboard up a bit.
It turns out that Cmdr Bruski did take a break from his speedy runs in his DBX to have a go in the Scout as well. Continuing with his slightly unconventional route (Bruski was the only pilot to consistently visit Votatini between Kured and Firdaus, rather than between Andhrimi and Kured), Bruski managed to shave two minutes off his previous scout time in RazorCub. This takes Bruski into third place with a time of 26 minutes and 44 seconds, and I would suggest into owing a beer or two to Cmdr turkwinif who is knocked off the podium as a result.
It turns out that Cmdr Bruski did take a break from his speedy runs in his DBX to have a go in the Scout as well. Continuing with his slightly unconventional route (Bruski was the only pilot to consistently visit Votatini between Kured and Firdaus, rather than between Andhrimi and Kured), Bruski managed to shave two minutes off his previous scout time in RazorCub. This takes Bruski into third place with a time of 26 minutes and 44 seconds, and I would suggest into owing a beer or two to Cmdr turkwinif who is knocked off the podium as a result
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Cold!
Welcome (back) to Buckyball Turkwinif!
Welcome (back) to Buckyball Turkwinif!