Community Event / Creation Buckyball Racing Club presents: The Black Riband Rebooted

Chalk one up for the "Grey Comets" who came to relieve me "of the burden of life for her glory."

https://imgur.com/a/vGkAQSs

This is a very different race from the Black Riband 1.0.

Sadly, it's proving hard to run, as I'm estimating a 3 hour runtime, and have been sick and travelling this week, but hopefully there will be another attempt soon!

Ouch! I misread your post and thought you said chalk up one Grey Comet - in my defence I'd just got up at 5:30am, so my eyes were a bit blurry!

How quickly did Nuk's Grey Comet psycho buddies spawn? When I made a test run through Halley Terminal, I was inside the tunnels before anyone spawned, but that was in an engineered DBX (I'm starting to like flying The Darkside).

Anyway since your run has been ended at Halley Terminal, and just so that your 3 hour estimate doesn't scare off everyone else, to the best of my knowledge CMDR Bruski was making an awesome and audacious attempt to take the Black Riband, Classic, Cobra Classic, Cobra Challenge and the Zammo Memorial with his first run.

So I'm still sticking with estimate of one hour for an optimal run. I think that the optimal ship is probably a Krait Mk2 with a class-5 FSD booster (closely followed by a similar Python), but it could easily turn out to be a DBX or Asp-X.
 
Late response here, more to follow later, but they spawned as soon as I hit the instance, and I was down to half health before I was even near a tunnel. :D

Will upload the recording later, after I figure out how to trim it.

And yes, the three hour estimate is only for the terminally insane.
 
I've finally managed to add the "Ask Tony" section.

I've got a few tables done, including Raikograms, but I can't post those until I get home.
 
CURRENT STANDINGS - 00:00 UTC 10-JUL-3304

0bKdze7.png

Only a single entry to the Black Riband Rebooted so far, as reigning Black Riband holder Cmdr Bruski made an early attempt to snatch every full-route award except for the Lucky Lakon trophy by making an audacious and narcotics-free run in his non-engineered Cobra MkIII Flaming Onionhead Express.

Sadly the attempt was ended early by Nuk's psycho buddies The Grey Comets while attempting a dead-drop at the otherwise deserted installation Halley Terminal in the Ross 690 system. Beware smugglers, this place can be dangerous; the Grey Comets are even crazier than the Rahu-One BRC Fan Club.




As well as adding Bruski's incomplete run to the OP, I've also now added some "Raikogram" travel distance tables. One contains just the target systems, one just the source systems and a third huge table inside spoilers combines the two.
 
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Intent to race
Bootlegger Express
CMDR Edelgard von Rhein
black market station: Hart Station, Bast
start time: 12:00 GMT (in-game time) 13/07/3304

Good luck Edelgard!
Take care in whichever installation you choose.

I'm glad the Bootlegger Express addition works for you.

Now I've just got to decide exactly how to do the Bootlegger Express Leaderboard before you run. :)
 
Cool. I think the Mk IV is a good one for this. :D

Is that the ship you used for the first run?
I looked at your screenshots above on my phone and didn't see the name clearly, but assumed it was your Mk III.

Edit: just checked and it was the MkIII
 
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I think there may have been a small change in Alacarakmo with 3.1.2 (I didn't notice it earlier in the week): the addition of a Listening Post called 'Distress Signal: Diamond Bear', around Alacarakmo 7a. There is a log that mentions the Black Riband, so I would suggest that anyone stopping by or making a run might be interested in visiting.
 
Grey Comets: 2
Bruski: 0

Getting this done unmodded might be tricksy.

It might also be spawn RNG dependent, during my testing I dropped 3 sets of 4 tons off with no issues, this time I died on the 3rd ton. :(
 
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I think there may have been a small change in Alacarakmo with 3.1.2 (I didn't notice it earlier in the week): the addition of a Listening Post called 'Distress Signal: Diamond Bear', around Alacarakmo 7a. There is a log that mentions the Black Riband, so I would suggest that anyone stopping by or making a run might be interested in visiting.
I hadn't seen that myself, wow. :)

Thanks for mentioning it, and a big thanks to whoever arranged for the signal to be added! (Bruski? furrycat? Brett?)

watch this space!

mid table submission pending :eek:

soon TM

WOW how old is that sig???? don answer that it's dated :D
Welcome back cmdr <--lightspeed-->! :)
As I've mentioned before, your Hip Hopper thread inspired the booze-cruise (I'd been planning it before FD actually added the passenger missions). Those Grey Knight mates of Nuk's are going to make it tricky keeping the guests happy though; more drinks maybe?! :)

At the moment, if you survive a run, you're top of the board! Although I suspect everyone's favourite Space Bear is going to switch to a modded ship soon.

Grey Comets: 2
Bruski: 0

Getting this done unmodded might be tricksy.

It might also be spawn RNG dependent, during my testing I dropped 3 sets of 4 tons off with no issues, this time I died on the 3rd ton. :(

Ouch, again! :( Git gud? ;)

Getting this done unmodded (and in a Cobra!) is optional, and the race is supposed to be a little bit more challenging than last time, but I really hoped you'd make it this time. :(

Regarding the encounter RNG. When I tested the course, the Grey Comets turned up in two Cobra MkIIIs (I was running once they started firing, so there may have been more and they might not all have been Cobras), they took out the shields on my DBX and about 50% of my hull, but I got away and I hadn't expected the attack, so I figured all was good.

My shields were the 3D G5 low-power-efficient / stripped down shields that I normally mount on The Nomad for races, just to help with landings. So in combat I never expect them to withstand more than a shot or two. My DBX hull is unmodded at the moment, thrusters were 4A with G3 Dirty/Drag drives (I'd only had time to visit Felicity during Close Encounters). As I was still in a racing config as normal, I didn't have any weapons, chaff or heatsinks and I didn't try silent running.

I tested out a few other installations before choosing this one (in the same ship):
  • A military installation (one of the few that hadn't been removed due to the crash-bug), where I got destroyed when the trespass fine switched to a bounty - this happened quickly enough that I wasn't sure anyone would be able to keep flying in and out of the trespass zone to complete the tunnel drops, and there were guns in the tunnels!
  • A special installation later in the Grey Comet story, where I was quickly destroyed by another special NPC.
  • The really nice space-bar installation in the Pleiades, where none of the npcs bothered me at all, despite me carrying lots of illicit cargo.
I didn't want to use two unauthorised installations, and did want to include the Rahu one, so I went with the installation that was dangerous, but I'd managed to survive myself. Originally I'd wanted to use one of the bugged military installations.

I guess that if modded ships can manage the Grey Comets encounter without too much difficulty, I'm still happy with it, but I've got to admit that I hadn't considered how challenging the two installations would be for classic / cobra-classic runs (as the Rahu 1 installation is equivalent to a Haz-RES I guess that'll be tough as well).

Little Nuk is lovin' it though- honestly the pilots bar at Weyl Gateway has Nuk 2 - SpaceBears 0 in MASSIVE neon lights and there's free Leestian Evil Juice for all customers, so you've got to do something about this quick before things get out of hand. :D

Or maybe not, I like Leestian Evil Juice, and it's hard to get hold of at Weyl Gateway.
 
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One thing that I should mention: When I original started planning the Bootlegger Challenge and the Black Riband (I discussed it with ElecticZ and on Reddit before we'd even considered the BRC) my inspiration was the Smokey and the Bandit movie - and so I hoped to have a challenging race that not everyone would survive. Fat Tony and Little Nuk came later, I was originally going for NPCs based on the Enos brothers. In the movie, as you probably know, nobody has successfully made the run to fetch Coors back to Atlanta at the time the brothers challenge the Bandit - and the Brothers don't actually want anyone to make it.

So I wanted a challenging and dangerous event (Lave/Leesti were deadly places at the time, as rares running was very popular), with lots of smuggling involved (as well as Tarach Spice, Wuthielo Ku Froth was actually illegal nearly everywhere at the time). I wanted it to be challenging to optimise the route as well - and the post-race discussion in the original Bootlegger Challenge was all about Evandiary's python script, etc and how Alec was glad he'd done as well as he did using pencil, paper and eyeball to pick a route.

So when I planned the rebooted race, I wanted a bit more danger, with a few failed runs and I also wanted it to be a bit fiendish if you try and throw numbers into EDTS, but still okay to just wing it.

So as things stand I'm happy with things and Little Nuk is partying, but I realise that not everyone will share my ideas of what the challenge should be.
So for those who are running this , or planning to - have I got this about right?

I wanted a challenge and I don't mind if this isn't an event for everyone, but unlike the Enos brothers I do want some Cmdrs to make it to the end.

The Black Riband
The Classic
The Cobra Challenge Cup
The Cobra Classic Cup
The Zammo McGuire Memorial Shield
Bruski might be being a little ambitious before anyone's made a plain and simple Black Riband run though! :D
 
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Entry submitted for my Bootlegger Express run.
It was not a great time - I did a test run yesterday (albeit without delivering goods to a black market or taking screenshots but still jettisoning goods in the tunnels) that was more than five minutes faster. Taking screenshots explains some of the time difference, as there are so many and I lose 3-4 seconds each time, but there were also two interdiction attempts to evade and I didn't really manage the station approaches in supercruise as well today, along with some terrible touchdowns where I overshot badly. It's a fun course, I just find the administrative overload of so many screenshots a burden but anyone using video will not have this problem so I can recommend it - and the Dolphin. I think there were 27 jumps in total that my unengineered ship needed to complete the course I chose and considering that's carrying some cargo, I think that's pretty good. Good luck to anyone else out there o7
 
One thing that I should mention: When I original started planning the Bootlegger Challenge and the Black Riband (I discussed it with ElecticZ and on Reddit before we'd even considered the BRC) my inspiration was the Smokey and the Bandit movie - and so I hoped to have a challenging race that not everyone would survive. Fat Tony and Little Nuk came later, I was originally going for NPCs based on the Enos brothers. In the movie, as you probably know, nobody has successfully made the run to fetch Coors back to Atlanta at the time the brothers challenge the Bandit - and the Brothers don't actually want anyone to make it.

So I wanted a challenging and dangerous event (Lave/Leesti were deadly places at the time, as rares running was very popular), with lots of smuggling involved (as well as Tarach Spice, Wuthielo Ku Froth was actually illegal nearly everywhere at the time). I wanted it to be challenging to optimise the route as well - and the post-race discussion in the original Bootlegger Challenge was all about Evandiary's python script, etc and how Alec was glad he'd done as well as he did using pencil, paper and eyeball to pick a route.

So when I planned the rebooted race, I wanted a bit more danger, with a few failed runs and I also wanted it to be a bit fiendish if you try and throw numbers into EDTS, but still okay to just wing it.

So as things stand I'm happy with things and Little Nuk is partying, but I realise that not everyone will share my ideas of what the challenge should be.
So for those who are running this , or planning to - have I got this about right?

I wanted a challenge and I don't mind if this isn't an event for everyone, but unlike the Enos brothers I do want some Cmdrs to make it to the end.

I should clarify, I'm very happy about the increased danger, I fully agree with you when you said that the original Black Riband turned into a pure speed contest (which was also very fun). This is turning out to be much more about route finding (since the course changes day by day) and survival and lastly speed.

The limited attempts I've put in are due to the cool-down mechanics and limited time on my end (my last attempt barely made it into the window, since I had to get kids to sleep and then wrestle with OBS to get recording), and don't indicate any lack of interest. :D

TIL about Organophosphates! (One of the things I've been smuggling, now I know why it's illegal) https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/the-chemistry-behind-nerve-agents/

Apparently I've been smuggling nerve agents largely banned since the 21st century. Fun times! At least they're not narcotics though. ;)

The distress call is not just an easter egg.
I'm confused, what is it then? I visited it the other day, it was very cool to see!
 
Entry submitted for my Bootlegger Express run.
It was not a great time - I did a test run yesterday (albeit without delivering goods to a black market or taking screenshots but still jettisoning goods in the tunnels) that was more than five minutes faster. Taking screenshots explains some of the time difference, as there are so many and I lose 3-4 seconds each time, but there were also two interdiction attempts to evade and I didn't really manage the station approaches in supercruise as well today, along with some terrible touchdowns where I overshot badly. It's a fun course, I just find the administrative overload of so many screenshots a burden but anyone using video will not have this problem so I can recommend it - and the Dolphin. I think there were 27 jumps in total that my unengineered ship needed to complete the course I chose and considering that's carrying some cargo, I think that's pretty good. Good luck to anyone else out there o7
Nice run Edelgard! o7
You are the first to make it back to Weyl Gateway, so Nuk's a little annoyed , but everyone else cheered you home. \o/

I'll do a leaderboard "update" later today - was too busy this weekend for any Elite activity unfortunately.

If you ever manage to have a go at the new Black Riband itself, I'm expecting the Dolphin to be a fairly good choice. It's lower FSD class should reduce the penalty of the little class 4 scoop compared to the DBX, and with a class 6 cargo rack, it should have a lot of flexibility selecting a route. I've never actually flown one though, and I know they have issues with heat, which is bad news in a cargo hauling race - so I could be totally wrong. :)

I apologise for the screenshot requirements. I guess that I could just use the five sales market screens, rather than needing the purchase ones as well. What do you think?

Screenshots do seem to be an issue with my races - as they're generally quite complex events. Why are you losing 3-4 seconds per screenshot though?

I should clarify, I'm very happy about the increased danger, I fully agree with you when you said that the original Black Riband turned into a pure speed contest (which was also very fun). This is turning out to be much more about route finding (since the course changes day by day) and survival and lastly speed.
Excellent! As long as it's still a good race for Black Riband regulars, it's "working as intended." :D

I'm confused, what is it then? I visited it the other day, it was very cool to see!
I thought it was cool too - I popped over to a have look on Friday. It's a little ominous if it's not just an Easter Egg! :eek: But still very cool. :D
 
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