Community Event / Creation The Buckyball Racing Club presents: The Wiccan Ware Race, 12–22 January 3305

[Darplata94]

[sub]Somebody willing to race with a Beluga? Please, somebody fly a Beluga, I have to see that![/sub]

Challenge accepted.

---

As a preface, Belugas are not meant to be raced. It's a rather average ship.
Much of the run went sideways, time wise. I managed to acquire a fine leaving the start line which affected me on the return trip. I also learned firsthand (at a different starport,) that 2 belugas do not fit in the slot at the same time. I messed up two of my approaches. One, I dropped close to the station but out of alignment. The other, I did the cruise to the station at 75% throttle for some reason. I also messed up my outfitting and overheated on every jump, because 4D powerplants grade 5 overcharged don't really like being used very much. All in all, a mediocre run. I won't be repeating it, and I don't suggest racing a Beluga anytime in the future.

 

[AkenBosch]

Somebody willing to race with a Beluga? Please, somebody fly a Beluga, I have to see that!

Challenge accepted.

*Stares timorously at the hair-rising transfer cost of the T-9..."

 

[Darplata94]

*Stares timorously at the hair-rising transfer cost of the T-9..."

Unless it is somewhere like Maia, just fly it to the start. I flew the beluga from Jameson Memorial, but it does have a 40+ly range.

 

[AkenBosch]

Unless it is somewhere like Maia, just fly it to the start. I flew the beluga from Jameson Memorial, but it does have a 40+ly range.

What a coincidence! Even my Graceful Betty has a range! Somewhat, or something of sorts anyway. I didn't actually get to see her transfer cost, but if memory doesn't fail me* she should be sitting at Rebuy Prospect in Fullerene C60 in full hauling attire, I'll hardly have time tomorrow to get there and convert her to the zippy racer she actually is. She has quite the moves, you know.

* memory always, absolutely, positively fails me, that's a given.

 

[ibmalone]

Buckyball submission: Wiccan Ware Race

Citizen42's management would like to reassure any spectators who saw him stumble out of the Bucky's Revenge and collapse onto the pad at Vasilyev Vision that he was only suffering from some disorientation after the bounce through the letterbox and has largely recovered after the application of a stiff drink. The course medical team have assured us he will fully regain the power of speech, but for the moment he would simply like to repeat his initial statement, "Harder than it looks." At least, we think that's the reason he's repeating it, it's a little hard to tell.

The Bucky's Revenge is likely to require extensive repairs and may not make a return to this race, although we're sure the dock manager was only joking about what they'd do, "If I see that ship again." We are giving careful consideration to a sponsor's kind offer of a hauler and how to coax Citizen42 back to the dock.

 

[Alec Turner]

Nope - a few last attempts but it seems that 13'18 is the best I got. Hats off to Darplata94, quite where you found those extra 23 seconds elludes me.

Thanks (again) to Jay for organising an awesome race and congrat's to the eventual winners.

Farewell (again) from Dublin Citadel.

 

[Ozric]

I didn't get much time to play last night unfortunately. I tried a couple of runs, but one was just slower than my current and the other I completely messed up a couple of the SC approaches.

I'm currently on a train heading "up north" so there will be no more entries for me. Thanks a lot for the race Jay, now I have the agonising wait and hoping that Darplata doesn't improve by a second, or anyone else for that matter...

 

[Edelgard von Rhein]

I managed a couple more attempts today after a swift journey home from the Omega Nebula but was unable to improve on my time. I had one run that I felt was ok but it turned out to be nearly 40s slower and another where I felt I had done much better, except for a slightly scrambled pad landing or two, but which suffered from long supercruise transition times - otherwise I might (just) have scraped past the 15min barrier. Glad to have made the trip today though rather than spending another day mining - it's an OK diversion but I don't like to do it for long, even if the scenery is good.
.
Thanks to Jay Fox for staging the race and well done to everyone who took part! o7

 

[ibmalone]

We are happy to report that, after lengthy reflection on the prestigious history of the Wiccan Ware Race, fruitful discussions about his sponsorship commitments and a review of forfeiture clauses, Citizen42 was eager to return for the final day of the event, and was able to significantly improve on previous runs. Many thanks to the race organisers and to our sponsors, "Gateway Fast Haulage"!

Those of you keen to follow Citizen42's progress are encouraged to share sightings of this ship to your social networks:

Our sponsors Gateway Fast Haulage, Gateway Organisation and all other Alliance system authorities are particular fans of Citizen42, so remember to tag them and use the hashtag #stolenhauler!

 

[Jay Fox]

Sorry, commentator is still out of order after Darplata's betrayal switch to the dark Courier side.

I hope everybody had fun. Let the race analyses begin!

 

[Kerenn]

What ? I was pushed from the Top 3 ? This won't stand. When's the next race ?

 

[superflyguy]

time got away from me and i didn't get around to submitting my time. i think i would have slotted neatly into 8th place

see ya'll in a few months

 

[Alec Turner]

I hope everybody had fun. Let the race analyses begin!

Brilliant stuff - enjoyed it enormously. Congrat's to Darplata94 (bewlidering times) and also Ozric who must be delighted he finally managed to hold on to a number one spot - those final days must have been nailbiting for you!

So, post race analysis ...

My mantra (so I didn't forget what I was doing) was "Buy/Swap/Show/Sell"!

My route (which I settled into pretty early on) was:

Dublin Citadel (Gateway) -> "buy" @ Ahern Enterprise (Tellus) -> "swap" @ Kyoto Park (Soholia) -> "show" @ Dublin Citadel (Gateway) -> "sell" @ Aachen Town (Alioth)

Originally (when I hadn't got quite enough range to make the Tellus -> Soholia leg with 16t of cargo) I was going to Watts Enterprise (G 122-60) for my Advanced Medicines.

Ahern Enterprise was interesting because it had no nearby body for gravity braking and I probably should have experimented with other stations slightly further out but I felt like I kinda mastered the Ahern approach well enough (plus the drop is a lot further out than the usual 1Mm) and simply stuck with that route. The Kyoto and Dublin approaches were fairly standard gravity braking stuff where (as you can see in my video) I prefer a spiral approach these days, getting the ETA down to around 0:03 and then using a corkscrew like approach, carefully managing pitch (with the audio feedback providing a lot of the clues about whether the ship was accelerating or decelerating) to keep the speed under control until the final swoop past the planet that (hopefully) brings it back down to 0:05/6 for the final drop. Possibly the hardest part (especially in the high speed iCourier) was the final flight to the mailslot and then down to the pad. One boost after the drop and then a reduction in throttle as I request docking permission left me pretty much zero time to re-request so I typically made the best of whatever pad I was assigned. Often the pads were at the back of the station which actually suited me fine but occasionally I'd get a closer one which I either knew about in advance (and so could deliberately scrape against the mailsot on the way in to lose some speed) or else overshot and had to swoop back around to land. Controlling the iCourier landing was the other nerve wracking bit. The difference between a fast graceful landing and clamp engage and one where you scrape around for what seems like hours is miniscule. One thing I did learn is that if you think the landing was good and the clamps should have engaged, simply waiting often pays off as the clamps sometimes take a while to wake up and grab your ship. Only other thing of note was navigating the commodity screen quickly, escpecially during the "swap" stage at Soholia. I did this entirely using HOTAS controls (don't know if anyone actually coded a VA macros to scroll down to Advanced Medicines and Domestic Appliances?). One other thing I found there was that, having sold the Advanced Medicines, it was actually faster to leave and re-enter (back at the top) the commodity screen than it was to scroll back up from Advanced Medicines to Domestic Appliances.

Oh, and of course I had all the stations bookmarked for fast navigation upon selecting Launch from the station menu.

 

[Edelgard von Rhein]

Like Alec, my first attempts used Watts Enterprise. I had done a little scouting for other locations and came up with a plan B that was to use Sarafanov Vision in LHS 2771 as my supply station for Adv Meds (this is about the same distance from the primary star as Ahern Enterprise but is in orbit of a small gas giant, much preferable for gravity breaking, if a little finicky to get right). This requires a 46.14 LY jump whilst carrying 16t of cargo, so I brought my long range DBX over to see how that fared - but the superior speed of my Viper MkIV was more than making up for the difference in supercruise times. (My DBX has the lightest thrusters possible with g1 clean drives - the only kind that doesn't have increased power draw - so it is about as fast as my Anaconda). After seeing if I could further improve in the Viper MkIV (and failing) I decided that the best ship for me to use to have both speed and jump range was my Dolphin, which can do over 50LY comfortably with 16t cargo and boost to 585 m/s. I had hoped to save about 2 min but in practice it amounted to just over 1 min so I was well behind.
.
In cargo-related races, navigating the menu screens can take a deceptively large amount of time. I think it was Bruski who showed that in 'On The Rocks' it was possible to immediately hit launch after touchdown and still find time to do a single transaction whilst the pad turns around. My menu screens take too long to load for me to do this and I find it hard to use the mouse quickly to select the scrollbar as it is quite narrow, so it was faster for me to use my mouse wheel to scroll through the commodities. Having exactly 16t cargo capacity simplified selecting the correct amount. Nevertheless, I feel that fast touchdowns and consistently optimal supercruise approaches are two of the main obstacles to me improving my time but I feel like I'm at the limit of what I can physically do, with more practice leading to more mistakes until my final run, marred by a 25+ sec instance load time at Dublin Citadel and some long loading (albeit in single figures - just) elsewhere, especially at Aachen Town. (It would have been around 15 min but for these, so not improving my position).
.
In conclusion, I'm finding the Dolphin increasingly useful as a racing ship. I like the versatility of my Viper MkIV, which can race in its standard multirole outfitting and for longer races I now have the option of a DBX but I find it hard to control the speed of anything over 600 m/s (I find it a struggle to control even at much lower speeds during both rapid acceleration and deceleration and bumped the toast rack badly a couple of times but no fatalities thanks to heavy duty armour). I also prefer small ships (even though my Python could have run the course well and I have plenty of practice flying it as it's my main ship) as those are easier to get in and out the airlock at speed. Looking forward to the next race!

 

[ibmalone]

Thanks for organising! This was my first Buckyball and I had fun. It was the Wiccan Ware Race connection that got me interested enough to actually take part, and kind of lucky my main account was in Colonia, as it seems regular is a bit more forgiving in terms of what you have to optimise. I started out with an Eagle going via Indaol for advanced medicines. It's the only source a < 200kCr Eagle can make in a single jump from Soholia, Wafer Landing 43ls, but a ground station, which I found pretty tricky to reliably hit orbital cruise from fast, probably the time in orbital cruise would be better spent on a second jump to Watts Enterprise, G 122-60. So after that I decided to switch to the Hauler as it can get a lot more range for the money and I thought it'd be unlikely I could really take advatange of the slight manoeuvrability advantage on landing.

Most of the time I think I lost in supercruise manoeuvring, used to doing spiral approaches, but doing it to nail a line up on the mail-slot is a different matter. It's very hard to get yourself in too much trouble on 2B/3C thrusters while landing... you can fit an A grade distributor within the regular class budget, but on the hauler I found myself wishing for an extra boost on the way into the station.

Course notes. As I was starting my first run a programme came on the radio about Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus Cars, thought it was kind of appropriate...

Edit... and of course, taking of from Kyoto parking, jumping, then realising you didn't buy domestic appliances / pick up Jjagged Bbanner records is always disappointing.

 

[AkenBosch]

Congratulations to Darplata and Ozric for their victories! And Alec, you are starting to walk on podiums with worrying frequency, but in a good way! Spot-on analyses above, in my case the Mamba has been severely limited in its performance due to its evident shortcomings in jump range and SC handling. Working out the best possible build to make the Gateway-Alioth trip in one jump was rather tricky (for me at least), and Watts Enterprise was just about the only viable place I could get the meds from, with its far from ideal distance from the point of arrival.
The ship is reasonably fast and has excellent handling in normal space, easy to land on just about any pad. Sadly, in SC it only knows a straight line, so corkscrew approaches at 0:03 were out of the question. Any approach was a make it or break it affair, you either aced the gravity braking from 0:02-03 to find yourself perfectly lined up at 0:05 before the 1 MM range, or you could as well enjoy your inevitable loop of shame. A sub-14:00 time was definitely in the capabilities of the ship (quite less so in those of yours truly it seems), but not an easy task, and one in the end I had to pass on. Still happy about the outcome, I had buckyball fun like I didn't have for months, and I'm still the fastest Mamba on the board.

Thanks Jay Fox for a very nice one and the good old "running around for the sake of it" it provided. [up]

Until next one. o7

 

[Alec Turner]

Thanks for organising! This was my first Buckyball and I had fun. It was the Wiccan Ware Race connection that got me interested enough to actually take part, and kind of lucky my main account was in Colonia, as it seems regular is a bit more forgiving in terms of what you have to optimise. I started out with an Eagle going via Indaol for advanced medicines. It's the only source a < 200kCr Eagle can make in a single jump from Soholia, Wafer Landing 43ls, but a ground station, which I found pretty tricky to reliably hit orbital cruise from fast, probably the time in orbital cruise would be better spent on a second jump to Watts Enterprise, G 122-60. So after that I decided to switch to the Hauler as it can get a lot more range for the money and I thought it'd be unlikely I could really take advatange of the slight manoeuvrability advantage on landing.

Most of the time I think I lost in supercruise manoeuvring, used to doing spiral approaches, but doing it to nail a line up on the mail-slot is a different matter. It's very hard to get yourself in too much trouble on 2B/3C thrusters while landing... you can fit an A grade distributor within the regular class budget, but on the hauler I found myself wishing for an extra boost on the way into the station.



Course notes. As I was starting my first run a programme came on the radio about Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus Cars, thought it was kind of appropriate...



Edit... and of course, taking of from Kyoto parking, jumping, then realising you didn't buy domestic appliances / pick up Jjagged Bbanner records is always disappointing.

Glad you enjoyed it - I absolutely love doing these. Hoping to have about one a month but that partly depends on you guys. If anyone has an idea for a race please get in touch! (and don't be afraid of repeating an old one or of not being able to write some awesome backstory like Jay's or anything like that - we just need more races). I'm going to post something more about this in the main Buckyball thread later today. We've theoretically got one from racer1 in Feb(?) and I've got an idea for March.

Oh, and I love the scribbled notes - our PC desk at home is always covered in scraps of paper during a race with hastily scribbled coordinates and times and stuff - I'm sure my wife thinks I'm mentally ill sometimes! [haha]

P.S. oh, and thanks Aken, I do seem to have clawed my way up from my usual mid table placing these days although I also agree with Edelgard about reaching personal limits - I did so many runs at this race and definitely felt like I hit some kind of personal limit - just 30 odd seconds shy of Darplata's times but it felt like a physical barrier of just never being able to hit perfection until eventually I started getting worse again. Happy tho' - feeling like you did your best is what counts, and maybe learning some stuff, becoming a more capable pilot and being better and more prepared for the next one.

o7

 

[Jay Fox]

Ahern Enterprise was interesting because it had no nearby body for gravity braking [...]

You should have tried Regular then. The closest planet to Vasilyev Vision is probably somewhere in Alioth.

I think it was Bruski who showed that in 'On The Rocks' it was possible to immediately hit launch after touchdown and still find time to do a single transaction whilst the pad turns around.

I'm pretty sure I already did it before that. And if I did it, so did probably others. In any case, this is actually 'easier' with bigger ships, as the docking procedure takes longer. (But then, it also takes longer …)

[...] or of not being able to write some awesome backstory like Jay's or anything like that - we just need more races).

To be fair, I stole most of it from Frontier Developments – just added my own slightly over-the-top interpretation to it.


Speaking of which: Mark your calendars!

As for me, I really want to get back into the Eagle Explorer. I still have unfinished business in the Outer Arm. And the Scutum Arm. And knowing me, once I'm sitting in the Eagle, I won't be back until I've travelled at least a few hundred kpc. (At least I upgraded the Eagle's jump range from 20 to 30ly. Whatever that's worth.) I'll have to see whether I'm still around for February's race.

 

[ibmalone]

I'm pretty sure I already did it before that. And if I did it, so did probably others. In any case, this is actually 'easier' with bigger ships, as the docking procedure takes longer. (But then, it also takes longer …)

How does this work? I've tried hitting launch then hammering the services button, but I just don't get a loading screen, it just changes back from services/hanger/launch to the landing radar about the time the ship turns round.

 

[crotalus]

How does this work? I've tried hitting launch then hammering the services button, but I just don't get a loading screen, it just changes back from services/hanger/launch to the landing radar about the time the ship turns round.

What you do is hit enter hangar open station services then once the transaction has been completed exit station services then launch if done fast enough the ship will still be turning around