Community Event / Creation Buckyball Racing Club presents: Seven Sisters Speedway. 13-Jul-3305 to 21-Jul-3305

So, tried several runs today.
First run, no interference from thargoids, but decided to try for some good kamikaze cup times, boosted just before the mail slot, hit the back of the station, lost shields and hit 50% hull, which went away when I tried to slam down on the pad. Did Not Finish (DNF).

Second run, again, no interference from thargoids, decided the boosting into the station was a bad idea, so just came in at 400m/s or so, managed not to hit the back of the station as I'm finding my pad then all of a sudden I'm rammed inside the station, spinning out of control and bouncing all over the place. because I was still over 100m/s I got a reckless flying fine and, because the bouncing all over took out my shields and hull, I found myself at a detention center. DNF.

Third run I get hyperdicted on my last jump coming into the seven sisters area from Ohm Horizons. I have about 5% of fuel left, a 30 odd lightyear jump ahead of me and a 10kLS run back to the star to refuel. DNF.

Fourth run, exact repeat of the third run. DNF.

Fifth run, the run in from Ohm Horizons was good, no major errors, took a little heat damage but nothing major. The jumps and checkpoints in the seven sisters are going well, until I get to the Squirrel's Nest. I dropped out on the far side of the asteroids. I finished, but the time was 40min plus. Did not submit.

Sixth run, everything is going well, pushing it a little, took more heat damage than I was comfortable with but no modules were failing. Then I got Hyperdicted. Twice. Jumping out of the same system. Finished the run, but the time was over 41 min. Did not Submit.

Seventh run, exactly the same as the sixth run, with the exception of the two hyperdictions were jumping out of different systems. DNF.

Yeah, I OWN the bottom of the leaderboard.
 
Preparation and launch

Part 2:

"Arrived in a Lance, leave in a Hauler,
I know who you are, you're a Buckballer"

Sgurr froze mid bite eyes searching for the comms readout in the strange cockpit. Smeg, it's Control!
Should he play dumb? deflect? admit or what? At some point in there he remembered to start chewing again.

Laughter came over the comms, "Well? Have I caught you with your pants down? Metaphorically of course"

"Umm yeah" mumbled Sgurr while finishing the mouthfull.

"Good to hear, recovery and repair companies are loving you lot, although cleanup not so much given how many of you are smearing their ships over the stations. You planning on doing that pilot?"
"Not planning to no, but given the nature of the race ... "
"It'll probably happen sure, better pilots than you have boosted through the end of the station." Sgurr could swear Control was smiling as they said this.
"Hey, how do you know wh ...."
"You'll be up on the pad in 10 Cmdr, be ready, we don't like blockers". Control now hard their business voice on, "Acknowledged Control, I'll be ready"
"Out"

There was a pause. Sgurr heard the comms link being put down and in the distance, "Alert pod recovery, I don't have high hopes for this one. Think he's a first timer"
Sgurr cut the channel and finished his meal.

Turned out the Hauler did have a galley, surprisingly practical actually, but he really, really wasn't fond of the finishing. Hadn't plastic had been outlawed on most civilised worlds?
He was going in blind though, it was a ship he'd never looked twice at, something too utalitarian for his tastes and he'd always preferred taking something with teeth and making it a little more versatile rather than the other way around. Checking the loadout actually worried him, not much hull to play with, and he'd been less than impressed when he realised his Type 9 was nearly as fast. No way it could have worse SC handling though, and the jump range was ok.

He went over the race notes and waymarks one last time, mentally ticking everything off but realising there would be loads he didn't know he didn't know.
That's why he signed up though, hopefully fun first and foremost but also the challenge of something he hadn't done before. After the last few months he could do with a good distraction and some fun.

"Launch granted Cmdr, good luck"
"Acknowledged", I'll need it.
 
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I fully support this insanity!
Yes we all know you do.

Even now you're sitting in Space Bear HQ with a massive spreadsheet that calculates the optimal conditions for Hyperdiction by more than one Thargoid. ;)




Okay to compensate somewhat for the time loss, transmit the following message to local comms in a hyperdiction instance for a one-minute time bonus:

""Always nice to meet up with Buckyball fans! Even alien ones"

This time-bonus is doubled for console Cmdrs or for transmissions within 250m of a targeted Thargoid.

I'm assuming that the bit of tech some Cmdrs have been carrying lets you get close without being EMPed?

The bonus is only for the Kamikaze Cup - sorry.
 
Yes we all know you do.

Even now you're sitting in Space Bear HQ with a massive spreadsheet that calculates the optimal conditions for Hyperdiction by more than one Thargoid. ;)




Okay to compensate somewhat for the time loss, transmit the following message to local comms in a hyperdiction instance for a one-minute time bonus:

""Always nice to meet up with Buckyball fans! Even alien ones"

This time-bonus is doubled for console Cmdrs or for transmissions within 250m of a targeted Thargoid.

I'm assuming that the bit of tech some Cmdrs have been carrying lets you get close without being EMPed?

The bonus is only for the Kamikaze Cup - sorry.
Like it ... I have to say that's ballsy ... in fact (for any Arnocorps fans out there) ... sing after me ...

I'm BALLSY
I'm a stud
I don't take sh*t from anyone!
 
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So, tried several runs today.
First run, no interference from thargoids, but decided to try for some good kamikaze cup times, boosted just before the mail slot, hit the back of the station, lost shields and hit 50% hull, which went away when I tried to slam down on the pad. Did Not Finish (DNF).

Second run, again, no interference from thargoids, decided the boosting into the station was a bad idea, so just came in at 400m/s or so, managed not to hit the back of the station as I'm finding my pad then all of a sudden I'm rammed inside the station, spinning out of control and bouncing all over the place. because I was still over 100m/s I got a reckless flying fine and, because the bouncing all over took out my shields and hull, I found myself at a detention center. DNF.

Third run I get hyperdicted on my last jump coming into the seven sisters area from Ohm Horizons. I have about 5% of fuel left, a 30 odd lightyear jump ahead of me and a 10kLS run back to the star to refuel. DNF.

Fourth run, exact repeat of the third run. DNF.

Fifth run, the run in from Ohm Horizons was good, no major errors, took a little heat damage but nothing major. The jumps and checkpoints in the seven sisters are going well, until I get to the Squirrel's Nest. I dropped out on the far side of the asteroids. I finished, but the time was 40min plus. Did not submit.

Sixth run, everything is going well, pushing it a little, took more heat damage than I was comfortable with but no modules were failing. Then I got Hyperdicted. Twice. Jumping out of the same system. Finished the run, but the time was over 41 min. Did not Submit.

Seventh run, exactly the same as the sixth run, with the exception of the two hyperdictions were jumping out of different systems. DNF.

Yeah, I OWN the bottom of the leaderboard.
This! This is the essence of Buckyball .. I totally salute this determination to plough on in the face of seemingly insurmountable bad luck ... it's BALLSY!
 
Preparation and launch

Part 2:

"Arrived in a Lance, leave in a Hauler,
I know who you are, you're a Buckballer"

Sgurr froze mid bite eyes searching for the comms readout in the strange cockpit. Smeg, it's Control!
Should he play dumb? deflect? admit or what? At some point in there he remembered to start chewing again.

Laughter came over the comms, "Well? Have I caught you with your pants down? Metaphorically of course"

"Umm yeah" mumbled Sgurr while finishing the mouthfull.

"Good to hear, recovery and repair companies are loving you lot, although cleanup not so much given how many of you are smearing their ships over the stations. You planning on doing that pilot?"
"Not planning to no, but given the nature of the race ... "
"It'll probably happen sure, better pilots than you have boosted through the end of the station." Sgurr could swear Control was smiling as they said this.
"Hey, how do you know wh ...."
"You'll be up on the pad in 10 Cmdr, be ready, we don't like blockers". Control now hard their business voice on, "Acknowledged Control, I'll be ready"
"Out"

There was a pause. Sgurr heard the comms link being put down and in the distance, "Alert pod recovery, I don't have high hopes for this one. Think he's a first timer"
Sgurr cut the channel and finished his meal.

Turned out the Hauler did have a galley, surprisingly practical actually, but he really, really wasn't fond of the finishing. Hadn't plastic had been outlawed on most civilised worlds?
He was going in blind though, it was a ship he'd never looked twice at, something too utalitarian for his tastes and he'd always preferred taking something with teeth and making it a little more versatile rather than the other way around. Checking the loadout actually worried him, not much hull to play with, and he'd been less than impressed when he realised his Type 9 was nearly as fast. No way it could have worse SC handling though, and the jump range was ok.

He went over the race notes and waymarks one last time, mentally ticking everything off but realising there would be loads he didn't know he didn't know.
That's why he signed up though, hopefully fun first and foremost but also the challenge of something he hadn't done before. After the last few months he could do with a good distraction and some fun.

"Launch granted Cmdr, good luck"
"Acknowledged", I'll need it.
It's been said before but I'll say it again, the Buckyball Race threads are the best damn thing on the forum.
They're BALLSY!
 
Due to spontaneously changed weekend plans it looks like I'll have to do a (few) last minute attempt(s).
Good to see Bruski with about as much bonus time as I feared; that time will be difficult to beat 😅

The biggest challenge I have with this course is the couple of stations that are not in orbit around a planet, and in particular Stargazer, because Copernicus is so close to the main star that SC deceleration isn't really an issue. But I have always struggled at getting the timing right to approach quickly enough to stations like Stargazer. Once I get within a few Ls away then I end up sitting at 6 seconds so that I don't massively overshoot, and it feels like it's taking an age of the Earth. Definitely an area I can improve on.
Copernicus is actually far enough away from any gravity well that the Deselect-Reselect-Trick (short explanation here, can't find a more detailed one right now) works.
For Stargazer I haven't found a good technique yet as it's in an asteroid belt (definitely the most annoying form of a gravity well).
 


RACE UPDATE - DAY 8



Into the final day of the Se7en Sisters Speed now, here's the leaderboards with 23 hours to go to the end.

Open Unlimited Class
All the action in Open Unlimited today was in DBX's at the top of the leaderboard. First race leader CMDR Darplata94 made another improvement to his time in Rolled Gold, extending his lead over Alec Turner to almost a minute.

However CMDRs Bruski and Aken B. switched to their own DBXs today. Bruski's run in RazorBear pushed Alec down to 3rd and left the Space Bear only 33 seconds behind the lead.

Aken B's run in Bucket of Bolts was almost a minute slower, but means that Aken is both the 5th Cmdr to run in under 30 minutes for free drinks at Ohm Horizons and his run is currently the fastest run without a Guardian FSD Booster fitted.

Unlimited.png

Notes: g= Guardian Tech fitted



Regulation Hauler Class
In Regulation Hauler Class CMDR Haresus made an improved run in A Solid Investment, maintaining a small lead is sixth place over new entries by CMDR Beth Johnanson in Haulin' Arx and a BRC debut by CMDR Stinja in Baller Hauler.

Regulation.png

Notes: ps4= Run completed on PS4 Console



Nuk's Kamikaze Cup
CMDR Beth Johnanson's Regulation Hauler Class run was also a Kamikaze run, and Haulin' Arx gained a time bonus of 22:02, enough to bring Beth's time down to 26:44.

An improved run in Anabasii Celeste by CMDR Ikaru Sulu pushes Alec Turner down to 5th place. Ikaru now in 4th is around four and a half minutes adrift of 3rd place Cookiehole.

Kamikaze.png

Notes: g= Guardian Tech fitted; r= Regulation Class run
 
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ONE DAY TO GO



The race ends at midnight (UTC) tonight, the latest valid start time is 23:59:59 Sun 21-JUL-3305. You can then take as long as you like to complete the run, but the deadline to submit evidence of completed runs is 23:59:59 Mon 21-JUL-3305, i.e. 24 hours after the race ends.

I'll post the provisional final standings sometime on Monday morning, and confirm the final standings once the deadline for submissions has passed.
 
Just finished a second run, Regulation + Kamikaze Cup. An improvement, but not the improvement I was hoping for. ;) Was going slightly too fast to drop at Artemis Lodge, so the asteroids stopped me instead, about 53km away! And then I forgot to boost past the listening post while trying to hit control-V in VR, so I wasted an extra 30 seconds to do a second, high speed pass, and I hit it the dang thing!

28% hull the rest of the way, and apparently when your hull is low, and your ship is overheating, it produces a lot more smoke and sparks. Which is rather freaky in VR. :D

Watch the mayhem when the video finishes uploading in about two hours below!

 
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