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

[UmbraRex]

There's no such thing - well not unless you're flying a Type-9, and even then it's better than the "7 second" blue zone.

If you can pull off a perfect Buckyball approach then you'll decelerate perfectly using gravity braking from maybe a 3 second timer and hit blue speed at exactly the right time. Otherwise a "loop of shame" is exactly what you're looking for, they're miles faster than approaches by anyone that calls them loops of shame.

@furrycat did a side by side comparison of four different approach techniques, that I want to link to but can't find on the new forums. But trust me, forget the shame just make the loop good!

So. Very. True. I haven't used the '6 second rule' since my first buckyball run.

And it's harder to interdict you. (not impossible, just harder)

 

[Alec Turner]

@furrycat did a side by side comparison of four different approach techniques, that I want to link to but can't find on the new forums. But trust me, forget the shame just make the loop good!

 

[sgurr]

There's no such thing - well not unless you're flying a Type-9, and even then it's better than the "7 second" blue zone.

If you can pull off a perfect Buckyball approach then you'll decelerate perfectly using gravity braking from maybe a 3 second timer and hit blue speed at exactly the right time. Otherwise a "loop of shame" is exactly what you're looking for, they're miles faster than approaches by anyone that calls them loops of shame.

@furrycat did a side by side comparison of four different approach techniques, that I want to link to but can't find on the new forums. But trust me, forget the shame just make the loop good!

Cheers Raiko, I've seen furrycat's vid before but it still 'feels' wrong to do it.

Do you know what's best, to pile on past at full tilt then brake and turn or to moderate the speed a little before passing and looping back?

Edit : Thanks very much Alec, I'll study carefully

 

[mrmike227]

Well then... guess it's time for me to learn how to gravity brake properly and to embrace the loop.... ended up using the 6 sec rule during the race ☹

 

[Alec Turner]

Cheers Raiko, I've seen furrycat's vid before but it still 'feels' wrong to do it.

Do you know what's best, to pile on past at full tilt then brake and turn or to moderate the speed a little before passing and looping back?

Personally I still like to try and not overshoot at all. Roughly speaking I'll cut the HOTAS throttle to 50% at 0:05 and then, as/if the eta drops to 0:04, start pulling a big corkscrew approach with full pitch up (using yaw/roll to regulate the speed/direction), carefully listening to engine sound to spot if I'm overdoing it (engine noise starts to drop indicating I'm about to slow back down to 0:06/0:07 if I'm not careful) - and ease off, or underdoing it (noise picks up and eta drops even further) - and angle into an even more exaggerated spiral ... and then cut past the orbital body at the last minute to hold that 0:04 (or less depending on drag of body). I reckon the jury's still out on whether this is faster or slower (when executed perfectly) than a close overshoot and then loop back.

 

[Raiko]

I think it varies with the ship you're flying as well. I generally race in my Asp-X The Nomad if I can and I find it's generally better to plow straight past and do a "braking loop".

For Drakhyr's Close Encounters race, I really struggled with one of the approaches and switched to a DBX, it's much more nippy in SC and I could pull off braking maneuvers more easily.

In a Viper III or iCourier you can brake really late, I'm a bit rubbish, but watch the videos of the guys at the top.

On the other hand with my T9 I've got to be really careful to gravity brake well, or it takes a long time to turn around (it's quicker to drop out, turn around in normal space and then reenter SC if you overshoot).

 

[Stinja]

Best Console Run - CMDR Stinja / Nominal Sanity

Hahaha faint praise! (also "only" and worst" Console run)
Could definitely have improved that time though. I measured thargoid interdictions are about 1:45 worse than a standard jump, then losing the Squirrel tunnel, so could probably have gone more the 35 min mark. Also i should shed some weight, as the standard loadout is a bit fat: https://s.orbis.zone/3w85

The interdictions got crazy though, I wish i'd started earlier in the week now. Good fun, i'll have to do some practicing for the next one.

 

[Fish172]

Well middle for open and 4th for Kamikaze..guess I know where I do best..........flying like a lunatic! My best position yet I think.

Thanks Raiko great fun and a more than welcome distraction.

Now I am just gonna pop round and pick up those missing bits and pay a fine or three!

See yall at the next one!

 

[Dr. Nagi]

Lol I haven't thought about this whole supercruise approach thing at all and just gone with the 6(7) second rule.

 

[Alec Turner]

Lol I haven't thought about this whole supercruise approach thing at all and just gone with the 6(7) second rule.

It's actually where most Buckyball Races are won or lost.

 

[Raiko]

I'll be contacting the winners shortly about their prize packs.

Thanks again for offering the prize packs @Alec Turner.

It's actually where most Buckyball Races are won or lost.

Yes, definitely.

I've not watched furrycat's video for ages, but it's worth watching the SC before the braking. With his gravity braking approach he ducks under the plane of the system, which avoids the other planets' gravity wells. So at 31s or so he's travelling much faster in the gravity braking approach.

We've found that the slow down message actually means that you being slowed down by a gravity well. Asteroid clusters are something that you particularly need to watch out for, as they don't appear on the scanner, but still slow you down.

Do you know what's best, to pile on past at full tilt then brake and turn or to moderate the speed a little before passing and looping back?

I'm pretty average at racing, so it's better if someone who's actually good answers, but I tend to line up similar to furrycat's gravity braking approach - then if I know I'm going to loop around rather than catch the station on the first pass, I try to keep the throttle full until the clock's down to 1 or 2 seconds.

I go for a close flypast and small loop, rather than the helical approach of furrycat's 'loop'

I figure that keeping full throttle for as long as possible saves me some of time that I lose during the loop. I just tend to find that, particularly in my Asp-X, if I try a pure gravity brake I'm usually a fraction too slow getting my speed into the blue zone - so I end up having to loop anyway. So my lack of skill means that a braking loop (that's the BRC name for a loop of shame) is usually faster for me if I just go for it.

There's a big difference between approaches to different sizes and configurations of planets / moons / stations as well. So sometimes even the likes of cookiehole will use a loop. It's all about understanding how to best use the gravity wells with the particular ship you fly.

Just never ever use the 6-7 second rule, it's always better to slow later, even if you mess it up.

5 seconds is just as good as 6 (and faster). When the clock drops to 4 or lower, then you need to do "something" or you overshoot, but if you're trying to be competitive - or just improve your own skills - then that's the zone you want to be in, because the "something" that you need to pull off is where most of the skill is in our races.

 

[sgurr]

Great stuff, thanks for the help

 

[cookiehole]

Also @cookiehole , I'm very sorry that your pc froze while you were trying a last Hauler run, sometimes one can really be out of luck, what a shame....carefully stores away a batch of newly devised Akenbots in their shielded case
(sorry for real though, I've almost no doubt that was the only thing that saved my place on the board!)

I'm not sure if that run would have been sufficiently fast since I had messed up a few things in SC. I even wanted to start over again at some point, but that was 7 minutes before midnight and I was in the Pleiades - that would have been close to impossible in the Hauler

[Lots of good advice]
So sometimes even the likes of cookiehole will use a loop. It's all about understanding how to best use the gravity wells with the particular ship you fly.

It's actually more the other way around. I have used the braking loop technique exclusively (combined with a flyby of the planet) for the biggest part of my racing career. I wasn't really aware of the helix approach until a discussion in some race thread and furrycat's video and only started using it after that for some approaches.
What is faster? I'm not sure. The helix is probably the way to go for weak gravity wells (like Asteroid belts and small planets), but I don't use the loop in high gravity environments either. But that's mostly gut feeling.
If I get some gametime this evening I'll try to test different techniques and hopefully manage to create a video like furrycat's; with a bigger emphasis on comparing different loop styles and maybe testing different planet masses aswell.

 

[Alec Turner]

If I get some gametime this evening I'll try to test different techniques and hopefully manage to create a video like furrycat's; with a bigger emphasis on comparing different loop styles and maybe testing different planet masses aswell.

This would be beyond awesome!!! (beyawensome?)

 

[cookiehole]

This would be beyond awesome!!! (beyawensome?)

I've just started by creating a spreadsheet (TM), and I've realized that this might take some time. Since this is of general Buckyball interest, I've posted it in the BRC group thread and will continue to post updates there.

 

[Darplata94]

Being the winner of the unlimited class, I think I should show the route I took and share some of the thoughts and responses I have gathered up.

I did plan my route through the Pleiades using the orrery system map with CMDR Heisenberg6626’s “Study of the Optimal Supercruise Flight Paths” in mind (the 10 page document can be found on the Cannon website) and the knowledge that you drop on the side of the star that you are coming from. I did change the order of my waypoints once a few days into the race, because of Artemis Lodge’s and Copernicus Observatory’s orbital positions changing.
Here is the evidence from my winning run for you guys to compare to your own waypoint times and routes.

https://imgur.com/a/aZ9z8JE

Source: https://imgur.com/a/aZ9z8JE


Jumping twice to Pleione never crossed my mind as an option until the discussion here once the race had ended. I have since modified my route so it utilizes this strategy and I promptly knocked 42 seconds off my best time lowering it to 27:04.

https://imgur.com/a/a7LKIb2

Source: https://imgur.com/a/a7LKIb2

I still haven’t experienced a Thargoid hyperdiction. The only interactions I’ve had with them is a Thargoid visiting a barnacle site, shooting scavengers, and being on the receiving end of the Gnosis incident.

Raiko, thanks for hosting this awesome race and breathing some life back into the BBRC.

I’d like to thank Alec for donating some of his Lavecon raffle winnings for the winners of each class. My race vulture now has some skins to show off.

And, as Fish172 put it so eloquently “At the end of the race these reclusive (and probably insane) pilots disappear into the galactic night, only to reappear when a new race is declared.”

Until the next race, o7 everyone.

P.S. Approaching Stargazer sucked. I don’t think I ever dropped in front of the slot. Around 90% of the drops were on the front half of the station though. I also prefer not to cook my ship (eyes regulation 2d powerplant.)

 

[Raiko]

I did plan my route through the Pleiades using the orrery system map with CMDR Heisenberg6626’s “Study of the Optimal Supercruise Flight Paths” in mind (the 10 page document can be found on the Cannon website) and the knowledge that you drop on the side of the star that you are coming from. I did change the order of my waypoints once a few days into the race, because of Artemis Lodge’s and Copernicus Observatory’s orbital positions changing.

Wow, I've not come across that before, but I suspect that's one for every Buckyball racer to read.

Jumping twice to Pleione never crossed my mind as an option until the discussion here once the race had ended. I have since modified my route so it utilizes this strategy and I promptly knocked 42 seconds off my best time lowering it to 27:04.

I also prefer not to cook my ship (eyes regulation 2d powerplant.)

Yep, keep the cost low and the temperature high, that's how I like to make regulation class.

Raiko, thanks for hosting this awesome race and breathing some life back into the BBRC.

You are most welcome - I had a blast running it, and during a week when I wouldn't have been able to play.

 

[Alec Turner]

Jumping twice to Pleione never crossed my mind as an option until the discussion here once the race had ended. I have since modified my route so it utilizes this strategy and I promptly knocked 42 seconds off my best time lowering it to 27:04.

Bravo - I totally salute anyone who's prepared to go back after the fact and put new racing knowledge to the test to see what difference it would have made to their time. Sooner or later we ought to get one (or more?) of the real classic Buckyball Races up as a standing challenge.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Yep, keep the cost low and the temperature high, that's how I like to make regulation class.

It certainly made the 10 and 11 jumps between the Sisters and the Start/Finish interesting. Trying to find the right balance between heat and refueling kept that stretch from getting boring...

...well, that and the blaring warning alarms, the sparks going off right over my head, and the billowing clouds of smoke. Especially in VR.

 

[AkenBosch]

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