Buckyball Racing Club

[drakhyr]

The Buckyball Racing Club was formed by a group of participants in the Buckyball Run series of races, after it was announced that the original organiser of the Buckyball Run was taking an indefinite break from doing so. The aim of the club is to continue to organise and race in Buckyball-style challenges.

We always welcome new participants, and there are also plenty of opportunities for anybody who wants to organise a race. Contact me (drakhyr) by PM, or post in this thread, if you're interested in running an event (or just have a good idea for a future race!).

"Buckyball-style"

The aim of Buckyball-style races is to be as inclusive as possible. The features of these races are:

• In systems accessible to all - no permit-locked systems
• Can be run at any time - time-trial / checkpoint-style races, that can be run at any time within the race period, and thus open to those in all time zones
• OK to run repeatedly - part of the excitement is trying to improve on your time!
• Open to any ship - this normally means no outposts as that would rule out large ships, but certain events will include outposts and thus cannot be run with larger ships; check the rules of each event

Note: I've tagged this as "Event" because we're a group that organises events. We're not a political, military or economic grouping, so don't expect to find a Buckyball Racing Club faction in the game!

---

This thread is where we'll be doing our organisation and race planning. Threads for the individual events themselves can be found over in the Community Events section of the forum. Our website, www.buckyballracing.org.uk, will also have current events prominently listed, and includes links to (and leaderboards of) all previous events.

Ongoing Events: The A* Challenge; The Black Riband

[ElectricZ]

As that original organizer who went on hiatus I wholeheartedly endorse this effort and not just to fill the void of the Buckyball Run but to encourage the growth of point-to-point and rally-style racing in Elite: Dangerous. Having a group like the BRC means that events aren't headed up by some slacker who can't remember what day it is or where he left his ship parked.

By the way, there may (or may not) be another Buckyball in a couple of days.

See how much better it is when the BRC handles the show, with schedules and everything?

Go get 'em, guys!

[robinjb]

Great stuff, 2 races a month makes me very happy.
EZ ive been in 2 of your races since april.
you hooked me on the electronic crack that is buckballing I wanted more.
like a crazy npc rat never sated by what you drop.
and we've had 4 events since august with the BRC
and whats more your back to show us how its supposed to be done.

Rejoice Buckyballers these are great times we are living in.

[furrycat]

Have you had a chance to review my second race idea, which I've tentatively codenamed "furrycat's race idea number two?"

[Raiko]

Thanks Drakhyr, it's nice to have a thread in the player groups area as the BRC is definitely my "main thing" in ED.

I'm looking forward to BBR-9 EZ, the added chaos of "wait for the CG, then start racing" just makes it all the better. Bucky probably already knows exactly where the new station will be and what the CG will be about, but he's keeping it to himself to make you sweat!

----

Regarding my own efforts for the BRC:

1. I plan to run a Bootlegger Challenge every year, the format will change year by year.
2. I'll be looking into the Black Riband route as soon as I can after today's patch. As there's not been a rollback of the BGS, it seems very likely that Tarach Spice is still going to be suppressed, so I'll have to change the route...
3. As we get closer to the time that I'm supposed to run it, I've started to have some concerns about my proposed Galactic Rally. I'm in agreement with Robin's opinion that other than the A* challenge, races should be over within a week or two, and shouldn't take CMDRs away from the main game for a long period. Looking for some feedback, my current thoughts are posted below:

The Galactic Rally.

First off, I still really, really want to run this. I'd enjoy surveying the route, it would likely give my Pioneer explorer rank a bit of a boost so that Elite doesn't look so far away, and quite a lot of CMDRs were enthusiastic about the idea - particularly the 'extreme' option that involves rift crossing and going to extreme-risk POI from the Galactic Mapping Project. I'd also enjoy actually running it.

The extreme race would involve a journey of approx 100KLY around various points of interest in our quadrant of the galaxy. Outside of our quadrant there's virtually no "real" things anyway, even the spectacular "shiney" places are all procedurally generated, with a few exceptions like Sadge. That's the reason big stars like UV Scuti and others are missing, the "real" places are all in the "south", "up north" is all randomly generated.

So to keep the Rally "real" it's a huge tour of this quadrant.

Great so far...

The major issues are both time related, but they are totally opposed:

Alec said that he'd like to join the rally, but struggles to play for more than an hour or two a day. He mentioned that the BBRA was a major undertaking for him, that he needed to plan for well in advance. I totally sympathise with this, as I've mentioned many times my own A* runs are all made overnight Saturday evening to Sunday morning while the kiddies are in bed. I'd like to make a race that Alec can join in. Making the event feasible to play for 1-3 hour per day, 4-5 days per week would probably need a six week window. And almost all of that time would be well away from the bubble.

Robin points out (not necessarily directly about my rally) that BRC events should be 1-2 weeks at most, and shouldn't take CMDRs away from the main game for a long time. I actually agree entirely, and I'd like to create an event that Robin would at least think about joining in - as it is I doubt that he would, and even worse my Gal-Rally would stop Robin from doing any racing in the Bubble for up to six weeks!

So what to do? Helpful feedback would be appreciated at this point! lol

My best solution so far would be to scrap the big single event, and switch to "The Buckyball Racing Club presents: The Galactic Rally Championship." As my planned course followed a cloverleaf pattern, returning to the bubble after each major leg, I'd be able to break up the Rally into 4 much shorter events. Three one week rallies, requiring the same time as a Warm-up race, and one two-week final Rally (the Formidine Rift and back).

Would this be do-able in our calendar?

For players with enough playtime one their hands, the one-week events could be completed in a single day. And no one would be kept away from the bubble for ages.

To prevent stealing warm-up race slots, the three one week races could share a weekend with the warm-ups, so my event could finish on the same weekend that a warm-up race starts (or vice-versa). Since my races would be long ranged (and reversible if necessary) I could also make my finishing lines the same station as the starting line of the "paired" warmup race.

Each of my rallies would have 5-6 stages. So individual CDMRs could opt to join in with individual rallies (or individual stages) if they prefered. The top runners in each race would receive points towards the overall Galactic Rally Championship, which would be awrded to CMDR Alot after the final race.

The most distant places visited would be the Skull & Crossbone Nebula to the Gal-East, the Crab Pulsar to the Gal-South, "Explorer's End" to the Gal-West, plus a suitably big star "up" and "down" from Sol (there are suitable targets approx 1000LY each way, but I forget their names and need to check that you don't need a Conda to reach them!). I've no plans for a Gal-North race, but I'd be open minded to requiring each racer to complete an offical A* run sometime during the year.

Again feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Have you had a chance to review my second race idea, which I've tentatively codenamed "furrycat's race idea number two?"

I'm intregued!!!

[Alec Turner]

The Galactic Rally.

YAY!

Alec said that he'd like to join the rally, but struggles to play for more than an hour or two a day. He mentioned that the BBRA was a major undertaking for him, that he needed to plan for well in advance. I totally sympathise with this, as I've mentioned many times my own A* runs are all made overnight Saturday evening to Sunday morning while the kiddies are in bed. I'd like to make a race that Alec can join in.

Still true and double YAY! Much appreciated.

Each of my rallies would have 5-6 stages. So individual CDMRs could opt to join in with individual rallies (or individual stages) if they prefered. The top runners in each race would receive points towards the overall Galactic Rally Championship, which would be awrded to CMDR Alot after the final race.

I was going to suggest something like this but you've beaten me to it. Basically split the BIG rally up into a bunch of smaller rallies. People like me can attempt one or two of the smaller ones, others with more time available can go for the whole circuit. You could perhaps stipulate a "stopover time" (ST) of an hour or so. So, suppose I do two of the small rallies in a row with a total time of T1, then come back a week later and do the third (we're talking a three leaf clover right?) with time T2. My total logged time would be T1+ST+T2. In other words, there would be a penalty for not doing it all in one sitting. You could have separate leader boards for the individual legs and then one big leader board for the whole thing? Don't envy you the maintenance overhead mind you!

Oh, and Alot's time would be T1+ST+T2+AH where AH is the Alot Handicap to be decided by secret balot :-)

[furrycat]

Splitting into stages makes sense. If you screenshot at the start and end of each stage you can add the total times together easily enough.

One thing I'd like to see supported natively by the game is a "race mode" where you set a start and end waypoint and the game automatically starts a clock when you leave the first waypoint and stops it when you arrive at the second one. It would also automatically pause the clock when you jump to a new system, so players wouldn't be punished for having suboptimal internet connections to the Frontier servers.

[mw_aurora]

*tosses Rep at everyone above, some real, some virtual, whatever the forum gods allow*

Great working name furrycat

Raiko - you already know I am up for this I like the idea of running it as a championship - big boards for every event and a master championship table. And I like the idea that you include a BRCA run in the mix as well...but then I like Sag A*

[robinjb]

Robin points out (not necessarily directly about my rally) that BRC events should be 1-2 weeks at most, and shouldn't take CMDRs away from the main game for a long time. I actually agree entirely, and I'd like to create an event that Robin would at least think about joining in - as it is I doubt that he would, and even worse my Gal-Rally would stop Robin from doing any racing in the Bubble for up to six weeks!

yeah the thought of no races in 'normal' space for 6 weeks is horrific.
the original idea doesn't appeal to me as it would be too far to keep playing the game how I think most people like to play.. i.e. dipping into a bit of everything.
Im ok with the BRC doing another separate event.. like the BRA* that can just run when you want Raiko and could be your original plan for those that want to go hardcore.
as long as we can run 'normal' BRC races at the same time.

My best solution so far would be to scrap the big single event, and switch to "The Buckyball Racing Club presents: The Galactic Rally Championship." As my planned course followed a cloverleaf pattern, returning to the bubble after each major leg, I'd be able to break up the Rally into 4 much shorter events. Three one week rallies, requiring the same time as a Warm-up race, and one two-week final Rally (the Formidine Rift and back).

this sounds great and id be up for racing in that kind of event.
as far as im concerned the more racing we have the better and the more events run by different racers the better for the club.
as long as they are not silly races to 65k out or some such nonsense... that sort of stuff..IMHO is for the explorers.

On a different subject.
few people have asked me for bits and bobs of the logo for to do there own flyers and promotional BRC stuff.
that is of course very cool with me.. as long as you use the assets well. i.e. no silly anti aliasing nonsense ( alec im looking at you )
all you need to do is ask.. and I can do you a render of any logo at any size in any format in any color on any background.. including transparent pngs or tiffs with alpha.
I would ask that any flyer have the logo on and use the orbitron font we have chosen for the BRC presents bit, you can use any font for the title .
I also ask that any text is legible on the flyer.
i.e. don't do light grey text on a white background.. unless you outline or drop shadow so the text can be read reasonably easily. or the BRC design natzis will be after you.

you can find the basic set of logos and things here and the font here

ill just add that anyone who wants me to do them a flyer.. that would be my pleasure, just pm me and we can work something out.

EDIT:- ive added a zip with 128, 256,512,1024 versions of just the logo no text opaque and transparent in png format for future use. here
if anyone wants to do a tshirt or mug.. or teacosy.. youll need bigger images.. that's no problem .. again pm me.

[drakhyr]

A couple of thoughts on the Galactic Rally:

If the route returns to the bubble at a few points, that obviously gives people the opportunity to take a break there, and head off to do other things for a bit, even if it's all part of a wider race window. The biggest challenge would probably be for those on limited playing time, who might feel they can't take a break if they want to complete the course within the overall time. So yeah, probably best to split.

One risk of splitting is the likelihood of a gradually declining participant list, as people who did earlier legs drop out or can't make a later leg. I would suggest allowing catch up - so while the second leg is underway, new entries should also be accepted for those completing the first leg, etc. That would mean that someone who misses the race window for the first leg (whether they heard about it and couldn't make it, or just didn't hear about it in time) could still participate in the overall standings, by running both the first and second legs in the window for the second leg. This is of particular interest to me as I'm likely to be away for the second leg .

On the wider schedule:

OK, sounds like I do need to start looking at the schedule into the start of next year

There is likely to be an overlap between Buckyball Run 9 and the Kessel Run. Since the Kessel Run is a two-week events, and the dates of BBR9 are still uncertain, I'm don't see that as being a problem.

My current thought is to leave a gap after the Kessel Run, since a number of us are planning the Sag A* trip for the last weekend in November. Unless somebody fancies doing a short event focussed around the previous weekend (21-22 Nov)?

The slots in early December and mid-January will be taken up by mw_aurora's Mischief Mile and Esvandiary's as-yet-unnamed race - I'll let them decide between themselves who takes which slot.

If the Galactic Rally is split into four parts as Raiko suggested, with gaps in between for other races, that will take us through to the end of April (or possibly longer, as I think we might need to put some gaps in along the way for updates). Those other race slots are then up for the taking - I expect at least one of them to be filled with one of furrycat's race ideas, but happy to take volunteers for the rest (though we don't need to pin those down at the moment - and there might be some new ideas to consider once Horizons is out!).

That would leave a schedule looking something like the following:

When - What - Who
31 Oct-15 Nov - The Kessel Run - Stern Winter
5-13 Dec - Slot A - mw_aurora or Esvandiary
25 Dec-6 Jan - My True Love Sent To Me (Festive Special) - drakhyr
9-17 Jan - Slot B - Esvandiary or mw_aurora (note: could be a week later and push everything else back a week)
23-31 Jan - Galactic Rally Part 1 - Raiko
6-14 Feb - tbc - tbc
20-28 Feb - Galactic Rally Part 2 - Raiko
5-13 Mar - tbc - tbc
19-27 Mar - Galactic Rally Part 3 - Raiko
2-10 Apr - tbc - tbc
16 Apr-1 May - Galactic Rally Part 4 - Raiko

[drakhyr]

An alternative thought on the Galactic Rally:

Actually, the fact that the route does come back to the bubble makes reasonable break points. Keeping the Galactic Rally as one block, but emphasising the break points, might help keep the participation up, allow people to catch up, and also allow breaks to do other things. This might mean something like having the initially proposed five-week block, but announcing the stages in groups that end up back in the bubble - so leaf 1 (following the clover-leaf analogy!) is announced at the start, leaf 2 announced one week in, leaf 3 announced two weeks in, and leaf 4 announced three weeks in, with everybody needing to finish by the five week time limit.

That hopefully allows people to spread the legs out, and have breaks between leaves, in whatever way they want. It also makes clear that as well as individual stages, there are the four leaves to compete for as well (which could be spread out over anywhere between two and five weeks).

I'm open to either approach, though on reflection possibly with a slight preference for doing the Rally all together in one block, rather than with the parts widely separated as in the schedule I posted earlier.

[Stern Winter]

The Kessel Run is up:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showth...=1#post3006970

News coverage application:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showth...=1#post2999321

[Raiko]

The Kessel Run is up:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showth...=1#post3006970

News coverage application:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showth...=1#post2999321

Excellent! I've been looking forward to this one.

BTW: You need to add your CMDR name at the bottom of your GalNet story. Non-FD news articles always have a CMDR name.

[Stern Winter]

Excellent! I've been looking forward to this one.

BTW: You need to add your CMDR name at the bottom of your GalNet story. Non-FD news articles always have a CMDR name.

Edited the announcement. Thanks for the heads up.

BTW. I also tried with a little ad for the race in the Dangerous Discussion forum. It was moved within 10min.

[Raiko]

Edited the announcement. Thanks for the heads up.

BTW. I also tried with a little ad for the race in the Dangerous Discussion forum. It was moved within 10min.

Dangerous Discussion is purely for whining about griefers or carebears (depending on who's doing the whining). Any worthwhile contribution to the game must be discussed elsewhere.