Buckyball Racing Club presents: Falling With Style : An SRV base-jumping festival (19-27 May 3304)

[Nick Sticks]

I'll give this a go even though my SRV driving skills are a bit rusty

[Alec Turner]

A quick note (from personal experience) on not getting downhearted about your SRV skills.

When I hosted the "Kick the alien and run like hell" Buckyball race back in November 2016 I thought I was pretty good at controlling the SRV.

Then a bunch of people showed up (I'm mentioning no names ) who's times were frankly unbelieveable. I mean, as race judge, I literally DID NOT BELIEVE THEM (sorry guys, but I think I can say that now, take it as an extreme compliment). It was only after studying the videos (and eventually flying chase cam' alongside them) that I came to the awful realisation that, good as I thought I was ... I'd barely begun my SRV learning experience. I truly believe that, alongside PvP combat (which I know I'm bad it), controlling the SRV under these high-speed, low-g, airborn conditions is one of THE true skills of this game and something that can only be truly mastered over a long period of time (and I can say that without pride because I know I'm still not quite there yet).

So, if you take a crack at this race and find yourself at the bottom end of the scoreboard, don't get disheartened, you're on a glorious and ultimately very rewarding learning path. Dust yourself off and, as mentioned, focus on beating your own previous best time.

Here are some tips on SRV "fliving" that I wrote last year some time which I think still hold reasonably true.

n.b. full pips to ENG ... shields don't protect the SRV against terrain collisions!

Lots of practice is definitely a thing when it comes to SRV driving.

One thing you can do which is a great little practice exercise ... get yourself stationary on some level ground on a nice low-g world (this one will probably do) then boost straight up (using almost all of your boost capacitor). At the top of your jump start rolling the SRV. As you start to descend, and once you've nearly spun all the way around, counter the roll in the opposite direction. The objective is to do a single barrel roll and to then land perfectly level again, feathering with a bit more boost at the last minute to gently touch all 6 (8 actually) wheels simultaneously back down on the ground. Then try the same thing with a forwards (or backwards) somersault using your pitch controls. Once you've mastered that you can try turning faster to squeeze in 2 spins before touching back down.

As to travelling at speed, a couple of tips to remember.

1) After flying the ship (especially with a HOTAS) use of yaw becomes 2nd nature. Alas the SRV has no yaw control. You must unlearn what you have learned! If you find yourself travelling somewhat sideways after a bad landing (or even backwards when you get really good) then in order to re-align your SRV with its direction of travel you have to: pitch down, roll a bit, pitch up & roll back to level. Try it now with your hand (point your flat hand forwards, tip it down, rotate it right, tip it back up and roll it level - see?). It's a REALLY tricky little manoeuvre to master but absolutely essential for fast SRV travel.

2) Travelling along the ground at speed the SRV has a very nasty tendency to suddenly go into a spin. To avoid this keep ground contact to a minimum. Once you get much above 30-40m/s your (brief) touchdowns (which should then bounce you back into the air - don't make them too gentle, you can bounce pretty hard) need to be precise. You need to be level (with the ground you're about to hit) and facing the direction of travel. Don't be tempted to land on the back wheels, you could be excused for thinking it might work but it won't end well.

3) Look ahead and choose your landing spots. Use boost (or lack thereof) to control your descent and hit them. On rough terrain pick a nice mound (don't know if you've ever skied moguls but you're aiming to bounce across the smooth tops of these, possibly just slightly before each peak).

If you watch videos from people like Tannik they make it look almost too easy. Here's me (from "Kick The Alien") ...



You can see that when I land without being perfectly straight and level it goes badly wrong. For example, at 55s my front right wheel touches first and I then have to wrestle the controls like a madman to correct my orientation (with lots of amateurish over-correction!) and at 1:21 I land back wheels first (WRONG!). But at 50s I basically hit just about right and it goes tolerably well.

As for changing your direction of travel ... you can make VERY gentle corrections using steering control when travelling along the ground but otherwise you need to tilt onto your side while moving through the air and use boost to push yourself back into the right direction.

It's all very challenging (possibly THE most challenging thing in the whole damn game) but also enormous fun (possibly THE most fun thing in the whole damn game).

[Edelgard von Rhein]

I'm going to take part in this but I think I'll be burning through some SRVs. Lately I've been trying to fly more than drive but, although I have been able to improve my speed, my landings are terrible - I am faster staying on the ground still because most of the time I bounce and spin/crash rather than land. Practice really makes perfect in this case, so I'm persevering - but this is going to be a tough race for me.

[Raiko]

I'm going to take part in this but I think I'll be burning through some SRVs. Lately I've been trying to fly more than drive but, although I have been able to improve my speed, my landings are terrible - I am faster staying on the ground still because most of the time I bounce and spin/crash rather than land. Practice really makes perfect in this case, so I'm persevering - but this is going to be a tough race for me.

I'll probably be neck and neck with you in this one then!

Alec, if you dock at the surface base, then fly to the top of the course and start flyving down only to explode mid-way, where do you respawn? Back in the surface base or in orbit?

And can you restock at the base?

Just deciding how big an SRV hangar to fit.

[Alec Turner]

I'll probably be neck and neck with you in this one then!

Alec, if you dock at the surface base, then fly to the top of the course and start flyving down only to explode mid-way, where do you respawn? Back in the surface base or in orbit?

In the air, a few 100km above the base - not too much of hardship really.

You could of course leave your ship docked and just drive to the top of the mountain! at which point I think you'd probably respawn back in the dock. I'm sure the more hard core among the base jumping community would heartily approve of this (there must be a name for skiers who eschew the lifts in favour of hiking up the mountain). I am currently in the process of attempting this ... it's quite a hike!

And can you restock at the base?

Just deciding how big an SRV hangar to fit.

Yup, you can restock SRVs at the base. Oh, and they also have planetary vehicle hangars for sale!

[subhouse07]

I've been doing finals for school for a solid three weeks and haven't touched elite once during that time. Now finals are over and as fate would have it a completely nutso srv race has been conceived! Count me in!

[Alec Turner]

I've been doing finals for school for a solid three weeks and haven't touched elite once during that time. Now finals are over and as fate would have it a completely nutso srv race has been conceived! Count me in!

Yay! To quote Ed Lewis "All the best one's are here!" (except for the best one's who aren't here yet).

Damn, I forgot to do the "Magnificent Seven" thing, oh well, I think we're at least ...

(ish)

[Kris]

Might give it a try.
(not until weekend at earliest)

[Dharrch Streynjer]

This is definitely one deserving of an attempt from TheMadOll.
It looks as thought some of us at the Fighter Club will be there LoL

Darnit! can't rep you....

Oh well.

o7

[Alec Turner]

This is definitely one deserving of an attempt from TheMadOll.
It looks as thought some of us at the Fighter Club will be there LoL

Darnit! can't rep you....

Oh well.

o7

Fighter Club vs. The Mountain ... I like it! Welcome.

[PrimetimeCasual]

Fighter Club vs. The Mountain ... I like it! Welcome.

Well, for this race, the "vehicle" in "SRV" is more sort of a cross between hangglider and attack helicopter. Not much vehicling about on this course!

[Alec Turner]

Well, for this race, the "vehicle" in "SRV" is more sort of a cross between hangglider and attack helicopter. Not much vehicling about on this course!

I like to think of it more like a Zorb with thrusters!

[Ozric]

*pokes head in*

Oh, an SRV race hosted by Alec. Well it would be rude not to try and enter this and certainly lose a lot of SRVs in the process!

Ozric is out in the black at the moment, heading on a tribute pilgrimage, so I may have to see if I can entice Elastul to come racing. She's still fairly young and may not have much in the way of SRV repairs, but she's certainly feisty!

I should probably also mention that she is a techno mage, though I'm sure she'll promise to not use that to her advantage...

[PrimetimeCasual]

*comms static*

"Smith Base, do you read?"

"Loud and clear, CMDR. How can we help?"

"I'm on approach to Beta Sculptoris as we speak - how the situation on the ground? Landing pads? Hotel rooms? SRV maintenance?"

"Thank you for asking, we have everything prepared for the Buckyball Festival, discounted rooms for participants are available for card carrying members of the BRC."

*GLIDE engaged*

"Smith base, is that the mountain?"

"Yes CMDR, that is the main attraction of the Buckyball Festival."

"Pretty steep, huh?"

"Indeed. It's gradient goes all the way to nearly vertical cliff faces, with Smith Base situated near the foot of the mountains."

*Landing pad secured*

"So, rooms for participants. How about SRV maintenance bays? I barely had time to load my ship, I will need to perform some checks before throwing myself off those cliffs."

"Do not worry CMDR, every room comes with an assigned garage and workshop for SRV maintenance."

"Err, yes. How about, more than one SRV?"

"I can see you are a sensible Buckyballer, a rare breed. We can easily accomodate two SRV per CMDR, so you can take out one to drive and have the other restored to pristine conditions at the same time."

"Hm. Hmmm. Uh. How about, more than two SRV?"

*whispered conversation over Comms*

"How many SRV are we talking about, exactly, CMDR?"

"Eleven."

"I... Ele... WHAT?"

[PrimetimeCasual]

Sorry for the double post.

But on a more serious note...

- Check your headings when starting out. It's super easy to get thrown off course and end up 40 or 50km from Smith Base.
- Reserve at least 10km as braking zone...

My first trial run, totally inofficial, was slightly above 10 minutes - that is with 5km overshoot and not knowing where the bloody garages are! Oh, and 242m/s at 4.78km altitude. Just a first benchmark to throw about. I predict winning times of 6 to 7 minutes, judging from what would've been possibly without the overshoot.