Community Event / Creation The Buckyball Racing Club presents: Hot Off The Press (17th to 25th August 3305)

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
OK - it's the moment you've all been waiting for ... THE FINAL RESULTS!

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So, before we get to the announcement of the final winners let's go over the last round of submissions.

First up and Cmdr Sulu was back, flying something just a tad bigger and more expensive than his Krait Phantom ... an Imperial Cutter named "Alecto IV". I'm not sure we've ever had an Imperial Cutter in a Buckyball Race before have we? Anyway, Following the same group selection as on previous runs he still managed to shift the heaviest ship in the race (1,825t) around the course in a perfectly reasonable 33 min 33 sec - even after being interdicted (you should see the other guy - that's the "ship explosion" nicely ticked off the list). Overall tho' Sulu finishes 13th flying the The Mean Machine Krait Phantom. Bravo - good job!

Next and Azzie Elbub is back in the Scaramamba Mamba, over 2 minutes faster than his previous run, to finish 7th overall with an excellent time of 20 mins 18 sec. Nice flying and a terrific kaboom shot for the ship explosion category!

Then we have the first of two scenic tours - Cmdr Edelgard von Rhein flying a Viper Mk IV named "Rust Bucket". As you'll have already seen, this run involved stopping off to properly capture some of these sights on camera, and what a terrific set of photographs they are too - definitely up to the standard of Sagittarius Eye's photography department. Alas getting these great images did cost a bit of time ... 1 hr 30 min 23 secs to be precise, which means that Edelgard finishes in 11th place overall with the "Hermes" DBX's previous time of 23 min 58 secs. Thanks for being a fantastic sport and we loved the photographs!

That was closely followed by the submission of our second scenic tour - roving reporter Beth Johanson's epic voyage around all eighteen candidate photo opportunities. What a sensational journey it's been - massive thanks to the galaxy's own Kate Adie for keeping us all informed and entertained over the last week. The journey took a total of 5 days 21 hrs 11 mins and 41 seconds, putting the "Haulin' Arx" in 15th and final place but very much a winner as far as I'm concerned. Just brilliant!

And finally, our last run of the night - Cmdr Darplata94 is back in the DBX (this time named "Rolled Gold"), delivering our only competitive asteroid explosion of the entire race. Considering the difficulty of capturing that on camera I have to salute Darplata94's time, a fantasic 18 min 58 secs which puts him in 6th place, just over a minute ahead of Azzie Elbub's Scaramamba.

And so we come to the announcement of our overall winners.

So, in 3rd place, flying the "Pocket Rocket" Viper, Cmdr Nickweb85 managed to see Orange Pheonix mining, get his SRV over 250m in the air, found a Thargoid sensor and a Guardian relic (conveniently floating right next to each other), saw a geyser and found a wrecked SRV - and he did all that in just 9 minutes and 54 seconds! Awesome racing and a ricly deserved third place!

Next, in second place, we have Cmdr Orange Pheonix flying an Imperial Eagle named Shadowfax. Photographing a similar set of items (including, surprise surprise, Cmdr Nickweb85 mining and another pair of Guardian and Thargoid items conveniently floating right next to each other) - OrangePheonix finishes in 2nd place with a time of just 9 minutes and 18 seconds. Brilliant racing - both of you. I love the tactic (although by rights I guess I ought to tear your prize in two and give you half each).

And lastly - he needs no drumroll since we all know who it is, up there since the beginning - in first place we have Cmdr Numerlor!

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Following a carefully chosen selection of items similar to those used by the deadly duo of Woodward OrangePheonix and Bernstein Nickweb85 (including Thargoid and Guardian items found conveniently floating right inside the starting mail slot!) but dropping another ship mining in favour of a Buckyball holo-ad in group #1 (a tactic of which I heartily approve), Numerlor simply practiced and perfected his chosen route until he got it absolutely spot on and finally managed to complete the assignment in an astounding 6 minutes and 32 seconds.

I think I should probably leave it to Numerlor to post the video of his run but I'll warn you now - there's something a bit, well, shocking and possibly contentious about it. My mouth literally dropped open when I saw it and I did consider objecting but - the thing is - I never actually said you couldn't do this thing and - well - the way he does it ... it has chutzpah, and I really like that! :LOL:

Calling @Numerlor - time to post the video mate (and then run for cover!) 😂

P.S. I still have screenshot competition winners and some other shoutouts and stuff to mention but wanted to get this posted asap.
 
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punkydrummer01

P
Now it's all over, may as well reveal my route
1st Lee Gateway - Millese - Outpost Ship Showroom
2nd Cherry Port - Aganippe - Burning/Repairing Station
3rd Wolf 636 - Planet 2 distress calls - Thargoid Interceptor, Federal Capital Ship, Human Shipwrecks
4th Dalton Dock - Gaohikel - Noob Hammers
Think I did pretty well considering this is my first outing at a buckyball, and my first runs were in my combat ship :cool:
 

UmbraRex

UmbraRex
All I have to say is never try a Buckyball on a new HOTAS.

My new one doesn't have twist for Yaw and I SERIOUSLY underestimated how much I use that when flying. I had missed approaches everywhere that hosed my times.

For the record, my entire run was between Millese and a geological site on Aryak a1.

Great race Alec. It's a shame my cunning plan didn't pan out like I had hoped.

Edit to add: Just watched the video. Brilliant.
 
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nickweb

nickweb
Little bit of backstory here: OrangePheonix had given me these two items to drop for him to screenshot... all had gone well so far. I was in position ready to drop them so he could screenshot them, but as soon as I dropped them out of my cargo hatch, a flippin' Search and Rescue NPC decides to clean up! I'll let the video tell the rest... :)

 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
nickweb said:
Little bit of backstory here: OrangePheonix had given me these two items to drop for him to screenshot... all had gone well so far. I was in position ready to drop them so he could screenshot them, but as soon as I dropped them out of my cargo hatch, a flippin' Search and Rescue NPC decides to clean up! I'll let the video tell the rest... :)

Click to expand...
LMFAO - classic! :ROFLMAO:
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
Looking forward to seeing watching Numerlor's video, as my dastardly plan of waiting and following him didn't come through.

Ok, as for my route - running a combat ship with definitely short legs (29 ly and a bit in the race laodout) as by the current ED standard, I ticked off all those Guardian/Thargoid hotspots right from the start. Fortunately, all but one objective could be fulfilled within the Millese system:

1. The Showroom - Group 6A. Conveniently located at Millese A3, Lee Gateway
2. A Geyser or Fumarole - Group 5B. Millese A3A, geo location #28. The first location I sampled already had a nice set of Geysers and a decent parking spot right on the middle.
3. of course, when there's a Geyser, it's easy to get the SRV over 250 m - Group 2A. Main problem was that "over 250 m" usually turned out to be "over 3 km", which means a long time for coming down again. Calling the ship back on the way down somewhat helped.
4. Asteroid Mining - Group 1B. Millese A3 has a ring, complete with a Low RES. The miners were easy to find.
5. Exploding Ship - Group 3B. Low RES, combat ship. The main problem here was hitting the screenshot hotkey fast enough, as the number of pirates was somewhat limited.
6. Noob Hammers - Group 4B. Some research via Google turned up a number of noob hammer stations - the closest over in Flechti, also close to the drop-in point. Still, for my first runs, 3 jumps each way. Thankfully, Alec posted the link to the Buckyball discord where some people at the time were discussing the use of FSD boosts - which I had completely overlooked so far. But that got me the final two minutes.

I tried for a less than 20 minute run, but something always went wrong at or before the Millese A3 ring - missed the planet, rammed the showroom, didn't catch the explosion,...

Anyway - great race. Had fun. Received a greeting from Bruski in my inbox, but never even saw him on the track???? Saw a couple of other racers once or twice, but was too busy at the time to search for my keyboard (I fly in VR) and tap out a greeting.
 

Edelgard von Rhein

E
Many thanks to Alec for staging an original and inventive race that allowed a variety of approaches! o7
Congratulations to Numerlor for winning and to everyone who took part o7. It was great to see all the screenshots and stories :)

My initial research for the race didn't quite work, as I had read of a Tipoff mission destination with a wrecked T9 and a Thargoid Sensor and possibly a wrecked SRV (easy enough to arrange if absent) but when I went there it was absent, so for my initial attempt I used a Thargoid crash site at HIP 17403 A4a that also has wrecked human ships embedded into the central peak of a crater. I fulfilled four objectives there, just about able to get 250m altitude in the SRV as the peak's sides were very steep. With a 71.40 LY range, it was not a problem getting to the Pleiades using Jackson's Lighthouse and only a few jumps back to it, since Millese is ~195 LY away it was one jump back. On the way out to the pulsar, I searched for and found a noobhammer station, Pangborn City, Karnarki. I remembered a Cap Ship in Nemehi as it was something I'd seen trading there some time ago in my T9.

My second and best effort in my DBX began with a jump to Charick Drift where the Generation Ship Atlas is right next to the white dwarf primary (wrecked ship), then went to Cherry Port, Aganippe, which is repairing, then used the same Capital ship in Nemehi as before, then noobhammer Coriolis Pangborn City, Karnarki, then to the outpost Kooi Dock, Caeritis, where I found a Weapons Fire Threat 4 next door and just about got a screenshot of an exploding ship in the pirate attack taking place, before proceeding to the ship showroom at Kooi Dock. Each of these locations was one jump from the next in my DBX and from Caeritis it was one jump to Jackson's Lighthouse and thus two jumps back to Millese.
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Alec Turner said:
And then we have a brand new entry from another Buckyball veteran - Cmdr Raiko! He's flying his A* Asp Explorer "The Nomand" around yet another fairly unique route and I'm absolutely delighted to say he's discovered one particular site I was really hoping somebody would use which combines two fairly unusual photo opportunities. If I'd had the ability to hide a little time bonus loot box somewhere I would have hidden it here!
Click to expand...
Here's the location I was so pleased Raiko managed to find ..

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INRA base where they experimented on Thargoids ... includes a little bit of left over Thargoid - eurgh! But I specifically had that location in mind when creating this race.



Ashnak said:
Fortunately, all but one objective could be fulfilled within the Millese system:
Click to expand...
That, however - I most certainly did not know when creating the race. How hilarious!
 

Stern Winter

Stern Winter
Thanks to Alec for another thoroughly entertaining race.

My route:

- Kairos A 1 A Geosite 1 - Fumaroles in a canyon, followed by landing at the canyon edge and doing a base jump in my SRV.
- Back to Millese - Lee Gateway to look at some classic ships in a showroom, followed by a short hop to a nearby conflict zone to look at some classic ships go boom and an arriving Farragut.
- Noob hammers are found at Rutherford Refinery in Flechti, then going home to watch the news.

Props to Numerlor for winning and thinking so far outside the box that it can no longer be seen.
 

Darkfyre99

Darkfyre99
First things first, again thank you Alec for hosting this event. It was fun, even if I went for a... non traditional route.

As for why I went this route, it has to do with a perfect storm of circumstances and personal preferences.

First, Commander Inga Stevenson is slowly making her way back from the far edge of the galaxy, which meant her fleet of ships and her store of engineered modules were unavailable to me. Instead, I had Commander Beth Johanson, her unengineered Hauler with a jump range of 19 light years, almost no mats, and about two million credits to her name. I’ve never done much with Beth, since I figured that if Inga wasn’t in the Bubble, the “regulation whatever” division would always be available. 🤷

Second, I’ve always had a thing about relying on walkthroughs, guides, and third party sites to actually play a game. I think it’s much more fun to figure out things myself. If I wanted to be “competitive,” I’d have to do just that. 🤷

Third, one of the appeals of Buckyball Racing is letting all these characters and situations my mind is constantly creating come out and say “Hi.” I’ve got the kind of brain that can take a few details and run away with them, spinning them into a story. I quite enjoy sharing them will all of you. :) Generally, I use my “downtime” to write these things, often in advance.

Finally, uninterrupted time that can be spent giving this game my full attention is often frustratingly rare. Between friends, family, work and other interests (primarily cycling and golf) I’m lucky if I get to play five hours a week. I’ve also got a lot of “downtime”: time spent waiting in lines, for appointments to finish, waiting for a child’s activity to finish (often late), and so on. 20 years ago, this would be novel time for me. These days, it’s forum time.

It suddenly occurred to me that I could kill several birds with one stone: Beth’s lack of credits and materials for engineering, Beth’s lack of “connections,” while still having a blast participating in the event without impacting my time to write little drabbles. Thus, the ever suffering Beth Johanson was forced to become a Roving Reporter for what was the company newsletter. :D

My strategy for this event will probably be posted tomorrow. ;)
 

Terrorsidic

Terrorsidic
Interesting read

and thank you to those photojournalists that spent the time to capture those beautiful photographs, instead of resorting to fake news.

I think you're the real winners ;)
 

Codger

Codger
Congrats to everyone who raced, and of course to the winner, Numerlor!

Circumstances prevented me from participating, but I enjoyed watching. After seeing the winning run, though, I have to admit that I didn't understand this race at all. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't enter, hehe.

Creative thinking is a good thing. :)
 

Bruski

Bruski
A. Mad props to Numerlor for the most fitting end of a race ever.

B. Why did it respawn him at the Print Works and not the outpost he was next to? Do I not understand the spawning rules?

C. My route was:

Take off from The Print Works
50% FSD Boost to Gliese 868 (one of the nearest noobhammer stations)
Descend on Gliese 868 2, to a pre-scouted human ship wreck.
Land on a nearby cliff, after shutting off shields and banging my hull < 20% during landing.
Deploy SRV, turn around, and shoot ship until ti explodes.
Jump SRV off cliff to get 250m
Self-destruct SRV to return to nearest station, which is Bacon Port (with Noobhammers)
Blast out of Bacon Port, turning a flip on the way to see the noobhammers (I forgot this once or twice actually).
Jump to Elion City in Cheglit (about halfway between Gliese and Millese with a showroom)
Drop on Elion city and blast past
25% FSD boost
Jump to Millese
Drop in on a Asteroid Belt, and see what ships spawn.
If mining ships don't spawn, engage pre-charged FSD supercruise, and loop around to drop again.
Watch some ship fire a laser at an asteroid.
Splat into said asteroid, to respawn at The Print Works.
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
I was gonna do a final cut and paste of the pie charts but I just realised I should be able to release the actual google form submission results page to everyone now. I'll do that shortly then people will be able to see the pie charts as well as all the submission screenshots (which are quite interesting).
o7
 
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