Hah, I knew I was missing something. I'll be adopting the Aulin route, too. I even sold off my guns before my first run, but didn't look close enough at the galaxy map, obviously. Expect a third run sometime this week.
Announcing... The Buckyball Braben Star-to-Shining-Star Memorial Trophy Dash (Beta)
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I flew a (slow) reverse run from Wyrd to Magec and used exactly the same amount of fuel - this is interesting as I'd thought that there might be a difference due to using a larger amount of fuel for the first jump.
Let's say the fuel mass used for a small jump is "s", for a big jump is "b", and the total fuel mass in the tank is "F", ship mass "M"; the Anaconda has a 1 ton reservoir as far as I can make out, and the amounts being used for insystem travel are small compared to the amounts being used in the jumps; besides, all the insystem travel happens after the jumping.
So going from Magec to Wyrd;
small jump, small jump, big jump
jump with M+F
jump with M+F-s
jump with M+F-2s
Going from Wyrd to Magec;
big jump, small jump, small jump
jump with M+F
jump with M+F-b
jump with M+F-(b+s)
As the total fuel used was the same I think this implies that the fuel used in jumping depends only on the distance jumped and not on the current mass of the ship.
But I've got the feeling I'm missing something. Time for some SCIENCE*.
*!!SCIENCE!! if I log in to find my ship has mysteriously acquired a small Federation bounty and gets vapourised by the next starport.
Let's say the fuel mass used for a small jump is "s", for a big jump is "b", and the total fuel mass in the tank is "F", ship mass "M"; the Anaconda has a 1 ton reservoir as far as I can make out, and the amounts being used for insystem travel are small compared to the amounts being used in the jumps; besides, all the insystem travel happens after the jumping.
So going from Magec to Wyrd;
small jump, small jump, big jump
jump with M+F
jump with M+F-s
jump with M+F-2s
Going from Wyrd to Magec;
big jump, small jump, small jump
jump with M+F
jump with M+F-b
jump with M+F-(b+s)
As the total fuel used was the same I think this implies that the fuel used in jumping depends only on the distance jumped and not on the current mass of the ship.
But I've got the feeling I'm missing something. Time for some SCIENCE*.
*!!SCIENCE!! if I log in to find my ship has mysteriously acquired a small Federation bounty and gets vapourised by the next starport.
Interesting. I just had an idea after reading your post.
Wonder if the mass of weapons/cargo affected the amount of fuel used. Going back to watch my video, the route I've taken was 33.02 light years long (yes I added them all up). So the Cobra with my usual loadout can probably jump 35 light years (small sliver of fuel left on the gauge) on one tank.
Gonna run the same route with a naked Cobra and see if there's a difference
That is interesting. So the fuel usage is the same, but the mass of the ship still determines jump distance.
One thing for sure, it sounds like Frontier Development needs to issue you a grant for all your research.
What is more interesting, is now that I've done my tests, the mass of your ship (cargo plus loadout) affects FUEL CONSUMPTION.
With an almost-naked Cobra, I did the run again with the same exact route, and I had about 1/3 of my tank left when I arrived at Wyrd. In the original run with my weapons and armour, I had a small sliver (2 or 3 pixels wide) of fuel left on the gauge.
So that means:
1. Mass of your ship affects your jump distance (per jump, as in whether you can make it from Aulin to BD 47+2112)
2. Mass of your ship affects your total jump range on a single tank before you need to refuel.
In Jack's tests. it showed that as long as the distance is the same and the mass of ship is unchanged, the fuel consumption is the same, regardless of big or small jumps.
Most interesting indeed
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I think I was mistaken, so I'm gathering data.
It's fun in any case and hopefully will be of use to rally pilots when it's done.
Xiaoguan station is cute.
It's fun in any case and hopefully will be of use to rally pilots when it's done.
Xiaoguan station is cute.
There's some more about fuel consumption in this thread.
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32734
Including dev posts with the formula.
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32734
Including dev posts with the formula.
See, I KNEW someone had to have a copy of the owner's manual somewhere!
Is there anything on seat adjustment and programming the presets on the radio?
Wrong game. That would be Eurotruck Simulator 2 that has this, among other things such as mirror adjustments and external/additional lights
*Grin*
Since a parsec is 3.26 LY, and 12 parsecs = 39.12 LY, I think the people in bigger ships have all done it. My Cobra flew that route in 32 Lightyears which is less than 12 parsecs (9.8 parsecs).
But yeah I know where that quote came from
And now, a word from our sponsor...
Hey all, just wanted to get a temperature reading from those who participated in the Buckyball Run and people who read about it on the forum here, mainly to find out how practical races are to conduct in the game.
Admittedly, the biggest problem of running an event like this is there is no reward. In an actual race, there would be a reason for you to put your ship and your economic livelihood on the line. Instead, as things stand, by doing a race a pilot would be out a couple hundred credits for fuel at best, and down a few thousand at worst if something went wrong. The only real reward is honing some in-game skill and reaping some rep from your fellow forum readers.
There's a lot to do in the game to help a commander make their fortune, but this really isn't one of them. Still, there's a certain percentage of the spacefaring population (myself included) that this appeals to. It's not about the reward, it's about the challenge. Noted philosopher Michael Cheritto said it best: "For me, the action is the juice." So, it's possible that unless Frontier implements in-game races with in-game rewards, the action will have to be enough.
Anyway, I've got a few questions for those who've visited this topic but have not participated in the race.
I'm going to whip out another race next weekend, but I do wonder about the viability of racing as a serious pastime in the release version of ED. With a zillion systems to explore and virtually no boundaries, how many captains will be able to navigate to a start point to even begin a race? If I'm 3000 light years away from the start and finish line, would I even care? Group events just might not be practical. This might only be a practical exercise for the beta, where everyone is forced together.
And for those of you who did participate, how would you make it better? Bear in mind that for logistic purposes any races I conduct will be of a similar format. Running a live race means finding a time people around the world can agree on, trying to coordinate in the game, etc. Keeping an open start time and keeping the leaderboard open for a few days lets people participate on their own schedule. The big drawback I see is that if someone comes along and posts a kick-ass time, others are less inclined to try. So for the next race, I will ask people to post a "registration" leading up to the race and set a deadline of a few days to complete the run. But instead of posting times, I'll have people PM me links to their screenshots and then post them when the race deadline is over. That way there's a little more suspense to the outcome.
Anyway, I'm going to close out the "official" leaderboard in a couple days, but maintain an unofficial leaderboard for a while because if people keep posting better times and divulging how they did it, the player community will benefit. If you're reading this, and you think you can beat the posted times, by all means keep posting your runs and I will update accordingly. Virtual glory awaits!
Hey all, just wanted to get a temperature reading from those who participated in the Buckyball Run and people who read about it on the forum here, mainly to find out how practical races are to conduct in the game.
Admittedly, the biggest problem of running an event like this is there is no reward. In an actual race, there would be a reason for you to put your ship and your economic livelihood on the line. Instead, as things stand, by doing a race a pilot would be out a couple hundred credits for fuel at best, and down a few thousand at worst if something went wrong. The only real reward is honing some in-game skill and reaping some rep from your fellow forum readers.
There's a lot to do in the game to help a commander make their fortune, but this really isn't one of them. Still, there's a certain percentage of the spacefaring population (myself included) that this appeals to. It's not about the reward, it's about the challenge. Noted philosopher Michael Cheritto said it best: "For me, the action is the juice." So, it's possible that unless Frontier implements in-game races with in-game rewards, the action will have to be enough.
Anyway, I've got a few questions for those who've visited this topic but have not participated in the race.
- Does the lack of a reward factor into a your decision to participate?
- Did you intend to participate until you got hung up on having to figure out how to post images to the board?
- Did you actually run the race, but had a time that was nowhere close to the frontruner on the leaderboards, and decided not to post?
I'm going to whip out another race next weekend, but I do wonder about the viability of racing as a serious pastime in the release version of ED. With a zillion systems to explore and virtually no boundaries, how many captains will be able to navigate to a start point to even begin a race? If I'm 3000 light years away from the start and finish line, would I even care? Group events just might not be practical. This might only be a practical exercise for the beta, where everyone is forced together.
And for those of you who did participate, how would you make it better? Bear in mind that for logistic purposes any races I conduct will be of a similar format. Running a live race means finding a time people around the world can agree on, trying to coordinate in the game, etc. Keeping an open start time and keeping the leaderboard open for a few days lets people participate on their own schedule. The big drawback I see is that if someone comes along and posts a kick-ass time, others are less inclined to try. So for the next race, I will ask people to post a "registration" leading up to the race and set a deadline of a few days to complete the run. But instead of posting times, I'll have people PM me links to their screenshots and then post them when the race deadline is over. That way there's a little more suspense to the outcome.
Anyway, I'm going to close out the "official" leaderboard in a couple days, but maintain an unofficial leaderboard for a while because if people keep posting better times and divulging how they did it, the player community will benefit. If you're reading this, and you think you can beat the posted times, by all means keep posting your runs and I will update accordingly. Virtual glory awaits!
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Wait, people are flying with guns on their ships? The first thing that came to my mind is to strip all the unnecessary weight off the ship. That's what every racer does to any vehicle.
Only reason I haven't participated is the 38,000cr bounty on my head in Wyrd
I'll participate as soon as I get enough money to pay off the bounty, while still having enough to keep my hauler.Having said that, a monetary reward would definitely be, uh, rewarding.
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I think it's a splendid way to spend time and hone skills while we're in beta. Once the game really opens up, though, I doubt I'll want to hang around a particular area of space.
The main problem I see is that we're all at the mercy of the instancing/matchmaking while racing in the MP mode. If a racer is lucky, then there will be very little impact from networking issues, but if they suffer a few hangs along the way, it can make a significant difference to their times. As such, I feel it would fairer to treat the race as a time-trial and race in solo-online mode.
The main problem I see is that we're all at the mercy of the instancing/matchmaking while racing in the MP mode. If a racer is lucky, then there will be very little impact from networking issues, but if they suffer a few hangs along the way, it can make a significant difference to their times. As such, I feel it would fairer to treat the race as a time-trial and race in solo-online mode.
Yeah, I stripped out the weapons before I even looked at the map.
Only reason I haven't participated is the 38,000cr bounty on my head in Wyrd
Having said that, a monetary reward would definitely be, uh, rewarding.
38,000? Who's been a naughty boy, then?
I expect to be able to make any rally races within the general inhabited area, and any that have a defined goal outside it "let's go to the Pleiades and back" so long as that is possible.
I think a lot will depend on how much better jump performance we can get in the final release because the current low jump range makes it a pain to chart a course with smaller ships.
I think a lot will depend on how much better jump performance we can get in the final release because the current low jump range makes it a pain to chart a course with smaller ships.
38,000? Who's been a naughty boy, then?
All those civilians ran into my lasers, officer!
Future Buckyball Runs
OK got the Big Board updated with FoxTwo's time in his Cobra, "Bite Me." I'm going to assume that's directed at Jackie and technome. Because if it was at me, bear in mind I control the leaderboard and I will add a "month" counter on the time column and start adding digits to your runs.
So anyway, since the Buckyball Run will probably go the way of Firefly once the beta ends or the universe opens up, but I think we have some time to get in three or four of these things. Let me run this by the gang and let me know what you think.
Buckyball Scramble: A multi-destination race to hit four assigned locations in any order and return to start. Simple and easily managed with Screenshot Time Verification(TM).
Buckyball Sprint: Another point-to-point race, but where everyone gets one shot, and one shot only to get the best time on the run, with the start and finish lines kept secret until the race starts. The purpose of this is to see who's the best at planning a route on the fly and dealing with the hazards as they come with no do-overs. This will be difficult and possibly impossible to manage without trying to organize an on-line event. Keeping in mind people have lives outside of ED and live around the world, having a single start time isn't practical, though in a blatant display of favoritism I'd work with all you Buckyball vets here to make it happen. Newbies would have to earn it. Depending on who signs up, we might be able to do groups, or maybe work it so racers could schedule a time they intend to do the run and I would send an email with the start and finish locations, and you'd all take screenshots like normal. I'm open to suggestions, but I think this one would be a true test of piloting skill.
Buckyball and the Bandit: (nsfw language in the link) An obnoxious patron wants an illegal substance delivered to his doorstep. Commanders will have to fly to the pickup point and bring it back within a specified period of time. Don't know if this one will fly because it could get commanders killed, fined, bountied and otherwise left wallowing in sadness. But who wants to live forever? This one would be good for combat skills, interdiction avoidance, other good clean fun. We might save this one until news of a data wipe is coming and go out in style!
Buckyball Scavenger: Pick up four or five designated cargoes and return to the starting point as quick as possible. The cargoes would be kept cheap to keep the cost of the race down.
Buckyball Bottom Line: A timed race, maybe 30 minutes or 1 hour, where commanders have specified load of cargo and have to make the most profit and be back at the starting point in the hour. Commanders would take screenshots of each transaction showing the profit and whoever has the highest total profits win. Fuel/repairs would not factor against the figure. This would be another tricky one to implement because commodity prices go up and down, but I think it would be a way to add trading into a race.
So what do y'all think?
As a reminder, the official scoreboard will be locked when the clock strikes midnight on Aug 13 in the game. And if anyone has posted a time and I missed it let me know.
OK got the Big Board updated with FoxTwo's time in his Cobra, "Bite Me." I'm going to assume that's directed at Jackie and technome. Because if it was at me, bear in mind I control the leaderboard and I will add a "month" counter on the time column and start adding digits to your runs.
So anyway, since the Buckyball Run will probably go the way of Firefly once the beta ends or the universe opens up, but I think we have some time to get in three or four of these things. Let me run this by the gang and let me know what you think.
Buckyball Scramble: A multi-destination race to hit four assigned locations in any order and return to start. Simple and easily managed with Screenshot Time Verification(TM).
Buckyball Sprint: Another point-to-point race, but where everyone gets one shot, and one shot only to get the best time on the run, with the start and finish lines kept secret until the race starts. The purpose of this is to see who's the best at planning a route on the fly and dealing with the hazards as they come with no do-overs. This will be difficult and possibly impossible to manage without trying to organize an on-line event. Keeping in mind people have lives outside of ED and live around the world, having a single start time isn't practical, though in a blatant display of favoritism I'd work with all you Buckyball vets here to make it happen. Newbies would have to earn it.
Depending on who signs up, we might be able to do groups, or maybe work it so racers could schedule a time they intend to do the run and I would send an email with the start and finish locations, and you'd all take screenshots like normal. I'm open to suggestions, but I think this one would be a true test of piloting skill. Buckyball and the Bandit: (nsfw language in the link) An obnoxious patron wants an illegal substance delivered to his doorstep. Commanders will have to fly to the pickup point and bring it back within a specified period of time. Don't know if this one will fly because it could get commanders killed, fined, bountied and otherwise left wallowing in sadness. But who wants to live forever? This one would be good for combat skills, interdiction avoidance, other good clean fun. We might save this one until news of a data wipe is coming and go out in style!
Buckyball Scavenger: Pick up four or five designated cargoes and return to the starting point as quick as possible. The cargoes would be kept cheap to keep the cost of the race down.
Buckyball Bottom Line: A timed race, maybe 30 minutes or 1 hour, where commanders have specified load of cargo and have to make the most profit and be back at the starting point in the hour. Commanders would take screenshots of each transaction showing the profit and whoever has the highest total profits win. Fuel/repairs would not factor against the figure. This would be another tricky one to implement because commodity prices go up and down, but I think it would be a way to add trading into a race.
So what do y'all think?
As a reminder, the official scoreboard will be locked when the clock strikes midnight on Aug 13 in the game. And if anyone has posted a time and I missed it let me know.
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OK got the Big Board updated with FoxTwo's time in his Cobra, "Bite Me." I'm going to assume that's directed at Jackie and technome. Because if it was at me, bear in mind I control the leaderboard and I will add a "month" counter on the time column and start adding digits to your runs.
Haha no actually it was meant for the potential human pirates that may want to plunder me during the run in MP mode. I'll be shouting "BITE ME" while boosting and running away like the brave race participant that I am
Actually I'm thinking that this current one is already like that, in the sense that people should not submit their times until they're sure that's the best they have, and no further submissions (for the same ship/class) will be accepted. Better yet, submissions are to be sent via PM to you so that it's all "secret" until the end of race, so no one will know the score till it's ended.
I think this is actually a good idea for a race. The bounty/fine for stolen cargo would add an element of danger that requires some skill on the participant's part to successfully complete the run.
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I had fun
Commander Name: Hardware
Controls: CH Flight Yoke & Pedals, Interlink R/C controller
Ship Name: Wasteland
Ship Class: Sidewinder
Armaments/Loadout: None
MP/Solo: Multiplayer
Route Taken: Magec, Ovid, Opala, Aulin, BD 47+2112, Wyrd
Note: No interdictions, landings were horrible, bypassed 'I Bootis' and recorded the trip
Time: 12m 35s
Commander Name: Hardware
Controls: CH Flight Yoke & Pedals, Interlink R/C controller
Ship Name: Wasteland
Ship Class: Sidewinder
Armaments/Loadout: None
MP/Solo: Multiplayer
Route Taken: Magec, Ovid, Opala, Aulin, BD 47+2112, Wyrd
Note: No interdictions, landings were horrible, bypassed 'I Bootis' and recorded the trip
Time: 12m 35s