Buckyball Racing Club (and Loose Screws) presents: Ring Tossers Rally (Triple Eight Championship, Race 2)

[Darkfyre99]

Sadly, there will be no Unlimited entry from me. It’s just been one of those weeks. Most of it wasn’t bad, per se, just more time than usual spent away from home when not at work, and an initial unwillingness to sacrifice exercise and healthy eating after Memorial Day weekend.

Nether-the-less, what little time I had available to race was a blast. Thank you, @Mr Indigo, for hosting this race, and I look forward to seeing the final leader boards. Congratulations to everyone who actually completed this race, because that’s a challenge in and of itself. And for at the top… I am in awe of your skills. 07

Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fcDW697xiUs

 

[Fish172]

Well I have to say I started this race with doubts. Never thought a single system race would be so much dammed fun. I began with the hope of being mid table, I really did. Then I found that I could go quite fast through the rings and held my 1st places for quite a few days.
Then of course they came, those who knew how to push the ships harder and harder. So I dropped, and by a lot in regulation and a good bit in unlimited. However I am still above mid table so I cannot really complain and I get to use my sidewinder again at least.

Thank you MrIndigo, it has been a blast, it really has and along the way I hope some have had a laugh at my tiny little ship doing things it should not be able to do.

See you all at the next one!

 

[Alec Turner]

I can say with absolute certainty that I have never had so many attempts at a race as I did at this one. Successful runs? Well, let's not go there shall we.
I really wish I'd kept all the videos, a) so I could tell you exactly how many and b) so I could make the ultimate ring/planet faceplant blooper reel.

What an extraordinary race you came up with here @Mr Indigo, genuinely a Buckyball first ... an entire race spent in supercruise. And what awesome timing, right when Frontier changed supercruise forever with the introduction of the supercruise overcharge FSD (and I applaud your decision to leave that out of regulation so we got to experience both types of race, each quite different from the other).

I won't lie, I had moments where I came genuinely close to burning out and/or rage quitting on this one. But, my goodness, it was just sooo addictive and tempting to come back the next day with renewed determination and confidence that this time it would happen, that this would be the day when you'd blast through all eight rings in a perfect ballet of speed.

Genuine awe and congratulations to all the winners and to everyone who just kept pushing the envelope and going faster.

You know what, this race was so good we might just have to make it an annual event?

EDIT: I just checked my journal logs - I undocked from Bunch City 154 times!

 

[Arrowroot 66]

Huge congrats to the guys at the top! Believe it or not, I haven't minded being pushed from 3rd down to 6th over the last session. There's less than 20 seconds between those places, and 6th and 5th are still my highest ever placings.

I had 35 starts with 6 finishes in the Cobra, and 88 starts with 14 finishes in Unlimited, using the Courier, Imp Eagle, Clipper and Eagle Mk 2. Not quite so many as Alec, but close! Route was 1 6 2+3 5+4 7+8 in both classes, never changed it, and never tried jumping out of system and back in.

Thanks again to @Mr Indigo, it's been an absolutely brilliant race, and here's my Cobra run:

 

[CMDR Timber McWolf]

You know what, this race was so good we might just have to make it an annual event?

I'd like to support that idea.

 

[TR]

I'd like to support that idea.

Likewise. Had to skip this one because of a bad episode of depression. But would be up for it next time

 

[Alec Turner]

Well, speaking of next time (and I hope you're feeling more positive by then) ...

'Pop Gun:Buckyball' trailer :)

As the dust has just about settled on the last Buckyball race, I thought I'd leave this here in order to promote the next round which starts in a couple of weeks. Full details will be posted in the Events forum channel a few days before the race start. Everyone is welcome to have a go, come and...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[TR]

Thank you, Alec Aye, just watched it, and, well, got ships scratching at the hanger door begging to be let out...

 

[Shaye Blackwood]

A bit late, but wanted to thank Mr Indigo for hosting this most innovative, fun and frustrating race. Some really good and quite insane flying going on in both classes, congratulations to everyone that somehow made it past all the rings at least once.

Fastest unlimited run:

Source: https://youtu.be/35HEBRtWtbs


A short compilation of every ship I managed to run into:

Source: https://youtu.be/d82SnTYGKhc

 

[CMDR Timber McWolf]

Likewise. Had to skip this one because of a bad episode of depression. But would be up for it next time

I feel with you. Quite literally, as I've had that happen to me in the past.

 

[Raiko]

I think I might have gotten a little bit carried away with this one!
According to my video folders, as well as the two run on the final board, I had 7 slower complete runs and 102 incomplete runs - some of those were aborts or rebuys without even making it out of Bunch City, some were abandoned runs because I lost my way in SC or missed a planet completely, but the vast majority failed when crashed into the rings of Ross 104 ABC 6 or the planet itself at relativistic speed.

Thank you @Mr Indigo for a unique and absolutely terrific race, I had an absolute blast. To begin with I just wanted to make it around the course in one piece, then in less than 7 minutes, then I wanted to try to be as insane as @Fish172 and then finally I just hoped to try to get one podium spot and maybe be almost as insane as @Bruski. So I'm insanely happy to finish with two podium spots and to discover that maybe Raiko is the craziest one of all. Hahahahaha!

Here are the two runs that made it onto the final boards.

Regulation Class - 19:57 and 28.0c

Unlimited Class - 06:16 and 69.4c:

Thanks to everyone who joined in with the fun, especially @Shaye, @Bruski and @Darplata94 who all beat me as usual, @Fish172 for great banter and encouraging my madness, and @Alec Turner who is always great - and launched at exactly the same time as me twice, mass locking me both times - Big Boned Ballerina indeed!

 

[Raiko]

Likewise. Had to skip this one because of a bad episode of depression. But would be up for it next time

I hope you feel up to participating in the next race, it's not something that I've had to deal with personally, but has affected a number of my close friends.
Thinking of you.

 

[Alec Turner]

and @Alec Turner who is always great - and launched at exactly the same time as me twice, mass locking me both times - Big Boned Ballerina indeed!

Oh I'd forgotten that, that was funny (didn't realise I'd mass locked you). Both times it happened (with your Vulture streaking out of the mailslot ahead of my Clipper) I thought ... "we probably shouldn't both be launching when the clock hits ":00" ).

 

[Darkfyre99]

Oh I'd forgotten that, that was funny (didn't realise I'd mass locked you). Both times it happened (with your Vulture streaking out of the mailslot ahead of my Clipper) I thought ... "we probably shouldn't both be launching when the clock hits ":00" ).

Time was in so short supply this race, I decided that launching at :?0 was good enough. Still cursing the fact that one of the landing pad floodlights washes out the clock on my Cobra III when I land in VR.

 

[Alec Turner]

Time was in so short supply this race, I decided that launching at :?0 was good enough. Still cursing the fact that one of the landing pad floodlights washes out the clock on my Cobra III when I land in VR.

Which reminds me. Has anyone else suffered from the fact that when you're landed in a Clipper, facing the mailslot, you're surrounded by a bright reflective fog which obscures the HUD clock and which disappears the instant you take off? This screenshot doesn't really do it justice but does illustrate that I had to start every run by aiming my head(look) down and to the left slightly (to get the clock in the top right corner where it was less affected by this) and then peering at the clock for my launch time through the top right corner of my eyes (without moving my head). I should sue Frontier for neck ache/eye strain!

 

[Fish172]

Had that in sidey yes

 

[Alec Turner]

Had that in sidey yes

I need to play but I wonder if the "Bloom" graphics setting has anything to do with this. In my enthusiasm for cranking all my graphics settings to the max when I got my new PC I probably set bloom to Ultra. I wonder if that was a mistake. Are there any other settings where greater does not necessarily mean better I wonder?

 

[CMDR Timber McWolf]

I need to play but I wonder if the "Bloom" graphics setting has anything to do with this. In my enthusiasm for cranking all my graphics settings to the max when I got my new PC I probably set bloom to Ultra. I wonder if that was a mistake. Are there any other settings where greater does not necessarily mean better I wonder?

It definitely was. I always turn bloom off (or to the lowest available setting), as it blinds me completely when entering a system or being even remotely close to a star.