Buckyball Racing Club presents: Real Men Race In Lederhosen

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or
Are you really as good as you think you are?


This link will take you to the countdown for this race. Your last run must be started before this countdown expires - on September the 6th 2020, 23:59:59. Good luck, CMDRs. https://www.timeanddate.com/countdo...eal+Men+Race+In+Lederhosen&font=cursive&csz=1
Guys1, there is a problem.
After a long and exceedingly dry summer, the system of Bavarigga is in immediate danger of running out of beer. I know, that sounds unlikely, since every agricultural station in the Bubble is selling "beer", cheap and in copious amounts. But the people of Bavarigga want real beer - not that mass produced, industrialized, carbonated and sterilized swill. Sure, there's Kongga more or less just around the corner, but there are also a few other out-of-the-way places in the Galaxy where real beer, or at least the basic ingredients, can be found. Judging from your usual performance and capabilities, the biggest challenge may actually be to abstain from drinking your cargo before you can deliver it to Shaver Stop in Bavarigga.

Your shopping list includes

  • Kongga Ale, from Laplace Ring in Kongga, 254 ls out. Just a short hop for a basic staple beer.
  • Gerasian Geuze Beer, from Yurchikhin Port in Geras, 1,052,942 ls out. Yep. 1 million and change ls out from the star. Takes about 20....25 minutes to get there, but as there are only three real beers left in the Bubble, the trip is worth it.
  • Wuthielo Ku Froth, from Tarter Dock in Wuthielo Ku, 175 ls out. Not exactly considered a beer officially, but it's frothy, brewed and contains alcohol, so who cares. Actually, a lot of people do - that stuff is illegal in several jurisdictions, so you better take care and stay sober while you have it on board.
  • HR 7221 Wheat, from Veron City in HR 7221, 1902 ls out. I know, it's not beer. Yet. Bavarigga not only imports beer, but of course also brews beer. That stuff is strictly for local consumption, though, so you won't be able to buy it for export. But a few of the lesser known places around the port sell it.
  • Kachirigin Filter Leeches, from Nowak Orbital in Kachirigin, 340 ls out. Errmm....yes. Officially, these are in high demand for the tourist trade. And indeed, every tourist package also includes one Filter Leech per night. But (and don't talk too openly about this) the numbers don't add up - Bavarigga's yearly import of Filter Leeches outnumber the tourist nights by about a factor of ten. So the famous Bavariggan stamina may not entirely be up to inheritance and habit.
  • Buckyball Beer Mats, from Rebuy Prospect in Fullerene C60, 238 ls out. Bucky is throwing them in at cost, so don't forget to pick them up on your way.
So far, so easy. Too easy? Then you haven't read the byline: Are you really as good as you think you are?

The challenge in this race won't simply be to beat the other racers. You'll also have to beat yourself. How? Well, before you start your run, you'll have to decide how long this run is going to take you. Get it right, and you may be among the winners. Get it wrong, and there will be severe penalties. As this would be impractical to implement without a panel of impartial3, unbribable4 and sober5 judges on duty in Shaver Stop, we'll have to make it a bit more complicated - but not too much, I hope:

You start at any time on the clock. Your finish time will be rounded up to the next full half hour on the clock.

Example:
After reading all this, and maybe a dry run or two, you think you can complete a run in under 55 minutes. So you start at 15:05:00 in Shaver Stop. Your run is good, and you manage to touch down back in Shaver Stop at 15:55:00. That makes your elapsed time as 0h50m. Your finish time, however, gets rounded up to the next full half hour, which would be 16:00:00, so your race time will be taken down as 0h55m.
Since you now know you can run the course in 50 minutes, you start your next run at 16:10:00. Everything goes well again, and you touch down at 17:00:00. You shaved this mighty fine, but it's still good - your elapsed time will be the same as your race time, 0h50m in this case.
After publishing these times, someone else thinks they can beat you. So the next day, they start off at 16:12:00, aiming at the 48 minutes barrier. And they miss, touching down at 17:01:30. Ooopsie. 49m30s on the clock, but they were a bit over-confident, so they get hit with a penalty: their finish time is rounded up to 18:00:00 17:30:00, which sets their race time at 1h48m 1h18m.

Any questions on this, please post here or on our Discord.

Tie breaker:
since this is the first time (as far as I am aware) we are doing such a race, I expect some identical race times - there's not that much you can do to shave off time, and a single interdiction6 can throw your calculations off far enough. So, as a tie breaker, we'll use the amount of stuff you bring back to Shaver Stop. You'll need to bring at least one ton of the above mentioned six rare goods. In the case of a tie, the amount actually delivered will decide your placement. No specific preference here, so you may as well stuff your hold at your last shopping stop.

Ok, enough of theory, let's get to practice. Since I couldn't decide, we'll have not one, not two, not three, but a whopping four classes in this race.


Watschentanz7
8
The class for real men. Take a basic Hauler, face all adversity and bring back beer. Do you have what it takes? Then show you can do it in a cheap piece of junk. The Hauler will be equipped with just the basics for the job, as it comes from the showroom floor9, but you are permitted an upgrade of the FSD, a cargo rack and an additional fuel tank.
You can pick up one of these for example at Moore Dock in Koamu Yi, since Bavarigga has no shipyards.

Wir Steigern Das Bruttosozialprodukt10
11
So the basic Hauler isn't good enough for you? You think you can't fulfill your potential with that piece of junk? You want your effort to make a real difference, you want your work to mean something, you want to bring yourself into the job? Ok then - bring any ship you like. Any loadout, but no engineering, enhanced performance thrusters or guardian modules. Keep it real and your feet on the ground. You can be a true working class hero.

Schickeria12
13
Oh? You think you're better than a common worker? You need your italian coffee machine on the bridge and a masseuse in the spa? Well then, bring whatever you like. Any ship, any loadout, any engineering or Guardian modules. You really should show off your ship with a special paintjob, though.
This class requires one additional glamour shot of your ship, to be published in the race thread.

Common restrictions for the above classes:

  • no Jumponium boosts
  • no Neutron boosts
  • no usage of fleet carriers
  • no supercruise asist
  • no docking computer
There are a few White Dwarfs en route, feel free to scoop a boost from them if you dare.

This would be the three basic classes sorted. But we also have carriers now. I don't know yet what to make of them, but I'm prepared to let them have a go. Let's see what comes out of this. Embrace your inner crazyness and brave the odds in a


Space Taxi
14
Carriers. I have no idea how this could work out. Use your own carrier, or that of another CMDR. Use the same carrier throughout the run, or switch them. Use a carrier for every system or only for the trip to Yurchikhin Port.

Do all that you know, and try all that you don't: Not a chance must be wasted to-day!
Precondition for participation in this class: having submitted a valid run in any of the other classes. You're not getting out of flying out to Yurchikhin Port that easily.
Limitations:
  • no Jumponium, no Neutron boosts (for those jumps, if any, you do without a carrier)
  • no supercruise assist, no docking computer

Some of you may have noticed the last icon in the race banner. Yes, this race is going to have prizes - it's been some time since we had one of these.
Easy. There will be a prize for the winner in each class (Space Taxi class only if there are at least three valid entries). Further more, I'll raffle off five additional prizes among all contestants. Each valid entry will count as one ticket for the raffle, so the more (valid) runs you submit, the better your chances will be.
My, aren't we impatient today?
Very well, here you go:
The winner in each class will receive15 an authentic16 34th century Buckyball Racing Club beer mat (well, the correct term may rather be "coaster", as it's more durable and less absorbent than a classic beer mat). The winners of the raffle will each receive17 a BRC fridge magnet.
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Made from the finest PLA, so resistant to all environmental influences except
  • temperatures above 60°C/140°F
  • prolonged exposure to sunlight
  • certain solvents
  • certain microorganisms (basically, that stuff is labelled as "biologically degradeable")
  • it's not labelled as food safe. The basic compound is corn starch, but nobody knows what gets mixed into that in the factories in China

The technicalities

Distance matrix:
BavariggaGerasKonggaFullerene C60KachiriginHR 7221Wuthielo Ku
Bavarigga-145.641.5194.7199.3250.9339.6
Geras145.6-138.4157.1142.8167.1204.4
Kongga41.5138.4-190.6167.2246.9325.8
Fullerene C60194.7157.1190.6-255.4323.5323.6
Kachirigin199.3142.8167.2255.4-176.6209.8
HR 7221250.9167.1246.9323.5176.6-156.0
Wuthielo Ku339.6204.4325.8323.6209.8156.0-
Start in Shaver Stop in Bavarigga with an empty hold.


Collect at least one ton of each:
  • Gerasian Geuze Beer
  • Kongga Ale
  • Buckyball Beer Mats
  • Kachirigin Filter Leeches
  • HR 7221 Wheat
  • Wuthielo Ku Froth
and bring it back to Shaver Stop in Bavarigga. Bringing back more than the required 6 tons of these commodities may decide your place on the leaderboard in the case of a tie.

Race Evidence:
For all classes: either a video or a number of screenshots, showing:
  • an empty hold at the start in Shaver Stop
  • your starting time (in-cockpit clock readable) in Shaver Stop
  • landed at each of the six intermediate stops, in any order, with the cockpit clock readable
  • touchdown time back at Shaver Stop in Bavarigga. This will determine your finish time, you don't need to sell your haul in a hurry
  • the contents of your hold after setting down at Shaver Stop (2 images, as the cargo inventory only shows five lines)
  • for Schickeria only: a glamour shot of your ship
Upload your race evidence to a suitable server, then submit your run, for preference using this Google form. Remember that each (valid) submission counts as one ticket for the raffle.

The race will run from August 29th to September 6th. Your runs must start after 00:00 UTC on August 29th and not later than 23:59 on September 6th. I will probably accept submissions until some time on September 8th.

Leaderboard

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***
Appendix: examples for race time calculations:
Start time: 16:00:00 Finish time: 17:20:35 -> rounded up to 17:30:00, therefore race time = 01h:30m:00s
Start time: 16:00:50 Finish time: 16:59:46 -> rounded up to 17:00:00, therefore race time = 00h:59m:10s
Start time: 16:30:00 Finish time: 17:30:00 -> not rounded, therefore race time = 01h:00m:00s


You did a trial run, and estimate your elapsed time to be 1h06m00s. You add 2 minutes as safety buffer, since there were no exceptional circumstances on this run. It's now 08:59.
1h06m00s + 2 minutes = 1h08m00s. In order to do a spot landing at any half hour, you need to start at either 22 or 52 minutes past the full hour, so your next slot would be at 09:22.
Ok, you get a cup of coffee, check the course again, empty your cargo hold and start at 09:22:05. Your trial time was spot on, and you touch down again at Shaver Stop at 10:27:47 on the station clock.10:27:47 gets rounded up to 10:30:00, so your time for this round would be 01h07m55s.

***

1 I really hate PC nomenclature. So, in order to simplify the writing and reading and satisfy all comers, independent on their physical or psychological gender or whether they will pee standing up, sitting down or while balancing on a unicycle, I decided to use the simple male form of address as a least common denominator. That does not mean that anybody who is not equipped with exterior plumbing should feel themselves excluded from this race or would need to undergo radical brain surgery - just put it down to the clumsiness of the English language in the 21st century, which has not yet evolved to the point of a truly neutral generic pronoun for people2 of any disposition.
2And that also is meant to include everyone capable to stand up (or at least raise a head or other appendage) and order the next round. Heck, out club president is a cybernetic kangaroo, and at least one of our members claims to be a 7310 year old demon who got lost in some bureaucratic maze.
3That could be doable.
4This too.
5Well,....I won't put unsurmountable challenges up to you, so let's just skip this one.
6On my trial runs, I averaged one NPC interdiction per run. No player contact. though.
7lit. "Face slapping dance"
8And no, this is not just a comic interlude in a Bud Spencer movie, but actually a type of cultural dance in the alpine region. Here's another example from an amateur group, less professionally filmed, that may explain some of the origins of this mating ritual:
9ok, junkyard more likely.
10"Let's increase the gross national product"
11A rather sarcastic song on the German Arbeitsmoral (work ethos), e.g. going to work straight from the clinic after removal of the last leg. When that song was published, quite a few politicians didn't catch the "sarcastic" part (nothing new there) and hailed it as Germany's new hymn of the working class. I'd rather not provide a full translation of the text, as this is the NSFW/explicit version.
12Don't Google it - you'll most likely only find references to one of FC Bayern München's hardcore fan clubs. In the 80s/90s, "Schickeria" was the name for Munich's self proclaimed high society. The names associated with them won't mean anything to you, but as an example of their snobbishness, there's the story that once one of the doormen at one of the clubs - reputedly - refused to let Mick Jagger come in.
13If you really can't stand German music, here's an alternate version from Metallica:
14Errrmmmm....right. An excerpt from a German gay parody of various SF films. See how many references you can spot in this clip. And if you're in doubt about the seriousness of this movie - the following video shows the creator of Rock's theme song with his contribution to the ESC in 2000. The song title sufficiently inadequately translates as "Whaddayagothare".
15Provided they are willing to give me a mail address where I can send the stuff to.
16According to the guy behind the pub who sells these things.
17Same condition
 
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For times assumed to be over 1 hour, should we predict t%60 or the full time? E.g. if I predict 1 hour 5 minutes, should I report the time as such or predict 5 minutes and allow the clock to roll over?

Also- Auto-Dock and Supercruise Assist?
 
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For times assumed to be over 1 hour, should we predict t%60 or the full time? E.g. if I predict 1 hour 5 minutes, should I report the time as such or predict 5 minutes and allow the clock to roll over?

Surely it deosn't matter? You do the run and you get the time you get, and if you do it a whole hour quicker than you anticipated then so much the better
 
For times assumed to be over 1 hour, should we predict t%60 or the full time? E.g. if I predict 1 hour 5 minutes, should I report the time as such or predict 5 minutes and allow the clock to roll over?

Also- Auto-Dock and Supercruise Assist?
You don't report your time estimate, you report your start time and your finish time (as shown in your screenshots or video).
If you estimate a run time of 1h05m, you should start at e.g. 09:55 and land at or before 11:00:00 on your cockpit clock.

Also no assist tech - I'll update the OP later.
 
Surely it deosn't matter? You do the run and you get the time you get, and if you do it a whole hour quicker than you anticipated then so much the better
But if you want to better than the rest, you'll have to predict your run time correctly so you land as close to the full hour as possible.
You're right that it doesn't matter which full hour you chose as target time.
 
Another question: say a racer leaves at 00:00:30 and finishes at 00:59:59, is his time 1h0m or 0h59m30s?

0h59m30s - yes, I'll be using all the figures available on the cockpit clock. I won't start counting frames in videos, though.
Even if you land at 01:00:00, it'll still be 0h59m30s.

I wonder how many of you will pull that one off...
 
Awesomesauce ... really loving the sound of this one. I won't be giving it my full attention until next Sunday's 8WD SRV Endurance stage is out of the way but stating my intent to really try to be as good as I think I am.

P.S. love the banner!
 
So just for the stupid in me..I guess how long I will take. Declare this before the run. Post afterwards and try to get as close to that time without going over. Is this basically correct. Fail means big penalties?
And declare before each run?
 
So just for the stupid in me..I guess how long I will take. Declare this before the run. Post afterwards and try to get as close to that time without going over. Is this basically correct. Fail means big penalties?
And declare before each run?
I could be wrong (I'm notorious for skimming the rules rather than reading them properly) but I think there's no need to declare, your intended time is implied by what time you take off since you're aiming to just manage to finish on the hour (i.e. if you launch at 10 past the hour then your intention is to do it in just under 50 mins).
 
So just for the stupid in me..I guess how long I will take. Declare this before the run. Post afterwards and try to get as close to that time without going over. Is this basically correct. Fail means big penalties?
And declare before each run?

Not quite. Your finish time will be taken as a whole (on-the-clock) hour. In your own head, guess how long you will take. Start at a time that will mean you land as close to just-before-the-next-whole-hour (on the clock) as you can bear, so that your recorded time has as little wasted minutes when it gets rounded up to the whole hour.

I.e., all there is to it is your recorded time will be the time elapsed from your start time, to the clock-hour after you finish. But to get the best recorded time, you want to start as late as possilble while still finishing before a new clock-hour begins, so you'll want to think how long you expect to take.
 
So just for the stupid in me..I guess how long I will take. Declare this before the run. Post afterwards and try to get as close to that time without going over. Is this basically correct. Fail means big penalties?
And declare before each run?
I could be wrong (I'm notorious for skimming the rules rather than reading them properly) but I think there's no need to declare, your intended time is implied by what time you take off since you're aiming to just manage to finish on the hour (i.e. if you launch at 10 past the hour then your intention is to do it in just under 50 mins).
Not quite. Your finish time will be taken as a whole (on-the-clock) hour. In your own head, guess how long you will take. Start at a time that will mean you land as close to just-before-the-next-whole-hour (on the clock) as you can bear, so that your recorded time has as little wasted minutes when it gets rounded up to the whole hour.

I.e., all there is to it is your recorded time will be the time elapsed from your start time, to the clock-hour after you finish. But to get the best recorded time, you want to start as late as possilble while still finishing before a new clock-hour begins, so you'll want to think how long you expect to take.

Alec and judemcullers are right - no need to declare, you just race so that your finish time is as close as possible before the full hour (going to change in the next few minutes to "...before any half hour."). If you want to win, though (and if not, what are you doing here?), you'll have to start as late as possible.
 

Ozric

Volunteer Moderator
Wow OK that's a very interesting race concept. I'm going to have to have a think about this one. I'm glad you've changed it to rounding up to the half hour, because the amount of times I mess up a run within the first 10 minutes and go back to restart it would be a big pain if I had to wait 50 minutes before I could try again.

I might not be able to start running for the first couple of days as Elastul is currently out in Colonia and has a bit of helping to do before she comes back. I'm also torn now between running the regulation hauler or something else unengineered. I always run the regulation classes, but the thought of an E rated Power Distributor and Thrusters is a painful one...

There are two more things that need to be addressed.
Your inclusion of the Gratuitous video at the end had me laughing out loud, because that's the one German Eurovision entry I will never forget 😂
Also, I love Bud Spencer. I had the Sheriff and the Satellite Kid on video recorded off the TV when I was young, and I watched it sooo many times. So thanks for the memories.
 
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