Community Event / Creation Buckyball Racing Club presents: The A* Challenge V2.0

[Edelgard von Rhein]

Intent to race:
CMDR Edelgard von Rhein
Unlimited
Mandalay By Paths Less-Trodden

 

[Edelgard von Rhein]

Race completed!
CMDR Edelgard von Rhein
race class: Unlimited
ship type: Mandalay
ship name: By Paths Less-Trodden
race time: 1:42:20
start/finish screenshots:

Spoiler

The Mandalay is both capable and fun to fly and I had few problems, mostly routing inefficiencies from using a route intended for another ship. A few long hyperspace tunnels and several minor mistakes did not add much to my time, even combined (a couple of minutes, perhaps). It really gets onto the neutron superhighway quickly, being able to one-jump between my first three neutrons, including a low-fuel jump of 379.38LY from PSR J1752-2806 to Nova Aquila No 3. My route was above the Galactic Plane, so I think the time has come to go below and see how much that improves my time, as I think I am losing a bit, though how much I am not certain.

 

[Edelgard von Rhein]

Intent to race:
CMDR Edelgard von Rhein
Unlimited
Mandalay By Paths Less-Trodden

This will be my first run going beneath the Galactic Plane.

 

[Edelgard von Rhein]

Run completed!
CMDR Edelgard von Rhein
race class: Unlimited
ship type: Mandalay
ship name: By Paths Less-Trodden
race time: 1:38:06

Spoiler

The new route is an improvement but is very sensitive to fuel load, so I lost a few minutes as a result of some legs having several more jumps than is optimal. I had a few long hyperspace tunnels, a couple much longer, but my flying was better today and I only made a couple of very minor mistakes. Today's run was 100 jumps, so whether I can get that down enough for a clean run to get me under 90min is uncertain but my next step is to tweak my fuel load.

 

[Edelgard von Rhein]

Intent to race:
CMDR Edelgard von Rhein
Unlimited
Mandalay By Paths Less-Trodden

 

[Edelgard von Rhein]

race complete
CMDR Edelgard von Rhein
race class: Unlimited
ship type: Mandalay
ship name: By Paths Less-Trodden
race time: 1:38:15

Spoiler

So close to an improvement! This time there were only two slightly extended hyperspace tunnels, my flying was as good as last week and there were also 100 jumps but I had to rearrange plots on the fly a few times to add refuel stops and avoid white dwarf stars and my FSD malfunctioned at the final neutron and I decided to not take the time to repair it and it malfunctioned again as I was trying to jump to Sgr A*, so I do not think my increasing the fuel load to allow one more jump on a full tank paid off. I made a single change to my route hoping to save at least two jumps but that was countered by my replotting. If I run again in this ship I will return to the old fuel load, unless I redo large parts of my route, but I am a little burned out now so I will leave it be for a while.

 

[Iceangel]

Popping in an intent to race. It's been a while since I speed ran a Krait Mk II to the core so it'll be good to attempt the speed run again. I need to keep the ship class under wraps for now (you'll see why tomorrow hopefully!) but I'll be looking to do the run in around 3 hours, poorly back permitting !

 

[Iceangel]

Don't think this one will count really because it's an ARX only ship at the moment but ... I survived the Mauve Adders, managed the strange glow and exciting sparks coming off the FSD, got a hella sun tan from the Neutrons to do :

CMDR Sleepydwagonman (my alt)
race class: Unlimited
ship type: Panther Clipper Mk II Explorer
ship name: Searching for Rainbows
race time: 4:04:11
And now I need a cookie