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

CMDR: Dr. Chives
Ship: Racing Rodent
Shiptype: Anaconda
Class: Unlimited
Time: 1:36:10

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Link to Imgur: Source: https://imgur.com/a/4Bs274d
 
And Alot's off the Unlimited podium! :eek:

It's a new era for the A* Challenge. Nice run Dr Chives, congratulations!
I didn't think that I'd ever see that posted for any BRC event, especially this one.

Great run @Dr_Chives! o7
It should appear on the OP leaderboards this weekend.

@Esvandiary, time to get the dust blown off Rhonda?
Otherwise you'll become nostalgia for old Buckyball runners drinking 'Alot of Beer' at Rebuy Prospect or on the Shotgun Shine. ;)

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THE CURRENT CG & DUAL ENGINEERED FSDs

For anyone wondering about the potiential Class 5A "Super FSD" from the current community goals, as it is limited to a small subset of commanders, I'm unfortunately going to have to ban it from official runs in the A* Challenge. This means that from now on any runs made using class 5 FSDs will need to include a modification screenshot from the outfitting screen before running to be valid.

And to avoid potential controversy it's better if your finishing Galmap screenshot is from the "Navigation" tab so that your jump range is displayed, this will also be enough to 'fix' the run if you forgot the starting mods screenshot.

I really, really don't want to ever need to disqualify any runs, so I'll turn a blind eye to this for any runs that:
a) Don't set a class record AND
b) Are over two hours.


However if you make a run that puts you into the two hour club, or that sets a class record then you must provide evidence that your FSD meets the regulations. I'll tweak the OP to this effect over the weekend while updating the boards.

I really hate having to ban any module from unlimited class, so quoting myself from the CG subforum:
I'm quite frustrated about needing to ban anything at all from the A* Challenge. Anyone who does get one of the 'experimental' FSDs and makes a run is still more than welcome to post their time to the A* Challenge thread. It'll have to be an unofficial run and so won't appear on the BRC leaderboards, but I'll still find a way to record the achievement, especially if it's a record time.
Hopefully in due course a similar jump distance will be available to all Cmdrs.
So basically if you fancy making a run with the super FSD fitted, then please post your run here. I'll find a way to include it unofficially, and fingers crossed this is an experiment for future double engineering and I can include a "controversial era" on the 'History of the Record' tables. For now though, the only way to officially beat @Ravenov's Conda and non-Conda records is to use an FSD that all Cmdrs can access.
 
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And Alot's off the Unlimited podium! :eek:

It's a new era for the A* Challenge. Nice run Dr Chives, congratulations!

Thanks guys, appreciate it! :cool: On the other hand, since the old videos of @Esvandiary were the initial impulse which brought me to Buckyball racing (and a nudge of @Ravenov of course), I feel kind of proud that I could beat his time, and sad the same time, because he's no longer on the podium. Nevertheless, in my book, you are still one of the most iconic Sag A* racers, Alot. Thanks for the inspiration! (y);)

@Raiko: Good decision with the ban of the new FSD. A speedrun should be achievable by any commander, without the need of special modules only available to a few.
 
Thanks guys, appreciate it! :cool: On the other hand, since the old videos of @Esvandiary were the initial impulse which brought me to Buckyball racing (and a nudge of @Ravenov of course), I feel kind of proud that I could beat his time, and sad the same time, because he's no longer on the podium. Nevertheless, in my book, you are still one of the most iconic Sag A* racers, Alot. Thanks for the inspiration! (y);)
It's really pleasing to see that my silly videos have got people interested in racing. Even when they then go and beat me. 😁

In all seriousness though, I'm really happy that there's so much competition now, it makes everything much more fun (and it makes Raiko's job more interesting writing the updates!).
I'm sure I'll do an Anaconda run again at some point, but I'm pretty sure I'll never catch up to Ravenov - he is an absolute machine! The worst part is I can't even yell at him to get off my lawn since I'm pretty sure he's been playing about as long as I have. :ROFLMAO:
 
You'll do it again? o_O Brb, need to improve the time, these 40 seconds feel a bit close... :LOL:

And yes, you are absolutely right, the competition makes it really fun. I believe everyone below 2 hours is capable of dropping into the top 3, if they do a bit of planning and a few tries. The record itself is a completely different beast, though. @Ravenov is unbelievable good, experienced and well versed in everything elite related. We won't stop trying, though. ;)
 
I'm a Millennial whippersnapper, so while I understand the need to ban the super awesome FSD, I have to say I like it specifically for giving an "unfair advantage". Still, no arguments about the decision, since there's a reason steroids and Super Soldiers are banned from any formal Olympic events.
 
The worst part is I can't even yell at him to get off my lawn since I'm pretty sure he's been playing about as long as I have. :ROFLMAO:
When I started playing the game version was beta 1.03 .. would have been around August 2014 i believe. Did take part in one or two of the early Buckyball Runs, although didn't place very well (mostly from using sub-standard ships, iirc)
 
Just had a look at the old Buckyball Run Leaderboards - Wow @Ravenov, you retired from Buckyball just before me, Alec and Alot started! :cool:

I nearly joined in Buckyball 5 (which was the final Beta run I think), but just lurked on the forum and had a go at Buckyball 6 instead. I'm kind of glad I did, as I never did afford an Asp-X during beta, but I entered The Nomad in every Buckyball Run once I started. If I'd had a go at Buckyball 5, it would have been in a Type-6.
 
When I started playing the game version was beta 1.03 .. would have been around August 2014 i believe. Did take part in one or two of the early Buckyball Runs, although didn't place very well (mostly from using sub-standard ships, iirc)
Hah, I think we started at almost exactly the same time then! My first race was BBR6 like Raiko, where I did one run in Big Bird the Asp before finding my preferred ship and promptly christening the Explodes on Contact. 😄
 
Ahhh ... BBR6 ... my first race also. Dismissed Fuel Scoops as being entirely useless (on the basis of my noob E grade testing) and thus had to detour for a refuelling stop mid-race. Also, hadn't yet figured out how to record in-game video so I improvised.

 
So I accidentally got signed up by Dr. Chives for a Buckyball race towards the center. :D

That was also my first leave to the Bubble's outside. Well, apart from from mining LTDs and gaining new guardian FSD booster. But all these destinations lie within five good jumps, and what lied ahead was much further: more than a whole hundred of jumps! Especially when they are supercharged jumps, which I had only heard of.

So, I knew I'd need an AFMU and a Fuel Scoop, but whereas I had experience with the latter, I had never used the former.

So I had outfitted my DBX to a 67.37 ly jump, reread the rules and started moving out into the unknown. I mean, into the Wolf 359 system. Those Feds forbade me from entering Sol even for the sport competition! Outrageous!

Ahem. So, I arrived at the Powell High first and realized I've chosen the wrong station. So I redocked to Lomas Orbiter.
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Having removed all unnecessary stuff like antimissile utility mounts, wake scanner and a planetary landing bay and run preflight checks, I departed from Wolf 359 on 11-11-2020 16:25:10.

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And so I flew.

First supercharging took an awfully long time like several minutes and a dozen attempts at flying through the jet. As it turned out for me, the best way to do it is to fly at ~5-10 Mm/s alongside the jet facing from the star. It also turned out FSD powers down automatically when being repaired. I thought that you had to manually turn it off, but instead I accidentally unplugged a working PC FSD.

I don't know if I was lucky or what, but I've seen only a couple of human ships inside Bubble, but there was no one interdicting me throughout the flight. Even at Sagittarius A*. In my recollections, online play was much, much worse.

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And some starforge bugs:
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That was Eorld Pri HH-U e3-1450.

Also, Dryao Aowsy QR-W d1-8480 has an incredibly fast spinning neutron star.

Ah, yes. I forgot to mention I took the Neutron Highway. That's why I had to take only 100+ jumps. It would have been much worse than that before the humanity had discovered the weird gravitational interaction between neutrinos and FSDs. Fortunately it stacks with the guardian technology, bu I hadn't tested whether it works with FSD injections.

After several hours of jumping, I arrived at the very center of our world. If someone had asked me before, I'd have answered humanity's world center is Sol with Bubble being built around its cradle. But now, it's definitely the magnificent massive nothing 26k ly from Sol. But who knows what my answer will be some decades into the future? Will we be able to jump to another galaxies throughout the nothingness? Will we have to build generation ships like we built before, but equipped with FSD to travel much faster?..

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Arrived on 20:12:46, so total of 03:47:46, if my calc is right.

So, mandatory statements:
CMDR's name: Xobotun
Forum name: Xobotun
Ship's name: oh, well. Is that necessary? It never had one before. Let it be "Frog", as it jumps too.
Ship type: Diamondback Explorer
Race time: 03:47:46
Race type: unlimited. No injections, though. Only neutron starts, an engineered FSD and a FSD booster.
All screenshots are here: https://static.xobotun.com/images/elite_dangerous/buckyball_race_11.11.2020/

I definitely will race again. Preferably on Anaconda, I want a bigger Scoop and fuel tanks.
Also, I won't participate in videocalls with friends, drink too much tea (I believe I've lost a couple of minutes tending to my body needs!) and will bind "Galaxy Map" to a separate key, rather than "1" → "left" → "enter".

I hope that will inspire more people to participate and will increase poor Raiko's workload! o7
 
Uhhhh Hi? Is ElectricZ still around?

I've been away for 2 years.... still haven't gotten around to "coming back" :) But just poking my head in here to say HI TO ALL RACERS!

ps: What's this, a new race to the centre of the Galaxy??
Hey @FoxTwo - nice to hear from you again! You know what, if you ever want to stop by, say hi and find out who's still around then you should just drop into the Buckyball Discord. Lots of old faces in there as well as plenty of new ones.


Alas we haven't heard from ElectricZ in a long LONG time. Buckyball doing's great tho. We get lots of love from Frontier and they even did a racing special livestream quite recently where I got to talk about this years races and then myself and BlackMaze from the Elite Racers got to teach two of the community managers a new SRV stunt (how to drive up a vertical wall).

 
Alas we haven't heard from ElectricZ in a long LONG time.
I very occasionally see him pop up as online in-game and usually have a quick chat on such occasions... So I think he's still kicking at least :)
I think he pokes his head back into the game now and then to see what's up and to test if he gets the spark of interest to come back.


Also... FoxTwo!! It's been absolutely forever, hello! Hope you've been well!
 
Hey @FoxTwo! Nice of you to drop in. :cool:

ps: What's this, a new race to the centre of the Galaxy??
Nope, this is still the exact same race to the centre started by ElectricZ and then looked after by Drakhyr and then me. Your runs are still up on the classic leaderboard, the board's just got a lot longer. Still says Alot at the top of the Classic board though, so that bit hasn't changed. :)

Hope you're keeping well in these weird times? As @Esvandiary says ElectricZ is occasionally online in the game still, but he very rarely posts on the forums these days.
 
Oh man, @Alec Turner , @Esvandiary , @Raiko , familiar names! Nice to see you guys still around! Yeah I'm pretty good, and the lockdowns this year barely fazed me. Gamers are made for lockdowns! :) In fact I had planned to come back during the lockdown, but I looked at my Steam library and started to clear my "backlog". Currently standing at 600+ owned games, and counting (damn Black Friday deals!)...

Ah ok I'll drop ElectricZ a PM, see if he replies.

Currently still not really "coming back", waitin' for Cyberpunk 2077 to drop in like 10 days, and expecting to be totally immersed in that game for a bit.

The only challenging thing to do when I do come back is to get my STOCK SHIPS geared up. My ships barely has any sort of Engineering on them :) I see times have dropped drastically into single digit hours to get to Sag A*... in fact I see one guy with a ONE HOUR time... what the heck? It takes that long to get to Hutton Orbital from exiting Hyperspace...
 
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