Community Event / Creation Buckyball Racing Club presents: The A* Challenge
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Well I was going to cheekily suggest in the other thread that if you made a quick run to Sadge and back with your new CMDR you'd be guaranteed Ranger rank, which would unlock lots of scavenger and courier missions for your Empire ranks.
Heh, I wouldn't be setting any time marks in any ship I can actually afford while carrying scanners, though.
Heh, I wouldn't be setting any time marks in any ship I can actually afford while carrying scanners, though.
Actually, there is one that should be doable on all three counts by this point: DBX. From experience, it should be completable within 12 hours.
Like I said, "I wouldn't be setting any time marks in any ship I can actually afford while carrying scanners, though."
An 11 million credit Buckyball spec DBX is too rich for my blood at present.
Actually, if I do ever end up making another A* run, it will almost certainly be in a Courier. It's my second-favorite ship in the game (after the FdL, and I am not remotely crazy enough to take an FdL to Sadge!), and so I'd like to put a better time on the board for it than the one that's up there now. Once I can finally GET one, that is. Stupid rank progression.
Also assuming I can actually finish the run in it without spontaneously combusting. Fuel scooping in the Courier is still a bit dicier than most ships
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You might be able to do it in a Cobra, firing the disco scanner while scooping. I'm sure my time could be shaved down a bit, I made a lot of mistakes. With an advanced discovery scanner, A4 fuel scoop, and A4 FSD, a 27.28 LY jump range cost me about 6 mil. 18 hours is still a long time to be sitting in the pilot's chair, but it's certainly doable.
Yeah, that 18 hours thing? No.
Edit: OK, so that response was overly curt and probably came off as rude rather than the intended funny, so let me restate that.
The 18 hours there, while difficult, I can totally see... though the odds of my going 18 hours without having an ADD moment (not mocking people with ADD, I actually have it) and subsequent distraction-induced catastrophe seem a bit poor.
The 18 hours back, though, sounds like a total nightmare.
It's sort of like the reason I don't explore... it's not that I don't enjoy exploration in small doses, but after a few hours of it, I start to long for some action. And being some 10+ hours of flight time away from the nearest action is highly demoralizing.
It's the reason I made the last 10k LY of my flight home in Haulin' A* in one sitting. I wanted it done with.
I have seriously considered repurposing my second account as a dedicated explorer, so I could play that CMDR when I want to do some exploring, and switch back when the need for action starts gnawing at me.
Maybe I should consider using that account for an A* run. Then I could make the trip back at my leisure, or go exploring, or whatever, without feeling that urge to rush back.
Edit: OK, so that response was overly curt and probably came off as rude rather than the intended funny, so let me restate that.
The 18 hours there, while difficult, I can totally see... though the odds of my going 18 hours without having an ADD moment (not mocking people with ADD, I actually have it) and subsequent distraction-induced catastrophe seem a bit poor.
The 18 hours back, though, sounds like a total nightmare.
It's sort of like the reason I don't explore... it's not that I don't enjoy exploration in small doses, but after a few hours of it, I start to long for some action. And being some 10+ hours of flight time away from the nearest action is highly demoralizing.
It's the reason I made the last 10k LY of my flight home in Haulin' A* in one sitting. I wanted it done with.
I have seriously considered repurposing my second account as a dedicated explorer, so I could play that CMDR when I want to do some exploring, and switch back when the need for action starts gnawing at me.
Maybe I should consider using that account for an A* run. Then I could make the trip back at my leisure, or go exploring, or whatever, without feeling that urge to rush back.
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Mostly, there was this sense of, "Y'know, if I'd done this back when I first thought about it, I would probably be all caught up already."
I knew I'd miss some things... clearing my save kinda distances me from some previous accomplishments... I no longer have the Haulin' A* sitting in a hangar at Galileo, reminding me of how it was briefly the "fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy", and I miss that. And I miss having my Buckyball Run history in my sig, but having it there would feel awkward when I did it under s different name. Of everything, that sense of distance from my previous accomplishments is the one regret.
Having a reason to fly an Eagle again for a while was fun.
As for bravery, well... I knew that with everything I had learned the first two times around (I have a second account, though I don't play it anymore) that I could make up my lost progress much faster the third time around.
Of course, I was wrong about that in one regard, since I didn't know FD had nerfed rank progression into the ground. I've got my combat ranking and almost half my money back, but I used to be an Earl and now I'm having a hard time getting to Serf! But that wouldn't even bother me, honestly, if it wasn't keeping me out of the ship I want to be flying.
Still, the reset did solve the little problem that had been bugging me all along, so it was probably worth it. Probably. Jury's still out on that.
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Good luck and fly hot CMDR! o7
And then 20hrs of radio silence ... well that doesn't bode well!
Thread Writer Module took heat damage, is now at 0%, and he didn't bring AFMU's...
I have to start this update with an apology to Cmdr pum1127. This is the second time he's had to wait over a week for his time to appear on the board, because his submission has come in at the point I've missed an update. Sorry!
Anyway, on to pum1127's story... Having set a reasonable time of just over 7 days in Saggy Asp at the end of August, pum1127 proceeded to make a leisurely trip home, as you do. Unfortunately, the commander reports that in the very last system of his journey, an encounter with a trigger happy (NPC) pirate led to the Asp's loss, along with all of its exploration data!
In a highly commendable response, Cmdr pum1127 decided that the only response was to go again. Only faster this time. So he did. Switching to a different ship, the hopefully-named Diamondback Explorer Sagnback, this plucky commander has managed to improve his time from seven days to four. Well done commander, and here's hoping for a less eventful return trip!
You're on this board. Anything resembling sanity knows to stay far from this place.
And right now I'm annoyed, because I haven't had much of a chance to play E
lately. This board has been far too quiet of late - and it will be weeks before I can attempt to liven it up.I been following this thread for months now and I've wanted to do a run for ages. Unfortunately finding a whole free day has been difficult. That was until this weekend. The wife and kids are away for the weekend so I decided that this was my opportunity.
The question was which ship. I have always found it a shame that two of the most iconic ships from the previous Elite games, the Cobra and the Courier, didn't have a sub 24 hour time next to their name. Obviously others thought the same thing and now the best Cobra time is well within the 24 hour mark. However the Courier still doesn't have a sub 24hr time so I thought I'd try to change that.
Yesterday, all set up with ready-made pizza & lasagne, bags of crisps and bottles of Coke, I set off in my Courier for the epic trip. Unfortunately it didn't start too well. I was a bit too keen and I managed to ram straight into the side of the station as I was trying to exit. Although the damage was not too much I redocked, repaired and then relauched for take two. This time things went a lot more smoothly and despite taking heat damage on the second jump (testing the boundaries), the trip got off to a good start.
I wasn't quite sure whether I would be able to endure the routine of jump, scoop, jump, scoop but thanks to the Twitch streams of Fireytoad & Kate Russell and the Scotland & Wales rugby matches, I was well entertained on my journey. I had the expected problems in the middle of the run with brown dwarves and a plotting problem at the end where I made a mistake with my magic number. Other than that, things went well.
Which brings me to my time. I calculate it to be 14 hrs 4 mins 55 secs which means, provided that this is confirmed by the Cmdr Drakhyr, the Courier can get a sub-24 hour time next to its name.
Here are the full details:
Cmdr Name: Retmoc
Ship Name: The Sentimental
Ship Type: Imperial Courier
Total Race Time: 14 hrs 4 mins 55 secs
The question was which ship. I have always found it a shame that two of the most iconic ships from the previous Elite games, the Cobra and the Courier, didn't have a sub 24 hour time next to their name. Obviously others thought the same thing and now the best Cobra time is well within the 24 hour mark. However the Courier still doesn't have a sub 24hr time so I thought I'd try to change that.
Yesterday, all set up with ready-made pizza & lasagne, bags of crisps and bottles of Coke, I set off in my Courier for the epic trip. Unfortunately it didn't start too well. I was a bit too keen and I managed to ram straight into the side of the station as I was trying to exit. Although the damage was not too much I redocked, repaired and then relauched for take two. This time things went a lot more smoothly and despite taking heat damage on the second jump (testing the boundaries), the trip got off to a good start.
I wasn't quite sure whether I would be able to endure the routine of jump, scoop, jump, scoop but thanks to the Twitch streams of Fireytoad & Kate Russell and the Scotland & Wales rugby matches, I was well entertained on my journey. I had the expected problems in the middle of the run with brown dwarves and a plotting problem at the end where I made a mistake with my magic number. Other than that, things went well.
Which brings me to my time. I calculate it to be 14 hrs 4 mins 55 secs which means, provided that this is confirmed by the Cmdr Drakhyr, the Courier can get a sub-24 hour time next to its name.
Here are the full details:
Cmdr Name: Retmoc
Ship Name: The Sentimental
Ship Type: Imperial Courier
Total Race Time: 14 hrs 4 mins 55 secs
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Welcome to the board, and bravo! I was actually considering doing it again in a Courier for the same reason (I knew it could get well below 24!), and that was around the sort of time I was hoping for.
I was actually considering doing it this weekend... I'm quite glad I didn't now, one of us would have ended up a bit sad, and I think it might have been me.
An excellent time, anyway - hope you enjoyed the trip!
Maybe I'll have to get the T7 under a day instead...
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I'm quite glad I didn't now, one of us would have ended up a bit sad, and I think it might have been me.
Don't let me put you off doing in it a Courier. For me, it would be interesting to see how good the time is compared to an experienced Buckyballer like yourself.
I'm sure it can be beaten especially as I wasted 5-10 mins plotting the last route because I messed up (newbie error ).I'm wondering whether this is like doing a marathon. Immediately afterwards you say that you'll never do it again but then after a while you start thinking about the next run. Asp, DBX or maybe the FDL
Fantastic time sir, I salute you o7.
Oh, and yes - you're dead right about the marathon anaology ... just waiting for my own family to leave me alone in the house for a day and I'll be straight back out there despite stating numerous times in this very thread that I was never, EVER, doing that EVER AGAIN!!!!
Nicely done. And now that someone has defended the Courier's honor, I no longer feel that nagging urge to do it myself, so thank you, as well.
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