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

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I have had Power Plant, Power Distributor, Frame Shift Drive, Cargo Hatch and Thruster Malfunctions happen during runs and have never been dropped out of supercruise

It may be that malfunctions can have variable effects. I've had LOTS of Power Distributor malfunctions during races, and they never did anything but scramble my pips (Even when the distributor is turned off, it still scrambles them!), but... I've had thruster malfunctions in realspace that just made the ship difficult to control (like a maneuvering thruster was stuck wide open for a bit), but I've also had them where the controls didn't seem to respond at all (as if they were offline). Of course, this could also be FD tweaking the effects of malfunctions over time.

Edit: Did you have power groups set up to prioritize FSD and Thrusters, or were you below 50% power draw to begin with? Power Plant malfunction typically leaves you at 50% power for a bit, but as long as your FSD and Thrusters have power, you won't drop out.

EDIT 2: That reminds me of something else I don't like about neutron star running - I have to leave my sensors on to know how close I am. Usually I turn them off to reduce heat.
 
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It may be that malfunctions can have variable effects. I've had LOTS of Power Distributor malfunctions during races, and they never did anything but scramble my pips (Even when the distributor is turned off, it still scrambles them!), but... I've had thruster malfunctions in realspace that just made the ship difficult to control (like a maneuvering thruster was stuck wide open for a bit), but I've also had them where the controls didn't seem to respond at all (as if they were offline). Of course, this could also be FD tweaking the effects of malfunctions over time.

Edit: Did you have power groups set up to prioritize FSD and Thrusters, or were you below 50% power draw to begin with? Power Plant malfunction typically leaves you at 50% power for a bit, but as long as your FSD and Thrusters have power, you won't drop out.

EDIT 2: That reminds me of something else I don't like about neutron star running - I have to leave my sensors on to know how close I am. Usually I turn them off to reduce heat.

I had it setup so that fuel scoop would turn off,
do you get any message if say the fuel scoop or sensors were turned off due to power requirements I don't remember getting any messages about modules turning off or power being exceed I know I have had messages when deploying hard points and exceeded the power plant capacity in normal space
Using edshipyard I was running at 58%
 
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I had it setup so that fuel scoop would turn off,
do you get any message if say the fuel scoop or sensors were turned off due to power requirements I don't remember getting any messages about modules turning off or power being exceed I know I have had messages when deploying hard points and exceeded the power plant capacity in normal space
Using edshipyard I was running at 58%

Usually you get a "Module power limit exceeded " message if, say, your modules shut off because you deployed hardpoints and it was too much. I don't recall getting that message the one time I've had modules shut off due to malfunction, but sometimes when the game has multiple events happen at once, not all of the messages actually get seen. So I don't know if It's supposed to give that message on a power plant malfunction or not.

I've never personally had a power plant malfunction in supercruise except in ships where most of the systems were already turned off (I usually shut off power distrib, cargo hatch, sensors, and all AFMU's on an A* Challenge run, so only the FSD, Thrusters, Life Support, and Fuel Scoop are drawing power).
 
Pardon my quiet intrusion (I hope it's quiet though).... I was just catching up on the re-organizing of the leaderboards thing...

Personally I think the boards should remain as-is. Right now there are 2 categories - STANDARD and UNLIMITED. I don't see any need to change and previous records will keep standing until broken by using the same exact rules.

Example - Alot's record stands in the Standard class. He did it with no engineering, no FSD boosts, no Neutron Highway. Until another commander comes along and does the same exact thing and does it FASTER, Alot's record stands.

The moment the commander uses any sort of engineering, FSD boosts, or whatever future "QoL features" introduced by FD, they all go into "UNLIMITED". Future ships, paid DLC ships etc that uses no engineering, no FSD boosts etc fall under STANDARD.

Maybe, at most, just rename "standard class" to "Classic"... :)
 
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Pardon my quiet intrusion (I hope it's quiet though).... I was just catching up on the re-organizing of the leaderboards thing...

Personally I think the boards should remain as-is. Right now there are 2 categories - STANDARD and UNLIMITED. I don't see any need to change and previous records will keep standing until broken by using the same exact rules.

Example - Alot's record stands in the Standard class. He did it with no engineering, no FSD boosts, no Neutron Highway. Until another commander comes along and does the same exact thing and does it FASTER, Alot's record stands.

The moment the commander uses any sort of engineering, FSD boosts, or whatever future "QoL features" introduced by FD, they all go into "UNLIMITED". Future ships, paid DLC ships etc that uses no engineering, no FSD boosts etc fall under STANDARD.

Maybe, at most, just rename "standard class" to "Classic"... :)

Agree with all of that ... and really like the idea of renaming "Standard" to "Classic".
 
I just want to point out that Alot's record would have been impossible at the time of the game's launch. 100% completely impossible. Quality of Life improvements *made* it possible.
 
I just want to point out that Alot's record would have been impossible at the time of the game's launch. 100% completely impossible. Quality of Life improvements *made* it possible.

True, in a sense. At game launch, no such thing as changing modules in and out. We're stuck with stock configs.

However, the Buckyball A* didn't happen until much later, after modular reconfigurations was introduced, but BEFORE the 1,000 LY Galmap QoL plots was introduced (if memory serves). At the time when it started, Alot's current time would still be possible, since he did all his planning ON PAPER (if I understood him correctly). Even if my memory is hazy and I am wrong about the Galmap 1,000 LY plots, Alot's time is still valid under STANDARD due to offline planning and not relying on Galmap.
 
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True, in a sense. At game launch, no such thing as changing modules in and out. We're stuck with stock configs.

However, the Buckyball A* didn't happen until much later, after modular reconfigurations was introduced, but BEFORE the 1,000 LY Galmap QoL plots was introduced (if memory serves). At the time when it started, Alot's current time would still be possible, since he did all his planning ON PAPER (if I understood him correctly). Even if my memory is hazy and I am wrong about the Galmap 1,000 LY plots, Alot's time is still valid under STANDARD due to offline planning and not relying on Galmap.

When I ran my 13 hour run in the Buckyball Run A*, so pre-A* Challenge, you could plot 1000 LY on the galaxy map. Of course, it didn't work very well in the Core, but that was still true even when I ran my last run (the 9:35:22).

The only things that changed significantly (in terms of mechanics, at least) between when I ran my 13 hour run in BBRA* and when I ran my 9:35:22 were:
1). The addition of bookmarks.
2). Our understanding of how the route plotter works improved dramatically. When I ran my 13 hour run, "magic numbers" hadn't really been devised yet.

And from what I am told, bookmarks is not significantly faster than the copy-paste method (the main advantage bookmarking provides for me is that copy-paste tends to crash my game, so I was never able to use it - prior to bookmarks, i had to manually type in my next jump, as you can see in my Mischief Mile video).

- - - Updated - - -

Pardon my quiet intrusion (I hope it's quiet though).... I was just catching up on the re-organizing of the leaderboards thing...

Personally I think the boards should remain as-is. Right now there are 2 categories - STANDARD and UNLIMITED. I don't see any need to change and previous records will keep standing until broken by using the same exact rules.

Example - Alot's record stands in the Standard class. He did it with no engineering, no FSD boosts, no Neutron Highway. Until another commander comes along and does the same exact thing and does it FASTER, Alot's record stands.

The moment the commander uses any sort of engineering, FSD boosts, or whatever future "QoL features" introduced by FD, they all go into "UNLIMITED". Future ships, paid DLC ships etc that uses no engineering, no FSD boosts etc fall under STANDARD.

Maybe, at most, just rename "standard class" to "Classic"... :)

For the record, I'd be happier with this. Plotting a neutron star route for a Standard Hauler is proving a really frustrating experience. I'm learning things from the effort, so it's not entirely wasted, but... honestly, I can testify now that Unlimited ships are going to have a much better time trying to use Neutron Stars than Standard ships anyway. Truth be told, I am becoming increasingly convinced that a neutron star route is not faster for a Hauler (or if it is, only slightly so) - meaning the only ships which stand to gain from neutron stars in Standard are the Asp and the Anaconda anyway. Oh, and the DBX. Given the DBX's primary limitation is scooping? Neutron stars are probably a godsend for that thing, since you take on less total fuel over the course of the run.

I can live with neutron stars being allowed in Standard/Classic/whatever it's called. I'll adapt. But personally, I'll have more fun if neutron stars go in the pile with all the other Unlimited "anything goes" stuff. I'd much rather make any neutron star runs in an Unlimited ship that has the jump range to truly leverage them. And I still think, as FoxTwo says, that Alot's Standard record should stand until someone can beat him the same way he did it.

Also... after running 3kly of conventional jumps last night, I am becoming convinced that 2.2 did not slow down conventional jumping as much as I previously thought. Maybe a little bit, but... not as much as I thought. In a Hauler, I can still get full fuel and push the button the moment the cooldown ends on most stars - just not the really big ones. I had to adjust the technique a bit, but I found a way that works.

One more thing to think about here - if neutron stars become the accepted way to make a run? We are going to see a lot more failed runs. Especially in ships with lower jump ranges. I have started over in my plotting effort, because I realized I have accepted too many "marginal" neutron stars - ones with cones that extend only a short distance past their safe limit - in my route and I am more likely to explode than succeed the run if I try to be fast with those. But I'm really not sure that I can actually find enough "good" neutron stars to get by without trying to use the marginal ones. And if I have to accept more than a couple of marginal ones in my route, I don't like my odds of actually completing the run the first try...

(This is actually one of the things that made it easier for me to decide to bring Tim back to the bubble and plot it with Crystal - I realized I was going to have to start the plot over anyway!)
 
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Now that there's two options for builds - classic and neutron boosting, I think an actual A* race (instead of time trial) would be fun, and very interesting. It would be like Le Mans when they introduced diesel engines, or when Mazda entered with the rotary engine - same course, different approaches, extremely interesting to follow in real time.

Imagine it - live plots on EDSM, watching the neutron booster having to stop for repairs yet the classic runner keeps up the same relentless pace.

I know finding the time to commit is difficult, I haven't managed it yet. So I think finding two people who could commit the time at the same time would be almost impossible.

To make it interesting it would have to be done in a ship for which the benefit of neutron boosting is marginal... So why not the Hauler eg Rankaze? ;)

Or maybe Alot could run classic again, and the challenger can run the neutron boosting route, both in a ship of their choice?
 
1000ly plotting was introduced with 1.1 which was February 2015

I don't remember it was that quick. Game was released Dec 2014. People were crying over how difficult it was to plot jumps 1 jump at a time, so they introduced some sort of plotting but LIMITED TO 100 LY. I believe this was the 100 LY plots instead of the 1,000 LY plots release date.

Again I'm only going by memory and didn't do actual research :D
 
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Now that there's two options for builds - classic and neutron boosting, I think an actual A* race (instead of time trial) would be fun, and very interesting. It would be like Le Mans when they introduced diesel engines, or when Mazda entered with the rotary engine - same course, different approaches, extremely interesting to follow in real time.

Imagine it - live plots on EDSM, watching the neutron booster having to stop for repairs yet the classic runner keeps up the same relentless pace.

I know finding the time to commit is difficult, I haven't managed it yet. So I think finding two people who could commit the time at the same time would be almost impossible.

To make it interesting it would have to be done in a ship for which the benefit of neutron boosting is marginal... So why not the Hauler eg Rankaze? ;)

Or maybe Alot could run classic again, and the challenger can run the neutron boosting route, both in a ship of their choice?


Alot and Rusti were talking about racing Haulers to A*, back when the Hauler record was still 10 hours something and they knew it could be better. I kinda messed up those plans by putting that record down in the area where they thought it ought to be... but they'd been talking about it for a long time and it hadn't happened, so I think that illustrates the difficulty of two people finding the time to do it.

I certainly have a hard time finding time for a run myself, much less trying to coordinate with anyone else. Anyone who has followed this event can attest to the fact that I have canceled several planned runs in the past because in the end I couldn't find the time to do it. For two of the three runs I have made, I have actually taken time off work to accommodate it.

More than that, it's not something I really have any interest in doing. Live runs are fun when they are reasonably short and the competitors can actually see each other on the course. The BBR 9 live run was great, but mostly because of what happened in the starting and ending systems. The unofficial BBR10 live runs were even better due to the short course and the prominence of trying to dock in that race - the fact that I was racing two other pilots going into the first station stop was amazing (unfortunately, it was after that when the network problems started happening and people started getting disconnected). When you lose that constant awareness of your position and your competitors', though - and the ability to interact with them - you lose most of the appeal of live racing.

That's all my own opinion, though, and as with many things about the challenge, YMMV. If someone else wants to try it, by all means they should give it a go.
 
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I live on the other side of the planet, in Asia, so I can't take part in any planned "live" events. Most of the time they happen when I'm asleep. That is why Buckyball races suit me perfectly... I don't have to be online AT THE SAME TIME as other racers to take part.

However I saw the vids of EZ and you guys doing that 14 hour live run to Sag A* :) That was funny. Yeah when I woke up ("Morning" my time) you guys were already like into your 9th or 10th hour.
 
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I think that the Galactic Mapping Thread (exploration forum sticky) already had an accurate record of when each change in plot range etc came in.
 
I don't remember it was that quick. Game was released Dec 2014. People were crying over how difficult it was to plot jumps 1 jump at a time, so they introduced some sort of plotting but LIMITED TO 100 LY. I believe this was the 100 LY plots instead of the 1,000 LY plots release date.

Again I'm only going by memory and didn't do actual research :D
1.1 release notes from Feb 2015 https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...Incoming-Clipper-hot-fix-(1-1-01)-7-15-pm-GMT

- Route planning extended to 1,000 ly
 
As Allitnil said, the 1000LY plotting was indeed introduced in 1.1. :)

The more I think about this, the more I hold the opinion that Standard/Classic/Original/Get-Off-My-SpaceLawn should stay as it is (no neutrons).
My reasoning is that right now, any new player (should they be mad enough to) can just set off towards A* and set a time in that class, and have a reasonably fair comparison for their time vs everyone else's. Pre-planning a route gains you 1 or 2%, not 25 (or 50, or ...).
Allowing neutrons there would mean that to even aspire to have a competitive time would require large amounts of planning. That's been the case at the very top of the existing board for a while now, but IMO not for most of the ships.
I guess I should investigate how feasible a "just wing it" neutron-boosted run would be, but I suspect it'd be an exercise in frustration more than anything.
 

As Allitnil said, the 1000LY plotting was indeed introduced in 1.1. :)

Yeah I guess old age catches up really quickly once you turn the big five-oh.... dang

Well then, the Classic Board (I'm gonna start calling it that right now :D ) won't be affected much, as long as Drakhyr states the rules like "no engineered parts, no FSD boosts and no Neutron Stars". Especially since the BBRA* event (by EZ) started after the 1,000 LY plots, we can take that as a "given" as a benchmark.

Hmmm wonder what kinda times I'd get right now if I went back to do the BBR1 race... Magec to Wyrd... :D Now, THAT one has a lot of changes, esp with "QoL" stuff.
 
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Standard/Classic/Original/Get-Off-My-SpaceLawn

:D

My reasoning is that right now, any new player (should they be mad enough to) can just set off towards A* and set a time in that class, and have a reasonably fair comparison for their time vs everyone else's. Pre-planning a route gains you 1 or 2%, not 25 (or 50, or ...).
Allowing neutrons there would mean that to even aspire to have a competitive time would require large amounts of planning. That's been the case at the very top of the existing board for a while now, but IMO not for most of the ships.
I guess I should investigate how feasible a "just wing it" neutron-boosted run would be, but I suspect it'd be an exercise in frustration more than anything.

In anything short of an Asp, there's a fair risk, if trying to "wing it" with neutron stars, of jumping into an area you can't jump out of (at least, not easily). I managed, while plotting, to jump myself into a rather sparse spot where I couldn't move forward at all and going back turned out to be more adventure than I'd bargained for (though I did manage it). When plotting, something like that is merely an annoyance. When actually running, it would do some serious damage to one's time.
 
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