Community Event / Creation Buckyball Racing Club presents: The A* Challenge
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Are there any changes in how to execute the run? Any experiences already made with route plotting and stuff in 2.2?
It's my understanding that route plotting issues are a thing of the past!
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-explanation?p=4697622&viewfull=1#post4697622
... Uh ? What ? What would make you say that ? I'm not doing anything ! Don't look at me like that !
I've come back here on orders of my department head at work.
Well, not really. He wants me to find a house and a spouse for the express purpose of putting the stress of work aside for awhile. (And yes, it's been hella stressful over the past few months.) I read his comment as, "You know, the last time I really put aside the stress, other than with friends (which are 1500 miles away), was when I played E: D".
So.... for the first time in several months, I fired up E: D. I'm still 15k light-years away from Sol from my Asp run in July, so I'm slowly making my way back. I only did about 1k tonight, because I was working until midnight on work things, but it felt good to have my hands on the controls again.
My main thought... a good run became a lot easier, but a great run became a lot harder.
The update for 2.2 gave us all the updates we wanted - system filtering, relatively fast route plotting, display of destination star and type - and one we didn't want - placing the ship in the system based on the system it came from. In other words, the A* runs reward careful and meticulous planning less now, and in-system scooping and piloting more, because the next star on the route is almost always behind the current star. Because of this, the piloting becomes absolutely critical; it would take a master pilot being absolutely perfect every time to perform the 44-second tango needed to break the current stock Anaconda, Asp Ex, and Hauler records - and I don't think it's doable, not at that mass scale, not every time.
That said... a good run became a lot easier. I would hazard a guess that every other stock record just became VERY beatable. Basically, a good pilot could take a stock ship out without planning and make a high-quality run without having to worry about "magic numbers" or consecutive unscoopables. Now... I do need to give a caveat to this. I think planning does help, and will continue to help. Because it's so easy, I suspect many pilots won't plan the jumps, will end up with suboptimal runs and jump lengths (though I can think of a way around that), and thus planning the route will always have a place.
Anyway... we'll see how things go. Like I said, I'm going to be back on, at least for a little while. Don't know if I'm going to be planning any more runs - may just make a random run in a few weeks just to see how it goes - but it felt good tonight to be back.
Well, not really. He wants me to find a house and a spouse for the express purpose of putting the stress of work aside for awhile. (And yes, it's been hella stressful over the past few months.) I read his comment as, "You know, the last time I really put aside the stress, other than with friends (which are 1500 miles away), was when I played E: D".
So.... for the first time in several months, I fired up E: D. I'm still 15k light-years away from Sol from my Asp run in July, so I'm slowly making my way back. I only did about 1k tonight, because I was working until midnight on work things, but it felt good to have my hands on the controls again.
My main thought... a good run became a lot easier, but a great run became a lot harder.
The update for 2.2 gave us all the updates we wanted - system filtering, relatively fast route plotting, display of destination star and type - and one we didn't want - placing the ship in the system based on the system it came from. In other words, the A* runs reward careful and meticulous planning less now, and in-system scooping and piloting more, because the next star on the route is almost always behind the current star. Because of this, the piloting becomes absolutely critical; it would take a master pilot being absolutely perfect every time to perform the 44-second tango needed to break the current stock Anaconda, Asp Ex, and Hauler records - and I don't think it's doable, not at that mass scale, not every time.
That said... a good run became a lot easier. I would hazard a guess that every other stock record just became VERY beatable. Basically, a good pilot could take a stock ship out without planning and make a high-quality run without having to worry about "magic numbers" or consecutive unscoopables. Now... I do need to give a caveat to this. I think planning does help, and will continue to help. Because it's so easy, I suspect many pilots won't plan the jumps, will end up with suboptimal runs and jump lengths (though I can think of a way around that), and thus planning the route will always have a place.
Anyway... we'll see how things go. Like I said, I'm going to be back on, at least for a little while. Don't know if I'm going to be planning any more runs - may just make a random run in a few weeks just to see how it goes - but it felt good tonight to be back.
A quick glance at EDSM reveals there's some busy bees out there!
Now that is a good boss, one that knows each of us well enough to what conditions make each of us most productive - keep that boss as long as you can, ones as good as that are hard to find.
Glad to see you back
first as has been said having a boss that cares about you is a great thing!
my .02 feel free to disagree.
As far as adding more to your life to reduce stress, I am not sure that should be your first move.
After 34 years; "he who finds a fine wife finds a good thing" is an understatement, but I think you should manage your stress before you look for a wife.
You need to go into marriage with your eyes wide open, then after keep them half shut. (ignore the small stuff)
what ever you do I wish you all the best and welcome back to ED.
first as has been said having a boss that cares about you is a great thing!
my .02 feel free to disagree.
As far as adding more to your life to reduce stress, I am not sure that should be your first move.
After 34 years; "he who finds a fine wife finds a good thing" is an understatement, but I think you should manage your stress before you look for a wife.
You need to go into marriage with your eyes wide open, then after keep them half shut. (ignore the small stuff)
what ever you do I wish you all the best and welcome back to ED.
Meh. Never been all that interested in dating or marriage, to be honest.
A quick glance at EDSM reveals there's some busy bees out there!
Now that is a good boss, one that knows each of us well enough to what conditions make each of us most productive - keep that boss as long as you can, ones as good as that are hard to find.
Glad to see you back
I wish I could keep him. Wouldn't have thought I'd have ever said that after the way my first year went there, but yes. The boss' position is odd in that it rotates between people every few years because generally, no one wants it - and those that do want it should not be trusted under any circumstances. His term was up in August, but - for reasons that caused me a great deal of stress - it ended up extended into December.
That said... there is something to be said about certain records. After a point, a sense of ownership of a ship class record sets in. Alot's ownership of the Anaconda (and overall classic) record is well known; Rusti has shown a strong willingness to regain/defend the Asp record.
For a long time, I owned the Diamondback Explorer record. It's time I got it back.
Intent to Race:
CMDR Hanekura Shizuka
Diamondback Explorer
Yurei
Standard Class
Game on.
That was interesting.
At the moment, I'm dead tired. That said... run completed. I was right about the DBX... the extra time needed to scoop made the piloting challenge nothing by comparison.
CMDR Hanekura Shizuka
Diamondback Explorer
Yurei
Standard Class
Start time: 19:15:00, Nov 12 3302
End time: 5:42:42, Nov 13 3302
Time: 10 hours, 27 minutes, 42 seconds.
Good night...
At the moment, I'm dead tired. That said... run completed. I was right about the DBX... the extra time needed to scoop made the piloting challenge nothing by comparison.
CMDR Hanekura Shizuka
Diamondback Explorer
Yurei
Standard Class
Start time: 19:15:00, Nov 12 3302
End time: 5:42:42, Nov 13 3302
Time: 10 hours, 27 minutes, 42 seconds.
Good night...
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Congratulations! Now you just need to hope that drakhyr resurfaces in order to put you back in your rightfull place on the board.
Awesome! I don't want to think about how few (if any) klies I would have managed at a decent pace before completely vapourizing the ship
Thanks. Having been away for awhile and left my own list (the 65k list), though, I can relate to absences.
Awesome! I don't want to think about how few (if any) klies I would have managed at a decent pace before completely vapourizing the ship
Thanks. Flying a DBX on an A* run is about like that scene in "The Hunt for Red October" where the sub is headed straight for a pillar, with a torpedo right behind - a game of waiting for the right moment to turn without damaging the ship. The main weakness of the DBX is its fuel scoop - it has a size 5 FSD, but only a size 4 scoop. In order to run a DBX properly, you actually continue scooping for a few seconds after you start charging the FSD, in order to get every possible second of fuel you can. Those few seconds make a huge amount of difference on time - every second spent scooping while charging the FSD is one second saved on overall time.
And yes - when I made it to A*, my thrusters were at 80%. I'd pushed it as much as I could without running the risk of malfunction.
Hang on you bloody what?!
That is an insanely impressive time. I'm just sat here looking at my estimates wondering if they gave the DBX a bigger optional internal slot and nobody told me. Way to mark your return!
Edit: I have to explicitly give the DBX a 2s-per-jump handicap to match your time. By the sound of your scooping descriptions that may be about right though!
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Alot ; Tell him your time, he'll tell you all about any and every module in your ship build and the route you planned, system per system, with bookmarks.
Hang on you bloody what?!
That is an insanely impressive time. I'm just sat here looking at my estimates wondering if they gave the DBX a bigger optional internal slot and nobody told me. Way to mark your return!
Edit: I have to explicitly give the DBX a 2s-per-jump handicap to match your time. By the sound of your scooping descriptions that may be about right though!
Thanks. That said, I think 2s might be an underestimation. It's basically the time it takes to heat up between 67-68% (when the ship starts to charge up) and 80-85% (depending on the star). To give an idea on this... the "plan"? Was the bookmarks from my Asp run, which detoured about 200 ly because the route was planned before 2.2!
I *might* have video of the first couple hours. I tried recording it; after awhile, the frames were freezing up on the recorder, so I switched it off. Will see when I get back home. If I do, I'll post some of it so you have a better idea.
Finally... I made Alot change his math. How cool is that?
Based on Alot's comments and wondering just how much time was saved by scooping after beginning to charge the FSD, I decided to make the following:
How To DBX
This gives a few example scoops toward the end to give an idea of how much time passes between charging the FSD and actually pulling out of the star.
UPDATE: Two things, really. The first is that I realized it might be good to add my evidence, in case someone else takes the reins from drakhyr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132207737@N08/albums/72157676400506876
The other... looking at the video, I would estimate the adjustment at somewhere around 3.5 to 4 seconds.
How To DBX
This gives a few example scoops toward the end to give an idea of how much time passes between charging the FSD and actually pulling out of the star.
UPDATE: Two things, really. The first is that I realized it might be good to add my evidence, in case someone else takes the reins from drakhyr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132207737@N08/albums/72157676400506876
The other... looking at the video, I would estimate the adjustment at somewhere around 3.5 to 4 seconds.
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Congratulations, that's an awesome time! How's the 2.2 handling on a SagA* trip?
Well, I'd had to fly back in 2.2 from a (much) earlier A* trip, so I got a feel for what to do and what not to do.
So.... my thoughts.
Don't run in Horizons - run in plain-vanilla E: D. The reason for this... if a system has planets, Horizons will take much longer in witchspace, and it will make for a very long and painful day.
The route plotting is better - to an extent. I was tempting fate by deliberately using bookmarks that weren't "magic numbers", and it didn't take that long to load up... but it still took a few seconds. It is still slower than it would have been using "magic numbers" under the old system, though.
The star-class filtering works like a dream. I used an 8T fuel tank, almost never had a full tank, and never had to detour for lack of fuel.
Then there's the reason I ran with a DBX as opposed to, say, an Asp or an Anaconda. Starting in 2.2, the ship is placed in-system based on the system the ship came from. This means that the destination star, the place you want to go, is always going to be behind the star you just arrived at - meaning you're going to have to circle the star and get in line-of-sight before you can start charging the FSD. The effect this has depends on the ship. DBX is going to take a long time to scoop, so the time to get line-of-sight is never the limiting factor. However, this will likely become an issue for nimble, dive-in-and-get-out fast-scooping ships such as Asp Explorers and Haulers. (I'm still weighing whether or not it would have a significant effect on the Anaconda. Anacondas are weird sometimes, just because of their turn speed and how much they scoop at one time.)
That's some very good advice, thank you! I didn't know about the correlation of Horizons and loading times, but it makes perfect sense!
I'm not so sure about the effect of the target being behind the star on different ship classes:
I'd say ships like the Hauler or the Asp (good SC maneuverability) could maybe compensate easier for that added flying-around the star, but it certainly needs a different scooping technique than the usual "dive in straight and pull up" that at least I have used so far with these ships.
The Anaconda however can't really dive in straight anyway and I've gotten used to entering the scooping zone at roughly a 45° angle, so there's probably little need for change (though I haven't got much long range experience in 2.2 yet). On the other hand the scoop to fsd ratio of the Anaconda is worse than that of the Hauler and Asp, so it's not really possible to fly halfway around the star first and then quickly scoop to avoid an obscured target on fsd cooldown finish.
That's mostly thoughts and experience from past versions of the game though. With heat generation vs. heat resistance, maneuverability, scoop size and star class all having a major effect on this it's probably necessary to compare Anaconda, Asp and Hauler side by side to really figure out what the effects are...
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