Community Event / Creation Buckyball Racing Club presents: The Black Riband Rebooted

[Edelgard von Rhein]

I lose 3-4 seconds per screenshot because I have found out the hard way that I sometimes need to press the f10 key several times before one is taken (Buckyball Run 9 was one case and I've lost the odd run here and there taking just one before). I think that, as in the Fram Celebration race, it is probably sufficient to show the selling of the rares. There have been other races transporting cargo and I think the screenshot showing the commodity market as you sell is enough - certainly for rares where there is only one place where they can be bought. It's your race, though, so if you can see a problem and want to see the buying phase, then that's ok. One day I'll probably have to get into making videos but I don't think it's something I'll do with my current hardware.
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The Dolphin is a good ship and does not overheat that badly (I've read that there used to be a bug that caused overheating flying over planets but I don't know if that is still there). I would say that with the loadout I had she was handling the heat only slightly worse than the unengineered Cobra MkIII I flew to Sgr A* recently, so that's not really a problem. In supercruise, the Dolphin handles similarly to the Viper MkIV, which is slightly less manoeuvreable than the Cobra MkIII. I kept the Whisper of Freedom unengineered until now because I wanted a baseline comparison of the times taken to run the original Black Riband and the rebooted version, so now I've done that I will get to work with upgrading the key modules, with a view to flying her in future races.
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Thanks for staging the race!

 

[Raiko]

Rules Tweak:

I agree with Edelgard, and so I've removed the requirement for a commodities market screenshot when buying. So black market screenshots before selling, plus a commodities market screenshot at Weyl Gateway at the end are all that are required to validate cargo.

I think that I've removed the only reference to the unnecessary screenshots from the rules, but if anything is unclear, or if I've the purchasing screenshots are mentioned elsewhere, then please let me know.

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I lose 3-4 seconds per screenshot because I have found out the hard way that I sometimes need to press the f10 key several times before one is taken (Buckyball Run 9 was one case and I've lost the odd run here and there taking just one before).

I've set up a voiceattack macro so that when I press f10 (or say "screenshot"), it also 'presses' PrintScrn for me, and Windows 10 very kindly sends its screenshots to One Drive for me.

That's handy because I can sort through the screenshots on a different PC or my phone later, and can send a link to a One Drive folder if I don't manage to upload to Imgur.

Also, if I'm playing in borderless mode I get a windows notification in the bottom corner every time Win10 sends a photo to One Drive - so I know the screenshot worked.

 

[Bruski]

CMDR Bruski
Attempt 3
Start Time: 19:52:00 17 Jul 3304

The Black Riband
The Classic
The Cobra Challenge Cup
The Cobra Classic Cup
The Zammo McGuire Memorial Shield

Cobra Mk IV

 

[Raiko]

CMDR Bruski
Attempt 3
Start Time: 19:52:00 17 Jul 3304

The Black Riband
The Classic
The Cobra Challenge Cup
The Cobra Classic Cup
The Zammo McGuire Memorial Shield

Cobra Mk IV

Wow, good luck! I've just realised that I've not updated the leaderboards yet! They're done, but on my work pc...

Sorry Bruski and Edelgard - I'll post an update tomorrow when I've seen how Bruski's third attempt goes. Third time lucky I hope.

 

[Raiko]

BOOTLEGGER EXPRESS STANDINGS - 21:00 UTC 18-JUL-3304

First up this week is Cmdr Edelgard von Rhein's Bootlegger Express run in her Dolphin Whisper of Freedom. This was the first ever successful run in any of the new events, and Edelgard chose to use an unengineered ship for her first run and targeted the black market at Hart Station in Bast. She also avoided hauling narcotics, although there's no special award for that in the Express runs, indeed the commodity she chose to smuggle is only illegal within Federation systems and therefore as far as anyone who matters is concerned she didn't even break any laws. After her run Edelgard arrived back at Weyl Gateway in a very respectable time of 43m23s, and so currently holds both the overall Bootlegger Express record and the fastest time for a Bast run.

BLACK RIBAND STANDINGS - 21:00 UTC 18-JUL-3304

In the Black Riband itself, after two failed runs, CMDR Bruski refused to be deterred from his crazy attempt to secure five awards in one go. As with his second run, Bruski made use of the larger cargo capacity of the Cobra Mk IV and after a few mishaps made it back to Weyl Gateway in a time of 2h48m41s. That might look like a long time, but with a drug-free run in his non-engineered Mark IV Flaming OnionBe4r Freight it gave Bruski the Black Riband, the Classic, both versions of the Cobra Cup and the Zammo McGuire Memorial trophy in one epic run. We'll probably see some much faster runs than this one in the future, but it might take some beating in the Cobra Classic.

It also wiped the smile off Nuk's face - at least until someone else bravely attempts the Cobra Classic. Nuk's a real bad loser, the neon sign's gone - and so are the free drinks.

This is probably the only time that the rare Cobra Mk IV has ever led a Buckyball event, so well done CMDR Bruski! o7

 

[Raiko]

Added the Cobra Challenge Cup leaderboard to the original post:

COBRA CHALLENGE CUP STANDINGS - 21:00 UTC 18-JUL-3304

EDIT: Also added the Spa Trophy leaderboard - for any crazies out there.

 

[Adipose2112]

I'm gonna try for the bootlegger express by the end of the week in my Type-6 the Working Man. Just gonna trade my way over to weyl first.

 

[Raiko]

I'm gonna try for the bootlegger express by the end of the week in my Type-6 the Working Man. Just gonna trade my way over to weyl first.

Excellent, good luck Adipose - welcome to the BRC.

I recommend having a practice of the installation tunnel sections before making a full run. It's by far the most challenging part - shields are definitely recommended!

I'd love to see a Type-6 holding the Black Riband - and it's nice to see someone lining up to take the Lucky Lakon Trophy before Bruski gets his paws on it.

Edit - oops, sorry I misread your post (my eyes aren't what they used to be!). Good luck with the Bootlegger Express (still take care in the tunnels!)

 

[Adipose2112]

Excellent, good luck Adipose - welcome to the BRC.

I recommend having a practice of the installation tunnel sections before making a full run. It's by far the most challenging part - shields are definitely recommended!

I'd love to see a Type-6 holding the Black Riband - and it's nice to see someone lining up to take the Lucky Lakon Trophy before Bruski gets his paws on it.

Edit - oops, sorry I misread your post (my eyes aren't what they used to be!). Good luck with the Bootlegger Express (still take care in the tunnels!)

I will, and yeah, I'm doing a bootlegger express as a warm-up of sorts, as I want to get comfortable with tunnel runs and smuggling before I attempt a full Riband.

Regarding tunnels, I am ditching weapons in the name of weight, but I am not crazy enough to ditch shields. I hope to get in a practice on that today.

 

[Adipose2112]

Tried a tunnel run a few times, twice with stuff in my cargo hold. first time I got blown up, the second time I barely escaped because I used the tunnels and a blind spot in the flight pattern to get out, but I think I have a plan that will at very least give me the least likely chance of losing a load of money at once. I can stave off interdictions, especially in a type 6, it's getting attacked at the tunnels (not to mention the ace combat flashbacks) I have to worry about, so I'm going to hit my 4 additional points on my way to Bast, unload the 8 tons of illicit goods there, do the tunnel runs, then head back to Bast to buy a bunch of bast snake oil and head back to the start. still finalizing the route and doing dry runs with cheap legal non-rare goods to help figure it out.

 

[Zippo Starfire]

Jurrasic World Evolution

Can the Keelback be considered for the Lucky Lakon reward?

 

[Raiko]

Can the Keelback be considered for the Lucky Lakon reward?

No sorry, just the Lakon Type-n ships.

It's a tribute to all the unshielded Type-n ships destroyed by pirates over the years.

Nuk wanted to exclude the Type-10 from that award as well, but Tony wouldn't let him.

As it stands though, any run in a competitive ship like a Keelback will take the main Black Riband award, at least until Buski or furrycat turn up in something faster than a Cobra Mk IV.

PS: Sorry it took a couple of days replying, I've been busy away from the forums. I've added email notifications to my subscription to this thread, so I shouldn't miss any other posts. The race entry forms give me notifications anyway, so I'll never miss actual entries.

 

[Raiko]

Incidentally, if you take a look at the last few pages of the rare commodities list thread, there are a couple of extra rares that are no longer suppressed - Anagippe Rush and Terra Mata Blood Bores - I've not played for a few weeks, so haven't checked their boom allocation or where they're legal/illegal, but all illegal rares are valid in this event.

If you visit either system and view the commodity in the market, the description will say where they're legal.

So this is an opportunity to optimise a route in a way even Fat Tony didn't see coming!

 

[Raiko]

I'm mainly posting here to prevent the thread locking, as the challenge is still active.
I've not had much time to play Elite recently, but I'm hoping to get chance to update the commodities lists this week, with the illegal rares that were unlocked after the start of the rebooted event.

I'm also posting because I'm planning to make a run myself during my Christmas break, probably in either my Asp-X or my Python. Bruski's current record is an awesome Cobra Classic run, but should be easily beatable in an engineered ship, and I don't particularly want to challenge for the record in my own race.

So if anyone else fancies making a run before me, then please do.

 

[Alec Turner]

Thanks Raiko - believe it or not this is still on my todo list so good-job keeping this open. [yesnod]

Do you think Q4 is going to affect this challenge much?

 

[Rankaze]

At some point I am going to attempt this. I'm just trying to figure out what the heck ship to do it in.

Sadly, the ship I built for exactly this sort of run won't do - Joyeuse simply doesn't have the cargo capacity for it (I can get her up to 24 tons, but it requires giving up both my Guardian FSD Booster and my fuel scoop!)

None of my other ships are well-suited to smuggling.

 

[Raiko]

Thanks Raiko - believe it or not this is still on my todo list so good-job keeping this open. [yesnod]

Do you think Q4 is going to affect this challenge much?

Originally I was hoping that Q4 would include improvement to smuggling and that this race would be obsolete.

I don't expect that the update will directly affect the event, I'll check that the two outposts are still present in the Beta if I get time to play this weekend.

During an earlier update (sometime since the Galaxy's End pub crawl) some evil dev added an exclusion zone around the Rahu outpost - which was quite a surprise when I first checked the Black Riband course. The danger at the other outpost is dependant on a triggered scenario with the Silver Comet ships appearing - if that disappears then the event is much easier.

The most likely disruption will be the BGS changes, as the race is quite dependant on some of the better supply stations being in boom when you make a run.

At some point I am going to attempt this. I'm just trying to figure out what the heck ship to do it in.

Sadly, the ship I built for exactly this sort of run won't do - Joyeuse simply doesn't have the cargo capacity for it (I can get her up to 24 tons, but it requires giving up both my Guardian FSD Booster and my fuel scoop!)

None of my other ships are well-suited to smuggling.

Yes, it's a bit of a harsh event for your favoured small ships. The large deliveries were necessary to stop the DBX being the undisputed 100% best ship for the event. I suspect that Kraits and Pythons are the best followed by the Asp-X and then the DBX, but I've not bothered optimising a route, so I'm not sure. A python is certainly the easiest ship to make a run in.

Joyeuse would work well running in the Bootlegger Express - You're only making one 8t delivery in that one, dropping 2t at an installation and then taking 8t of legal rares back to the start. So it works better for small ships, but it's also much less complex, which could be good or bad depending on how much complexity you enjoy.

Alternatively, I will keep track of the fastest runs by each ship type (like Drakhyr does for the A* challenge), and so you could just go for the a very fast time for a courier. You can visit each station more than once if you like - as long as you deliver 20t total to each station it's valid. Bruski's run was narcotics-free in an unengineered ship, so even making extra station visits, it shouldn't take as long in an engineered ship.

One additional thing to bear in mind is the dangers of the installations mentioned above in my reply to Alex. I would advise shields be fitted for this race. Joyeuse might well be fast enough to keep flying in and out of the exclusion zone without triggering the turrets and bounty though, and a point defence turret would probably be enough to stop Nuk's friends the Silver Comets.

 

[Raiko]

I suspect that Kraits and Pythons are the best followed by the Asp-X and then the DBX, but I've not bothered optimising a route, so I'm not sure. A python is certainly the easiest ship to make a run in.

Scrub the above - I haven't downloaded this week's beta yet, but I've played around in beta.coriolis.io and (fittingly I think) the Krait Phantom appears to be the perfect ship for the Black Riband Rebooted. Although it's apparently a bit of a pig in SC.

 

[Rankaze]

Originally I was hoping that Q4 would include improvement to smuggling and that this race would be obsolete.

I don't expect that the update will directly affect the event, I'll check that the two outposts are still present in the Beta if I get time to play this weekend.

During an earlier update (sometime since the Galaxy's End pub crawl) some evil dev added an exclusion zone around the Rahu outpost - which was quite a surprise when I first checked the Black Riband course. The danger at the other outpost is dependant on a triggered scenario with the Silver Comet ships appearing - if that disappears then the event is much easier.

The most likely disruption will be the BGS changes, as the race is quite dependant on some of the better supply stations being in boom when you make a run.


Yes, it's a bit of a harsh event for your favoured small ships. The large deliveries were necessary to stop the DBX being the undisputed 100% best ship for the event. I suspect that Kraits and Pythons are the best followed by the Asp-X and then the DBX, but I've not bothered optimising a route, so I'm not sure. A python is certainly the easiest ship to make a run in.

Joyeuse would work well running in the Bootlegger Express - You're only making one 8t delivery in that one, dropping 2t at an installation and then taking 8t of legal rares back to the start. So it works better for small ships, but it's also much less complex, which could be good or bad depending on how much complexity you enjoy.

Alternatively, I will keep track of the fastest runs by each ship type (like Drakhyr does for the A* challenge), and so you could just go for the a very fast time for a courier. You can visit each station more than once if you like - as long as you deliver 20t total to each station it's valid. Bruski's run was narcotics-free in an unengineered ship, so even making extra station visits, it shouldn't take as long in an engineered ship.

One additional thing to bear in mind is the dangers of the installations mentioned above in my reply to Alex. I would advise shields be fitted for this race. Joyeuse might well be fast enough to keep flying in and out of the exclusion zone without triggering the turrets and bounty though, and a point defence turret would probably be enough to stop Nuk's friends the Silver Comets.

I always run shields on Joyeuse anyway... minimal ones (2D with Grade 5 enhanced low-power), but shields nonetheless - her thrusters are so touchy that landing her without taking hull damage is almost impossible if I don't use a shield, even when I'm not in a hurry and even with analogue thruster control. The only exception is for the A* Challenge, where docking is not so much a thing. I doubt she'd even need a point-defense turret, as she's faster (655 m/s military, 885 boost) than any missile I've yet to encounter. Of course, with a full cargo hold she loses some speed, but I think she's still fast enough to outrun missiles. I might have to test that at some point. It certainly helps that even a minimal shield generator on a Courier yields a pretty stout defense.

Of course, if I decide Joyeuse is not durable enough, I could always run it in her sister Durandal.

I'll look more closely at my options once Joyeuse's A* Challenge run is done.

 

[Raiko]

I've added the three unsuppressed rares into the lists now.

• Aganippe Rush
• Terra Mater Blood Bores
• Master Chefs

I don't know what the boom spawn is for Terra Mater Blood Bores yet - it's likely to be 30t, but might get a boost due to the permit requirement. I'm also not sure about the legality in Zaonce - I forgot to check. They are legal in Independent Co-operatives, which normally means they'd also be legal in Alliance Co-operatives, so I'd be surprised if they're banned in Zaonce.

Note that in order to unsuppress the Master Chefs, FD moved their source system from Noti to Viracocha.

Although grouped as medicines, rather than legal-drugs, both Aganippe Rush and Terra Mater Blood Bores are classified as narcotics for the purposes of the Zammo McGuire Memorial Trophy.

The commodites list now notes exactly which commodities are classified as narcotics. The reintroduction of Master Chefs now means that good-guy smugglers who won't haul drugs can now carry a few slaves to go with their biological weapons and weaponised nanotech.