The Buckyball Racing Club presents: The Black Riband - sponsored by Evil Juice.
Are you the best smuggler in the galaxy? Prove it then...
Please note, this event is for OPEN-MODE ONLY
The Leaderboards
Correct at 08:00GMT 01-SEP-3303
Current Holder
Previous Holders
Unsuccessful Attempts
Record Times by Ship Type
The One's Who Didn't Make it.
THE PRE-MOD ERA
Engineer modifications were made available to Pilots Federation members on 26-May-3302. CMDR furrycat's pre-mod record stood until 18-JUL-3302
Final pre-mod era tables inside spoiler tags:
Current Holder
Previous Holders
Unsuccessful Attempts
Record Times by Ship Type
The One's Who Didn't Make it.
Previous Holders
Unsuccessful Attempts
Record Times by Ship Type
The One's Who Didn't Make it.
So what is the Black Riband?
As a promotional stunt in the run up to their 3301 Bootlegger Challenge, mobsters Anthony 'Fat Tony' Lonnegan and Enoch 'Little Nuk' Lonnegan, aka 'The Lonnegan Brothers' created The Black Riband, an award to be held by the 'Fastest Smuggler in the Galaxy.'
But Tony and Nuk enjoyed the whole Bootlegger Challenge so much that they decided to keep the Black Riband going, turning it into a standing challenge.
And because they're friendly mobsters, who always try to please, the Lonnegan brothers have made some minor alterations so that every ship type has a chance of completing the run, and every runner get the recognition that they deserve - even if they don't take the record.
Yeah, yeah, so what do you need to do?
Okay, the idea is simple enough:
Take off from Weyl Gateway in the Lonnegan Brothers' home system of Alacarakmo, visit the eight listed stations in whichever order you like, collecting rare liquor, tobacco and narcotics commodities at each stop, the exact amount that you need to bring back depends on which type of ship you're flying.
Then after the eighth station you've just got to get back to Weyl as fast as possible with a full hold. If you beat the record then you are the Black Riband holder until someone else beats your time.
Simple!
There's just a couple of catches though:
First you have to tell Tony that you'll be running before you set off. Then Tony posts a notice on this bulletin board so that any pirates who are watching know that some hot-shot is heading their way, trying to make them look like schmucks. Once you tell Tony that you're running you've got exactly 48 hours to start your run or it's too late and you'll need to declare your intent all over again. If that happens then Nuk adds you to the list of smugglers who didn't make it.
Secondly the run will take you through the notorious Lave and Leesti systems and most of the goods you'll be hauling are illegal elsewhere on the route. But that's no problem, 'cus you're a hotshot smuggler, so remember - no one likes a smuggler who drops their goods at the first sign of trouble.
Don't worry though, 'cus back at Weyl Gateway Little Nuk is taking bets on whether you'll survive, so everyone's happy, right?
The final catch is that the current holder is CMDR Alot, and he's pretty damn fast! So if you want to prove that you're the best, you've got to make the run in less than 55min 49sec.
Since it's not going to be easy to beat the record, and since a real hotshot smuggler would rather dodge the Code in a Type-9 anyway, Little Nuk has kindly set up a list for the unsuccessful attempts, ranked by time. And he's also got a list of the fastest time by each ship class. So everyone who makes it gets immortalised, not just the holders.
Those lists are posted right above the list of smugglers who never made it, and just below the list of current and previous holders.
Okay that sounds easy enough, what are the rules?
Great! here we go:
- Post your indent to race here is this forum, your post must be in the following format, this is mandatory, if you don't post your intent, then you run doesn't count:
- Your Commander's Name
- Your Ship's Name
- Your Ship Type
- Get yourself to the start line at Weyl Gateway (Alacarakmo).
- Make sure that you are playing in Open Mode.
- Take a screenshot of your outfitting screen making sure that your reactor, FSD and Thrusters are shown.
- Take a screenshot on the landing pad at Weyl showing the station clock. This is your starting time and it must be within 48 hours of when you declared your intent to race.
- Press 'launch' and go, go, go!
- Visit the eight stations listed below in whichever order you like.
- At each station take a screenshot on the landing pad showing the station clock.
- Visit the station commodities market for that station and buy at least 1t of the required commodity. Make sure that you buy enough to be able to meet the minimum delivery quote by the time you get back to Weyl though (see below).
- Launch again and head for the next station.
- After visiting all eight stations head back to Weyl Gateway.
- Take a screenshot on the landing pad at Weyl Gateway showing the station clock, this is your finishing time.
- Take screenshots of the commodities market and black market screens at Weyl Gateway showing that you are carrying at least the minimum delivery quota of the eight commodities, with at least one ton of each.
- NOTICE: Due to a minor faction change the Weyl Gateway black market is currently deactivated. Please take screenshots of your cargo tab showing the illegal goods instead. Sadly you'll need to smuggle these back out of Weyl after the race to sell them, but thats no problem for an ace smuggler is it?
- Upload your images to the net somewhere like imgur, or stick them all into a zip file and send a link to raiko <at> buckyballracing <dot> org <dot> uk, you could just PM we here instead if you prefer.
- Your email/PM must include your details in the following format:
- Your Commander's Name
- Your Ship's Name
- Your Ship Type
- Your Total Run Time
- Links to all your screenshots, or to the zip file.
- Alternatively if you've made a video recording of your run, then you can upload the video to YouTube or a similar site and send me a link, you still need to include your details as above though.
- If Tony hasn't heard back from you within 72 hours of you declaring your intent to run, or if your run breaks the rules then you'll be added to the list of smuggler who didn't make it. Otherwise you're either the new Black Riband holder, or you get added to the ranked list of unsuccessful attempts and possibly get the record for your ship class.
If any of the above looks confusing take a look at http://www.buckyballracing.org.uk for some additional guidelines, or take a look at previous runs in this thread, or its predecessor The Bootlegger Challenge.
What about those lists?
Here they are: a list of the stations to visit & commodities to collect, a helpful little grid of travel distances, and a list of the minimum delivery required by each ship type.
The Commodities List
*** SPECIAL NOTICE: The listed max supplies are valid when no faction state is active. ***
Navigation Chart
Minimum Delivery's by Ship Type
(Note, these have been tweaked a little since the Bootlegger Challenge).
The listed values are the minimum amount of rare goods that must be in your cargo hold when you make it back to Weyl Gateway. This must be made up entirely of the eight listed rare commodities, with at least one ton of each commodity.
Eg: If I make the run in a Vulture I just need to make it back to Weyl with 8t in my hold, 1t of each commodity. However if I make the run in a Type-7 I'd need to deliver 48t of goods. These 48t must be made up of just the eight listed commodities, and I'd still need to include at least 1t of each.
A few additional rules:
OPEN MODE ONLY!
In case I've not posted enough times, remember this event is open mode only. You can make as many solo-mode, or Mobius practice runs as you like, but to take part in the event you need to play in open. Let's be honest Leesti doesn't have quite the same reputation in Mobius as it does in open. This is a test of who's the best/fastest smuggler around, and the best smugglers don't worry about avoiding the occasional pirate.
The Background Sim
One thing that might screw up this event is the background simulator. minor faction changes to a station can make that station's own rare goods illegal, which suppresses them from the commodities market. Also a change at Weyl Gateway might mean that the Black Market is removed.
In the event that the current route is no longer useable, Fat Tony and Little Nuk will select a new route and the current holder of the Black Riband will be invited to make a new baseline run. If they forfeit then the previous holder will be invited and so on until someone sets a new baseline time to beat.
The route change will be recorded on the leaderboard tables as well.
Wings
If you want to wing up with escorts that's fine, it's not brave, but it's fine.
However as with all normal BRC events, any use of wing nav-beacons / nav-lock is banned.
Cargo transfer to or from wingmates is banned as well, you must collect your own cargo, and if you get destroyed or you wreck your cargo hatch then that's tough luck. An enterprising CMDR made use of a cargo transfer during a live broadcast of the Bootlegger Challenge after being almost assassinated en-route. That was fine and Fat Tony loved it, because he'd bet Little Nuk 1 million credits that she'd make it. But Little Nuk wasn't so happy, nope not happy at all - 1 million credits is a lot of credits to lose to your big brother in a bet that you thought you'd already won! So Nuk's changed the rules and cargo transfer shenanigans are now officially banned
Engineer Mods
The use of engineer mods is allowed. Non-modded and modded entries are indicated on the leaderboards, so you can see how you stack up against equivalent runs.
Jumponium
The use of jumponium synthesis is banned. A big part of the fun of the event is the navigational challenge of running an optimal route. In the opinion of the organisers and prior competitors, jumponium use would deminish this challenge and so reduce the fun.
Non-Sequence Star FSD Supercharges
The use of FSD supercharges from non-sequence stars (currently available only from WD and NS stars) is allowed - it's risky and Little Nuk loves watching telepresence replays of ships that crash out into the deadly NS streams.
However pre-charging FSDs, by 'double dipping' a star before jumping to the start line, is not permitted. If you want to use a NS during the race, you'll need to fly there during your timed run.
It you attempt this risky practice during the race and it goes terribly, terrible wrong, then please send a link to your in-cockpit footage to little <dot> nuk <at> buckyballracing <dot> org <dot> uk so that he can add it to his collection. Thank you.
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