Haha, the Buckyball big-board dots virus has infected the docking computer network.
Community Event / Creation Buckyball Racing Club Presents: The Bump'n'Grind Outpost Dash (26.09.3301 - 11.10.3301)
- Thread starter Alec Turner
- Start date
Come on people, you know you want it ...
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"Welcome back, race fans! I am Charlie deWitt, host of 'After the Run,' sponsored by Sirius Interdicters. 'Sirius Interdicters: for when you Siriusly want to stop and talk to someone.' With me today is Commander Inga Stevenson, novice racer. Inga, in the week since you've joined the race, you've completed a grand total of 23 runs, with an average time of 22:37 and only two runs below the 22 minute mark, and three runs aborted due to catastrophic ship damage. Do you mind telling our fans what difficulties you've been facing?"
"Not at all, Charlie. The first hurdle I'm facing is difficulty threading the needle as I approach my destination. A botched approach costs me, on average, about 94 seconds due to either having to loop back or climb out of the planets gravity well. With an average of 2.35 botched approaches, it adds up. I'm having the most difficulties on the approaches to Poincare Landing, Thorne Station, and Low Hub, in that order. I've only had one good approach to Poincare, and that was on an early run.
"The second hurdle I face is docking at the station. Stuffing up a landing costs me on average 37 seconds. On average, I get a speed docking right about half the time, and the recent firmware update is doing me no favors. If it wasn't for the fact that a controlled landing probably only saves me 15 seconds over a botched one, I'd just forget this part of the race and land conservatively.
"Last but not least is all the freaking interdi..."
"And that's all the time we have today, race fans!"
"Wait, what?"
"Come back tomorrow for another episode of 'After the Run,' brought to you by Sirius Interdicters! 'Sirius Interdicters, they're Siriusly Awesome!"
(I'm getting interdicted, on average, about once every three runs. Longest string of interdictions was over five runs, and longest string of no interdictions was six runs, and three runs where I was interdicted twice. Mahon is most common, followed by Hudson, Kumo Crew, and regular pirates.)
"Not at all, Charlie. The first hurdle I'm facing is difficulty threading the needle as I approach my destination. A botched approach costs me, on average, about 94 seconds due to either having to loop back or climb out of the planets gravity well. With an average of 2.35 botched approaches, it adds up. I'm having the most difficulties on the approaches to Poincare Landing, Thorne Station, and Low Hub, in that order. I've only had one good approach to Poincare, and that was on an early run.
"The second hurdle I face is docking at the station. Stuffing up a landing costs me on average 37 seconds. On average, I get a speed docking right about half the time, and the recent firmware update is doing me no favors. If it wasn't for the fact that a controlled landing probably only saves me 15 seconds over a botched one, I'd just forget this part of the race and land conservatively.
"Last but not least is all the freaking interdi..."
"And that's all the time we have today, race fans!"
"Wait, what?"
"Come back tomorrow for another episode of 'After the Run,' brought to you by Sirius Interdicters! 'Sirius Interdicters, they're Siriusly Awesome!"
(I'm getting interdicted, on average, about once every three runs. Longest string of interdictions was over five runs, and longest string of no interdictions was six runs, and three runs where I was interdicted twice. Mahon is most common, followed by Hudson, Kumo Crew, and regular pirates.)
This is one of the reasons why I have chosen not to pledge to any power...
In my case at least, the "win it or bin it" rules are having an impact on this. At this point:
- If I submit a run and don't play my joker on it, then I have effectively wasted that run (since it will take a joker run to substantially improve).
- If I submit a run and do play my joker on it, I'm effectively calling an end to my racing since I only have one joker, and at the moment that would be admitting defeat since I haven't beaten furrycat's time.
- If I don't submit any runs, I can hold on to them and submit whichever turns out to be the best one, along with my joker, some time on Sunday.
(For info, the best of the times I've done so far is only half a cat's whisker different from what's recorded for me on the board)
I've taken the plunge! And I should have known that it was going to be torrid today when on my first run of the day I boosted out only to meet a Type 9 in the slot!! I don't know how I survived. Still, I got to join the fun and register a better time.
Now I'm trying with an imperial Eagle. No shields. First run ended at the third outpost in a horrible collision. Tomorrow we try again.
Now I'm trying with an imperial Eagle. No shields. First run ended at the third outpost in a horrible collision. Tomorrow we try again.
Day 13 and after an understandable hiatus following Tuesday's galactic turbulence we finally have some movement on the board again.
First up is Cmdr Cheetah who's taken the plunge in his Diamondback Scout, Agamemnon. Despite having a torrid time he's managed to squeeze past Type-9's and RL commitments alike to turn in an excellent 19:42 which puts him firmly in 8th place. Having got the hang of the course he's now going to switch to an unshielded Imperial Courier and could be a real contender if he can just get in one decent joker run before Sunday night.
Meanwhile, down in the bottom half of the board, having shaved a massive 5 minutes off his practice time, we have Cmdr Jack Anderson flying a beautifully decorated Cobra Mk III, enigmatically named A Termite Ploy. If you can find another 5 minutes in there somewhere Jack (4 with a joker) then the top slot could be yours!
Cmdr Samwell Drakhyr has also allegedly been achieving some great times although he's playing a tactical waiting game so we may have to wait until Monday morning to find out exactly where that precious joker card submission is going to place him.
Inga Stevenson continues to struggle with interdictions galore, the latest from Charlie deWitt who's "After the Run" show has been giving us some fascinating incites into the problems faced by our Buckyball Pilots. Charlie, if you want to get in touch via email then I'd be happy to answer a few questions ... but don't interdict us while we're trying to race ... bit rude mate.
Finally a quick request. If anyone's planning on crashing at Cady Hub, could they aim their plummeting fireball at those lighting rigs because they're making the final time very difficult to read.
Dodgy Landing of the Day award goes to Jack Anderson, if only because it illustrates what I'm talking about re: the Cady Hub spotlights ...
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STOP PRESS: we have a last minute submission from Cmdr Mangel!
I think I'll save it for tomorrow's update but suffice to say he's in the Top 10 and we have our first tied time.
I think I'll save it for tomorrow's update but suffice to say he's in the Top 10 and we have our first tied time.
you gave me a shock! some days back i saw that the race ends on the 11th, not on the 13th... and now this post. great that i will be back at my hotas tonight, so i still have saturday/sunday to race...
The race officially ends at midnight on Sunday.
I will do my usual thing of sorting through the emails with my breakfast on Monday morning and will aim to have the final results up here before lunchtime (I'll probably delay a little big longer than usual just to give everyone time to get those last few entries in).
will the bar still be open after that? or the usual sunday evening 11 pm?
The bar will remain open until 8am Monday morning at which point anyone still standing will be asked to help load the luxury porta-loos back onto the lorry as they need to be cleaned in time for next weeks coronation ceremony.
P.S. it's just possible we may have a VERY special guest dropping by for the Bump'n'Grind after party!
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=189666
Okay... Looks like I'll have time to make at least six attempts at a run worthy of playing my joker. Maybe more if I can get out of work on time for a change.
Whoa, not the night to try a run! laggy as chuff. In better news I am getting the hang of this planetary braking lark.
That is good news. made my day.
getting closer to furrycats time.. still need 15 seconds.. and some little freak outs that need to be ironed out. ive done maybe 6 or 7 runs and haven't had one interdiction, fingers crossed that continues.
Day fourteen and as we nudge into the final weekend we have two brand new entries.
First the familiar face of Cmdr Mangel flying his hauler Reckless Abandon. Playing the joker on an already excellent time of 20:16 drops him into joint 7th place, tied with Cmdr Domaq on a recorded time of 19:16. Since both pilots have now played their jokers the only way they can get out of this deadly embrace is to either switch ship (Domaq still has a porta-loo reservation for the Space Ghost) or else improve their time by over a minute and submit it sans joker.
Also up is Cmdr TheCoat flying a shielded hauler named G-SUNK. Having spent quite a bit of time flying a T-9 he's finding it hard to shake off that space cow muscle memory and get used to piloting a ship where course corrections don't require a day planner. Nevertheless, a perfectly respectable 21:33 puts him in 15th place. Welcome to the Buckyball Racing Club commander!
In other news, yours truly is managing to shave 5 seconds per day off his Imperial Courier time which means *** fiddles with slide rule for a minute *** I should be ready to submit my winning joker run somewhere in the final week of November.
Oh, and I spotted a certain Cmdr Alot jumping into Rassmussen this morning. Just sayin'.
Dodgy Landing of the Day award goes to Cmdr Mangel for his Whitworth touchdown ...
[video=youtube;8RyjKIiUC84]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RyjKIiUC84#t=10m20s[/video]
i arrived in toolfa yesterday night with the racing eagle "one-trick-pony". never it was that easy to outfit a racing ship, due to no alternative outfitting options 
so, now i will do a testrun (advanced discovery scanner fitted), and then - i will try to beat my testrun time
- - - Updated - - -
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saw fellow racer new model 15 in his imperial eagle, i guess he was about to start!
so, now i will do a testrun (advanced discovery scanner fitted), and then - i will try to beat my testrun time
- - - Updated - - -
___
saw fellow racer new model 15 in his imperial eagle, i guess he was about to start!
Hello all..
Despite my best efforts I have been unable to complete a timed run under 24min.
This is partly due to the extended delays being encountered in the Witch Space transitions, and an increased frequency of unwinnable interdictions.
Therefore, it is with much dispair that I withdraw my intention to compete in the ongoing, and any future events hosted by the Buckyball Racing Club.
I do look forward to reporting on the results, as this has become quite an entertaining series to follow.
Perhaps in the not to distant future when the current shopping list of issues are resolved with the racing environment I will return as a competitor.
Thanking You, Ceska Zbrojovka.
Despite my best efforts I have been unable to complete a timed run under 24min.
This is partly due to the extended delays being encountered in the Witch Space transitions, and an increased frequency of unwinnable interdictions.
Therefore, it is with much dispair that I withdraw my intention to compete in the ongoing, and any future events hosted by the Buckyball Racing Club.
I do look forward to reporting on the results, as this has become quite an entertaining series to follow.
Perhaps in the not to distant future when the current shopping list of issues are resolved with the racing environment I will return as a competitor.
Thanking You, Ceska Zbrojovka.
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Sorry to hear that Ceska, as if it isn't frustrating enough with the random element your connection woes are bad news, its a shame we cant all compete on a level playing field... beside ship choice.
I think luck plays a part in the runs.. ive not been interdicted once while racing the course. but yeah if your witchspaces are longer than 15 seconds.. then you are always going to be at a disadvantage.
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Even my Transitions To/From Super Cruise can be as much as 20 to 30 sec.
Witch space can vary from 30 sec to over 1 min.
Throw in an Interdiction.
Even if I submit and relaunch as quickly as possible I've lost over 1min 30sec.