Community Event / Creation Buckyball Racing Club presents: The Race to the Poles - Polar Ship Fram Celebration. 14-22 July 3304

Feeling much better. Should have time for a single Neutron run a little later this evening - with chance for a normal run as well if everything goes wrong.

It'll be my first neutron run ever, so I'll probably need that short run as a backup! :D
 
Feeling much better. Should have time for a single Neutron run a little later this evening - with chance for a normal run as well if everything goes wrong.

It'll be my first neutron run ever, so I'll probably need that short run as a backup! :D

Good luck! I was able to get two non neutron highway runs in yesterday and was happy to improve by 6+ minutes from the 'trial' to the one I've just submitted. There are some nice vistas on the course, and I was getting lucky with station/moon/star orbit positioning to make some dramatic views as I was on approach or departure.

Fly fast all you last day racers!
 
Sunday late update... Two runs in the Extreme Explorer (Unlimited) Class

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Cmdr Brusky, after some esoteric calculations he decided to switch to his Anaconda "Great Aunt Nellie"; and again taking the long way (both Bonuses), flew a magnificent run, making a fly time of 1:40:43, that makes a final time of [size=+1]-0:11:17[/size]. So Cmdr Bruski is in the first position (... for now?!).
Few minutes later Cmdr Perseus Tacitus (10 Buckyball races), in his DBX "Icebreaker" do the short run, presenting his tribute in Scott Orbital, doing 28:43 after the bonus.

o7 commanders
 
Good luck! I was able to get two non neutron highway runs in yesterday and was happy to improve by 6+ minutes from the 'trial' to the one I've just submitted. There are some nice vistas on the course, and I was getting lucky with station/moon/star orbit positioning to make some dramatic views as I was on approach or departure.

Fly fast all you last day racers!

It turns out, I need a little more practice at Neutron-running. :D
I was a lot faster on the way back, so I'm getting the hang of it. The run out to the Lagoon Sector was hopeless though, mostly because I totally forgot to pack some AFMUs. I crashed out at an unexpected white dwarf on the way out of the bubble and outheated lots getting back into SC, so my FSD was already down to 90% before I started hopping between neutrons. oops!

Anyway, I made it back in time to attempt a regular run that was much less embarrassing - not as fast as Alec though unfortunately. :)

I had great fun on this race Inodoro. :D
 
Sorry, bit late spotting this (although I think it was actually published in time for people to hear it and sign up).

Race to the Poles shout-out on Pete Wotherspoon's Galnet News Digest ..

http://laveradio.com/Galnet/180717Galnet.mp3
(fast forward to the 5 minute mark)

The race also got a nice shoutout on last week's Guard Frequency podcast ..

https://guardfrequency.com/220
(fast forward to 50:50)

Thanks (again) for the race Inodoro, really enjoyed the few runs I managed (and I still might give the neutron run a go for my own education since I've never tried using spansh to run a neutron highway route). Couple of quick questions on that - is an AMFU essential (due to the unavoidable FSD degradation)? - and - where spansh comes up with a whole series of neutrons in a row each 1 jump to the next, did you have to manually plot to some scoopables in-between to keep the fuel levels topped up?.

Oh, and to Cmdr Bruski, apologies for my earlier teasing about beating your first neutron run, obviously I'm the one who looks "daft" now so hopefully no offence taken? :D
 
I think that if you are fairly proficient at neutron boosting, you could make the trip without AFMUs - although I had lots of trouble on the way out my FSD was already damaged before reaching my first neutron. On the way back, my FSD got a malfunction on the final NS, but again I'm not very good - I took 2-3 attempts to get a supercharge from a couple of the neutrons, which I think increases the damage. I also crashed out at one of them, which definitely damages the FSD.

So I wish I'd had AFMUs (dumb mistake while rushing) I don't think you need them for this run. A single AFMU would definitely be plenty - even for me! :)
 
Couple of quick questions on that - is an AMFU essential (due to the unavoidable FSD degradation)? - and - where spansh comes up with a whole series of neutrons in a row each 1 jump to the next, did you have to manually plot to some scoopables in-between to keep the fuel levels topped up?.

In my case, the answers turned out to be no and no.

The route I was taking had something like 21/22 neutron jumps each way. On the way out, the FSD only got down to 80% (i.e. just before it starts malfunctioning) before arriving at Amundsen Terminal, where repairs could be made. On the way back, my route had a couple of extra neutron jumps (at the Amundsen Terminal end), so the FSD did just get down to 79% / 78% so risk malfunctioning, but on my best run I had no time lost from that, and even on the previous run I decided the time loss from malfunctions was less than the time that would be needed to stop and use the AFMU.

The range of the DBX with a full-sized fuel tank turned out to work just nicely so that the longest segment of neutron stars in a row was just under a tank's worth of fuel, and then the route needed an intermediate star anyway, where I stopped for fuel. Of course the limitation of the DBX's fuel scoop means that the fuel stop in question involved a complete lap (and a half) of the fuel star, which is why some investigated using Asp or Anaconda instead.

Well done to Bruski for the insane time, I did say before the race (in PM to Inodoro) that you were the most likely to do something like that! :D
 
PROVISIONAL FINAL STANDINGS...

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In a last (15) minutes of the race, Cmdr Raiko (27 Buckyball races) managed to make with his Asp "The Nomad" and excellent final time of 0:23:46, the second fastest in the short loop.

(If somebody has a valid run finished before 23:59:59 3304-07-22 server time, please submit it ASP...)

So... pending any last minute submissions, (corrections or disputes), our winners are:

In the [size=+1]Extreme Explorer (Unlimited) Class...[/size]
Congratulations to [size=+1]Cmdr Brusky[/size], for his first place; and to [size=+1]Cmdrs Crotalus[/size] and [size=+1]Darplata94[/size], second and third in the podium. Well done Cmdr Drakhyr, for a second try to the Neutron Highway, that's very good too. Cmdrs Alec Turner, Raiko and Edelgard von Rhein made excellent times for the short loops too.

In the [size=+1]Fram DBX (Regulation)[/size]...
Congratulations to [size=+1]Cmdr Ozric[/size] and to [size=+1]Cmdr factabulous[/size]! Heroic runners in their unengineered DBX's!

Please, feel fee to share videos, pictures, and tips (specially the Neutron Highway guys) to help other Cmdrs learn something new.

Thanks Everyone for making the time to participate in the race!!!

o7 commanders

P.S. 1: After hosting my first race, I feel much more grateful to all the race hosts, of past and future races, because it requires plenty of time and dedication doing it [yesnod] (and it's a lot of fun!).
P.S. 2: I think my initial assessment of 80min for the "Going to the extreme" bonus was better than the 100min, because we finished with a clustered leaderboard... With 80m the position in the scoreboard would have been the same. But 80min may have not tempted the craziness to emerge... running 10000ly in less than 2hs.
 
I liked the 100 minute bonus:
  • Those that made the long run in a good time deserved the big bonus I think - and it was great to have a quick race that included a big trip out of the bubble (and back).
  • Anything with a chance of a negative time is going to attract Space Bears. ;)
  • If my outbound trip had been as good as my inbound one, I'd have had an adjusted time of about 10 minutes, so I think 100 minutes was good to encourage giving neutron runs a go, 80 minutes might have appeared to be for experts.
  • Crotalus would have done it even for a 10 minute bonus. :D
 
I liked the 100 minute bonus:
  • Those that made the long run in a good time deserved the big bonus I think - and it was great to have a quick race that included a big trip out of the bubble (and back).
  • Anything with a chance of a negative time is going to attract Space Bears. ;)
  • If my outbound trip had been as good as my inbound one, I'd have had an adjusted time of about 10 minutes, so I think 100 minutes was good to encourage giving neutron runs a go, 80 minutes might have appeared to be for experts.
  • Crotalus would have done it even for a 10 minute bonus. :D

... Space Bear presented a submission video that includes doing jumps of 250ly from the bubble to Amundsen Terminal with the Baby Space Bear in his lap... ...That's probably forbidden in the bubble!... :eek:
 
Congratulations to the winners Bruski and Ozric and well done to everyone who took part! Very impressed by many times on the board here. Thank you to Inodoro Pereyra for staging an inventive race!
.
I would have like to try the longer course but I've been feeling under the weather thanks to the heat and have hardly loaded up ED all week. The Asp had untapped potential on the longer course but even with the 59.80 LY range of the Orpheus I don't think I could have managed a negative time. Jump range was everything here. My route was: Archer Port (Katuci) --- Nansen's Progress (Kayan) --- HR 286 --- Sverdrup Base (Crathiganit) --- Amundsen Vision (Tiriku) --- Polaris Australis --- Scott Orbital (RBS 1843) --- Archer Port (Katuci). I ran a half size fuel tank but I'm not sure if I could have saved any jumps by removing the lightweight shields or heat sink launcher, I ran without scanners and there was no difference between that and a quick survey of the course with them (thus accounting for the mass of cargo). Since The Chicken Run and also Close Encounters I'm much happier making fast approaches to surface bases so I went for short supercruise trips, regardless of outpost type. Raiko showed that it's possible to maybe save a jump or two somewhere, so perhaps I should have checked other routes, though. I find a race time of under 40 minutes to be very convenient, allowing multiple attempts in one session and not being too tiring - a 2+ hour session is harder to arrange and stay focused for. A very well done to everyone who managed it!
Fly fast!
 

Ozric

Volunteer Moderator
Woohoo, I won a race! (don't mention the fact there was only one other competitor in my class and it was their first race)

I'll post a few more details about my run once I get home tonight, but I don't think I'll worry about a video as there was nothing overly spectacular about my run and on a 1Mb/s upload speed it takes an age of the Earth to do :D

I've never tried using spansh to run a neutron highway route). Couple of quick questions on that - is an AMFU essential (due to the unavoidable FSD degradation)?

Basically, every single time you get the "Frameshift operating beyond safety limits" warning come up on the screen it knocks 1% off your FSD. So if you don't managed to hit the supercharge on your first pass through and can't very quickly get back into the trail to finish it off, then you're going to end up taking 2% hit on each one. As with all modules that can malfunction, once you drop below 80% you enter the realms of encountering issues when trying to jump.

The thing I find most frustrating about this is that sometimes after your FSD malfunctions, it doesn't come back online (can't find out why it doesn't do it consistently) and so you have to drop out of SC in order for it to work.
 
Basically, every single time you get the "Frameshift operating beyond safety limits" warning come up on the screen it knocks 1% off your FSD. So if you don't managed to hit the supercharge on your first pass through and can't very quickly get back into the trail to finish it off, then you're going to end up taking 2% hit on each one.

I had thought the same, but it appears that it's actually slightly less than 1% per supercharge. My outbound route featured 21 neutron stars, and I certainly didn't manage to do all of them in a single pass through the jet cone, but I arrived at Amunden with my FSD at 80%. Similarly, while the return journey had 22 neutron stars which matches up with the final FSD integrity of 78%, there were at least a couple where I had to pass through the jet cone (and thus got the "Frameshift operating beyond safety limits" message) more than once.
 

Ozric

Volunteer Moderator
I had thought the same, but it appears that it's actually slightly less than 1% per supercharge. My outbound route featured 21 neutron stars, and I certainly didn't manage to do all of them in a single pass through the jet cone, but I arrived at Amunden with my FSD at 80%. Similarly, while the return journey had 22 neutron stars which matches up with the final FSD integrity of 78%, there were at least a couple where I had to pass through the jet cone (and thus got the "Frameshift operating beyond safety limits" message) more than once.

Ooooh, more testing required...
 
Yes, my first few boosts I watched with disbelief as my FSD disintegrated while I looped in and out of the streams trying to get a boost. Once I got the hang of it though I could get boosts and the percentage sometimes didn't change.
 
Didn’t really have the time this week, had looked at taking the fram class out to lagoon sector


Ship build

Not sure on power distrubutor modification might be better then grade 3

Route

Kayan
HR 286
Daga tri
Lagoon Sector NI-S b4-10
Polaris Australis
RBS 1843


Bookmarks for neutron section

Bookmarks
ThereBack
Jumps To Next BookmarkJumps To Next Bookmark
1PSR J1752-280671Lagoon Sector WU-V a3-35
2B133 Sector DB-X d1-3062Traikaae JV-Y d54
3Bleia Eohn RY-Y d1-2423Droju ZL-J d10-372
4Bleia Eohn FN-Q d6-7544Droju HC-S d5-342
5Bleae Thua FB-F d11-3625Droju VU-V d3-642
6M20 Sector LN-T d3-7046Smojue LL-Y d561
7Droju VU-V d3-6417M20 Sector LN-T d3-702
8Smojue GL-P d5-5228Bleae Thua FB-F d11-363
9Droju ZL-J d10-3739M25 Sector PI-T d3-512
10M21 Sector NI-T d3-202 note didn't visit plotted to next
waypoint while scooping at M21 Sector FM-L b8-1
10M25 Sector BQ-Y d692
11Traikaae NG-Y d12311Bleia Eohn KM-C d622
12Lagoon Sector NI-S b4-1012Col 359 Sector UP-F d11-784
13Nova Aquila No 39
14Polaris Australis
Total Jumps36Total Jumps40

All jumps

There

Bookmark 1PSR J1752-2806Bookmark 2B133 Sector DB-X d1-30Bookmark 3Bleia Eohn RY-Y d1-24
Scutum Dark Region WY-R b4-7Col 359 Sector UP-F d11-78M25 Sector BQ-Y d69
Scutum Dark Region BL-O b6-6Swoiwns IT-F d12-53
Scutum Dark Region HX-K b8-6Bleia Eohn IR-C d52
Col 359 Sector EW-M d7-52Bleia Eohn CR-B b5-3
Col 359 Sector KE-B b29-3Bleia Eohn PE-W b7-1
Col 359 Sector NN-T e3-3
Bookmark 4Bleae Thua PX-L d7-107Bookmark 5Bleae Thua FB-F d11-36Bookmark 6M20 Sector LN-T d3-70
Bleae Thua HM-Z b41-0M20 Sector NA-C b14-5Red Spider Sector UT-I a9-1
Bleae Thua ND-W b43-2Droju NF-S b10-3
Bleae Thua FB-F d11-36Droju JD-V c5-5
Bookmark 7Droju VU-V d3-64Bookmark 8Smojue GL-P d5-52Bookmark 9Droju ZL-J d10-37
Smojue TD-K d8-47
Plotted FromM21 Sector FM-L b8-1Bookmark 11Traikaae NG-Y d12Bookmark 12Lagoon Sector NI-S b4-10
M21 Sector KC-V d2-18NGC 6530 Sector DS-I b10-6
Traikaae YJ-T b3-5Lagoon Sector EB-X c1-8

Back

Bookmark 1Lagoon Sector WU-V a3-3Bookmark 2Traikaae JV-Y d5Bookmark 3Droju ZL-J d10-37
NGC 6530 Sector DG-X d1-132Smojue KS-B d13-13Droju PO-O d7-22
NGC 6530 Sector NE-N b8-2M21 Sector BV-Y d5
Traikaae MP-R c4-14Smojue KM-L c21-16
Traikaae RR-W d1-80
Bookmark 4Droju HC-S d5-34Bookmark 5Droju VU-V d3-64Bookmark 6Smojue LL-Y d56
Droju VU-V d3-42Red Spider Sector HC-U b3-4
Bookmark 7M20 Sector LN-T d3-70Bookmark 8Bleae Thua FB-F d11-36Bookmark 9M25 Sector PI-T d3-51
M20 Sector OZ-V b3-2Bleae Thua ZJ-I d9-101M25 Sector GM-V c2-7
M25 Sector IY-X b15-0
Bookmark 10M25 Sector BQ-Y d69Bookmark 11Bleia Eohn KM-C d62Bookmark 12Col 359 Sector UP-F d11-78
Bleia Eohn RY-Y d1-24Swoiwns IT-F d12-53B133 Sector IM-V c2-7
Col 359 Sector WR-V b31-3
Col 359 Sector NN-T e3-3
Bookmark 13Nova Aquila No 3Bookmark 14Polaris Australis
Col 359 Sector RJ-J a26-1
Col 359 Sector IJ-G b12-5
Col 359 Sector CE-R c5-7
Swoilz BE-C c2-7
Swoilz YX-D c1-5
Kappa Telescopii
Synuefe LH-E b59-5
Synuefe HQ-H b57-2
 
Last edited:

Ozric

Volunteer Moderator
For my route I basically took the easier option each time and so went for an Outpost if it was available, as the first one had to be a planetary landing I went for Kayan as although it was a longer distance in Ly the SC distance was considerably shorter. But man was that planet a to land on, I messed up quite a few runs there from trying to come in too fast. So the actual route was:

Kayan
HR286
Daga Tri
Tiriku
Polaris Australis
RBS 1843
Katuci

I just used the in game plotter, as normal, and could have possibly saved myself a few jumps in between Kayan and Daga Tri, and Tiriku and RBS 1843 if I had of worked it out jump by jump, but, meh :D Something that always used to frustrate Robin was my slacker approach to racing [haha] I actually created a bug report during this race based on the fact that the route plotter would not plot me straight to a system I could jump to.

The first few runs I tried my normal course of action which was to start off on roughly half a fuel tank's worth of fuel and then scoop as I went around, there was only 1 tricky part between Polaris Australis and RBS 1843 where there was 2 non scoopables in a row, so I had to make sure I had enough for 3 jumps. But then I found (by accidentally hitting refuel all at the start of one run) it was actually quicker to leave all stations on a full tank. I just made sure that I plotted my next route as soon as I entered the system with a station in, so that the route plotter wouldn't chuck me an extra jump or 2 because I had a full tank. That meant that I could do the jumps between Katuci > Kayan, Daga Tri > Tiriku and RBS 1843 > Katuci without needing to scoop at all and then on the longer legs I didn't really have to worry about overheating myself as there was enough fuel in reserve.

Thanks so much for organising the race Inodoro, it's been great fun. Very well done to Bruski for dropping a crazy time at the end there, and the fact that 2nd, 3rd and 4th were only separated by 1:40 after over 10Kylies, is ridiculous.
 
On the subject of FSD supercharge wear and tear, two possibilities occur to me. Perhaps it's proportional to the amount of time we spend in the cone? (with a really efficient FSD boost that triggers just as you're leaving the cone causing less?), or perhaps it's proportional to the length of the subsequently boosted jump (with truly massive range jumps putting a real strain on the drive?). More testing definitely required.

P.S. nice post Ozric (sadly out of rep), your reliance on the in-game plotter matches my own (could never be faffed with manual plotting ... perhaps this slacker attitude to racing is why you and I are not always in the top 3)? Good job on this one tho, congrats!
 
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