[INDEPENDENT] Buckyball Racing Club

[robinjb]

Np. i did the flyer for it.. im all for it... now its here.. i was trying to get the point across to Jhrryl that it may effect others proposing similar races. and the logical progression that if they were all open. itd be harder to come up with themes. so its not about slots.
I wouldn't want anyone to get the idea im against open all year races.. im generally against one hoster doing every race.. no matter how enthusiastic, the possibilities are here for one hoster to monopolise a certain type of racing.. which is what im flagging up as an issue. im not to accuse anyone of anything.. theres little I can do to prevent anyone reacting badly to me saying basically remember everyone else here ... and I probably need to say again... that im not in charge.. so take what ever I say with a pinch of salt. . the buggyball coming up.. id love others to come up with races for it.. I don't expect to run everyone. I think its going to be difficult to find more courses base to base.. so it needs some other thinking to be applied to it. so good luck to anyone who wants to try and find 2 bases close together. I spent along time in the map searching.. and I have one reasonable 30 min one. plenty of 4 hr races.. but they are a bit too much.. or maybe they aren't.. who knows.. need to see how the first one goes down first.

 

[furrycat]

And I'm sorry if anything about the Black Riband puts your nose out of joint, but it will remain an event for so long as other CMDRs wish to challenge furrycat's awesome time - I suspect that <-lightspeed-> will be having another go.

So that's why the board hasn't been updated. The older time looks more tempting to challenge.

I think a time under 50 minutes is possible. With better cruising and docking you could almost certainly shave a minute off my time.

It's never going to have loads of the regular runners like the A* Challenge.

Which is too bad. The Black Riband is a really great challenge. You have to do everything close to perfectly and have a healthy amount of luck. A single mistake or interdiction can ruin your whole attempt.

On top of that the backstory and race presentation is very nicely done. In my opinion the Bootlegger Challenge and the Black Riband itself represent the gold standard for how to organise a race.

 

[robinjb]

The Black Riband is a really great challenge. You have to do everything close to perfectly and have a healthy amount of luck. A single mistake or interdiction can ruin your whole attempt.
On top of that the backstory and race presentation is very nicely done. In my opinion the Bootlegger Challenge and the Black Riband itself represent the gold standard for how to organise a race.

the bootlegger was a well thought out race yes.. and the black riband is cool to have around.. my issue was with the hypothetical.. what if everyone did an open all year race. using the bootlegger as an example, this isn't a problem unless everyone starts wanting to run open all year events.. im not saying no to jhyrrl running a Monday night drag race for a year .. im just saying hang on .. think about the effect that's gonna have on other hosters ideas for races.
I don't want to stifle anyones creativity.. we are blessed to have some great people here coming up with great stuff.. its a bummer more people aren't into it yeah.. but we should just concentrate on doing good races and enjoying them. not that were not.. im just trying to play devils advocate for one person running a weekly event.

 

[Alec Turner]

OK, what the heck, I'm gonna chip in here too.

I do think there's a distinct possibility of Buckyball saturation.



For me personally, I've got a list of things to do in ED that's a mile long now. I need to grind a ton of Fed rep so I can get a Corvette (don't care how it performs, it looks AMAZING). I need to visit the Monolith on Altais 2B and throw myself off it. Ditto for the Junga 1 craters. I need to get a Federal Gunship full of rocket launchers and use it for a ground assault on a high security base. I need to go and land on Achenar 3 (or die in the attempt). I need to go and fly round and round the HIP 18187 3 C circular canyon. I need to go and film about 45mins of amazing footage to set to the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack. I need to fly to one edge of the galaxy (probably just the nearest one) and stare at a screen with no stars on it. See? Important stuff.

(not to mention that FD are going to drop Engineers onto my plate any minute now)

So what have I actually been doing all week? Flying from Turbo to Unkulc to 49 D to Vasak to Turbo.

And the other thing to mention, Turbo Hour is a truly brilliant race, with a hell of a lot of preparation and work been put into it, that I've really enjoyed participating in - but it's only got around 14 competitors (so far).

I think it's a distinct possibility that we need a break. Let the desire for another Buckyball slowly build back up again. Leave 'em wanting and all that.

Anyway, that's just my opinion and I will of course abandon all my aforementioned dreams and ambitions to come and compete in the next one.

 

[Raiko]

So that's why the board hasn't been updated. The older time looks more tempting to challenge.

Nope, that's because the organiser is rubbish!
(And very busy).

Thanks for your other nice comments.

BTW: I've got an unregistered entry for Turbo Hour, so that's 15 entries. I should have sent my screenshots in by now, but it was a rubbish run that I was sure I'd beat.

Unfortunately I've not managed a full 1 hour run since then.

I didn't play ED at all last week, but I'll be able to play every evening this week with a bit of luck.

 

[Jhyrryl]

Guess I should have been more specific about my expectations, and detailed what I mean by "nailed down". Sorry that that got more attention than the details of how the race mechanics work.

I wouldn't expect to open it as a weekly thing immediately...I'd run it for mid-week madness when other people don't have other short races to run. That gives the rules an opportunity to get tweaked as we learn new things about it, without diminishing previous accomplishments. I want to give the event time to mature before making it a standard weekly (or bi-weekly or monthly or whatever) thing.

Drakhyr said that under the right circumstances it shouldn't be a problem for events to overlap. A very fast race like this seems like a decent fit to me, once it's demonstrated to be something people are interested in. The biggest problem I see, is proving viability in the absence of so many people who are out doing Distant Worlds.

Anyway, to pt more concrete terms on it, I would absolutely want to run Mid-Week Madness Space Drag Racing at least 3 or 4 times over as many months, before promoting it to a permanent fixture, assuming that it's even determined to be viable as such after those runs.

One last note: The other thing I was going for was to give Horizons players a racing outlet for their modified ships, once Engineers are available. Turbo Hour is permitting FSD Injections, but no one is using them because everyone feels dirty about it. People who spend RL money on their in-game benefits have as much right to be entertained by their toys as the people who grind Imperial and Federal ranks.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Couple of quick questions:

1) Drag Racing - those events are without a fuel scoop right? (I'm guessing there's the potential for lots of running out of fuel style incidents).

I would allow scoops. If you're running Hot Rod class with injections, for example, I want you to be able to get back to the starting line as quickly as possible after the burnout of heat 1.

 

[Jhyrryl]

I think the gateway shuffle rankase had planned was gonna be a scramble.. so we need to replace that imo.
in a dream scenario.. EZ would pop up with one and save us.

we all go on about how great bb7 was as a scramble.. but nones really done one. I think we should have a scramble race soon. and if no one wants the slot coming up between the small mid weeks ive got planned.. ill do a scramble for that.. but they take a bit more research.

I think you should do it.

I chatted briefly with Rankaze about scramble locations in PMs after he realized that Gateway wasn't going to be a good location for it. I'm not sure what the final decision was, but I pointed out that this area near Alioth is one of the densest knots of inhabited space, so could make for a good location.

Spoiler

 

[Alec Turner]

I would allow scoops.

In which case I'm confused ... "jump as far as you can on a partial/full tank of fuel"? I can jump to Sag A if I've got a fuel scoop.

 

[Jhyrryl]

In which case I'm confused ... "jump as far as you can on a partial/full tank of fuel"? I can jump to Sag A if I've got a fuel scoop.

Ah, sorry. All heats are a single jump.

 

[racer1]

The biggest problem I see, is proving viability in the absence of so many people who are out doing Distant Worlds.

I bought another account CMDR Heat Shield available for racing or at least he will be when he can afford some decent modules/ship. Currently has sidewinder and 200k assets lol.

 

[robinjb]

I think you should do it.

I chatted briefly with Rankaze about scramble locations in PMs after he realized that Gateway wasn't going to be a good location for it. I'm not sure what the final decision was, but I pointed out that this area near Alioth is one of the densest knots of inhabited space, so could make for a good location.

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/KUSSOOj.png

Id actually much rather everyone hosted MWM (mid week madness is taking too long to type ) events,
like the warm up slots were taken over by people wanting to host.
ive said from the start of the club id like as many different people as we can hosting.
so itd be a little rich to do the buggyball 23rd to 25th then an event 27th to 6th then a 8th -10 th MWM
ive asked EZ if hed do something for us for the main event in question. and itd be cool if cookie.. I know you were worried about coming up with something for the main event.. how about doing the MWM 8th to 10th .. the main events are pretty competitive.. maybe do something short and light hearted.
ideally id like 4 different hosters a month . then we all getting a good go on it.
if no one wants to .. I can of course fill the gaps we have.. ive got stuff on standby.. so up till 3 or 4 days before they need to go live.. anyone who hasn't done a run.. or one in a while can take either of those slots ive mentioned.. a full event 27th to 6th march and the MWM 8th to 10th of march. though give it a few days for EZ to come back to me on the main.

 

[Jhyrryl]

In other news, I'm declaring defeat in the whole "real-time" rebroadcast video making thing. At the current rate, it's going to take over 20 hours of actual editing to finish the project, and that's just the one race.

Sorry to disappoint.

 

[Alec Turner]

In other news, I'm declaring defeat in the whole "real-time" rebroadcast video making thing. At the current rate, it's going to take over 20 hours of actual editing to finish the project, and that's just the one race.

Sorry to disappoint.

Sorry to hear that ... it's hard work isn't it. I've been trying to edit my entire Turbo Hour run down into an interesting video but iMovie just threw a wobbly and trashed many hours of editing. I'm now attempting a second version featuring just the take offs and landings but even that is still around 15 minutes long. Going to try doubling the speed but I fear it's going to make for terribly dull viewing ... unless I can find just the right bit of music to accompany it.

 

[Esvandiary]

In other news, I'm declaring defeat in the whole "real-time" rebroadcast video making thing. At the current rate, it's going to take over 20 hours of actual editing to finish the project, and that's just the one race.

Welcome to my life for the last two weeks.
^{It's getting there, slowly...}

Sorry to hear that ... it's hard work isn't it. I've been trying to edit my entire Turbo Hour run down into an interesting video but iMovie just threw a wobbly and trashed many hours of editing. I'm now attempting a second version featuring just the take offs and landings but even that is still around 15 minutes long.

Good lord, that's longer than what I'm making! (But by concerningly little... )

Going to try doubling the speed but I fear it's going to make for terribly dull viewing ... unless I can find just the right bit of music to accompany it.

Yeah, I've also been struggling with one particular section's background track for a while now.

I do think there's a distinct possibility of Buckyball saturation.

...

I think it's a distinct possibility that we need a break. Let the desire for another Buckyball slowly build back up again. Leave 'em wanting and all that.

Anyway, that's just my opinion and I will of course abandon all my aforementioned dreams and ambitions to come and compete in the next one.

This... is actually something I really agree with. (He said, having already had the chance to run a race. )

One of the things about the BBRs was that they were relatively infrequent, so you could basically block out a week of "this is what I am doing in the game for this week, whether it's running, hunting better routes or just hanging about wishing people good luck."
I'm definitely feeling like the frequency of races is making me less inclined to necessarily take part in every one. Just to clarify: nothing at all against any individual race or its organiser; Turbo Hour is an fantastically put together race as others have said, and I likely will head over by Friday, but the fact that it's taken me this long has to be saying something (and that thing is not "I don't like the race idea" )

Of course, it's not necessarily a bad thing that I don't want to take part in all of them - not everything is for everyone, etc - but it does have the potential to be hurting the overall attendance for any given race, and I believe we've seen that borne out recently.

 

[Alec Turner]

Sorry to hear that ... it's hard work isn't it. I've been trying to edit my entire Turbo Hour run down into an interesting video but iMovie just threw a wobbly and trashed many hours of editing. I'm now attempting a second version featuring just the take offs and landings but even that is still around 15 minutes long. Going to try doubling the speed but I fear it's going to make for terribly dull viewing ... unless I can find just the right bit of music to accompany it.

... which I have. Bingo - finished!

Turbo Hour: No Surprises

[video=youtube_share;_4u5H1_Ylxg]https://youtu.be/_4u5H1_Ylxg[/video]

 

[robinjb]

This... is actually something I really agree with. (He said, having already had the chance to run a race. )
One of the things about the BBRs was that they were relatively infrequent, so you could basically block out a week of "this is what I am doing in the game for this week, whether it's running, hunting better routes or just hanging about wishing people good luck."
I'm definitely feeling like the frequency of races is making me less inclined to necessarily take part in every one. Just to clarify: nothing at all against any individual race or its organiser; Turbo Hour is an fantastically put together race as others have said, and I likely will head over by Friday, but the fact that it's taken me this long has to be saying something (and that thing is not "I don't like the race idea" )
Of course, it's not necessarily a bad thing that I don't want to take part in all of them - not everything is for everyone, etc - but it does have the potential to be hurting the overall attendance for any given race, and I believe we've seen that borne out recently.

I get that rarer events are likely to pull in more. I dont think its a bad thing if anyone misses an event..
i would be happy with 5 at one of my events . one even.. well maybe not one. be me on me tod.
myself.. turbo hour has done me in .. as its quite an intense race.. so i could do with some other type of quick fix buckyballing to tide me over till the next one starts.
personally i only really do buckyballing in the game. im not tied to a power. i smuggle for ship money.

so the proposal i think me and jhrryl are most interested in is the mid week madness events
to change it up a bit with something different. shorter things... but this is basically doubling the events if we fill all the gaps.
which may or may not alarm you if you think the frequency is high now.
the idea behind them is get more people hosting, me and jhrryl are chomping at the bit.
and i think that by doing some more wacky things.. we can maybe tempt others into the main events.
Im expecting low attendance. i think its natural that if we have more on that we'll have less attending.
should it stop it from happening?. im not sure..
I think more variety more often will please the hardcore and maybe pull in the casuals.

in other news ive done a set of icons ill be using on any flyers i do, which should be a quick guide to the race content.

Spoiler

they should be prtty self explanatory.. what the event is at the top.
duration , then station or outpost. then any specials,
so for the examples.. black riband.. cargo and illegals. sag a has a silly duration..
turbo has joker and prizes icon. the buggy ball MWM needs horizons.

and an example of it in use.. ive got it in reverse colours too if it needs to be..

 

[Raiko]

I definitely like the MWM idea, it makes more sense I think than one-week warmup races. Your original Pleiades Hip-Hop was perfect, but it's tricky to tell the difference between the warmups and the "main" events. Not a bad thing, fun is fun.

I just think that MWM races would encourage the sort of quick racing fix that you'd originally suggested for the warm-ups.

I'd be okay myself with 1-2 "events" per month (lasting 1-2 weeks each), with a MWM event in any week that didn't include a race. I wouldn't be able to make it to every event, but I'd try to make at least 1 event and 1 MWM per month. I think that the events should be limited to 2 weeks per month (so one 2-week event or two 1-week events).

personally i only really do buckyballing in the game. im not tied to a power. i smuggle for ship money.

....

I think more variety more often will please the hardcore and maybe pull in the casuals.

This is something that I'm curious about. I think that you might actually be *THE* most hardcore of us all.

Buckyball events are 100% definitely my favourite activity in the game, and I can't imagine that ever changing, but I do try to do lots of other things. I don't play PP at all, and never will, but I do play with the BGS to help out the SEPP player faction.

I do long range smuggling because of the isolation and frontier feeling of Sothis (which I fell in love with during the CG) and Robigo (where it's nice to chat to other CMDRs queuing for the pad), I don't need the money enough to even care how many missions I pick up.

I play CGs because I enjoy running the gauntlet of pvp blockades, and landing at stations that are PACKED with other CMDRs' ships.

And I enjoy exploring, although I haven't managed to depart for BP yet.

The current back-to-back races have meant that since I returned to the game in time for BBR-9, I've not done anything at all other than Buckyball. I know that I've not registered a time for Turbo hour, but I've been docked in the Turbo system at the beginning and end of every game session since the end of Art of Pandemonium.

I've not done anything at all in the game that I've ever considered to be a grind (returning home from Sadge came closest), so I really agree with Alec and Alot that we should take care not to have too much stacked back to back, I'd hate to ever feel that Buckyball was a grind.

in other news ive done a set of icons ill be using on any flyers i do, which should be a quick guide to the race content.

Those look great, I approve. Me and Alot's events both had multiple races, so that could get messy (eg Mrs Lonnegan took 3+hours - and the stupid woman is dreaming up another silly event).

 

[Alec Turner]

in other news ive done a set of icons ill be using on any flyers i do, which should be a quick guide to the race content.

Brilliant, love it!

 

[robinjb]

I just think that MWM races would encourage the sort of quick racing fix that you'd originally suggested for the warm-ups.

Exactly.. what's on offer now to any bucky baller is either a couple of hours or a day long event,
as they've got more elaborate.. which is great.. I think we are missing the simple quick fix ones.
15-20 minute jobs.. you can just dip into.

I think that you might actually be *THE* most hardcore of us all.

I could well be. Id much rather be scouting for routes..or racing in a buckyball than anything else.
my hobby artwork is pretty elite based atm.
so I guess I do that instead of other things I could do in the game. I should probably get rid of the federation pic for my account. and make it more buckybally. ill do that

 

[furrycat]

If I had one minor criticism it would be that the Buckybear kinda looks like he was on the wrong side of an argument with a 50cal.