[INDEPENDENT] Buckyball Racing Club

[robinjb]

dear buckyballers,
i'm sorry, but i need to shift icarus race from tomorrow to the free slot 27 February - 6 March, if that is okay.
sorry again .... not my style normally.

that is cool Goeman, that slot is still open.. so its no problem. its yours, thanks for letting us know.

The question is, what constitutes toe-stepping?

this should be obvious. part of the group thinks theres too much saturation now.. with doubling the events that's not going to go away..
sounds like you want to triple or quadruple it eventually. no ones stopping anyone from just setting something up. obviously the support of the club brings in racers.
but we cant just have someone come in and start telling us they are gonna be doing weekly races. your argument that if were doing open events anything goes is mute. because im not in favour of more open events..
at the risk of going circular.. I knew youd use that as an argument.. so I outlined why I didnt think it was a good idea.. and ended up offending raiko.
im not going to wait till toes have been stepped on... im going to flag up the reasons why I think its bad one person does regular races. you can lobby the group for support on your way of thinking of course.
you've come on pretty strong in this forum.. I hope through enthusiasm for what we can ALL get going race wise.. not just what you can offer.
what I don't have a problem with is you doing anything you want inside a slot you've been offered. with the new schedule I would hope that more hosters come forward with mid week madness events they want to try.
is there any chance we can leave this at you being happy with more slots being added.. and that they will ( I hope ) be divvied up fairly.


OK so weve got a slot opened up this coming week. Jhrryl .. if you want to do your drag as a week thing ... cool.. go for it. or we can do the scramble ive got on standby. or we can take the week off and calm down after turbo hour..
or someone else can do one.. im easy with any option.

 

[Jhyrryl]

I'm all for MWM, as I mentioned before I'd like it if someone managed to run a MWM event in any week that doesn't have an existing race.

I'd do my very best to participate in as many as possible. I think I'd probably actually do better in a shorter term event, so I'm definitely looking forward to them. I often don't have the playtime available to refine and practice, so the longer the event lasts, the harder I find it to keep up!

For the bigger events, I'm going to stick with my view that two weeks of racing per month is about right, whether that two one-week events or one two-week event doesn't bother me. So two weeks worth of "main events" and two MWM per month would be great for me.

---

One thing that I'd really like to try running, as a fan of both BBR-7 type scrambles and BBR-9-live, is a live one-shot scramble race. Only the start/finish station would be published in advance with the list of destination systems/stations posted to the forum a few minutes before launch. This kind of popped into my head when Robin mentioned secret scrambles.

The timeslot of the second BBR-9 live run seemed to really work well for most peoples' time-zones (even though I didn't make it for that one).

Also as I like smuggling / pvp blockade running, I'm not totally against Jhyrryl's CG Race idea. I think that a fun one-shot live event could also work well in a CG.

All CGs start on a Thursday and they generally last for a week. For the trading CGs the most nearby stations often sell out of the required resource really quickly, and for the smuggling CGs it's often difficult to find a very nearby source of an illegal commodity, or they require a rare-commodity in which it's normally about 4 jumps away.

It would be pretty easy to quickly plan a one-shot live race to run on the Saturday evening (UK) of a trade CG, and if it's a smuggling one we wouldn't be the only ones boosting through the slot. Depart from the CG station, head to a specific destination to fill up with the required commodity and then get back to the start ASAP. For a one-shot event run in open-mode, the pirates and killers lurking in the destination system just add to the fun, if they stop you then you're probably not going to win.

Posting about the event in the CG thread here, and agreeing to all switch off "report crimes against me" and to all paste "BUCKYBALL!!!!" into the local chat as we take off would hopefully curtail any anger from other forum users who are doing the CG (non-forum players might get a surprise, but they don't complain here anyway ).

I like it!

On that note, if I win the ELW contest and FD goes forward with another station building CG using my submission, I'm totally hosting a race to coincide.

 

[robinjb]

I like it!
On that note, if I win the ELW contest and FD goes forward with another station building CG using my submission, I'm totally hosting a race to coincide.

sure as longs there's a slot available for you. or someone wants to swap.
have you read anything ive put down in the last few pages.. you cant just come in and start dictating to us when your going to host.
try and think of others man. weve all had to wait by the wings while other people host.
don't make me pm you a rant.
a better thing to say would be, if its alright with you guys id like to put forward a proposal to do something like that. and if no one objects .. cool.
we are all spread out over the world.. so let things take a few days to bed in.

 

[Raiko]

Just to clarify, if I were to organise a one-shot live race on a Saturday evening, it would be on a weekend where no other BRC event was happening.

So I'd make sure that nobody's toes got stepped on.

I might know a nice place for a one-shot live scramble. Obviously any live CG based event would have be thrown together very quickly on the Thursday / Friday.

 

[Esvandiary]

Just to clarify, if I were to organise a one-shot live race on a Saturday evening, it would be on a weekend where no other BRC event was happening.

With the current schedule as suggested, is there such a weekend?

 

[robinjb]

01-09 AUG Pleiades hop HB:-Kilggson
15-30 AUG Ice cool truckers HB:- Raiko
12-20 SEP Border hop HB:-Drakhyr
26-11 OCT Bump n grind HB:-Alec Turner
31-15 NOV Kessel run HB:-Stern Winter
05-13 DEC Mischief mile HB:-Rusticolus
20-23 DEC Escape velocity HB:-Drakhyr
25-06 JAN My true love HB:-Drakhyr
-BB9- EZ
15-23 JAN Art of Pandemonium HB:-Alot
25-12 FEB Turbo Hour HB:-Furrycat
NOW
13-21 FEB EVENT SLOT OPEN
23-25 FEB MWM Buggyball HB:-KliggJr
27-06 MAR EVENT:- Icarus HB:-Goemon
08-10 MAR MWM SLOT OPEN
12-27 MAR EVENT:- Spring Break HB:-Jak
29-31 MAR MWM HB:-Jak?
02-10 APR EVENT tbc HB:-Alec Turner
12-14 APR MWM SLOT OPEN
16-24 APR EVENT tbc HB:-Rusticolus
26-28 APR MWM SLOT OPEN
30-15 MAY EVENT Kessel Run Episode II HB:-Stern Winter

Heres the schedule past and present. FYI
theres no free Saturday.. though im sure that hosters if asked would give you a day from there slot. I would like to see more A lot, raiko and cookie on the schedule.. maybe some aken b action.. or some lightspeed action. I also think rankase needs to be accommodated for the gateway shuffle.
ive got races on standby to run for Events and MWM. I assume also that Jak has for MWM. so if we get to within a few days of a slot and no ones taken it.. then me or Jak can do something. is there anyone else out there chomping at the bit to do weird experimental stuff?

 

[Esvandiary]

Heres the schedule past and present. FYI
theres no free Saturday.. though im sure that hosters if asked would give you a day from there slot. I would like to see more A lot, raiko and cookie on the schedule.. maybe some aken b action.. I also think rankase needs to be accommodated for the gateway shuffle.

I think that's an interesting comparison...
From the old schedule, gaps between events: 6 days, 13 days, 6 days, 20 days, 20 days, 7 days, 2 days, 9 days, 2 days
From the new schedule, ignoring MWM events: 1 day, 6 days, 6 days, 6 days, 6 days, 6 days

Now that's already (mostly) a tighter schedule than previously, without the MWM events.
I'm still of the opinion that too many races can be a bad thing (I may or may not be in the minority with this, but that's fine); with almost no downtime between races, there's not so much that's "special" about them any more because the next race is always mere days away. I'm not saying we do one every few months like EZ but my opinion is definitely that there is a middle ground to be found.

Honestly, if anything the frequency is making me less likely to want to organise another race; to me it feels like the personality and distinctiveness of races will be less meaningful if we're churning them out every other week.

 

[robinjb]

well we still basically have 2 main events a month planned.. like weve had since we started.
we are just opening up some mid week slots for the more eager amongst us to run some stuff that may not appear in a normal event. I think the buggyball is pretty different to normal. its in a MWM slot for that very reason.

how else do we accommodate people who want to host races more frequently than twice a year. but keep it fair for the main event hosting. I wanted to do an event at xmas over a weekend.. but all the slots were taken by drakhyr.. Jak wants to run weekly stuff.. but I think weve fobbed him off with a few MWM slots. and his spring break is coming up that covers 2 weeks. so how do we accommodate his needs.. and me.. and the rest of us.. without going to the 24 events and 24 MWM slot format. I gave some options in an earlier post.. we either say no to MWM .. or see what happens. Im happy with either option.. the last thing I want to do is offend any of the club.. id rather shut up about wanting to host.. and ill do one again in august..

the clubs loosly run by drakhyr.. and hes on holiday atm.. ive said before the final word needs to be from him.. because otherwise.. we can debate about what half the group wants and what the other half want till the cows come home.. we need someone in charge that everyone respects and can intervene in this sort of instance.

the initial problem with the BBR was it was every blue moon. then the BRC wanted 12 events . I foresaw the problem of more people wanting to host than 12 would allow by suggesting warm ups.. we then moved to 24 events a year.. with that we are getting what 2 races a year each.. theres 12 of us including rankase.. who have or are wanting to host. Im happy to keep it at 24. but the slots need to be fairly distributed.

this whole slot format is the fairest way to stop anyone just deciding to host something when ever they want as long as its administored fairly.
and its been suggested pretty much to cater for Jhyyrl origonally wanting to do weekly events and ive jumped on board so it doesnt become the jhyrrl show. I would like others to jump on board too. but im also totally willing to junk the idea. sure that means i wont host again for a while.. but if its aleiviated anyones fears about too many races... fine.
or maybe we can organise a vote.. I dunno. but I hear your concern Alot.
if we can the MWM idea.. may I be allowed to run something at the end of may?

Are more slots a detriment to the overall fun of any race.. ? how is it quantifiable, is anyone going to say oh.. there was only 4 people at your buggyball that wasn't successful we ought to stop doing MWM events.. youd have to be delusional to think that we were going to get 50 people at a MWM event. yeah itd be great.. but it just isn't gonna happen unless one of us gets good at PR. what if the next event just gets 10 people in it.. is that going to be because of the buggyball? id find it hard to make that connection.
I actually think that the turbo duration has done more to put people off than say 3 smaller events that could have happened. and I take blame for that too.

what I really wish would have happened. is jhyrrl had just waited his turn for spring break. and I ranted at drakhyr saying well when can I do a race. and got a slot in may.
rather than me having to write loads about fairness and crap like that. im bailing on this now because ive said enough.
lets take a week off and see what happens later on. I wont do the scramble I had planned as it wont be right now after all ive had to write.

 

[Jhyrryl]

well we still basically have 2 main events a month planned.. like weve had since we started.
we are just opening up some mid week slots for the more eager amongst us to run some stuff that may not appear in a normal event. I think the buggyball is pretty different to normal. its in a MWM slot for that very reason.

how else do we accommodate people who want to host races more frequently than twice a year. but keep it fair for the main event hosting. I wanted to do an event at xmas over a weekend.. but all the slots were taken by drakhyr.. Jak wants to run weekly stuff.. but I think weve fobbed him off with a few MWM slots. and his spring break is coming up that covers 2 weeks. so how do we accommodate his needs.. and me.. and the rest of us.. without going to the 24 events and 24 MWM slot format. I gave some options in an earlier post.. we either say no to MWM .. or see what happens. Im happy with either option.. the last thing I want to do is offend any of the club.. id rather shut up about wanting to host.. and ill do one again in august..

the clubs loosly run by drakhyr.. and hes on holiday atm.. ive said before the final word needs to be from him.. because otherwise.. we can debate about what half the group wants and what the other half want till the cows come home.. we need someone in charge that everyone respects and can intervene in this sort of instance.

the initial problem with the BBR was it was every blue moon. then the BRC wanted 12 events . I foresaw the problem of more people wanting to host than 12 would allow by suggesting warm ups.. we then moved to 24 events a year.. with that we are getting what 2 races a year each.. theres 12 of us including rankase.. who have or are wanting to host. Im happy to keep it at 24. but the slots need to be fairly distributed.

this whole slot format is the fairest way to stop anyone just deciding to host something when ever they want as long as its administored fairly.
and its been suggested pretty much to cater for Jhyyrl origonally wanting to do weekly events and ive jumped on board so it doesnt become the jhyrrl show. I would like others to jump on board too. but im also totally willing to junk the idea. sure that means i wont host again for a while.. but if its aleiviated anyones fears about too many races... fine.
or maybe we can organise a vote.. I dunno. but I hear your concern Alot.
if we can the MWM idea.. may I be allowed to run something at the end of may?

Are more slots a detriment to the overall fun of any race.. ? how is it quantifiable, is anyone going to say oh.. there was only 4 people at your buggyball that wasn't successful we ought to stop doing MWM events.. youd have to be delusional to think that we were going to get 50 people at a MWM event. yeah itd be great.. but it just isn't gonna happen unless one of us gets good at PR. what if the next event just gets 10 people in it.. is that going to be because of the buggyball? id find it hard to make that connection.
I actually think that the turbo duration has done more to put people off than say 3 smaller events that could have happened. and I take blame for that too.

what I really wish would have happened. is jhyrrl had just waited his turn for spring break. and I ranted at drakhyr saying well when can I do a race. and got a slot in may.
rather than me having to write loads about fairness and crap like that. im bailing on this now because ive said enough.
lets take a week off and see what happens later on. I wont do the scramble I had planned as it wont be right now after all ive had to write.

Yeah...I don't need this in my life. I respect the club's purpose and will still race, but I don't need to be a BRC organizer if my suggestions are going to be abused like this. I have 1 race on the board, suggested in the open spirit of the original post in this thread, but apparently even that caused a hurricane that I wasn't aware of.

I'll follow through with running Spring Break, but I'll stop offering further suggestions for the club. My apologies for being a disruptive influence.

 

[robinjb]

Yeah...I don't need this in my life. I respect the club's purpose and will still race, but I don't need to be a BRC organizer if my suggestions are going to be abused like this. I have 1 race on the board, suggested in the open spirit of the original post in this thread, but apparently even that caused a hurricane that I wasn't aware of.

I'll follow through with running Spring Break, but I'll stop offering further suggestions for the club. My apologies for being a disruptive influence.

yeah , im sorry ive gone to far. ill take a break. please don't stop suggesting things.. and wanting to host events. its not my place to be so controlling. my apologies.

 

[Esvandiary]

I think it's probably time for all involved to have a bit of a calm down.

To help with that, here's a very small preview of something...

[video=youtube;wXQgKshSEW8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXQgKshSEW8[/video]

 

[drakhyr]

I'm with Alot on this one - folks, please chill

I want to be able to accommodate plenty of people hosting races, including new people participating, without overloading anybody. I've taken the approach of asking for ideas for races, rather than allocating slots for people to then fill with ideas, on the basis of (a) trying to avoid having two similar races close together, and (b) encouraging those who've already got ideas including new hosts. I also want to encourage new ideas and new participants.

My current thinking is that after the currently planned schedule (or possibly earlier than that, depending on how Alec and Rusti go with planning their races in April), I'll then look to move to having the main (one or two week long) events every three weeks or so (could be four, depending on how people feel). Slightly more spread out races would give more opportunity for time to be spent planning new races or doing other things, and also allow races to be moved back or forward a week or so if desired.

The gaps in between could be used for short MWM races (i.e. 2-3 day slots), including some completely free weekends which could be used for a live race as per Raiko's suggestion. I would then suggest that the MWM-type slots are planned much closer to the time, rather than scheduled months in advance.

 

[Raiko]

Wow.

Please don't all fall out.

• Please can Robin have an event slot as soon as possible, I was looking forward to the scramble race.
• Jhyrryl, please don't quit or stop suggesting things.
• I only want one event slot per year, regardless of how many events we have. I'll be rehashing the Bootlegger Challenge this year, next year I might dump it and run something different. I'm too busy to organise two big events. If we end up with a few free weekends, then I'll try to organise a live race, otherwise I'll give a MWM a go, but just one big event for me thanks.

 

[Alec Turner]

I think it's probably time for all involved to have a bit of a calm down.

Time to roll this out again I think.

Spoiler

[video=youtube;e59guruVL4o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e59guruVL4o[/video]

There, don't know about anyone else but I feel all soft and tranquil now.

To help with that, here's a very small preview of something...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXQgKshSEW8

Can't wait to see the finished product. Have to say I rewatch the other three on a fairly regular basis and they're are works of art man, WORKS. OF. ART. !

 

[racer1]

Don't fall out guys it's great there are so many ideas and people willing to organize stuff. If only my RL club had so many volunteers lol.

I'm happy to not organise anything

Maybe rather than formal events people could do ad-hoc get togethers for some racing in buggies, canyons, around stations etc

 

[Esvandiary]

I only want one event slot per year, regardless of how many events we have. I'll be rehashing the Bootlegger Challenge this year, next year I might dump it and run something different. I'm too busy to organise two big events. If we end up with a few free weekends, then I'll try to organise a live race, otherwise I'll give a MWM a go, but just one big event for me thanks.

I'm inclined to think the same, one main slot a year sounds fine to me... Quite happy to let a more inspired CMDR have a go instead

 

[drakhyr]

So, by my reckoning, the current planned schedule looks something like this:

When - What - Who
23-25 Feb (?) - Buggyball: Elwood-Ferguson - robinjb
27 Feb-6 Mar - Icarus - Goemon
8-10 Mar (?) - tbc - robinjb
18-26 Mar - Spring Break - Jhyrryl
2-10 Apr - tbc (planet-based) - Alec Turner
16-24 Apr - tbc (Pratchett-themed) - mw_aurora
30 Apr-15 May - Kessel Run episode II - Stern Winter

The above is what I'll put on the website for now. If any race organisers in that list want to shift their exact dates, or don't think they can run the week proposed, just let me know.

Other ideas I'm tracking for main race slots beyond that are Rankaze's Gateway Shuffle; Hanekura Shizuka's Iron Pilot; Raiko's Bootlegger Challenge II; and robinjb's desire for another slot.

For the Mid-Week Madness events, I've put question marks on the dates for the items proposed so far as they could be anywhere within the gaps between main races. If anybody comes up with ideas for additional MWM races they would like to run, just say - at the moment I'm not proposing that we agree any MWM slots beyond the end of March, though, but it's useful to know if people get ideas they can hold up their sleeve for the future .

 

[Alec Turner]

2-10 Apr - tbc (planet-based) - Alec Turner

Yup, still in the planning stage but glad to see it's in the schedule. By the way, if anyone comes across a planet with two landable bases that are really close to each other (e.g. perhaps 15mins by SRV) could they pm me the details.

 

[Raiko]

Yup, still in the planning stage but glad to see it's in the schedule. By the way, if anyone comes across a planet with two landable bases that are really close to each other (e.g. perhaps 15mins by SRV) could they pm me the details.

From what Robinjb has said for Buggyball, I don't think that you're likely to have any luck. I think that the best that he's found is two stations 30 minutes apart.

If I see anywhere though, I'll let both of you know.

It is a shame that there isn't an in cockpit clock in either ships or SRVs, as there are plenty of non-starport fixed landmarks that could be used for racing (mountain tops, fixed crash sites, those little bases with no pads, etc) but they don't work for Buckyball without an official clock.

If the API ever gets released, I wonder if we'd ever be able to create an official Buckyball application or web based logging tool that used the API.

 

[Alec Turner]

It is a shame that there isn't an in cockpit clock in either ships or SRVs, as there are plenty of non-starport fixed landmarks that could be used for racing (mountain tops, fixed crash sites, those little bases with no pads, etc) but they don't work for Buckyball without an official clock.

Well that's going to be my backup plan and an element of trust will be involved.