Community Event / Creation Buckyball Run A*: What do you do when a mountain is there? Move it.

[FoxTwo]

Don't worry Z, us "regular customers" will still be here ... same like how we always go up to the top floor if our fave shop is up there

Ya know, since I'm "highly encouraged" to go on vacation this week, I been spending time at work re-doing my Vulture loadout for the upcoming run... Primarily trying to do a viable "Combat loadout" that is still able to get to Sag A* in a reasonable amount time (like in less than 10 years) and be there for a couple of days at least to help out with whatever I can.

I think maybe --> this configuration <-- might be acceptable to me - jump range vs combat ability with some compromises... don't worry about the gimballed weapons. I know how to aim iron-sight mode. Just because he throws chaff doesn't mean I can't shoot him

Well tentatively I'm taking off on 27th May ... sometime..... hahahaha still dunno yet but it SHOULD be 27th May.. hoping to arrive by 28th May.

 

[c64orinoco]

I'm hoping to finish kitting out my Orca tonight; I am considering heavily damaging my jump range by including some sheilds, a PA and some heavy Lasers... Does anyone have an id on the ship type / armament of our star goon? I am guessing an asp, and I am also guessing a propensity to combat-log, so an Orca with two-shot-kill ability might be fun.

In which case it will be named 'The Spanish Inquisition' for the obvious reasons.

 

[robinjb]

Great times from Raiko and Rankaze, well done guys
an hour off alots asp time Raiko blimey , A6 scoop? massive scoopage ftw!

 

[Rankaze]

Speaking of combat configurations, I'm still pondering putting Crystal Starblade on permanent station out there. What's the minimum jump range y'all think one could have and still be able to find a somewhat viable route? Bearing in mind I'll be in no rush, so having to go well out of my way isn't a huge problem...

 

[FoxTwo]

What's the minimum jump range y'all think one could have and still be able to find a somewhat viable route? Bearing in mind I'll be in no rush, so having to go well out of my way isn't a huge problem...

I would guess that you don't want to go under 15 LY.. otherwise you may as well plot ECONOMICAL routes

 

[TunaMage]

Wow lots going on this weekend here at the BBRA* (snicker)....

No feats of swashbuckling, insane planetary maneuvers, and derring-do for Tuna this weekend! Oh no, Mrs Tuna had other ideas, like taking the kids to under 10 C team hockey, and changing lightbulbs around the aquarium and stuff...

Anyhoo, very well done to Raiko and Rakanze on your new record times, and all the others having a run!

And Bucky, loving your Lakon 8 ship name - a name after my own heart!

 

[Alec Turner]

What? WHAT? 10hr 37min in an ASP!!

For heaven's sake Raiko. I was realy happy with my goal of under 15hrs but you've made that look like a positively slapdash kind of target for any self respecting Asp owner now. And Rankaze too ... now I definitely have to beat 13:27 or face the shame of being behind a white van man (no offence).

Amazing runs, congratulations to you both!

 

[Rankaze]

I would guess that you don't want to go under 15 LY.. otherwise you may as well plot ECONOMICAL routes

Yeah, I'm mostly trying to figure out if I can actually GET a combat loaded FdL to cross between spiral arms. I have my doubts as to whether it is even possible.

Anyhoo, very well done to Raiko and Rakanze on your new record times, and all the others having a run!

Thanks.

What? WHAT? 10hr 37min in an ASP!!

For heaven's sake Raiko. I was realy happy with my goal of under 15hrs but you've made that look like a positively slapdash kind of target for any self respecting Asp owner now. And Rankaze too ... now I definitely have to beat 13:27 of face the shame of being behind a white van man (no offence).

Amazing runs, congratulations to you both!

Thanks. And that's a canary yellow van to you!

I think I could actually turn a much faster Hauler time now, with the lessons I learned from the first run taken into account. Hopefully nobody goes and breaks my class record anytime soon because then I might have to prove it, and I really don't wanna. At least, not for a good while anyway... I'm only about a third of the way home from this run.

Though if I'm honest, I'll probably end up running it again at some point anyway. It galls me a bit looking up on the leaderboard to a Lakon 6. Asps and Anacondas I can deal with, but being slower than a Lakon 6 starts to threaten my "fastest hunk o' junk in the galaxy!" title.

 

[fergal]

I don't think I would find this thread, with where it is now.

Haven;t really used the sub forums much, if there was a separate community events sub forum directly under the main forum that might be ok, but its under Fiction of Elite and Community Creations.

I would say maybe that would keep less people from beating my time, but its only been about a day and 2 people already bumped me down

Congrats Raiko and Rankazi

 

[Rankaze]

I don't think I would find this thread, with where it is now.

Haven;t really used the sub forums much, if there was a separate community events sub forum directly under the main forum that might be ok, but its under Fiction of Elite and Community Creations.

I would say maybe that would keep less people from beating my time, but its only been about a day and 2 people already bumped me down

Congrats Raiko and Rankazi

Thanks.

And yeah, the location of the Community Events forum is really badly thought out. Is anyone going to find it here at all?

 

[FoxTwo]

Yeah, I'm mostly trying to figure out if I can actually GET a combat loaded FdL to cross between spiral arms. I have my doubts as to whether it is even possible.

I think the closest distance I saw when crossing the spiral arms was ~16 LY. So if you can manage that you can cross the arms. Of course this bears a disclaimer - I had to slide up and down the galactic plane in some places to find stars "in-between" so I can use them as a bridge to cross. That means you might not find a system that close at the plane where you are at now, but there could be one up or down from you... you just have to slide around a little.

 

[fergal]

@ElectricZ, I've had a thought, can you enter from the beta server?

Just repeating my question, if I don't get an answer by tomorrow I'll take that as a yes

*edit, this is what I'm talking about if no-one is following

 

[c64orinoco]

Just repeating my question, if I don't get an answer by tomorrow I'll take that as a yes

*edit, this is what I'm talking about if no-one is following
http://i60.tinypic.com/wt7m0j.png

I call shopped. Your Courier has a blue tinge inside; the Core is most certainly fawn-beigey-mishmash.

That said, I think the Beta has quite different stars to the full game - it uses a different galaxy seed IRRC. Stars I discovered in the beta don't exist in the full version.

Still first Courier to Sag A*, that sounds like a challenge if I have ever heard one!

 

[fergal]

I call shopped. Your Courier has a blue tinge inside; the Core is most certainly fawn-beigey-mishmash.

That said, I think the Beta has quite different stars to the full game - it uses a different galaxy seed IRRC. Stars I discovered in the beta don't exist in the full version.

Still first Courier to Sag A*, that sounds like a challenge if I have ever heard one!

I don't know what you are talking about, no blue tinge here

I didn't play the 1.2 beta for long, can't remember if it was the whole galaxy or not.

 

[Esvandiary]

Okay, so some pretty big news for the Buckyball, and I don't mean our new home in the Community Events subform of the Elite Dangerous Boards. So, uh, for anybody who might stumble down here and accidentally see it...

Oh dear... Maybe we should consider a subreddit now, to make sure that even the regulars have a reliable way of spotting new races (other than the site of course)...

CMDR Raiko has set a positively amazing record for getting to Sagittarius A* in an Asp, taking just 10 hours, 37 minutes and 50 seconds to get there in the Nomad. That's just a minute and a half behind CMDR Anuranium's Anaconda Gjallarhorn which is currently on station at Sadge providing overwatch for explorers and racers at the center of the galaxy. Raiko's time was not only good enough to hang with the Big Snake in the race, but also to set a solid record for the Asp class that will likely stand for some time.

Speaking of class records, CMDR Jaryd Moonshadow's Hauler Haulin' A* smashed another record, setting the bar for Zorgon-Peterson's workhorse at 13 hours, 27 minutes, 14 seconds, knocking nearly four hours from the top time formerly held by CMDR Kulzar. Moonshadow also broke another record, having launched a full 35 days after declaring his intent to race, but this record is in jeopardy as both Ethelred and Nomake Wan are both standing by to take it from him. Most importantly, Rankaze has earned the coveted Star Pip and bumper sticker! Congratulations, Rankaze!

Woooo! Fantastic time Raiko! That's around where I might have been minus the route planning issues on that run

A brilliant time from Rankaze too... The Hauler pulling through again, lovely to see

 

[ElectricZ]

Just repeating my question, if I don't get an answer by tomorrow I'll take that as a yes

Sure you can run it in Beta. It's your game.

It just won't count.

Gotta fly in open and in the current production release so the flight model etc. will be the same as everyone else. We'll note times before and after 1.3 on the Big Board after it drops. Until then, 1.2 is the only game in town.

 

[FoxTwo]

And yeah, the location of the Community Events forum is really badly thought out. Is anyone going to find it here at all?

Oh dear... Maybe we should consider a subreddit now, to make sure that even the regulars have a reliable way of spotting new races (other than the site of course)...

I say screw it.

Buckyball needs an entire forum on its own, on par with the others like "Mac Dangerous Discussions" and what nots.

 

[fergal]

Sure you can run it in Beta. It's your game.

It just won't count.

Gotta fly in open and in the current production release so the flight model etc. will be the same as everyone else. We'll note times before and after 1.3 on the Big Board after it drops. Until then, 1.2 is the only game in town.

Fair enough, I'll just save up for a type 8.

Its a festival at A* right now.

 

[Anuranium]

Party at Sag A*! Bring all the babes who is attracted to big black things. I'm running out of Lavian brandy too, so if some of you could bring some I'd be very happy. On a side note; Matrona Experience Jelly is great, and highly recommended against space madness. Slaying squid-zombies in the engine-room is quite fun actually, but why is my hair suddenly yellow?

Raiko, wow, just wow. Congratulations to both you and Rankaze!

 

[Raiko]

Woooo! Fantastic time Raiko! That's around where I might have been minus the route planning issues on that run

A brilliant time from Rankaze too... The Hauler pulling through again, lovely to see

Thanks Esvandiary, and thanks everyone else!

I'd have honestly been delighted with a time around the 12 hour mark, whether it ended up faster or slower than Esvandiary's existing time. My personal goal was to get under 12 hours, so I'd have probably had another go if I'd failed.

I knew from Esvandiary's posts that he knew he could get a better Asp time, and I knew from my own test times on the way home last time that I could break 11 hours if I had a good run. As I mentioned earlier I did have a few problems, so my time is definitely beatable.

I think it's probably possible to get the Asp time down to around 10 hours, but you'd probably need to scout out the best possible places to cross between arms, that's where the route planner is generally forced to plot quite crooked routes with 35-37 jumps per 1000ly leg, rather than the 27-29 in areas of higher density.

If anyone is interested, I flew at 500LY below the galactic plane on both my runs and had very few refueling problems or re-plots.

Oh dear... Maybe we should consider a subreddit now, to make sure that even the regulars have a reliable way of spotting new races (other than the site of course)...

I'd be happy if we had a subreddit, as most of reddit isn't blocked at work, unlike frontier.co.uk.

Great times from Raiko and Rankaze, well done guys
an hour off alots asp time Raiko blimey , A6 scoop? massive scoopage ftw!

Thanks. Yes an A6 scoop and a willingness to hit jump as soon as the cooldown finished, however close or hot the star was. Although I've gotten much better at avoiding taking heat damage since my first run.

I was glad that you and Esvandiary decided to duke it out in Anacondas as I think you could both beat my time. I suspect that Nomake Wan will have a good shot as well if someone wakes him. He was still passed out in the Shotgun Shine when I left!

I'm actually a lot more impressed with Rankaze's time than mine, as I think heat management is probably more of a problem on the hauler than the asp.

What? WHAT? 10hr 37min in an ASP!!

For heaven's sake Raiko. I was realy happy with my goal of under 15hrs but you've made that look like a positively slapdash kind of target for any self respecting Asp owner now. And Rankaze too ... now I definitely have to beat 13:27 or face the shame of being behind a white van man (no offence).

Amazing runs, congratulations to you both!

I'd have been really happy with a 15 hour run on my first attempt. You do learn loads on your trip out there, so you know where things were perfect and where you can shave some time off.

Party at Sag A*! Bring all the babes who is attracted to big black things. I'm running out of Lavian brandy too, so if some of you could bring some I'd be very happy. On a side note; Matrona Experience Jelly is great, and highly recommended against space madness. Slaying squid-zombies in the engine-room is quite fun actually, but why is my hair suddenly yellow?

Raiko, wow, just wow. Congratulations to both you and Rankaze!

No feats of swashbuckling, insane planetary maneuvers, and derring-do for Tuna this weekend! Oh no, Mrs Tuna had other ideas, like taking the kids to under 10 C team hockey, and changing lightbulbs around the aquarium and stuff...

Hehe! I've promised my wife that I'll be good for the rest of the holiday weekend, so I might not get online to join the party.

Thanks for playing the part of Knight Hospitaller Anuranium, I'm sorry I missed you I honestly expected to only arrive after 11-12 hours.

@Everyone else: Anuranium had kindly offered to activate a beacon for me ready for my arrival, but I got there about 2 minutes before he came back online.

If anyone's worried about getting griefed arriving at Sag A* in open and they arrive at a time when Anuranium can't protect them, then you just need to do the following:

• Set your throttle to zero during the FSD countdown, as you normally would when jumping into a black hole system.
• Drop out of SC immediately when you arrive in the system
• Get your map screenshot

You're then free to switch to solo for some selfies or to jump out of system while shrub boy is still trying to get within drop distance of your wake point.