Aftermath
I've spent whole day for watching my old recorded EP runs, testing various things in the game, and for calculating and concluding some stuff for the future speedrunning attempts.
1) I recognized systematic problem in my approach to a hardcore grinder in an anarchic system concerning "jousting hunters", situations where 2 hunters (Worm/Cobra MKI/Mamba/Gecko/Adder/Sidewinder) begin their dodgy chicken race with each other without shooting. The best, least time wasting approach is to fly outwards from those fake combatants and shoot them from distance. It is on average much faster to get rid of them that way than if starting to chase and snipe them from a point plank range. It is also much less risky as these ships are notorious for their tendency to start spam missiles after being hit (that happens always with 100% probability, and they always launch all of their 4 missiles). Also, risk to get unintentionally crashed with one (usually non-lethal, often useful to do) or two (potentially lethal if crashes happen within a short timeframe. Something to avoid at all cost if there are simultaneously radar screen full of incoming and shooting pirates, particularly when shields/energy banks are already down and depleted), the risk of death decreases accordingly. There are also more time to react to missiles with ECM. Most deaths in anarchic systems tend to be someway related to "jousting hunters", if not for anything else then because if you get stuck to chasing them down, you may ignore much dangerous foes due your 'obsessed target blindness'. For example, you concentrate to chase a Sidewinder down when there are 4 pirates and 1 hunter coming towards you all shooting simultaneously...
Missiles are useful remedy for dodging hunters.
2) I tested how thing would go in a speedrun if buying only Fore Mining Lasers and Escape Capsule at Leesti (I had already Fuel Scoop, practically the first thing you buy in speedruns, and the reason why you must sell your Fore Pulse Lasers and one of 3 missiles at Lave as your first in-game action when starting a new speedrun attempt) then straightforwardly jumping to Riedquat, trying to approach the system's Coriolis as long as possible (may even be successful) but immediately launching Escape Capsule when situation in your Cobra MKIII's energy banks warrant/force that action. The point of this method is to get as fast as possible to Riedquat's station and start grinding within it's shield perimeter. Enemies do not shoot or launch missiles there as long as you stay within the shielded zone, thus you don't necessarily need ECM-system and Extra Energy Unit installed to your ship. Sounds cool and un-cool same time, like a crafty plan you devised to save more time; the record category is Any% after all.
But!!!, this hideous plan doesn't work well in practice. In speedruns of this category you need to minimize all the time you're not shooting (or crashing) any enemy ship, this Elite Plus Speedrunning's Rule 101, but you do not have any control over the game's RNG on does ship(s) appear or not as long as you're within the shield perimeter. You cannot use jump drive there to haste next encounter with enemy ship(s) as the station makes the drive MASS LOCKED, and in practice you cannot have continuously a steady stream of new ships on your radar screen while hanging there. Also, you lose the rhythm of grind if you have to be constantly conscious about where you're relative to the station and the planet, how far you're outside of shield perimeter, did you already hit to that particular Adder (or whatnot) from within the perimeter or not (expect a launch of missile asap you go outside of the perimeter), etc. other things that will ruin your sinister scheme for shorter speedrunning time.
My test pilot Commander Chicken got soon bored to this kind of action, departed to Uzsaa (another anarchy nearby) via hyperspace without Extra Energy Unit soon after having been promoted to DEADLY, and there he met his cruel but honorable end in the intense dogfight against endless hordes of local pirates and hunters. His Cobra MKIII's condition was RED almost all the time. Energy bank depletion and forced "pauses" (to recharge) in the use of jump drive for search of next enemies is the real killer of flow, and the reason you have to have Extra Energy Unit installed to your ship if trying seriously contend and cut time out from any records of the 'Elite Any%' category. You cannot either use intentional crashes that often (or at all) as a weaponized counter-measure for avoiding undesirable situations happening in the space, for example aforementioned "jousting hunters", and that alone decreases your average Hits per Time Unit -efficiency dramatically.
I'll be only happy if someone can make this scheme work someway...
3) On a start of speedrun. Conclusion is simple, just abandon a start with bad ship and loot RNG and/or bad success in hitting targets and with scooping stuff, and restart the game immediately - why to waste time to bad prospects when your time investment with the attempt isn't yet that high? For serious attempts you need the start where you made it to Riedquat and to the real business within 10 minutes. To achieve this you may need to restart the game several times. My Last record would have been potentially 7-8 minutes better if I would've followed this principle myself.
4) S/H efficiency. I counted Seconds per Hit -rates for my three official WR speedruns:
Cdr Hannibal 2:14:35 -> 8075 secs/1000 hits -> 8.075 s/h
Cdr Polybius 2:36:30 -> 9390 secs/1024 hits -> 9.170 s/h
Cdr Awesome 2:42:59 -> 9779 secs/1021 hits -> 9.578 s/h
For a Sub-2h10min time you need at least following s/h efficiency when we assume you're ranked Above Average having already 30 hits when making arrival to Riedquat after a maximum of 10 minutes start at Leesti, thus you need shoot down the minimum of 970 more hit points for ELITE promotion.
You need achieve at Riedquat the minimum efficiency rate of 7200 secs/970 hits -> 7.423 s/h to make it Sub-2h10min, with overall run efficiency of 7800s/1000h = 7.800 s/h.
For conjectural Sub-2h times (using same assumptions on the start of a run as above) you need efficiency of 6600 secs/970 hits -> 6.804 s/h in Riedquat, and for whole run 7200s/1000h = 7.200 s/h.
In other words these rates mean that you need lower seconds needed for a hit on average at least (relative to current record):
3.41% for Sub-2h10min time
10.84% for Sub-2h time.
The First of two is doable, no doubt. Second one is a little bit harder to evaluate as possibility as there must be practical limits somewhere how fast you can actually play the game for 2 hours in row. At least it means that there shouldn't happen any idle, unnecessary moments in the space with empty radar screen. Jump drive must be used always as soon as a last enemy is killed to get next ones with minimal waste of time. You cannot hang in station's or your ship's cargo manifest screens any time longer than necessity, you cannot browse star maps freely with a cup of coffee, neither there are spare time left for thinking too long what I should buy from a station, you must know that already... generally you would need minimize every non-essential and idle second off from your spacemanship practices in-space as well as out-of-it. You should always try to get rid of time consuming dodging hunters as soon as possible, always trying to lenghten a steady flow of incoming pirates on your ship's fore arc by accurate aiming and timely use of jump drive, rabidly destroying possible navigational hazards preventing you from utilizing jump drive (asteroids/boulders/escape capsules/plates), you couldn't make extra jumps to other systems for buying more equipment, and generally avoid all non-essential docking to a station until you're ready to get the promotion to ELITE... and forget that cute little Tribble.
Hmm... Let's see what the future will bring to us.
5) Psychological aspects of Elite Plus speedrunning. The Maxims "Anything you've done or achieved before is incredibly less stressful to attempt next time than it was when you made the first attempt.", but also: "If you have done something without stress or pressure, 'naturally' or 'accidentally' before, be assured that you feel pressure and stress when you try to repeat that effort as intentionally planned action." These both maxims co-exist, and ultimately it comes down to a playing routine and mood you feel.
What is good mood generally in a life, doesn't necessary have to be same as "good mood" for achieving things and making stuff happen in Elite Plus, particularly not in serious speedrunning sessions. You need certain level of stress, and feeling of urgency to be successful. You need a state of mind where you can concentrate, but your concentration cannot be fake, over-done thought of "Ok. Now I concentrate!" as that mental set will almost certainly lead to either failure or at least making you under-achieve what you're trying to achieve.
Feelings of Transcendence, Meditative Euphoric of Flow, and Archangelic Wholesomeness sometimes occurring in the middle of intense space battle are the best part of Elite Plus experience. There is the dark side even in this deep aspect of the game; you can get addicted to it, and usually addictions are not good thing to have by default. Luckily EP is rather mild drug, and if your required daily doses aren't too extensive or impacting destructively to your other everyday life and social relations, no problems!
Problems start when your title is Archangel, you call yourself as such, but in practice you're not trying to live and play the game as that title obliges.
That is ultimately why Archangels are so hated among all Commanders over all different versions of Elite.
Right on Commanders! Good night!
EDIT: Typos and bad English
