Community Event / Creation The Buckyball Racing Club presents: Engineer’s Canyon Mayhem (20 June)

I think jumps were near identical (max was about 50ly) so sc and planetary landings must be my nemesis. I was holding thee planetary entry to about 9 seconds..is this too slow?
 
I think jumps were near identical (max was about 50ly) so sc and planetary landings must be my nemesis. I was holding thee planetary entry to about 9 seconds..is this too slow?
So what I do is treat the initial approach like a station approach, get down to around 0:05 or 0:04 eta and hold it there by corkscrewing around the planet, then I'm aiming to be under 200 when I break into OC and under 7.5 when I hit glide. On the higher g planets it's pretty hard to exceed the latter and you can generally keep the throttle full. Another little tip is that for both the approach to a sub-200 OC and the next bit, your speed should be gradually dropping, there's a limit where it sticks or continues to drop even as you increase the throttle (like it's being kept low by the game) and then a moment where you push to far and it starts to rise again. It feels like the ideal is just on the edge of that threshold. It's hard to describe but pay attention to the speed and you'll see what I mean. And, as always, pay attention to the sound at all times, it's probably the single greatest indicator of when you're just at the limits but still under control (a steady howl) and when you've tipped into dangerous acceleration as it starts steadily rising in pitch.
 
I think jumps were near identical (max was about 50ly) so sc and planetary landings must be my nemesis. I was holding thee planetary entry to about 9 seconds..is this too slow?

In short, yes.
Even 4 seconds is way too slow for an icourier.

So what I do is treat the initial approach like a station approach, get down to around 0:05 or 0:04 eta and hold it there by corkscrewing around the planet, then I'm aiming to be under 200 when I break into OC and under 7.5 when I hit glide. On the higher g planets it's pretty hard to exceed the latter and you can generally keep the throttle full. Another little tip is that for both the approach to a sub-200 OC and the next bit, your speed should be gradually dropping, there's a limit where it sticks or continues to drop even as you increase the throttle (like it's being kept low by the game) and then a moment where you push to far and it starts to rise again. It feels like the ideal is just on the edge of that threshold. It's hard to describe but pay attention to the speed and you'll see what I mean. And, as always, pay attention to the sound at all times, it's probably the single greatest indicator of when you're just at the limits but still under control (a steady howl) and when you've tipped into dangerous acceleration as it starts steadily rising in pitch.

I have a little bit to add to this. I saw somewhere that the max speed you can enter orbital cruise and orbital glide is based on your radial speed to the planet, not the speed on your dashboard. You can enter orbital cruise at well over 200km/s and not crash out to normal space. I don't remember who specifically said this but he said he had entered orbital cruise at around 2k km/s and been fine. For that extreme you'd need a planet with a quite large radius. It's the same for orbital glide. I personally have had drops to orbital glide at around 14km/s. You have to have a rather shallow entry to do this. If you really wanted to, you could do some trig and get some exact numbers for the maximum allowed speed at different angles, at least according to my radial speed limit theory.

During this race I noticed the vertical speed indicator as a rather useful instrument. If it is in the red and you're crossing a boundary, you'll be stopped. If it's not in the red you can be going what ever speed you can get to.
 
In short, yes.
Even 4 seconds is way too slow for an icourier.



I have a little bit to add to this. I saw somewhere that the max speed you can enter orbital cruise and orbital glide is based on your radial speed to the planet, not the speed on your dashboard. You can enter orbital cruise at well over 200km/s and not crash out to normal space. I don't remember who specifically said this but he said he had entered orbital cruise at around 2k km/s and been fine. For that extreme you'd need a planet with a quite large radius. It's the same for orbital glide. I personally have had drops to orbital glide at around 14km/s. You have to have a rather shallow entry to do this. If you really wanted to, you could do some trig and get some exact numbers for the maximum allowed speed at different angles, at least according to my radial speed limit theory.

During this race I noticed the vertical speed indicator as a rather useful instrument. If it is in the red and you're crossing a boundary, you'll be stopped. If it's not in the red you can be going what ever speed you can get to.
I'm pretty sure it was furrycat who said this stuff. I guess the thing about entering at a very shallow glide angle is that it then takes ages to glide to the target. It's an interesting trade-off, perfect for Buckyball racing - like any good racing system it's a very fine line between perfection and disaster (in this case the dreaded "TOO FAST FOR ORBITAL CRUISE" message).
 
It's like car racing, brake too early and you lose time and speed in the corner (you get a longer glide). Brake too late and you go off or lose a lot of time and speed if you manage to save it (overshoot and have to loop).
I started explaining my approach routine but it turned into an essay, might make a video later to show it instead. I never look at the actual speed, just the vertical speed indicator, my distance and angles to the orbital cruise line, glide line and base/ground.
 
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... I started explaining my approach routine but it turned into an essay, might make a video later to show it instead. ...
:oops:

Approaches.
I believe this is the part where you can cut the most time off in most Buckyball races. It may has a smaller effect in a race like this where more time is spent in normal space, especially in the SRV class.

When you get below 6 seconds on the time to arrival it is the angle between the ships trajectory and the direct line to the target that will decide if your ship slows down or speeds up. Increasing this angle too much can make you stop completely up unless you apply more thrust. Decreasing it too much will increase your speed past the turning ability of your ship and you will have to do a loop to get back on target. The trick is to get as close to looping as possible without crossing the line.

The number of seconds to arrival you can go down to vary with the type of ship you are flying and doesn't always correspond to how well a ship handles in normal space. A racing ship will typically do 2-3 seconds.

For planetary approaches you also get the additional difficulty of crossing the blue orbital and yellow glide lines with just low enough vertical speed to not get ripped out of supercruise. I want to drop out of glide right above the landing spot at 2-4 km height so I prefer to glide in around 45 degrees angle to the ground. This allows me to dip down at the end to get closer. Imagine a cone upside down on the landing spot this angle, where this cone crosses the yellow glide line is where I want to enter it. The distance between the orbital and glide line can be taken at any angle, just get the vertical speed reduced enough by the time you cross the yellow glide line. For high G worlds going almost vertical here is the fastest way. For low G worlds where the distance between the yellow and blue line can be massive you need to allow more distance to where you want to cross the yellow line. Approaching the blue orbital line you want to use gravity braking around the planet to hit it at the roughly right spot. I find this harder on low G worlds, on high G worlds you can go really fast in.

For examples I dug up one of my Colonia Trophy Dash runs in a Hauler. This race has a varied set of approaches to make it quite a challenge. Highly recommend spending some time racing this if you are ever out in Colonia.


Source: https://youtu.be/dTXgL-LDiNs
 
:oops:

Approaches.
I believe this is the part where you can cut the most time off in most Buckyball races. It may has a smaller effect in a race like this where more time is spent in normal space, especially in the SRV class.

When you get below 6 seconds on the time to arrival it is the angle between the ships trajectory and the direct line to the target that will decide if your ship slows down or speeds up. Increasing this angle too much can make you stop completely up unless you apply more thrust. Decreasing it too much will increase your speed past the turning ability of your ship and you will have to do a loop to get back on target. The trick is to get as close to looping as possible without crossing the line.

The number of seconds to arrival you can go down to vary with the type of ship you are flying and doesn't always correspond to how well a ship handles in normal space. A racing ship will typically do 2-3 seconds.

For planetary approaches you also get the additional difficulty of crossing the blue orbital and yellow glide lines with just low enough vertical speed to not get ripped out of supercruise. I want to drop out of glide right above the landing spot at 2-4 km height so I prefer to glide in around 45 degrees angle to the ground. This allows me to dip down at the end to get closer. Imagine a cone upside down on the landing spot this angle, where this cone crosses the yellow glide line is where I want to enter it. The distance between the orbital and glide line can be taken at any angle, just get the vertical speed reduced enough by the time you cross the yellow glide line. For high G worlds going almost vertical here is the fastest way. For low G worlds where the distance between the yellow and blue line can be massive you need to allow more distance to where you want to cross the yellow line. Approaching the blue orbital line you want to use gravity braking around the planet to hit it at the roughly right spot. I find this harder on low G worlds, on high G worlds you can go really fast in.

For examples I dug up one of my Colonia Trophy Dash runs in a Hauler. This race has a varied set of approaches to make it quite a challenge. Highly recommend spending some time racing this if you are ever out in Colonia.


Source: https://youtu.be/dTXgL-LDiNs
Source: https://giphy.com/gifs/baby-story-reading-8dYmJ6Buo3lYY
 
Hey ..this is how I thought it should pan out in my head..it is just a shame my hands and brain do not fully line up at times..thanks..I will practice this more.
 
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