At Lavecon this past weekend, Buckyball Racing Club was pleased to welcome participants to the second annual Lavecon Buckyball Race. We ended the weekend with some 27 competitors over the two days (a few of whom managed to fit in two attempts, though we were prioritising those who had not already had a go). If anybody would like to try their own hand at the race, details are below.
Congratulations to commanders Alex Brentnall, Purrcat and Archon Fury who took the top three places (and the prizes - two presented on the day, the third will be in the post), and a big thank you to all who took part.
Race details
The race was run over a short course involving two dockings and a neutron star. Competitors were required to fly in a specific unengineered Eagle we provided. A variety of control options were available (Thrustmaster HOTAS, Xbox controller, keyboard and mouse, or combination of the above), but we did require competitors to stick to default control bindings only.
The course
- Start at Hoshide Dock in Adivarakhe (the clock started on launch from Hoshide Dock)
- Fly to Jackson's Lighthouse, and get a frame shift drive supercharge from the neutron star there
- Jump to HIP 27371, and dock at Crown Terminal
- Continue to Vernadsky Station in Akuariks; the finish line is upon docking at Vernadsky Station
This actually only requires three bookmarks (at Hoshide Dock, Crown Terminal and Vernadsky Station) - plotting a route from the start to Crown Terminal using the "fastest route" and "use neutron boost" options in the galaxy map will automatically plot via Jackson's Lighthouse.
The ship used was an un-engineered Eagle mkII with the following outfitting:
- 2A power plant
- 3A thrusters
- 3A frame shift drive
- 1D life support
- 2A power distributor
- 2D sensors
- 3A shields
- 2A fuel scoops
- all other internal module slots, as well as all hardpoints and utility mounts, empty
Competitors were limited to the default control schemes for each of the control options (Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS, Control Pad With Yaw, or Keyboard And Mouse), except that we had also bound the following controls, that are not in the default control schemes, to keys on the keyboard:
Thrust Left: Num 4 **
Thrust Right: Num 6 **
Thrust Up: Num 9 **
Thrust Down: Num 3 **
Thrust Forward: Num 8
Thrust Forward: Num 2
Supercruise: K
Target Next System In Route: O
Open Galaxy Map: M
Open System Map: ,
** for thrust left/right/up/down, these were in addition to the default bindings (Q, E, R and F on most control schemes)
Thrust Left: Num 4 **
Thrust Right: Num 6 **
Thrust Up: Num 9 **
Thrust Down: Num 3 **
Thrust Forward: Num 8
Thrust Forward: Num 2
Supercruise: K
Target Next System In Route: O
Open Galaxy Map: M
Open System Map: ,
** for thrust left/right/up/down, these were in addition to the default bindings (Q, E, R and F on most control schemes)
