Spilskinanke Phantom Challenge: The Fastest With The Slowest

[Lance]

.
i suppose the Australians are wondering why the challenge hasn't started already.

G'Kyl's recent challenge on PK was about lap time; but this one is about racetime.

the challenge is for both Time Trial and Single Race. for Single Race, as usual, all weapons and computer driven ships must be enabled.

please post all times in one post and edit to add the results of new runs. you can leave the times for all of your best runs; you don't need to delete the old ones if you don't want to. [comments during the course of the competition may be posted separately, of course, but keep your times together so we can follow them easily] if you wish to do it, post times for every lap of your best runs. this may increase the happiness of those of us who find fastest lap the most interesting part of competition, but the official winners of the two race modes will be the ones with the fastest overall times.

The Conditions:
game: 2097 or XL
track: Spilskinanke
class: Phantom
ship: Feisar
shortcuts: not allowed
[ why? 2097 has been adjudged by those who have raced both it and XL as being 'floatier' and therefore easier to do shortcuts with. in order to equalise the competition between the two versions, we will use the stick-to-tracks approach. apart from that float factor and possibly the braking-on-boostpads technique, which also favours 2097, the two versions of the game seem to be quite equal. so there will be no handicapping of the times.]
duration: starting from now and going through this weekend through next weekend. cutoff time for posting results will be midnight California time, which is GMT minus 8 hours, on Sunday, June 27.

any comments and questions about the conditions? did i neglect to mention something important?
.

[G'Kyl]

TIMES UPDATE

SATURDAY
TT: 2:33.3
SR: 2:52.9

SUNDAY
TT: 2:31.9
TT: 2.31.1
TT: 2:28.8
TT: 2:27.8 (30.7 29.6 29.1 29.2 29.2)
SR :2:42.6
SR: 2:42.1

WEDNESDAY
TT: 2:27.7
TT: 2:27.2 (30.6, 29.2, 29.1, 29.0, 29.3)
SR: 2:41.9


Current FLs are TT 0:28.8 and SR 0:29.6.


I knew I would become aware of my telepathic skills one of these days. I was just thinking 'This must be about the time Lance will have put up his challenge' just before I hit the "Reload" button on my browser. ;-)

Well, I'm up for it and will update my times in this post. Will start running as soon as I find the time. And I am anxious to see how a Feisar flies... :)

Ben

EDIT: The Feisar is a funny ship. Feels like Piranha light. ;) Actually, this is the first time I touched a craft other than the Qirex and also the first time I did Single Race in order to fly fast race/lap times. I really should have done this before, it adds more color to the WO experience. :)

[yuusen]

—
¥ TIME SHEET
19/06/04
TT = 2:59.8 [ 34.6 | 32.5 | 35.1 | 35.0 | 42.6 ]
TT = 2:56.6 [ 32.3 | 36.8 | 34.2 | 33.3 | 40.0 ]
—
¥

[Task]

Might I reiterate that this is my _least_ favourite track?
Euch, all these broken-up sections...

Well, it's still a challenge. 8 )

My very first attempt at Time Trial yielded a record. Which goes to show you how often I race this track.

Anyway, a couple first attempts has yielded about 3:10 in each division.
Race: 3:09.8
TT: 3:10.1

Now the hilarious part is that this was good enough to give me 5th and 3rd place in the tables! Just behind Lance both times.

The other thing that this has given me is the knowledge that at least 2:30 shouldn't be too difficult to attain. And I'm not sure if I'll even make it there. Yet I shall try!

[Lance]

.
Friday
TT - 2:44.3 [33.5 - 31.9 - 32.3 - 33.2 - 33.4]
TT - 2:42.3 [32.7 - 33.0 - 32.0 - 31.2 - 33.4]
TT - 2:41.5 [31.9 - 31.9 - 33.3 - 32.9 - 31.5]
SR - 2:56.0 [34.6 - 36.3 - 35.2 - 36.1 - 33.8]
SR - 2:51.5 [FL - 33.1 in this race]

Saturday
TT - 2:40.6 [32.2 - 30.7 - 31.2 - 33.1 - 32.2]
TT - 2:37.7 [31.2 - 32.0 - 30.0 - 31.5 - 33.0]
TT - 2:32.1 [30.9 - 30.3 - 29.8 - 30.8 - 30.3]
SR - 2:47.6 [32.8 - 35.6 - 32.0 - 34.6 - 32.6]
SR - 2:45.4 [34.5 - 33.1 - 31.4 - 35.0 - 31.4]
SR - 2:42.7 [32.8 - 30.6 - 35.2 - 32.4 - 31.7]

second Saturday
TT - 2:28.9 [30.6 - 29.6 - 29.9 - 29.4 - 29.4]
.

[Wiseman]

Might I reiterate that this is my _least_ favourite track?
Euch, all these broken-up sections... Ahh, but all those broken up sections are what helps make the track so great! :D Heh, you must really detest ManorTop then, as it's the most broken-up track in Wipeout history.

Anyway, this challenge sounds interesting. I'll have to give it a go, if I get a chance to. Racing a Feisar on Porta Kora was weird enough as it is; racing it on Spilskinanke should be very weird indeed...

First attempt:

TT - 2:38.2 [30.8]

[G'Kyl]

Just a short question: Does brake tapping work with non-Piranha crafts? I figured it helps little if anything at all when on Qirex, but what about Feisar and others?
I can't play at the moment, so I thought why not ask the experts. :)

By the way, I believe a race time of 2:2x.x is well possible in this challenge.
Which makes me wonder when we'll see Assayeah add his first records... ;)

Ben

[Asayyeah]

Hi everyone's, i will start this afternoon this great challenge organized by Lance ( btw it seems you are actually the leader :wink: )
Before starting it , my old SR times with Feisar in Spil ( with weapons) was 2.35.8 and 29.0 done at least 4 or 5 years ago.
Ive understood for that challenge no shorcuts are allowed ( stick to the track way of racing to equalize the chance for everyones) and enable weapons and ships in SR.
Good i will post post my first attempt in few minutes...

EDIT136.5 / 34.4 / 32.1 / 34.3 / 31.2 ... 2.48.5 SR
32.9 / 29.1 / 30.8 / 31.0 / 29.0 2.32.8 TT

In TT i use the turbo weapon each time at the end of the track just before the last fracture of the track ( i didn't cross the wall )
In response to G'Kyl question about brakking technique, it seems it works again but the benefit is thin

EDIT2 about TT ( the first four lap : PL, i hit a wall during lap5)
30.5 / 29.0 / 28.7 / 29.2 / 30.6....2.28.0

to G'Kyl if you are talking about my SR time i only do 2 PL in that first attempt : lap 3 and 5 but it was only my first attempt let's see that in few moments ( it will be hard to avoid all the missiles from the ships and 5PL will be hard to acheive but my aim is 'killing ' my old score, now ...( i am 13 sec more actually with 2.48.5) ( sorry G'Kyl i just understanding now your question about lap 1 in TT and yes it was a big mistake , i hit the wall one big time for my lap1 32.9, sorry not understood that before :oops: )

quite interresting...ive done a race in TT without using any turbo to see ...result 1.32.1 ( 31.2 / 30.1 / 30.4 / 30.3 / 30.1)

TT : 2.25.0 :29.7 / 28.5 / 29.3 / 28.6 / 28.9
SR : 2.47.6 : 34.1 / 30.7 / 33.6 / 32.8 / 36.4
SR : 2.44.8 : 31.0 / 30.1 / 36.4 / 35.9 / 31.4
SR : 2.44.2 : 31.8 / 30.1 / 33.8 / 32.7 / 35.8 + 1 contender elimitated ( plasma bolt) 8)
SR : 2.38.4 : 32.8 / 31.0 / 31.2 / 33.0 / 30.4
SR : 2.36.6 : 31.1 / 32.0 / 30.2 / 32.9 / 30.4
End of challenge is close....
TT : 2.24.8 : 29.9 / 28.7 / 28.8 / 28.7 / 28.7
TT : 2.24.2 : 30.2 / 28.7 / 28.5 / 28.4 / 28.4
SR :2.34.9 : 30.9 / 29.2 / 31.1 / 33.0 / 30.7
TT : 2.23.8 : 29.8 / 28.3 / 28.7 / 28.2 / 28.8
SR : 2.32.5 : 29.4 / 30.8 / 29.4 / 30.6 / 32.3 ( At least 5 turbo weapons ... but hit bottoms of few ships ... with 5 PL and at least 5 turbo it could be possible to be under 1.30.0 )
SR : 2.27.7 : 29.6 / 28.8 / 29.2 / 29.3 / 30.8

[G'Kyl]

Great! Five tenth of a second. This ruined my day. How am I gonna enjoy the party I'll be going to after work?! ;-)

Arnaud, did you do 5 PLs or was there a mistake in lap 1?

EDIT: Yep, the turbo doesn't do as much as on other tracks. Also, Spils is one of the tracks where the two-turbos-a-race-technique can be used to only little advantage. So unfortuanate! *g*
2:28.0, kewl. Now I feel bad. ;)

[Lance]

.
[Looks at Arnaud's times.] *gulp*
well...
it's always good to have a goal....

adding up my best laptimes in TT so far, it comes to 2:36.5
oh, my. even perfect me would still leave so far to go

but i'll keep trying :)
.

[Asayyeah]

ive filmed by my digital camera 70 sec ( the maxi allowed by it) from the end of my record ( lap3's end, lap4 & lap 5), and sent it to Steven through Msn Messenger.
Mano was the second to have it...( Sunday 1 am GMT ) :wink:

In a close future , i will create my own site for free with 100 Mb of storage ( so that i will be able to put many videos each week on it ), ive already downloaded Dreamweaver & cute ftp but it seems it is not really easy to understand how to do it correctly ( especially cute ftp), but i will succeed ... :roll: .... one thing i am totally a newbee :lol: :lol:

edit Thanks both of you 2 for advices i will see that next week ( 1 hour per day after job, i hope next week-end it will be open for everyone)

[Lance]

.
cuteFTP used to be spyware back when i looked at it a couple of years ago. you might want to check to see if it still is

please post all your times in the same post. just keep editing
.

[yuusen]

—
check if your version of dreamweaver has built in ftp to save you a lot of hassle. if it is an mx version, it will have it.
—
¥

[Asayyeah]

:wink:

[stin]

Lance that is helliva great scores :o :o

My scores are down at the moment;

TT 3,19.5

LT 36.7

EDIT TT = 2:46.4 and lap time= 31.7
SR 2,58.2

LP 32.9


But I will keep going and not for long due very important on golf which I must practice for my championship!

stin :)

PS Arnauld: :o nobody can compete with you in any game!!!

[Lance]

.
thanks, stin :)
btw, how do you find XL compared to 2097? differences?

[looks at all the scores] eek! yesterday i was ahead of G'Kyl's TT, though not Arnaud's, and was ahead of Arnaud's SR time. i see that they have been busy. those dang Europeans and their sneaky early time zones! i shall have to get busy when once i am truly awake again. fie on thee, foul demons!
[great work guys! :)]
.

[G'Kyl]

Yeah, and while us sneasky Europeans will already be asleep next Sunday, dreaming of our pretty positions in the tables, you will still be racing until 12pm PST...! ;) By the way: When the heck do you get up?!? ;-))
Let me say that I sincerely enjoy this challenge, Lance. Great choice of track, class and ship!

[Lance]

.
today i got up at 12:30. typical lately. 1230 to 1430 is pretty common. i stay up on the internet doing things till about 4 or 5 or 6 in the morning. last night i quit racing early and watched a movie on tv and watched more tv after that while looking at data on old firearms. i love the american small arms stuff from about 1860 to 1895. firearms in general is an interesting technical subject. the engineering design aspect of technology is my main pursuit, my main interest in life, though there are a zillion other things i'm interested in. but i digress. as usual
.

[G'Kyl]

Which I have no problem with. :) Personally, I never understood what fascinates people in old technology, especially weaponry. I always got hooked on the "designer stuff" in SciFi media. Hence, for insignificant amount, my interest in the genre of futuristic racing games and Wipeout in particular. ;)
As for when we play, I prefer to go to bed early so I can get up early. Unfortuanately, my level of concentration starts decreasing rapidly after 12pm.

[Lance]

.
i usually don't have any concentration till about 16:00 or 17:00. this makes the accomplishment of everyday practical things more problematic. not to mention that i detest everyday practical things.

i think part of the appeal of old technology is its simplicity relative to our current level. and there is always a temptation and possibility to redesign old things in the light of what we know now, but which could have been accomplished with the tools and materials they had then.

i began reading science-fiction long ago, partly for escapism from the dullness of ordinary life, but also my love of technology was already manifesting itself, and the sense of possibility, of new design, was intoxicating.

but we are getting into things that have only indirect, though consequential, contact with the Spilkinanke Phantom Challenge: The Fastest With The Slowest
.

[stin]

.
thanks, stin :)
btw, how do you find XL compared to 2097? differences?


.

What I think is a slightly a difference cos the ships are slighty floatier and more heavy than normal but slightly faster as well that is why I was a little difficult to navigate but I`m adapt it.

stin :D

PS I`m hopefully to win a bid from ebay with real XL also hopefully Wipeout 3 as well.

[Lance]

.
? the XL ships are floatier?
.

[stin]

.
? the XL ships are floatier?
.

Yes XL`s ships are floatier, heavy and faster but not much compared to 2097!

stin :oops:

[G'Kyl]

I second Lance's reaction. It was mostly said 2097 were floatier, not the other way around. :)

I'd really like to lay my hands on the NTSC versions of all three, or four for that matter, games, but I don't wanna mod my Playstation. :|

[zargz]

buy a 2nd hand psx and mode it! they r cheap nowadays 8)

[Task]

Yeah, what's wrong with modding your PSX? I modded mine myself, most fun I had that week. And I'm _still_ enjoying the fruits of my labours! If I hadn't modded it, I'd never be able to play my Japanese import Carnage Heart:EZ.

It's not difficult, or expensive. I can't think of anything that has a higher $/fun ratio.

Maybe you're afraid of the Mod Gnomes taking control of your PSX and melting it into scrag?

There are no Mod Gnomes.

[G'Kyl]

Yeeeea, I know. :) Getting NTSC-games might be a little more difficult and expensive, though, which is why I'm still hestitating...

[zargz]

it's worth it just 2get the ntsc wipEouts man!
i'm sure some friendly wip3r soul overseas can get them cheap for u! :D

[stin]

Yeah now I have two original playstation one consoles, one is chipped and the other is not :wink: which they save me alot of hassle!

Now I just had won a bid for XL from USA and it`s coming to me soon! :D

stin :D

[Mano]

Ok guys lets add fire to the challenge!!:

TT: 29.3/28.4/28.0/28.7/28.4 = 2:22.8 (fastest lap= 28.0)
SR:30.1/29.1/30.7/31.4/31.9 2:33.2 (fastest lap=28.8)

pushed the button when watching my SR times so i didnt took note of my laptimes :oops: , i do recall doing less than 30 on the first lap (prolly 29.9) and around 29.6 on my second lap, the rest i totally forgot (all them were over 30).

Arnaud: you were right about SR not being faster than TT in this conditions, i totally concurr after playing SR in this terms, it seems the only ship capable of beating its TT time in SR is Piranha, because theres no turbos, and also the speed and acceleration makes a big difference in the first lap, unlike Feisar. but even when improbable, never say never :)

[yuusen]

—
2:24?!?! good grief! :o
—
¥

[Mano]

Lance, one question about rules in the challenge: the airbrake tapping technique is allowed, right?

[G'Kyl]

Yep, I'm positive it is, since Arnaud was talking about using it earlier in this thread and no objections were to be heard. :) Or at least as far as I can rememeber. Why, do your times get even better when using the technique? *shivers* ;)

[Lance]

.
Arnaud says that it works in 2097, but that it is of little benefit. i made no objection to its use, though possibly i should, but i'm not going to
.

[G'Kyl]

It's allowed in your challenge, though, isn't it? ... just checking to be sure. :)

I was very reluctant to use the air-tapping thing, too. But then I tried it on some pads were I felt I could handle the extra stress. ;) After a while I learned how to do it and it works fine! You should certainly give it a try.

[Asayyeah]

To be honest when i ve found that technique i was telling me if i was right or not to do that, but it's a complete part of the way i race , i use every time the airbrakes in tapping onto them as quick as possible, not in order to slow down but only because of the differents lines i get ; i use those airbrakes in a manner to control with my more precision the fault ive done on the track ...so it's just by totall accident i ve noticed that you go higher speed in touching airbrakes on blue pads.

i probably can racing without tapping airbrakes even in phantom race...but what will be the benefit....to have less speed . My aim for racing is finding all the regular process to be as fast as i can. :wink:

Btw i will try to catch those dawn good times from Buddy Mano, i will have the end of this afternoon and the entire night to do that...

I ve found a trick to perform a bit higher...i alternate between Race time with feisar and race time with pirahna ( 30 min with pirahna and 1 hour after with feisar...)

[Lance]

.
don't forget to enter your times by midnight California time tonight. that's GMT minus 8 hours. i''ll be checking the everyone's time for the rankings then. good luck and good skill to everyone. i know i'm going to need a miracle to close in on the frontrunners
.

[stin]

So it`s still on then for UK times Lance?

stin :)

PS My apoligies cos I just played Phenita Park for nearly two hours so I will play Spil the now!.

[Lance]

.
yes, you have till 8 am British Summer Time. i forgot about Cali being on DST, so actually it's only minus 7 hours GMT, so in the UK closing time for the challenge will be 0700 GMT
.

[Mano]

lol the fastest laptime i entered for SR should read 28.8, but with the ) it made a smiley, sorry about that, i didnt edit it again because it would cause confusion about at what time i entered the post.

Arnaud, excelent SR time man, i cant tell how many times i have cursed the enemy ships and weapons on SR, but its a thrill to be maneuvering and attacking like this. With piranha, opponents weapons mean nothing, here its a different story.

Lance: great challenge, i had a lot of fun, good race to everyone :D!!

[Lance]

.
SR
Arnaud - 2.27.7
Mano - 2:33.2
Ben - 2:41.9
Lance - 2:42.7
stin - 2:58.2
Jay - 3:09.8


TT
Mano - 2:22.8
Arnaud - 2.23.8
Ben - 2:27.2
Lance - 2:28.9
George - 2:38.2
stin - 2:46.4
yuusen - 2:56.6
Jay - 3:10.1
.

[Lance]

.
some truly stunning times from Arnaud and Mano.
congratulations to each of you for having a winning time!

it seems clear that not all of us kept at it after getting some initial times ;)
of those who did, i finished last. [i consoled myself by setting 16 new records on Sagarmatha and Phenitia Park after Stin told me he beat my old record times on PP TT Vector. why couldn't i have put that much time today into the challenge? damned if i know; it just seemed i was beating my head against the wall so i stopped. :D ]

TT competition was was pretty tight with two groups of two close competitors.
bigger spread in SR, though. Ben and i had close times, but A and M were far ahead of us, and a big spread between them as well.

i thought the Feisar was pretty fun to pilot in Phantom class; finally we had a place in this challenge to drive the most classic looking ship of all and have it be fast enough to be fun and to provide a real test in the perfecting of skill.

[G'Kyl]

Yep, this was a great challenge! I also wish more people would have stayed at it as long as it lasted. :) I'm sure with two or four more pilots concentrating fully on the challenge we would have seen an even closer outcome. Anyway, this was fun and I wanna do something similar soon again! :-) Thanks for the contest, Lance.

[yuusen]

—
yes, well done to arnaud and mano. im afraid i bottled out when my ps2 came through the post last week and demanded all of my gaming attention. (off topic game recommendation – prince of persia : the sands of time)
—
¥

[Mano]

This was a really great choice of class, track and ship for a challenge, i think this may be the greatest fun i´ve had at SR in XL, handling and attacking are very intertwined, and making preemptive attacks mean so much in order to keep the speed.

Congrats to everyone!

[Lance]

.
i'm glad you liked it so much. it just struck me when i was flying Spilskinanke for the first time, trying to learn to get around it at all, that Feisar, the novice's friend, was a lot of fun on this track. it's good that the classic machine is fast enough on this circuit to make things interesting. even on TT, i had fun, although it's true that i am not the best at the really high speeds, so it probably seems faster to me than to the really hot pilots, who know who they are. and on SR, those dAMNed AI ships keep things hot
.

[Asayyeah]

Thanks everyone
I was having great fun with feisar, even it's a bit slow sometime's without any turbo weapons ( in SR sometime's you spent all the 5 laps with no turbo and the next race you get 7: the big lotery in SR :) )
So many thanks to Lance for having organised this such interesting challenge, and also for all my fellow contenders :wink: