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So I was crashing through Freedom's reach in my spiffy new Arrow, on my second attempt to get a qualifying time. Of course, I've completed this before, and while part of me is annoyed most of me is actually enjoying the challenge. It is a challenge, I am not ashamed to admit. I consider my flying skills, particularly in tiny fast ships, to be pretty good, but I'm not going to pretend that this is a breeze and I just roll it up on the first try.

On my way back to the trading station with a time that is TWO SECONDS too slow...two freaking seconds...it comes to me that this is one of very few things in the game that you just have to do. If you miss, you can reload and try again, or you can just try again, but you just have to keep trying again until you do it. Can't buy your way around it, get a bigger ship and blast your way around it, just really have to try and try again until you get it in the one and only way that there...

Then it hit me. Man, this would be a lot easier if I just mined all these asteroids and dragged them out of the way.

Hmm, in an actual race scenario wouldn't that just make it easier for your competitors too?

Does the X3:R bonus pack also include the turbo booster? If so that could be used to get ahead of the competitors. I also assume the Arrow has max tunings?

There are 2races in X one in X3R against other ships and one in AP against time, as the OP mentions two seconds it should be AP.

ubuntufreakdragon wrote:There are 2races in X one in X3R against other ships and one in AP against time, as the OP mentions two seconds it should be AP.

Yeah, it is AP. Just the time trial. It only took me three tries this time, so certainly not worth a bunch of mine dragging. It was just interesting to me that no sooner did I think "here is something that there really is only one way to do" than an option did occur to me.

The X-Universe really does always offer a choice. Sometimes an obscure and unnecessary choice, but still a choice.

I believe that the race accepts a slower time after two or three tries, so don't reload. I was reloading and just couldn't make it. Until I stopped reloading. I usually don't find anything useful for the Arrow to do.

And you're already moving too fast. Turbo wouldn't help you unless you knew you were on the final stretch.

I've heard 275 seconds as the time to beat, and can do it fairly handily once I get warmed up. My third try was in the low two fifties, so I can't say whether the limit changed or not. The arrow is ore than fast enough, but it is worth the cost to upgrade the steering.

Why tractor beam if you can missile?

… because you don't get a field of debris just where you wanted a cleared area.

The missile idea did cross my mind, but Alan is right that a debris field would be even worse than the 'roids.

I did have a concerned thought after though...what if, not knowing what was coming, someone built a gigantic complex in the sector and had it all cluttered up before they reached that point in the plot?

Then that would be a race at a pace of a turn-based strategy

radcapricorn wrote:Then that would be a race at a pace of a turn-based strategy

Actually, for the race mission that might not be bad. Just wait for all the competitors to crash and then pick your way through. In AP, for the time trial, it would make it really hard.

In AP the race is actually easy since the competitor usually rams into an asteroid. I found it useful to use the strafe to help with cornering by strafing into the turn and to start turning 100 me before the beacon. Otherwise use a boost extension for a good start and do not slow down.

DrSuperEvil wrote:In AP the race is actually easy since the competitor usually rams into an asteroid. I found it useful to use the strafe to help with cornering by strafing into the turn and to start turning 100 me before the beacon. Otherwise use a boost extension for a good start and do not slow down.

There's a race? The time trial is all I can remember ever doing in AP.

In the shady business plot during the time trial there is a competitor you need to beat but it is easy to not notice them.

DrSuperEvil wrote:In the shady business plot during the time trial there is a competitor you need to beat but it is easy to not notice them.

Wow. It must be easy, because I never have noticed them. I think I still have a save in range. I might have to go look for them.

What? No Turbo Booster? Shouldn't take too long.

Too many turns with asteroids for the turbo booster to be useful.

Yeah, top speed is definitely not a big factor. I find that if I don't upgrade the steering it's a whole lot harder, and it just occurred to me to wonder if the ship has a boost extension or not. If it doesn't that could help a little.

I'm thinking less of the top speed, and more of that tremendous linear acceleration. Turn, boost, brake, repeat.