> Kaum noch Reisen auf den Gleisen: Der Warnstreik bei der Deutschen Bahn sorgt für starke Beeinträchtigungen im Schienenverkehr. Von Zugfahrten rät die DB trotz des Notfallplans ab. Wo es jetzt zu welchen Ausfällen kommt.

Lieber SPIEGEL, das geht doch besser:

Kaum noch Reisen auf den Gleisen.

Deutsche Bahn und Warnstreik, das sorgt für Leere auf dem Bahnsteig.

Starke Beeinträchtigungen im Schienenverkehr, die Arbeiter wollen des Geldes mehr.

Liebe Leut, trotz des Notfallplans: Verzichtet auf das Zugfahr'n ganz.

Wie es um die Ausfälle steht, darum es im Artikel geht.

Herzlichst, Ihr FJW

So here are my win statistics in F-Zero 99. The vast majority is with the Blue Falcon (the other cars should contribute less than 10 wins together).

Knight League Tracks

| Track | Races | Wins | Win % | |--------------|---------|--------|---------| | Mute City I | 307 | 14 | 4.6 % | | Big Blue | 245 | 11 | 4.5 % | | Sand Ocean | 149 | 18 | 12.1 % | | Death Wind I | 137 | 15 | 10.9 % | | Silence | 43 | 7 | 16.3 % | |--------------|---------|--------|---------| | Total | 881 | 65 | 7.4 % |

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Queen League Tracks

| Track | Races | Wins | Win % | |---------------|---------|--------|---------| | Mute City II | 68 | 4 | 5.9 % | | Port Town I | 45 | 4 | 8.9 % | | Red Canyon I | 62 | 9 | 14.5 % | | White Land I | 211 | 27 | 12.8 % | | White Land II | 15 | 4 | 26.7 % | |---------------|---------|--------|---------| | Total | 401 | 48 | 12.0 % |

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King League Tracks

| Track | Races | Wins | Win % | |---------------|---------|--------|---------| | Mute City III | 0 | 0 | 0 % | | Death Wind II | 70 | 3 | 4.3 % | | Port Town II | 209 | 22 | 10.5 % | | Red Canyon II | 0 | 0 | 0 % | | Fire Field | 0 | 0 | 0 % | |---------------|---------|--------|---------| | Total | 279 | 25 | 9.0 % |

---

All Tracks

| ... | Races | Wins | Win % | Crashes | Crash % | Win % Finished | |-------|---------|--------|---------|-----------|-----------|------------------| | Total | 1561 | 138 | 8.8 % | 261 | 16.7 | 10.6 % |

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Prix Results

| Prix | Entries | Wins | Win % | |---------------|-----------|--------|---------| | Mini Prix | 102 | 10 | 9.8 % | | Knight League | 78 | 4 | 5.1 % | | Queen League | 27 | 7 | 25.9 % | | King League | 0 | 0 | 0 % | |---------------|-----------|--------|---------| | Total | 207 | 21 | 10.1 % |

---

So, as it can be seen, the Blue Falcon is a late bloomer in the Knight and Queen League. That's kinda an advantage, since you can simply give up after the first race if you get a bad result. For reasons of self-torture, I keep on playing even if I get a bad first race. I once won the Knight League after I finished 36th in Mute City I.

As time progresses, the competition becomes more brutal, now you have multiple 99+ win racers in every race, though I still see the random win by a level 17 player. Given how hard it is for me to get a win (I have roughly a 9% win chance every race) I cannot imagine how hard it is for a low level player to get at least one win. I am now seeing S2 and S3 players with just 2 race wins.

One question I'm asking myself is whether the track balancing is intended this way, that some tracks are extremely difficult to win for the Blue Falcon (namely the easy tracks) and the technical tracks are easier wins. The outlier in my case is Death Wind II, which is a technical track, but it kind of is the "Mute City of Pro Tracks". I need to change my strategy in the case of DW2 because I can hit all boost pads without problem in practice. But a DW2 race is something different.

Which makes me worry about the upcoming King League, since Mute City III will be Mute City I after the first lap. Well, even worse, there is no jump pad in MC3, so I expect my win chances to be even lower than MC1.

--- So how is everyone enjoying the new tracks? Have people given up because of the competition?

This guide will be mostly about the Blue Falcon, but some tips might apply to your favorite ship.

As I've written before, I'm a Blue Falcon main and I've seen a lot of comments that the Falcon is the weakest ship. I disagree with this, but the truth is that the Falcon is probably the most difficult ship to master.

And I found the biggest threats to a win are:

• bad energy management
• red bumpers
• those blue fuckers

I have lost the most wins to red bumpers and there's a simple reason: You want to push the last lap like crazy and you really need to avoid those driving bombs. Then those blue motherfuckers have become really skilled and it takes only one lucky attack to bring you out of rhythm and let others catch up.

But let's start with the "basics": Assuming you are somewhat proficient and you really want to use the Falcon as your main, you will have to learn the tracks three times (in Practice mode):

• drive the tracks completely without boost (except at the start)
• drive optimal total time (all 4 laps)
• optimal hot lap (maximum boost through the lap)

Start training without the boost. Drive the laps perfectly clean, meaning without touching the barriers. Then learn how to take the turns as tight as possible without touching.

If you're able to consistently drive clean laps, identify the part of the tracks where your speed is slowest. In the case of Mute City this would be the last turn before the main straight. That's one obvious boost point. And then start experimenting what parts of the tracks are good boost points. The best track to learn to use your Falcon optimally is Port Town II because it requires all kinds of driving techniques and it requires boosting through long curves.

As a rough guideline, these are my times with the Blue Falcon on Port Town II:

|Lap|with boost|without boost| |---|----------|-------------| |1. | 32.16 | 34.03^ | |2. | 32.00 | 33.76 | |3. | 32.90 | 34.05 | |4. | 32.46 | 33.98 | |---|----------|-------------| |Tot| 02:09:52 | 02:15.82 |

^: one boost directly at start

What should be said: These times are not record pace, these times are clean laps for preserving energy, meaning they are close to what I drive in an actual race.

So your first objective is to beat my "without boost" time by using boosts (I think the time needed for the pilot card's background is 02:12.00). Your second objective is to beat the 32.90 single lap time. Your third objective is to get consistent and deliver clean laps all the time.

Also one more thing: Port Town II has a lot of curves/turns. Are they though? There are many curvy parts where you can simply drive in a straight line.

---

Strategy

A few guidelines:

• keep your energy meter as high as possible: if you are close to the leaders and you can keep up without boosting: Don't boost. Use your boost if you're in danger of falling into the pack
• if you're inside the pack: Boost out of it. The thought process is very easy: If you stay in the pack, you will lose your energy anyway, so try to get ahead of the pack.
• stay close to the leaders, stay just ahead of the pack: The pack will push you and give you speed boosts without you doing anything. Use your spin attack "backwards": if you see a check mark closing in on you, use your spin attack to push them back while you get a small boost.
• DO NOT SMOKE: if you start smoking the Geese will attack you. They won't KO you, but the energy from the attack damage will be missing when you recharge.
• if you have almost full energy and you're about to collect sparks for the skyway: Boost before you get all sparks. Especially if you are close to the pitlane! If you are recharging and your energy meter is full you are wasting energy which could be used to boost.
• optimal for the last lap: full energy and skyway available. Use the skyway ASAP (ASAP because if you wait too long you won't be able to use your full energy and the leaders will be too far) and after the skyway start boosting like crazy and dodge the red bumpers
• bait the blue fuckers: Drive in a certain direction to bait the lucky bumpers and change direction before passing. Use an emergency boost if you really need to pass the blue bumper.

I strongly advice you to use Team Battle for practicing the following things:

• going for KOs of opportunity; drop back in the race and lookout for smoking/blinking enemies and take them out
• "protect the leader": get behind the leader and protect them from the other team. This means looking on the minimap and looking for "check"-marks and using your spin attack in defense. Also boost and attack if someone from the other team tries to attack the leader. Also let your homies pass if they're faster.
• as already mentioned: Practice using spin attack on the cars behind you which will make you faster and them slower.
• Foxhunting: Especially on Mute City 1. If you see Foxes running away, chase them. The Falcon is faster and will catch in the pitlane. You might get lucky with a kill.
• all bumpers are human controlled: Practice avoiding them

I don't know about other high level players, but I don't try to win in Team Battle unless the other team is leading. And since you're getting expanded energy when your team KOs someone, there's a good chance that you could get your first win in Team Battle.

---

The Psychological Component

I found that being in 1st place in FZero99 creates more adrenaline than being in a real-life Gokart race.

Let's imagine the following scenario: You are level 21/A-, you have won the first race in a Mini Prix, you got second place in the second race (which I have won). You go into the third race with a 14 points lead, all you have to do is to finish the race. You are in a Blue Falcon and you have one of the fastest guys on White Land 1 behind you. Just so you understand: The leader and I were 4 seconds ahead of 3rd place. White Land 1 is my track and I should win every 3rd race, but I constantly choke because of red and blue bumpers.

So the leader is blazingly fast and about one second ahead of me. I go in to the last lap with full energy and I do a single boost at the start of the lap. This is enough to break the poor guy. He starts panic boosting through the lap and I think he was 2 seconds ahead of me. All he had to do was to slow down and drive over the finish line. Imagine being 2 seconds ahead of 2nd place and 6 second ahead of 3rd place! He crashed into a red bumper just before the finish line. He lost the Mini Prix. I didn't win the Prix. I wasn't even his rival.

So, there are three lessons from this story:

• know who your threat is. In the last race, your rivals are the threat.
• slow down in the last lap if you can afford it point wise. the bumpers are your biggest threat
• the leader doesn't know about the energy status of those behind. 2nd place can do a strategic boost where the leader will see someone closing in on the minimap. This will put the leader under pressure because the leader doesn't know if they've got expanded energy because of KOs

---

Mute City I

So in my last article I mentioned that the Blue Falcon is shit at Mute City 1. I retract that statement, it's actually possible to regularly get a top 10-finish in the BF. But it is really damn hard to get good.

Here's a table with my practice time on Mute City 1. Again, these are super clean laps meant for a race. The most important turns for the Falcon is the turn before the jump pad and the last corner before the main straight. You can lose so much time in the last corner if you don't get it right along with the boost.

| Lap | Blue Falcon | Golden Fox | Wild Goose | Fire Stingray | |-----|-------------|------------|------------|---------------| | 1. | 25.76 | 25.98 | 25.76 | 25.85 | | 2. | 26.28 | 26.00 | 26.23 | 25.71 | | 3. | 25.78 | 25.88 | 26.23 | 25.73 | | 4. | 25.83 | 25.70 | 25.83 | 26.08 | |-----|-------------|------------|------------|---------------| |Total| 1:43.65 | 1:43.56 | 1:44.05 | 1:43.37 |

One thing I should add: The times for the Fox, Goose and Stingray are after about 5 tries. I needed 30 attempts for the Falcon to get this close to my Golden Fox time.

And something weird has happened: It turns out that my worst track is Big Blue where I only win 4% of my races, while I win 5% on Mute City I.

---

If anyone wants, feel free to post videos from your practice and race runs and I'll give advice on strategy and driving technique.

So this is a short analysis of the tracks and cars in F-Zero 99, especially under the impression of the original game.

Regarding the original game: I finished the game in master mode with all cars (with the notable exception that is Death Wind I and the Golden Fox; all I can say is, that it is humanly possible to beat Knight League with the Golden Fox, but I didn't). As for 99, I now have 30 race wins, multiple Grand Prix and Mini Prix, and I'm currently S tier/level 42. I'm a Blue Falcon-driver, but I won a race with every car, and a few races with the Golden Fox.

Now that I tested everything I have to say that it seems that the cars handle the same way as in the original game (with an exception) and the Fire Stingray has not been nerfed. The relative performance between the cars seems to be the same as in the original (aside from power management). I now understand that they balanced the cars with the boost and recharging, so the Golden Fox stands a chance on long straights.

First, let's talk about the tracks: I have the impression that they are virtually identical except where narrow passages have been widened (Death Wind I and Port Town II). I think Death Wind I is wider overall, making it much much easier than in the original game. In the old game I struggle with avoiding a single bumper, in 99 it's pretty easy to avoid two bumpers driving side by side. The boost arrows in Death Wind I have a bigger trigger radius, where in the original you had to touch them perfectly.

One hint that the tracks are almost identical is the monster jump in White Land I: You want to take the last jump platform as far left as possible and turn to the left and skip a huge part of the track. Not only is this possible, the game seems to be more forgiving: When you land on the barrier, the new game will put you onto the track (there are cases in the old game where it looks like you made the jump but you crash out: for example Red Canyon's jump arrow).

So let's talk about the cars. Although I prefer the Blue Falcon, I think the Golden Fox is the best car in the game. I also thing that the Fire Stingray is the worst car and I think I can explain why. It has not been nerfed, it's just a victim of the game's mechanics and the players' behaviour.

So if I had to rank the cars:

1. Golden Fox
2. Wild Goose and Blue Falcon
3. Fire Stingray

The Golden Fox is absolutely not beginner friendly, but it's extremely powerful in the hands of an expert driver. The Wild Goose is more beginner friendly because of Mute City I. Blue Falcon is utter shit at Mute City. I think that overall the Blue Falcon has a slight advantage over the Wild Goose, but it requires a higher skill to exploit it.

--- Fire Stingray

Let's get this out of the way. The Stingray was the king of the original game. It accelerates very slowly, but once it is going, it will obliterate every other car. You wanted a lap record? You used the Stingray.

So, in 99, how do you defeat the Stingray?

You touch it.

That's it, all you have to do to defeat a Stingray driver is simply touch them. The reason is that the Stingray is actually two different cars. The Stingray's top speed is 478 km/h, and once you reach the top speed, it starts to understeer massively. So below 478: The Stingray can take every corner on throttle. At 478 the Stingray will drive into the wall.

There's a nuance though: If you're at 478, you still can take sharp corners at full speed by turning and using L/R. This needs lots and lots of practice and you need to drive a perfect line. But if you do put in the practice, no car will be able to keep up with you, even with boost.

Let's look at a brawl: In the Stingray, when you're in a brawl, there will be cars driving into you from behind and you will accelerate to 478. But at the same time you will bump into someone else, will slow you down to below 478. I hope you see the problem. When there is a sharp corner coming up you don't know if you will understeer because you're at 478, or if you will become unstable when turning while using L/R.

So you have to go off-throttle and lose speed. And you are shit at accelerating. Which means you cannot exploit the superior cornering ability while retaining high speed.

I have honestly no advice on optimal strategy in the Fire Stingray. The only thing I can think of: You need perfect sky lane-strategy. Skip the pack on the sky lane, and try to find clean air and avoid opponents.

--- Golden Fox

The reason why the Fox is beginner unfriendly is its instability when turning on-throttle. When you turn and you stay on throttle it will start to lose speed. Then it will start to swerve out of control. So you need to learn pulsing your throttle, especially in long corners (like the long left-hander in Sand Ocean or the S-curves in Port Town). In sharp corners the Fox is basically "turn as sharp as possible, straighten out and commit to driving in straight line." You know the slip surface in White Land I? Driving the Fox is like having the slip surface at all times.

So, let's talk about driving strategy. The Fox accelerates the best. You win the race at the start, you lose the race once you're in the pack. The Fox has the lowest top speed and in case you're wondering how Nintendo balanced this weakness: Power Management. The Fox recharges rapidly in the pit lane. And I mean really really fast. And you're lucky, because straights are the weakness of the Fox, but usually there is a pit lane on the longest straight.

So your strategy is: Boost into the pit lane, let it charge until it is almost full, then boost out of the pit lane. Yes, you won't have full energy after leaving the pit lane, but if your power is full and you are still in the pit lane it's wasted energy and it's more time on the straight where everyone will catch up to you.

And you want to use your energy for boosts. This means don't touch the barrier, don't touch other cars, and don't drive into the red bumpers. Every energy lost to a collision is energy missing for a boost. The most important thing in your race: You drive into the pit lane and you recharge the full strip. You need to drive the full pit lane. This means you need to defend against being pushed out the pitlane or even being denied entry into the pit lane.

Also: jump pads are your friend. A jump accelerates you to 478 km/h, meaning you are faster while in air. Stay longer in the air by moving the stick down (boosts are useless while in air).

--- Wild Goose

When I was young and played F-Zero for the first time, this was my favorite car because of its armor. I could drive into walls and ping-pong around and I would still survive. Also it is relatively stable while turning on throttle. It will lose speed though in longer corners, so you also need to learn pulsing.

But it's really a solid choice and it's great for Mute City. It's very similar to the Blue Falcon (which is the actual beginner's car, but the brawl in the pack changes that) and if I had to give the Falcon and the Goose names, then it would be "Drunken Brawler" for the Goose, while "Bastard Assassin" for the Falcon, I will explain later why.

The strategy for the Goose is pretty straightforward: Just drive, even in the pack, don't care, collect sparks, use your boosts sensibly. Your weakness is the slow acceleration, but it's made up with speed stability in the pack (compared to the Stingray) and the cornering off-throttle with L/R applied is pretty good and it retains enough speed.

My personal problem with the Goose is the slow recharge speed which makes it difficult for me to judge when exactly to use boosts without risking running out of power. The best strategy I can come up with is to get sparks in the brawl, use the sky lane and keep the energy for boosts in the last lap.

Another advantage for the Goose: It has good chances at getting a high points finish in Mute City I and Big Blue, while the Blue Falcon struggles on those tracks. This puts pressure on Blue Falcon drivers because they must finish high up in the points on the remaining 3 tracks to have a chance to win.

--- Blue Falcon

First of all: It's really shit in Mute City I. I think it will be excellent in Mute City II when Queen's league drops, but right now, if you finish top 20 in Mute City I, you're lucky. I mostly finish in the Top 30 and rarely in the top 5. The Falcon is much better in Big Blue, though, a top 10 is possible and necessary.

The Falcon is kind of a jack of all trades, which implies master of none. So what is the specialty of the Falcon? I called it "Bastard Assassin" and the reason is that your job is to be a bastard towards the other drivers. You have to be dirty, you need to pull out all the tricks, you have to abuse the others, you need to apply psychological warfare.

The Falcon will keep the Golden Fox honest. You've seen how the Golden Fox runs away on Death Wind I? Well, the Fox is the best car in Death Wind I for 3 laps. On the 4th lap the Falcon will catch up to the Fox, put pressure on its pilot, make them make an error.

The Falcon has slightly lower top speed than the Goose, but it has a massive advantage in acceleration. It's cornering is much better and it has a much much higher recharge speed than the Goose. Although it can't brawl like the Goose, it can take hits, and it stands its ground in a knife fight.

"Hostile power management" is the advantage of the Falcon. The Falcon can push aside the Golden Fox, thus deny it entry into the pit lane (and ideally make them bump into the barrier, losing further energy). It can spin attack or boost into a Goose or Stingray and reduce their time in the pit lane, which will make them suffer because of their slow recharge speed.

If someone pushes you out of the pit lane or delays your entry into the pit lane, you don't suffer as much as the others. On technical tracks you can still make a good lap time, just because of your good acceleration, your acceptable top speed and great cornering (you can survive a lap on Sand Ocean without boosting).

---

So I'm interested in what your strategies are, especially for the Stingray or Goose. Although I currently lack the experience with the Goose, I can see myself mastering it. I'm at a loss for the Stingray though, although I got a freak win in Mute City, I struggle to get good results. I get better results in Mute City than in the Falcon, but I can't replicate my success.

Also, if you need track related advice, just shoot.

Ok, so I've won the Knight League, I've won the Mini-Prix against S-tier opponents, I have won on every track, except Mute City I.

I simply can't win any race at Mute City I. I tried everything, changed strategy, I tried Team Battle, I tried to race Mute City while everyone else is in a Grand Prix.

I simply can't win Mute City.

And I'm looking forward to King League. The carnage at Death Wind II will be legendary.

Ich habe gerade über F5 mein Browserfenster aktualisiert und für einen Bruchteil einer Sekunde wurde bei mir oben rechts ein fremder Benutzername ("DaveStrom" oder so ähnlich) angezeigt.

Gibt es hier ein potentielles Sicherheitsloch?