Getting 1rst rank for sending a spaceship

I just launched a spaceship. Since i wanted the first rank (and prices going with it), i made sure to reach a score of 1056 out of 2000. But when i came back to the game i discovered that the spaceship was ready to be launched... but that the first place was for one of my neighbours with 1096 points.
How is it even possible since the launch is supposed to be at 2000?
Can someone explain this? Because i would like to know what to do to get a first place and not spending my precious launch items in vain... :/
Thank you in advance for anyone that would be able to solve my problem!

If it was just the 2 of you than he (or she) could have loaded up till 736 points , so the total would be 1792 only, and then put in a powerful explosive bolt of 360 points which would indeed mean that he jumped the queue to first place. It has happened to me as well. I just delete those guys from my list.

Yes, it's sort of a live-by-the-sword-die-by-the-sword situation.

There's a lot of, ahem, selfish wrangling that goes on with these launches. I don't hold it against anybody...it's just taking advantage of the way the game works.

Well then... i have learned my lesson. Next time i will aim for 1200 just to be on the safe site. When i will have time i will calculate the exact "safe score" for 1rst place.

Actually I have just been hijacked as well on the blue rocket. Had put in 500 points and was waiting for some neighbours to join. 2 of them had done so , and after 5 hrs just as I was about to check how to proceed, the rocket was launced. A third neighbour had put in 900 points, and we had liftt off! Not much you can do about   

This topic has been discussed since the start of the forum, unfortunately there will always be those who like to take advantage of neighbors.

As a general rule of thumb,  if you start a race and want first place - commit to it.
Its not nice being hi-jacked, but its also not nice only spending just over 1/2 and expecting a neighbor to spend nearly as much for 1/2 the reward.

Also realise - There is no way for a neighbor joining a race to know if you can afford to complete a race or are relying on neighbors to finish.

A good majority of races ive started or joined have been completed within the first cycle of fuel cycle timing (eg the slowest of 4hrs). Obviously with neighbors all over the world and different time zones this can vary.
This is harder now with the 3000 lvl3 race.
the last race I joined was 1 player with over 2600 in the first hour. Almost felt guilty claiming 2nd...

Obvious exceptions are low lvl neighbors who dont know the cost of a race before they start amd struggle for the whole 24 hours...hopefully neighbors help and not hi-jacked
Common sense and decency usually prevail.

Well, technically i was mainly wondering how the total score could be more than 2000. Now that i know that it is "normal", i will take it into account for my future launch in order not "tempt" the would-be "hijacked"...

Canterbury, you mentioned the lvl 3 launches. Do they already pay out the advertised amount of coins, or is it still too few?

Well, I've joined a launch of my one of my neighbours who didn't put in any point, and since I've not enough to launch it myself, the launch failed and I've lost the items I put in and the collections you need to join a launch...   

eatteveld wrote:Canterbury, you mentioned the lvl 3 launches. Do they already pay out the advertised amount of coins, or is it still too few?

No, they're still well under what they advertise.

Okay, thanks.
GI is aware of the problem. On may 1st they emailed me that it would be solved in the next coming update.

Guilty of hijacking. Here are my "rules of engagement" for rocket launches;
- I will always join any launches in progress to help my neighbors.
- Once I join the launch will go as soon as I add whatever else is needed.
- I will take the highest position that I can obtain, after all, it costs the same amount of collection items for everyone.
- If there are bo launches in progress, I will start my own and add at least 80% of the required items to secure the pole position. I will then wait for my neighbors to finish the launch; note I haver never lost a launch because my neighbors failed to join. I have several that always jump on and enjoy an easy second place.

I have joined several launches where I took third or fourth place as that was all that was available. I have also joined and taken the pole from other players who failed to secure the pole. I don't see this as anything terrible, like Canterbury said, if you want the lead then take it. I have two neighbors who frequently start launches, but only have limited launch items--anytime I see them launching I will join in a make the launch happen.

I have used a lot of green making other players launches go. I could be selfish and always fly solo, as it doesn't matter to me, but I choose to help out my fellow players when I can.

If you don't want me to interfere with your launches then send me a PM and I will stay out of your space race.

Happy flying to all!   

Actually recently I did my first hijack on a launch that was sooo slooow I couldn't take it anymore. The initiator actually ended up in the 6th place, so he clearly did not want the nr 1 position. So yes, it depends. What Storos described however was just a rude hijacking in my humble opinion.
Happy flying   

eatteveld wrote:Actually recently I did my first hijack on a launch that was sooo slooow I couldn't take it anymore. The initiator actually ended up in the 6th place, so he clearly did not want the nr 1 position. So yes, it depends. What Storos described however was just a rude hijacking in my humble opinion.
Happy flying   

Ok, let's look at the math of what happened to Soros.

Player contributes 1056 points towards a 2000 point launch. This leaves 944 points left to launch. Storos leaves only a 122 point seperation bewteen his score and the points left for launch. Player two comes along and contributes 1096 and makes the launch go. He exceeded the minimum points needed by 152, and topped Storos by 40 points (large fuel tank). So IMHO, there is a possibilty that the second player was just adding items as fast as he could and fell upon the right combination to get the launch. Some points for thought;
944 points does not equally divide into available launch item values, so the second player was forced from the start to exceed this number to make the launch go. Storos left only a 112 point seperation between his score and the amount needed for launch--being the second player was already going to have to exceed 944, this makes his cushion around 100 points; pretty narrow if you ask me. Some players don't have the luxury of coming back to the game every few hours to add more items to a launch, they have to make their contributions and get out, which means using the top three items as they refresh the fastest--under this scenario it would be easy to blow by a 100 point margin even if you weren't trying.

At the end of the day, if you really want the pole, then do the math and secure it, afterall it is the one thing you can control.

This may have been"fixed"

As a test, I just tried to grab 2nd place by contributing a high enough value item at the last second to both finish the launch and to pass the guy in 2nd, but stayed in 3rd. So maybe we're done with this issue until GI "fixes" it again.

Did you actually have more points than him, but still 3rd place?

Joined a launch in progress today. The player who initiated the launch had contributed about 25% of the points needed. Added the rest myself and took first place. I moved ahead of the other player as soon as my contributions exceeded theirs. I'm suspecting what happened to "mikedabomb" is that the other player was on-line at the same time and was also adding items. Had it happen to me, thought I was going to move from fourth to second, added the item needed to jump ahead and the launch took place, but I was only fourth. A quick look at the points revealed the other players had added just enough themselves to keep their positions. The launch does not update in real time, so the points you see are what was there at the last refresh. You also can't tell from the launch window if other players are currently on-line.

For now it looks like the skies aren't safe from us pirates. Protect your launches maties, or I will snatch them from under your noses (just joking)

I'm glad all is well in the world of captain Barbarossa , I mean Bastoska   

^^^^^^^ That's some funny $hit right there.