I'm through with SOL

[kingfisher]

I\'m through with SOL

POsted this morning on the SOL website:

Dear editor,

Last night I sat up untill 0200 to make sure all was fine. This morning I woke up at 0630 to check up on my positions.
At 0200 I had programmed three future course changes: at +0125, at +0225 and at +0645.
Guess what, the +0125 was never executed, so at 0630 I found myself parked on a headland.
This morning at 1100, I found that the course changes I implemented at 0600 were not correctly applied and I find myself again against the land.
Now some have told me that it could be due to the weather file changing. If that is the case, this is a game of chance, not a game of navigation skills.
This is now the third race in which the autopilot has seriously let me down.

So to make it clear: untill waypoints are implemented in the user interface, I will not be playing SOL anymore. Please retire my boat from the Leg 9 race.

 

[sarabande]

Re: I\'m through with SOL

from bitter experience, it's all too easy to forget to tick the DC box, unfortunately, and yes, you then end up lawnmowing.

My concern is that the same halfdozen people take podium positions, and they are all using expensive software that reads all the latest grib files, and does clever calculations, so that the optimum course is chosen FOR them.

I have no worries about the weather changing - it does reflect what happens in reality, and we all have tacked into a freeing wind in real life /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif. If, however, the ordinary racer really has no chance against the techy people, and there is little opportunity to exercise skilled interpretation of "public" weather files and integrate that knowledge into the tactical choice of a course, then there really is not much joy in knowing that your human "best" is simply no use against someone else silicon chips and money.

I've not found that DCs or course changes don't work - ever. Where things go wrong, it has always been my fault.

The SOL management have got the waypoints (turning marks) under better control than a couple of months ago, with clearer instructions on which side to leave them, but I agree, it is a game where pitting your own skills against weather and islands in the simulation are the reason for playing. If their technology lets you down I think you have a legitimate grouse.

 

[ColdFusion]

Re: I\'m through with SOL

Have to say that although I'm relatively new to SOL I haven't had any problems at all with delayed CCs. The biggest problem for me is when using TWAs and I forget to put a minus infront of the angle. Gybing twice in a V70 sure does take the edge off performance /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[WayneS]

Re: I\'m through with SOL

I have to say that in the many, many hours that I have played the game, all DC's have done exactly what they were programmed for.

Not always what I intended but were according to the data in the boxes when I hit the "send" command.

 

[Spyro]

Re: I\'m through with SOL

[ QUOTE ]
I have to say that in the many, many hours that I have played the game, all DC's have done exactly what they were programmed for.

Not always what I intended but were according to the data in the boxes when I hit the "send" command.

[/ QUOTE ]

Me too, Only time a DC failed was due to a weather update making me late to a wp and I missed the turn.