Zezo forum:

Post by Moderation | 2015-02-10 | 07:19:59

I am about to enter into a series of tacks to take me towards the Philippine mark and noticed the first tack is not going to actually happen until 1300 CET. Programming this into my scheduler I noticed the point appears well into the Philippine islands. I checked the lat/long between the game and the Zezo - effectively the same. I did wait until the new winds are displayed as the 12hr winds in the game. I rebooted the game and it appears the same. Any suggestions?

Steve W
Moderation

11 Comments

Post by Wetedge4 | 2015-02-10 | 07:33:36

I don't think the VR scheduler takes into account the different speed after a wind change very well. It always seems like the closer you get to a tack like this, the marks on the scheduler keep "shortening" until it comes close to what zezo shows.. Sometimes, I've seen it "lengthen" the scheduler marks even.. I may be crazy, but that's what I've noticed anyway. I think I read something like this about the scheduler in the VR tutorials somewhere also...

Post by Moderation | 2015-02-10 | 08:12:10

I deleted all the programming and re-entered them. Aside from the first one having to be shortened by 10 minutes, they all seem to fit. BUT, since this is all happening close to shore I will definitely be paying close attention to the game console as the action unfolds.

Post by zezo | 2015-02-10 | 08:30:36

The game display sometimes gets confused by an hour. Full reload of the page usually fixes it.

Also if the minutes don't end in 7 the actual result will be different because the game engine has sub-10 minute resolution for scheduled turns.

And then it looks like that at weather change the 7:57 scheduled step is actually executed with 8:00 weather in order to get the chart and game in sync. If you schedule a turn at 8:00 your boat ends up sailing backwards/sideways for 3 minutes.

Post by Wetedge4 | 2015-02-10 | 08:39:51

Wow, if "If you schedule a turn at 8:00 your boat ends up sailing backwards/sideways for 3 minutes." is the case...That may be what happened to me toward the start of the race.. I was right with the pack, then all of a sudden I was approx. half a cycle behind...couldn't figure out what happened. Maybe this was the problem, cause I sometime set the scheduler at wind change as a "backup" but usually manually steer it b4 the scheduler takes control.. I might have missed that one tho...

Post by zezo | 2015-02-10 | 09:03:05

I lost about 1.5 nm and 80 places (going from 5 to 85) at the start of the Hobart-Fiji race and this seems the logical explanation.

Haven't really checked the numbers, but the wind after the change was about two times stronger, and MOD70 boat speed was quite higher.

EDIT: But that does not seem to work for the VOR. Will have to invest few EUR for my second boat to investigate further.

Post by Wetedge4 | 2015-02-10 | 08:34:00

I used the scheduler one time near the shore...NEVER AGAIN lol. Waypoints are the way to go near shore, but even then...anything can happen with this game. I run manually for the most part, and waypoints near shore... lot and lot and lots of hours involved :) Some how I blew my waypoints(didn't confirm 1 or something) at the start of leg 4, and now I'm trying to catch up. Damn hard to catch up when the "pilot" boats got an unfair advantage tho. I started a 2nd boat this morning, and it'll beat my other boat right near you by 10nm to Philippines. Stupid VR

Post by Moderation | 2015-02-10 | 08:47:15

I have been burned before myself. I figured out the cause of a few of the errors but I am still hesitant about placing absolute trust in the scheduler. In this case I am using the TWA part of the scheduler and I know that each tack will shorten the following leg and therefore change the next tack point. I haven't checked for sail changes but then again it is 0244 here and I would like to get a few minutes sleep before the tacking begins in about 5 hours. Coffee pot is set up on automatic (I trust that automatic scheduler - smirk) multiple alarms are set, lets see if I can keep off the rocks!

Post by DancingBrave | 2015-02-10 | 09:54:08

" Damn hard to catch up when the "pilot" boats got an unfair advantage tho. I started a 2nd boat this morning, and it'll beat my other boat right near you by 10nm to Philippines. Stupid VR"

So that's how you(wetedge5) have done it ;)

Using the game's satellite view, I've noticed over the last 24 hours or so that a band of boats - your's included - in the quadrant to the North & East of Istishia have gone clear and I couldn't suss out the track they had used :(

Indeed, a friend of mine didn't register for this leg but I still see his boat dobbing along the GC route almost certainly better positioned than me at the moment; I assumed it was an auto display thing and that if he joined now, he would be sent to the rear - it appears not.

Post by Wetedge4 | 2015-02-10 | 10:17:32

Yep, that's how I pulled it off. For whatever reason, the pilot boat drives along the GC route and the speed is determined by the ranking of the rest of the fleet or something. So the whole time the boats farther south were trucking along, the "pilot" boats were getting even faster speeds going head into the wind.. It's a big flaw for sure! When I started my 2nd boat, I told another friend what I was doing...He then started a boat 4 cycles later. He ended up farther ahead than I even, because of 4 extra cycles of unfair speed. Apparently they slowed the pilot boats that still haven't started, but damage is already done. a VR moderator says, they notice no dysfunction in the way the pilot boat works.. Crazy! They never...ever, admit or fix any problems their system has. There should be a restart from the Philippines in my opinion.