Zezo forum:

Post by theo | 2020-03-02 | 12:38:08

Hello. The following I tried to publish as new topic in VR's kind of forum, but is not ...approved. I do not know if you have similar experience in finishing ranking. Of course ranking system in general sucks and gives all different positions all time and many times you have a position (lets say 30) and you open ranking-list to see the others and you see someone else in 30th position and you are not even in top 50 although at the same time you see yr position 30 next to yr ship in screen. That we all see it and bother us, but it does not mutter as only the finishing ranking list is what it counts. I finished 39 and after reload I was 40. A bit later though I got all that light and party sound to announs me that I got the final position 57. That is not accepted, but I do not want to repeat me, so here is what I tried to post in VR's site:

" Hello ppl. The following is�addressed mostly to VR directors-owners etc, but I d like�to listen to your opinion if you want to talk about it. Now, besides that the ranking system with provisional finis, it� is alone a very negative and strange thing,� if you think that we are� in the age of advanced pc's, I have to publish to you my experience. I never ever won one position after the provisional one. If one position is lost from�me, then someone else gets it. This someone else never ever happened to be me. I got used to loose a couple of position after finish and thought to keep up with the game,�but in the�Muscat race, that "situation" became EPIC LARGE!!! I finished 39 provisional and I got final 57!!!!! (50% lost of my finished position!!!) If that is the case, give us in advance the positions you want us to finish�and we will continue racing,�just to keep your pockets full.� It Is UNACCEPTABLE!!!!! No more that "thing" after finish. We win each position, the hard way, IN THE RACE.� After the race "cooking" is UNACCEPTABLE!!!!! You should respect the money and effort of yr costumers a bit more by providing the minimum!!!�A�SOLID ranking system that leaves NO QUESTIONS!!!!�

�bewareth IST (Theo Theodoridis)"

PS Besides that the position of our ship in screen is not accurate and we never know for sure were we are in comparison to the rest of yachts, we do know by the time and experience were about we are and were the yachts we race at. With that been said, I tell you that my position in race was about 40 or maybe 45. No way I was 55 or 60, or so it is my truth thought. After all the race is over, I got very tired and I had fun and so, I can very easy forget about it and go further. That is how I was thinking all other finishes that I lost 2-3 or 4 positions and I was around 80 or 100. It is a small lose. Now that number went rocket-high. Is the 50% of my position!!! It is 18 spots and I finished 39. WTF!!!! What if next time it is 50 spots. What if I finish 5 in provisional and get 75 in final. We cant say always "Oh well is over now, forget it". I will have that in mind every time I want to put my hand in pocket and pay the dum full-pack to the next race... Every time, even in a racing event like this one, that I ve done good enough, I get at the end a very bitter taste in mouth from VR, which triggers negative second thoughts to quit again the dum thing.

6 Comments

Post by YourMomSA | 2020-03-02 | 20:04:17

FWIW... I tend to ascribe stuff like this to poor development quality and/or failure to prioritize the impacts of things like this on the user experience, rather than conscious effort to do something hurtful.

Someone posted a comment about this in another thread a couple weeks ago. I believe they had determined that when you finish, the result you are first shown is basically a "best case scenario"... because everyone who finishes in the same cycle of finish times is given the same "provisional rank"... Which is the first position after the prior cycle. Then it runs its finalization of results to compute the sequence of finishes among the boats who finished in that cycle. Which, if true, simply means that no one will ever get a final result better than their provisional result. Which is indeed upsetting to everyone but whoever finished first in the cycle.

Anyway... hopefully it helps ease the aggravation to know that other boats aren't passing you after the finish. You and they all were given the same position, and then all but one dropped back to a more precisely calculated position.

The rankings during the race are also baffling. I tend to just ignore those as worthless information.

Post by zezo | 2020-03-02 | 21:32:08

That was me about the provisional ranking. An educated guess, but I have no real evidence to support the theory.

The running ranking is meaningless. It can jump from 300 to 3 and back every 5 minutes and on each update and every click on the ranking.

It seems that the game lobby data is most accurate, inside a race the ranking shows, as a popular Russians saying goes, "the weather on Mars"

You ask me, it's some extremely simple and stupid bug, but nobody cared enough to check and fix it for, how long has it been? 6 months? A year?

Post by mcmgj | 2020-03-06 | 09:17:44

the rank show is the rank on local computer in this cycle. if you are aground, you are first ! to know your real rank, cick on your boat, you will obtain a better rank

Post by theo | 2020-03-09 | 15:17:23

Thank you guys for your time to answer me. I agree Mom that most possibly there is nobody cooking the results to favor someone, I don't want to believe such a think although nobody can assure us. The point is what I said at the end. VR should respect the costumers enough to provide a solid finishing ranking that leaves no questions!! I have one question to you MOM. Ok I got it. All comes in at the same minute and all takes the same provisional position (maybe because the pc is doomed and can not calculate seconds).Ok, now the question: Who and how decides for that 18 positions to finalize them in to 40, 41, 42 up to 57 position that I took?? Before the answer I'll tell you that any way they do it, it should be done by the finishing moment!!! Any data are using to finalize the ranking (if they use any data for that), it could be used in first place at the finishing moment. Why do they need more time? To collect ..other data? What data? 3-4 min in pc world is huge amount of time. I really do not get it and the more I think about it the more it bothers me.Does not bother you guys?

Post by zezo | 2020-03-09 | 16:08:47

The idea is that the game engine runs every 5 minutes, so there is no "exact moment of crossing the line". That used to be 10 minutes before.

So when N boats have crossed the line they are actually ranked by the remaining distance to the finish point. Which may not result in the same ranking as the exact moment of arrival.

Like if you cross the line first, but almost tangential to the circle, you may lose to the boat crossing at right angle a bit later. Or at least it used to be that way.

Actually, someone from the next 5-minute cycle could end up being closer than you in the right circumstances. That could explain the 10-15 minute delay for the final ranking.

I'm not saying it is not stupid and can't be done better, just trying to imagine why it is the way is it is.

Post by theo | 2020-03-16 | 14:01:57

Thank you so much Cvetan for trying to explain the none explainable. As I said whatever is the reason, they should respect us as much to bring a more accurate, at the finishing moment -and not after whatever time for whatever reason- finishing ranking. Such a great game suffers in more than one way in this company. That is also an "none explainable" mutter for reasonable ppl