F7 in the brain - Heres my brainstorm

[AndersDK]

I have gathered my thoughts on what to improve to make VSK even better. I suppose many of the points have allready been discused, before I was internalized in this fine Club.

Remember, its a brainstorm

RANKING
Its my opinion, that an effective and visible rankingsystem will improve motivation and participation. It is very important to make it trustworthy. A good ranking system creates loyalty. Those of you, who knows the ranking system of Yahoo Games, will agree with me in, that its very effective. They are best in class, and should be studied. A negative effect for yahoo has been, that there has been people, creating ranking-boosters, small programs, that cheat up the rank. I see this as a sign of how effective and prestigous the ranking is, and furthermore how big jerks people can be.
Mainpoints are from Yahoo are:
-Everyone starts at 1200 pts
-The more points you have, the harder it is to get more points
-The less points you have, the more points you get for a victory. (progressive downwards and degressiv upwards)
-This gives a high density in every "group"
-There is a trackrecord for "unfinished" games i.e. drop-outs, loss of connection, quiting...
-All ranking figures are visible for everyone. When showing the name, you show the ranking.

More suggestions to Ranking:
-Separate ranking for Matchrace and Fleetrace
-Ability to race "unranked" races - not-counting races


Community
Definitly a need for more and better community features.
-A chat in the "game-creation" lobby
-Ability to create and invite to private rooms
-Click on a green player, and chat directly
Allowing audience in a race, by creating a "watch" function with separate closed/chat (this could eventually be from a Jury-boat point of view)

RACEMANAGEMENT
-One name (not as today with boatname and playername)
-Ability to start a new race with same players ("restart" or "continue series")
-Ability to exclude/boot players
-12 windforces instead of 5 ( to create unpredictability)
-A lenght between Long and Very long

RACING
Precoded messages (ie. F9="Room!")
2 minute startprocedure (1 is too short and 3 too long)
Gate at leeward mark (two marks)
max 30 players pr race (remember, in brainstorming everything is allowed
Wind shadow (must be more graduated)
Mirror winds (pressure on speed and direction for windward boat in close positions)
Faster Zoom in/out on keypads 7/8
Picture / Film recording by pressing one button

Thats it... now there is F3 in my brain again - no more brainstorm

Apart from that, Im sure that "we have a winner" in VSK3... reserve a copy for me

AndersDK

[AndersDK]

I remembered something:


It would add to the experience and the loyalty, if it was possible to personalize the boat in a simple way, securing that it is possible for others to see it.

This demands that it ís easy and simple to add new skins for boats.

I imagine something like "Get designs" in the game creation area, drawing all design files home for the competing boats in the current race.
I dont know, but I imaging that there must be other types of games having more or less a feature like that.

Still remember ... its a brainstorm... everything is allowed

[amic]

I do not disagree with any of your suggestions, but frankly I would view most of what you list as nice-to-haves at best -except the wind shadow and maybe mirror wind.

If VSK3 was to be exactly the same game as VSK2 from a design interface standpoint, with better implementation of the rules, and less lag (however this can be achieved), I would be happy to fork out the cost of the update.

Now obviously the more nice-to-haves the better, but given Nadeo as finite resources, and seemingly are spending a lot of their precious time on the boat, sea and shores aesthetics -which will probably be of no benefit to anyone not willing to upgrade their PCs-, I hope they are not losing sight of the much more critical issues.

Cheers,
Arnaud

[euphoria]

If VSK3 is only going to be nicer to look at, then Nadeo are shooting them selves in the foot. You may be impressed the first time you see the great graphics, but it's doesn't make the game more fun to play. My impression is that Nadeo shares this understanding.

Anders has some very good ideas. The ranking has been one of my hobbyhorses since VSK1, and I'm still going to fight hard for it for VSK3. If they get a good ranking system, then less people will quit the games and we will have more fun. There should of course be possible to choose between a social race and a ranking race. Here's the link to the original ranking thread.

The community ideas are also great. Being able to chat with people online directly in the lobby etc. Maybe even voice chat...

Harald

[AndersDK]

Face it, this is about selling more boxes. Thats why the focus is on aesthetics.

The aestetics (nice graphics and so on), though, will not hold players significantly longer, and only increase the experience slightly for a limited time.

From my point of view, mayor issues for increasing the experience are:
1) Communication between players (chat, messages etc.)
2) Competition. Strong, trustworthy and widely implemented ranking feature. (maybe even a "challenge player"-function)

I imagine these areas are quite costly in development, and obviously costs server and bandwith capacity. They are though the most effective for increasing the total expirience.

Obviously there are "room for improvement" in the Racing and Race management area. Some of them seems as simple small changes and others are more complex (30 players, no lag could cause a little trouble I imagine... ). I would go for the quick wins, and plan the bigger steps over time.

BUT.... remember, we are not discussing the priotities, nor are we discussing the quality of the suggestions. This is a brainstorm, and everything is allowed :p

AndersDK
Thank God for VSK

[amic]

Yup fair enough Anders, everything goes in a brainstorm.

I will add my last cynical comment on this thread before shutting up not to risk spoiling the mood. It's mid September. If Nadeo is to deliver the game in November, they'd better finish the brainstorming sessions ASAP and start prioritizing!



amic



Edited By amic on 1063873360

[Odin]

I have to admit I bought the game solely based on the graphics.....little did I know that this would become so terrible addictive......

tom

[HolidayTours]

I totally agree with all you say Anders but you forget a "big" thing that must be improved.
The pens. And as I see it, it’s two big changes that be needed for doing this.
1 Faster rules changing
2 Better collisions tests. That it is today collisions test is all for quadrangular. Must become more boat shaped.

Today seems it that the game are trying against rules each time you pipe the rudder. It possible to escape penalty if you does a turn in two step instead of one and you can then also go closer (at gybes manoeuvre for i.e.) behind a boat without penalty than if you goes in one turn. Can separate up to a half boatlengts.

Both these things are important to be able to increase the regattas what goes for number of boats. Otherwise occurs chaos at start and rounding of the marks.

Another thing that would be able to combine. Your wishes for a referee plus increase learning levels for beginner. This is a "public place". I.e. you can connect to a launched or flotation race as spectator.
You have all information that player has but without ability to affect. I.e. you can zoom around and change camera- angels. And if you already in lobby can highlight that you want to be the referee, you receives the ability to chat with the players (to warn them) plus be able to give penalty through clicking on the players name.
This ability improves team-regattas. The first part improves the ability in order to study and learn.
Roffe

[Hottentot]

Hi Anders
In your brainstorm you mentioned the following:
Faster Zoom in/out on keypads 7/8
Maybe you already know this one? But anyway here it is.
Try to move the SCROLL on your mouse and you will see
a fast IN/OUT ZOOM. :p
Try also to RIGHT click on the mouse and move the mouse
in any direction and you will see the camera move like hell.
Best regards
Peter "Hottentot"

[euphoria]

Hey, I have one hand on the joystick and one on the keyboard. How to operate the mouse? I have enough problems being able to drink beer while sailing .

Harald

[Odin]

Harald... get one of those beer hats....with a tube to your mouth... (send a pic if you get one) :beer: :beer:

[arc]

it may be possible to have a beginners encouragement tournament with handicapping based on ranking!???

[euphoria]

www.vsk-match.com has a match racing ranking system which awards win-points based on skill. Also to be announced there during august, a tournament with divisions based on ranking, which means everybody should have a chance of winning!

Harald

[arc]

I was thinking more in terms of the traditional handicap race where either...

finish positions are calculated to a formula from course length and individual handicap so that even though on may finish in actual 4th position on may have won the race.

or

catch up, where each boat has an individual start time based on their acrewed handicap resulting in all boats finishing at the same time based on calculation and course length.

I know that regattas based upon these principles don't necessarily reward the best skilled sailors, but they do allow newcomers to win, and in the second version visably win. Skilled sailors need not be penalised totally out of contension but i'm sure that once in a while they would enjoy something that gives them more of a challege or just coming from behind.

Its like giving the novice a few points headstart?



Edited By arc on 1091757740

[AndersDK]

I think its a very ambitious proposal, which, from my point of view, is very hard to implement.

But I surely understand your point, that handicaping could give everybody the chance of winning, which would motivate the back end of the fleet a lot.

I do though think that a better messurement to try and help the back end of the fleet, would be to provide the technical knowledge of how to race optimal. This should increase the competition in the front of the fleet.

Maybe it should be structured in three "courses", with:
Course One being the absolute basics about settings, what numbers to look at, what sails to choose, what does heel mean, starting and basic rules.
Course Two should then contain specifics about what angels to sail, how to work the gusts, when to shift sails, how the winds shifts work,
Course Three should then explain and show the mirror wind effects and wind shadow effects, some of the rules specialities of close combat.

Not that I know it all, but I sometimes spend time "educating" the opponent, when I win a race clearly (MR), mostly because I believe its more fun to loose tight races, than to win the most. I would surely give a hand to structure and produce a "e-course", that would contribute to lift some of the competitors.

I believe more in that idea than in handicap racing... also from a technical point of view.

Maybe ITBYC.org or VSK-Match.com is the right forum to place this in...

AndersDK