1. Simple and beautiful
More difficult for you to test what is simple or not, but we want to help people have fun with the tactics. And to bring them to discover it, we make it nice . There are certainly more casual gamers who play with it in France than the whole bunch of fan like you, if we can give them fun too, it's a good move. We don't want to do a must have game for everybody, but if they like sailing, watching America's Cup or to play to sim game... it's cool if they like VirtualSkipper.
2. Expert approved
The deepnest of the gameplay exists in reality, we don't want to create something new but to reproduce it. It's the concept, it's the game. Moreover, immersion is helpful to spend good times, and real stuff is better than fantasy to do that. If we don't do that, we are not doing VirtualSkipper but VirtualVirtual. So it would be difficult to do vsk without a community. Seems that the ITBYC will be the though part!
3. A community place
The greatest way to play VirtualSkipper is surely online. I don't know if we can say "play" since what we see what you do around this. So all the stuff we can do to make it better, it's cool.
I'm very much behind all this. Keep it simple to not make too many skippers give up on the game because they are way behind the race winners. This will mainly be achieved by reducing the number of difficulty levels to 2 only: "Casual" and "Expert". "Expert" mode is just like today, where you can choose whether to sail on automatic and manual trim. "Casual" mode should be forced on automatic trim, without the option to trim manually. Make it beuatiful - just to sell more games. Still it must be expert approved, but that should not be in expence of the simplicity. The game can be more advanced, just not on the user interface. The game engine should be a couple of levels higher than in VSK2, with much better rules implementation, boat behaviour in the different environmental conditions and more realistic randomness to the wind. A more community friendly UI would be great. Not just the list of online skippers in the lobby...
VSK is first of all a regatta sailing simulator. The closer to the real thing it gets, the better success will the game be. But it's important to be realistic... My experience is that attempts on simulating aspects of regatta sailing which are hard to transfer to PC sailing, is better to leave out completely. No simulation is better than a bad simulation! Detailed sail trim is an example in this category. Sail trim is very important in real sailing, with all the possbile adjustments (cunningham, outhaul, back stay etc....). To get this right on a real boat, you have to see the entire sail. I think VSK2 reached the limit on this with the sail sheeting. That's the most important trim, and you get immediate feedback from boat speed and boat heel. But introducing more trim would take the focus away from the tactics, and leave no time for chatting during the races. So let VSK mainly simulate the helmsman's and tactician's jobs!
So what is possible to simulate well?
REST : Rules, Environment, Strategy and Tactics!
Of the first 10 rules, rules 10-14 should be possible to possible to represent 100% correct. Rules 15-19 are a little more complex, but still it should be possible to adopt them to something very close to the real thing.
A more or less fixed current pattern is ok, but the wind should be more random. In VSK 2 the wind shifts are happening at the same places every race. Some stable local effects are ok, but my opinion is that a greater share should be inpredictable. As an example, the wind should shift right without changing back, or it should continue shifting right for the entire race as the general trend, with also some small variances. Maybe connect this to cloudier conditions, while sunny weather should give more stable wind?
I think the waves of VSK2 are very good, and how the boats behaves with them. But one thing which must be improved is the directions. Focus on one main direction similar to where the wind is blowing from. At least remove the swells coming from behind and moving slighty faster than boat upwind.
Tactics will be a main factor to do well whatever quality the rest of the simulation. But to benefit a realistic winning tactic, the rules must be represented well and the bad air must be improved from VSK2. Covered wind must be gradually introduced, not just on and off, as Anders has pointed out. Also the mirror wind and turbulences must be represented. If you tack just to leeward of another boat as a tactical move, you should be benefited. The boat just to windward would back off in just like in real life and be forced to tack.
A good strategy simulation is just a sum of the above key factors being represented well.
Harald :beer: