CAN Knot wrote:..."Career Mode" that tracks a players statistics over time ...
... Have a pool of 30-40 AI skippers each with their own name, boat, nationality, skill level etc. Some skippers would be aces and some rather inept, but the skills of each AI wouldn't change. ...
...Add an "economy" to the game. That is, cash prizes are awarded at each regatta and the money is used to buy better sails, hire better crew, maybe even perform some modifications (within class rules) to the boat. ...
Hmmm... I'd actually been thinking on a tangent regarding the "tweaks" or "add ons" which sort of covered some of this stuff.
The Career Mode or Regattas (and pool of AIs) could be against some "static" real life professional skippers - think of some of the golf games like the one with Arnold Palmer, where you can play Arnie and other real life players. They'd need to be ranked on experience or some-such (eg Swedish Match rankings year to year??), so you try to work your way up the list in knock-out rounds, etc.
The economy was a bit like my add-on thoughts... say you want to try to have a re-cut mainsail (flatter, etc etc), it might gain you in certain conditions but then that sail will be worse in others. Perhaps the economy could also be R&D for an (virtual) AC campaign, though I think we really end up talking a whole game expansion pack :p