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Board » General Discussion » Game Feature Suggestions

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I'm a many Players virtual skipper and that's the second race I do on sailonline. I have some suggestions :
the game is really well made. especially the maps are amazingly precise and the winds too. The constant evolution of the winds is more realistic.
Interface is not easy at the beginning (especially for someone who doesn't speak english) but, after reading the PDF, everything becomes easier and I consider the interface very good.
What lacks the game?
Better colors. The colors are really, really horrible. And colors are never the same (why?). The sea should be blue and the continents not that horrible green. It's much more than a minor detail.
What makes the success of MP : simple, beautiful and convivial.
The public chat is good but you should have a private chat, like MP.
Sometimes you have some graphical bugs : horizontal lines appear on the map, especialy when zooming.
Choice of the sails would add some difficulty, and some pleasure.
You made the choice of putting every ship on the map. Sometimes it's to much. A system of favourites could be a good idea. You could display no boat, your favourites, all the boats.
And last thing : is the wheather the real actual wheather? A good idea, to avoid people of using routing softwares, would to have a different meteo of actual meteo. Real, but from last year, for example.
I feel a great potential in your game and I think it could be the better with some minor improvements.
Thank you. We listen and will try to improve :-)
...one of the guys behind the game...
More Keyboard Control
I think the keyboard control of the forecast slider is great and have started using it more. But I have noticed that it requires clicking on before you can control it with the keyboard if you have used one of the 3 nav tools (since using the keys), and I think this should not be required, ie that no matter what the mouse is doing or has done, the keys always move the slider (as I coder I can't even think of why the mouse would effect things unless it was coded to only activate the keys when slider was clicked or something?).

Also I have noted, that when using the keyboard control, if I position the mouse over a certain point on the map (cos I want to see the changes that will occur with time @that point), with each change of time, you need to move the mouse to trigger some mouse event (other than click) for the data for that point (eg tws@twd) to update. It would be great if the data, at the top right would refresh with the changing forecast slider automatically.
It would be very useful (I think) to be able to park the crosshair at over point of interest on the map, then use the keyboard to increment ahead in time and see exactly the changes in conditions at that point without having to touch the mouse to refresh the display.

As a side note, maybe more keyboard command 'shortcuts' could be useful, for example:

* Keys to activate the nav controls, say ctrl-R for the ruler, ctrl-S for the steer tool and ctrl-C for the 'centre on my boat' tool. And the arrow keys would then control the ruler or steering when chosen (Enter sending a steering change command & the equivelent of clicking with the ruler tool)
*Maybe keys for the zoom level, + for in * - for out?
*Some way to move the Map, perhaps Ctrl-{arrox}.
*And arrow key control of the Map or Steer/Ruler tools could be grained dependent upon the zoom level.

Maybe I'm an old school geek who is used to command prompts and scripts, but I think this could be a valuable edition. (Most GUI software still provides a 'mouseless' way to use its features?)


And possibly the keyboard could provide more accurate control, especially at the higher zoom levels?

--- Last Edited by Aaron Gage at 2009-05-25 14:24:36 ---
I help develop the client interface for the best online ocean racing sim there is... __/)/)_/)__
I'm with Aaron on the weather slider control. It really is a bother to have to reclick on the weather slider after using the dividers or checking delays.
Thank you Aaron for you constructive ideas, we will have a good look at them and see what we can implement.

--- Last Edited by Jeroen Tiel at 2009-06-10 09:06:36 ---
I am a ex-admin of SOL who joins in from time to time.
It would be great to have an downloadable client without the need of an browser. And of course am I missing the windows mobile client :-)
Conyo here, steering for shearwater in the first part of the Transat while he is on vacation. Any chance of making the race viewer have a name at the top? Otherwise I am searching for who is who when 2 screens are open, or going back to the main page to find out what name I am logged in under. Don't want him beating me up because I have done something crazy with his boat intead of my own... thanks.
Sure, it is on my to-do list.
...one of the guys behind the game...
Done :-)
...one of the guys behind the game...
Brilliant!

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