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Thread: Anyone play virtual sailing games?

  1. #1

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    I discovered a game called Virtual Sailor 6.8 designed apparently by a lone person. It is extremely impressive given that fact. The water and air current physics are particularly impressive. It's supported mostly by a small community of moddelers and skinners. I have done some skinning myself but found the limitations of some of the released boats too much and gave it up. The game supports online multiplayer and you can race or simply enjoy the sites. There are many user-created maps of areas around the world and they are big.

    The game however isn't specificaly designed for racing and to me, learning to sail a virtual boat has one end and one end only: that is to test your new found skills against an opponent, real or AI, it doesn't matter. So I have migrated to a game called Virtual Skipper 3 designed by a French company called Enlight. You may have a hard time finding it at the store and have to order a copy --- I got lucky and found one left at EB.

    Anyway, the community for this game seems to be LONG DEAD. Not that it was ever big to begin with, but I am looking at forums where the last written post was middle 2004. Sad, because the game physics and graphics are truly outstanding --- and this is coming from someone who's used to playing RTW with all the graphics maxed out and huge army sizes. The water is stunning --- best I've ever seen in a game. As for the AI, I am admitedly not a sailor but have always loved the subject. You would think I could win a regatta once in a while against the AI on the easiest level, but these AI sailors are very tough. And I have practiced forever. Also, for anyone who likes to spend their time reskinning, some of the best PSD templates I have ever seen or used have been released for this game (all labelled in French but the color coding makes a lot of sense). Four types of boats are available: ACC, Offshore, Melges and Multi-Hull. Each type has drastically different characteristics. I have painted, downloaded and enjoyed some wonderful boats.

    I can't figure out why this game has not had a lasting appeal. Of course this is the second sequel so obviously they're turning a profit, but I just can't understand why there isn't a healthier community of virtual sailing enthusiasts out there. It's DEAD! One big gripe many people seemed to have with the game was that while you could design your own courses, you couldn't actually race an AI boat on them. They could only be used for personal practice or multiplayer. However, 40+ courses were released and all contained fabulous and challenging single player races.

    Anyway, I post here because certainly there are boating enthusiasts. Has anyone besides me heard of or played VSK3? Would anyone be interested? Feel free to PM me because I am tired of getting my tail whipped by a bunch of AI sailors and I would like to now get my tail whipped by a REAL person who, after the tail whipping, can actually tell me what I did wrong! LOL.

    Links:

    Virtual Sailor 6.8: http://www.hangsim.com/vs/

    Virtual Skipper 3: http://www.virtualskipper.com/indexUk.php

    MQA

  2. #2

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    I'll have to try that out, be neat if they could put some cannons on those ships!

    I'm not into sailing but pirate games have always interested me. The best for me so far is Pirates of the Caribbean (aka Sea Dogs II). It was going to be a great game then a few months before release disney got their hands on it since they had the movie coming out and changed the name and changed the storyline and nearly ruined it. Luckily theres some talented modders at piratesahoy.net that made some great mods for it and totally linear.

    Akella is also making another one called Age of Pirates supposedly the russian version (russian corsairs 3) is coming out next month and the english version (age of pirates) comes out this fall. Their only website now is in russian, http://www.akella.com/k3/news.html but the screens look promising, looks very much like Pirates of the Caribbean before disney got their hands all over it.

  3. #3

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    Oh yeah Meek, I am well aware of POTC. I would love it a lot more if they included the real Caribbean instead of their fake "Archipelago" (if you speant any time at the Akella forums you may have run across a rant or two of mine). I always loved Sid Meier's Pirates! but the 2004 version, though fun, has lost some of the appeal I once enjoyed when I was younger.

    You will recognize the water physics in VS6.8 as very similar to POTC. I wrote some friends and told them the water looked and felt ALMOST, not quite, but ALMOST as good as POTC's. When I first played the demo for VSK3 (oh yeah, there's a free demo) I really didn't like the water or the physics. Yeah, it LOOKED good, but compared to VS6.8 and POTC it felt kind of static. But after playing it more and more, I think it's even more realistic, so much so that sometimes I swear I could dive into my computer screen and go swimming around.

    MQA

    P.S. - VS6.8 does support cannons on some of their vessels, but believe me when I say they are not impressive. Having played POTC you will find them postively laughable. And no, they don't actually do any damage to another ship and there is no fighting engine. They just make a little noise.

    P.P.S. - Oh BTW thanks for the link about the new pirate games. I knew they were working on something but I'd forgotten about it totally. I had no idea these were coming out so soon.

  4. #4
    Niles Crane's Avatar Dux Limitis
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    This should be in Circus Maximus, so I guess we'll wait for a mod to move it.

    I remember when a modification came out for Morrowind which allowed one to buy their own fishing boat and full-size galleon which you could later upgrade to have a cannon on-board. I remember spending hours sailing around the world with that, coming into sailing ports and properly role-playing my character.
    I'd really like to buy a game like that, if they had pirates and stuff like the original Sea Dogs but I'm afraid that I won't like it or it'll become repetitive quickly or the developer will just ignore it and not update it with new content. The best thing I can think of doing right now is just waiting for a sailing game that is perfect in every way. Of course that's nonsense but one can always dream can't he?

  5. #5
    Sulla's Avatar Sulla
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    Moved to Circus Maximus.

    Under the Patronage of the noble Senatorii Wild Bill Kelso
    Brother Of Necrobrit, Scrappy Jenks, eldaran and Oldgamer
    Patron of the Senatorii cunobelin & the CivitateLegio XX Valeria Victrix

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