Hi Merlijn and welcome to the forum!
Yes, the highscores have been discussed a lot allready.
Some scores are unrealistic now because changes in the game have made them impossible to reach any more. Those times were set with older versions.
Others have been achieved by cheating in one way or another.
Like the massive job mission. You dont actually have to tow the rig at all, to complete it. Once you hook up the second Sherpa, you can just take the lead Tug to the last waypoint. (after releasing the rig)
Might be fast, but where's the fun? I wonder...
Some people have also found ways to make some ships faster. But I won't get into that as it is illegal and will lose such players their warranty and all rights to support. But I suspect quite a few players have used this method to set some records.
I agree with you, time (often) says nothing about seamanship. Most highscores would really mean that the person has disregarded the RoR/COLREGS and has cut corners that would have led to dangerous if not life threatening situations in real life.
There are indeed much better criteria to judge the succes of a mission. Who knows, maybe in the future there will be a better system introduced. Till then, that highscore system is nice for the people that like this arcade aspect of the game.
My advice, if you are more serious about this sim, is to forget all about the highscores, and just enjoy the sim as it was intended. That's what I do and I could care less if it takes me 30 minutes more than the fastest skipper. At least all MY virtual crewmen get to go home to their families and I stay out of the brig!
Regards,
Fred
