Solent Sea Forts

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

[NickGB]

I hate to be critical of, what is otherwise, a wonderful piece of software. However, the map of the Solent does not correspond with what one actually encounters in sailing a vessel.  The sea forts on the eastern approach to Portsmouth are nowhere near where they appear on the map.

This is a rather fundamental error.  Soon to be corrected?

N

[ash]

nothing on here is totally accuarate but there is another problem with the chart somtimes the stern of the ship can be touching something and the chart says it isnt and welcome to the forum nick

[TerryRussell]

Hi Nick, and welcome.

As someone who lives next to the eastern End of the Solent and has a medium sized vessel at Chichester Marina, and goes up the Solent quite often, yes Spitsand Fort is incorrectly shown on the map, although the actual Fort is in the correct loation, I think.

I think Nomansland and Horsesand Forts are in the correct locations, though.

What makes you say that they aren't? They did get moved in one of the updates to the game, so perhaps you haven't got the latst version installed?

What co-ordinates are the three forts in your game? If you let me now, I'll check it out for you.

Thanks.

[NickGB]

I attach three screen captures which show vessel position and the map.  I think you'll see what I mean!

Nick

[ash]

thats weird!!

[TerryRussell]

Hi Nick.

When you start Ship Simulator, there is a "build 1234" shown on the lower left-hand side of the opening screen. What is the build number of your version?

[NickGB]

Terry,

I have version 1.4.2 build 1038.

Nick

[TerryRussell]

OK, that's the latest version, thanks.

[marcstrat]

Hoy,
I think it's a knowed error,i think i've seen it onb this forum in the past.
Dont know if there is a solution already.
Marc

[TerryRussell]

Hi Marc.

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!

Yes, it certainly is. When I spoke to Ben at Vstep a few weeks ago, he confirmed my belief that the original version of Ship Simulator has an error with Spitsand Fort being in the location compared to the map.

I thought that had been fixed, and that Horsesand and Nomansland forts were OK. When I have some spare time, I'll go into the game and take a look, against my GPS unit (as you might expect, being a Solent Sailor, my GPS has a very detailed chart of the waters around these parts).

I just wanted to confirm that Nick had the latest version installed before I went chasing phantoms.

[NickGB]

So I guess I'm not going to get a sensible response to this issue, which is very disappointing and strikes me as being rather unprofessional.  There is clearly a glaring error in the Solent and there has been a deafening silence from VSTEP.  I sure hope the professional version is more accurate if it's going to be used to train aspiring skippers.

[TerryRussell]

Well Nick, as my wife's youngest sister died shortly after I made that post, I rather had other things to sort out, apart from comparing Ship Simulator against my boat GPS unit because you believe it's in the wrong place.

Sorry if that makes me "rather unprofessional", but after all, I am just an unpaid volunteer. There's nothing stopping you from coming up with something that demonstrates your claim, of course. To help you, here's the map that I had scanned in after my last message. Perhaps you'd like to start up Ship Simulator and mark up the map to indicate precisely where the forts are located on your game?

Not sure why you consider that my discussion with the developer responsible for the environment and my willingness to check the map against my nautical GPS unit was not sensible though.

[NickGB]

Terry,

Firstly, please accept my condolences for your sad loss. I myself have had to deal with the death of a close family member recently so you have my sincere sympathy.

I wasn't implying any criticicsm of you personally but rather of the fact that there is clearly a problem with the game which I would have thought VSTEP would want to respond to.  As to coming up with something to demonstrate my claim, I think I've already done that with the screen captures earlier in this thread.  Whether the forts are in the correct geographical location is neither here nor there.  The fact remains that they appear in the main display at a totally different position to where they appear on the game chart.  By contrast, if I sail to Liberty Island in New York Harbour, there it is, right where the game chart says it should be.

It seems an odd error when every other aspect of the game (as far as I can tell) seems so accurate.

[mvsmith]

Throwing a tantrum and using words like “unprofessional” will make you very unpopular on a forum that is run by volunteers who work very hard to solve problems for users and improve the simulation in many ways.

Terry especially has contributed a lot in technical help and in improving ship dynamics. Many other members of this forum are active in testing and improving the simulator. We do not appreciate such attitude from someone who has been here a short time and has apparently not bothered to examine the forum enough to understand the various issues.

[TerryRussell]

Nick,

The developers are a very intelligent, professional, pleasant and keen set of people. Whenever I suggest new features, bug fixes etc, they show great interest. Of course, with the pressures of time, some things take priority.

I don't disagree that at least one fort is in a different location to that shown on the in-game map. I had already discussed that with the relevant developer in late November. He had moved it during one of the earlier updates to where he believed was the appropriate location. He was surprised with my feedback, but very keen to fix it.

But I think the in-game map is not directly linked to the game and that was left in its original state.

I haven't yet had the time to figure out whether the map is wrong or the fort is wrong or both. It takes a lot of starting and stopping the game to check. And there are three forts in the game. The fact that something doesn't get fixed immediately doesn't mean its being ignored. It just means its on the "to-do" list.

[Esprit350]

Hi guys,
Just having a scan around the forum because my SS08 has gone haywire!  Does not show next WP, then shows a mission completed when it isn't, then tried a different mission that loaded then immediately changed to another environment then showed the WP's for the original mission I was trying to use!!!!!!!   Any way, enough of that rambling!

When I ran "Solent Summer", I seem to remember all the fort waypoints being next to forts, but when you arrived there the chart showed the fort some distance away - this was true for several forts and may be what this chap is trying to convey??  Sorry for not remembering which forts, but I think it may have been all the ones visited in that mission?

Paul.

[TerryRussell]

Yep, that's what Nick was talking about.

When I created that mission, I noted that the chart was still wrong, which is why I spoke to the developers. Originally one of the Forts was in the wrong location. A developer moved it, but for some reason the map still shows it in the wrong place.

I will gather the exact co-ordinates for the fort (both in real life and in Ship Simulator) and get it added to the "to-do" list.

[Esprit350]

I'm sure the Admiralty charts for the real world will be right otherwise us yotties would have hit them a few times on our cruises to/from Cowes etc - I still cannot get my missions to run correctly even after a reload so I have had a run around for you in free sailing, in the Speed Yacht to get the co-ords for you.

Spit Sand location on SS chart is 50 59 17N 1 28 5 W - no fort but there is one at 50 59 9N 1 29 36W

Horse Sand location on SS chart is 50 58 31N 1 26 49W - fort object is at 50 58 16N 127 37W

No Mans Land location on SS chart is 50 57 53N 127 57W - fort object is at 50 57 49N 1 29 16W

All close but approx as I could not drive the speed yacht over the fort objects, but I could get right over the charted position.  Hope this info helps and saves you some time.

Paul.

[TerryRussell]

Thanks for that!

The problem you describe usually means re-installing Ship Simulator in the correct sequence (see my flow chart in the "Guides" section of Technical Support). No need to uninstall and you shouldn't lose your mission times, etc.

Sometimes a complete uninstall is needed, but not often. If you still have problems, post a message in the Technical Support section and we'll go through the steps there.

[Esprit350]

Yes - Thanks for another useful tool Terry.  I have used this several times to cure SS08 sea sickness!

I re-installed update 1.4.2 but it did not cure it - I deleted then re-installed the custom missions and they seem to be straight now.

Paul.

[TerryRussell]

That was step 2.

Sometimes the database of missions gets screwed up or a single mission gets corrupted. Deleting the contents of teh Custom Missions folder usually fixes it in that case. But it does mean you have to download them all again.

[NickGB]

OK,

I downloaded and printed v1.9 of Terry's upgrade path.  I decided to give it the best shot by uninstalling Ship Sim 2008 and starting from scratch.

At step 2 the flow chart tells me to install the Elbe and the Furie.  This is not possible, at this stage I have Ship Sim v1.0 installed and the two add on vessels requite v1.4.2.  I duly ignored this error and continued with the remainder of the flow chart.  Finally, I have everything installed.

No change.  The problem with the Solent sea forts remains unchanged.

I then read Esprit350's comments and tried deleting all of my custom missions.

Problem still exists.

Incidentally, I concur with Esprit350's positions for the chart and actual positions of all three forts.

[TerryRussell]

At step 2 the flow chart tells me to install the Elbe and the Furie.  This is not possible, at this stage I have Ship Sim v1.0 installed and the two add on vessels requite v1.4.2.  I duly ignored this error and continued with the remainder of the flow chart.

The instructions are referring to the original Dutch Version of the Elbe and Furie, not the later Shipyard release. Unless you have those, and it's not likely that you do, you can skip merrily past that point. The Shipyard version does require 1.4.2.

[NickGB]

Terry,

Your confidence in people's psychic abilities is admirable but maybe if you put something on the diagram to explain that step 2 refers to the Dutch version it would be easier to follow.  At any rate, having spent a jolly hour or so uninstalling and reinstalling Ship Sim I'm no further forward.

I suppose when all is said and done it's not of any real importance that there's a glaring error in the Solent.

[TerryRussell]

I take your point that not everyone will look all the way through to see the blue boxes at the end of the flowchart that say "install Shipyard vessels now", and that some will therefore leap in and try to install the Shipyard versions where I meant the Dutch set.

So, flowchart is now updated.