A few questions before I buy SS.

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[Swim or Sink]

I've been involved with Microsoft Flight Simulator for a while now (13 years) and have been getting bored with it lately. I had Train Simulator for a while but really couldn't get into trains very much. I've been interested in Ship Simulator since about 2006, and after seeing some of the new features of 2008 I've had my interest rekindled. But before I give amazon.com (shameless plug) about $30 for Ship Simulator and New Horizions I'd like to see if what I have in mind is even possible.

I'm a Central California person with ties to the San Francisco Bay area. I would love to be able to have freighter operations out of the Bay heading for Hawaii and possibly further. I'm sort of keen on doing a few freighter runs from the Seattle down to Long Beach, and maybe a few cruise ship runs from Long Beach around Catalina and then off to Hawaii. Having a virtual airline I could even have fly and cruise operations on a virtual scale. Also, are there sites that offer freeware add-ons like ships and scenery like with Flight Simulator? I would love to have a Blue and Gold Fleet sightseeing boat for Bay operations as well. I have done some aircraft design and painting, I would love to get into painting (repainting) ships.

As far as operations, are there such things as virtual shipping companies or cruise lines? We have virtual airlines, my own airline I inherited from my father and it's been around since 1998. It would be nice to see organization like that. Any help that can be offered will be appreciated.

[Kapn Jonah]

Hey Sarah,

Unfortunately, you can not make custom environments or ships. SSE (ShipSim Extremes) is being released in the first quarter of 2010, and will have a huge amount of new environments and ships.

If you look at http://shipsim.com/features/ships.php you will see all the vessels included in the game, and by looking HERE (http://shipsim.com/features/environments.php) then you will find all the environments included in the game.

So basically, your freighter routes, can not be possible, however, San Fransisco to Phi Phi Islands is pretty good

And yes, there are virtual shipping companies, i own two of them, Naftis Line (http://naftisline.freehostia.com/) and Blue Star Line (http://bluestarline.smfforfree.com).

We make forums for our Virtual Lines, and host Multiplayer servers, etc, etc. If you want more info, just send me a PM

By the way, there are new ships in the Ship Yard, that you can pay for to add into the game. There is one, that is free, called the Jumbo Javelin, and there is also a bundle for the Red Eagle. You can view the shipyard by going Here (http://shipsim.com/shipyard/shipyard.php). The Ocean Star and Agile Solution are both in the New Horizons addon, and the Furie and Elbe are 2 vessels that need to be paid for if you want them in the game.
Regards,
Jonah

[Swim or Sink]

It seems what you're saying is the modeled open water but not so much shoreline. If you were to do a major container shipment from New York to Rotterdam, would that be possible? Is Gibraltar modeled for Med Ops? Are all of the ships available in every area of the world modeled?

[Kapn Jonah]

If you read my post, i gave links to the ports/oceans included, aswell as the ships. I have no idea what Gibraltar for Med Ops means. But yes, definitely, NY to Rotterdam would be possible. You would start off in NY, leave the port, switch environments, be in an ocean, and when your done in the ocean, you will once again respawn in Rotterdam. To do this, you just need to use the included mission editor. I can explain in more detail, how to create a new mission, but im sure you will figure it out yourself.

Each vessel in the game, can be used in ANY environment in the game, there are no limits in the Free Roaming mode, they can be used wherever, whenever. Trust me, this game is worth the money!

Regards,
Jonah

[Dave M]

Hi Sarah,
SS08 at the moment is mainly about handling ships in a busy port. There is only one stretch of open water and that is the Atlantic. Each environment is separate and you move between them by being transported from one environment to the other. It is not one seamless environment like it is in flight simulators. There are nine port environments.

There is a new version of SS08, (Ship Simulator Extremes), that is due out sometime in 2010. Nobody yet knows what this version will be like.

This is a young piece of software, it has only been around for two years and it is improving all the time.

Regards, Dave

[Kapn Jonah]

Well Dave, there are more than just one sea, there are Bergen Sea, Marseille Mediteranean, Pacific, and Atlantic

[Dave M]

Hi Kapn Jonah,
That isn't right. The only open sea environment is the Atlantic. The Pacific is only the outer reaches of San Fransisco harbour. The Mediteranean is only the outer reaches of Marseille. The Bergen Sea? There are the approaches to Hamburg, I thought that was the North Sea?
Regards, Dave

[mvsmith]

The various sea environments are all nearly identical: They are empty patches of ocean approximately 15 nautical miles in diameter that have been assigned arbitrary GPS coordinates near the named ports.

As a practical matter, they can be used to represent any ocean area if one ignores the name and the GPS coordinates. Very few missions make reference to GPS coordinates, partly because they are not easily set in the mission editor.

You could, in principal, construct a mission to cover the entire distance from, say, Rotterdam to NY by using a few ocean environments over and over. Alternatively, one can travel over 150 miles in a single environment by traversing it 10 times along separate tracks. In that case, there is no delay between tracks as there is in switching to a new environment.

“Titanic 2 Maiden Voyage” is a mission that goes from Southampton to NY using three ocean environments: Solent English Channel, Atlantic, NY North Atlantic. It takes about 4 ½ hours to complete.

[Kapn Jonah]

Hi Kapn Jonah,
That isn't right. The only open sea environment is the Atlantic. The Pacific is only the outer reaches of San Fransisco harbour. The Mediteranean is only the outer reaches of Marseille. The Bergen Sea? There are the approaches to Hamburg, I thought that was the North Sea?
Regards, Dave

Thats right Dave, i meant North not Bergen. But the rest i listed, are individual environments, atleast on my SS 

[Traddles]

Hi Sarah,
Welcome to the forum. This link will enable you to get some idea of what is involved in both Ship Simulator 2008 and Ship Simulator Extremes. I should mention perhaps that the minimum computer specs. required for the game are quite high, and whilst Microsoft Flight Simulator may well work OK on your machine these games require quite a high spec. machine to play well.
http://www.shipsim.com/home.php  This other link will give some more help as to what can be done with the game.
http://www.shipsim.com/ShipSimForum/index.php/topic,2886.0.html  I hope this will clear things up for you.

Kind regards,
Angus.

[mvsmith]

Hi Angus,
I don’t think Sarah will be able to access my documents if she has not registered SS2008. I’d be happy to post direct links to them in this topic. Alternatively, if she would like to send an email to me, I’ll attach them to a reply and add her to the mailing list for updates.
Regards,
Marty

[Traddles]

Oops, Thanks for that Marty. Old age is creeping up too fast.   My apologies to you Sarah, in my haste to help I have made a boo,boo.

Angus.

[mvsmith]

Hi Angus,
I think I can send the documents to Sarah at AirFresno. If she confirms that, I’ll do so.
Regards,
Marty

It’s a week early for BOO BOO Angus.