Sailing a huge passenger liner from Naples to Los Angeles, real time, real weather, with a passenger program like FSPassenger would be the ultimate ship simulator!
Hi cjordan:
The subject has been discussed at length.
To add the ability to do a meaningful long sea voyage would involve a massive development effort on the part of VSTEP. For one thing it would require a spherical environment instead of the 10 nm square flat environments currently used. Also, to support the activities on the bridge during a sea transit requires navigational plotting facilities, improved RADAR simulation, moving weather systems along with access to weather reports, and many other features that are not implemented in the present sim.
Most of those who ask for this also want an autopilot and/or 16X time acceleration so that they don’t actually have to endure the trip.
Before they are willing to commit the resources to such a program, I think VSTEP would need to be convinced that a significant number of customers would actually make use of those features.
A test—designed for that purpose—has shown that the number of users who would complete a long sea transit mission, even one lasting less than five hours, is 1 in 77 downloads. The number showing no interest at all is much higher.
I think this is a dead issue, at least for the foreseeable future.
Regards
Marty
