It is a very big shame that this childish game has in the name the word “Simulatorâ€. It doesn’t fit at all.
I’m on Ship Simulator since 10 years, more or less, being maybe one of the first who bought the game at day one. It was a very good start, surely far from a real ship handling simulator and far from the counterpart Flight Simulator (this one deserves the name simulator a bit more) as well. A lot of things to improve, but I was (we were) confident.
Unfortunately, things went different: since then I didn’t see any improvement, any development. We have three different versions of this game which are pratically same. Obviously, each of them well payed.
I just want now to write some of the very disappointing issues i have found on this game since the very first time i played and, as i said, never solved. And let me just say in real life I work on board ships as Deck Officer: this just to clarify I am talking about something I know, it’s not just chatting.
First of all the ship’s dynamics are not convincing. This is maybe a not so easy topic to discuss about so I will just say that since the beginning the ship’s dynamic models have been changed a lot of times. Ships’ behaviours have been changed many times but the ships implemented in the game are always the same (I’m talking about ships, not about boats).
Somewhere I even read Vstep said the ships’ models ingame have been made using real projects (I remember this was said about Pride of Rotterdam). Hell! Forgive me if I think this a bullshit, but I remember in all these years even very macroscopic characteristics have been changed many times! For example, on Ship Simulator 2008 Pride of Rotterdam was equipped with Stern Thrusters. Same topic applies to other ships too (Orient Star, in some version, was fitted with Stern Thruster, Vermaas was without thruster, same for Latitude and so on).
Every update we get some absurd updates. To keep talking about Vermaas, I remember after an update it was impossible to use the ship because to get the thrusters to 100% load it was necessary about 3 or 4 minutes. LOL!
Let’s talk about multiplayer. Always sucked a lot. Bugged as hell. And always some bugs: ghost ships, ships disappearing, ships stuck, ships with different positions for every client connected. And no bollards! Impossible to moor the ship when playing online. But it’s not even possible to fully interact with other players: if a pilot boat come alongside the ships will bounce together and maybe get some damage. And please don’t talk about tugs! Pushing it’s impossible for the same reason, but even towing you can’t hope too much.
The most ridicolus thing: THE WIND! Absolutely no effect on the ship. Slow or high speed doesn’t have any impact: the ship will keep going where the bow is heading. If the rudder is amidships the heading will not change, even out of bridge wind is blowing over 50 knots. I ask myself why on the very minimal hud (another step back compared to SS2008) the COG is shown, since is never different from the heading (only when the ship is moving backwards!). No current as well, of course. Too much. But we have the waves! Funny eh? Even with 10 meters swell or wave the ship will keep the heading.
Some of the 3D models of the ships have very evident errors which maybe affect the ship’s behaviour. The Pride of Rotterdam, again as example, is fitted with two rudder abaft each propeller. On the game, the starboard propeller doesn’t have rudder: the rudders are fitted one on the port propeller and one on the longitudinal axis!
AZIPODS! Before this last update, on the Orient Star, if I go hard-a-starboard with the helm (35°), I could see the azipod moving 360°! 5° was then corresponding to 22° of actual azipod angle and 15° order was 90° of actual angle! Seeying this thing I really can’t stop asking myself if the people working at Vstep they have even a rough idea of what they are doing. Now this problem seems solved: we don’t see anymore the azipod indivudal control moving, but who knows what is really happening in the simulator?
Artificial Intelligence, aka non-playing ship. I really have no words to say how much it sucks. I can’t say how many times I closed the game because a kamikaze ship hit my bow or my stern while swinging. But I can say it’s almost everytime. You can say “Well, just disable the traffic!â€, then I will reply “Thanks to the dumb Vstep programmers, if i disable the traffic, i can’t have bollards on the environment!â€.
Moorings? In SS2008 it was possible to give more lines to a single bollards. Now is no more allowed. Even this part of the simulation it’s implemented like the worst arcade game. And I totally forgot to say in some environments it’s impossible to go alongside because when you touch, doesn’t matter how smooth, you will be bounced.
I’m sure I am forgetting a lot of things to say (crappy graphic engine?). This happens when there is a lot of stuff to say.
I am sorry to all the forum user’s for this wall of text, but I am pretty sure maybe someone will agree with me.
This is not a simulator, not even a game, it’s a very early alpha version of an arcade game. The worse thing is the support of the software house: no support at all, no bug solving, no suggestions accepted. Only addons, pay addons obviously.
