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Author Topic: Highscores  (Read 940 times)

Merlijn

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  • Posts: 35
Highscores
« on: February 09, 2008, 04:12:16 »

Hello there,

I am wondering about the best high scores. How is it possible for some of those times to be achieved in the mission? For example the 'massive towing job for Fairmount' has a best time of only 06:17. How is that practically possible? Is there some hidden turbo button on those people's engine? In 6 min I have only reached the oil platform with 1 tug...

Other missions are similarly impossible in my eyes/opinion.  Or are those people crashing their vessels to get to the destination?  Or using full astern to 'stop' the VLCC?

In my opinion, to have 'time' as the basis for a high score in missions is wrong. It does not always matter how long it takes to complete a mission, but rather 'how' u get to the finish line. How much damage does the vessel have? How many engine maneuvers did u do? In reality there is a definite limit to the amount of engine start/stop u can do while mooring a vessel. Anyway, just a thought from a practical point of view...

Anyone?

Brgds,

Yves
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Mad_Fred

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Re: Highscores
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2008, 04:30:04 »

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!  ;D

Regards,
Fred

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Merlijn

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  • Posts: 35
Re: Highscores
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2008, 04:37:20 »

Ey Fred,

Yeah, I fully agree with u.

I dont really try to do my missions as fast as possible, I was only wondering how those superfast times could be achieved. True, I had not thought about casting off the towing wire and only taking one tug to the finish. Haha. That completely bypasses the idea of the whole mission. I had lotsa fun maneuvring the two tugs to get the rig to turn to port...

Ah, talking about COLREGS, I dont think that the other vessels in the sim are following any colregs... In a few missions I was clearly having priority but the other vessels followed their predetermined route and simply cut in front of me because they reached their waypoint. Oh, or was that because they have Indonesian officers on the bridge?  :-\

In any case, I do hope that a more realistic high score system would be developed.

Brgds,

Yves
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Mad_Fred

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Re: Highscores
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2008, 04:44:16 »

Hey Yves,

Yes the AI vessels are not really an AI. They are just following their paths. Also something that will become better in the future.

For now, we'll just have to avoid these kamikazee skippers.  :)  (I don't know their nationality tbh...  ;) )

Regards,
Fred
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