It was in 2009 the Leg of that VORG from Gothenburg to Stockholm, that I started with Virtual Sailing.
After that VORG, I did some trials and test and ultimately decided that LiveSkipper was the best virtual Sailing Player for me.
After that time, now some 6 years back, I still sail in LiveSkipper with a lot of pleasure, but hate to say that sailing this years VORG was terrible, as if the time was turned back to the old days.
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| LiveSkipper Virtual Sailing Player |
In 2009, the LiveSkipper Virtual Sailing Player was already better than the VORG player , but the progress that LiveSkipper made over the last years , did not show in the VORG players. The 2012 VORG player from United Games, was indeed better than the previous one, but this years VORG from VR is worse again, not better even than the 2008 VORG player.
To name just a couple of Advantages of LiveSkipper(LS):
- the LS player uses the complete screen, to offer a very wide and clear view on the sailing routes.
- LS maps show the shorelines clearly in yellow , zooming in upto pixel accuracy
- LS is free to play, with all options like auto-pilot, auto-sail, Waypoints, scheduler with 4 Marks (for optimal sailing while you sleep)
- LS offers a clear and easy to use polar diagram , see pop-up window in the game.
- LS offers upto 24hrs polar projections, (see the red lines ahead of my boat), that show the distance you can sail with the present sail choice in 3, 6, 9 upto 24 hours in each direction, dynamic taking the wind forecast for the future projection lines. This allows a good view on wind forecast and with the marks and scheduler a good tool for route optimization.
- LS offers a ruler, that allows you to set a course, measure distances, check on heading to a target, indicates sailing time to a target point, show loxodromic and orthodromic shortest distances to a target.
- the Windforecast goes in steps upto 7 days.
- LS has a very good detailed manual, in the form of LiveSkipper wiki, in 3 languages, French, Spanish and English
- LS has a very active Forum again in the 3 languages, where questions are answered quickly
- LS has a chatroom, which you can even turn into a private chatroom.
- LS has less players, than the previous VORG's, which contributes to better and more enjoyable sailing.
If you have touched on virtual sailing and like to continue it, or you look to start with Virtual Sailing, or when you like to enjoy your Virtual Sailing even more, now is the time to connect to LiveSkipper.
You may contact me here, or in Liveskipper forum or send a PM in LiveSkipper and I will answer your questions and help you to get started.
Fair Winds.
19 September 2014
Also this time the VOR will be possible to sail from your Armchair alongside the real Boats. This year another virtual sailing player, Virtual Regatta (VR) has been chosen as VORG player.
To learn this player and train, there is a Prologue sailing Race from Isle of Man to Alicante, starting from 15 September 2014 onwards.
virtual VolvoOceanRaceGame
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| View of VolvoOceanRace virtual sailing game to be used for 2014-15 |
For those skippers, that sailed the last version of VORG, there will be a lot to get used to, as this player has less features and looks more expensive than last time. Anyway , the basic player is free to use.
NO MONEY SAILORS
The present virtual sailing player for VOR2014, is rather basic as any modern features has to be pruchased. This makes the playing field favored towards the spenders and the in-frequent wind-updates centered on the European skippers disturbs the even playing field even more.
Therefore..........a group of skippers have agreed to sail only the Basic Boat without Any Options. This Group is called the No Money Sailors, or in french SO, Sanse Options. Please join our No Money Sailors group, for a lot of exciting and challenging Sailing races with a lot of extra fun, but........most important an EVEN PLAYING FIELD.
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June 2012
For those adicted virtual sailors that like to continue virtual sailing after the VORG is over, there are several other virtual Sailing Games.
I have tried some of them and made a kind of comparison to see what I would prefer to continue with .
Here is my Report on comparison of Virtual Sailing Games.
Fair winds and I like to sail with You again.
6 February 2012
The Player has a new feature: The CHAT. This feature allows players to chat with the players in their own groups. It has been stated as this is still in beta development but seeing the success, I think it will be fully released before the start of Leg 4.
You can chat within any of your Groups and on top of that, it allows you to set up a chat-room with any player your select from the on-line players list. Players will not be able to see the chats made in other groups.
20 January 2012
The VolvoOceanRaceGame Player is behaving well, even with as many as 160.000 boats.
Some new features have become life.
- The Group feature. This allows to create you own group of be-friended players, which shows the rankings for groups members as well. Each group has its own Forum only accessable for group-members, thus very nice to discuss group strategies and maybe create your own alternative race within the VOR player.
- The sail wear feature. From Leg3 onward the wear of Sails will be part of the challenge. Using the wrong sail in too strong winds, may rip your sail after which the boat speed reduces to 50% only. A repair kit can be purchased to repair the sails to full efficiency , and an insurance against ripping a sail is offered.
26 October 2011
A training Sailing race with the updated VORG was held last week. During this race, 2 large outage were caused by server communication problems. Several functions were found not to be working correct and other functionality was not working at all. So a short time to make corrections!
A pre-race is organised in the VORG player on 29th October , to sail from Alicante around the islands of Mallorca.
My problem with VORG is , that the basic player is that much basic that is will be impossible to keep in pace with the leaders. The good fast sails, any Waypoints, the auto-angle and auto-sail and some additional energy , this ALL has to be bought for any decent results.
I have requested VOR to make a separate ranking for basic players, but do not expect that to happen; it is not in the commercial interest of VOR.
A wiki is being written on the VORG player as a manual to support and help the players with the interface and the Game.
13 October 2011
The final version of the new VolvoOceanRaceGame Player (VORG) is available for a training Sailing race.
Registration opens Today 13 October from 15:00 gmt.
The Sailing Race will start on this player on Friday 14 October at 13:00 gmt.
Fair winds.
5 October 2011
The final version of the VolvoOceanRaceGame Player is announced, including Apps. for Android and iPhone. This will be launched on October 29, the day of the in-port racing in Alicante.
Another two test Races will be organised with the player to allow us to train on the functionality's and features and maybe to get the last bugs out.
- an open beta test race from October 14 to October 18
- an official Practice Race from October 29 to November 2
5August 2011
Another test race had started before I was aware of it. This time it sails around a cyclone in HongKong waters. What the special test is for, is not explained.
5 July 2011
A third Beta test race has started mainly to test the new Android App. If you're interested in this app. it seems to be available here
VORG android app.
11 June 2011
This is the information on reduction on Crew Energy while performing some actions:
sail change :- 9 % energy
heading change :- 3 % energy
WP and auto sail :- 6 % energy, but be sure it cost you, pity that not more information on these are given.
Recovery :- 0.5 % per 10 min cycle, so 3 % per hour if you don't touch anything.
So a sail change is recovered in 3 hrs, a heading change in 1 hr and the usage of WP programmer in 2 hrs.
3June 2011
The VORG Beta II player has some new functionality:
- a check button for "auto angle" ; little explanation given, but I think this is a lock between wind direction and boat heading. Consequence will be that the boat has to turn with a change in wind direction. Be careful when engaging as you may see unwanted heading changes.
- a check button for "auto sail"; this is said to change the sail to the optimum sail for the wind conditions and is also automatically engaged when the WP scheduler is set.
- wind barbs and gridline; this is a BIG gain as now it is clear where the blocks for wind conditions are.
- the concept of Crew Energy: this will reduce with each action and if it becomes too low also reduce the boat-speed. no further information.
In the Forum there are many comments/questions as to the proper working of both new functions; I could not try it, other then seeing the check in auto-sail when I engaged the WP's, but no sail change was required. Auto-Angle for sure did not work for me at the Start of this 2nd Test-Race.
We lost also a functionality it seems:
- the indication for 12 hrs and 24 hrs sailing distance is not longer available. This is a pity as it gave a fair idea of sailing distance and helped to decide when to make a turn.
28 May 2011
The VolvoOceanRaceGame BETA II is coming.
Today a new key is distributed to Participate in the a 2nd Beta Race with hopefully an improved player.
Registration with the new Key is required.
THE SECOND VORG BETA II RACE from SANYA to ABU DHABI WILL
START WEDNESDAY 1st JUNE2011 AT 11:00 UTC
26 May 2011
An announcement from VolvoOceanRaceGame tells that early June a 2nd Race will be Started with the Beta player. New registrations can be made here VORG Beta registration
19May2011
HURRAY ... I have Finished my trip with the VORG II - Beta from Alicante to Galway.
16May2011
A NEW Player has been designed for the Volvo Ocean Race Game 2011-2012.
This player is ready as Beta and available for interested sailors to test.
A first "test" Race from Alicante to Galway has been organised. It started this race on 4th May 2011. Some 2100 + players are participating in this beta-test.
Compared to modern Sailing Simulators, like LiveSkipper , the new VORG player is considered (by me) as one of the former generation of Sailing simulators.
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