Choices of Sailing

[Pioneer]

Oh the quandry we sometimes find ourselves in.:D

T'is been a while since I hoisted the halyard and raced round the bouys - or even the Great Southern Ocean. Even my father made a comment over the phone last night.

So after some searching I have narrowed the field down to the following potential purchases.

Sail Simulator 4 (http://www.sailsimulator.com/)

Virtual Skipper 4 (http://www.virtualskipper-game.com/index_vsk4.htm)

Ive not been able to find a side by side comparison of both. One has the Tornado, the other has the Hobie Formula 18, both a pair of cats I have raced IRL successfully (we'll just ignore that World Championship Qualifier where I dismasted at the start for a moment)

I have a prior version of VS (first release maybe?) but not even touched a demo of Sail Sim 4. Some input please.

[vsksnoopy]

Haven't played Sail Simulator for long, dont even know which version. But if you are interested in racing, the favourite is Virtual Skipper 4.

see: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=102788

[Corsair]

Have been playing the Virtual Skipper series since the beginning.
If you like online sailing, the actual world ladder has more than 10.000 rated players. Lots of fan websites in all kind of countries (I was at the start of what is now Virtual Winds - the french speaking community website) online gaming every day available and tons of "official" competitions.
PS ; VSK4 also gives the community the possibility to build new boats and import them in the game. At the moment I have ACC, ACC 2007, 12m JI, Offshore, Melges 24, Laser, Tornado, HC 18, Swan 445, X 79, X 332, Wally 130, 60' Multi, Orma Multi, Volvo 70', Dragon, even the original America...

[Pioneer]

Apologies, I didn't see that thread when I did a search.
I've played and own VS original but where I was living when I bought it was on dial up.

However, if the Tornado is in VS.....:p

Late: I probably should have asked, in single player what's the greatest number of boats per race available? I think in the original it was 7 others.

[Corsair]

I rarely play solo since even the "pro" AI is too easy to beat and I find more interesting to play against other guys, but I confirm the max opponents is still 7.
For information, VSK5 is due out in April, featuring the 32nd America's Cup in Valencia.

PS : forgot to add also there is now a powerful course editor allowing you to create your own races in all the diffrent places, plus the possibility of creating environments from scratch in tropical and nordic landscapes. All include now tools to create your own fields of winds and currents, and also add traffic - different boats, helicopters, airplanes. Just have to watch out that boat AI is still dumb and can't see land (this is why you can have much more interesting racing courses when playing online)

[gamers2000]

Ain't played any games before,but I'm curious. Has anyone here sailed on the itsy-bitsy Optimist? I used too when I was young,and got bored of it. O_O

[Heer Kapitain]

I just got Virtual Skipper 3 recently and i am still trying to get around it. oh and this one is much better that the previous virtual skipper.

[SUBMAN1]

I just got Virtual Skipper 3 recently and i am still trying to get around it. oh and this one is much better that the previous virtual skipper.

Is it still StarForce protected? I still refuse to load StarForce on my system. My burners never worked the same since my last try.

-S

[NeonSamurai]

Last i saw Nadeo was still using starforce to protect its releases (like its most recent game Trackmania United is indeed infested with startforce)