Sunday, October 9, 2011

Fizz Cup round three

Fizz Cup round three is coming to an end. On saturday we had three races in group one and three more in group two. From what I hear, all races were close, especially the fight for first, second and third place. Apparently, the conditions were tough. There are quite a few DNFs and DNCs on the scoreboard.
Joro taking first.
My internet provider had trouble with a router, so I was unable to get inworld till the last moments of the third race in group two. Talk about bad timing. These images are therefore from the finish of race three in group two. Above you see Joro winning. Incidentally, Joro won all three races in group two. That's very well done given the conditions. Dahral finished 2, 2, 4 and Hii finished 3, 3, 2.
Hii2news taking second.
There was some talk among the racers about the local winds being weird. However, if someone hates the windshifts, there is always someone else loving it. I mean, - if you're not in the puff yourself, that other team over there surely got there by chance! Not by skill, right? Hehe, I am really not sure what to make of it, but granted... we're not that used to local wind variances in Second Life.
Krysha takes third.
Strange actually. Local wind variances have been featured in the wwc and the Flying Fizz since I dunno when. 2008 at least. What it does is this: It enables us to create WWC, Winds, Waves and Currents that change over the course according to geography and ocean floor. Just like in RL. We've seen windshifts used a little, but the local wind variance feature has remained allmost untouched.
Dahral making fourth.
That's all history now. However, care must be taken to create realistic conditions; The objective is not to make the course impossible to sail. Realism is the objective. Adding local wind variations changes the game from a simple race of boat speed and boat handling. Now, there are real tactics involved. Reading the course, figuring out how that dude got to the top mark first by choosing another route. That makes racing so much more interesting.
Skyblue comes in last. The others gave up.
I guess this changes the game from arcade level to simulation. I like that. It is fun to see, that the top sailors win anyway. Maybe not quite as consistently, but - as in RL - even under difficult conditions, those same top sailors usually come out on top; Or are they just permanently luck-struck? I don't think so. In group one Ox finished 1, 2, 2, Miwha made DNF, 1, 1 and Liv came in as 2, 3, 3, so there you go.

I won't claim I know Flamenco, but I tried...
What I didn't miss was elMegros fabulous spanish party. Right after the last race, we went - ehh - somewhere to dance. I arrived in my jeans and a top, but after seeing Silbers fantastic dress, I had to do something. The beauty of SL is that you can teleport back home, look through your closet, change, and teleport back to the party in a matter of minutes, so here we are - all dressed up.
eLMegro showing us how
What's even more beautiful is, hehe, that noone can see me wearing docksides under this dress. Jeeezz, the thought of doing the Flamenco all night in high heels. All that stomping. Phew. Thanx for a wonderful party elMegro; And for a great race setup in the Gulf of Moles.

More about the Fizz Cup here. The official results are here. If you are fed up with racing, then check out the new Bolero here.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you very much to write such good articles Noodle!

    The use of LVs is indeed one of the great advances made ​​possible or brought by the Fizz Cup 2011.
    So far, this was not used in SL (but they were used in the final of the 2009 Fizz Cup already).
    Several reasons for this: an apparent complexity associated with a lack of presentation of the function, and also there was a small mistake in one of the scripts (LVs were biased). This has been corrected with the Fizz 3.08, which was updated for the Fizz Cup 2011.
    I do not know how this function is implemented in other boats, it would be interesting to know.

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  2. Thanx Bea. I was not aware of the use of LVs in Fizz Cup 2009 finals. In fact, I wasn't even aware of sailing in SL at that time. It would be very interesting to know, if the other advanced boats - with full wwc support - have that bias, you talk about.

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