Facebook

Login

Support Sailonline

If you haven't already - join the SAILONLINE YACHT CLUB!

Please also consider making a donation - all amounts are greatly appreciated!

Board » Technical Support » Ideas for SOL development

Page: 1 2 3 Next

Posted by
Karri


Users avatar

Posts
42
Registered at
2012-11-12 13:17:29
2014-01-30 13:57:41 - Ideas for SOL development
Here a few ideas, more like food for thought as I know we are operating on limited voluntary resources:

1. Create a search engine for sailonline.org, and especially the forum. This could possibly be done with tools provided by Google

2. Add a possibility to see all races one has participated in SOL. Now you can see 30 last races in ranking, but it would be nice to see all, possibly sortable by date, race, position. This could be a part of Profile page

3. Chat development: Currently we have numerous instances of chat ongoing, one possible development direction would be to integrate them all so that regardless in which race you are, you see all chatting. This chat could also be accessible even if you are not in a race.

4. Make key information and tools available at SOL site. For noobs it is difficult to find all of the tools and info (e.g. polars, wind GRIBs etc. available on brainaid’s site) This would partially also serve marketing to lower the threshold of starting and learning. Maybe even start a wiki where everybody can contribute e.g. based on forum discussion

5. Improvements to gameplay: Extend weather slider in client to past, also show boat location at points in history

6. Improvements to gameplay: Include boat course and speed indication when pointer hovered over boat (now only displays name and rank)

If there is a thread for ideas for SOL development, I did not manage to find it despite some considerable effort. Thus I started a new one, if one already exists, this can be merged to that.
My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I'm right.
Posted by
WIN


Users avatar

Posts
356
Registered at
2009-07-09 23:32:07
2014-01-30 19:56:30 - Re: Ideas for SOL development
Ciao Karri

congrats for your success in Leg two of Timed Races Championship .

As SOL Coordinator I think you should be thanked first of all for supporting SOL with ideas , and in that role I wish to give you here the very short and very very preliminary answers ...( mainly because your idea span through various skills needed and I do ot have half of them ! ;) )

1- I think SOL is already well up in search engine Google ...I do not know if forum threads are , but think so ...will suggest that some experimenting is done ...

2- Your input carries the need for a much more powerful and flexible DB ..The profile thing seems to me much easier and closer in time than the interaction and sorting capabilities you mention , but both could be looked at .

3- The idea of chat being independent from acual race window is good ; it is today linked to race registration though , and some software development would be needed there too I guess.

4- What you refer to is property of third party ...linking is easy ...embedding is not ...but it could happen one day ..It needs to be discussed with Brainaid as an example ....

5- It is a nice idea ..I have no clue as to feasibility . In actual facts you suggest to make the beginning of a grib file at zero plus 12 hours ( as an example ) and basically keep in client the 12 to 18 hours previous to now ....other thing is to ask client to record boat position in the past and be able to show it on demand ...we would need Aaron for that ;((

6- This is simple answer : NO ! ...one of the fundamental rules of SOL ( see manual ) is that no one player knows navigation data of competitors ) ..This rule is already broken by some tools available to solers , that I have more than once declared I am opposing to....now you suggest instant full information on competitors by pointing of mouse ...well it may happen , but not with my vote ! LOL

Once again ...THANK YOU

I am sure that those who serve SOL as volunteers have already started to think !!!

ciao

Piero
;))
Posted by
kroppyer


Users avatar

Posts
347
Registered at
2010-02-05 15:25:55
2014-01-30 21:52:14 - Re: Ideas for SOL development
Adding some points, some of which have been previously discussed.

7. CLIENT: Improve "boathandling": increase the accuracy of the shown boat position. See here and here

8. CLIENT: Show "new course"-line when manually entering a heading (possibly only for COG, or TWA when delay is not checked).

9. CLIENT: store dashboard display mode in local memory, so that I don't have to alt-click every time I reload the client.

10. new performance loss system (see this thread)

11. include performance loss in predictor line calculation

-----

Clarification on point 1: I think karriv meant a search bar on the sol website, to search the forum, or the whole site.

To all points mentioned, except 4 and 6, I vote a clear yes :) It's just that someone has to eventually realise it.. and that might take a while. But still nice to have a list.

About point 4 (including external tools in the sol website): It's not that simple... I think I would agree with some part of this, and disagree with other parts. And I know I have a different opinion than many others. There are many different opinions.

About point 6 (showing heading of competitors): I think I understand both sides. At this point the data about other boats (heading+position) is public, but for most only viewable via hmm's sollog and via the client. I don't think it's right to try to hide this data. But I agree that it could make the game a lot more interesting to limit the amount of information about the competitors. THOUGH: competitors in sight (within 10nm or so) should always be visible. This should be thought about well. There probably some technicalities here too. Meanwhile, I think we shouldn't change anything on what data is available about the competitors.

--- Last Edited by kroppyer at 2014-01-30 21:57:24 ---
Posted by
hmm


Users avatar

Posts
118
Registered at
2011-11-03 13:35:22
2014-01-31 09:22:49 - Re: Ideas for SOL development
Thanks for starting a good thread, most of the ideas are of course not new but it's good to have a list in public for discussion.

From Karri's list, I'll here comment on things which I think should be pretty easy to do:


1. Google search engine for sailonline.org
- I'm not expert in web technologies but I believe this is easy and also I think that someone could pretty easily do it without access to the code. When it's done it can be added to the web page.

2. List all users races in one page
- This is pretty easy to do, let's see what I can do about it.

3. Without changing the clients and with pretty small changes to backend we could have "global" and "race" chats. That would be that the global chats would be shared for all races and race chats would be for that race only like they are now.

So basically we could add global chatrooms for each language to the client.

4. Bringing the 3rd party tools to SOL site is of course doable, easy way to do this would just create x.sailonline.org domain name for them. I.e. brainaid.sailonline.org, agage.sailonline.org.

The gameplay things are harder to do as they need changes to the client and for history also the server api has to return that data.
Posted by
kroppyer


Users avatar

Posts
347
Registered at
2010-02-05 15:25:55
2014-01-31 12:00:06 - Re: Ideas for SOL development
This userscript adds a searchbar to the sol website.
- search engine is registered on my name
- I only did placement, layout isn't very pretty right now.

preview

[userscript works local, nothing has changed on the website itself, it's you browser that (if you install the script) changes the appearance]

--- Last Edited by kroppyer at 2014-01-31 12:06:18 ---
Attachments
Posted by
Tyger / Robert Neilson


Users avatar

Posts
108
Registered at
2012-05-28 15:07:00
2014-01-31 12:17:06 - Re: Ideas for SOL development
hmm said @ 2014-01-31 09:22:49:
1. Google search engine for sailonline.org
- I'm not expert in web technologies but I believe this is easy and also I think that someone could pretty easily do it without access to the code. When it's done it can be added to the web page.
---
There is a facility here to generate the code to embed Google search into a website: Google Custom Search

You can insert into the whole website or just a particular part ie. SOL Forum.
Probably best that someone with the authority to do so (Markku) ticks the boxes and agrees to terms.

“We may have arrived on different ships, but we are all in the same boat now!” Martin Luther King Jr.
Posted by
Rod


Users avatar

Posts
392
Registered at
2010-06-24 22:30:48
2014-02-03 02:44:17 - Re: Ideas for SOL development
They say that Half of sailboat racing is Starting.
The Second Half is the strategy of sailing the course in relation to the wind.
The Third Half is knowledge of and obedience to the Racing Rules of Sailing.
While SOL deals with the Second Half exceedingly well, it completely neglects the First Half (Starting) and the Third Half (which covers Right of Way and the Rounding of Marks).
Please, in any planned development of the SOL program, give serious consideration to the First and Third Halves.
If it breaks, it's not strong enough--if it doesn't, it's too heavy.
Posted by
kroppyer


Users avatar

Posts
347
Registered at
2010-02-05 15:25:55
2014-02-03 10:06:01 - Re: Ideas for SOL development
Rod, I would classify that is very close to impossible. With over 200 boats starting, hopefully increasing to 500 or even more, it's not really desirable to start with collisions/RRS enabled. Besides, it makes it impossible to sail on DCs. There's also that it invites unfair play: others could ram someone to slow him down and let their friend win. IRL there are all sorts of collision detectors, but on SOL, that's a bit hard, because we're not on our boat 24/7.

My opinion: SOL is a NavSim, the game is choosing the best route to the finish.

--- Last Edited by kroppyer at 2014-02-03 10:06:51 ---
Posted by
Karri


Users avatar

Posts
42
Registered at
2012-11-12 13:17:29
2014-03-02 20:10:40 - Re: Ideas for SOL development
kroppyer, how do you install that search thing you made? Would it be possible to get that running on server side?
My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I'm right.
Posted by
kroppyer


Users avatar

Posts
347
Registered at
2010-02-05 15:25:55
2014-03-03 00:21:49 - Re: Ideas for SOL development
installing a userscript

Firefox:
1. install greasemonkey (plugin for firefox)
2. click the link to the userscript, and a window should pop up that let's you install the script

Chrome/chromium:
1. download and save the file
2. go to menu->tools->extensions (or go to chrome://extensions/ directly)
3. drag the file in the browser

Internet Explorer:
1. get another browser
2. get instructions for that browser

Other:
Use a search engine of your preference to look for instructions

--- Last Edited by kroppyer at 2014-03-03 10:48:02 ---

Page: 1 2 3 Next

Please login to post a reply.

Races

Next Race: 00d 00h 00m

Current Races:

SSANZ Round North Island Race 2026 - Leg 3

Leg Three of our Round North Island Series, in partnership with SSANZ, keeps the pressure on! From Cook Strait, the fleet turns north for a 187 nautical mile passage up the east coast to Napier. It may look like a quick overnighter, but shifting coastal winds and the ever-lively Cook Strait demand sharp focus. In our responsive Sun Fast 3600s, a proven short-handed racer and powerful downwind performer, tactical decisions and precise timing will make all the difference!

The start time for this race may change at short notice to align with the real race. The confirmed start date and time will be announced via an in-race “L” flag message — Please monitor race communications closely.
Race #2013
INFO by brainaid.de
Sun Fast 3600 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: RNI - SUPBUD - SYC
Race starts: Mar 08th 21:00 Registration will open soon
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Dyer Dhow Derby 2026


Most winter weekends, SOLer wsguerin and his friends at the Mamaroneck Frostbite Association venture forth on Long Island Sound to race Dyer Dhows, originally designed as WWII tenders. Indestructible little boats, great comradeship and serious short sharp races of 10 to 20 minutes duration. Sailonline now invites you to experience the joys of the Dhow in winter, virtually, by way of a slightly longer 14nm race: from Mamaroneck to Execution Rocks, over to the Gong Buoy and back to Mamaroneck. And if the wind pipes up to 20kn and beyond, you'll find SOL's customized polar will plane, rather than nosedive!
Race #2017
INFO by brainaid.de
Dyer Dhow PARTICULARS
NAM_AWIP WX Updates:
0245 / 0845 / 1445 / 2045
Ranking: SPQ1 - SPCH - SYC
Race starts: Mar 07th 13:00 Registration will open soon
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

South China Sea Race 2026


Welcome all to the South China Sea and a virtual chase in Cookson 50’s of the Rolex South China Sea fleet, racing 650nm – as the local red-footed booby flies – from Hong Kong to Subic Bay on the southern tip of The Philippines’ Luzon Island. Chances are it will be a fast downwind ride, so see how you can keep up with the real-life fleet which we hope to be able to follow on our monitors.
Race #2016
INFOby brainaid.de
Cookson 50 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: SUPBUD - SYC
Race starts: Mar 04th 03:20 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

SSANZ Round North Island Race 2026 - Leg 2

Leg Two of our Round North Island Series is where the real challenge begins. After Mangonui, our SOLers face a demanding 491nm passage around the top of the North Island and down the rugged west coast toward Cook Strait. Long miles, exposed waters, and relentless tactical choices will test every SOLer. In our powerful Sun Fast 3600s, a proven short-handed performer and true downwind flyer, endurance, timing, and smart routing will be key to success!

The start time for this race may change at short notice to align with the real race. The confirmed start date and time will be announced via an in-race “L” flag message — Please monitor race communications closely.
Race #2012
INFO by brainaid.de
Sun Fast 3600 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: RNI - SUPBUD - SYC
Race starts: Mar 02nd 21:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Iceland to the Falklands 2026

Welcome to an all-new route, the first of three Round the 'Old World' of Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia. To give each leg of the ROW a bit of length we'll try to hug the coasts as little as possible, so starting in Iceland our first leg of the series, which will also be the final leg of our Quarter 1 Ocean Championships takes us 7200nm to the Falklands, the full length of the Atlantic end to end. To make sure we'll get it done within the month we'll be sailing our Maxi Trimaran.
Race #2010
INFO by brainaid.de
Maxi Trimaran PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: OCQ1 - ROW - OCCH - SYC
Race starts: Mar 02nd 11:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

SSANZ Round North Island Race 2026 - Leg 1

Welcome to Leg One of the Round North Island Series in partnership with SSANZ. The four-leg circuit of New Zealand’s North Island is a true test of short-handed skill, and it begins with the 150nm passage from Auckland to Mangonui. This year, our SOLers will be racing the dynamic Sun Fast 3600 – Jeanneau’s renowned racer-cruiser and a proven flyer downwind. A gentle opener on paper… but coastal tactics and shifting breezes will demand focus from the start!
Race #2011
INFO by brainaid.de
Sun Fast 3600 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: RNI - SUPBUD - SYC
RACE CLOSE: Thursday,
March 5 at 2300 UTC.
Race starts: Feb 28th 21:00 Registration Closed
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

San Diego to Puerto Vallarta 2026

Welcome to California! Established in 1953 this 1000-mile run from San Diego to Puerto Vallarta on the Mexican Riviera has become a tradition and online as well the tradition strengthens with this the fourth time Sailonline is making the race available to virtual sailors. Let's see how our virtual SC70s perform against the real fleet!
Race #2015
INFO by brainaid.de
Santa Cruz 70 Particulars
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: SUPBUD - SYC
Race starts: Feb 28th 20:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Beketov by Balloon 2026 - In Siberia


Way-back-when France and England, and Spain as well, were squabbling about who should control what of North America, only to lose the most of it to their own insurging colonists, their eastern European neighbour empire, Russia, was quietly assimilating vast, thinly nomadically populated territory of its own – Siberia! Amongst the many explorers and adventurers that served Russia so well in these conquests was the Cossack hetman Pyotr Beketov. Let’s pretend we’re he and eschewing horseback, let’s travel by balloon from Yekaterinberg to Krasnoyarsk – just a short 2000km (1100nm) section of the Trans-Siberian Express’ 9289km!
Race #1972
INFOby brainaid.de
SOL Balloon PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: BOL - SYC
RACE CLOSE: Wednesday,
March 4 at 2300 UTC.
Race starts: Feb 03rd 13:00 Registration Closed
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Go to race archive

SYC Ranking

  1. Sailonline Yacht Club Member KaSToR
  2. Sailonline Yacht Club Member WRmirekd
  3. Sailonline Yacht Club Member CriticalHippo
  4. Sailonline Yacht Club Member rumskib
  5. Sailonline Yacht Club Member vida
  6. Sailonline Yacht Club Member Sax747
  7. Sailonline Yacht Club Member CollegeFund
  8. Sailonline Yacht Club Member rafa
  9. Sailonline Yacht Club Member Panpyc
  10. Sailonline Yacht Club Member sassy63

View full list

Series

Mobile Client

SYC members have the benefit of access to our mobile/lightweight web client!

The mobile client