Can one daily or weekly have the 2 fields split turned off, so we can get a taste of big fleet starts and tactics?

Agreed

That would be nice idea BlackDog...I agree with you. IMO there would be great gain with types of tactic's needed to be used.

+1

Good Bye and Fair Sailing,
OG

I can't even imagine the first windward mark with 40 boats trying to get around it at once... Especially if it was in left phase. Still is a pretty good idea though!

This would in effect create a big spread between the leaders and the rest. It would be near to impossible to get get free from mid-fleet. Another side-effect would be that the impact of unfair sailing and barging at marks would even have a bigger leverage on the results of mid-fleet and the rest of the trailing boats.

It would be interesting only for experiment for those who are new ... some SailX oldies have been there... and asked for the split-fleet code because of the above mentioned reasons

It's always better when there are lots of shifts to play and a big course. The worst is with steady wind where everyone just sits side by side all the way up the first beat. I think the wind shifts are randomised though.

With steady winds the only way to get to starboard lay is to duck many times.

Erasmus wrote:
.This would in effect create a big spread between the leaders and the rest. It would be near to impossible to get get free from mid-fleet.

Yes. That describes big fleets very accurately.

yep

Hi all,

E Wrote:
This would in effect create a big spread between the leaders and the rest. It would be near to impossible to get get free from mid-fleet. Another side-effect would be that the impact of unfair sailing and barging at marks would even have a bigger leverage on the results of mid-fleet and the rest of the trailing boats.
I totally agree with that E..
It would be interesting only for experiment for those who are new ... some SailX oldies have been there... and asked for the split-fleet code because of the above mentioned reasons I can imagine why....Absolute mayhem!

Good Bye and Fair Sailing,
OG

Have you ever tryed 3 fleets?

Adjusting the fleet split size is set separately for each SailX server, so it is easily changed. However, the main problem with too large a fleet is lag for all users and disconnects for users that have the worst ping to that server.

So, it isn't fair to operate with too large a fleet size for typical international sailing on SailX.

The servers are capable of handling a large number of simultaneous boats if everyone has an excellent connection. I vaguely recall a report of something on the order of 65 boats being proven where all were on a local IP subnet.

-PEB

Cheers for that PEB.
You just answered my next question about boats having communication failures and others not...
It has happened to me lots so I agree it is a good idea for split as it is unfair to some users.
LP17 Wrote:
Have you ever tryed 3 fleets?Have there been enough sailors online for that to be need? IMO closer to the no..

Good Bye and Fair Sailing,
OG

Do the connection problems limit the size of the fleet. By that I mean, do people try and race but give up due to lag/connection loss. There do seem to be 60 or so boats in a big regatta but many enter a race, get DNF then go away.

Agreed turbo, now I see...yeah when the big regatta's happen there is a whole lot of boats but it ends up less by the end.

Good Bye and Fair Sailing,
OG

turbolaser wrote:
.It's always better when there are lots of shifts to play and a big course. The worst is with steady wind where everyone just sits side by side all the way up the first beat. I think the wind shifts are randomised though.

With steady winds the only way to get to starboard lay is to duck many times.

Good points.

Short races without significant oscillating shifts (or oscillations as part of a big persistent shift) typically lead to the problem of congestion at the windward mark and the rule breaking problems discussed in the other threads.

Whether the wind shifts are random or controlled to an extent by admins/mods (by control I mean set up pre-race in the general sense, not as part of some insider conspiracy) a race without a reasonable level of oscillating shifts should not be on the menu.

~ walke

Big fleet sounds great on paper and somehow I would love to have a big fleet race BUT

- actual HP racing on real water tends to go towards smaller fleets and flighting
- communication with server needs to remain as good as possible. Quality racing is one of the strength of sailX

One of the upsetting aspect of the 2 fields is that someone having missed the first race or having had a bad initial race in essence will settle with 2 bad scores as the second field does not score the same as the first one before they may score in the first field again... Only one discard so it means they have no chance to rank high!

How feasible is it to make two fields EQUAL in points and number of boats? and then dispatch boats by ranking or regatta provisional ranking equally on both field? That would remove some of negative comments about the two fields approach and keep quality in connections and quality in racing in a fair way!

just an idea

I think the scores are lower for several reasons.

If Fleet 1 has boats with better scores after the 1st race, the competition is better they will have to do better to get a decent score. It will be easier to win in fleet 2 so scores need to be lower to reflect that.

Subscribers have a greater chance of getting in fleet 1. They need a reward to encourage more to pay up.

Fleet 1 will generally be the more experienced or successful sailors and in theory the racing should be more competetive with less rule breaking.

The down side is, if you do the decent thing and retire because you foul up in the 1st race, you are guaranteed to be in fleet 2 for the next race. If you keep going and finish you stay in fleet 1. This is an encouragement not to foul but unfortunately not to retire.

Understand all arguments of the status quo although not necessarily agreeing . is the sub aspect really happening? I am a sub and when I come in in a two field race it appears random enough. I have been drooped in two straight away many times as arriving within the starting procedure.

In my idea, both fleet size must be equal to work and the dispatch of sailors balanced with experienced sailors in both fleet, same as a qualifying series on the real water, and why not do a gold and silver for final 2 races I am not a computer wizzard so that may be wishful thinking, but if at all possible why not testing it in the largest daily!