Some hints for Newcommers to RG

[Paradise]

Hi, I am just starting to sail in regattagame(rg), coming from LiveSkipper(LS), a virtual sailing game that will soon be stopped.

for getting to learn rg, please see the manual. link: regattagame manual

on top of this, I have found next points, tricks and how-to-do's, that I feel have improved my performance.

- Winds in Blocks (cell)
In LS, the wind force and direction was calculated on an interpolation base between a 1/2 degree grit of data from NOAA. In rg the wind is constant in a block of 1by1 degree , both in strength and direction. Therefore it is important to sail on the right side of a block division line, to get the better speeds. (bear in mind that 1 degree around the Equator is about 60 Nm distance!)

- Boatspeed
Your actual Boatspeed is shown next to your "compass in Kts, just below the heading.
Your TWA is shown under your Boatspeed indication with the Sail in use.
To find out whether this is the best speed, you will have to do some trial-and-error juggling.
You can use the Polars window for this, click
The Polar window shows for the actual Windspeed and TWA the Boatspeed for different sails and a variety of 5 different TWA's. You can change the windspeed by typing your desired windspeed and the diagram will show the related Boatspeed. Be aware that the different sails each have their own color as indicated, however the best sail (for that windspeed and TWA) is indicated in white!
You can click also the pin icon, that will show you a complete table for a wider range of TWA, the windspeed can be changed in the same way.

- Sailing Distance with time.
It is good to know how far you can sail in a certain time, or in other words when will I hit the cliffs? The game shows a line in front of your Boat, the traject. It shows a tiny dot for each 10 minutes sailed and a larger circle at the hour distance.
For the border of a windblock, it is easy to click the "Tools" icon and the time of next cell crossing is shown.
More information is given by small yellow markers that indicate where your boat has sailed at the time of the games wind update: 800 and 2000 hrs French local time.
And also when using the scheduler, a green marker is shown if you have set a W.P. With the timing adjustment in the scheduler window , you can quite accurate set a W.P. in or out a cell, or away from the cliffs.

-Start of a Sailing Race.
(all times in UTC+2 during summer time, and UTC+1 during winter time
--a few days before the start, the race is open and you can sail around to test the boat
--at 2 hours before the start, the boats are placed at the starting point, all with the same starting heading, and all with no sail (anchor)
--at 1hr and half before the start, if the wind download is ok, the new wind forecasts are displayed on the map: the +12h wind forecast will be shifted to +0h at the start time.
--you can set a sail and a heading as soon as the boats are placed at the starting point (2 hrs warning), but it's better to wait half an hour for the winds forecast for this
--this way, your boat will start automatically at the start time, you'll be able to see its move by refreshing at start time and X minutes, X being the race iteration minute
--before start, once you have set a sail, you can also set some scheduler points after 20h00, so that your boat will follow these schedule
--first schedule point time can be at start time plus 1 minute, but a schedule point at start time the day of the start is not valid; this way, if you can not take care of your boat between 2 hrs before start time (to set a sail and a heading), you could set some scheduler points, the first being at 20h01
-- when not around between 2hrs before and during starting time, you have a couple of options:
--- do nothing after registering for the race. Your boat will start with the heading and sail selected by the race cy.. Going but where ?
--- there is an option of the pilotboat: during a race you may register and than your boat will be dropped at the location of the pilotboat with a penalty of 2 iterations (2*10 minutes).
--- you may set the scheduler just after the finish of the race, select your heading and sail and sail as you prefer. This option of course will not include the last wind updates at the starting time, but it is better as no control at all.

<> to be continued

[limelight]

3 things to add to Ard's comments:

1) I see little point in setting a schedule point at 20:01. If you do, then it means you were awake at least one and a half hour earlier, in which case you could have simply set the correct heading and sail (the same ones you would be setting in the scheduler). The point RG is making about 20:01 is if you set a schedule point earlier than that, it will be ignored and the boat won't start. But that does not mean you have to set a scheduler point at 20:01, far from it! It's almost a waste of a good scheduler point.

2) I have made a few tools that show the VMC (Velocity Made Good to Course) for all TWA angles. You enter the wind speed and direction (don't forget to round the wind speed to the nearest knot, RG does not use decimal values for speed but my calculators do), and the direction you want to go to. The Velocity made good is calculated for all possible headings, startboard tack in the green columns, port tack in the red columns with speed. heading side by side. The TWA is in the A column. The best VMC is also shown at the very top at right. The sails are also given, probably with English names as those are the ones Blaise (blzblz) gave me. If you make the course the same as the wind direction the answers will be the best VMG headings on a run. If you make the course the same as the wind direction +/- 180 degrees, you get the best VMG headings while beating.

3) The idea of starting late and "cheat" by leaving from the pilot boat instead of the starting point I don't like. By all means use it if you genuinely missed the start, but don't try to use it to gain places. There is an anti cheat device in RG, if you goofed, hit a rock, went the wrong way, missed a gate, you might be tempted to abort the race and restart from the pilot boat. DON'T !!! IF YOU DO THE RACE IS OVER FOR YOU!!! RG WON'T LET YOU RESTART! at least that's what my understanding is. The pilot boat idea is a left over from VR, a not very good one IMHO!

[limelight]

Forgot to put the link to the tools :
https://madinstro.net/rg/

good luck and fair winds!

[Paradise]

thanks John for the explanation and comments

what I did for the Clipper race was:
at around 1400 UTC, my boat was just outside the start location as I had explored the route and returned to London.
at 1400, I did make three schedule moments,
-one at 01/09 20:01 fst with the Gennaker sail and heading 95 degree
-two at 01/09 20:11 fst with the Gennaker sail and heading 95 degree
-three at 02/09 01:18 fsts with Reacher sail and heading 180 degree
fst= French Summer Time.
at 0000 Z or UTC or 0200 fst , I found my boat sailing heading 180, sail I can't remember and the track showed that I did follow the 95 degree heading out of London (start). another boat Didier was sailing straight east heading 90, which I expect was the game preset heading.

I still ended at the back of the fleet, but at least not at the starting point, that is a big gain already.

[limelight]

Ok, I thought you had set the scheduler point at 20:01 after the boats had been brought back to the starting point. Now I understand you set it still during the preceding trial period. I'm amazed, I didn't know you could do that.

What I don't understand is the 20:11 scheduler point, it's the same heading and the same sail as the 20:01. Is that "to be sure to be sure", the Irish method?

I'll try your trick of setting the sail and course long before the start next time there is a little race.

[Paradise]

indeed the 2 settings 20:01 and 20:11 is to confirm the desired heading and sail. I think it works. And I set the points before the 2 hrs assembly before the start of the race.

[Coromandel]

Not that I intend using it, but where can you find the detailed tutorial on use of the pilot boat. Is it the DEMO boat in the clipper race?

3 things to add to Ard's comments:

1) I see little point in setting a schedule point at 20:01. If you do, then it means you were awake at least one and a half hour earlier, in which case you could have simply set the correct heading and sail (the same ones you would be setting in the scheduler). The point RG is making about 20:01 is if you set a schedule point earlier than that, it will be ignored and the boat won't start. But that does not mean you have to set a scheduler point at 20:01, far from it! It's almost a waste of a good scheduler point.

2) I have made a few tools that show the VMC (Velocity Made Good to Course) for all TWA angles. You enter the wind speed and direction (don't forget to round the wind speed to the nearest knot, RG does not use decimal values for speed but my calculators do), and the direction you want to go to. The Velocity made good is calculated for all possible headings, startboard tack in the green columns, port tack in the red columns with speed. heading side by side. The TWA is in the A column. The best VMC is also shown at the very top at right. The sails are also given, probably with English names as those are the ones Blaise (blzblz) gave me. If you make the course the same as the wind direction the answers will be the best VMG headings on a run. If you make the course the same as the wind direction +/- 180 degrees, you get the best VMG headings while beating.

3) The idea of starting late and "cheat" by leaving from the pilot boat instead of the starting point I don't like. By all means use it if you genuinely missed the start, but don't try to use it to gain places. There is an anti cheat device in RG, if you goofed, hit a rock, went the wrong way, missed a gate, you might be tempted to abort the race and restart from the pilot boat. DON'T !!! IF YOU DO THE RACE IS OVER FOR YOU!!! RG WON'T LET YOU RESTART! at least that's what my understanding is. The pilot boat idea is a left over from VR, a not very good one IMHO!

[Paradise]

well I did not find any manual on the pilot boat. But there is a explanation for starting that mentions the pilot boat.

I did see it when entering this regattagame game and registering in a sailing race that was about to finish, most boats already on the finishing party.
I saw my boat dropped somewhere close to the finish and not with the latest ranking, so I guess that is what it is.

But from a comment on my post, I learn that it is not appreciated in this game to use this option to start a race while not on the helm.

[limelight]

There's no detailed instructions. If for some reason you miss the start of the race, then when you do start, instead of starting from the starting post as on LS, you end up starting 20 minutes behind the Pilot Boat (the name of which is "durejournée" except the "é" has been mangled by their software). You can look for it, but it's not in the ranking. I think just setting a sail instead of the anchor is what activates the pilot boat start.

The "demo" boat is just a boat that non members can use to learn how the game works. I'm not sure what happens when several people try to control it at the same time.

The pilot boat is a little too good, at one stage it was ahead of Valérie (mAKi). It's a left over from VR. It's funny how they started because they were disappointed with VR but then they kept some of their bad ideas

I think (without being 100% sure) that PO started this race from the Pilot Boat.

They have this catch that you cannot abandon the race hoping to restart from the pilot boat, if you abandon, that's it, you're out (although they made an exception for Milou who accidently abandoned just after the start and remained stuck in the Thames).

[mAKi]

...The pilot boat is a little too good, at one stage it was ahead of Valérie (mAKi). It's a left over from VR. It's funny how they started because they were disappointed with VR but then they kept some of their bad ideas ...

I'm not a good reference

... It's a left over from VR. It's funny how they started because they were disappointed with VR but then they kept some of their bad ideas ...

yes, but .... it ends up slowing down and not being well placed on the long races