Zezo forum:

Post by BMS | 2010-06-22 | 21:40:57

It seems the wind data don't match anymore... Or is it me? ;-)

29 Comments

Post by HZV | 2010-06-22 | 22:00:01

Same here. Paco also shows old winds..

Post by AFAP | 2010-06-23 | 00:03:26

same wrong winds in Paco tool

Post by Bilbo | 2010-06-23 | 09:24:55

Winds are still wrong. VR/MP is doing it again!

Post by zezo | 2010-06-23 | 12:51:00

Hi, guys. Sorry for the delayed reaction, but I was attending Metallica show last night (and will be at Rammstein show tonight)

It's the usual case. Don't know for yesterday, but today's wind are gfs t18z+12 instead of the expected gfs t00z+09.

I've fixed the optimizer data, but the wind display is off.

Let's hope they get it right tonight. I'll try to check it some time after midnight, but can't promise I'll be in the proper state of mind for that ;-)

Post by Sailkap | 2010-06-23 | 13:10:11

don�t worry... it�s rather easy now, enjoy the show

Post by BennyLava | 2010-06-23 | 21:58:23

Cvetan, boat speed on the chart does not correspondence with the game

Chart speed 12,1, game 11,5 (HS - 86 - 135 TWA - wind 20.5(221)

Post by Kundalini | 2010-06-23 | 22:16:42

Then again repairing after Rammstein would deliver us some unexpcted results. WE CAN HANDLE THAT after one year coping with the unexpectedness of VR :-)

Post by zezo | 2010-06-24 | 20:43:28

The real problem was not Rammstein. I just can't identify the last two forecasts. VR either changed their weather provider, broke the data on purpose or just plain broke something badly.

Post by K2_2266 | 2010-06-24 | 20:50:07

No one of us can log on at the moment. It really sucks so much.

Post by matoto | 2010-06-24 | 21:12:21

PACOO is OK now!

Post by K2_2266 | 2010-06-25 | 10:08:02

The winds in Zezo still don't match the ones in the game. Well, for the rest of the leg, that should not be a problem.
I guess MP screwed something up on purpose, to make Zezo unusable.

Greets Dirk

Post by sebensa | 2010-06-25 | 19:15:02

All i say is what a pity!!, my husband (xc90v8) has said this is the best tool he has found - he has, btw, donated to Cvetan - I am about to call it off. I love a proper predition at wind time change - no longer, it seems. What ugly people they are. Their behavior at the world cup soccer says it all LOL

Post by Open-Container-III | 2010-07-11 | 13:27:42

I love a proper predition at wind time change - no longer, it seems. What ugly people they are.

Stop knocking the French for what they don't screw up! Weather predictions that don't pan out or don't prove out in local areas are a part of sailing! It's realistic!

Post by zezo | 2010-06-25 | 19:42:08

I would not say they did it on purpose. Even when automated access to the game servers was disabled that was caused more by performance problems than anything else.

I can fetch the data from the game server, but would prefer not to do it because that is copyright violation, and is easy to block, so can be very short-lived solution.

Post by K2_2266 | 2010-06-25 | 19:52:04

Yes Cvetan, not a good idea. But how does VRTool do it.? Probably out of the browser cache of Mozilla, but in a limited area.

Well, that's the way things go..... :-(

Post by zezo | 2010-06-25 | 19:57:37

VRTool works on your machine. Here they have to block only one IP address - zezo.org.

BTW I just read the official position in the French forum. MP say that their weather supplier has some problems:

Machine translated text:

The U.S. provider, source files winds must change its system of sending files to our metrological service, which they have not finally made earlier planned.

In our emergency service has provided us with weather files this does not appear consistent with expectations.

We were not notified of this change in the chain service providers, the modification must be done without problem.

Post by Open-Container-III | 2010-07-11 | 13:31:09

I sure wish I could get VRTool to work with this event like it worked for me during VORG. I'm just not nerdie enough! (No offense!)

Post by K2_2266 | 2010-06-25 | 20:47:08

To prevent blocking you could use an anonymous proxy, but that's pretty slow.
Well, the leg is almost done, prob. 36 more hours and the leaders have finished. There are not really any more tactical options, it's more like a straight rush to the finish. It will be fixable afterwards for the last leg and then it's done anyway. Hopefully it works for the next VOR in 2011........

Post by haffiman | 2010-06-26 | 06:29:39

Quite honestly I like this debacle.
I fully respect Zezo for staying 'straight' and not attempting any 'copyright violations'.
Hopefully no one gets it all 100% fixed and leaves the games with some human decisions to take.
It is quite 'depressing' to see so many boats on a 'Zezo' run from start to finish.
Why do they enter at all?
Zezo, Paco and VR tool all great programs, but I like them to be 'advising tools' and not the real skipper.
Keep up your good work Zezo, even as is, probably the simplest and easiest of the tools with whatever is needed of useful info.

Post by K2_2266 | 2010-06-26 | 09:26:52

@haffiman,
I don't use a script to sail if there is any. At least there is no greasemonkey tool I know about.
I have done the Vendee without any tools and finished 242 and I have done half of the VOR without any help. I'm glad there is Zezo and VRTool to use to achieve better results, since the leading pack is very close together and without any outside tools one can hardly stay with them for a whole long leg.

Greets Dirk

Post by haffiman | 2010-06-26 | 10:10:44

@K2_2266
I hope you did not take my comment as an attack on anyone, that was not intended.
To win, yes, you probably need both Zezo and whatever is available.
Sailing a 'no option' boat and on top of that living a normal social life and have my 10 hours 'sleep', my goal is quite different.
Following Zezo 100% is to me impossible, but utilize the info given by Zezo in amongst setting up the boat for the night, is quite valuable.
However I would rather 'loose' taking my own decision than 'win' tailgating Zezo or any other tool. Using info from Zezo or any other program however, that is a different matter.
If they all get it 100% 'correct', it will end up with 2 dots on the game screen, one group with PRO and one with No Options!
Where is then the competition?

Post by IrishRover | 2010-06-26 | 11:50:37

I do agree with haffiman up to a point. After a couple of days of the current Clipper leg it felt like being in a procession to the finish so i headed north for a few days in the hope of heading them off at the pass (a very forlorn hope indeed!)
But on the other hand Zezo has added a great deal to my enjoyment of the game so a big thank you to Cvetan, lets hope the current problems are sorted out soon and we can all make our own choice about using Zezo or not.

Post by K2_2266 | 2010-06-26 | 13:14:19

@Haffiman,
I would never understand your comment as a personal attack. I'm plain to old for that :-D.
The thing is that Zezo's information is quite useful, but the inconsistancy of the wind forcast takes its toll anyway. So sometimes you are right and lucky and sometimes you are not. Think about the leg from China to San Francisco where everyone had to make a strategical decision wether to go south of Japan or head for the gap between Hokkaido and the main isle. I went for the Hokkaido way and learned that this was wrong, which I never had expected. And no tool could help you on that decision.....
On the other hand we take everything into account what we get, dont't we?

Greets Dirk

Post by BennyLava | 2010-06-26 | 15:18:21

Re the China-SF leg, there's choice if you have 2 boats. I had 2 and with the south one I finished in the top 50 and the north one 800'ish...

Post by Scorpiocu | 2010-06-28 | 13:17:38

I agree with haffiman.
The first boats of the race never sleep. �Why?
Because a program does your work.

I'm a computer engineer and I took little time to make a program to do this:
- Read my boat posicion from My Profile
- Send the position to Zezo
- Parse the HTML returned by Zezo and load the course/sail changes
- Send to MP the course/sail change. Yes, it is possible.

Post by Sailkap | 2010-06-28 | 14:21:25

ohh oh... ohlala!

But why can�t we find your boat at all?

Post by Scorpiocu | 2010-06-28 | 18:57:26

I don't use this name in MP.
As well, I don�t use pro sails or any other payment option.

This program only use it myself, but what I mean is that it is possible.

Post by zezo | 2010-06-28 | 19:10:00

This thread has taken interesting direction.

For me personally the challenge is playing without tools not available to everyone, and without compromising my social life too much.

It's still entirely possible to write a robot (even reverse engineering certain SHA-1 hash is trivial if you know how to do it), but I don't see challenge in that. But then robots are not real problem - you can have a team of 3 people sailing few boats together. That's not forbidden by the rules, but is still unfair to single players.

Post by Open-Container-III | 2010-07-11 | 14:10:46

Yes, Zezo. The way the MP game is intended, it's for solo sailing. But as Derek Lundy points out in his book, Godforsaken Sea, the quality of superior performance in blue water sailing is only to be found in crewed racing. Solo sailing is not performance sailing. It is more like stuntsmanship. Whenever solo racing stuntsmanship is attempted, participants avail themselves of as much technology as they can. So, I think those of us who play the MP game are entitled to use as much VRTools and the like as they are smart and nerdie to configure (so they can compete against boats who are crewed by two or more players). I just wish I was just as smart and nerdie!