Zezo forum:

Post by BooBill | 2019-11-30 | 16:02:12

I've figured out the red dots scattered around the route map are other boats. But, are they,
a) All the boats in the race?
b)The subset that VR chooses to show you on screen?
c) Boats requesting routings from zezo?
d) None of the above?

I've noticed that they get sparse in number late evening North American time (middle of the night in Europe). For that reason, I've assumed they were routing requests. Now with a bunch of them on a northern route in the RORC Transat I'm not so sure.

25 Comments

Post by zezo | 2019-11-30 | 16:31:45

It's c) indeed, and positions get cleared more often around the weather updates. But then players tent to click more often during that time, so the positions are real.

In the rest of the time they could be a bit stale - sometimes you can observe a trail of red dots caused by single player over an hour.

And sometimes someone gets inspired and paints a message on screen by shift-clicking (please don't. it wastes CPU resources ;-)

Post by BooBill | 2019-11-30 | 17:17:56

Thanks. That last bit might have been best unsaid. Think you can expect a dick pic covering the south Atlantic tomorrow morning :o

Post by YourMomSA | 2020-02-08 | 01:56:23

A random thought... Would it be difficult to make three colors of dots, instead of having them all red? One color each for full pack, no options, and partial options. It would be fun to see where the non-FP lead dots are.

Post by tyghfg | 2020-02-08 | 09:30:42

I would love to see that kind of ranking in vr, sth like irc, to know how good your performance is compared to what you got. Most big regattas have line honours winner and irc winner, mostly iam forced to choose which options will give me the best advantage and than its hard to say who my opponent really is. So far the closest we can get are races in light straight up or down wind conditions, so the only thing needed to be competitive are ls,pw,and ph.

Post by YourMomSA | 2020-02-09 | 15:51:07

I don't think VR would ever do it because giving people the satisfaction of "winning the no-options group" reduces the incentive to pay for options. But it occurred to me the other day that Zezo would know when people request a routing whether they're requesting it with full pack, no options, or some combination of partial options... so... logically color-coding the dots should be possible. It just don't know if it's easy enough to be a fair ask.

Post by zezo | 2020-02-09 | 19:11:19

It's trivial (one line of code) for two groups like it was before - pro options and no options. Not sure how to get meaningful results now - maybe have to make some tests. With the foil and the polish there are too much possible combinations to color-code them all.

Post by YourMomSA | 2020-02-09 | 20:27:38

Thanks for considering it. I wasn't trying to suggest colors for every possible combination of options. I agree there are too many to be meaningful. My thought was three colors... One for people running simulations with the full pack, one with no options at all, and the third to just be for anyone who has one or more options turned on without having all turned on.

Post by zezo | 2020-02-18 | 14:24:18

The full option boats are red in the Magellan race now. All other combinations are blue.

Post by mcmgj | 2020-02-18 | 18:04:03

i agree too

Post by YourMomSA | 2020-02-18 | 15:06:05

Nice, thanks!

Post by pianais290 | 2020-02-24 | 20:53:29

Hello, this display of blue and red dots is very beautiful, but now it is quite difficult to distinguish the black dots in the middle of a large blue spot. (I'm color blind, sorry). Would it be possible to use a lighter blue so that the black dots stand out better.
Thank you in advance.

Post by zezo | 2020-02-25 | 10:48:58

I'm reusing the isochrone color. Changed to the lighter blue in the Caribbean race. Does it work for you now?

Post by toxcct | 2020-02-25 | 13:49:45

I see it way lighter now, but it doesn't bother me, i'm not color blind and I can live with it ;)

Post by pianais290 | 2020-02-25 | 22:48:15

Good evening,
Thank you very much for the speed of change, it is much more comfortable for me.

Post by BooBill | 2020-03-17 | 22:01:06

So, what makes you a "full option" red dot? For instance, I didn't buy the full pack for Chiloe, but had enough coins saved up to buy all the options that make you go fast, but not the stuff like skins and radio alerts.

Post by tyghfg | 2020-03-18 | 14:47:15

For router fullpack is when u got all options that affect boat speed( all options listed in router menu), so skins and radio doesn't count.

Post by YourMomSA | 2020-03-18 | 16:08:01

For the color of the dots in Zezo, I think it's just a matter of whether you specify "full pack" when you run your routing or not... Zezo doesn't know what your boat actually has...

Post by tyghfg | 2020-03-18 | 18:20:12

its kind of mental shortcut, that's right, zezo doesn't know by it self but assuming most players on pc using zezo are using dashboard too, and that makes zezo check list fill automatically.Anyway every request with 'fullpack' checked on router menu makes a red dot, even if got every thing but a polish hull you will be full pack for router.

Post by YourMomSA | 2020-03-18 | 19:03:21

Good point about dashboard. I used Zezo for years before I finally got Dashboard, so my habit is still to have a separate window for Zezo and to key in my positions manually. I never use Dashboard to connect to Zezo directly, so I forgot that it does that.

Post by zezo | 2020-03-18 | 20:47:07

It does not matter if the information comes from the dashboard or your manual choice.

The actual check is if you have o=244 in the URL.

Which is a bit wrong, come to think of it. "Ignore gates" is also encoded in that parameter, so the actual check should be >= 244 instead of == 244.

Post by BooBill | 2020-03-19 | 00:40:33

So, you just made me look at the URL passed and was surprised to see TWA as one of the parameters. I kind of assumed the router did not know our current tack. I've sworn at it and assumed it didn't know when it was indicating a tack or gybe shortly after performing one.

So, does that mean the penalty of tacking back is taken into account?

Post by mak08 | 2020-03-19 | 08:26:08

The penalty of taking/gybing and sail changes is taken into account, but the router does not know your initial tack.

Post by CRISTAU | 2020-03-21 | 14:46:44

@YourMom, you are incredible to continue to key in your position manually, it is so convenient to be automatic with dashboard!

Post by Saileellely 1 | 2020-03-22 | 10:52:32

How long do they stay there?

Post by zezo | 2020-03-22 | 12:30:46

Up to 60 minutes, also cleared at every weather update.

You can often notice a trail left by one boat as the player refreshes his position every 5 minutes.