On screen during the missions there is a lot going on. Players can use either the mouse or the keyboard individually to control their ships, but I found it easiest when using both. Several reports are also available for use during the mission. There is a weather report option, and suprisingly wind speed does play a part in how fast or slow your ship travels. There is a mission panel, explaining your remaining objectives and the ones you have completed.
Also, there is a compass, GPS, and chart panel as well. The compass panel shows the direction you are heading, course over ground (cog), course to waypoint (ctw), true wind direction (twd), and apparent wind direction (awd) (no…not all wheel drive car junkies…!). The GPS panel shows your latitude, longitude, speed over ground, distance remaining to the waypoint, and the time that you have spent on the mission since the beginning. Time is important, because many players like to compete by showing their highscores on the website. There is no time limit, but the better times you have, the more your ship manuevering ego can inflate. Although there is a wealth of information in just these two panels alone, none of the information is necessary to complete the mission. Again, they are provided for ship junkies. However, the last panel, the chart panel, is the most important for completing the mission. The chart shows different sea depths, outlines of obstacles, where the wayward points are, and the direction you are and should be heading on the course. Paying special attention to this chart can be essential to finishing the mission safely and in a timely manner.
Okay now for the creating missions part of the game. As true to the name of the section, this feature allows you to create your own missions. You get to choose things like the type of environment (harbor, open sea, etc.), wind speed, weather conditions, objectives, ships used, and so on. This is largely acheived by use of “drag-and-drop”, which makes creating your own missions rediculously easy. You place objectives where ever you would like, and then race to complete your own course. Obviously, creating your own mission is a lot more in-depth and creative than this, but going into detail would surely bore you, as I’m sure finding out for yourself is much more interesting. On the shipsim.com website, you can post your mission in the forum and challenge other players to compete with you during the mission or for the highest score.
