Is it as bad as my first impression?

[StraightLine]

Hello All,
I don't want to cause any flames or ill will this early in my LFS career, but I have something I just have to ask.

I found LFS and have been playing the demo for a couple of months now and even running a demo server off and on. I've been spreading the word to my friends at how great of a simulator it it and just how much fun it is. I've met many people who are willing to help noobs (like myself) with tips, instructions, and even some sets. Of course I've also met some that are... um... not as nice. This is all on the demo servers.

I expected the anything goes attitude from the demo hosts largely from the big disclaimer that comes up when you try to join one.

On Friday I bought the S1 license (with plans to get S2 a little later). I had high hopes for some really competitive and fun races. Between then and now I have enjoyed the racing not nearly as much and actually become very frustrated with it. The only S1 servers I have seen running, with drivers, are the CRTA servers. Maybe I'm just way out of my league... okay, I'm definanly out of my leage on those servers, but I am amazed and shocked at how unsportsmanlike "most" of the people I've met on there actually are. I will in all honest say I've seen better (not meaning faster) racers in the demo hosts.

The CRTA servers have this long list of rules dealing with code of conduct and it sounds great to me; I'm all for it. What I found on the track was much less than I was lead to belive it was.

For one single example, yes, I still get blue flags as I'm driving the stock cars on there and are getting dusted. When I get a blue flag, I do everything possible to make it easy for them to pass me including not switching lanes out of the true line, slowing down or maintaining a slower speed depending on the situation, all the way to getting off the dang road. Still, I have had more people literally drive me off the road as the pass or lay on the horn the entire pass.

I admit I'm out of my league and need more practice and a better set to go along with it, but after all my ramblings here's the questions. Do the friendly racers who abide by the rules outnumber the others and I'm just getting onto the wrong servers or was my impression of the LFS world just wrong?

I'm hoping I just picked bad days to get on those servers. Yes, I realize I may just be looking at it bad because I need more practice (and set) to race against those guys from a skill point of view, but just the whole code of conduct seems to be a bunch of hot air based on my initial impression. I hope I just picked bad times to be on those servers.

Any words of encouragement out there?

Sincerly,
Michael

[Davo]

Once you get S2 you can enjoy a broader spectrum of servers and find ones that are much nicer to race in with friendly and helpful people. The servers that are always packed to the brim and popular seem to attract some of the worst drivers but that will naturally happen since there are so many racers that go there.

[XenoWolf]

Don't take Live for Speed so seriously, it's a game (I wish more people would consider this).

There are virtually no S1 servers, that's true because virtually everyone is running S2. On S2 you'll see dozens (sometimes over a hundred) of servers to choose from, each with their own flavor. The CTRA servers usually offer some very 'serious' racing, so emotions often run high there. The quality of driving is iffy at times because it's all amateur racing on Race 1 (which I assume you were on).

My advice? Find someone you can cleanly race with and stick with him/her. Don't worry about your overall position unless you're prepared to deal with many different drivers.

[ajp71]

Well TBH 12 races isn't really enough to get a good impression, you may have had a rough selection of people on the servers but that's rare on the CTRA servers. With 145% yellow flags though I'd suggest you probably need to get some more experience under your belt and you'll soon find you get a different experience. In all seriousness though the S1 license doesn't really get you much online racing if you went to S2 you'd have a lot more selection and could find servers that you prefer.

[troy]

i would say you just had a bad first day there, generally i got some of the best racing i ever had on the ctra servers. if you feel like you where wrecked or there are people online who behave not sportsmanlike i would make use of the report feature they provide, just type $rep and click yourself through. i would also not recommend to buy s1 to anyone, there are almost no servers you got not to much variation in tracks and cars and (wild guess there) 80% of the people go for S2 straight and stay there.

to get to the point of this post: if you like the demo you will love S2! go for the whole package and try again, i'm sure you will find a lot of helpful and very fair drivers. i see lots of almost every day and its every time again a big adrenaline blast to race against them :)

[Lateralus]

S1 alone shouldn't even be offered by itself IMO. It only leads people to conclude things like the OP has. S2 is where it's at.

[SpikeyMarcoD]

My tip would be to program the servlist showing S1 on the basis of content running and not on the setting in the config (S1/S2/demo).

That was what it was meant to do. Only change of content not of physics etc.

This would mean allow more people racing (S1 limits racers still i think).

It also would give S1 licenses a fuller serverlists. The cars and tracks of the S1 are run by more servers then the CTRA.

[ajp71]

My tip would be to program the servlist showing S1 on the basis of content running and not on the setting in the config (S1/S2/demo).

But then it creates issues with S1 users being kicked if the combo changes to include S2 content.

[SpikeyMarcoD]

Yep as it does in BF2 if it switches to custom content.

Nothing to do about it. You could program a nice message window around it.

Just seems unfair to sell S1 with 1 server on..

[obsolum]

S1 alone shouldn't even be offered by itself IMO. It only leads people to conclude things like the OP has. S2 is where it's at.
I don't know about that. I bought S1 first a couple of months ago and really enjoyed racing on the CTRA server. If they hadn't gone down after patch X I probably would still be S1 until I was Silver or Gold licensed :shrug:

To the OP, I see you're from the US. I have no idea what kind of people are on the CTRA server at the times you are racing, but I can assure you that the quality of racing on that server and the behaviour of the people there is very good most of the time. You'll always have people with a bad attitude, you get them on all servers, but the friendly and clean drivers way outnumber the bad apples IMO. This is due to the Report feature mentioned earlier. If a driver isn't behaving properly you can be sure someone will report him and he will be penalized. Most people on the server know this and they behave accordingly.

But it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for you to upgrade to S2 and see what else LFS has to offer, if you can afford it of course. Also, get some more practise in offline (maybe ask/find a good setup first) so you are more competitive and don't have to worry about being lapped as much.

[The Moose]

I'd certainly advise you to get S2 as soon as you are able, it opens up a lot more choice to you.

Regarding the CTRA servers, the server you are on is the 'beginner' server so the racing may not always be of the highest standard, but as said above, that's no excuse for bad, unsportsmanlike driving. The CTRA admins are determined to rid these servers of those kind of drivers and welcome the use of the unique reporting feature they use ($rep) Don't be afraid to use it.

Once you find a bit more speed and start running nearer the front on that server you should soon move up to the next licence level and you will find the standard of racing(and racer;)) improves on the next server. (though of course you will need S2 to participate on it)

Don't let a few bad races cloud your perception of the CTRA. I race almost exclusively on their servers as in my experience they provide the best racing in LFS.

[gohfeld23]

If you were racing last night around 2am eastern (I'm in NYC), I know exactly what you mean.
Something happened last night that really made me recheck what server I had joined as there were about 14+ people on yet about half were crashers.
I was pushed off the road intentionally while passing them, brakechecked for following close, used as a brake, etc.

Thankfully, that happens very rarely but I guess it was one of those nights.
Us US players have to deal with things a bit more often as most of the admins are sleeping during the time we play, but I expected that from day one.

If you just started playing, join servers that are not packed. You are going to have a much easier time racing there and learning the tracks and tricks.
If you run into me, feel free to ask for a set or advice (I only race the XFG on CTRA) and I'll be more the willing to help, as I'm sure would most of the forum-ers here. My ingame name is Phreak23.

Hope your experience improves very soon. However, If you can, spend another $25 in the future as S2 will give you much more options in terms of racing variety.

[p5srono]

i havnt bothered readin the replies but from my experience of online racin(s2 tho) its all been good, i went on a ctra server to enter some races for the first time and had no problems, i made sure they knew i was new to this from the start and on all 6(i think) races i entered i had no problems, some ppl seemed a little hot headed but u gotta remember they are drivin hard to win the race, i was mearly racin myself so u have to understand their situation aswell, i got blue flagged a few times and everytime i moved over like i should, only had one situation where i was on the racin line and he was clearly faster but there was nothin i could do, i was already on my limit so to avoid me crashin or slowin him down further i stuck to my line and then moved over, im sure the guy understood, after the corner he passed with ease and carried on, good racers will kno how to handle situations like these so just do what u do, i race with the map so i can see exactly where the cars are if one is close then i keep checkin my mirrors and adjust my line accordingly, if i lose 3 seconds on a lap thats fine but if the guy whos winnin loses 3 seconds because i didnt have enough respect then i deserve the slander i get, u have to see it from the winners point of view, to be in first hes goin to be close to his limit so he needs that space and he needs it more than u do regardless of if he seems like hes bein an ass, hes in a state of mind where he needs full concentration if he gets angry and gives u shit its just cos he was drivin hard and unfortunatly a slower racer got in his way, sorry for lack of grammar and punctuation but i really cba today

[thisnameistaken]

if he gets angry and gives u shit its just cos he was drivin hard and unfortunatly a slower racer got in his way,

They should take the horn out of every car in LFS, so if someone wants to make angry noises they'll have to resort to text. Might give people a chance to take a deep breath before they bite someone's head off.

I had a guy come out of the pits into me the other day when I was about to start a qualifying lap. The main reason I was angry about it was because on that circuit it's over a three minute lap and I didn't feel like doing another "out" lap to start again. He said sorry straight away and I pitted to repair the damage. Then I realised on my way out of the pit lane that it's a really high-speed start/finish straight and when you exit the pits the cars crossing the line are out of sight, but they catch you very quickly.

It wasn't this guy's fault really - he just misjudged the gap a bit and it's easy to do on that circuit. So I sent "No problem :)", but if I'd responded the moment he took me out I probably would've said "Watch your mirrors in future" or something equally patronising. ;)

sorry for lack of grammar and punctuation but i really cba today

Grrr! I can't really complain about the poor formatting of your post when I've just picked on people who are grumpy in race servers can I? :D

[gohfeld23]

Well the horn is useful if you know how to use it.
I always beep it once when I'm side by side with someone as I might be in a dead spot.
So it's just to let them know where I am. However, people sitting on it are getting more annoying every day.

[p5srono]

i got beeped at loads today on a cruise server, came in handy sometimes cos i just didnt kno they were there, bein a cruise server i wernt checkin my mirrors that often so when a faster racer approaches and dosnt give the blue flag its quite nice to hear a wee toot so i can give him room

[sinbad]

No, it's not as bad as it may seem to you. But be aware, that if you're getting lapped within such short races, the speed difference might be such that simply sticking to your line is not such a good idea if the leaders are steaming up behind on the last lap. Regardless of whether you are entitled to or not, I'm sure you aren't intent on getting the way if you can avoid it.

[felplacerad]

Pick up races tend to be rather rough, mainly because of the drivers' different level of skill. If a higher racing standard is what you're looking for you should join a well organized league.

[ajp71]

They should take the horn out of every car in LFS, so if someone wants to make angry noises they'll have to resort to text. Might give people a chance to take a deep breath before they bite someone's head off.

I hate the horn in LFS and really wish it was removed.

[felplacerad]

As for the annoying horns, replace the HORN*-files in /data/sound/ with the contents of this file:

[Greboth]

On topic: The CTRA servers I have found offer some good racing while also offering some terrible racing. The terrible racing isn't down to any delibrate wrecking or similar but some big taps which make you run wide or spin etc. Other times I have had wheel to wheel racing for the whole race. You will always get the more impolite people racing LFS and it is best to ignore them.

On the topic of horns: They serve some purpose at times if used correctly. I generally use them if people are moving over and they aren't clear of my bonnet for example.

[CasseBent]

Straightline, I feel your pain. I've experienced the same sort of thing. I was expecting slow racers on ctra1 but in stead it was just people who didn't know how to race. Mostly of course, some people were getting the same treatment as me. You're far from wrong, but it's not all racers, they're just more competitive on a server with stats.

[PRMLSCRM]

Any words of encouragement out there?
l

Yes, the ctra servers are a jungle run by blind autoritharians.
Democratic normal lfs servers usually produce a lot better racing.

[andybarsblade]

Yes, the ctra servers are a jungle run by blind autoritharians.
Democratic normal lfs servers usually produce a lot better racing.

how would you know demo boy?

[Jakg]

Yes, the ctra servers are a jungle run by blind autoritharians.
Democratic normal lfs servers usually produce a lot better racing.Can you please stop trolling? I'm willing to bet if you posted under your proper S2 name there'd be a nice replay of you wrecking someone and getting banned by the "blind authoritharians" [sic]

[andybarsblade]

Can you please stop trolling? I'm willing to bet if you posted under your proper S2 name there'd be a nice replay of you wrecking someone and getting banned by the "blind authoritharians" [sic]

he aint got s2, if he did have it why would he want a free copy?

http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=533834#post533834

:bananadea:bananadea:bananadea:bananadea

[StraightLine]

Thanks all. I'm feeling better about it with each reply. Today I've steered clear of the CTRA servers and again found more good and helpful racers than the alternative. Had much fun again. So, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said I really need to get some more experience before getting on CTRA.

BTW, I came up with StraightLine because I can go fast straight, but those dang corners slow me down. ;-)

Rubber side down and see you around.

[Zachary Zoomy]

there is a reporting sytem on the CTRA. type $help ingame and look for the report button. I've never had to use it though. I almost never find noobs when I'm online at CTRA

[Christofire]

StraightLine- it's a shame that you've not had a good first experience on the CTRA servers. I do hope you'll give it another chance, when it'll hopefully be better. Don't forget that with the reporting system (guide in my sig) you can do something about wreckers/bad driving on CTRA servers.

Yes, the ctra servers are a jungle run by blind autoritharians.
Who said that? :smileypul

[mrodgers]

I dropped into CTRA Race 1 last night and found a lot of harshness towards Straightline post race. I wasn't paying attention to it as I just joined and was selecting car/setup etc. But I did notice that there was quite a bit of harshness of "noob" talk going on and idi talk as well. Well, Straightline probably doesn't know who or what idi was, but the majority of us here do...

Anyways, Straightline, don't give up on the CTRA, as being S1 licensed, it is about all the choice you have. Normally, there is some fantastic racing on there in US peak times. I did watch you for a bit after I rolled it and I didn't see any problems you were creating. I did see problems that other drivers were creating. I also noticed that the CTRA server had quite a few drivers that normally are not on there at our peak times.

I have no idea of your driving skill or experience with LFS, Straightline, so I can't comment on if you are ready or not for online racing with LFS. To join a server, it's ok if you are slow, but you do need to have a bit of awareness and track knowledge so that you don't hinder the other drivers too much. But then again, it was Blackwood, and you said you've been running demo for 6 months or so until you recently purchased the license. For sure, you should have plenty of knowledge of the Blackwood track, even if you were an XRT driver in demo. It takes less to adapt to a different car than it does to adapt to an unknown track.

Definitely don't give up on CTRA. It is generally very good racing by some very good folks both fast and slow. Good luck and hope to see you on there again.

[Michael Denham]

I agree with what the guys here have said...stick with it! It sounds like you had a bad day with the LFS online experience, which happens to us all. But I think most will agree that the good days far outnumber the bad ones, and there are quite a few really great days in there too!

[legoflamb]

I have been racing on the STCC/CTRA servers for about a year now, it seems as though the misconduct has actually gone down now with all the rules being displayed on every join. However, the pattern, on CTRA Race 1, or the old STCC stock server, that has occured to me is, the farther back, the "greener" , as in greenhorn, the drivers. So most of the people are, as yourself, new. They are either new to the CRC rules (clean racers club),section 9 of the manual http://en.lfsmanual.net/wiki/Main_Page or, have not read the rules upon entering the server. In contrast the racers in the upper positions are, most often, aware of either of these rules of conduct and act accordingly out of experience. Then there are those who refuse to catch on and act like they are given "the right of way" all the time.

[obsolum]

In contrast the racers in the upper positions are, most often, aware of either of these rules of conduct and act accordingly out of experience. Then there are those who refuse to catch on and act like they are given "the right of way" all the time.
That's actually a good point. I hadn't really noticed it until yesterday evening. I had done 5 or 6 races on SO Town, always being in the top 6. Great racing, clean drivers making clean passes, waiting until they had a good chance and leaving enough room when making the pass :thumb: Then I got caught in the pack further down the back because of someone spinning me on T1 and it was like I was on a whole different server. The contrast between the level of racing in the middle/back part of the grid and the top positions was like night and day. I guess the nature of SO had a bit to do with that, with the amco barriers leaving hardly any margin for error, plus there was high wind on for the entire session. Fortunately it's not always like that, I've had many great and clean races in the lower positions as well.

[squidhead]

The CRTA servers have this long list of rules dealing with code of conduct and it sounds great to me; I'm all for it. What I found on the track was much less than I was lead to belive it was.

quite right...
I have started racing not so long ago, and I found the CTRA servers quite nice...
the problems are
1) there are some people who really dont know how to drive
2) there are some people who really didnt bother to read the rules

those people are usually at the back of the field...
when you get to top 10 position in a race - it's a different race!
Everyone knows where you are (mirrors, DUH), and races cleanly, and responsibly

Example (I was hit in the back on blackwood reversed while late brake overtaking in a battle for 8th place, by a lapped person... the guy that hit me didnt even apologize for destroying a great battle that lasted for 2 laps...)

[thisnameistaken]

Well the horn is useful if you know how to use it.
I always beep it once when I'm side by side with someone as I might be in a dead spot.

Remove the horn and those people will learn to look where they're going.

i got beeped at loads today on a cruise server, came in handy sometimes cos i just didnt kno they were there,

I don't care what happens on "cruise" servers, frankly. This is a racing simulator.

On the topic of horns: They serve some purpose at times if used correctly. I generally use them if people are moving over and they aren't clear of my bonnet for example.

I generally lift if people are moving over and they aren't clear of my bonnet. I bet that avoids more accidents than your horn-banging does.

[PRMLSCRM]

Can you please stop trolling? I'm willing to bet if you posted under your proper S2 name there'd be a nice replay of you wrecking someone and getting banned by the "blind authoritharians" [sic]

Can you stop calling other people trolls when they just express an opinion, that does not meet your own?
I'm willing to bet you are a gay caveman afraid to get aroused by fire.
See what i did back there? I, like you did, just disguised what i wanted to say with a coward "i bet". Dude please stop it, i don't want to give a taste of your own coward medicine.
Just respect and be respected.

[Becky Rose]

Can you stop calling other people trolls ...
Just respect and be respected.
Trolling again I see, and still nothing nice to say about anybody. Perhaps Jack will stop calling you a troll if you stop trolling. Interesting advise on respect, I suggest you begin to follow it if you ever want to find any around here, although I rather suspect you already lost it with your S2 account and have had to resport to this username to try and find some - and failed again.

@Original Postee:
So back on the topic raised by the original postee. I'm glad you found our servers, and I hope that you dont meet too many PRMLSCRM's in your racing, we have apparently banned him anyway, hense he has a lot to say about us.

We try to educate the 'not up to standard' drivers before banning and sometimes this results in a period of 'still not getting it' unfortunately, but otherwise I hope you'll find the CTRA servers are right up there in terms of clean racing.

Running public servers has a lot of problems, at the end of the day we are only as good as the community who race on them. To this end we provide 24/7 admin coverage by way of our $report system which lets you report any bad driver at any time of the day and then be safe in the knowledge that even though we're sleaping and not on the server the driver will still be dealt with appropriately.

Public racing can be very good and also very bad, league racing is generally where the cleanest racing is, although even then the leagues are only as good as the competitors ... the CTRA servers try to aim for the middle, attempting to draw the best out of both the accessibility of public racing and the cleanliness and competitiveness of league racing.

Certainly at the higer tier we think we are very lucky to have a community of highly talented and clean racers. We dont often have trouble on our higher tier. On the lower tier we are as open to abuse as any other server. We do deal with these people when we are informed of them though.

I hope you find greater enjoyment on our servers with another try :).

[PRMLSCRM]

Trolling again I see, and still nothing nice to say about anybody. Perhaps Jack will stop calling you a troll if you stop trolling. Interesting advise on respect, I suggest you begin to follow it if you ever want to find any around here, although I rather suspect you already lost it with your S2 account and have had to resport to this username to try and find some - and failed again.



Sorry but u "fake quoted" me. Of course nothing will happen to you don't worry, your friends are modding!
I suggest you stop treating others as if they are below you on a platter begging for you to command them.
You "suspect", the other "bets", is there anyone here that talks straight with balls? I mean you are beckyrose we dont expect you to have literally have balls (although some might be surprised) but what is this S2 account obsession you guys have? This is my account. Demo users are trash to you? Seems like it.
I dont need respect from threatning autorithorians that can't even respect a single opinion.
Raceauthority? Is that what you call yourselves? Sounds more like a bunch of newbies trying to play authoritorian parts. Foul mouthed and arrogant to the max. No wonder people with complains pop more and more.
If you guys did anything right , was to advertise it, as a free, friendly, democratic, clean racing league. Reality proved to be something else.

[Jakg]

PRMLSCRM - Once AGAIN you are bashing *something* with no proof or explanation other than "it sucks".

Please stop trolling (again!)

[The Moose]

but what is this S2 account obsession you guys have? This is my account. Demo users are trash to you? Seems like it.

If you are genuinely a Demo racer, then you have no right to comment on server you have never driven on do you?

Personally i think you just another terrible S2 driver (i have my suspicions as to who you are) who got banned from CTRA very quickly for being a wrecker, and you haven't got the balls to post with your S2 account because you know your talking out of your backside.

If i'm wrong about you being an S2 racer then as i said, you cant have ever driven on any S2 servers therefore your comments on any of them are worthless.

[james12s]

If you are genuinely a Demo racer, then you have no right to comment on server you have never driven on do you?

Personally i think you just another terrible S2 driver (i have my suspicions as to who you are) who got banned from CTRA very quickly for being a wrecker, and you haven't got the balls to post with your S2 account because you know your talking out of your backside.

If i'm wrong about you being an S2 racer then as i said, you cant have ever driven on any S2 servers therefore your comments on any of them are worthless.
go moose

[james12s]

he aint got s2, if he did have it why would he want a free copy?

http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=533834#post533834

:bananadea:bananadea:bananadea:bananadea
so he could do some more wrecking on the servers his other s2 name is banned from

[PRMLSCRM]

I am a licensed racer and i post on this forum with this account and no other. I have no other account to post here either. I have raced ctra obviously else i would have no opinion on it.

jakg i can't stop what i never started.
I just expressed an opinion.

[james12s]

I am a licensed racer and i post on this forum with this account and no other. I have no other account to post here either. I have raced ctra obviously else i would have no opinion on it.

jakg i can't stop what i never started.
I just expressed an opinion.
if you have s2 then you must have another account to post here.


above: an idiot talking out his ass

[Jakg]

Thats the thing - you don't make yourself a resoned argument

Ie - "You suck! I hate you!" is not a worthy opinion, and mindless trolling, however "You suck! I hate you BECAUSE your a mindless troll" is a reasoned argument.

Try it some time, you might not look like an asshat next time.

So far out of all of your posts, about 18-19 have been bashing SOMETHING. And not "i hate CTRA because of this and this..."

[Becky Rose]

My appologies to the original poster, this guy has been causing a few forum issues over the last couple of weeks, I see under his name though that the situation has been resolved. Aside from the odd remnant of neolithic society we're actually a pretty cool bunch, I think.

[Racer Y]

To the Original Poster: Welcome to LFS :)

Uh to be completely honest, In our time slot (the Americas)
you can get away with having only an S-1 license for now as
it seems only the CTRA is the one that is populated. But for
the most part it is a very good server - FOR THE MOST PART.
I've baled from it when there are @ss holes on. and they show up from time to time. All I can really tell you is to be patient and it will pay-off :)

[Nerazzurri]

Dude, you're in the states, go buy bioshock or any other (better) game that costs $50. There are even good games that cost $25, I'm only here because I don't get good fps on most games that were released this year (and I'm a sucker for racing games).

[Jakg]

Erm, i wouldn't say BioShock is a better game than LFS if your into racing sims....

[CasseBent]

So you're basically here, to advertise against LFS? I dun like it

Oh and being a demo racer, you don't have a clue what you're missing, do you?

[ORION]

Well I just drove a couple races on the CTRA whatever server and only 30% of the people there could be called drivers. 30% were just as slow as my grandma, and the other 30% seemed to have most fun driving against walls and other cars. After a while I really thought I clicked the wrong icon on my desktop, launching a slalom simulator rather than a racing simulator. What I did mostly was driving slalom around all the wrecked cars that were baisically all over the place.

After my 1 year break from LFS racing, I must say the quality of racing has decreased a lot. Now S2 racing is like demo racing used to be. About 1,5 years ago I drove the same combo (FE club GTI/GT) also on a public server, which was full all the time, and the racing was brilliant - lots of cool and close fights with many random people, clean racing in general.
But today people wrecked me in the last turn in order to win, or - of course - I got wrecked mid race by people that seemed to have no brakes mounted at all.

I guess most people dont realize that their nickname is always visible. Some even left the server, and rejoined with another name, telling weird stories of their so-called lives.
Maybe it would already help to put a big sign somewhere telling the user that his lfsw nickname is always visible. Otherwise we will need a system to track wreckers and cheaters soon.

[Becky Rose]

Otherwise we will need a system to track wreckers and cheaters soon.
Do you mean the $report system by chance? Please tell us who the poor drivers are via the reporting system, otherwise we cannot make the servers a better place for you.


So back on the topic raised by the original postee. I'm glad you found our servers, and I hope that you dont meet too many PRMLSCRM's in your racing, we have apparently banned him anyway, hense he has a lot to say about us.

We try to educate the 'not up to standard' drivers before banning and sometimes this results in a period of 'still not getting it' unfortunately, but otherwise I hope you'll find the CTRA servers are right up there in terms of clean racing.

Running public servers has a lot of problems, at the end of the day we are only as good as the community who race on them. To this end we provide 24/7 admin coverage by way of our $report system which lets you report any bad driver at any time of the day and then be safe in the knowledge that even though we're sleaping and not on the server the driver will still be dealt with appropriately.

Public racing can be very good and also very bad, league racing is generally where the cleanest racing is, although even then the leagues are only as good as the competitors ... the CTRA servers try to aim for the middle, attempting to draw the best out of both the accessibility of public racing and the cleanliness and competitiveness of league racing.

Certainly at the higer tier we think we are very lucky to have a community of highly talented and clean racers. We dont often have trouble on our higher tier. On the lower tier we are as open to abuse as any other server. We do deal with these people when we are informed of them though.

I hope you find greater enjoyment on our servers with another try :).


Overall standards in public racing on LFS are better than they where a year ago, but you will always get bad races on public servers and usually when you get one race that is bad everyone gets frustrated then the next race is bad too until enough fresh blood is in the server without red mist.

[DarkTimes]

I personally find the standard of driving on the CTRA servers to be very good indeed, so much so that I practically always choose to race there these days. Plus add to that the rotating combos stops everyone just hammering the same tracks again and again, and it's the best place to go for racing in LFS.

Of course one bad driver can still wreak a whole race at the first corner, and all of us even the best have had bad nights, but in comparison to any other sim LFS has the best standard of multiplayer racing I've ever seen. That really is the main reason I'm still playing it after three+ years and why I will keep playing for the foreseeable future.

Also remember most of us are still racing the entry CTRA servers (with the riff-raff :p), when more people get attuned to the 2nd tier servers there will be even better racing there, I'm sure.

[sosna]

Since CTRA servers launched i found some great space for racing!I am learning alot basically cause its bumper to bumper racing!Most of the guys i personally raced were nice and polite enough!There were also some exceptions of racers who simply didnt care about anything but points and places,so that was leading in chaos!Every time i have a close call(almost run off track cause of a behind hit) i always try to be patient(not working everytime though:D!)I think that is the key cause otherwise u get angree and easilly out of control spoiling ur race and the rest of the grid.

For me patience is the key!:thumb:

[dawesdust_12]

Also remember most of us are still racing the entry CTRA servers (with the riff-raff :p), when more people get attuned to the 2nd tier servers there will be even better racing there, I'm sure.

I'm starting to find Tier 2 to be more entertaining more and more every day, seems people start to drive there more as of late.

[Turbo Drifter]

I have just joined the LFS world and fell in love. I just got my S2 license last week and was looking forward to a large selection of servers and profesional racers. I do not know if its me or my time zone but there is very few servers and of them most are full of wreckers.

I joined 1 CTRA server and out of the 12 people in there 5 were intrested in racing and the rest seemed to want to crashing into anything in sight. I started and watched the pack go off (wanted to lap out of the pack for a few min), after the first corner 8 cars had wrecked. I then passed them all as they were all over the track. After that I was used as a brake for some one and the next guy rolled meonto my roof and out. That was all with in 2/3 of the first lap and I gave up, I'm not going to waist my time with players like that.

I hope that that was just a bad night and not a example of whats to come.

[Jakg]

Use the $report function, the servers have the functions to remove idiots, and all you need to do is highlight it...

[Turbo Drifter]

Use the $report function, the servers have the functions to remove idiots, and all you need to do is highlight it...

Sorry I am new to all this and was not aware at the time. If it happens again I will use it :tilt:

[doox00]

one of my first races since I was s2 licensed was on one of those ctra servers, I was racing clean.. I am just not very good, about 5-10 seconds behind the top guys per lap. At the end of the race one of the better people was saying I drive 'almost' like a wrecker.. not sure what they were talking about, I drove clean the whole race, held my line and slowed down a bit to let the leaders pass once I was lapped. Only time I was in an involved in a wreck is on the 3rd or 4th turn of the race someone rear ended me and caused us to wipe, possibly taking another vehicle or two out.

Other than that I did noticed a couple poeple just screwing off, but majority of the server were people legitimately racing. The top end guys though need to chill out, they were really bashing other people because they could not drive as well as them.

[Toddshooter]

+1 me too and only then!

[StraightLine]

Just wanted to post another quick follow-up. I've been on CRTA a couple of times in the last couple of days and things have been much better. Even the rhetoric between the drivers have been much better. Between that and this thread, I'm thinking I'll move up to S2 a little sooner and looking forward to it.

See you all on the raceway.

[obsolum]

Glad to hear it! :thumb:

[The Moose]

That's good to hear StraightLine :)

There always going to be dodgy periods, especially on the beginners servers, but they are the exception rather than the rule.

Hope to see you S2 licensed soon:thumbsup: