Would somebody care to explain [Archive]

Fordman

18th June 2009, 23:51

What the hell has happened to LFS in 2yrs. :really:

After an almost 2yr break, I decided to download ( yes I know ) LFS and just have a bash, see whats new etc etc. I must admit, as General_UK said to me tonight, its like riding a bike, and yes he was right, after a couple of laps, started to get the feel, and way hay, off we go again, it was great fun, but.......what the hell has happened???

The pick up and go has fecked off and gone ( sorry to be to the point ) :really:

Disconnected for bad Setup, not enough wanking points, WTF. No explaination, nada. I only wanted to have a race, with old friends and a laugh, yet I end up being told I am to old, don't race enough and my care plan deserves to be in an old people's home and that my car is tax exempt :x

Just to clarify, I have no right what so ever, leaving LFS for two years, then on day one turning up like an unwanted tornado, bitching and moaning, but have I missed the boat or something here. I thought one major selling point was the ease of pick up and have fun, not being told, sorry your crap, go and play ************* ( you fill in the gaps LOL )

I must add though, I have found one server ( not online now though HA HA ) Ready 2 Roll, something like that....awesome server, friendly guys, great racing, but one server out of HOW MANY!!!!????

I know with Demo servers you run the risk, but major names ( or they was when I was around, Fusion ) running Demo server's where people have 2 aims in life.....Hit and run, or Run through you and not being admin'd, in Jeff Dunham's words with Walter.....HELLLLLOOOOOOO!!!!

Please don't tell me, LFS has turned into the online version of Bernie's F1?.........If you don't fit, find another series to race?

Anyway, apart from that, LFS feels really great, love it was nice to see an old face today ( sorry General ). Hope all the other Golden Oldies are alive and kicking, and turbo charging their Zima Frames Like me.

Best Wishes to one and all

Fordie

rc10racer

18th June 2009, 23:59

Fordman

19th June 2009, 00:05

Well in 2 years there's only been one new car (i think to lazy to look) a south city revamp with a new layout and the delay of the Scirocco by some revamps on some bugs which has took 5/6 months :shrug:, not noticed any difference with the online racing for the last 2 years.

YAY another one almost as old as me :D Your not getting my point. I know the updates etc etc, as I do keep an eye on here, but just saying about the state of the servers and the racing. Unless ( before somebody jumps on me here ) you race a well organised event, which are usually 100% clean as possible, there was certain places where one, i.e me, say a new customer could come along, have a race, and think, shit this is fun, race some more, tell some friends....hmmm like how S1 was build :D

Now if, and I say IF i was a new customer, raced for the first time today, I would not be saying the above.

Trust me, I am not bitchin and moaning, just heavly surprised thats all, and just woundered what other LFS people thought about it. If I found this in 1-2 days, what on earth do you guys think that have stuck with it since day dot?

Regards

Fordie

Jakg

19th June 2009, 00:08

It's because your from Norfolk.

You have to have an even number of toes to race on most servers - Sorry bud :(

Fordman

19th June 2009, 00:17

It's because your from Norfolk.

You have to have an even number of toes to race on most servers - Sorry bud :(

Arr ok Jakg, so what makes you so special.....Suffolk Boy ROFL j/k

But thanks for the "toes" up :D

Jakg

19th June 2009, 00:24

I can drive a trac'or round Blackwood in less than 1:40? :p

Woz

19th June 2009, 00:44

YAY another one almost as old as me :D Your not getting my point. I know the updates etc etc, as I do keep an eye on here, but just saying about the state of the servers and the racing. Unless ( before somebody jumps on me here ) you race a well organised event, which are usually 100% clean as possible, there was certain places where one, i.e me, say a new customer could come along, have a race, and think, shit this is fun, race some more, tell some friends....hmmm like how S1 was build :D

Now if, and I say IF i was a new customer, raced for the first time today, I would not be saying the above.

Trust me, I am not bitchin and moaning, just heavly surprised thats all, and just woundered what other LFS people thought about it. If I found this in 1-2 days, what on earth do you guys think that have stuck with it since day dot?

Regards

Fordie

I check in from time to time but have not connected/raced in a while now. I just proved too hard to find good races down here in NZ, too few racers, and after CTRA closed shop the only real serious race servers went. I hope that S3 kick starts another CTRA type system.

The new VW, if it ever gets released :), will be interesting as fixed setup. Might re-kindle the fun battles where GTi or TBO races were easy to find.

andyb1982

19th June 2009, 00:46

Fordman

19th June 2009, 01:21

I like the arrive and drive servers. I prefer the points system ones though.

Offline, everyone did it when they purchased S2. Go straight for the FZR or BF1 and yell "ohhhhhhh f*&^"and spun before they'd even left the pits.

Some numpties, on the other hand, thrive on the carneage. I was on a popular server the other night and this guy was online saying "Hi I'm new", which was fair enough. Needless to say he took me out in the first heavy braking zone, fair enough, these things happen. For the rest of the race all you could see on the messages was him saying sorry countless times, he left the pits about 4 times with no regards for the leaders too. He was having a whale of a time judging by his messages, but at the expense of everyone else.

You have to welcome newcomers, but ffs, let them straight into something like an FZR and you know what's gonna happen. If the guy I was talking about above was racing the XFR he would have had half a chance of staying on the track.

I raced for ages in cars like the FXR which are fairly easy. It wasn't until I joined the now defunked CTRA that I actually tried the XFG and it improved my whole driving style in game incredibly. I actually enjoy racing it now too! The only thing that made me take a step back and do this was a points system.

Perhaps the turn up and have fun ethos has gone, but these restrictions have happened for a reason.

I've found as well being kicked for a bad setup probably means you were trying to join the track in car that had a mandatory restriction to level out the playing field.

The thing that wins it for me with this sim is the fact that the guys running the servers put a whole lot of effort in to keeping it clean and fun. I tried GTR evolution recently for a day and every server I raced on there was a muppet parked somewhere on the track deliberately ruining everyone elses race.

Only takes a couple of weeks to start advancing through the classes on some of the servers, stick around and show us how it's done, the fun racing is still around :-)

Hay Andy, thanks for you reply, and to a certain degree I do agree with you. Like you said with some random guy, I did the same. I actually pulled off the playing field, let them all go, until I found my feet. The last I wanted to do was to spoil their race. Then I started to mingle, it was great, good old S1 times and early S2 times, people respected each other, no matter how fast or good you was, it was great. Now tonight, what a different story. I could of been Batman in a blue car, they didn't care, no care in the world, and the way I looked at it, considering I have been away for a while, what if I was a new customer, that is not good publication of what is the best simulation around at this moment in time.

You say stick around, trust me Andy, I have been here for a very very very very, oh my god makes me feel old long time, and yes I have seen the highs and lows, but being away for a period, and seeing it's got worse, just makes you think, why? LFS had, I mean "had" a neace market as in online activity, it was second to non, plan and "simples" Sorry love that advert but its not that anymore ( yes I apologise I have tested others )

LFS had something unique, something it build it's self with members, and now, I guess "organisation and money " has taken over.

LFS "HAD" the potential to please everybody, from your "whats this, a racing game, lets give it a bash" to your "holy shit, this is really serious" hardcare sim racer. Now it feels like Bernie E from F1 has taken over, stuck in some really serious and random rules, and lets see what happens sort of senario.

Like the film.....Crying Shame :(

Fordman

19th June 2009, 01:40

Lets throw a life line out here. Scawen, Victor, whats your uptake on this. You two have met me, and you knew of my dedication to LFS etc etc in the past, so question is:

A - How do you feel by what I have said and what I have found?

B - Do you feel your strive for a "perfect simulation" you have ruled out the fun part?

C - To maintain the "fun" elements, do you feel that more control is required over the various servers? i.e stop all this insim rules?

D - Somebody just paid full price for S2, yet they cannot race on S2 servers due to restrictions, there should be a notification on servers that are running Insim ( i.e an I next to server name or something like that ) to let people know, i.e potential customers that you need to meet certain criteria to race on this server?

E - I haven't mentioned the VW HA HA :o)

Best Regards

Fordie

naskavu

19th June 2009, 01:50

i'll explain, Magnot took over the creation of LFS. its all better now ! Happy Birthday Magnot ! we love you

Dopey

19th June 2009, 01:51

I think the natural evolution of things take the role of where the online racing will go. You will always have those eager head strung people or admins that are to bent on routine and want things one way or no way. I have seen a slight increase since my return, I just shrug it off with a what do ya do? Good to see people still come back. I took a over two and a half year time off when my wheel broke and all I seem to see is new faces and new attitude.

510N3D

19th June 2009, 01:52

Disconnected for bad Setup, not enough wanking points, WTF. No explaination, nada. I only wanted to have a race, with old friends and a laugh, yet I end up being told I am to old, don't race enough and my care plan deserves to be in an old people's home and that my car is tax exempt :x

I'm not sure really about the quality of online races actually as I've been inactive for quite some time now myself but one thing is for sure, times have changed and so has the quality (For the better or worse? I dont know, depends on where you connect and the people that tend to do so as well i guess), especially while having the number of people in mind that got licenced over the years, which should be about (wild guess alert!) thirty thousand?

Funny thing is, systems like the one described in the quote, are mostly created for people like you. Only catch is, that as you've already mentioned, you've gotta stick around in order to really benefit from it.

It'll always be the same at some point i guess and a certain group of people being in the minority has to suffer parts of their freedom or so in order to continue with what they're doing and all that's just because another group of people, mostly in the majority, are either inexperienced, slightly stupid or completely insane or whatever.

There is so much more to say about it really but as I'm getting a little tired at the moment, I'm also to lazy to continue now. Will return tomorrow eventually...:schwitz:

Edit: heres something i'd like share regarding administration these days, since its been put well together in my opinion. click (http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=1188004#post1188004)

Thanks Becky, couldn't have said it any better.

Tomba(FIN)

19th June 2009, 01:56

i'll explain, Magnot took over the creation of LFS. its all better now ! Happy Birthday Magnot ! we love you

It's all worse now, thanks to that fag.

LSDBlackWolf

19th June 2009, 02:24

i'll explain, Magnot took over the creation of LFS. its all better now ! Happy Birthday Magnot ! we love you

It's all worse now, thanks to that fag.

Ok, now i'm the one who asks:

Does anyone care to explain this? Who is Magnot and what did he took over?

Tomba(FIN)

19th June 2009, 02:29

Ok, now i'm the one who asks:

Does anyone care to explain this? Who is Magnot and what did he took over?

He's the guy doing these illegal mods to LFS..

S14 DRIFT

19th June 2009, 02:51

Most of these "you need xx licence to drive xx car" are the server admins running silly ario insim apps, or other things..

Tomba(FIN)

19th June 2009, 03:04

Fordman is right though, lfs has changed alot. Not in a good way.

S14 DRIFT

19th June 2009, 03:17

Fordman is right though, lfs has changed alot. Not in a good way.

Yarp I agree.

chavm481

19th June 2009, 03:31

i'm with S14 :tilt:

danowat

19th June 2009, 06:20

Fordman is right though, lfs has changed alot. Not in a good way.

Gonna have to agree with this, the community spirit that once was a MASSIVE draw to LFS, has gone.

rockclan

19th June 2009, 06:25

Yarp I agree.

Also some people seem to have less respect over the game and the forum.
Doesn't that sound familiar to you S14 ;)

Btw you are one awsome car in LFS :shy:

KOB_CHEESE

19th June 2009, 06:58

It's because your from Norfolk.

You have to have an even number of toes to race on most servers - Sorry bud :(

OI! 6 IS an even number ! :scratchch

Fordman

19th June 2009, 07:28

OI! 6 IS an even number ! :scratchch

That made me giggle.

Regards to Dan's and Thomba and S14, I am glad I am not the only one here. Usually people put posts like mine, and all you get is "Look for another server" or "you just joined at the wrong time".

Trust me here, time is something I have at the moment, and I joined plenty yesterday afternoon, last night, and early hours this morning, no difference BAR ONE SERVER as mentioned.

Maybe LFS is like Only Fools and Horses. The best ones are the early ones :shrug::D

danowat

19th June 2009, 07:34

Anyway, long time no speak Shaun, hope all is well with you :)

Fordman

19th June 2009, 07:38

Anyway, long time no speak Shaun, hope all is well with you :)

Life is great Dan, and yourself? Going on Holz with family in 4 days time, so cannot wait. Just shocked and suprised by here. As Goose and Maverick said in Top Gun "Where de Go"......"Where da Who go" :D

danowat

19th June 2009, 07:48

Yeah, not too shabby, I am just back from Holzs myself!!!.

As for "this place" and LFS, I can't quite put my finger on what / when it all seemed to go a bit pete tong, but I have my own thoeries on that one, personally, I think CTRA is a little to blame, their system was so good that it took a lot of people away from pick up and play racing, then when CTRA went south, there was a massive gap left, people had had a taste of structured and licensed racing, and didn't want to go back to just racing for fun, so a load of other psuedo-CTRA style systems popped up.

Obviously, pick up and play for fun racing as suffered a lot because of this, not sure it will ever return to how it was in the "glory days", but there you go.

I don't think the seeming lack of ethusiasm by the dev team helps either, but thats just my personal opinion and view on things.

edit : blimey, just noticed that in a few weeks I'll have been licensed with LFS for 6 years!!!!

hyntty

19th June 2009, 08:07

I think it's all ctra to blame. Sure it's nice to have clean racing and earn points and such, but generally it tries to battle against lfs' strenght(s), the easy pickup online play.

Now, I cannot be arsed to drive xfg's for three months just advance in the rank list. The whole idea of having ranking systems is a huge failure, because who knows when the servers will disappear suddenly. I naturally want to choose a server from the list and drive with a car that's enabled there. So nowdays if I wish to have good racing in a car of my choice I need to set up the server myself and get all my mates to be online at the same time. Which almost never happens-

BTW about the bad setups; This is a good thing only. Having insim restrict setups kind of creates new carmodels to the ever-aging game. When the devs just sit there on their arses (now where's the sarcasm smiley ?) this is a good way to create diversity to the racing. And usually the system informs you what you are doing wrong. For example our kyoto 500 server only allows R2 tires, so if you join with anything else you will get spectated and told you need to use R2's. It will actually do that twice, and on the third time you will be kicked for being illiterate.

EDIT: @ Dan: Since you are about twice my age, and have been licensed for three times as long, you have in relation to me been an LFS user for 6 times longer.

Fordman

19th June 2009, 08:26

I don't want to create a flaming war here, was just curious and asking questions. LFS license.....I have reached 7 years, past go and collected my pension :D

Dan - I have to agree with you on this one

hyntty - I don't feel you can blame one entity here. CTRA was only providing what CRC did all those many moons ago, just slightly different. CRC folded when the license system came out and wasn;t required, but it worked to a point, "teaching" people to race clean. CTRA done the same to a point. I mean in real life, you past your driving test, you would not jump straight into a Ferrari would you, same as CTRA, so it worked. What it did kill is like Dan said, the pick up and race servers.

What is need, IMHO is all the server Admins, to pull together, and make a variation of servers and cars ( look how many BL servers there are ) Its not like a website, hits don't count nor does popularity.

Lets pull this community together and help each other ( as we used to ) and give all the drivers some variation. This will then spark the "fun" element of what LFS was actually built on in the first instance. Nobody wants LFS to die away like the others, more so than me, but its is down to the server admins here, as they hold the key to some online fun?

I am not trying to be a Braveheart here :D just trying to inject some life into what is IMHO the best racing simulation ( not game :razz: ) and online racing fun there is available ATM!!!!

Well I hope this doesn't fall on deaf ears, maybe I am waisting my time, but at least I tried.

Calling all SERVER ADMINS.......COME ON HELP US OUT HERE :thumb:

Regards

Fordie

danowat

19th June 2009, 08:35

There are empty servers by the barrel load that people can change cars/tracks on, but they just don't get used, people like to race on combos that they are comfortable with, and as such the vast majority of the LFS population only race a very small percentage of whats actually available.

I don't want to be Captain killjoy, and I like your enthusiasm, but I think you are on a hiding to nothing, I think "we" have passed a point in LFS's lifescale, and I don't think we can go back to it.

Many of the old guard that remember the "glory days", have dropped LFS, some in favour of iRacing, others in favour of something else, but those that have "gone", can't / won't find anything of yet that could draw them back.

LFS is stale, LFS is stagnant, its still as good as it was all those years ago, but the nuts and bolts of LFS are still the same as they were years ago, we need REVOLUTION in LFS, not EVOLUTION

Bean0

19th June 2009, 08:38

Calling all SERVER ADMINS.......COME ON HELP US OUT HERE :thumb:

Regards

Fordie

We run a public LRF+LX4 server, which is empty nearly all the time.
Our UF League server is public apart from racenights, it is UF1 @ FE RallyX atm, but as far as I can tell only our league drivers are using it.

FOX, TBO and STD are pretty much covered, all that is left is the GTRs and FBM/FO8.

C'MON RACERS, USE THE INTERESTING COMBOS !!!11eleventy

aroX123

19th June 2009, 08:47

my sister is going to be 57 year 7 months 3 weeks 6 days 22 hours 45 minutes 20 sec ,9427 of age when LFS will be FULL.

tristancliffe

19th June 2009, 08:50

Agreed - CTRA killed LFS by destroying the simple pick-up-and-play atmosphere. No longer could you see a mate on LFS who you know was quick and clean, join in 2 seconds and race against him. Instead you had to race idiots for a month to earn your place in the decent servers.

And as LFS didn't have a wrecking problem I think that's silly. It was more likely the quick guys were so annoyed about having to lap people, rather than having them disappear from the track in front of them.

Of course, you can still pick-up-and-play, but the ethos has changed. Too many servers with too many in-sim apps running.

Of course, it's not the end of the world. It just requires us oldies to forget, and learn to cope with the new way, the new order. But it's hard to accept mediocrity when you've flirted with perfection.

UnknownMaster21

19th June 2009, 08:56

Oh my Gosh! DUDES!

what if we are going just to play Live For Speed?:shrug:

RasmusL

19th June 2009, 09:03

We run a public LRF+LX4 server, which is empty nearly all the time.
Our UF League server is public apart from racenights, it is UF1 @ FE RallyX atm, but as far as I can tell only our league drivers are using it.

FOX, TBO and STD are pretty much covered, all that is left is the GTRs and FBM/FO8.

C'MON RACERS, USE THE INTERESTING COMBOS !!!11eleventy

Track rotation helps a lot IMO, I rarely join servers that race only one track.
Also, not many people join empty servers.. After all, they're empty :P

Fordman

19th June 2009, 09:09

But it's hard to accept mediocrity when you've flirted with perfection.

That is the Quote of the Decade, absolutly hit the nail on the head there m8.

Maybe we should all install S1 and go about our own business :D

Bean0

19th June 2009, 09:11

Track rotation helps a lot IMO, I rarely join servers that race only one track.
Also, not many people join empty servers.. After all, they're empty :P

LRF server has a rotation.
UF server changes to the combo of the next race...so either UF1, UFR, or UF Baby-R.

With the LRF server, I find that if I go on just to fill in some time flinging the FZ around then a few more will join.
Hell, even taking the FZ out on an empty track can be more fun than racing the same old combos over and over.

Huru-aito

19th June 2009, 09:19

Even though the amount of people online has stayed pretty much the same through the S2 era, the number of racers have decreased quite a bit. Many "old-timers" have grown bored and switched sims / quit completely. These old-timers had a background of other sims, but now - I'll make a bold claim that's nothing more than a hunch - more and more people online have no earlier experience of "proper" racing and that shows up as lack of respect, general misconceptions of racing etiquette etc.

Combine the lack of good racing servers to the slowed down pace of development and you're bound to lose interest.

Dmt

19th June 2009, 09:49

Ahh mates, lets just celebrate our half year of patch delay and dont argue. :D :elefant:

Blackout

19th June 2009, 10:05

Ahh mates, lets just celebrate our half year of patch delay and dont argue. :D :elefant:
Go troll somewhere else, this thread is not about LFS progress it's about the online experience.

I guess I need to join the good old times club. I've always though that you got old (and useless for anything because old people are smelly and drool) when you said the words "it was better in the old days" and now I've fallen in to my own trap. :(

MRT and SO, those were the days. Saw if any good racers where on and joined them. If you want to have a good race nowdays, it needs to be at least semi-organised event or league. Had a blast in LX6 last night on our Thursday LX evening, the set was shite but I had fun and plenty of great battles. Proper fair racing.

It's still better what it was in the CTRA era, as Tristan put it, you had to drive with idiots for ages to just drive with your mates. Restricting your cars when you've been playing the game for years just doesn't serve a purpose, and I hope that CTRA will never come back in that form ever again.

Bean0

19th June 2009, 10:10

I guess I need to join the good old times club. I've always though that you got old (and useless for anything because old people are smelly and drool) when you said the words "it was better in the old days" and now I've fallen in to my own trap. :(

Who knows, if/when Westhill gets updated we may be able to say 'I can remember when this was all just fields'.

Now where's my slippers...

Torben

19th June 2009, 10:42

... more and more people online have no earlier experience of "proper" racing and that shows up as lack of respect, general misconceptions of racing etiquette etc.
I think thats a very important point.
The lack of respect and etiquette leads to total chaos on non-admined servers. As soon as you get more than say 10 cars on the track you can be sure there is one that just goes full throttle to turn one and takes out half the field. There are too many players around that have the "Need-For-Speed" Attitude. Race-Fast-FullThrottle-IamKing-TheOthersSuck...kinda stuff.
And since you simply cannot live-admin a server 24/7, not even the time it is busy (in the end, admins are also racers and want to race from time to time), the insim apps, like airo tracker helps pre-admining the server. It sorts out the total idiots (sorry for the word, not meaning anybody in specific) and tries to give the top say 15 racers a good racing experience. That it is no perfect system, no question about it.
But as you already stated, the glory days seems over.

pacesetter

19th June 2009, 11:02

LFS is very different to what it was even when I started playing two years ago. I don't think blaming CTRA is such a good idea, as it did good things for the game, and definetly generated interest. I know of many people who have stopped playing the game because it has gone. I think the main thing about CTRA that people enjoyed was that it was like casual league racing, because you raced for something, in a clean racing enviroment. In my opinion, if STCC comes back, it'll be one of the best things for LFS in a long time, as it'll rekindle interest from the old foes who battled in it a few years ago, and bring back the motivation of people who never raced in it, but are keen on doing so now.

Tomba(FIN)

19th June 2009, 12:05

Oh my Gosh! DUDES!

what if we are going just to play Live For Speed?:shrug:

We are having a wise discussion here about live for speed's status at the moment.
So why don't YOU go and just play the live for speed while we try to think of the problem and try to solve it?
Typical nonsense comment from you.

TAYLOR-MANIA

19th June 2009, 12:43

I have also witnessed the degradation of LFS in the last couple of years, since i started in fact. The last year has been especially poor for LFS... maybe it is due to CTRA going down, and that infamous delayed patch to boot. But i have also noticed this forum getting worse & worse, too :shrug:

Perhaps it will take a considerable update of the sim for it to reclaim some of it's pedigree.. but i think there's a fair amount of truth in Danowat's statement - we need REVOLUTION in LFS, not EVOLUTION. Would a new patch even help the state of affairs & standard of public racing? I think not.

I think what has happened is that, maybe, once upon a time LFS was a little known gem, and compared to now the numbers were small. The community was tight. The majority of racers knew each other fairly well & how to race one another. But as LFS grew so did the numbers. And in that rise of numbers brought with it a rise in... erm, let's say, juvenile etiquette.

Honestly, i have no idea where the problem & solution lies. But i say that it's an official global ranking system (of some kind) that's needed, and would go some way to help pick-up racing a little better.

hyntty

19th June 2009, 12:50

The community is still tight. I've raced against the majority of people who posted in this thread for example. I think that would count as people knowing each other.

marzman

19th June 2009, 12:51

Trust me, I am not bitchin and moaning, just heavly surprised thats all, and just woundered what other LFS people thought about it. If I found this in 1-2 days, what on earth do you guys think that have stuck with it since day dot?

Isn't this what you are supposed to do as an oldy? Saying things where better in the past?

sinanju

19th June 2009, 12:58

Most of these "you need xx licence to drive xx car" are the server admins running silly ario insim apps, or other things..

Some of us admins running servers don't put these restrictions on.

If I did on mine, I'd not get on myself, as I would fail to make the minimum grade - I've tried it on other servers and failed.

Also, some of the servers (like mine) allow you (if no-one else on) to change the track/car combo. I sometimes join my server to find it's been changed to some combo I haven't driven for a while, and am usually glad it's been done. Except BL1 - too many servers with that.

I'm now starting to design and load autocross tracks on just to have a change from even the normal combos. Some people like the new experience and challenge. Some give it a quick go, decide it's not for them, and leave. Either way's fine by me.

As for silly insim apps - I use LFSLapper. Find it great for quite a few things. I won't abide swearing and name calling on my server. Do it, and you get warned. Continue and you get kicked. My server; my choice. Lapper is great for doing that automatically.

I also have a drift score meter enabled. I can only do that thru lapper. I can't drift (difficult for old keyboard users like me), but it's there for anyone that wants to use it - or other admins who've wanted it for their own servers.

As for actually racing and admin on my server; I barely have couple of hours late at night to get on my pc (time I get back home after work, chores, walking dog, wife wanting to do her work on pc, kid's schoolwork, ferrying kids to this and that, kid's wanting to use the pc for surfing cause they're bored with the PS3, me needing to catch up on work, etc). Finally getting on the pc at 11pm (if I'm lucky) I just want to have fun and race people. Last thing I want is to have to sit back and watch other drivers crashing into each other and slinging abuse about, then having to go get replay, watch it a couple of time to make sure I make right decision, then get back on server to advise/spec/kick/ban whatever, and find no-one there as I couldn't make an instantaneous decision that blamed the other driver.

For that reason, I can quite understand why other admins put restrictions on racers who join their server. If you can do certain lap times with these restrictions then more chance you take racing seriously, and if you're serious, much less likely to be a serial crasher/abuser. Therefore less time overhead spent being an admin. More time spent on driving, which is the reason you got into LFS in the first place.

-------------------------------------------------------
I N V I T A T I O N
==============

Open to all.

I'm finding that I can't get on my server much nowadays (for reasons detailed above), and when I'm not on it, not much activity - too many empty servers to choose from, I suppose.

For that reason, if you want to use my server for special event, with only your own invited guests attending, then let me know, and I'll be happy to lend you it for the day/evening.

Just give me a suitable length of notice (minimum 3 days would be nice), and I can probably set it up for you with password only access. You supply the password.

No guarantee that Lapper won't be working in the background, although I could switch it off. It's currently off as I'm trying (unsuccessfully - MY fault) to upgrade to newest version.

I'm away off on holiday from 10 July to 19 July inclusive, so may be able to make server available to you exclusively for that period.

Might give you (easy) taste of what it's like to manage your own server.

If you want to try it, email me. Email address on server - it's on the opening Welcome message when you join the server. You don't even have to join the game.

-------------------------------------------------------

Sin'rs (Sinanju's racing server)

danowat

19th June 2009, 13:06

Lack of servers is NOT the problem, at all, in fact, the abundence of empty servers is some of the problem.

Variety of racing is a big problem, for me, obviously not for some, because they seem happy to drive a million laps on the same track, in the same car.

ATHome

19th June 2009, 13:08

One of the problems with some servers is, they run a very rare combo, and just because you haven't set a time online in LFSW you get kicked from the servers.

What are they thinking? You see LX4 BL2 Servers twice in a year for some time. How should I have set a time online, if I'm not racing every day? :really:

That's just silly :shrug:

danowat

19th June 2009, 13:10

FTR, I can't recall a single instance where I have been kicked for having no setup, having no time on LFSW, or being too slow.

ATHome

19th June 2009, 13:12

I've seen that on many servers. :shrug:

Maybe it's just bad luck, but there are definitely some servers out there, that run such an insim.

Bean0

19th June 2009, 13:14

FTR, I can't recall a single instance where I have been kicked for having no setup, having no time on LFSW, or being too slow.

The only time I have seen it is where people have not applied the usual restrictions, 3% for FXO 45% for UFBR, and continue to try and join without fixing it.

Airio was a little lacking here, as it didn't say exactly why people were specced, and if they tried 3 times they get booted. I believe that this has now been changed so that it states what you need to change.

Mille Sabords

19th June 2009, 13:20

Ario / Lapper are great tools, but will never replace live admins.
Same thing for CTRA - the reporting system was an attempt to provide good races (upper licences) without live admins, while providing training to beginners on entry servers.
In my opinion CTRA was designed neglecting "old timers", excellent concept though for new LFS players.

I got fed up with pickup racing lack of etiquette, I'm not commited / competitive enough for league racing, I am not newbie enough to start collecting point on a specific server.

After a while I've found a place to race, that suits my (lack of) racing timeframe and my conception of online racing (with live admins). So I can say that such places do exist, even if they are well hidden within the myriad of servers running the same combo or silly lapper / ario configurations. Keep searching!

danowat

19th June 2009, 13:21

After a while I've found a place to race, that suits my (lack of) racing timeframe and my conception of online racing (with live admins). So I can say that such places do exist

Don't keep it a secret Mille, let us in on it :)

NotAnIllusion

19th June 2009, 13:23

dMr? :p

Bean0

19th June 2009, 13:25

The major benefits of using Airio are the autorestart, track rotations, and enforcing restrictions for GT2/BabyR classes. We do not use the various inbuilt points systems on our servers, and I have tried to make them as least-spammy as possible.

Mille Sabords

19th June 2009, 13:26

shhh. keep it low please!
Not supposed to be an advertisement, Doorman and Lameduck are keeping all lunch vouchers for Venca and Moose to stay on board these days, so I have nothing to get from that :D

PS Besides this place is only fun for slowpokes and backmarkers, so I can get some competition down the grid ;)

Fordman

19th June 2009, 14:10

PS Besides this place is only fun for slowpokes and backmarkers, so I can get some competition down the grid ;)

Excellent I am there :D

Isn't this what you are supposed to do as an oldy? Saying things where better in the past?

I am not saying this but as you brought it up, yes it was HAHA. There is great servers out there, I mentioned one in my original post. A little more variation would be nice. Maybe if there was, and not 85% servers had BL with GT/GTI then maybe they all wouldn't be so empty?

OK before somebody suggests this, surprised they haven't, make you own server. Not all of us are blessed with that bandwidth. :(

three_jump

19th June 2009, 14:25

no, but there are dozen of empty ones :D

For me the CTRA servers used to be a pain in the arse and I'm glad they are gone now

Anyway, welcome back you old fart :shy:

garph

19th June 2009, 14:48

The are plenty of people who can provide a server, it's just that there is a good chance it wont get used. I can get franky to set up a server with any combo you want.

After getting back into LFS we (ATC) have been using the LR server alot, not because of the combo or the insim but purely down to the good racing. We had a 60 GP (which you would have had to fight for a grid slot at one time) and only really got half the people we would of liked.

We're starting to set things up again, we used to race XFR/AS2 all the time and always have the server full within minutes, but those times are gone. We're looking to be racing the XFR on various combos and see how it goes.

p.s. Not ass kissing but if it wasn't for the guys in T7R providing us with some excellent races and a great league a few months back I dunno if we'd have picked up LFS again as much.

Gentlefoot

19th June 2009, 14:58

Gener_AL (UK)

19th June 2009, 15:28

Well Fordman, its like this, every server wants some cool insim point automated admin system.
"Ohh you had a crash" "email it to us we review it."
Sorry to point you out beano but i frigging hate this ario stuff.
I dont want rotation, I want Pure LFS servers please, less spam (chat is not spam btw)
Im not bothered about TBP SPB sector times unless and pushing the car hard and then i will use LFSWorld when serious.(Ingame provides this info anyways)
Did i mention i hate autorotation.
What happened to the admin, you know the guy/gal keeping up moral and keeping idiots out and good vibes in.
Meanwhile the real racers keep getting rear ended, pushed off the track. But its ok i can email a report ........

Seriously being taken out doesnt bother me much though, as 99/100 I can smile as I know that the other racer is learning from his/her mistake.
You will still find that same experience fordman if you look around, people seem to be more true to themselves once peer pressure has worn off, and I still find myself helping other drivers with sets driving styles and lines.

Ahhhh but then come to the forums and all you see are childish posts/rants/ideas & the bullies and freaks.
There was once a time where you needed to really read a thread, now with my ignore list and the replies of what seems to be a selfish, arrogant and disposable minority. That seem to care about their own opinion, rather then the topic of the thread.
I have an idea i have long thought about, splitting the forum for under 21's and for over 21's

Hururattio made some very good points and voiced out most of my feelings about why some are disappearing, and shit... I have to agree with Tristan about CTRA.

I'm not one of these oldtimers that gets bored, or thinks dev pace is too
slow, Hell i have hardly driven the S2 Cars, still totally addicted to TBO.

Now usally i would just close my browser window at this point, and just walk away.
Today i thought otherwise.
*** edit *****

Just like to add though the forum has improved a little recently, some good threads.

SparkyDave

19th June 2009, 17:39

Hey Shaun, nice to see you active again :)

I'm probably repeating some of what has already been said...

The way I see it its hard to find a popular server that isint running areio (sp) not only does this destroy the inserver chat, it also means all the car filters in LFS serverlist are no longer correct.
I joined a TBO (listed in serverlist) server a few months back, and couldn't drive any of the TBO cars because of server specific rules (points related)
I did stay and drive the XFR and realised I needed to drive months before accuiring the neccessary pointsrank. I felt dissapointed but continued at the LR server and enjoied some really nice races. I achieved the TBO rank last week :D
For me when in an "arieo" server I find the !help commands feel unnatural compared to what CTRA had, and I still dont understand what all the info displayed in some menus means.

When the CTRA was running it was the first of its kind, only had 3 or 4 public servers out of hundreds of "normal" servers, and when you joined it clearly told you what you needed to drive etc and backed it all up with a website that tracked everything, with clear and comprehensive rules etc.
Its seems now every server has different arieo settings and commands and is more confusing, than ctra was, to me at least.

There are still good pickup races to be had, you just need to use your LFS buddy list to find them or keep shifting servers until you find something good :)

The flood of BL1 servers is of course because a few patches back demo servers got combined with S1 and S2 servers in the list, without the option of filtering them ATM :)

Ill keep an eye out for ya on the servers Fordie ;P

SD.

JackSun

19th June 2009, 17:51

If you are looking for a server where you can just login and have a quick fair race, try the Redline Demo server. Like all demo servers it attracts it's fair share of crash kiddies but most of the time there is an admin around to sort them out. I am often there and have track marshall status so I am able to kick ban or send to spectate any of the trouble makers. If there isn't any admin online you can leave a message on the redline forums http://www.team-redline.co.uk/forum/index.php and an admin will usually check in and sort it out.

troy

19th June 2009, 18:01

Regarding airio spamming to much informations: Just hit "shift+i" turn every option off, save it and you won't see any of the clutter. That's always the first thing I do on any server running airio. (You'll only have to do that once on the particular server and your options will be bound to your S2 account)

I've got not much to say about the rest of this thread, but I think it's a little too easy to just blame the server owners, there are hundreths of servers out there but mostly the ones running special server software are the ones well populated, the demand for it is certainly there and with a few tweaks you wont even notice that you're racing on a server with airio/lapper enabled.

srdsprinter

19th June 2009, 18:35

Can't say that i have much to add to this thread, but i can say i've enjoyed reading it thoroughly. Makes me smile to see lots of old names holding a mature conversation on these forums (a seemingly rare occurance of late).

I will be watching intently to see what can come out of this discussion, as it seems to be the group of like-minded people who brought me to LFS way back when.

danowat

19th June 2009, 18:46

S14 DRIFT

19th June 2009, 19:00

SparkyDave

19th June 2009, 19:24

Going back to something Dave mentioned........could an automated friends list, like the friends list on the xbox360 live system, help find racers easy?.

Currently, there is no simple way (i know of) of finding your friends, sure, you can find them, but its not as easy as it could be.

On the xbl system, as soon as you log on it gives you prompts like, "racer a is racing on Forza 2, press a to join", surely something like this built in to LFS could aid finding our friends?

Sounds like a good idea Dan :thumb:
We already have the /find command, I would have thought without too much programming time, a system could be made to look for your "buddys" when you click multiplayer, maybe auto buddy list update (from LFSWorld) or manual where you have to input all your friends usernames, the former would be nice :)

I've thought about that "splitting the forum" idea Gener_Al mentioned, but I think whatever measures you take people will circumvent them, increasing the need for more policing in the long run, itws worth noting that the state of the forum and the state of online activity dont reflect each other IMO, there is still good racing online once you find the right bunch of like minded players :) but to the new to LFS player I think this forum has become a very dark place compared to what it was when it began, after the good old RSC days lol

SD.

danowat

19th June 2009, 19:49

If you think ario annoys you, imagine every 5 minutes it popping up saying

"You have been invited to server xx"

orrr

"User xx is online"

Orr

"User XX joined server XX"

Nothing annoys me more when I'm at my mates house on Xbox, it's those bloody annoying XBL popups.

Maybe if it wasn't as intrusive as the XBL system (which personally, I don't find intrusive), maybe something that you can access from the multiplayer menu, rather than is always active in game?

Vain

19th June 2009, 19:55

I wouldn't want to be informed that 4 of my friends are switching from some FOX server to an FBM server while I'm doing a quali-run in an LX6, so I'd rather see such notifications on demand.

On the topic, I still think LFS just needs more content. But I mean its content should at least double. And that's all I'm waiting for.

Though, since it's modern at the moment, we could alternatively start a break-away master server. :tilt:

Vain

danowat

19th June 2009, 20:00

On the topic, I still think LFS just needs more content. But I mean its content should at least double. And that's all I'm waiting for.

I don't disagree totally, however, I do believe that more content isn't the answer.

There are more fundemental gameplay, physics and user friendly additions that could be added to revoloutionise LFS.

Bean0

19th June 2009, 20:00

On the xbl system, as soon as you log on it gives you prompts like, "racer a is racing on Forza 2, press a to join", surely something like this built in to LFS could aid finding our friends?

Just change the way you start LFS for a partial solution :)

This is my LFSWorld bookmark...

Clickety (http://www.lfsworld.net/?win=hosts&whichTab=licensed&track=&country=&filter=48&carsinc=0&carsex=0&sort=ar) (Carsex, lol(

It opens the servers page, sorted by occupancy, public/non-cruise servers only.
If you have added friends, and turned on the doohickey for notifications then you will be notified if they are online and can click to join them.

Of course you aren't notified in-game when someone goes online, but you're racing then anyway I suppose.

danowat

19th June 2009, 20:05

Just change the way you start LFS for a partial solution :)

This is my LFSWorld bookmark...

Clickety (http://www.lfsworld.net/?win=hosts&whichTab=licensed&track=&country=&filter=48&carsinc=0&carsex=0&sort=ar) (Carsex, lol(

It opens the servers page, sorted by occupancy, public/non-cruise servers only.
If you have added friends, and turned on the doohickey for notifications then you will be notified if they are online and can click to join them.

Of course you aren't notified in-game when someone goes online, but you're racing then anyway I suppose.

You see, this is one of the (many) things that urk me about LFS, these sorts of things should be "in game", and not be the realm of external apps / programs, or the user jumping through hoops, we are (too) used to "making do"

Bean0

19th June 2009, 20:12

It's how it worked in the olden days - Firing up All-Seeing-Eye with your custom server filters and friends list for a game of CS well before Steam came about.

The Steam server browser and friends list is not so-much different to LFSWorld if you think about it. Major difference is that it runs all the time in your taskbar.

danowat

19th June 2009, 20:14

But it could be made so much simpler and more intergrated in the main program.

Maybe I have been playing xbox for too long!!!!

dadge

19th June 2009, 20:21

we've (ATC) just added an insim to one of our servers. similar to he LR setup except we don't have a scoring system. we only use the insim for track rotation.
the car is XFR (ATC FAV) and it track selection is:
XFR @ BL = 8 laps

XFR @ SO Chicane = 9 laps

XFR @ FE Green = 9 laps

XFR @ KY Nat R = 6 laps

XFR @ WE R = 6 laps

XFR @ AS Club = 9 laps

XFR @ SO 1 = 14 laps
give it a whirl some time. ATC Public #1

buedi

19th June 2009, 20:43

I must admit that I did not play LFS online for a long time. Mostly because the only good races where on the CTRA Server and I had no time and not the talent to get up to the better Servers... and I hated that someone told me which car I can use.

Reading this thread I logged into LFSWorld again and watched at my Buddy list and some very good memories arised. Back in the "jump in and race" times I just looked if some of the Buddies where Online and where, jumped in and had great fun. Even if I was much slower than many of them these where clean and fun races most of the time.

Aaahh... how many good races I had on numerous RallyX Servers with Fetzo. A very generous person, always had a Setup for me and always a clean and fast driver. And there where a few other... what if you guys all look for your "old" buddies you had great races in the past. If everybody looks for "his" buddies before going Online there will be good races automatically.

And maybe I´ll be back again too... although I know nobody cares, because nobody misses me :D

zeugnimod

19th June 2009, 21:09

If everybody looks for "his" buddies before going Online there will be good races automatically.

I always do it like that.

To me it's not about the combo I am racing (well, maybe a tiny little bit :D), it's about the people I race with.

That's why I can wait very well until the VWS is released. Additional cars and tracks are obviously very welcome but not necessary.

halo

20th June 2009, 05:41

LR server is good enough for those who looking for a "Ctra-like" server.
Ario thingy works like another competition tool but not useful if you are not racing regularly at those servers, thus some may find it annoying.

KWAK7

20th June 2009, 06:33

I check in from time to time but have not connected/raced in a while now. I just proved too hard to find good races down here in NZ, too few racers, and after CTRA closed shop the only real serious race servers went. I hope that S3 kick starts another CTRA type system.

The new VW, if it ever gets released :), will be interesting as fixed setup. Might re-kindle the fun battles where GTi or TBO races were easy to find.

Woz come on, check www.lfsnz.com (http://www.lfsnz.com) out!

GOOD CLEAN RACING FROM NZ

Fordman

20th June 2009, 09:00

Hi Guys,

Many thanks for your like minded comments, and I agree with srdsprinter, its nice to have a constructive discussion with no flaming of the like. I must admit, I found a server last night, with SD, 3J, Pringles, AndyUK and Pingo, and before I needed my chinese, it was great racing, and fun through out, although like SD said, unless you race everyday and all the time, you are never going to reach that TBO class.

Thanks to Dadge for putting some more servers up. Maybe if you have another one spare, put the TBO class on there, so we have a choice. There is plenty of GTR and open wheelers, so this would give us a complete variation.

Again, it was great to see some familiar names last night, and Vain, I like your idea :D

Was nice to be dressed in those familar colours of mine :smileypul

See you all soon

Regards

Fordie

dadge

20th June 2009, 10:02

it wasn't just me bud. it was a team decission. we were thinking of doing it ages ago but never got round to it.
i'll see franky to try and get the GP server to rotate the TBO class. any track requests are welcome (10 minute races, so do the math too :p). i'll see if we can allow the vote kick/ban set to allowed so the servers can be self regulated. if you get banned accidently, give us a shout on our forum (atcteam.org) and we will get you unbanned.

Chrisuu01

20th June 2009, 10:06

He's the guy doing these illegal mods to LFS..
Whel did u know tgat guys has never bought a licence he is a demo racer:(

Fordman

20th June 2009, 11:26

Wakey

20th June 2009, 12:15

spankmeyer

20th June 2009, 17:19

Yep, I only come here for the offtopic talk and laughs. :shrug:

My thoughts on topic, please don't take these as passionate rants, I'm far too sad that LFS is in this state already:

The devs not wanting to split the community into racers/everybody else within forum and via server browsing might have ironically done just that destructively - thus killing the (hardcoreish?) racing scene that in the end was the LFS's driving force community wise.

Many agrees that LFS suited their schedules well. You could have gone for a 20-lapper with pit stops or drop in for a few 3-lappers around Blackwood if you were in a hurry. Last time I remember checking out the servers took ages as list was filled with servers of obscure rules and distracting/unnecessary Insim apps enforcing yet another set of behaviour guidelines or points system or whatnot.

Personally I would have hoped that the Devs would have enforced or suggested some sort of simple and effective 'Good Server Guidelines for Easy Racing'. That would have kept the bar low for pickup racing with a known and dev-approved set of default rules that hopefully would have taken ground as a sort of default server. That way a player would not have had to jump through hoops just to get into good racing and might come back more often.

The 'Good Rules' could have been simple suggestions as 'Remember to mix combos often enough to keep content fresh and people interested' - nothing super strict.

Henrico

20th June 2009, 22:02

I don't know about you guys but when I first picked the game up after it was released years and years ago I used to have thrilling races with the same guys time after time. The thing that made the racing good was the easyness to pick it up and the easyness to drive(none of this clutch overcomplication so you can't shift down if you're accelerating etc.) but also the fact you could race fairly and have a great time doing it. Anyone fancy playing s1 again?!? MRT FTW

MyBoss

20th June 2009, 22:21

Haven't been active for the past two years. Mostly because I don't have access to good enough internet connection.

But I can remember that the online "feel" was changing, even then. If its worse now ... well, I don't know, in that case I guess its pretty bad?

Annyho, have been following this thread of lately, don't write much here anymore. LFS has a special place in my heart, so I just have to keep updated. Just noticed alot of old good friends/rivals in this thread. :)

ATC ftw! :thumb:

Best regards Alt-Ctrl/Kjønnøy.

franky500

20th June 2009, 23:37

Thought i would just post a quick note.

Hey old timers. Welcome back :).

The kind of things going on at the moment it is just a case of people want to have the most meaningful server. As dadge pointed out earler recently we have been racing in the LR Server. It has a points system but so long as you can get in the top 12 - 15 cars you are in for a stunning race.

Hopefully we can get some regular organised events going again like the 60 lap GP's used to be.

When im not knackered im sure i will type again. But nice to see you guys around again. Hope to catch you all around here more often (preferably on the track rather than in the threads :thumb:

colcob

22nd June 2009, 13:33

Wow, it's like a class of 2003 re-union in here. Evening Gents.

Like many of you, I'm pretty much inactive now. Every now and again I fire her up and think I might get back into it, but similarly I've been put off by the chronic lack of combo imagination (FBM/BL1 yawn) and the the fact that any server with anyone actually in it requires you to drive a lawnmower for six months to prove your worth.

Maybe we just need to set up an old timers server to suit our particular needs :)

Just about the only good thing about the rash of insim apps has been the improvements to LFS's woeful timing information display.

HighRoad

22nd June 2009, 13:46

Hey mom Hey dad:P

mcintyrej

22nd June 2009, 13:51

2003 reporting in sir. (or close enough!)

In my opinion, its the tracks.

I don't mind racing in those common cars, GTR, STD, TBO - but its when the tracks are always long, straight, wide ones. Aston National, Aston National, Aston National is all I ever see on the list. On popular servers like FM Fox, there's only like 3 tracks I've ever seen on there, AS3, WE1, FE2. I love FE2, its probably my favourite track in the game, but the others are just wide open bland. Fair enough it might provide some good pick up and play racing for the masses, and you can get some decent races and battles on those tracks, but there's just no variety. What happened to tracks like SO2, FE1, FE4, the fun twisty tracks.

Someone needs to make a random combo server, the server chooses a track/car from the whole list, puts them together and you do 5 or so races on that combo, then it swaps. You've got ultimate variety, because the chances of you landing on FXR/AS3, are low.

The Very End

22nd June 2009, 13:55

Matrixi

22nd June 2009, 14:26

I'd sure like to have a race with some other oldies. I never really bothered going to CTRA or any other of these insim-infested license servers, did only a few XRG races there and it would have taken way too much of my time to get a license to race my favourite class, the GTRs. Simply couldn't be bothered to be told by some unknown people what I can and can't drive on my own free time, so I stopped public racing completely and focused full time on drifting and some private races with buddies. :smileypul

Anyway, just name a time and server for an old school race and I'll be there.

Byku

22nd June 2009, 14:31

Hmm... I have to say that if I would be in Your shoes i would totally agree, racing with old mates simply for the fun of it. Great idea, but remember that among the new people there are also good racers who would also like to have a rewarding, clean and entertaining race without worrying If he will manage to race through the whole carnage on T1. Why one of You will not create a league? A league without any rules on "what car, what track and when". You would simply put a post like "let's race on this day, this car, this track", get Your mates together and have fun:).

And that whole license system... if i'm correct there is only one server with license system and that is LR? Right? What's more... the whole "problem" is that some people want something more than racing, they want to ... race for something, points, licenses. That's why CTRA was so popular, so people could say i'm 62th in my country ;).

Edit: Matrixi, Your avatar is hypnoticing...

Fordman

22nd June 2009, 16:00

What about a "old timers only" server then? Just make the insim to check up with LFS database on when the user got reg'ed. Then make the limit to 04-05 something to make sure there only are oldtimers racing there.
Sure, that system would have xx number of flaws and shortcommings, but if it somewhat could be implented on a more clever and usefull way, I'm sure it actually could be great fun having a race with 02-04 people only. I can immagine that even if maybe the racing itself were not that great, you would find a much better attitute than what you would find on the standard servers now.

Well we could always setup a Passworded server, and you have to PM to get the password :shrug: Simple CRC situation that worked, but we need to be careful, as don't want to create a "us and them" atmosphere, something LFS is and never will be about :thumb: but I like the way this thread is going, just a shame it's taken "us oldies" and some like minded newbies to actually want to acheive something from it?

S14 DRIFT

22nd June 2009, 16:30

What about a "old timers only" server then? Just make the insim to check up with LFS database on when the user got reg'ed. Then make the limit to 04-05 something to make sure there only are oldtimers racing there.
Sure, that system would have xx number of flaws and shortcommings, but if it somewhat could be implented on a more clever and usefull way, I'm sure it actually could be great fun having a race with 02-04 people only. I can immagine that even if maybe the racing itself were not that great, you would find a much better attitute than what you would find on the standard servers now.

I think that restricting servers to people who have purchased LFS before a set date is what many people would deem as "slightly elitist". Join date has nothing to do with attitude on the racetrack or skill, IMO. The attitude problem, IMO, is more to do with it being "public" racing. But that's just my very personal opinion.

buedi

22nd June 2009, 17:17

Well we could always setup a Passworded server, and you have to PM to get the password :shrug: Simple CRC situation that worked, but we need to be careful, as don't want to create a "us and them" atmosphere[...]
That´s so true. If you start with Passworded Servers, we get Off Topic now. Weren´t we talking about the "good old times" with starting LFS, pick some Server and have fun? It won´t work with passworded Servers. Some day you want to join to have fun and the password has changed. Then you write a PM, wait for it and when you get the password you realize that you are playing Flight Simulator again... or worse... with your GF :x (hope nobody takes this serious, just came into my mind) :D

Also I don´t like the Idea of a "filter" where you have to be licensed for x+ years. I am sure there are many other "younger" licensees out there not knowing how it was, but they will love it if the atmosphere comes up again.

Who knows... maybe I will exchange the Jostick on my table with the wheel again... :shy:

Byku

22nd June 2009, 18:31

All we need is 6-10 people on the server, so more people will join later ;). So... when do we plan to race? ;)

Fordman

22nd June 2009, 18:49

That´s so true. If you start with Passworded Servers, we get Off Topic now. Weren´t we talking about the "good old times" with starting LFS, pick some Server and have fun? It won´t work with passworded Servers. Some day you want to join to have fun and the password has changed.

True to a point, but this is how the CRC used to run, and it ran very well. Password doesn't change "that often" and we used to have a secure website where you could obtain the latest password with ease, but as I said, and you agreed, it would create an us and them situation, one I would love to avoid.

We wasn't or are not talking about the "good old times" as times have changed and LFS has moved on. What we are covering is the "lack" of respect and variation and choice that is taken away from the driver him/her self. What made LFS, well IMHO is was the fun pick races. If you wanted seriousness and rules and regs, then you joined a league. If you wanted fun fast frantic pickup action, you just raced normally everyday.

IMHO LFS now with all this Insim has taken away the choices of the driver, the license holder, the payer. If I joined a league I expect to be told what to drive, when and what rules and regs. On a public server, I expect to drive what I like, when I like and with what SETUP I like.

Thats the nuts and bolts of this thread I guess, and I am not surprised on how many people agree here, and as you can see, its the guys that picked up LFS 4-5yrs ago.

Some old folk are not so boring or slow road hogs after all :D

spankmeyer

22nd June 2009, 18:58

IMHO LFS now with all this Insim has taken away the choices of the driver, the license holder, the payer. If I joined a league I expect to be told what to drive, when and what rules and regs. On a public server, I expect to drive what I like, when I like and with what SETUP I like.

This man for president.

EDIT: Okay, chief of national security would be good enough too.

Makikou

22nd June 2009, 19:10

I've been playing with S2 License for 2 weeks now and i still havent found a good public server as im more of a FXR/Other easy driven car fan. So im just usually driving on Absolute-Beginners League Practice servers. I'd love to join this kind of server what you were talking about, even that im so slow.

Cheers, Makikou

dodo.ger

22nd June 2009, 20:22

and another old one back... ;)

quite some good points in this thread. as most others i havent been playing lfs for about 2 years (is that a coincidence?), sometimes take a look back in here or in-game and nearly never find any good server.
imo it all started not just with ctra but also with the cruise servers before. all the good racers back then got bored of the content we had and still have and went on to other things, at least thats what i thought.
i too would like to be able to get back on and just drive like the "good old days", so much fun back then...

anyway, for me the solution(s) would be _new tracks_, ive never wanted more cars or anything but the "faster" tracks (as, we, ky) got just boring after a while for us oldies, the mostly tbo junkies (if i can say that). ;)
id like to see some tracks for the slower classes again, as much fun as i had with the gtrs too.
the other problem with wreckers etc. we had these problems everytime just more of us "oldtimers" been around so everytime one could watch over us so to speak.

so, probably easiest solution, find all your old buddies and get them together on a server. :)

btw, im not the one to complain about lfs, i had quite some years of fun with it, more than enough for my money but to get real racers back in we really need more content (for me as i said just tracks would be enough). ive never been very keen on opening up lfs for modders, but maybe at least the track part should be opened.

anyway, my 2 cents, hope i said something constructive too. ;)

Widdowmaker

22nd June 2009, 21:07

Might as well throw in my 2 cents, seeings as I am an old timer..... and all the old timers seem to be coming out.

I dont care much for the insim servers, Horses for courses, I do how ever miss the pickup races.

The arcade element and the desire to be winning points in every race, does not turn me on. I used to spend hours, into the early mornings, whole weekends, doin 5 lap pickup races.

Glad you mentioned the CRC Fordy,, its been a long time gone, and evolved a lot over time. However, the whole point of the CRC was lost, amongst rival teams and hot headed attitiudes. Egos got the better of it, and for one it kept we away from my wheel for a duration.

Regardless, as time moves on and so has LFS, it evolves with time, it grows, changes. THe big unanswered question is, whats next? We only know at some point were gettin the Scirroco, but nothing else else apart from the subtle hint. Anyway back on topic, there is a place for the insims and I am not quite sure Where Becky is going with her latest creation, but it sounds quite...... intersting, but pretty samey... impo.

Either way - good to see you about again.. :thumb:

Fordman

22nd June 2009, 21:24

Nice to see so many LFS drivers from way back still around, and also nice to see your comments. So the question being, what do we do next, as Widow kindly stated.

Do we create our own "little space" although we are not trying to create an us and them attitude"?

We understand that for many newbies, they want the same as us "oldies" as the term keeps coming up, but what they need to understand is that us "oldies" have been here since day dot, and I am going back to like me, September 2002. So maybe we need a space that we call ours, damn the Devs and the beta testers have theres, so why should we not have ours?

Like I said, I don't want to create this us and them environment, but its hard not to, when us "oldies" all we want to do is pick and have a giggle, nothing serious and all that, but somewhere we can drive "for fun"

Alot of thoughts runing here which is great to see, but shall we try and come to a resolution. Like I said CRC "circumstances" worked well and maybe for the sake of us "pick up racers" its time to re-invent the wheel.

So everybody that has read, interested or posted in this thread, please can you state your HONEST OPINION on how to take this forward. Its obviously on alot of people's minds, otherwise, why would you all have voiced such a strong opinion on what I thought was a simple question, I guess not.

Anyway, would love to hear your comments or suggestions. Please forgive me, as I bugger off to the Baleric Islands 2am Wed Morning, so you might not here from me after tomorrow night.

I would like to thank everybody for there idea's / input and its great to see, so many people wanting the same thing in LFS as they did so many moon's ago.......FUN!!!!!!!

Many thanks and best regards

Fordie

The Very End

22nd June 2009, 21:47

I hate using the cheap way out, and linking to an earlier post I made, but I will do it neverthless... In THIS (http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=1158008#post1158008) answer I pretty much tells my opinion about many aspects of LFS, but mainly the community.

I canot provde great discussions, because I usually screws up and misunderstand people and their meanins, and I end up de-railing the whole discussion.
Neverthless, I just want to add something to the reply I did earlier in this topic. I don't want us to create a difference between people, the "us and them" attitute. That is the worst and selfish thing I and other could ever do, and I do not want LFS community to divide into smaller groups that keeps nagging on eachothers.
As someone said, the lisence reg. date tells nothing about a person, that's true, but also in some situations it can be usefull. It's specially fun when people raises idea's, complains, questions, basically anything, and then a newly reg'ed uder tells them to shut it and if they are tire of it move allong. Blargh, there is so much of this attitute lately..

I don't want to think, nor am I, anything above anything, but I like not to be asked to "fu*k off" by a 2009 modell when I do question the development..we'll see if that same user is here in 2013.

But that is not this topic, and sorry for going so off topic. I love discussing LFS when I manage to put up understandable posts. Every idea, thought deserve to be heared, but the community are in trouble, and have been for some time.
Maybe I'll pop into here tomorrow to write more in this reply, but now I am tired and need my sleep :smileypul

It's good to see your oldtimers back, and I had some absolute stunning races with you on the LR race server, thanks for showing me the good parts of LFS community, even if they are well hidden :)

JohnPenn

22nd June 2009, 22:11

Age or date of joining has zero influence for me,racing other drivers who are there to race. that's everything for me and it's why I'm still here.
There is no us and them,only people who join servers to race and other's who don't. the only problem is some fit into both catogories from time to time

The quality of pickup racing on the servers I've watched and raced in is as good as it ever was , maybe even better , the only problem is all the stats..pb's, points, splits, badges, dilute an experience that should be drunk neat.

What I would like to see Is pick up racing that asks a bit more, qually period, no mid race join, longer races.. and more laughs AFTER the race:)

But who wants this?

n2oaddict

23rd June 2009, 00:33

What I would like to see Is pick up racing that asks a bit more, qually period, no mid race join, longer races.. and more laughs AFTER the race:)

But who wants this?

That's what I'd like too, but as you said it is probably "asking too much" for people who just want some quick racing and see nothing else to LFS other than that :shrug:

Riders Motion

23rd June 2009, 00:53

I've been owning my license for two years and to be honest I stopped having fun after a year of playing. LFS really took a beat in 2008/2009. A lot of people stopped playing / played less frequently, there's been a big drama about CTRA, some new crappy mods like the S14 and AE86 started to appear everywhere and the quality of the forum posts went down quite a bit.

Combined together, these little things made LFS not as enjoyable as it used to me for me. Now I'm out of it until there's an update that's worth it. Not a crappy FWD car cause there's already of this in LFS. If you are bored or find LFS not as good as it used to be, I suggest you try other race sims. Some purists say that LFS is the best simulator ever and blablabla... but when you look around there's a bunch of other good racing games that are as fun if not more.

As I've been saying since the first day I joined this forum, LFS is way to serious to be enjoyable over the big run. That's my opinion. Not being able to pick a car and a track without having a license or rank being part of this overseriousness...

Blackout

23rd June 2009, 08:38

What I would like to see Is pick up racing that asks a bit more, qually period, no mid race join, longer races.. and more laughs AFTER the race:)

/Shameless plug

We (or Troy has) have been running organized public racing night every Thursday for a while. Check this for latest infos http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=54399

There is an insim running I must admit, but you can turn it off. And we give out points just for laughs but the racing is good and fair like it used to be in the good old days. Qualy and three races with reversed grids, and maybe some more racing if people stay. :)

mr_x

23rd June 2009, 09:37

I feel like I should add my part too...

For me LFS was great, then within the space of a day or 2 almost 2 years ago now I lost all interest in it, I went on cruise servers, had a lot of fun on them I must admit, but it was more for wasting spare time than anything.

Every now and then I fire it up just to see what's about, join a server, and I tend to do 1 race before getting bored and leaving. It just doesn't feel the same, the community spirit has gone from LFS, on most servers it feels like racing with either little kids or drones who are always first to blame you when they crash into you, not the full-of-laughs close and clean racing that it used to be.

LFS is stale, LFS is stagnant, its still as good as it was all those years ago, but the nuts and bolts of LFS are still the same as they were years ago, we need REVOLUTION in LFS, not EVOLUTION
Exactly my view, but I'd like to expand on that a little. LFS hasn't moved on much at all with time, hardware in particular has lept forwards over the last 5 years and LFS has been left behind with very little support for newer technologies and barely bothering any existing hardware. There is a lot of potential in LFS with current hardware (and I'm not talking about the newest hardware that 90% can't afford, I'm talking about borderline old in 'technology years' that's quite inexpensive today).

ive never been very keen on opening up lfs for modders, but maybe at least the track part should be opened.
This too is a very valid point. There's nothing drastically wrong with the cars in LFS (although a Touring Car would be nice ;) ), but the tracks are old, boring and very lifeless.

LiveForBoobs

24th June 2009, 11:18

Though i'm a newcomer considering how some of you have lfs since 2003, i can imagine how you would feel bored of the tracks after all those years playing on them.

In my opinion, it's more important to have a wide variety of tracks than cars, because when racing the track is what we see, lap after lap. I find it much easier to get bored of a track than a car. Sometimes i just pick a car i can handle well and race it in different tracks. And for me, it feels a lot of fun to handle a car really well and do good times no matter the track.

In this community it's certain that there are talented people, and opening a kind of competition for 5 high quality tracks that would be part for LFS, would be a loaf of fresh air for LFS right now. I'd put physics updates ranked as high as one or two new tracks.

steve30x

24th June 2009, 15:51

What the hell has happened to LFS in 2yrs. :really:

After an almost 2yr break, I decided to download ( yes I know ) LFS and just have a bash, see whats new etc etc. I must admit, as General_UK said to me tonight, its like riding a bike, and yes he was right, after a couple of laps, started to get the feel, and way hay, off we go again, it was great fun, but.......what the hell has happened???

The pick up and go has fecked off and gone ( sorry to be to the point ) :really:

Disconnected for bad Setup, not enough wanking points, WTF. No explaination, nada. I only wanted to have a race, with old friends and a laugh, yet I end up being told I am to old, don't race enough and my care plan deserves to be in an old people's home and that my car is tax exempt :x

Just to clarify, I have no right what so ever, leaving LFS for two years, then on day one turning up like an unwanted tornado, bitching and moaning, but have I missed the boat or something here. I thought one major selling point was the ease of pick up and have fun, not being told, sorry your crap, go and play ************* ( you fill in the gaps LOL )

I must add though, I have found one server ( not online now though HA HA ) Ready 2 Roll, something like that....awesome server, friendly guys, great racing, but one server out of HOW MANY!!!!????

LFS has been turning sour with a while now. I dont mean the game itself (Even though the development has slowed considerably over the past year and a half) but the guys that are good at the game tend to have a god complex and tell you where to go if your not trailing right behind them. I have been put off of LFS a bit because of this attitude and very rarely play LFS anymore. LFS is an unfriendly place to be a lot of the time lately.

Cannabist

24th June 2009, 19:09

I almost never go on race servers anymore, I prefer to hang out in cruise now and then and just relax. Put on some music and drive around...

garph

24th June 2009, 19:40

I almost never go on race servers anymore, I prefer to hang out in cruise now and then and just relax. Put on some music and drive around...
If there was ever a piece of information that this thread really needed, the thread about getting back to the roots of LFS, trying to recapture some of the many great race combos that could be found any night of the week when you were guaranteed to get a good, clean and close race then that.......wasn't even close to being it :thumb:

Widdowmaker

24th June 2009, 20:42

I almost never go on race servers anymore, I prefer to hang out in cruise now and then and just relax. Put on some music and drive around...

Looking at your post count - you do not bother with posting in this forum this forum much either - and I thought I did not post a lot.

Is that because you just prefer to chill and do not like the competitive element of racing?

What would you need/LFS need to get you racing again?

MistaX

24th June 2009, 21:23

I've owned LFS since '04, and I haven't played online since '06, when my DFP failed during a race.

I recently picked up a G25, and I really wanted to get back into "the game" so to speak. So I came to the forum to read about what's going on currently with the community, the state of affairs. It seems I missed a fair bit, as I have no clue what the hell CTRA is.

And after reading a few threads over the past couple of days, I have pretty much no desire to return. I think the community as it stands right now seems so harsh and ridiculous, what happened to the friendly attitude everyone had back then?
I haven't even attempted racing on a server, only offline. I feel like if the forum reflects the general attitude, I'm not generally welcome anywhere.

All I want to do, is race for fun, with some decent people who aren't jackasses with nasty attitudes.
I don't want to cruise, I spent forever doing that in Midtown Madness many years ago.
Nor do I want to race in an environment full of top class drivers. I'm just not that good, nor do I even have a desire to be that good.

Seems like it doesn't exist here anymore...

robt

24th June 2009, 21:33

Do we create our own "little space" although we are not trying to create an us and them attitude"?

We understand that for many newbies, they want the same as us "oldies" as the term keeps coming up, but what they need to understand is that us "oldies" have been here since day dot, and I am going back to like me, September 2002. So maybe we need a space that we call ours, damn the Devs and the beta testers have theres, so why should we not have ours?

Alot of thoughts runing here which is great to see, but shall we try and come to a resolution. Like I said CRC "circumstances" worked well and maybe for the sake of us "pick up racers" its time to re-invent the wheel.

So everybody that has read, interested or posted in this thread, please can you state your HONEST OPINION on how to take this forward. Its obviously on alot of people's minds, otherwise, why would you all have voiced such a strong opinion on what I thought was a simple question, I guess not.

Another oldtimer reporting for duty sir!! (Played LFS from when S1 H was first released)

You've mentioned the CRC in a lot of your final posts on this discussion fordie, maybe theres a reason behind it. Maybe an ORC is due (Oldtimers racing club) Using a similar system for passwords etc. Rather then a before X year cut-off, maybe a select few on invitation only as starters, then those intrested can be voted in (similar to the latter CRC although I wasnt around in S1 demo CRC times to know if it was the same!)

But I would like something with the old racers and the old LFS spririt to get me racing again, havent touched LFS in 6 months now, and dont feel any real want to either.

Hopefully your holiday will inspire you and all us old LFS-ers to get off our backsides and re-stoke the fires.:thumb:

halo

25th June 2009, 05:55

There is new generation around, they form their own characteristics and I am pretty sure, in the future they will miss these days.
Maybe they will say at 2014 or so "...good old days, I signed up at 2008 mate!".

Circulation continues, only difference is perception points and tastes.

RudiTurbo

25th June 2009, 09:12

I just got an idea from this thread.
What if there were like 2-3 servers made by the devs, where only people who have owned LFS for at least 3 years would get in. The servers would be called Legends or smthn and then the real oldies would get to meet there with no newbz :)

The Very End

25th June 2009, 09:25

Fuse5

25th June 2009, 09:31

Problem with that would be that the new people would cry themself to sleep and spam the forum like the kids they are..

When that is said, as someone pointed out earlier, the join date tells nothing about your behaviour on track :shrug: But I am beliving the attitute is a lot better than the new kids around these days.

Who the hell cares if they do? That shouldn't stop you guys from having fun. Go for it.

Just make it invitational or something, with the oldies having a chance to request the pw via irc, pm, or air mail, etc.
This way you can control who gets in and who doesn't

hyntty

25th June 2009, 09:48

Wait, why are guys who haven't had lfs for over 5 years automatically stupid no good whiners?

I'm confused.

Greboth

25th June 2009, 09:55

Not that much of an oldie compared to some of the posters in this thread, but I can relate to what has been said in these pages. While the extent may be worse for those who have been here since 2004 even i can notice it in the 3 years I have been around. I don't play much anymore due to a few reasons but one of them being the racing. I don't enjoy the pick up and play racing that I did when I first started playing. I have mused over this wondering whether it was rose tinted glasses, me being a little bored with lfs in its current state or the quality of racing in pick up and play racing. (All very well saying join a server but I don't have the time to practice enough to race leagues to a decent standard) I have to say though maybe it is a a mix of all 3. The memories that really stick in your memory are those of the good times from that past: the close lap after lap battles, the 1 point victories in leagues etc not the time you got taken out in T1 of a 5 lap race. I have to say though the race craft does seem to be worse then when I joined.

Also Insim has been mentioned in this thread as well. While I see the point and I did enjoy the tier of CTRA when it was running, some of the app that are used are very confusing, even for me after being round a few years nevermind a first timeplayer. While the Insim provides some good things in my opinion it has been used to far, but short of the devs reducing its usefullness or removing it completely (which I can't see happening) I don't see a solution.

The old timer's racing sounds good and would be a server I would be interesting in. Though would also be good if more of the unusual combos were used.

russraine

25th June 2009, 09:56

I have to agree with you Fordman - I had exactly the same experience the other night.

Wanted to race on a busy server, there was only one with a decent amount of people on. As soon as I tried to join the race the server app kicked me because I hadn't set a pb on that track before.

I can understand setting pb standards on private servers but if you decide to make yours public, why bother putting these Nazi programs on which stop anyone but the regulars joining anyway? Might as well give them all a password and make it private, then you wouldn't need such an obtrusive app kicking people anyway.

Vain

25th June 2009, 10:38

I don't think that an InSim-system is a solution to the problem caused by InSim-systems.

I'd rather like some ability to filter out all servers that use an InSim-system or something like that. I didn't think a lot about it yet, but the basic thought is that you can't have carefree pickup racing if you have to study the manual of each server's InSim-system for 10 minutes first. I'd rather try connecting to an rFactor server because over there at least I get new cars or tracks.
Perhaps the basic functionality implemented in LFS also could to be improved so there is fewer demand for functions that, so far, only complicated InSim-systems can present.

Basically, for me, the problem is that every server is different, while actually I want to connect to a *random* server and just have some racing. I don't want servers to be different.
I only used CTRA because as a former STCC driver I had a free platinum license so I didn't have to bother with the points system at all. I didn't touch public servers since then because they are just too complicated.

So to conclude: Back then LFS started out with a very accessable online racing system but now all servers provide different functionality.
LFS managed to get the same disadvantages as the modding scene of rFactor without actually providing the ability to add user-content.

Vain

P.S.: If you can't be bothered to read it all, just skim the marked terms to get the jist of my post.

dawguk

25th June 2009, 10:50

The old timer's racing sounds good and would be a server I would be interesting in. Though would also be good if more of the unusual combos were used.

Perhaps suitability for entry to the server could be decided by answering a number of questions, for example:

- Name five items that Swizzle Matlow made in the 80s.
- How many REAL LIFE CARS have you owned?
- Do you know what a Mk.1 Escort smells like?
- Where is your CB, and when did you last use it?

Maybe some of you might see where I was going with this ;)

Ponty46

25th June 2009, 11:07

fujiwara

25th June 2009, 11:16

...
Wanted to race on a busy server, there was only one with a decent amount of people on. As soon as I tried to join the race the server app kicked me because I hadn't set a pb on that track before...

But this type of things are old. I remember when i started to play, there was a great server on Demo - NOS Server -, and everyone had to clock 1.33.99 to enter.

xtm

25th June 2009, 21:36

Another rusted old driver here :wave2:

I actually started to play seriously soon after the CTRA started, so although I did have to struggle through some crappy racing in XFG (although I actually enjoy the XFG as a car), I quickly managed to get to more serious CTRA servers and that was where some of the best racing happened (before the removed the LX..).

However, after the breakup of CTRA the drivers you used to race with all went their way, and I figured I'd take a break.

Now, when I come back once in a while, the only place where you can have some good racing is the CR server, since the rest are either demo, cruise or highly-licensed ctra-copycats.

Anyways, good to see all the old faces show up, we still have some powder in our cannons (russian saying :nod:)

Gentlefoot

26th June 2009, 00:03

I really want to get back into some serious lapping but I do like to focus on one track for say a week and really hone my lines.

I remember in the old days there would always be a FOX server set to Aston National and one set the Blackwood. It seems all the servers these days, FOX ones at least are set to rotate. I think it's a shame because the racing is better when people get to know a track better. Also, you tend to get the same guys coming back night after night.

zeugnimod

26th June 2009, 08:48

You've mentioned the CRC in a lot of your final posts on this discussion fordie, maybe theres a reason behind it. Maybe an ORC is due (Oldtimers racing club) Using a similar system for passwords etc. Rather then a before X year cut-off, maybe a select few on invitation only as starters, then those intrested can be voted in (similar to the latter CRC although I wasnt around in S1 demo CRC times to know if it was the same!)

+1 :thumbsup:

This would also not prevent "newer" people from joining.

marzman

26th June 2009, 10:05

I think the most fun is in joining a league right now. You can practice a little and then have your race where most people show up.

dodo.ger

26th June 2009, 12:29

im really not sure if we need some new version of crc to get some good racing back in, ive never been a fan of cutting of ppl from that, let them be new to lfs or not. back in the days we everytime had good racing on just normal public servers, you just need one admin to spectate. there will everytime be idiots ruining a race, even the old drivers can be.
i dont want some league racing either really, that has nothing to do with the pickup character we are talking about and i personally just dont have the time to practice for it anymore.

what we need imo is something like one or two set days/times per week where we can definitly meet on a server with admin privileges. choose a combo beforehand maybe and then just do some races. :shrug:

franky500

26th June 2009, 12:46

right.. i've read enough.. Now you got me into server owner mode and i want to start setting up combo's like we used to have!!

Damn you all..!!!!!!!!

giving me more work to do. :tilt:

The Very End

26th June 2009, 12:47

Please use TBO class at ANY random track :shy:
I love the TBO class (with FXO restriction), and full fields on the various tracks. Bring it on!

Riel

26th June 2009, 13:25

Here is my opinion:

I am fairly new to lfs i only started playing in February 2009.

At that time i played NFS Porche Unleashed (very good game imho not like the other nfs games) and somebody on the chat mentioned LFS.

I googled and downloaded the lfs demo. I still remember my first lap with LFS in the fbm. It was a BLAST! It was so much different than any other sim i tried before. It got me hooked imediately and i bought s2 licence next day. :)

I realized quickly that chaotic public races are pointless and not too much fun so i decided to look for some organized racing.

I went to lfs forums find AB league http://ab-league.windos2k.com/

I really love racing there. The AB community is great and helpful. We have like 3 different leagues (CLOSED FORMULA, OPEN S2l, CLOSED LM GTR) with great races. We always have 2 races with different cars and tracks on Sundays and i still have the motivation to prepare for the next race and learn different cars/tracks not only just messing around in pub servers.

LFS is still sooo much fun imho (easy to say i havent been around for like 6 years:)) and i dont miss the public racing! Lots of people saying that they are quitting because of the bad state of public servers/racing. I just dont get it. Look for organized leagues/races and problem is solved.

True.
I just don't use the server list at all anymore!

I race the AB League too (hi ponty ;)) and it's great, great people.

Now the GTR-L All Stars league of R-R started.

I can tell you, my hands are FULL just to practice these leagues and have 2 AB and 3 GTR races that matter each week.

It's tense and exiting! That's how I think it should be. That means I do not need public servers at all for awesome public racing.

Oh yes, I happen to pop into Fox junkies sometimes.

I would like to have a very good overview of current running and upcoming leagues. This forum is not very good at that point.

zeugnimod

26th June 2009, 14:14

I would like to have a very good overview of current running and upcoming leagues. This forum is not very good at that point.

What's wrong with the Calendar (http://www.lfsforum.net/calendar.php)?

Greboth

26th June 2009, 15:02

What's wrong with the Calendar (http://www.lfsforum.net/calendar.php)?

I don't use the calender too much but from what I have it seems it only lists races that are taking place. Maybe we need an option to select upcoming championships where it would list the leagues where the date of the first race has not passed yet.

zeugnimod

26th June 2009, 15:10

I don't use the calender too much but from what I have it seems it only lists races that are taking place. Maybe we need an option to select upcoming championships where it would list the leagues where the date of the first race has not passed yet.

That's the league admin's fault then, I guess.

marek100

26th June 2009, 15:15

Hello everyone, nice to read yours posts.Good to see some people still here.:thumb:

obsolum

26th June 2009, 15:49

I really want to get back into some serious lapping but I do like to focus on one track for say a week and really hone my lines.
That's exactly how the Dead Men Racing server is set up: a different combo every week, with sprint races (10 to 15 minutes a race) during the week and a 1hr race on thursday nights to close off the combo. This (http://www.deadmen.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=23892) is a little introduction to dMr. For those who like points we do keep points for the thursday long races, that can be viewed here (http://lfs.deadmen.co.uk/combostats/index.asp). You can click on the weeknumber on top to view the results for the combo of that week.

This week's combo is FXR @ FE Gold. Last week's was XRT @ AS Historic. Next week... who knows :smileypul

Ponty46

29th June 2009, 10:13

Hello everyone, nice to read yours posts.Good to see some people still here.:thumb:

Hello!! I found you! :) Help me pls to get digital speedo running under win 7 :)

GianniC

29th June 2009, 10:25

Aaah Fordie... you really are getting old you know. :D
Hope you still remember me... anyway, drop by in the Cabbie server for fun races, duh!

More on topic, as of a few days ago I also did my first LFS race again after being more than a year absent. Yesterday I had a first league race (in the OLFSL), in which I was slow, but had some great racing. That's one of the advantages of OLFSL: fast or slow, you can race with similair fast people for at least one evening in a lenghty race. In the week you get the fun of testing setups and tuning up your racing line, while also talking more with the other OLFSL racers. Above that the racing hours are perfect for my timezone. Just saying; check out some leagues and test some of them out, they can provide you a lot of fun, allow closer social contact again and perhaps you meet up some of us old farts!

DEVIL 007

29th June 2009, 21:00

Welcome back to duty Fordman:-)

Well years passing and sometimes after a big break things might change rapidly. Not something you will really change. I have been off LFS for quite a long time as well working on my career and a lot of things have really changed. Not all changes that I would welcome when I started looking around again few days back and reading the forum and all the changes.

But you and me will have to adjust again. Its a never ending story with LFS and his long development but bet we can quickly learn all again and kick the ass of all the kids on track again.

P.S.:Scawen good job so far over the past years but you can do better:D

Reed

30th June 2009, 03:04

I'll be honest; I didn't read most of this thread. But it was cool to see some of these old names. I really couldn't say why I still visit these forums from time to time. I've lost hope of stumbling upon something new and exciting.

mrbogeyman

30th June 2009, 04:49

idiots ruining a race, even the old drivers can be.

Hi, that's me!

what we need imo is something like one or two set days/times per week where we can definitly meet on a server with admin privileges. choose a combo beforehand maybe and then just do some races. :shrug:

back to dSRC servers anyone....

While this thread shows a strong presence of 'old' drivers, I think we are all kinda guilty of what has happened, and we are now 'moaning old gits'.

We all got bored and disappeared. Things changed. InSIM and CTRA and wotsit called applications that kick you before you are even on the track.

Now we come back and want everything the way it used to be. Sorry what? Things would never have changed if most of us had kept interest and stayed put. I would still be racing every other night, and religiously on a Friday night with my dSRC team mates.

In reality, there is absolutely nothing stopping us from continuing to race the way we used to. Like dodo said, all it takes is for a few reputable servers & teams to step up and put on combos and admin like we used to.

Easy? yes. Old boys still moaning?...probably ;) Will I start racing again? no, not unless I'm back in the UK with my wheel!

Cannabist

1st July 2009, 14:32

If there was ever a piece of information that this thread really needed, the thread about getting back to the roots of LFS, trying to recapture some of the many great race combos that could be found any night of the week when you were guaranteed to get a good, clean and close race then that.......wasn't even close to being it :thumb:

Right, because you are only allowed to post if you give the secret solution to cure LFS and can't share what LFS means to you these days. :really: I don't see what your problem is.

Looking at your post count - you do not bother with posting in this forum this forum much either - and I thought I did not post a lot.

Is that because you just prefer to chill and do not like the competitive element of racing?

What would you need/LFS need to get you racing again?

I prefer to lurk here, the first reply to my post illustrates why.

More combo's like we used to drive would maybe get me racing more again. Most of the time the crowded servers have cars and tracks that don't appeal to me.