I think that car/engine damage is the #1 most important thing to improve upon. I dislike that you can downshift three gears in two seconds without engine damage. I dislike that engine braking is used so much more than actual braking. I dislike that people can hit a wall in south city going 80mph and drive away from it. I love LFS, but these things are unbelievably frustrating and remove the immersion I feel when I play alone.

These things need to be addressed to make the sim more life-like and to force people to take more care and not drive at 110% all the time. I would rather have one car that behaves 100% realistically than three hundred cars that drive like Gran Turismo.

You guys are all just on the wrong continent. I hosted a server last night here in the US running the LX4 only on South City and later Aston. There were people on the server all night long and we had some really close, fun races.

Quote from Scawen :

Setups can be sorted by name as well as date

Thank you! I've been waiting for this feature.

Quote from jayhawk :

Make sure also, people who run servers, that you are signed up with internet barricade through UKCT. It is very effective.

I totally agree with you on this, but I think the problem is that the barricade is not as easy or straight-forward for server operators as it could be. I spoke to Sam a bit about this over PM and hope he won't mind me going into it again here, but for people like me who don't host a 24/7 server and just fire up and host every other weekend or so, the barricade doesn't seem practical. If the wrecker (and cheater) barricade is going to be effective it needs to be dead-nuts simple. Someone who hosts a server, or wants to host a server, should be able to quickly and easily download a current ban file. Even better, a tool that would do this automatically every 24 hours or whatever.

I can understand the reasons this isn't done right now, but I think it would be in the best interests of the community if the ban file were made easier to obtain. Everything can still be kept 'unofficial' and there doesn't need to be public humiliation (ala: 'so-and-so wrecked me' threads here on the forums), but making the whole thing less...covert...would make it more effective and widespread.

I had never seen or heard of the DP1 (or Bikini) prior to this thread. I must say, after looking at your site I'm amazed, Dennis. Both cars are just unreal in the specs department, and the commitment and artistry you show towards building is just incredible.

If you're ever in the Seattle area shoot me a PM. I'd be happy to give you some seat time on my big screen sim cockpit. Especially when/if the DP1 gets added into the game.

Quote from srdsprinter :

I'd like to see the people abusing the "OFF: Cut Throttle On Upshift" get this fixed.

Yes, the no CTOU is a little faster, but I feel it detracts from the game +++. Unrealistic. Its there for people with clutch pedal, not for everybody else...

It's definitely a problem, but I think that downshifting is even more of a problem. Most of the fast drivers in LFS don't use the brakes to slow down, they use the gears. If you drove in real life like most of the WR laps are driven, you'd never complete a lap because the engine would blow up in the first braking zone.

I'm a bit confused. The video shows Driver A as winning the feature race with Driver B placing second. But the STCC site shows Driver A as receiving a penalty, putting Driver B in 1st. However; I only see a penalty for Driver A in the 2nd heat round, not the feature race. Do penalties from the heat rounds carry over to the feature race?

edited to remove spoilers.

Last edited by Cue-Ball, Thu 22 Feb 2007, 21:43.

Excellent video! Again, this seems to be the best so far. Every month the videos get better and better. The announcing was excellent and had a more relaxed feel. Becky - I think you're finally now getting comfortable with being an announcer, or at least it seems that way from a listener's point of view. Great camera work as always and the overlays are, as always, excellent as well. My only criticism would be that the announcing is still a bit wavering in the quality department with a noticeable "bathroom echo" at times. But that's a small niggle. I was a bit bummed to see the FXOs so dominant, as always. I expected it at a high speed track like Blackwood, but all the RB4s up front at the start made me think that maybe the FXO spell would be broken this round after all.

Overall excellent job! I can't wait to see the next round and hear the steward's judgement. It's like a racing soap opera now! I'll have my popcorn handy for next week.

Edit: Looks like I won't have to wait. I saw the race results on the STCC site. Is there anywhere to read explanation for warnings and penalties? ie: why a driver was warned/penalized, what lap the infraction occurred, what the penalty was, etc?

Last edited by Cue-Ball, Thu 22 Feb 2007, 21:17.

I sort of agree with the first post. While I definitely wouldn't say that LFS is boring at all (had a ton of great races last night, in fact) it wouldn't hurt to be able to mix things up a bit more.

The best thing about LFS is it's realism, but that doesn't mean it has to be ONLY about racing around tracks. Not long ago there was a very long thread about soccer (football) in LFS, ala Top Gear. A lot of people, myself included, really liked this idea and Scawen even talked about what it would take to add a ball object to the game just for this purpose. Similarly, there was a recent thread about the "stunt track" in a very old pre-alpha build of LFS. I would LOVE to see something like this added to the game. Can you imagine the old game Stunts but with the excellent physics of LFS? There have been a ton of requests for uphill/downhill/togue tracks. This would be great for one-on-one racing or time trials, but would break up the monotony of racing in circles. Also, we already have a very large group of people who use LFS purely for drifting. Again, the realism and great physics is what makes this possible.

While LFS is a racing sim, I see no harm in adding a few "fun" elements to the game. At worst the racers who don't want to use them won't. At best, it could add some fun new modes to the game and increase the player base. Draw people in with the fun and variety of the game, then keep them coming back for the great racing.

I was finally able to get the AA working on this system. I loaded the Omega drivers, but they didn't work the first try either. I eventually ended up setting it to automatic "quality" mode and that worked. Then I was able to turn on the custom options and have it work. I've got no idea why it didn't work in the first place, but it's working now.

You can't run the newest drivers unless you have a certain brand of computer. In order to download the newest drivers you have to run an app that determines what kind of machine you have, then if it's the right brand/model it downloads the driver package for you. If you have something other than their supported brands it will not allow you to install. I've never tried the Omega drivers, but I can give them a shot.

I tried quality mode and that doesn't seem to work either. Also, if you turn on quality mode the max resolution for AA is lower than it is in performance mode.

I've got a brand new MacBook Pro 15" running Windows XP via Boot Camp. LFS is installed and runs fine, but I cannot for the life of me get anti-aliasing to work on either the laptop LCD or an external LCD projector. I've already gone into the Catalyst software and setup the AA and AF settings to Custom and unselected "application preference". According to the catalyst software I should be running 4X AF and 4X AA on "performance" mode with a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 (I run 1280x720 in LFS and Windows). This is driver version v.8.24.0.0, which is a year old but is the latest that I can run because ATI only releases updates for certain manufacturers.

Does anyone have any idea why this doesn't work or how to force the AA/AF settings? I feel like I've got everything setup right but the damn thing just won't work!

Quote from SamH :

There is a ban file available on the Barricade which is updated once per month.

I looked and was unable to find a link anywhere to download the ban file from Barricade. I don't operate a full time server, but occasionally host a server for local racers and would like to use the Barricade ban file. What do I need to do on my end?

I agree with the youtube comment: you should try that with a 720* wheel....and a shifter....and a clutch pedal.

Quote from XCNuse :

we all wish we could get our hands on it just to mess around but.. the devs have never said a word about it (doubt they even have it anymore really :S)

but there are some things i'd love to do in that game

Agreed. I also have asked about the track from the pic in the original post. Hard Drivin and Stunt Drivin were two of my favorite games back in the day. It would be awesome to have such a track in LFS with it's excellent physics. Sure, it's not real-world racing, but I think that the appeal of LFS is that it behaves realistically, not just that it simulates racing. Stuff like auto-soccer, drifting, demo derby, and stunt driving are just plain fun and should be encouraged whenever possible.

Even if the devs don't have the track anymore, I'd think Eric could whip up something like this very quickly since it doesn't really need much trackside detail. Hell, I'd even be willing to play an old .X version just to try that one track!

Wind doesn't cause luck to decide the winner. The wind blows everyone on the track, not just the "unlucky" people. It does add a little bit of variety though, which is needed since there are no temperature changes or other lifelike variables.

Quote from Miso SVK :

I think some visual options should be good. Like bumpers, body kits or rims...

Good lord, no!

Quote from Tomtheman70 :

My pings are crazy ingame now too..

Before the demo servers (Before I had bought the game) had pings of 40-100 ms.. Now that I've payed for the game, I am quite disapointed to see that the lowest ping on a S2 server is 180ms, going up all the way to 300...

Perhaps there is an option I can change or some ports I can forward to fix this issue?

Your problem is likely not due to any sort of network issue at all. There are not a lot of us in the US who play LFS and therefore, there are not very many servers nearby. Most of the time I end up racing on Canadian or even British servers with pings around 180-200. The only other real option is to host your own server. If you go back and look at the demo servers again I'm sure you'll find at least a few with lower pings because there are more demo servers in our area than there are S2 servers.

I like having mid race join. I tend to race with three or four friends and it's nice to be able to start a race with whoever is there, then have the others join in as they connect.

If you're having issues with people joining and messing up your race, or if you're messing up others, it's not a problem with mid-race join, it's a problem with the players.

I agree with most of the posts, that LFS is still the most fun racing sim out there. However; I also agree that a few small changes or additions would go a long way. A new car or new track every now and then adds a lot of flavor to the game and makes it fresh. Once some of the long time issues are addressed, I think LFS will be even more fun and more challenging.

I have a feeling that the next patch we get is going to blow our socks off. Scawen finally has the opportunity to do some non-compatible stuff, so we actually have a chance of seeing rolling starts, stalling cars, clutch model changes, physics changes, etc. I think these are the things that people have been looking forward to the most, and they're also the things that could really shake up the whole racing scene in LFS. A few cars and/or tracks would just be icing on the cake.

I agree that a 3 monitor setup or a much larger monitor makes a huge difference. I actually flinch when driving on South City because of the immersion.

I'll say the same thing everyone else is gonna say: Get a wheel. Other controllers may work, but you'll never have the control or immersion you get with a wheel.

Quote from michs3 :

731 racers online and my game tell´s no masterserver. Yeeaahch

You're running Patch V, right?

Quote from Macfox :

What is the difference between the player retiring and the server server admin retiring the player?

Having the admin retire the player is more realistic. If you allow drivers to teleport to the pit themselves they will do so immediately after having an accident, which gives no time for yellow flags or safety cars, which some leagues use quite extensively. You don't want cars just randomly disappearing from the track if you can avoid it. Ditto for people hitting space to reset.

I think that GTR2 is a respectable game. The physics are decent and the cars and tracks are well modeled. With a little work you can even make the force feedback not feel like total crap. But it really doesn't hold a candle to LFS when it comes to online play and just plain fun. There are an awful lot of things that GTR2 has which I wish LFS would adopt, but I firmly believe LFS is the better sim regardless.