Damn you Americans and your cheap games 360 titles are typically £45-50 RRP (US$90-100) in the UK although PC games are usually a bit cheaper in the £30-45 RRP range.

When totalling up prices for LFS licenses, you should probably think about the time-scale involved between versions. So far there have been 2 releases of LFS over several years for £12 each. Compare that to, say, the Need For Speed series where it costs £30-50 (depending on PC/Console etc) per year for a game that focuses on prettiness rather than core changes.

All in all LFS is a bloody bargain, alpha or not.

Quote from CXC_Simulations :

Besides, when comparing it to other products like a $1700 force feedback wheels and $900 pedal sets, I thought $119.99 was pretty reasonable I suppose it's relative really. Rest assured though, the margins on this product are extremely low.

Compared to $2600 of kit, $120 is comparatively cheap but it is designed for a £150($300) wheel, which makes it nearly half the cost (not to mention the shipping which you need to sign up to the site to be able to see) making it pretty pricey.

I understand most of the cost goes to making it light so it can be mounted on the wheel, and also to a smaller extent the materials involved in making the cable for the same reasons. While a moving display is practical on a single seater formula wheel that rarely turns more than maybe 270 degrees (if ever?) it would seem more practical on a 720/900 degree wheel for it to be stationary mounted on the dash rather than the wheel itself. As shifting is very possible while the wheel is at 180 degrees it does seem a little impractical as you wouldn't be able to see the display at all at that angle.

From the images, it also looks to be quite easy to catch fingers on the carbon fibre, maybe even between that and the wheel, coupled with the dual strong feedback motors this has the potential to cause injury not to mention restricting movement due to the bulkiness.

Thanks for the reply, Becky

I fully agree that the CTRA has to have an S1 server as it seems to be pretty much the only thing keeping the S1 online community alive.

I remember before CTRA closed for the X upgrade there was a dedicated S2 UF1 server, but it was rarely busy - although very fun while it was - so it doesn't really make much sense keeping it.

I've just been playing around with a few possible combinations to make the server have 3 combinations instead of 2. Best I came up with was UF1+STD, TBO+LF, GT2+GTR which isn't great so I can see the difficulty with getting a good combo. Still disappointed about TBO being gold+ tho

Good to hear the STCC will continue especially with the TBO class. Looking forward to the round 8 broadcast

Quote from XenoWolf :

Wow, usually I try to avoid complaining.. but as a Silver licence holder this is pretty lame. The only reason I bothered getting my licence to begin with is so I could take part in some competitive TBO racing, which most other servers avoid for some reason. Now I have to race STD (again!?) or GT2 (which makes no sense letting me drive full-blown race cars before their production counterparts) to earn my Gold licence? I just tried racing on Race 1, which was completely full, and Race 2 where I was the only Silver licenced driver (and thus was racing myself in a UF1... which quickly got old). I'm not happy about the amalgamation, but I'm pretty pissed about randomly being shut-out of the TBO class, which again is the reason I took part in the STCC/CTRA project to begin with. Oh well, take my opinion for what it's worth... I understand it's your servers and your project, but I just wanted to tell my side of the story.

Firstly, sorry for bumping the topic, but I haven't been on the LFS sites for a while due to exams etc.

Anywho, I very much agree with the TBO issue. As a bronze licence holder, I was very much looking forward to being able to race TBO cars on getting a silver licence.

I'm not sure what the points gap is between silver and gold, but IIRC it is quite large. This means that, initially due to the new points system it's going to take longer to get there, (I'm not knocking the new system, I do agree it should be harder to earn points than before) and now that I won't be able to drive the class I'm much more at home racing with on getting silver, it's going to take much much longer. Before, I wasn't really too bothered about not being able to earn gold for a while as I would have been able to race my favourite class on silver. I also find it a strange decision to allow people to race GT cars before the road versions.

I'm quite surprised there wasn't a public vote on denying silver racers access to TBO, as the stats DO have a vote and they don't affect the racing in any way.

I was going to suggest before reading about the denial of driving TBO for silver racers that blocking gold+ (maybe even silver+??) drivers from Race1 would force a proportion of drivers to the other servers - where they could have still raced STD class if they prefer - and also allow the people who enjoy racing TBOs, who were put off due to a lack of racers, to do so on a less empty server. (the latter being an issue I've heard from several people.)

I do like the return of the UF1, but not that its the only choice on the higher servers for silver drivers for what's probably going to average half the time.

Quote from obsolum :

Quote from zeugnimod :

Obviously a very reduced rate. I dont think they could get more than 1 or 2 points for a win with the fastest lap or something like that.

Think again. I've seen Gold and Platinum racers get 10+ points, sometimes even up to 18 points for a win. That's the very reason I gave up on the XRG! I got +5 points for 6th place in the XFG a couple of days ago. Also, if you look at the guys winning most races, they're usually driving the XFG and have a license higher than bronze. At least that's the impression I got. You do get more points for the same position when you're driving the XRG, though. But hey, at least I'm earning points now. It may take me while longer but I'll get there. In the XRG I'm certain I would never reach Silver in this lifetime.

Have a look at the first screen from my post on page 6 - winner was a platinum racer getting 29 points Don't know whether that was the old algorithm tho (timestamped fyi)

I have noticed that it's harder to gain points in CTRAX (as has been pointed out in many other places) and I do agree that it was a little too easy to gain points before and that people should work hard to rise up the rankings.

I also agree with some other racers that laptime now has a little too much bias when it comes to point scoring, but is not a particularly major issue.

I have however noticed some strange instances of points awarded to racers finishing near the bottom of the table for no obvious reason, usually with a several people scoring 0pts in the midfield with faster laptimes. Below are a few examples that caught my eye (timestamped at BST yymmddhhmm).

I have no pretence of my laptimes being fast on the below shots, as I know they weren't, I'm very out of practise

Well done on the new system, I do like it overall and I apreciate the amount of hard work you've put in

Last edited by Degats, Mon 30 Jul 2007, 01:04.

Quote from Dajmin :

If anyone wants to PM me with suggestions of how to survive the damn jumps, please feel free

I think the main problem here is the ramps are too far apart - it is possible to get them almost touching, which solves nearly all the random glitches (hint hint ... )

It seems to be more of a problem with the LX4 than the heavier cars like RB4 and XRG that seem to be able to shug them off a bit easier.

To make your life easier over the ramps, take them steadily and as straight as you can.

BTW, loving the B&J server and good work with the new system

I agree, I've thought that would be quite useful for some time

Nice there finally being one with ingame controls

I think Alt isn't a good choice though, as if you want to use an Alt+ macro it will activate it Shift may also be a minor annoyance as it would turn off when using a Shift+ command.
If you add 't' as another way to turn it off would solve the chat problem.

I think the best way to solve the above would be to add an option to change activation keys to fit with the user's preferences.

Keep up the good work