Alright, after starting to doubt myself, I went back and retraced what I did this morning.
It was not Steam. In other words, I was wrong. I did not manually delete the LFS folder persay, but I DID delete something that wiped out the entire folder.
So moral of the story: Do not uninstall programs when you had very few hours of sleep. Sorry for the bother. You're right, I'm wrong.
Oh, and American, if that makes some of you feel better.
Nope! For every program I download, I copy the uninstaller .exe and hide it in a folder for the express purpose of security, so no matter what, I can eliminate the program if need be. If for some reason there is not an uninstaller .exe, I make a notepad file in the program folder reminding me that I have to use the Windows version of "add or remove programs".
This is why I spend a full day, once a year, slowly and deliberately and with great care, eliminating unused programs. Same reason why every Sunday I do a weekly virus scan using, in order, AVG, Spybot, Ad-Aware and Hijack This. And yes, I go through EVERY F***ING LINE on the Hijack This report.
Also the same reason that if for some reason I have to end a process, I first search using the name of the process, find it's source, and then determine if I should end the process. I am so anal about my operating system, take a look at how I clock my processor:
After all times I have safely and effectively removed programs for the past X amount of years, why is it that I remove ONE program and it takes out another? I did not have a Steam client on my computer until June of 2007.
So, what can I do? Contact Steam? Well, they will probably say the same thing as other have here, "it was user error...you f***ed up". Cry about it? Well, no. It was just a game, files can be replaced. Instead, I made this thread so hopefully, it will never happen to you. And I hope it never does, that was two years of accumulated LFS-ness down the toilet.
It could be, but I am very careful and deliberate when removing programs.
3 hours of tinkering and I am 90% back to normal. What really sucks is the skins I made for myself, each took a few hours to make. Guess time to make another design other than a gradient white to dark blue.
I deleted my Steam folder today (on the first of every year I remove seldom used programs) it decided to take LFS with it. And it wasn't in the same literal folder, both were a subfolder from a main folder on my one drive.
Strangely, I started playing this game exactly two years ago. Time to start over. Thankfully I DID save my settings folder with the change to patch Y.
Yeah, I know. You do not have tell me what I probably already told myself.
For me, I adjusted the final gear ratio and, oddly second gear ratio. Let's say your final drive ratio is 4.400. Try dropping to 4.200, the same with second gear.
Also increase tire pressure by 2 psi. Now, this is what worked for ME. I cannot speak for everyone, but as I am an average LFS driver, this is a good starting point.
And yes, you can do it yourself, like many others have. Start out with default gearing*, and adjust accordingly. This will take several tries, but it will be set by how you like it.
I could hand you a set and be done with it, but I think you should put faith into yourself and pretend it is a rite of passage by making your own.
DXTweak allows you change calibration information and
deadzone settings of a DirectInput game controller and
test the effect of the changes directly. It can easily
render your game controller behaviour totally weird. You
have been warned.
Why?
You want to have an oversensitive wheel while driving in
a racing game. You want to brake your car only a little,
but step fully on the brake pedal. You want to fly a
helicopter and your joystick is too sensitive. In short:
By reducing the overall range of motion of your
controller (undercalibration) you can achieve higher
sensitivity. By extending the range accepted by
DirectInput (overcalibration) you can achieve higher
precision.
I downloaded this, and now all I have to do is touch the clutch pedal
and it fully engages. I love it.