Read this, something is really true.
This website was today unavailable, therefore here a copy:
I. The first time
1. The beginnings of Lc. Why a new cruise ?
In early June 2008, i wanted to make destruction derby server opposing two teams with a UF1 to push in the enemy lines. In other words, a football match where crash would generate points.
In order to implement this system, I needed to create a insim program but most current API was available in C# (a programming language that i hate : too limited, too heavy and unstable) so I started to write mine in C/C++ what seemed to me most appropriate for this type of application.
My purpose was to make it complete and simple to use in order to distribute it under the GPL license for the benefit of other players, and maybe to work on with them.
I therefore begin to write what will become LiS during the development Lc. For the develop, i needed to try it on a context well known and who attract many players in order to adapt it better to the functioning of LFS. I therefore propose to the team Fc (FrenchCruise) to develop a Cruise program for them.
The development progressed very quickly and in less than some days, a very basic Cruise was functional and in less than a month i added much of functions available on main Cruise present on the LFS network.
Result of misunderstanding with the administration of the FC team (material and human) I opened the first Lc Server. It was a server that I was going to use for the development of the Cruise program that I used to improve quickly my program works in C/C++. It was not open the night, but I could already progress more quickly.
It began to please to some players and rather than to improve only certain functions of the system, I decided to add new thing to the cruise such as the jobs, improved management of rentals, etc. .. Players was playing with fun, was more numerous, and I could more easily test many point of the program works.
LFS was in full period of Boom with Cruise servers what was criticized a lot on the lfsforum. The critiques came mainly of people who rarely used these *Fun* mod and didn't understand the apparition of all these servers therefore but the reason was very simple. A rule that appear on many servers is the "ENGLISH ONLY" and it's a problem for a lot of people.
All LFS players are not English-speaking and sometimes they need to be helped but only one sentence or word that are not in English and you'r kicked or banned with these bad words that go with. All these new cruise servers were for most intended to different country in order to counter this problem and to allow no-English-speaking people to be able to have fun also on a cruise between two races.
About Lc, the goal was simple, no one objection on the used language, players were free to use their native language to discuss. Many thought that this freedom would create some disputes between players but it is the opposite that happen, there was less problem than on a classic server.
2. First threats
In July, the program advanced quietly, I continued to perfect my program as well as the Cruise mod by adding him some jobs and by improving the management of the Cops&Robber system. I have begin besides to institute a simple rule for the right to become a Cadet (as the beginning of TC) : a certain distance had to be done on the server to be able to be a Cadet.
A short time after, I saw the apparition of another server under the LibertyCruise name (newly open by the NEX team). I was surprise that the name comes back a second time but my server was not active during the night, it was possible that they didn't notice it and I was therefore ready to discuss with them about that (Lc was only a development server, it was not important for me).
But unfortunately, managers of the second Lc didn't come to open the dialogue but only to threaten me and to harass me. With this lack of maturity, I prefered to do not answer and I didn't change anything, they didn't deserve my intention after that.
Thereafter, I saw that the program that they used was OpenSource Cruise available on LfsForum and that didn't do any modification. What was less laudable for them following all their threats.
After this history, that extinct quietly by the disappearance of the NEX server (not enought visitor) I have begin to mention some rules on the development server.
3. Hate us and quickly! The reason is not important.
During the next weeks, other problems began to appear. Several insult and incitement to hate us appear on the LFSForum.
Difficult to understand their incentive at this moment. Everything that I saw was a group of players more and more bigger proliferating abuses and disagreeable remarks without giving reason or proofs.
Lc was open in the silence, I didn't bawl on forums that the server was present, is pretty, is necessary to come, etc... like most teams. It was simple, Lc is open, you'r interested, you come to take a look and if that pleases you, play with other players. I was not there to incite people to come and if something could displease them, the disconnection button was accessible.
And I didn't want to add any donations way. Lc was only a Fun project for LFS, he didn't go in the direction of a race simulator and make he completely free was necessary and normal.
In spite of that, it's a complete group of pressure who come against me. And they came to harass the different players on the server in order to make the chaos and thought unjust of being banned following that. And these banishments are going to make the center of their new propaganda against us.
I worked for numerous community of different games and for the first time, I was astonished to see that such group of bad behavior peoples are not mastered, punished but, contrary, they were encouraged without anything done again them. And I discovere while discussing with other team that these kind of problem appear often and that the harcellement, the incitements to hate and sometimes the acts of racism were noticed all the days and were a part of the LFS universe.
The best thing than we could do was not to not answer their insolence and to banned them for life in order that the project can be continued.
4. The DevCruise active ? Why not...
The development continued and I was centered henceforth on the cruise program. This one was pleasing to a lot of players and what had to be an ephemeral project became my main preoccupation.
Dedicated servers were lend me generously by other player permitting to open other server as well as demo servers.
Demo servers was a surprise for me because players bought the game in order to use cruise mod with more content thanks to the S2. Whereas it was more about of drifts mods in the past. (Thereafter, demo servers was closed, abuses that I had predicted with DemoLicenses was more exact that i thinked and the situation was unmanageable).
Thereafter, I have buy my own servers. Lc didn't become anymore a simple funny project but something that needed to be functional and active. At this moment, my works only carried on the Cruise and other projects were put in pause.
5. An another strange maturity
In beginning of August, I have add a new job. It was a remake of a DrugWorld type game where the goal is to buy and to sell merchandises. Here, in order to bring some humor, I chose to use drugs names also. The goal was simple, buy it to the best price and resell it to the best price in one of the 4 houses. (I specify that the drug was only portable).
To this moment, this system was in test and I expected some unfavorable opinion about merchandise names. One more time, I was open to the dialogue and ready to change names. But the same reaction occurred and the mental age of the members of the LFS community is not anymore to prove.
The same group of pressure came back and brought back many other people with them who don't have anything in relation with this history. All the commentaries were one more time insults, sometimes, racism and all was included quite by this ridiculous (and without proofs) incitement to hate against us.
Once again, with such commentaries, I didn't change anything. They didn't deserve my intention and I was not anxious to comfort them in their movement. (Fortunately, serious and well writted commentaries comes from CLC & LTC administration members what reassured me a little because I was happy to see that some serious people are present on LFS)
6. Live information tools. Ooooh gooofy !
Mid-August, I have begin to open a Web site in order to provide a forum to the players so that they can deposit their opinions but also reports. at this moment, it was the jackpot, players complained about others for everything and whatever, taking us for goats with hundreds of report to manage every day and the free access to Cadet's rights didn't straighten out the problem. 3/4 of LFS players lack common sense a lot or appear without respect for other peoples.
In spite of all this problems, the administration team of Lc try to keep calmness all servers of best that they were able to.
7. The ShutDown
End-September, Lc and several another LFS servers were attacked. At this moment I didn't worry and I had fun to see them doing idiots on Lc but they were sometimes abusive with other players.
Players accounts were safety but a short time after the first attacks, I discovered wich exploit it was.
It was a very old exploit that dated of more than 4 years and that I had the opportunity to discover myself 2 years ago.
It had been discovered a long time ago and the developer was informed but in spite of all this time, nothing had been corrected (and numerous "Update" was done during 4 years).
Besides, at this moment the development of LFS took a arcade evolution, the game began to disgust me a little. Somethings are still waited, somethings that should be unaltered are modified anyhow, nothing evolves in the common sense and exploits are not corrected. Without counting few exploits still usable with lfsworld...
The group of pressure from LFSForum, immature players, exploits, a game that ridicules itself each update... => I shutted down Lc during the October month.
II. We retry the adventure
1. The private server
During the February month 2009, Motard intended to revive the project. Other people was formerly on Fc, and were a part of the administration team of Lc, were ready to retry the adventure.
At this moment, I was not ready to re-undergo same problems but I had started several new functions last year that concern Cadets in order to reduce abuse between players.
Therefore, we began to open a private server under the PrivateGreen name without warning no one in order to be calm.
And we invited several person to follow the continuation of the new functions of the programs.
2. An automation of the game and automatic controls
The started, last year, works was an automation of the fines in order to limit the abuses while offering some possibilities to escape from it for players. The fines could not be defined arbitrarily, it had become more and more difficult for players to contravene rules.
Then, I activated the automatic controls, for every rule that would be contravened, the Cadet gets bad points, at a certain amount of point, he loses his rights.
It reduced immensely the abuses but a lot of Cadet continued to harass players. Thereafter, certain thing have being changed penalizing the Cadets every time.
3. The return to the public and tolerance zero
When the servers became again public, the rules were simple, the administrators and officers had to not have a mercy for one players posing some problems to others.
The list of banned people was, in the beginning, impressive as well as the list of the Cadets who lost their rights.
In spite of that, the no-respectful players were always present and continued to waste us a lot of time. Gradually, every officer and administrator have begin to make themselves rarer, of fatigue, as far as reaching a point of non return.
4. Non-respected improves and useless content
In the same way to the players, problems also came from LFS was began worse and worse each update.
I even been obliged to do some modifications on the executable of LFSdedi (by using olders version) to correct the problems partially from the newly connection list when a player has some difficulties to connect.
LFSDedi is still a toy, he always operates with an useless graphic interface that makes it heavier and less efficient and less convenient. He's still not available in multi-platform either (and it's not difficult to do).
Comes then the waiting on behalf of the developers who want one more time add useless content and bring to his death the game.
And there is that pushes me to do not more open a LFS server : eploits/hack. They are numerous, much are known but never corrected. They sometimes come from stupid/beginner mistake was not be countered/views, most of time, because of an useless overcharge in the functions of the game.
One more time, we realized that developers try more to add useless trifles and that are not in the interest of the game rather than to finish and to correct the previous work. ( 3 years and we'r still waiting )
I had the opportunity to discover and to note these exploits and a lot of them are still usable. They are informed and nothing is made because they prefered to add some *blingbling*.
5. In the "Miserable" kind
Even if this year the progress of Lc seems quiet (in relation to the last year), Even today I could mention many name and text from stupid or bad behavior peoples.
As the last year, these comments use the same way : the player doesn't know anything, criticizes, insults, and complain to have been punished because he *only* harassed another players.
LFS maybe work in this way but not us.
6. Lc dies definitely
A long time ago, what interested players to buy the game was his simulation, these races.
After some year, most people who bought LFS wanted to take advantage of his simulation to do some drift. Once again, it was these tracks, these cars, this reality that atttracted all peoples.
Today, what does interest players? The cruise, and yes, nothing else. Every new S2 player is only attracted by the cruise and it's the consequence of the carelessness of the developers.
LFS is not anymore what he was. certain physical update returns it to Arcade and certain *balancing of strengths* made it unbalanceed. Exploits are still there, some are silly, and are never corrected until the day where all will go badly and there a small effort, as minimal either it will, be made but that will bring other problems.
We'r leaving LFS, leaving it to his funeral destiny and to all this players who has no respect for others, of this *suplol* generation that dominates it gradually. Several big group left for certain or all these reasons that I have stated above, and today, it is our time.
III. Doomed projects
1. Soccer
For this mod, the method that I make to detect a crash and a collisions functioned marvellously. Quite a lot of code had already been written and it remained to return it fairplay in order to reward at 100% the right players (the actual success rate was about 75%).
The calculation of points had been established and players were positioned automatically on the track. Everything operated with a S2 account to do the ball.
Only some details was to solve but the main was achieved.
2. Turismo
This project was prepared last year during the 2nd month of activity of Lc.
It is about taking the gameplay of GranTurismo and to adapt it on LFS.
All main big lines and technical details had been written and resolute, the Web site for the player interface had been begun with everything as GT : a card of a city with the different dealer and purchasable piece to inflate the power of your car.
The power and the weight of the car after every operation were displayed as well as the change on the choice of the tyres.
4 tournaments been foreseen :
* 1 each week
* 1 all the 2 weeks
* 1 each month
* and finally a last each 2 or 3 months
Results were displayed on the Website and a historic was available. All your PB were also recorded.
All had been prepared as licences that had to be pass thanks to a dedicated server. Only 1 month would be needed to Code all the program.
3. Cruise : Mini games
Some miniGames was ready to make their apparition on the cruise in order to give an opportunity to rich players to spend their money or to the other to win some easily if they win their bets.
The one that was in preparation was a poker game started by going to the OldPit and with which you could bet money.
Other was rather in preparation as a RPG game complex but feasible.
IV. When is it ?
I only summarized the situation of Lc and there are already many of line.
I didn't spread different insults and other means of propagation towards us and even less the names because it was not the goal.
Nevertheless, some team disappointed me a lot because I discovered quickly that they been implanted in these business of harassments but also that they showed evidence of an amateurism without limit whereas they took the liberty to criticize us in all senses.
The servers will be shutted down in about 1 month. A more precise date will be communicated shortly.
This time, all data will be deleted definitely. Players data, programs, source-codes.
it is not in our intention to retry this adventure.
The C/C++ api, you will have understood it, will never be distributed. I saw too much bad behavior peoples on the LFS community to be fixed about that. I don't work to have some insulte in return but for the friendship.
We will regret all the people who had fun with us in the respect of the other and in the friendship.
Farewell and good luck, while hoping that LFS didn't finish to the death as he's going actually.
The LibertyCruise team without the officer redman (banned recently)
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[LC] Liberty-Cruise is Back!!!
[Lc]LibertyCruise 1