Killzone 2's CGI trailer was the big thing for E3 2006 IIRC, and it certainly wasnt that far back, and i also included a link which covers the actual Sony conference from the GDC'07 which covers the announcement. MM started up early 2006, so theres no way they could have made Rag Doll Kung Fu AND all they initially showed within 6-7 months.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littlebigplanet
LittleBigPlanet (sometimes abbreviated to LBP; and developed under the working title The Next Big Thing) is an upcoming puzzle platformer and world creation video game for the PlayStation 3, first announced on 7 March 2007, by Phil Harrison at the 2007 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California.[5][6][7] It is being developed by Media Molecule, a British company founded in part by Rag Doll Kung Fu creator Mark Healey, will be published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and is due for release in October 2008. A public beta version of the game was previously scheduled for the summer of 2008,[8] but it was later announced that only private beta testing would take place, with the possibility of a publicly available demo before the full game is released[9]. However, in a later interview, Alex Evans, Co-Founder of Media Molecule, said that a beta would be released in September 2008 describing it as "a public beta, but limited at the same time." He goes on to say "We will disclose that info when we’re ready."[10]

Last edited by PaulC2K, Sun 7 Sep 2008, 21:13.

GDC 07 Sony announcements (incl Home & LBP)
http://www.gamasutra.com/gdc2007/index.php?id=13033
At his keynote at Game Developers Conference, 'Game 3.0', Sony executive Phil Harrison revealed the PlayStation 3-hosted Home virtual world, as well as a new game, LittleBigPlanet, from Rag Doll Kung Fu creator Media Molecule

GDC 07 Customization and Level Demonstration
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/17724.html
Thats the exact video i have in HD (720x405) in h264 format (so it plays on the PS3 directly) but im not sure where i got the link from in order to download it directly (194mb) but im pretty sure it wasnt from Game Trailers, despite the fact that it 100% IS their trailer.

okay, was off their site, heres the direct link:
http://www.gametrailers.com/do ... tomizeandleveldemo_gt.wmv
Same video as linked above this, just a downloadable HD version.

Well worth a watch. Im gonna look at the PAX walkthrough vids, see whats new

Quote from Migz :

Are you sure you can acctually get a plank of wood and put wheels on it? When i watched the videos it seemed like you could only build worlds from pre created objects. So you wouldnt be able to just take a plank of wood and put wheels on it :/

You have materials, stickers, and mechanical objects (possibly another catagory, and possibly other 'labels' for the 3 ive mentioned) but these make up the content within the game, as well as some Media Molecule created items (like the skateboard in the GDC'07 vid).

Materials would be wood, and similar surfaces, which you would select a shape (rectangle, circle etc) and then you pick the scale, and then it exists in your world. You can cut sections out, and once your done you seem to 'release' it and it becomes real in your level, acting under normal physical forces.

Stickers are exactly that, ways to decorate items, there doesnt seem to be anything else to them. These are '3D', they will fold around items, the original GDC demo shows them applying comical eyes and mouth onto an orange and them rolling the orange around with this silly smiley face on it.

Mechanics are items like motors, pins, springs, hinges, and they create the more real items, if you have 2 peices of wood, put a pin through it, and then motorise it, the 2 peices of wood would rotate at the point where the pin runs through it. hinges & springs provide interation as you'd expect them to IRL i guess.
They've created some really bizarre 'monsters' which are done with really basic tools everyone will have access to, and the ideas get stranger and more creative all the time.
i'll dig some vids out which show these aspects properly, and i guess i'll check the vids in the first post too hehe

Boris, ignore the moaners, they just dont appreciate the same things others do, some love FPS after FPS and some dont, its just personal taste, although i also find it odd & irritating listerning to someone who finds watching one video really boring, then say they've watched a few, and each time insists its crap, but is really intent on doing little more than coming back to kick up a fuss & cause some controversy or something.

Im pretty sure it was first announced at GDC 2007, it certainly wasnt as far back as 2006.
The first time they demonstrated it to the gaming press they did a ~15min demo, the first half explained the basic concept of the game, the creation side of things and how the world & characters interact. Then they moved out of the stageing area of that which brought them to the level which they show in last link you give from GDC2007. They actually did a proper step-by-step walk-through, explaining and showing different aspects rather than rushing through it as you see there.
I cant remember where i got it from, but theres a HD version of this first video to download, i went in search of it a few months back with it being one of the better videos and (to my knowledge) the first showing and it has the full developer commentry and IMO best of all, you've got the press who are there watching who are audiable in the background, lapping it up, laughing and cheering the things being done. How many games can do that??

Since seeing that first video when it came out, i've geniunely believed it'll be the biggest console game of this generation, it'll be the game which takes the industry to the next level with its 'play, create, share' philosophy. There may be games which sell more or people consider better, but in terms of taking that next step into the online world, with user generated content which is easily accessable, i think it'll spark similar movement from other developers.
But i can understand people not being fussed about it, its all about what you want to get out of a game, what you find fun, and how you like spending your time.
Im desperately hoping the EU beta testers get to run ragged in the LBP world sometime before October, but its looking less likely as the days pass by, but it'll be a day 1 purchase for me thats for sure.

I'll have a dig round for the proper GDC07 video, its well worth a watch, especially if you already like the look of it
Might already know, but they used LBP in E3 2008 to make their traditionally boring part of the Sony conference mildly entertaining, having a sackboy go through a level with certain announcements of sale forecasts, minor announcements etc all done with LBP's simple physics triggers and whatnot. Far more interesting than the slideshow presentation MS & Nintendo have given the last 2 years when ive watched their conferences.

Quote from deggis :

How does it work in A1GP? In now obsolete Champ Car it was something like 60 seconds per race.

I think you get 7 (6-7) bursts which give you a little extra for say 5 seconds, so you have to pick and choose your battles, whereas the F1 system its a constantly regenerating source of turbo boost, however i dont know what sort of recharge rate your getting, otherwise it'll be more like an arcade game where half the time your letting it charge and the other half your turboing round the track.

I like the effort being put into finding ways to make overtaking possible, but it hasnt filled me with confidence that drivers wont cancel each other out. Ive only seen 3-4 A1GP races and they display when a driver is using their boost (as well as how many they have available to them) and more often than not when the attacking driver uses it the defending guy is too, and thats with a limited 'once its gone you dont get it back' system, not a 'wait Xmin and use it again' system which F1 seems to be implementing.
Its not a huge gain like you have in arcade games either, but provided they dont just cancel each other out every time someone boosts, maybe it'll improve the frequency of chances of overtaking, and when there are chances to overtake then theres at least something to see even if they cant pull it off, right now the drivers rarely need to drive defensively because the attacker cant get close enough unless its a slower car, if its on equal pace you rarely see chances come.

Quote from Dizzydarryn :

Hi guys again, i decided to hijack my own thread instead of creating a new one. I've been racing offline and trying to save replays, but i cant because it keeps telling me that the replay wasnt recorded, even though i have set it to enable manual save in options... any ideas?

When i leave the pits, its says "not recording" on the top left of the screen.

You'd have to use 'auto save', which records everything in the session while your in it (inc pitting/spectating), but for some reason manual doesnt give you that same option. So sticking it to auto is the best bet for this, switch it back when your done or just keep deleting the mpr folder contents, 1hr is only around 20mb for a full server.

Quote from Dizzydarryn :

One other thing, when viewing replays, is there a way to rewind etc... at the mo, i can only speed up replays, not skipping? I.E If i did a 10 lap race and wanted to watch lap 10, do i really have to fast forward all the way to lap 10?

Thanks

move your mouse to the bottom of the screen, should have a time-line slider which you can move back a little and it'll re-sync to that point. its better at moving forwards than backwards, but its still considerably better than reloading a replay and FFD'ing to a certain point

Quote from BurnOut69 :

How the hell can you expect ANY track to have CHARACTER the first time its used?

Do you understand what the word character means?? Character, not History ffs

Quote from BurnOut69 :

All these people wanting to get rid of the track are really amusing, if overtakings were the deciding factor to choose tracks, 90% of the ones we have now wouldnt be there...

U seem to be getting your knickers in a twist, people are complaining about TWO aspects, crap venue, crap action.

We want venues like Monaco, Monza, Spa, Suzuka, Le Mans etc etc and instead we treated to Valencia! Its dull, lifeless and completely lacking any sole to the place, making it extremely dull to watch.
Even Daytona & Indianapolis, dull oval racing they may provide, but as venues they have character, they're not every shade of grey imaginable. We're talking about character, not overtaking opportunities, not challenge, CHARACTER.
I hate to say it, but i'd have more than welcomed advertising plastered all over the track, just to brighten it up, usually they ruin locations plastering big ads around, this venue it might have at least allowed your eyes to wonder to something interesting and destract you for a moment.

Ive walked the monaco F1 route and you cant not feel overwealmed by it all, the history of racing thats been there, the scenery, location, everything about it screams character. Its not the best place for good wheel to wheel racing, but its still a must visit location on the F1 calendar.

Surfers Paradise, Long Beach, Monaco, Macau... all true street tracks, and they all have character to them, they're not perminent race venues however the surroundings are, and Valencia felt like it was nothing more than a huge car park where they'd laid down some concrete barriers and made a track for people to come play on for the weekend. It had no heart or sole, it was just dead and lacking character which could have made it at least an attractive venue, and the lack of action just turned it into the worse race in F1 i can ever recall, and i sat through the 6 car US GP ffs!

They're talking about a 20 race calendar due to all the venues wanting to hold races, and yet if this is an example of whats to come, god help us all. This is supposed to be the elite series, and Valencia is far far from being an elite motor racing venue. It might be a lovely city, but its a crap venue for a race.

Quote from evilpimp :

Over here the commentators talked to one of the Ferrari pit engineers or a member of the pit crew and he told them that the green light is operated by a human being. That means someone thought it would be smart to press the button and turn the green light on and that's gunna cost him some money. It is NOT automated and the guy made it clear because the commentators thought it was.

That was purely the interviewer being a n00b, they used 'automated' (as has been the term for it for a while it seems) which is basically wrong terminology for 'electronic' as thats all it is, theres nothing special about it in the slightest, its technology for the sake of it. I not sure anyone out there thought there was some computer making the decisions, and if they did then their commentators need their head sorting out.
It requires multiple guys to say their job is done, and thats when the driver floors it. They're not telling him to go, purely that their done and the driver *can* go, and from what i gather the only person who makes the call on whether its safe to go is the guy on the pit wall who has the override on it all, he could have held the button to stop it going green until it was safe, a job previously given to a lollypop guy.


I'd take exactly what that guy said with a pinch of salt though due to the language barrier, afterall, he did refer to the guy who got dragged to the floor by Kimi as 'she' in the middle of the interview

yeah, and you can edit your 'ignorance' crap out. Ive been watching F1 since before you were born, so just cos your a stupid little spaniard going against what everyone has said about the race, and the majority have said about the dull joke of a venue, doesnt make someone ignorant.

NEVER in the 19 years ive been watching F1, has the series been to such a pathetic venue. It wouldnt suprise me if we end up at some equally pathetic ones if theres money in it, but Valencia is a joke venue. Considering there are 2 F1 standard tracks in Spain, why the hell F1 went there ive no idea. If they had to go back to Spain, who 5 years ago you couldnt pay fickle folks like you to attend the races, then Jerez would have been a far better venue, and im sure theres a 3rd which is used over the winter (Jarama?), though it may be a Portuguese track (not Estoril).

As for the green light, as ive said... There are multiple buttons, my guess is the jack/trolly once the tyres are done, the fuel man, and a master button on the pit wall. I cant see as anyone else would need one, the trolly would put you onto amber once any work on the car was done (tyres, wing tweaks or repairs etc) and the fuel guys would take it to green i guess.


Also, when you consider that Bernie and co are constantly going on about all these places wanting to hold races, and they pick Valencia...

Quote from samjh :

He was just to the right of Massa. So the positioning was crap. In fact, he wasn't even looking at the track.

Ferrari is really not doing well this year - the pit crew that is, not the drivers.

I got the impression that there were multiple buttons, however the crew on the pit wall have a master button which can override things for such an occasion where the driver shouldnt have left his spot.

IMO, its a terrible device. We've seen plenty of incidents with lollypop guys, so its not like you can put the blame entirely on it, but you need someone with a bit of common sense not a set of lights.
No lollypop guy would have let massa go, and that for me is telling of the whole investigation. Massa didnt give way, he had no choice but to stop cos he was facing a concrete wall had he not, and blaming Sutil is nothing short of insulting.
Thing is, if you keep letting dangerous things slide which are punishable by the rules of the series, then where does it stop? If its acceptable to continue to break the rules and let cars go into traffic, then everyone will do the same, point to this and expect the Ferrari red carpet treatment. Then eventually an accident will happen, cars will block the pit lane, and maybe then they'll grow some balls and consider using the rules they created.

cos it wouldnt be quite the same if they made his pit crew take a stop go?

Such a boring race on a infinately boring venue, i'm sticking with 'venue' cos its not a race track when it takes 30min for 10 blokes and a transit van to stick a couple concrete barriers up and paint a couple lines on the tarmac ffs.
Its a disgrace to F1 that such a venue has ever held a race, when you consider the history and places the series has been to, and then they take it to a great big car pack with a big swimming pool in the middle. Well done Valencia & F1, you made ovals appealing for 100min!!

Its also great to see a rule which exists for peoples safety in the pitlane ignored because he gained "no sporting advantage". So apparently safety isnt the issue then, its all about whether you gain from doing something against the rules. Perhaps they should change the rules to actually state the rule, or does that make things a little too black and white? A little grey area allows them some favouritism i guess

Quote from flyingripper :

aweeeehhhh its dizzy d!!! heheheh south africans ftw!

ahem yeah anyway, im pretty much in the same boat actually. im new to lfs and currently just learning tracks with the fbm....which really involves just chilling on the ctra single seater 1 server and learning whatever track its on. stealing setups is awesome :P and im just in it for the fun right now, dont really want to feel obliged to anything........

which is what i wanted to ask. serious teams, serious racing. 95% of the drivers i see have team tags. is there that much of an obligation if u;re within a team to do whatever they're doing and whatnot? i dont have much time lately, and definitely will have much less in the coming months, but i am interested in the whole team-benefit thing, altho dont want to be committed really.

i currently find stealing setups from other quick drivers works well, so for now im just enjoying the lfs buzz (i usually race rfactor), so im unsure if i really DO want to be in a team.........plus having a team tag in ur name looks lame

edit: ooooo peterules? is this the same peterH that accused me of cheating in the rfc beetle championship??! i race as "thebarber".....sigh, south africans and their lag! actually that brings me to another point. being from this country, the lag isnt all that great, and in lfs i find that being on servers with large grids is highly unstable and i lose connection a number of times. this wouldnt be great at all in a team setting, i am sure :P does this rule us out of endurance races and stuff? :/

Depends which gay ass tag is in your name

Theres no obligation to any team really, if you were a decent driver then you may be required for the odd event, but really if you cant do it or dont want to, theres little anyone can do, trust me ive tried many a time

What teams do want is active members, not people who come and go as they please and might not be seen for weeks on end. We have our fair share of inactive drivers, members who a few years back you'd race with day in day out, all of them go back 4-5 years of LFS and just moved on due to real life commitments, or just move continent (Canada to Dubai). They're like family now, but you'd have to be pretty stupid to ask someone to be part of something if you werent going to see much from them, and they were flakey when it came to LFS. Either that, or you'd have to be one hell of a driver, lets put it that way
Plenty will take you without giving a damn about basic things, those teams start on Monday, close on Tuesday, and on Thursday its back with a new name looking for new drivers for another "new up and coming team"

So will teams make demands of you being available, not likely, but they'll expect to see you frequently, proper (that rules out ~90% of them ) LFS teams want drivers who are commited to racing in LFS, which means no getting bored of LFS and deciding to not tell anyone your latest fad is 'CoD17:Yes were really doing WW2 yet again'.

Quote from Bean0 :

Congrats all round.

Is this the end of the Schnuffel livery ?

I wouldnt think so, i think Schnuffel was about having some fun and driving with people you dont normally get the chance to drive with, and while Scipy wants to do that, he can

Today we are delighted to announce 2 new drivers to our line-up, Scipy agreed to join us earlier this week and Sracer has decided to follow.

Scipy has been a driver we've considered as a friend of the team just as much as a rival driver (sadly then he got faster and became a serious threat ) and we share the same philosophy when it comes to our racing, serious when we need to be but always up for some fun when the chance arrises, and Scipy is more than capable of doing both at the same time!

Sracer took a little longer as he need to sober up first , and after taking a couple of days to mull things over he made the decision to follow Scipy as they have a great relationship, and once he realised there was definately still a place for him in LFS he agreed to join. He's a tricky little nubbin to keep up with, and hopefully now he's a teammate he can just order him to slow down for the rest of us instead

Its a real honour to have such quick and experienced drivers on board, we've raced against both drivers on many an occasion and both were instrumental in the success Cyber had in events like MoE, as well as individual driving events. They will add to the fantastic individual driving talent we already have as well as great team drivers and we hope these new arrivals will give us the chance to be the first successful team to defend a MoE title when the series starts up again in September, as well as mount new challenges in other events.

So we'd like to introduce everyone to (\/) P. Purhonen and (\/) S. Pašić and we look forward to seeing him on the track wearing the Mercury colours in future.

Welcome to the team guys.

Quote from evilpimp :

I really can't see how you people find him cocky O_O. All I see is confidence not being cocky. You don't see him say '' heh I beat all those people so easily it wasn't even fun''. You hear him say stuff like ''it was a great race for us and I'd like to thank the team for the great job they've done''.

No one has yet proven to me that Hamilton is too cocky. I find him confident but that's all. He believes in himself and that's what it takes to win. If you don't believe then you'll end up giving up quickly and probably lose. If he was cocky, he wouldn't win first of all because he'd think he's so good that he wouldn't need to try and he'd get his ass handed to him.

The cockyness... its just a feeling, but i'll try and explain what it is for me.
As I said, its his actions, not his words, i think they give a person away more than what they say because those things can be scripted and you can easily express any message you want with words. Actions tend to be more real, and theres been times when ive seen him celebrating wins and he likes to emphasis things, silly things like running up stairs to show he's not tired, he's full of energy and this is just a walk in the park for him.

I never get the feeling when he's talking that what he's saying is what he truely feels, he often sounds like hes trying to pass himself off as the average bloke, just like everyone sat at home watching, because they want to feel some connection to him. It feels a little too false, media friendly, charm offensive kinda stuff.

Confidence is being able to run round the Nurburgring when its been absolutely lashing it down, you've dumped it into the gravel once already, you lost a wheel of the car to some freak incident the day before and gone flat out into a tyre barrier, and now you've come to the conclusion that despite it being a wet track, your going to go out onto dry weather tyres because you believe you can still drive at a decent pace and when a dry line comes you'll be on the right tyres to make a move.
Confidence is being a good 30-40sec ahead of your rival and any other driver, when the weather is horrible, people are sliding off everywhere, and your still going round as if your season depended on you making up a 40+ sec gap, not defending one. So i dont think confidence covers what im refering to, he's clearly got bags of that, you'd have to in order to do the things he's done with so little experience,

Dont get me wrong, i love the guy, and he's got to where he is by being exactly who he is. But 'cocky' to me sums up a little of his personality IMO. He's still a geniunely nice guy, but i think he likes to try to put on a bit of a show for the cameras from time to time.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

First time I've agreed entirely with PaulC2K posts.

Steady on fella!

Quote from JCTK :

a). if you look CAREFULLY, he didn't even touched Heikki, he was already way ahead as they turned into T1, but because he knew his teammate was there, he slowed and gave him enough room for Heikki to drive past round the outside again. Heikki had that slide because his left rear wheel touched the white line on the outside of the corner, not because Lewis touched him.

b). he passed only ONCE by short cutting, and that was a marginal call by the stewards already.

c). can you refresh my memory a bit here~? I can't remember when did Lewis actually punted someone off to pass them. I could be wrong through... Alonso at Bahrain(?) when his front wing broke maybe a second before running into Alonso. If you remove the front wing while going in a straight line, it doesnt need front end grip as its not turning, its no longer creating the force pushing it into the ground making it maybe 5-10% faster, and he's got the slipstream of another car helping too.
If you go back to the actual incident, people were suggesting Alonso brake tested him, because they came together so quickly, far faster than slipstream alone would have done, but renault provided the telemetry to prove he was no slower, and Mclaren showed the corner of the front wing broke off maybe half a second before he drove straight into the back of Alonso.
Its as much a sensible comment to suggest Lewis is a bad driver for running into the back of Alonso as it is to say Kimi is a bad driver for running into Sutil. Neither were intentional, but the result of the car doing something unpredictable.

d). you need to watch that GP2 race in Turkey again...
Indeed he does.

For me, that was probably the best individual drive ive ever seen, i cant think of a better one right now. Had he started further back and overtaken a few people, it'd probably be put down as one of the greatest of all time, but i think the fact that he 'only' had to deal with the terrible weather while everyone else was flying off and spinning round, he barely put a foot wrong, 1 incident where his car control saved him, and barely cost him anything (wouldnt suprise me if he still lapped faster than the rest of the Inters pack that lap anyway!). One of my favourites was Mansell in Hungary, think it was his first year at Ferrari. I've been watching since the very late 80s (aged about 10), so ive seen Senna at his best, scrapping (squabbling!) with Prost as teammates and in rival teams, and there has probably been better races, with great drives in them, but individually, driving in those conditions, and putting everyone else to shame...


Senna comparisons... your always going to get them, rightly or wrongly. I dont think its wrong to compare them, thats typically whats always been done, Senna was an amazing driver, so is Lewis, so where is the harm in comparing them? Suggesting he's as good as, thats where i'd definately draw the line. I think Lewis could surpass Schumacher, and even Senna, but just 20-oddraces in, you'd be stupid to make any


Lastly.... Lewis & Ego's
Love the guy, but he's a bit too cocky isnt he? Love Ronaldo too, they're pretty similar, both think a little too much of themselves i think (with Ronny its fairly obvious). Lewis kinda likes to rub it in a little though, im not sure if he does that subconsiously or if its some psychological message to rivals that he's better than them...
If he was German, he'd be a cocky little tw..what-not, but he's British so we dont mind. I think he could tone it down a bit, he doesnt go around telling everyone he's the best and he's going to win everything, but his actions often suggest thats what he thinks. Thats my impression anyway, and i fcuking love the guy. I'd love to have seen him and Schumi together, not to mention other past greats, but its would have been interesting seeing that battle.

We've had some decent championships the last few years, it wasnt that long ago it was Schumi, Kimi and Alonso (iirc) who were extremely close with 3 races left. Last season we had a great season, 3 possible winners in the last round, and a great final race which decided it. This season looks the same, not sure if BMW can keep themselves in there, hopefully they will, but they always seem to be chasing Ferrari & Mclaren rather than the one to catch, but they're where they are on merit so whos to say they cant still be there come the end of the season.

Bring on the slicks next year, and the aerodynamic changes/reductions the following year??

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

Ok, lets get away from the Lewis/Kimi debate for a second (I may have started it....after a few brewskis........my bad) and talk about the real defining moment of the race for me.

Honda's descision to go on to full wets, which if had'nt been hindered by a faulty fuel rig, and Button going off, could have earned them a lot more points than what they did. They were the only team to make the move and it shows that tactical genuis that is Ross Brawn still has it. I doubt the mistake at his old team would have happened if he was still there.

Quote from JJ72 :

what's funny enough is that Honda is the only one that made a logical choice.

I think you'll find theres more to it than Honda being the only team to think its a good idea to put full wets on, they took a *gamble* on full wets when it was the correct call, but i doubt many expected the rain to be as heavy as it was. It became fairly obvious full wets were best within a couple of laps, but at the same time having to stop TWICE is costly, it wasnt just a case of making an unscheduled stop for full wets, it was the cost of a full wet stop AND an intermediate, because they knew it wouldnt be a long shower and the track would begin to dry out.

So, then your left with a matter of risk, when your leading by just 10sec over your title rival, do you risk that lead by pitting in so soon after the last stop to put on tyres which may only be an advantage for 10 laps, and then pit for inters again?
Perfect example of the uncertainty of the weather (maybe a bad one seeing as they got the first call wrong but...) Ferrari felt the weather wasnt going to be bad enough to require fresh intermediates, and despite the rain coming down, Kimi stayed out for around 10 laps on half-worn inters. Ferrari arent n00bs, usually at least, but the information they had must have been so uncertain that they felt pitting for even Inters wasnt to their advantage compared to the time lost for making just 1 unscheduled stop, and im sure many other teams were in similar situations but most had previously made the call to change to new inters when it was still damp.

It takes balls to make those decisions, and Lewis has shown in the past he isnt afraid of taking a chance (the European GP last season being a good example, didnt ultimately pay off as when the track did dry up it wasnt long before it started raining again, but he risked running dry tyres in drizzle on a wet track because he felt it'd be to his advantage). Swapping to full wets was a big call, and one you cant make without risk, and when your already on fresh inters which can handle the wet weather when your not sure how long it'll last, you've got to be pretty sure its worth full wets.
Inters cant cope with standing water, and thats where the risk came along and why the full wets were definately the way to go, but considering both Kimi and Lewis had just pitted they would need 2 stops (inters to wets, then wets to inters later on) and thats 80sec lost, could they guarantee they'd regain that?? Kimi.. maybe he could have considering what it cost him, but Lewis? doubt it, not even with hindsight! Rubens was only 4sec faster per lap, while Lewis was also 3-4sec per lap faster than the rest.


Had Kimi pitted for full wets (apparently at Ferrari's say so, he's unable to make these decisions for himself according to some on here :really then you can be sure Mclaren would have followed the next lap.
Instead Lewis was pulling away from Kimi by around 5-8sec a lap when the rain started again, this still some laps from Honda making a call.


I still cant quite understand the stupidity of Ferrari though, Kimi had the final call of what tyres he wants, that much is true, but if Ferrari didnt think there was a sufficient likelyhood of further rain in the race, then whoever made that call should be sacked, instantly! Even James Allen knew it would start raining again way ahead of it coming down goodness sake.
Expecting such a heavy downpour would have been unlikely, but thinking worn intermediates would be sufficient says either they're incompetent or their intel was useless. Still, damage limitation could have been implemented sooner, Kimi has that call, so i'd say they're both as much to blame as each other. Ferrari for not knowing it'd rain again (the initial light rain was costing him 5+ sec/lap) and Kimi not recognising this probably isnt a good idea seeing your rival disappear from view within 2 laps, and continue to get worse.

Mercury is in

Would have been done much earlier, but when Duck asked me to do it i insisted i spent more time on research, now im exhaused, all researched out, here it is

Quote from evilpimp :

If someone pisses you off you don't just take all the crap do you? So it's the same. His behaviour at times can probably be explained, plus we're not perfect. You can't judge someone by a mistake because we all make them.

He's a great friend and he helped me A LOT in my racing abilities (I doupt he knows it but he did). If he did do that whole creating new account and all I'm pretty sure it's because he wants to improve and none of the teams he's been in could provide that. He just wants to be faster even though he already is fast. He's determined to make it to the top.

1) If the team he was with wasnt hitting the right buttons, why stay with them, while trying to join other teams on another account?
2) If he wants to learn from another team, apply to other teams.
3) If other teams dont want him, why??
4) If creating a second account, to pretend to be someone your not, in order to get what your not getting as AMB, what does that tell you?

Im sure he had his reasons, but it doesnt excuse the decisions you make, whatever the reason you do it. Those 4 points answer everything, its why he felt the need to insult people by lying to them, misleading them into getting something he wanted, because the things he'd done 'in a past life' werent going to get him what he wanted. Additionally, if you wipe out all the negative things AMB has done (cant say i know of his history in the slightest!) theres still no way we'd sign him, and im sure many others wouldnt either, simple because he missing what makes a good racer into a great racer, he knew that and spun himself as being new to LFS in order to get what he wanted from a new team who would be able to improve him as a driver (4yrs hasnt helped me much, but im beyond help, in lfs or otherwise :razz.

His actions say everything they need to say, and unless he's suggesting someone effectively forced him to take those actions, what excuse is there for taking them. Its his path, he chose the route.

Quote from Dru :

Rooble, if you can say Did he get into Mercury on Driving ability alone or attitude or both potential or just because people were judging him on the person they saw - not the person they know?

It's an interesting observation to note.

Cheers,

Dru.

It was based on what he'd told us and what we could see, limited experience of LFS but experience in GTR2 & Forza2, and what we saw from him in a car we now find is one of the few he sticks to, rather than having just picked it up.
There was definate potential, but from someone who eas inexperienced, and thats what we were looking at. Had he got the miles AMB had im fairly sure we'd have seen that he was running close to his potential, but with a newbie already showing promise, the potential is encouraging.

I wouldnt say he's a crap driver, in the few races i saw he was doing well, and he was getting decent results. But then i dont know much about the people he was racing against, and if thats a combo he frequently drives then what does that say?
Im quick in a UF1 round a few tracks once i remember what im supposed to be doing, and might look half-decent compared to good drivers, but if the good drivers spent a bit of time on there they'd start out-performing me no problem... and I wouldnt touch me with a barge pole

So i dunno really how good he is, because what we saw was based on lies really, as i said, im sure i can look competent/half-decent with a bit of practice.

Quote from Glenn67 :

When I first read the announcment that's the first thing that went through my mind I even started to do searches on the guy out of curosity before I found the remaining comments

Even the likes of Modof, wGooden and Bawbag took at least a few weeks to start to get noticed

yup, with the exception of this occasion, all other drivers we've seen racing for quite some time, and have been well known to us. The only person thats been 'signed' without too much being known about them was our last member, Fox2, and bawbag had raced with him a couple of times in events, and it wasnt a decision made over a couple of hours with half the team having no knowledge of them etc.

Theres only so much double checking you can do, and i dont think there was much more we could have done short of not signing him, and someone certainly would have because plenty were asking. As i said, not sure what the final hurdle was that brought him down, but we'd already seeked assurance from a mod on this forum, and a teammate from AMBs now ex-team we felt we could trust, and i was ready to install additional checks to detect additional/unusual activity on our forum.

Oh well, were coming up to our 4 year Anniversary on Thursday, i'd say our record of driver signings speaks for itself, and the results back that up.
We're more than just a group of drivers, more like a (dysfunctional ) family, and 1 person certainly wont change that.

Quote from mikey_G :

I'm curious how you did that, because afaik only moderators can do that, and I doubt moderators just give away IP addresses of s2 members...

Im sure they dont give away IP addresses, which i why i never asked for any IP addresses from them, but i would happily provide them with one in order to get more details about them.
Besides, i dont need an IP for that, i could just ask a forum mod if they can look at mBah's post IPs and see if the same IP has been used for another username, this is something i can do on our forum, but i dont have the user database like here.

Quote from Bob Smith :

Hi Paul

For the address:
[removed]

I see two users on the forum:
Mbah
AMB

Those accounts have also tripped our duplicate account detector on the forum, [removed some info based on basic detection methods].

With both of those drivers being S2 licenced we have no problems with them both being used on the forum (assuming they are different people).

I have no idea what goes on in game, that's outside my duties.

Hopefully that is of some help.


Bob

I provided the IP address, as taken from mBah's registration to our forum, and asked for it to be double checked for duplicate forum accounts. Bob confirmed, however it doesnt mean too much, just that our suspicions could well be true, however we simply couldnt confirm it was 1 person, 2 accounts, or 2 people, 2 accounts, 1 computer.

We couldnt come straight out with 'are you AMB' because for 1, if he denied it which he could easily, just by saying he's a mate, we had no answer. Secondly it'd mean he knew we were watching him, so we werent asking too obvious questions (although IMO still too many not to p*ss off geniune new LFSers/new members) just ones we felt we could use to get a better assessment and at least ease our doubts.
At the same time, if he was genuine, we dont want to p*ss them off on the first day, with little/no proof.
At the moment, i dont know the real reason behind why 'mBah' decided to make his confession, but my guess is because Bawbag or one of the lads rumbled him rather than any guilty concience.

To be honest, it was mostly a case of seeing an opportunity of getting a new lfs racer who knows how to drive, just hasnt applied himself to LFS yet, and getting in there before others did.
We're not stupid, he seemed too good to be true (in terms of his claimed potential, with no experience in LFS) and worth taking a chance. When we've signed other drivers, i've set their site account up straight away as its a 2sec job (which i never did, because of our doubts) and i wasnt overly impressed this thread was started or the news put on our site, when we could hold off a while longer, but i wasnt around at the time or aware they were being done.
We've never done this before (as i think the original post says) for an unknown/unproven racer, and from the offset we had suspicions which is why i PM'd Bob about 3hrs after mBah put the wings on.


As Rooble said, it hasnt cost us anything (wasted a few hours of my day though) and it hasnt tarnished our name, we'll carry on as normal.
My guess is AMB/mBah will disappear, and he'll buy another new account in order to play hassle free. Im sure the dev's appreciate another £50 though, courtesy of AMB and his 48hr prank which acheived nothing.
For someone wanting to improve their standard of driving, by learning from the likes of drivers in our team or another team, i wouldnt say he's done too well from it really, hardly prank of the century is it, he's wasted a 2nd account he obviously bought for this use, and got himself kicked out of his original team, and if it provided fun for you Pearcy (or AMB/mBah), for the few hours you knew about it, congrats, but i wouldnt even bother MTV for Ashton Kutcher job

Quote from Mbah :

It won't be wasted and certainly goes some way to redeeming himself IMO

...and instead start to tarnish your name, without you having done anything wrong.

Quote from Mbah :

ok i'm sorry to say this, but I am not new to LFS, I am not Michael Southwood, I made this account and hoped to get into a fast team, I had loads of reasons to do so, mainly because I wanted to Learn from faster drivers and from my other account no one would help me as much as i have been helped in mercury, I tricked Mercury into believing i was new and like i said i am genuinly sorry and I hope Mercury does well in all future events, if Mercury feels like they want to tell the public my second account you can because I don't deserve to have it kept secret.

If any demo user wants a free S2 account PM me, first come first serve.

Sorry

My real S2 account is AMB as you are all so curious,

Cant say it comes as too much of a shock, we had your IP checked on this forum and our forum and it was confirmed then (Sunday morning) that there were 2 users using the same machine, the only thing we couldnt confirm was whether it was 1 or 2 people.
Over TS we were saying it all seemed too good to be true, that someone with so little experience would be able to pick LFS up quick enough, and put in decent times already, but how do you go about checking something like that...
As a newbie to LFS there was clearly potential, not so much when you known the combo's for ages.

'Southwood' was the first thing that seemed BS, but i guess half the reason for this confession comes from the fact that it must have been obvious by all the questions we kept asking you, like is your middlename Aston
I spent 2-3hrs last night messing about installing an IP logger to detect multiple IPs accessing the same forum account, so i cant say i appreciate losing that time when im already have issues keeping me from doing other more important projects and have even been staying off msn the last week just to remove distractions & interuptions.

Oh well, hope you enjoyed the tags while you wore them.