To prepare for the coming season, we've decided to throw in a duo of warm-up events. On Sunday 13th of January is the first one; 35 laps of the new South City Chicane Route (SO6) with the new Formula BMW (FBM). In this event you have to do a mandatory pitstop which cannot happen in lap 1 or lap 35. So remember to practice making a swift pitstop and avoid speeding in the pitlane, if you're not that experienced in that department. The second event will be raced one week after the first one, further info will be announced later.

Go to http://www.lfs-league.com for more info and to join the race.

It's been a long and in a way rewarding break after the last season. We have had time to think about new tweaks to our fine league – and we even got something new to play with, thanks Devs.

Read more from our site

http://www.lfs-league.com

Quote from Blackout :

Silly noobs always take the fastest car and Blackwood. Would think a road car would have been nicer because those things always have lag and trying to mimic the movement of a F1 car and the forces, just doesn't work. It's not fast enough. I think the Force Dynamics and LFS has come a tradition of some sort on Helsinki Motorshow, it's been there for the last few times iirc. Too bad they don't have any LFS stickers on the devise, don't pay anything for using LFS, well, other than a normal license.

Yeah, my thoughts exacly - I think I even whined after RAC but the "marshall" didn't pay attention. Maybe he didn't know who I am

Maybe I should mail AD so that next year there will be some promotional stuff in there too. They dragged a lot of people to their stand with LFS and gave nothing back

Quote from Blackout :

Oh, I hope the red car was something like a F430. Wouldn't mind losing a camera for that one.

I knew someone would guess it.. yep, that's the one - I wish they'd let me inside

It's been awfully quiet here so I though about posting something off-topic from the outside world.

I visited last weekend Helsinki International Motorshow last weekend. Nothing really special, new & shiny cars and some less-dressed girls - the biggest difference between previous exhibitions was the strong presence of hybrid drive cars. Every singe manufacturer I visited had brought something to the show; Toyota, Citroen, Lexus to mention few. I wish I had some pictures of those but my camera died on me while trying to capture a Red GT2 car - guess which make

Anyway, the reason why I'm writing all this is that in middle of all those cars I spotted something that immediately caught my attention. AD (a Finnish car parts/accessories dealer) had put up a stand with an opportunity to test LFS with Force Dynamics platform. Something that I've hoped to see and live since the first time I laid my eyes on it in Blackhole Motorsports site.

I'm no good in writing reviews in English, but I can say that after the high expectations I had the "motion simulator" was quite a disappointment. I had the chance to test BF1 in Blackwood GP track, which already was kinda sad - and in addition to that the guy who was setting the platform and the game for me was reluctant to give me manual shift gears, so it was automatic then Actually, when I asked for manual gears he smirked at me funnily - and the reason I was about to find in few moments.

My first consern after sitting into that confortable seat - being that I'm not a big fan of the Formula 1 car - was that I didn't actually have that many starts with my desktop PC and wheel, and wasn't sure if I could fix up the braking points on fly. However those conserns vanished after first look into that HUGE screen infront me - I could not see the track as I've used to. That big widescreen display quite close to me "flattened" the view so I felt like I was sitting on the pavement, which in other hand is correct since it was after all BF1. The lights went green and I hit the pedal carefully because I didn't want to spin on the starting line while 10 pairs of eyes behind me were eagerly waiting for just that to happen. But it was hopeless, there was some sort of delay in the throttle pedal or the deadzone was set to cover half of the trajectory - and I found myself struggling to even make that damn car move. And when it finally did start to move the cradle I was sitting in started to do it's work, in other words bounce me around like crashtest dummy. I was closing up the T1 with full throttle and struggled to grasp some idea of where I was and where I was going...

And there it was, the 100m sign where I had decided to hit the breaks few seconds ago. I slammed the brakes and the nose of the cradle violently dropped down, which created a sensation that more or less matched up my idea of slamming the brakes on racing track with high performance car. I tried to see the apex so I would know when to turn in but I could not, the visibility was really poor (maybe it really is, I wouldn't know). Then, suddly I saw it and managed to stay in driving line and hit the gas right where I'm supposed to - and nothing happened!.. What the... I had to floor it to get a proper reponse Maybe the traction control was set funnily or possibly there was indeed some hardware delay in the pedal - in either case, it really made the driving hard and frustrating.

Closing in on the chicane I instinctively tried to use the paddle to shift up, and was reminded by LFS that the gearbox was set to automatic - I was wondering if it would have felt more "right" if I had manual gears while entering that chicane.. right.. left.. right .. the cradle allowed me to feel some sort of G-forces for the first time during the years I've played LFS. By saying some sort I mean that there was the effect and the simulation, but I can't really tell how realistic it was. My experience is limited to some laps with go-karts on indoors track and if I base my opinion on that it was way off. You truly have to test yourself - for me it was as I said, disappointing.

All in all, it was great to finally try it out myself and maybe after some more laps (and tweakups) it could have gotten better. I only got to do 2 laps after standing in line for quite a long time - it was sad that there were no visible "Live For Speed" -logos around because the stand seemed to be popular, would have been good way to promote the game. And yes, I did <1minute laptime - clearly below average I heard, but didn't make me happy


Oh, and don't miss the upcoming patch - keep an eye on the LFS site

I could add a "Please notify me about important OLFSL events" -checkbox into profile page, so everyone that wished to be notified could just tick that box

Ok?

Quote from Blackout :

Don't really understand why the the green stuff is counted as curbing in the second part, when it's not part of the track in the first corner. Doesn't really make sense it changes like that?

I have to agree with Blackout here, doesn't make sense to me - but if it's the way to go, I'll live with it. Looks like cutting to me though

Quote from russraine :

there was talk this season for best lap points, but nothing came of it? Did we decide against it in the end S.Varjonen?

I thought about answering here yesterday but somehow managed to forget.

What was decided when we discussed about this was to (most likely) take it in use when we start the next season. It's imo a good idea, has been on the table for long time, and should be done.

Anyone who saved pool3 commentary?

All OLFSL servers are now setup up with insim relay and you can spectate all races (and practice server too ) with this new piece of software.

Race Spectator thread here

The grid is now on the site.

See you on track

http://www.lfs-league.com

After long break we are ready to get back to action - are you? OLFSL will do a tune up race coming Sunday, 16th of September, so you can shape out instead of slipping out.

Servers: OLFSL 1 by 500servers, OLFSL 2 by 500server
Track: South City Long reverse
Car: LX4
Qualifying: 30 min
Laps: 15 (about 30 minutes)

Qualifying will start at 17:00GMT in OLFSL 1, 19:00GMT in OLFSL 2 - after that 15 lap race in qualifying order.

Tune up race protocol is the same old:
- Relaxed rules, though you can't reset your car like in the old days
- First come, first server basis. Password will be set when server is full.

See you, on track...

Last edited by varjsa-9, Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:17. Reason : updated info

10 days and we go again.

Good to see you around old friend

Me so lucky there were 35 laps, not 40.

Good race, allthough I kinda lost it in the end - maybe it was horrgakx's car closing up every lap First race for a long time and it was definately worth it, thanks go to fellow racers.

See ya!

Well then, I just set up a client to the site.

You can find a link from left side menu (#OLFSL chat). Click that and hope for the best - I do

Well.. the IRC channel has been brought back to life and you can now join us in irc.gamesurge.net / #OLFSL.

If you are using Opera to browse the net, just click the 'irc.gamesurge.net' -link colored orange in the upper part of out site and built-in IRC-plugin should pop up and connect you in (not sure what versions of Opera have this feature though).

If you're using Firefox, download addition called 'Chatzilla'. After you've restarted FF as instructed you should be able to operate the same as with Opera.

And finally, if using Internet Explode.. Explorer you'll have to wait untill I find suitable Java IRC client and time to fit it in.

That didn't take even long

Okay, I'll keep my eyes open for further comments...

..and as we are still some days from next event I made temporary change to team points, let's see if you can spot it.

Quote from FOX 1977 :

I did..... " Leave points system exactly like it was when this season as started."

Maybe you don't recognize, that warning someone from doing a mistake, is something constructive... im not against you as you may think... in my perspective, me and others are trying to help.... and the tone used on your replys lead to the tone on my replys also.
In my country we don't call opinions - " throwing rocks " .

Btw, i think this is not the 1º time the rules are changed in mid season... and also at that time alot of people didn't like also...maybe this mid season changes aren't such a bright idea after all, no?

Ok....don't worry, im not giving my opinion anymore. It aint worth it, by the look of things.

Keep up with the good work.
.

Just wanted to clear out - I did't mention anything about rocks, or throwing them. My tone was response to your attitude, or the way I interpreted your text anyway.

And about leaving points system like it was at season start... this is not the plan. But as you may have noticed the others trying to help added some new ideas - some of them quite interesting and worth considering too - to their posts, and that's what I felt was lacking from yours.

This really is not the first time rules (or some other things like points calculations, teams added to OLFSL...) are changed - not by far. But it's the second time out of those many changes that people have raised against - and to which we responded in my opinion quite quickly and smoothly. Mid-season changes are not such a bright idea maybe, but it's way more brighter than go on with something that doesn't work for about 3/4 year.

My work has not been so good lately - I've had quite lousy 6 months in my real life (yes, OLFSL staff indeed has their personal lifes too) and have been offline & out of "office" a lot. Maybe I have lost an inch of the touch required to keep our members happy, but I guarantee that mine and OLFSL staffers goal is to bring you fair and interesting races - and meanwhile try to improve our league constantly. It's a lot of work and your kind words are appreciated.

As stated on site:

Quote :

Team Standings

We have (again) changed the way we calculate team standings.

Old way was to add up points from participated team members per race and divide by number of team members in that race. Only change made was that team can now qualify to team standings with only 1 racer - though there must be at least 2 team members subscribed to season.

I hope this will satisfy the members.

Quote from FOX 1977 :

Is it possible now to a team delete team members just before last race is over, and the points to be considered, will just be the ones from the drivers that stay? , like one or two, out of 6 or more for example??

You can throw in lines like that, but I'd like to see improvement suggestions here, not just plain complaining and whining.

Yes, it was possible to delete team members at any time (or team members to remove themselves from team) in last season too - as it was when this season started too. Just to mention, staff will know about these changes/removals and will interrupt if needed. Feel free to blow of your hood because of that - but as we all together decided, it is too late to make changes at this point. We just have to deal with what we have and are discussing here what shoud/could be done next season.

Quote from FOX 1977 :

I must say, if the point was to have more drivers... this is not the way.
If the point was to have less drivers and take some of the interess and fairness in this league, congrats...success.

Point was not to have more drivers, neither was it to take off interess or fairness. As a matter of fact there was no special "point" in coding the site to show team standings for you. It was just another improvement like national standings. I thought that the old system (which we currently mostly are back in) was fair in your eyes since you were one of those demanding to revert to it!

Write something constructive or please write nothing at all.

Last edited by varjsa-9, Mon, 28 May 2007 16:52. Reason : spelling...

First time in ages I must admit being unable to understand your formula.

419.5/max(2,4) = 104,8 ?

Lost my interest to educating myself and passed university - please make it more simple

Reports are valuable especially for those poor b**tards who were sitting in Sauna while the race was on

I was thinking more like 4-5 members per race - as it used to be in one point. Though I received lot of suggestions to lower that limit so smaller teams could made it in.

It's often really hard to please everyone - usually impossible. But it has been in past, is and will be in future my personal and OLFSL's goal.

So keep those improvement suggestions flowing in - every single one of them is noted

Quote from chunkyracer :

I was just showing with an example how, with the current system, one driver could win the team standings in OLFSL... And that is a bit strange, isn´t it??

So you are suggesting then that we... ? Because I saw only critics about the current system, but no ideas how to move to better direction.

Quote from Mroziu :

In my personal opinion current open OLFSL formula doesn't suit well with team standings and team standing shouldn't be something to take a deep look at.

As a matter of fact, I first created those team standings just for fun - and if it raises up issues like this it will be gone in seconds .. I know, some of you are very serious about it and I can see why. But the point is that those were made for fun and I (nor did anyone else in my believe) didn't go through the possible loopholes on the way points were calculated. It's a bit silly indeed that one racer (with subscribed team member) can win the team standings - but since no one thought about it in the beginning it's pointless to show it up with "funny" examples now when we just "voted" that there shall be no changes in rules midseason.

Maybe we could start to present some constructive opinions instead - like that possible we should but minimum team size to 5 for next season.. or maybe have a strict rule that there can only be 5 members in team, not more and not less.

I'll move this to improvement suggestions as it no more has nothing to do with on-going season. I hope you approve that.

Thx