Hi,
I can run up front on quick with my momo. The new g25 will be here next week. Do I need to beat the AI on quick before I go on line? The starts can be hard for me at times, and trying to keep the car on the road for more than an half an hour is hard. I would hate to go online and have everyone hate on me for being too slow. What's a good bench mark?

Thanks.

Generally, the drivers online are perfectly acceptable of you, if you drive respectfully, no matter if you're near WR fast or with all laps outside of 110%. Time-wise, the average driver can pull off lap times about 1 to 7 seconds faster than the AI pilots (track depends).

have you done the overtaking lessons in training? they teach you not to touch other cars

Don't worry about being slower than the aliens. I've been playing LFS for a few years, and still haven't been kicked or banned for being too slow

In my short experience, I've found that you need to be faster than the AI on PRO (with a given car on a given track) before you'll be competitive online.
Example... I have been practicing BL GP with the XFR with AI on PRO, and they typically run 1:20's with an occassional 1:19. I've got my time down to a fairly consistent 1:18 - 1:19, but the world record with this combo is 1:14, and I've checked the stats of a few racer's who have personal bests in the 1:16 to 1:17 range...
It is still good to go online and atleast spectate and/or follow so that you can see the fastest lines with a given combo.

Just go online mate, say hello and declare that you are new, most people and servers are quite forgiving, if they are not you're better off not racing in there anyway.

Give it a try online racing is where the fun really is, not much to be learned really from racing the AI. Beinf slow is never a problem (Iknow because I am v slow), crashing into people is. Just learn to identify in the map when you are being lapped by the leaders and let them pass easily and you'll be fine. Be aware of the other cars around you etc. Save the replay and watch how the fast guys are doing it.

Have fun!

Very good help. Thank you. I will go have a look tonight

If you are fair and respect racing rules, I can't see any problem. After all this is racing, and overtaking IS and SHOULD be part of the fun. You might find a few fast guys that will unfairly bump you off, but bear in mind that these are not real racers, if you meet one of these just let them pass, after all they don't deserve your respect. But most love a good race.

You have to of course follow the racing rules plus a few common sense ones.

-leave space for the other car, if it's on one of your sides don't push it off the road.

-don't go blocking like mad. you are entittled to one blocking move, and a return to your racing line. As long as the other car is not already occupying that space (one or both will fly).

-If you loose control, and because of this loose speed or leave the track. You loose your rights. Don't go trying to fight in this case. Recompose yourself and remember the race isn't over.

-If you are passed, sometimes the passing car has to take a less ideal line which will allow you to re-pass. But remember, don't crash into him.

-A fight with another car will by definition slow you down, so if your direct fight is with another car, just let the other car pass, and get on with your race.

-Be in control of your car, learn when to go fast, you can't attempt to break your PB on every lap, you'll end up making a bad mistake.

-Enjoy your races, finish them. A last position is better than a DNF.

I put CAUTION in yellow in my name :\
Cant get more of a warning than that

Quote from Not Sure :

have you done the overtaking lessons in training? they teach you not to touch other cars

they dont really, its easier online, the AI dont recognise that you are there, online people do

Most of the time we practice online instead of race. But we like to race too. If you are wanting some pointers or setups we generally are in one of our Team 400 servers in the evening (CST US time Zone). Stop in an see us. If you are serious about getting better at LFS we would like to see you around our servers.

Jay Odom

From the very fact you made a conscious effort to think about how your driving affects other drivers, your easily better than a large proportion of the LFS driving base.

In short - Go online and keep one eye in a mirror (or at least looking around you) at all time and you'll be fine.

I took a look online last night for the first time. I was very surprised by how careless the drivers were on some servers. It was cool to see some of the lines the first drivers would take. That was until they lapped the field and got taken out by the last place cars.
My new G25 should be in next week. I'll do some laps alone before I come on line. I look forward to being around good drivers that can make me better.
Team 400, I'm also in Texas, so I will have a look. I would love any, and all help.

Thanks so much guys. I'm already glad to be apart of this sim world.

Try our server RSRadicals, you'd be welcome in there mate and the racing is fun and clean(ish:razz.

Just don't let a nice Canadian chap called Todd insist that you wear leather underwear

Some servers can be the pits for wreckers and general ignorance. You just need to wade through the crap to find the odd little gem of a server that's well adminned and well populated, and take down the name for future use There are those good servers out there, they're just hard to find sometimes

Quote from Jakg :

From the very fact you made a conscious effort to think about how your driving affects other drivers, your easily better than a large proportion of the LFS driving base.

In short - Go online and keep one eye in a mirror (or at least looking around you) at all time and you'll be fine.

+1 - This is 100% true.

Jay

Try some insim mods like LFSRelax, it acts like a spotter in the car, at least You know if there is someone next to You in the race .

Quote from Byku :

Try some insim mods like LFSRelax, it acts like a spotter in the car, at least You know if there is someone next to You in the race .

Were do I get LFSRelax?

Just search for it, you will find a thread for every known legal mod or insim somewhere on this forum.
But I already did: http://www.lfsforum.net/showth ... 13&highlight=lfsrelax

Quote from ACCAkut :

Just search for it, you will find a thread for every known legal mod or insim somewhere on this forum.
But I already did: http://www.lfsforum.net/showth ... 13&highlight=lfsrelax

Thanks for the mod.

Quote from jbirdaspec :

Most of the time we practice online instead of race. But we like to race too. If you are wanting some pointers or setups we generally are in one of our Team 400 servers in the evening (CST US time Zone). Stop in an see us. If you are serious about getting better at LFS we would like to see you around our servers.

Jay Odom

I took Jay up on his offer. It's been 4 days now, and my pb went from 1:39.50 at blk gp in a xfg, to 1:35.22.
Thanks Team 400. You guys rock.

Nice. At this rate, you'll have the WR in 3 days.

Quote from Yasko :

I took Jay up on his offer. It's been 4 days now, and my pb went from 1:39.50 at blk gp in a xfg, to 1:35.22.
Thanks Team 400. You guys rock.

Hey! Don't forget that you did the work. And that you won your first race in LFS earlier today too! I'm glad we could get you going in a positive direction.

If Yasko hadn't been so worn out from his all day stint of online racing, he would have put his PB down in the 1:34x range I have no doubt.. I bet by tomorrow he will be there. His goal was to at least reach 1:35x by the end of the weekend and put in 1,000 miles. He manged all of this around the half way point. In fact he is running some where in the 1:35x range pretty consistently now. After a little more time in the XFG we want to throw him in a XRG so he can get his feet wet in a RWD car. Not only does Yasko have the patients and willingness to put in the time to accomplish a goal, he is also very conscience of other drivers on the track. Not once did we see him attempt something that put another drivers race at risk or do the noobish type stuff most people in their 3rd or 4th day try. He really thought out his entry into online racing before he ever connected.

Good Job Yasko!!

-Jay

I'm not any good at this game but I still enjoy races. I don't have the time to become good, but usually at "mediocre" you can still enjoy some cool races for middle positions and occassionally better. The odd win feels really sweet too!

What I usually do is just stay go veeery carefully through T1 (first corner after start) which usually lands you a ton more places than jostling for position when you're not completely comfortable ever would anyway.

Other than that it is respect the flags, don't drive TOO cautiously when blue flagged or you'll be hard to read for the guy who passes you and just avoid hitting people. Say sorry if you cause an accident (can say sorry even if it wasn't your fault if you like being diplomatic...fast drivers often find slow drivers to be at fault simply because they went too slow and they rear-ended them). Usually if I feel abused I'll just let it slide with an angry honk of the horn and leave it at that.

Testing new setups, esp much more slippery ones are often best done soloing.

And remember the most; Even if you're not good (yet) the good guys should still enjoy having people like you in the race - because what's the point of being good if there is no1 to be better than.

2,600 miles in my first two weeks online.

Thanks Jabirdaspec and Team 400.