Ok, I've finished with my whine and it's time to be positive now. So, the question is, What can we do to make LFS even more fun for everyone (or at least the majority)?

As Scawen pointed out there are actually a decent amount of racers online, with a peak of 1800 total (demo included) today. What TagForce mentioned though, is that there is almost one server for every racer. Now I thought this a really good point but the question remains; What can we do about this?

PS: Please put your thinking caps on and remember, positive comments only.

Uhm..
I think some big machine guns will spice up the action!

Well, we can make more diversity on the servers, using new / unused combos. Other than that, well we can make new DDS textures in higher res, new skins, and generally be more nice to eachothers, that's about everything we can do - since the devs doesn't want our help

But tbh this topic will lead to no good.

Was racing on some servers that put artificial chickanes on track, like As National, WE...and I liked it a lot.

Let's face it, S2 hasn't progressed much (in content) for quite some time and people get bored. For me the best thing is to stop playing and come back in a few months (only to find things are still the same, heh).

We can simply post threads like: "Who would like to race LX6 today in the evening?", people will go racing together. Like Noobs servers TVE , we/You were proposing a race, and people were joining in.

Problem with that is that every man will be for themself and create shitload of topics. Just the drifters and cruisers allone would most likely spam the main forum with 50 topics each day
But if we can manage to just have few topics, like "servers online today" (obvious one for cruisers, one for drifters and one for the rest) , we could get a closer community I think, and get it all a little more structured.

Quote from The Very End :

Well, we can make more diversity on the servers, using new / unused combos. Other than that, well we can make new DDS textures in higher res, new skins, and generally be more nice to each other, that's about everything we can do - since the devs doesn't want our help

But tbh this topic will lead to no good.

Actually, I'm not referring to any development changes. More like things we can do ourselves. The artificial chicanes idea is a good start. I'm wondering if there is a way to maybe convince people to, er, shut down some of the duplicate servers?

Ah, get your point, and I agree. Problem is that people think they get more popular by beeing admins, and therfor won't join other servers if it's the same thingy running on that one..
(hint hint, [cas] server, stealing my layouts + ideas + banning me with the reason I stole their layouts = priceless) .

But back on topic, if we can manage to get less servers, but more populated I would be trilled. I enjoy bigger race fields than having 4-5 start fields where it's mainly is hotlapping.

Why not get afew people to organise a weekly event where at the start of the week, the main people upload a setup for the public and have a time attack on the track/car given. Yes it wouldnt work 100% because people can change the setup, but, im sure all you LFS drivers are pretty keen on being the fastest genuinely.

Me and my brother tend to do that all the time, we are currently using a setting as if its wet and slippery in the BF1 around SOlong.

Winner of the week could get something small? Maybe a mini/tiny trophy in their signature so they could display it.

If not like that, the winner can post a setup where people try to get the fastest lap time the next week. Might help with having something new and different to do.

A 24hour server? maybe? Where people can enter and exit whenever they want and the laptimes stay at the top..?

Just a thought, would be fun. People already post setups here and there and people try them out.

Aoun great idea, especially about posting setups by the winner for next week .

Quote from McDee :

The artificial chicanes idea is a good start.

We at Dead Men Racing sometimes run combo's where there is an extra added chicane somewhere, to make things a bit more interesting. It's not the case on every combo, though, only the ones where our "chicane man" deems it suitable. However, I don't think this would really change anything. The track remains essentially the same save for that one chicane, and some people don't like it when there are changes in the track, because then they can't run their hotlaps anymore like they're used to.

Quote from McDee :

I'm wondering if there is a way to maybe convince people to, er, shut down some of the duplicate servers?

In my opinion the number of available servers isn't really the problem, and thus shutting some of them down will not be the solution. Yes, at peak hours there may be some 900 servers, but if 850 of them are empty it won't make any difference if they are there or not, will it?

I think some organized events could be successful. Something between leagues and ordinary pickup racing. Something that is announced on the forum beforehand so that people can check their agenda's and possibly make some time to participate. There don't have to be any prizes handed out, and don't bother with restricting setups, that will just cause extra work for those who organize it and it will turn people away. Maybe there could be points given out to the first x people, that accumulate with each event, so that people have something to work for. Don't take it too far, though! It must remain easy to organize and join, and most importantly fun. And an overload of statistics will easily suck the fun right out of it for many people. I'm just thinking out loud here Anyway, I don't really lack for good racing so from my point of view there isn't really a problem

Quote from The Very End :

Problem with that is that every man will be for themself and create shitload of topics. Just the drifters and cruisers allone would most likely spam the main forum with 50 topics each day
But if we can manage to just have few topics, like "servers online today" (obvious one for cruisers, one for drifters and one for the rest) , we could get a closer community I think, and get it all a little more structured.

Why not have a new sub forum opened up for the purpose of organizing 'pick up' races (as well as one for drift and one for cruise... if need be)? Perhaps there could be a standard topic title format so people can locate a pick up race quickly... i.e. "TBO's @ KY2, March 3rd @ 19:00 UTC"... Inside the post could be the server/host info

Maybe some server owners can take a look at CTRA success on attracting drivers to their servers, with things like:

• Giving people goals to achieve beyond just random racing.
  
• Dynamic track change (I really like this one).
  
• Low time between consecutive races.
  

Quote from Deesiel :

Why not have a new sub forum opened up for the purpose of organizing 'pick up' races (as well as one for drift and one for cruise... if need be)? Perhaps there could be a standard topic title format so people can locate a pick up race quickly... i.e. "TBO's @ KY2, March 3rd @ 19:00 UTC"... Inside the post could be the server/host info

Brilliant idea.

I would PM this to one of the mods.

Quote from jsj_lfs :

• Giving people goals to achieve beyond just random racing.
  
• Dynamic track change (I really like this one).
  
• Low time between consecutive races.
  

NDR server anyone?

/obvious plug

There's also the "meeting room" thingie in the server list browser. People who are trying to find a race could go there to figure out which server to join. The few times I've gone in there it's been empty.

A lot of great ideas being bounced around here. I like the ideas of;

- getting more organized
- keeping stats
- rotating tracks (what about cars?)
- using the games chatroom/ meetingroom
- artificial chicanes /
- Low time between consecutive races
- giving people goals
- qualifying laps affect your start position (even go iRacing style where if you are new/have no qualifying time you start at the back)
- sub forum to organize pickup racing (though I'd also like to see more emphasis on the games meetingroom, since not all racers check the forum regularly)
- forum "trophy" icons

But one of the biggest things is to keep it easy to "organize" so we learn from CRTA's mistakes. I'd also like to see a way to get more people using the in-game meetingroom. That would help everyone I think, even the weird drifters! Is there a way to have a server rotate tracks and cars with Airio maybe?

So, what ideas so far do you all like?

Quote from J@tko :

NDR server anyone?

/obvious plug

Yeah, we run a Weekly Points Competition each week using the Airio points system to give collect points for racers over the one week period, which then gives us a winner at the end of each week.

And if you're not fussed about points, the racing is still relatively good, and the server is nearly always busy.

We also have a system whereby you can report n00bs, much like CTRA.

Quote from JO53PHS :

Yeah, we run a Weekly Points Competition each week using the Airio points system to give collect points for racers over the one week period, which then gives us a winner at the end of each week.

And if you're not fussed about points, the racing is still relatively good, and the server is nearly always busy.

We also have a system whereby you can report n00bs, much like CTRA.

Is the reports box full of you?

it is true that there are quite a few servers and it can take quite some time to list the more even on a faster connection. I think the servers should be listed in categories, so that the drifters, racers and cruisers are kept separate.

I think we should do nothing. If it aint broke, don't fix it. You can do what you like but most people will stay as regulars to the server of their choice, irrespective of what happens.

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

I think we should do nothing. If it aint broke, don't fix it. You can do what you like but most people will stay as regulars to the server of their choice, irrespective of what happens.

That's the spirit! oh wait, it's not.

Next!

Quote from JO53PHS :

We also have a system whereby you can report n00bs, much like CTRA.

Err.. Correct me if I'm wrong, but CTRA had nothing against noobs, on the contrary.. thats what race 1 was for. Denoobifying

Quote from JO53PHS :

We also have a system whereby you can report n00bs, much like CTRA.

i'd have one too, if someone finished my php form validator.

I have to agree with what TVE said - servers need to stop all running the same handful of combos. There's hundreds of them available, but there's always a load running AS3/GTR and BL1/FOX or FBM. And of course the KY1/BF1 full-speedathon.

If you're about to start a server, check the list and don't copy someone else's combo unless the server is full. Some tracks are really cool, particularly the reverse configs, so try them. You might not win, but that's not the point.