I too, see little difference in my times with a variety of sets. So I just go for what's comfortable. Something I can drive for an hour on end without making too many mistakes. I also try for a set that recovers easily from the mistakes I am most prone to make at a given track. Lastly, I do work with the tires a bit. You know, pit strategy, get to the the checkered.

(Bearing in mind that my performance is well down the list.)



<<Originally Posted by Kaw - They say he [Pallu] married Pamela Anderson, but divorced her because she couldnt get under 1.41.00 @ AS3 - XRR>>

Fer cyrin' out loud. I'm slower than Pamela Anderson.

Another key thing, is once you've found a set that seems to work for you, stick with it, and really start to get to know it. This will let you a) extract the most from it and b) find out it's flaws so you can make the small changes needed to remove them. If you are using different sets for a car between tracks, try and keep them as similar as possible, that way you minimise the time spent adapting to the new set each time you race on a different track.

Quote from Byku :

Btw. Bob how's the update?

Very little of my time is going into it atm, but I have spent some time re-working/fine tuning some of the new modelling. I'll probably go on a push to finish the next update when the Scirocco goes public, if not before.

...and one tipp, always make a new setup before you start experimenting. It often happened that I kaputt-optimized setups and couldn't revert my changes

Quote from ACCAkut :

...and one tipp, always make a new setup before you start experimenting. It often happened that I kaputt-optimized setups and couldn't revert my changes

And you have a good naming system! I often make tonnes of variations then don't do that combo again to return at a later date scratching my head about which one was good and which one was not

You seem to ask two different questions I think. First, the importance, well, it makes LFS more dynamic, gives the users the ability to challenge one another in racing abilities, both on and off the track. I think the sim would be nearly as competitive without the use of setups, but not quite the same. If you've ever raced for real, or followed any racing very closely, you'll learn a car's setup can be everything on race day.

Secondly, IMO they're very important, although I believe too much is available to be adjusted, many modds would be required IRL, however it's almost like a skill set of a player in a RPG.
Manipulate and tweak everything to not only make the car faster, but make the car behave more the way you like.

very important. a good setup can win the race or loose it.

for example: i learned AS3 with a default setup. i worked on my own setup and eventually i got a setup from setupgrid and was a couple seconds quicker than the default and about .5-1 second quicker than anything i could come up with. i had a PB of about 1:02.70 at the time, consistently hitting 1:03's.

my team mate tells me to try his setup, and after just a couple laps i hit a new PB of 1:01.79, nearly 1 second quicker than than my previous PB, and is about 1 second off the HotLap WR. after tweaking this setup a bit, i consistently run high 1:01's and get low 1:01 splits. my generous team mate is probably jealous because i'm now faster than him on most AS tracks using modified versions of his setup.

Quote from erfrag :

very important. a good setup can win the race or loose it.

Damn right. I was hit with that truth last night, For myself it was a problem with the brakes and overheating the front tyres on braking.
With the race venue being random there was limited time to test the car, and that oversight with the braking bias cost me the race. But that made it quite fun indeed may i add.

One thing i will say that I strongly believe to be paramount to set building and tuning a cars handling. Is first to drive just one set without chaging it, till you can feel everything! Obviously its wise to use one you feel comfotable with already. Once you have become totally familar with that feel the car & set provides, I think it is only at that point where you can really progress in how the chosen vehicle responds to your adjustments. Obviously though some people pick that up fast some don't, and even now with all the miles I've clocked in this simulator I am still trying to perfect a GTT/XRT set for FE4

To me setups make a huge difference. By now I know many cars and most tracks. And I know that once I'm comfortable with a car I can usually battle for the lead.

So when I come to a combo and I'm 2 secs down I ask for a set. Run a few laps with it, see how it reacts to how I drive. From there it's usually a few tweaks to make it do as I tell it to on track.

That always gets me competitive within 15 laps or so.

From there to getting within .5 secs of the WR for me is looooots of laps and looots of fine tuning. That's cos I'm no alien I guess

What helps me then is to spec the really fast guys. And then find a way to get the same corner speeds, braking points etc etc. That combined with knowing your style (for example I know that I usually drive smoother, I'm not an ultra late braker, I carry speed rather than on/off) helps you getting towards a set and a style round the track you can get very fast with.

But for that I need a fast set I'm 100% confident with - persoanlly I'm pretty set dependent. I won't go fast in a set I don't like. I know that some people go fast with whatever you throw at them...

aceracer