Wow...
...wow.
This is definately a big step up for the progress of LFS.
You definately seemed to fix one "flaw," if I could call it that, with the tire work. FF is very much improved. It feels so much more accurate, instant(up to speed), and you can feel everything. Precision feels better, more dead on. The speed was one thing that always used to feel off, alway seemed to be behind what was happening. Now it feels completely in sync with the frames you're looking at on the screen. The wheel pulls as the car bobs and shifts around, oh so nice. You can now feel bumps, dips, even air time. You can feel the weight of the car and how it pulls you around from the g-forces. You can actually point out specific flaws in suspension tuning easier. You can actually feel car movement, tire traction or lack there of, absolutely amazing.
Car speeds seem to be pretty similar, but yes, a feel of more grip. However, I think it's deceiving to some extent as the overall feel is now different, more viceral, dead on, and "as it should," thus seeming easier. I didn't really notice lap times varying much, grip, drift, whatever. I'd have to play around a little bit to really notice a difference.
I guess if I could gripe about something, I'd say the slip angle of the tires(say Supers) are pretty gentle till you get them overheated. Now with some real life tires, this may be dead on. Some real life tires are very fogiving and smooth in and out of slip and overall very easy to use. Others...well they can be a pain. Slip and grip can be a pretty sharp line as well as the difference between making and breaking traction. Some are just figity like that. When the tires in LFS get hot, they get a bit closer to this kind of feel. Maybe we just get some really forgiving tires.
The gripping, biting type of feel(the state where the tire switches back and forth from grip and slip) could be more abrupt. I'd like to feel some sort of edge to this static/kinetic friction transition, something I don't really feel with the Supers I'm running. Again, this is quite tire dependent as we know all real life tires very greatly in feel and behavior. We're just given one particular brand/model of a wide virtual selection.
(something I've alway wanted to see in LFS)
Maybe we could see a variety in models, not only tread pattern and orientation towards certain surfaces but also include the aspects of tire construction, things like number of plys, construction materials, various design aspects to create a certain goal for the tire. This would translate directly to the feel of the particular tire: stiff or soft, crisp or sloppy handling, ability to absorb or even transimt bumps, tendency to roll over or wear excessively along the shoulder or maybe a design to promote the lack there of through tread area stiffening. You may have 5 tire brands offering a R compound tire, each with their own construction design and design goals towards a certain end result. The feel and behavior would be different for each brand, and we the driver would have to design which brands/models fit us best for which particular situations and personal driving style. It would be neat to have this level of choice and feel, especially when tires play such a large roll in the feel and behavior of a car. Of course, this would be asking a lot for a game at this point in developement. ...maybe S3 or beyond, especially if we introduce other surface types like rain, mud, snow, ice, different levels of surfaces like smooth tarmac to rough tarmac to sandy tarmac, etc...
This isn't really a gripe but rather a direction of advancement I'd love to see, to actually get to that level of detail and choice would be beyond words.
Have not stopped playing it I LOVE it