I want to thank Franke and all other Alias member for good racing and super sportsmanship, i have raced them a lot and there goes a lot of good friends over to another sim...whatever people defend the devs then this game has stalled completly .

Good luck over there in iracing land ...og vi ses senere

Quote from jasonmatthews :

I am not complaining at all regarding the development speed of LFS. My gripe is with the lack of information regarding it's progress, which I believe has had a negative affect on the community. I totally understand Scawen's reasoning, which he has stated quite clearly, but I urge him to reconsider his view. It seems to me that he has changed the way LFS works fundamentally, to please the wrong people....

I came into playing LFS quite late (4 years ago), but was lucky enough to witness it's evolution from the very beginning (2002), due to my brother and mates. What I saw was a sim developing with the community involved, and it seemed like a new way of doing things. That, in the last year, has been totally dumped in favour of a big game company approach, i.e. we will tell you about what we have done when it's done.

This has, in my opinion, had a tragic effect on the core followers of the LFS "project". The old skoolers who care so much about LFS and have avidly followed it's progress for the last 7 years, are now left with nothing but noobs, cruise servers and drifters posts, and moans about the Shicokko... I would bet a million dollars (if I had it) that most of the old community, who have been around for at least 3 years or so, couldn't give a flying f**k about the scirocco, but care deeply about what Scawen "wants" to do in the future.

This used to be the way LFS worked, but not anymore it seems....

The forum community, as it is now, needs to understand where the thousands of us, who have been around for a long time, are coming from. Show some respect to the Devs and also to the people (hosts, mods, programmers etc) who have made this sim what it is. If you do.... Maybe, just maybe, the Devs will give us back the LFS Project that we all have supported for so long, and stop listening to the pathetic whining little kids that have infected our sim

Excellent post Jason, I couldn't agree more with you, though I'm not here since so long(2 years or so)

IMO LFS also paid the price of the way it grew up(so, it paid of its success in fact), bringing every day some random folks that thinks they have a right on the game because they think they "paid" it, and that will spam the improvement suggestion section with unrealisable/pointless suggestions, then will ask to have the famous Scirrocco and afterwards will troll the forum because they're unhappy of the game in general, before leaving, to be remplaced by some other moaners.

The problem is that we're on something that is called internet, and on this thing some people feel invincible, and that "help" them to have impolite/deplaced behaviour, or even worse, to do some trolling.

Thanks for all the nice comments about the team that used to be, and me

Yes, Racer hero gave me away, its iRacing... The new team has the same name, with an added i, take your guess where i added it...

First off i would like to say that i will miss a lot of things from LFS, especially the social aspect of LFS, i have gained a good deal of friends, with whom i've spoken on Team Speak, and a few i've met IRL... What i will miss most will be IGTC, and this was the reason, the decision was so hard to make...

I Love Endurance Racing, but i do not want to be in 2 sims at a time, and in the end IGTC was not enough to keep me in LFS, as there is "only" 3 races left, and next one is almost a month away... This was not to say that its a bad thing, sorry if it came out that way... IGTC is the best series i have raced in... Well organized, exceptional racing, but not enough...

We have NEVER been invited to take part in MoE, therefore we have not driven MoE, would have liked to, but honestly, I was not good enough for MoE...

This thread came a bit off topic, when you started to talk about one of my reasonings for leaving, the development. On that i have a few comments.

First off, the Devs have done an amazing job of LFS so far, great respect for the work they have done, don't get me wrong there...

Secondly i have been dissapointed as well, some of the decisions of development has in my opinion, been completely off track. WHY did they use a lot of time to reinvent South City and Blackwood, they look great, and the changes were for the better, but why on earth did they spent time on 2 well working tracks, instead of making a new environment... Or two...

Thirdly, it was great to see new cars every once in a while, in my active LFS period, the FBM and BF1 have arrived, and then they annouced VWS, and i was really looking forward to that one, would rather have had new track, but a new car would have been fun...

Fourth, as a few of you said, we were quite active in different leagues, i even won a few, and we tried out hosting a league as well, a MRT league, and we had a league all planned out for when the VWS arrived. But my issue here is the choice of tracks, and this is where LFS is lacking, there are only so many tracks suited for different leagues, and when looking at making a league, i always ended up having the same tracks, over and over again, and they have been done to boredom, and then how many sign up for something that has been done over and over again... I know there are xxx combos, but they are not all suited for different cars, try Westhill in UF1, YAWN...

Fifth, i have been posponing trying out iRacing for 2 reasons, it is expensive, and i knew i would want it all, plus, i was faithfull to my sim LFS, that has given me so much fun over the past 2 years, but in the end i honestly was a bit bummed by the fact that VWS has been posponed for WAY too long now, it might be they are doing a revamp of the hole thing, or doing groundwork for great things, or even S3, but my patience got more and more stretched, as the 1 year day for the last patch was closing in, and that day is today, and still no patch...

So 1½ month ago i found an offer for iRacing i could not say no to... Sorry i will not tell what offer i got, NOT EVEN IN PM... So don't ask...

I downloaded, installed, and drove the WORST car i have ever tried in a sim, on a track i have never ever heard of, yet after 5 minutes i was completely blown away by the track, and the FFB it gave... After that it took me a week to open up LFS to have a go... Needless to say, i didn't spent much time on it... Couldn't find a track i wasn't even bored with, just looking at the track name... Ended up doing a bit of XFG @ AS Club...

After 1½ months at my new "home", i can safely say, LFS do NOT need more cars, it needs TRACKs, and badly at best... Over the past 4 weeks i have been driving just 1 single car, but tried out 5 different tracks... Go figure, i was looking forward to VWS, but that would have been fun for a week, whereas a new track environment or 2 would have kept me here...

And my reservations on trying out iRacing due to its price, were well grounded. My worst fears were met in full, i have bought ALL content, even though i am NOT looking to do ANY oval racing...

I bought LFS in Jan 2006 for £24 and paid nothing since, i bought an extra account though, newer used it, so i know it has cost me £24 BUT...

Yes it (iRacing) might be more expensive, but if NOTHING is what i get for NOTHING, i'd rather pay a lot for a lot...

To the devs, keep up the good work you have done, and keep the patches comming at a steady pace, like you used to, once every ½ year, but NEVER EVER leave everyone wondering, by teasing and then disappear for a year...

As for returning, i doubt it, would like to say i would, but honestly, 3 against 50+, i know where the new things come faster...

Since arriving in iRacing, 5 weeks now, 1 new track has arrived, 2 are almost done... They have promissed 4-5 new cars, 3 will arrive within 1-2 months i think... We have had a patch, not that i know what it did, but it was there, nonetheless, all this in 5 weeks...

Hope that development will pick up here, and you all get happy with LFS again, for those of you that are not, and i hope that you will be able to keep SOME of the old timers, there are still a lot of good drivers in LFS, and LFS is a good product... But its no longer enough for me...

One last thing, the thing i love most about iRacing, WE HAVE NO WRECKERS, ban them in LFS when you see them, racing is so much more fun without them... THAT is the one thing i will NOT miss... Safety Rating works...

Kindest regards and good luck
Franke... Click

Your post is good and I can understand everything although it's sad but this is nonsense:

Quote from Franke :

Yes it (iRacing) might be more expensive, but if NOTHING is what i get for NOTHING, i'd rather pay a lot for a lot...

You didn't get NOTHING but you got constant updates and additional features without having to pay anything extra for it.

Quote from Franke :

...but NEVER EVER leave everyone wondering, by teasing and then disappear for a year...

When have the devs ever disappeared for a year?

Scawen always took the time to explain the reasons behind a delay when the moaners got too loud once again. Just check Scawen's posting history. The posts are all there for you to read. No "disappearing for a year".

Quote from zeugnimod :

You didn't get NOTHING but you got constant updates and additional features without having to pay anything extra for it.

Was referring to the past year, sorry forgot to write that... Last patch was 1 year ago, July 2nd, 2008...

I don't really care that the patches were free, I would gladly have paied for them, as i do now in iRacing. I know i am going to be flamed for this, but nonetheless that is my oppinion. And THAT is why i went elsewhere, where i HAVE THE OPTION to pay for more...

Quote from zeugnimod :

When have the devs ever disappeared for a year?

Same as above, more or less. After devs have released patches around every ½ a year, then nothing for a year, IS disappearing TO ME... We might se it differently, but thats how i se it... And looking at the new features, comming in the new patch, I started looking elsewhere...

Insight to why i race sim:

I have ALWAYS wanted to go racing IRL, but i am not rich, and i do/did not have the talent for it, besides i am a big fellow, so it was never really an option for me to go IRL racing. BUT LFS satisfied a lot of my dream of going racing, as it is a VERY good sim, and as i said, it has given me hundreds of fun hours over the past 2 years... Think i have done over 115.000 KM online...

And comparing RL racing costs to my costs of Sim racing, there is NO comparison, not even considering the price of iRacing, will i ever get close to RL racing costs. So it is, for what i use it for, still a bargin... I could maybe get ½ an engine for the price of iRacing for a year, INCLUDING all content...

LFS is CHEAP. Value for money, is OFF THE CHARTS, 200 out of 10... Why anyone stays Demo racer for months, even years, is beyond my comprehesion. I bought LFS after having SEEN it. I never drove one KM as a demo user...

So for me, in the end, it was never the cost of the sim, that kept me in LFS, it was the Sim, the racing and the community... iRacing fullfills the first 2 requirements, but i will miss the community of LFS... THAT is why i made a new team where i went, to have contact to other racers here in Denmark...

Regards
Franke... Click

Quote from jasonmatthews :

I am not complaining at all regarding the development speed of LFS. My gripe is with the lack of information regarding it's progress, which I believe has had a negative affect on the community. I totally understand Scawen's reasoning, which he has stated quite clearly, but I urge him to reconsider his view. It seems to me that he has changed the way LFS works fundamentally, to please the wrong people....

I came into playing LFS quite late (4 years ago), but was lucky enough to witness it's evolution from the very beginning (2002), due to my brother and mates. What I saw was a sim developing with the community involved, and it seemed like a new way of doing things. That, in the last year, has been totally dumped in favour of a big game company approach, i.e. we will tell you about what we have done when it's done.

This has, in my opinion, had a tragic effect on the core followers of the LFS "project". The old skoolers who care so much about LFS and have avidly followed it's progress for the last 7 years, are now left with nothing but noobs, cruise servers and drifters posts, and moans about the Shicokko... I would bet a million dollars (if I had it) that most of the old community, who have been around for at least 3 years or so, couldn't give a flying f**k about the scirocco, but care deeply about what Scawen "wants" to do in the future.

This used to be the way LFS worked, but not anymore it seems....

The forum community, as it is now, needs to understand where the thousands of us, who have been around for a long time, are coming from. Show some respect to the Devs and also to the people (hosts, mods, programmers etc) who have made this sim what it is. If you do.... Maybe, just maybe, the Devs will give us back the LFS Project that we all have supported for so long, and stop listening to the pathetic whining little kids that have infected our sim

Very well written Jason

I just have a feeling, that some people "look" more on the environment than "living" in it.

I really don´t care how fast the tracks and cars wil come. I find challenges everytime i go to a track. If i am bored, it´s not because of the sim,. It´s because of myself. (Sometimes, I better do something else and not sit in front of that wheel all the time)

Of course I also have some wishes (for example making pitting and damaging more interesting and realistic), but the most important thing for me is the people I race with. So if i find those people in LFS, things are fine for me. If I don´t, I get disapointed and bored.

If somone want to go to another sim...well..do that off course! Don´t hold yourself back...I hope you take the annoying people with you

Anyway...good trip Franke,,seems you have converted