I'll bet you that Moose has NkPro tattoed on his arse .
Although this thread has ventured of topic and back again, it is good to listen to the old timers opinions. Keep it up ya miserable old sods.
At the end of the day the fact that we can race each other online is absolutely fantastic, lets not forget that. 15 years ago that would have been an impossible dream.
As I said before, I bought S2 some weeks ago and this is something I have to say that really disappointed me. I understand there is a server with the focus on some type of car (GTR, TBO, SS) or some type of racing (Drift, rallycross). What bugs me is the same server with the same track over and over again.
I get bored playing in the same track all night, so what to say if I see all week or a whole month with the same car/track combo.
There are something like 40 different tracks in LFS, counting reverse. I really think it doesn't have to be so monotunous...
I haven't read all the posts but here's my view.... do I still play LFS regularly? No, not really. But how many other games that I started playing 2002 do I still play? Errr, none. The way I've always found things to be is that I buy a game for what it is, then play it until I'm bored with it, then move on to something else. So why does LFS still owe us anything after all these years of entertainment?? Most games you buy in stores do not have development cycles... you buy them and play them until you get bored. Sure another one might come out later but it'll cost you another $60 or whatever...
It seems that just because the devs are continuing to work on LFS, that they owe us something. When in reality we pay for a game and play it for as long as it's entertaining to us. If we get updates that bring us back, then great, if not then leave it and do something else. Maybe you'll pick it up again in another year or two and get back into it for a while, who knows.
I haven't played LFS in years, and based on this list the online play has really changed. Perhaps my memory is faulty, but when I played online, the server would change the track after every race, or perhaps every other race (only repeating the same track once). You'd have the equivalent of multi-class racing with some difficult to drive (before S2 version V) LX6's in the mix that were faster if you could manage to keep them pointed forwards, but mostly these followed the true sense of mutli-class racing where different class cars were running on the same track at the same time, so it was like a group of races within a race.
I think there's a burn out factor for the older guys, some who have been playing games for over 10 years. I spend more of my computer time on forums than gaming, and I spend more of my free time with other activities than on the computer. The fact that LFS is stuck in the past with it's slow development pace isn't helping either, but that's another topic.
I wonder about the future of computer games. My gut tells me that the heydays of racing games and perphaps PC based games in general was 2003 -> 2007, and it's diminishing now. I'm wondering if iRacing will survive more than a few years, if rFactor 2 will reach even 1/2 the sales of rRafctor, if the NFS series end with the planned 2010 releases, if there ever be an LFS S3 (what was it supppose to have that S2 didn't?), if there will be any more TombRaider games, ... A lot of game production simple stopped or slowed to a crawl in the last 2 or 3 years. Already I've seen the demise of the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic series (there will never be a III). Half-Life 2 Episode 3 will be nothing like the previous 2 games.
Maybe not, but without trying they'll never find out - which I'm sure you're aware was my real point... I mean there have been servers like desired by them in the past, set up just on forum initiative... Granted they all were short-lived, but I bet you that - if any effort would go into it - there would be such a server found or set up by someone on here in no time... Of course, playing the grumpy old man telling the world how bad it has gotten is much more convenient than taking action to make it better...
This is just silly. Computer games are not dying and never will. Sometimes series die out and are replaced by newer ones, just like TV shows do. You may feel the same way about TV, that it's all crap today (I know I do), but it is what it is, and that doesn't mean that there's less of it or less viewers.
There will always be racing games, maybe during 2015-2020 there will be a bunch of really good ones, or a bunch of really trashy lowest-common-denominator types, but I can guarantee you that there WILL be racing games then, and plenty of people will play them.
Racing games seem to hold their own as far as computer games.
Computer games dying, no way, the numbers just dont show that
30 million xbox, 25 million ps3, 51 million Wii and who nows how many pc's sold proves that.
Some of the developers spend millions on developement every year. The LFS team have done well but now the development is slowing because
1) they have been doing it for a long time,
2) what they need to program to make big steps forward is much harder
3) they have more players to satisfy.
One thing is for sure, if you goto one of the servers where you can select a track and all cars and race a rare combo, other racers will join.
I meant PC based racing games. Other than some NFS games (note the NFS series recently broke the 100 million total sold count), no racing game has made into the top 10 list of top selling games, and I don't think any sim-oriented PC based racing game ever made it to the top 50.
Using the NFS series as a benchmark, Underground 2 and Most Wanted sold 9 million copies, each, while Carbon and ProStreet about 5 million copies. I don't know numbers for Undercover, but assume it was less than 5 million. NFS Shift had sold 2.5 million copies by the end of September (From EA quaterly report), so it may end up reversing the trend. The online play in NFS series peaked with Underground 2, with a few hundred players online at peak times. Now there are probably less than 50 players online at peak times with NFS Shift, some of this is due to console sales splitting up the players though. LFS has somehow managed to retain a relatively high number of online players though.
I know the console games were and are very popular in the USA (where I live), are they also starting to catch on in other parts ofthe world?
I know, pik_d! But you must admit it is way too short in options to run. For example, I have clear difficulties in driving a SS car and need more training in order to not ruin some guys race in FOX Junkies.
Ironhorse has an interesting point scheme and is one of my most used servers online, apart with AMG.
There's no need to pine for the "Old Days" as not a lot has changed , if you look at it from someone that picks this sim up every few there very little difference.
Drifting and Cruising would seem to be the biggest impact , running around Blackwood today isn't much different than back in 2004 .
Theres still the fun of bouncing into the stratosphere if you hit someone or a barrier, boggles the mind that it hasn't been fixed in five years and counting..
I will probably be crucified for what i have said but as some one else said the alpha tag and have you tried all the combo's sentiment is pretty thin these days..
I'm not tired of lack of content, or no new patches... I would log-on every night is there were a populated server that wasn't either cruise, DD or FOX/GTR's at BL.
sure there are combos i havent tried yet, but honestly, there is no point to driving the mrt around the oval.
then there are the boring cars.
FXO comes to mind. its just heavy, low powered, and eats tires... thats about it. boring.
LFS needs to grow somehow.
the VW will help, and the new track will help more, but what it needs is more diversity and (as said earlier) the kind of "newness" that can only come from constant updates.
weather the updates are from the official devs, or from a modding community, it doesnt matter.
we need some changes
Well, in my small opinion, and if I had a choice of things that really I cannot understand about the LFS development, it would be this -
1. Curb/mesh bugs - This is singly the most annoying bug in LFS IMO. To do a 6 hour race then get your car killed by a random curb is more than annoying, it is kinda criminal after all this time, and also it happens on the best tracks in LFS (KY2 etc)
2. Interiors - Come on, does it really take 5+ years to update 3 or 4 cars? Especially when you have a community of such talent.. This one I cannot comprehend..
3. Barrier's/collision physics - This hasn't changed from S1, and bloody hell it is annoying, especially when it costs a race...
Conclusion
All the things that annoy me about about LFS are simple physics bugs that have been around for a LONG LONG time. These things stop us enjoying LFS NOW and for as long as they are not fixed. Getting updates is a bonus IMO, but fixing these bugs is more important than any tyre physics update, any language pack or support for 3+ screens..
I was thinking about that today. It's simple things that have been ruining races in the most annoying ways for years.
Case in point: the armco on the bridge at Fern Bay. Touch that even slightly and you get launched into the air with your suspension completely destroyed. To me that's worse than a crah with someone else, because it's completely down to the physics bugs and it's a punishment that doesn't fit the crime. And surely it can't be that hard to fix, since most of the rest of the armco is fine.
As for me the game is just boring visually and there is not enough tracks.
If you look at it almost every track is green its just grass and trees and nothing more Kyoto, westhil and aston looks just like different layout of blackwood.
I know LFS is online racing simulator but I am more into offline racing my fav times with gran turismo were taking some slow car like citroen 2cv/golf GT/daiahtsu etc etc on the nurburgring and drive it for pure pleasure of dirving.
Now in lfs the track looks so boring that after driving blackwood with lx6 or raceabout and turning to aston I dont see any difference.
The same boring look just killing the fun after 20 of laps even if you switch to kyoto it still look like layout of aston in some way.
Even abandoned vilages in stalker have more live in them than tracks in LFS
And I am not talking bout graphics cuz with new textures its look pretty nice and with lynx reflection my FZ5 looksl beautiful with custom 2048^ skin but I am talking bout placing more objects or making tracks surrounding looks more interesting.
The making of new custom object its usually a couple of hours mesh and texture.
I would do it my self but it would be moding which is a forbidden, bannable etc etc .
I personally prefer to drive poorly made port of Silverstone or laguna seca than aston for 100th time.
As for now in LFS physics is the only thing worth mentioning but without anything else its just getting boring.
Hmm, being a big fan of South City, I tend to get plenty of scenery, and being so close to the barriers, lots of action too...
Reading through this thread makes me sad, for two reasons.
The first reason is that I am in Ireland, Dublin to be precise, but my gaming rig, 21" CRT and DFP Wheel are all still in England. If I want to take it up again I'm gonna have to re-learn to drive with the mouse...
The second more comes from being an "old timer" as you may put it and having given the game a bit of break (I've not really done serious online races since CTRA stopped... but I never said that ) and really want to get back into some serious racing... Pick-up or otherwise.
South City and Fern bay, the rest of tracks reminds me one of my trip in train i was riding train for 3 straight days and scenery behind the windows was always the same: Field,Small Village,Wood,Field,Small Village,Wood,Field,Small Village,Wood,Border
When it comes to steering I connected my PS2 controller and it does pretty good job when it comes to applying throttle or braking.
You can try still cheaper than wheel.
.
this is where the attention SHOULD be 