Well I wouldn't take part in anything which could damage LFS, but I wish ppls would realize that our servers are not a part of what they bought with LFS, our servers are an expensive and time consuming service we provide for free and I don't see why we have to take all that bull….???

Well said! But I'd love to take a 6 months break. Of course none of us wants in any way to damage LFS, the community. The various restrictions actually try to make racing more interesting and also safer from the crashes perspective.

Quote from Framaris :

I wish ppls would realize that our servers are not a part of what they bought with LFS, our servers are an expensive and time consuming service we provide for free and I don't see why we have to take all that bull….???

I wish server owners wouldn't whine so much and take everything so personally. Anyway, your servers are only a valuable service to the people who want to use them. I would imagine those people aren't complaining.

every once a while a thread like that comes up again, like the one from fordy somebody pointed at, but it just wont help. the problem arent the insim systems, it really just is that most ppl we used to race with for hours back in the old days (yes, thats supposed to sound like that) have moved on, dont have as much time to race anymore and just never take a look at lfs the same time.

i myself had quite a long break from lfs and been racing now over the holidays mostly on IHR too. yes, its annoying having to drive xrg all day long and not getting anywhere whereas i just want to have a good tbo race, but it actually has been fun too.

there just is no solution to the "problem", time moves on as we all do too, either you can cope having to drive something you dont prefer to drive on a full server or you need to drive more or less alone. the servers just wont fill up with the old racers anymore, the only chance would maybe be to write eeeverybody from back then and get them online together.

all in all lfs is just as nice as it was imo, YOU just need to take a different point of view on it.

edit:
oh and 3j, the times you took a quick look on IHR when ive been there you should just have joined the race, im sure you would have enjoyed it too after the first "oh no, a server with that crappy system" which i everytime think too the first time.

Maybe you get me wrong here.

I have nothing against any Ranked server. The things that annoy me are that they all use a different system / database for your progress and only base the rank / score on server specific stats rather than taking the drivers overall stats into account also. So you end up doing the same thing over and over again on a different ranking server.

Quote from dodo.ger :

i myself had quite a long break from lfs and been racing now over the holidays mostly on IHR too. yes, its annoying having to drive xrg all day long and not getting anywhere whereas i just want to have a good tbo race, but it actually has been fun too.

hey dodo, still in dSRC? I noticed GenerAL is in inferno and saw once Eza but dont remember if was that Eza from dSRC.

Just advertizing my thread http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=64726

ah ok 3j, i thought was just another rant beside this very good point, would definitly be nice to have some central database for them. i hope eq_worry gets that done, would make things much easier.

@ andrand: yep, still dsrc, we are still out there somewhere, lol. al went to inferno cause we arent racing much anymore, eza still is dsrc too, if you saw the one with our tag he surely was it, otherwise, no idea...

/me waves back and thinks of good old demo server xrt times

Quote from dodo.ger :

ah ok 3j, i thought was just another rant beside this very good point, would definitly be nice to have some central database for them. i hope eq_worry gets that done, would make things much easier.

Actually to get servers sharing points etch, it could be as simple as a couple admin groups getting together with one full Airio and connecting that one instance to all 10, 15, 20, 50 whatever servers. Each server gets its own config, but it's all in the same Airio instance.

Would be a pain to admin at first, but once it got set up, generally would be reliable.

Now that's a very optimistic view. Maximum number of drivers I saw managed at once by one Airio instance was about 70, two full servers. Managing some 200 or even more cars at once would be in my view possible, but there'll be many obstacles. For one, connecting Airio to remote servers (run on some other PC or box) is not as reliable as a local run. Also there are many config items common to all connected servers, e.g. all track/car data (such as restrictions). Creating those to make everyone happy would be quite impossible, I think.

But, as I already mentioned, sharing points between servers is a valid and very reasonable requirement. It requires some update and a bit more communication (but really just a small bit). And also new options for admins to allow using "global" points or whatever other data may be available. I consider this my priority now, but please do not expect to have it by next week. However I'd like to offer this option in Airio 2.3.6 to be released in a month or two, hopefully not later. Testing of feasibility first, then creating the necessary DB framework and later tidying up the admin/user side of the whole matter. Not easy.

Quote from EQ Worry :

But, as I already mentioned, sharing points between servers is a valid and very reasonable requirement. It requires some update and a bit more communication (but really just a small bit). And also new options for admins to allow using "global" points or whatever other data may be available.

Some kind of one uninfied ranking? Well, I hope they wouldnt I will need couple full days of racing to get access to my cars when majority of the servers would require one unified ranking

Quote :

I consider this my priority now, but please do not expect to have it by next week. However I'd like to offer this option in Airio 2.3.6 to be released in a month or two, hopefully not later. Testing of feasibility first, then creating the necessary DB framework and later tidying up the admin/user side of the whole matter. Not easy.

EQ, what do you think about my idea - the ranking system is implicitly implemented there, and it groups people of similar racecraft?

Quote from AndRand :

Some kind of one uninfied ranking? Well, I hope they wouldnt I will need couple full days of racing to get access to my cars when majority of the servers would require one unified ranking

No, the idea is just to share some kind of points among all servers using Airio (only the FULL version though, probably). Then if admins of some new server want to use ranking points to allow access to certain types of cars, they may have the option to use "global" points, stored in one central DB.

Note however that many servers simply do not use points for limiting car accessibility, of the currently popular ones it is only the IHR server which supports multiclass racing and uses ranks. However there's also the Level System with high potential and others may appear, so "global" points may allow for smooth transition, if the new admins allow this.

Quote from AndRand :

EQ, what do you think about my idea ...

Ehm... It doesn't point anywhere?

EDIT: Ah, I guess p should be used instead of t in the link, will read now...

Quote from EQ Worry :

No, the idea is just to share some kind of points among all servers using Airio (only the FULL version though, probably). Then if admins of some new server want to use ranking points to allow access to certain types of cars, they may have the option to use "global" points, stored in one central DB.

I think Airio became the most popular insim server management.

Well, yes, it is used quite a lot now. And as always some drivers love it and some hate it, though everyone has extensive personalization options allowing to turn off basically every piece of additional info for himself.

What makes me a bit sad sometimes are notes like "oh, this crappy system here again". I would hope people will realize that admins of the server chose to install it and they have complete control over the system setup.

"Crappy" system, in my view, is one that is not performing as it should, as it is configured to behave. And I believe after one year of extensive public use Airio is doing exactly what it is supposed to, what the individual admins want and need.

I like it, especially when it has auto-restart option on

Quote from EQ Worry :

What makes me a bit sad sometimes are notes like "oh, this crappy system here again".

I say only "oh no, ranking system here again" - cople of hours to use cars I am used to

All the servers running different systems and having to get stuck in the XFG every time a new server with it running comes up isn't nearly as annoying as getting halfway through a short 5 lap race and realizing you have to leave the good close racing you are having to do a mandatory pit.

Quote from mrodgers :

All the servers running different systems and having to get stuck in the XFG every time a new server with it running comes up isn't nearly as annoying as getting halfway through a short 5 lap race and realizing you have to leave the good close racing you are having to do a mandatory pit.

Mike, have you tried going to the toilet between races?

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Mike, have you tried going to the toilet between races?

But seriously, what is the point of mandatory pit stops?
He's right - they really do screw up any close racing that's going on, and who gets a kick out of leaving the pits in front of the guy that was ahead of them on the way in?
And when you pit on different laps (more often than not in my experience), all you're racing against is the clock for a while

We just started a new server for the UF1. no rankings no license, no restrictions.. just pure close racing on our server.

Quote from bavorak :

brandons: I totally agree with you....i am also sick of collecting point nfslike to "unlock" new cars...
There must be some other interesting way of server rules...or no rules just servers like redline where i raced few times and there were quite decent people racing there and i had fun and was turning lfs off with smile on my face but i am not sure if these servers are still at least half full

+1

Well I've been playing LFS for a couple of years now, mostly offline. But today is the very first time I join this forum, so bear with my amateur rant a bit please.

I too am a bit disappointed with online LFS. The very first day I tried to play LFS Online I tried about 11 different servers, only to find I did not match a certain rank, or even banned because I joined with the wrong car, not giving me a chance to change it.

I understand that this is a way to prevent some "professional" servers to be overcrowded with amateur, but come on, some of us (like me) simply want to play for fun.

The other day, I had about 45 minutes free at work.
I thought to myself "well, I'll make the most of it and play lfs online a little!"
Ended up spending 30 minutes trying to find a server where I could *simply* play!

The other 15 minutes, I spent playing offline with AI. But then again I never played much of anything online, so I might be complaining about the everyday's bread.

Regards

Quote from Rychas :

The very first day I tried to play LFS Online I tried about 11 different servers, only to find I did not match a certain rank, or even banned because I joined with the wrong car, not giving me a chance to change it.

I can hardly believe that. There are very few ranking servers around and ALL I've seen always display necessary info on connect and on every incorrect car selection. Also, they always give at least 3 chances to comply with requirements, before a kick (basically for spamming the server with join/spec messages), never a ban. Well, here I'm talking at least about Airio servers.

Of course you may have also hit time-locked servers, requiring certain lap time to join. If used, this is to protect all the other drivers from people with zero experience. Such locks are usually applied only in primetime and only when the server is almost full. Also, the required time is (at least on AirAttack servers) set very generously and achievable after a short practising. You may get the required lap time on any existing server (and finding one really isn't problem) and then come right back.

Hope this helps. Please realize that entering the most used servers and being competitive there certainly takes time. But it is basically not possible on multiclass servers to allow anyone using any car and have good races at the same time.