I'm very close to releasing Airio 2.3.6. I have one major thing to finish and maybe add one or two smaller ones. The major thing is global
LFS Experience Index I was working on these past days.
Some people complained that even though they're LFS veterans they must go through slower cars on certain multiclass servers (well, currently only one, in fact, but that does not matter). There was some ideas about using global points to prove your experience once and have it accepted when other ranking servers appear, but it has in fact too many cathes.
So in the end I chose a different solution, the obvious one - using the very extensive online statistics available from LFS World. Online and hotlap data are downloaded, compiled, evaluated and processed. In the end there is a single number which tries to express general LFS Experience and which can be used to bypass rank/licence requirements, if admins choose so.
I'll not go into details here, but if you're interested check out the
LFS Experience Index page. To get your own index for some comparisons go e.g. to
[AA] Formula BL1R empty demo server and wait a short while. Then try typing
!ex or refreshing the experience page, maybe also clicking on your username to get more details.
I realize this thing will be hated by some and adored by others. Its point is to make life easier for veteran drivers on ranking Airio-powered servers, and maybe also bring a bit more competition into LFS for those with competitive mind. The index also encourages variability, so using more types of cars on more tracks is substantially better than doing more and more laps in the same combo.
To make it a bit more controversial
the index value will be converted into textual description as well, with optional display on connect to server (running Airio FULL) or on update. I have already created some descriptions, but soon I'll be opening this for discussion, to see what category and/or class names would be acceptable for LFS community in general. Certainly, that will not be easy...