I stopped playing lfs a while ago, then started playing ago (after CTRA was no more), then quit because I couldnt find any servers similar.
Does anyone know if there are any servers similar to what CTRA used to be?
There are several server groups with points and an automatic track rotation (IHR, LR and the Level system are the most prominent, I guess) but none as "big" as CTRA was.
I actually have a copy of the CTRA database as i was given it by SamH way back when. I was planning on releasing a similar system and give the ability for people to 'continue their CTRA career'.
I figured it would no longer work due to the large amount of race servers that are running ario or whatever that mod is called.
You all think its something that I should work on? Could probably get a BETA version up within a couple of weeks.
I wouldn't bother if I were you. It will probably cost you a lot of time and effort to get it working and I reckon it will never be anywhere near as successful as the original CTRA was
Airio isn't a mod, it's a tracker. And actually a very good one .
If you are alone, don't start it because it will fail.
But if you can get help from others, then just do it
I don't think there is a future for a closed system. I think if there is to be a new system then it needs to connect to all servers. The concept of the CTRA was a good one, but there is huge room for improvement in the implementation. If I did it again I'd do away with server tiers and restricting content based upon licence and focus on additional content.
Such as an instant messaging system that connects to a client outside of LFS so teams can have their own messenger channel, with suitable functionality for post race message delivery and so on. Then integrate that into team forum software (not too hard to do a cron job plugin for the major forum software packages to notify of new posts in team sections etc).
With a global mass server communication network you could then begin work on adding content, such a weekly competitions, by piping result data to a central website. All without yet even firing up your own server. From there you could establish a system of a 'pro' tintop and single seater server, taking all the top drivers from the previous weeks racing and channelling them into a weekly nominated server, which will help to make use of some of the lesser used combo's in LFS and distributes the job of stewarding to different server owners each week.
This model improves on the CTRA model by focusing on adding content rather than taking it away. I've wanted to write it for a couple of years now but I'm just too tied up with professional work and personal life to entertain LFS development at the moment, as developing for LFS, no matter how noble, just leads to polarisation of peoples attitudes toward you.
Anyway, that was my thinking on the subject of where to take LFS.
Im not 100% sure about this, i think "The Closed system" is just what you need. the reason why CTRA was a that big success was because of the reports and the closed doors, Every time the same admins, at least the same Rule book and professional admins.
(let me qoute your next part)
The problem that i see coming with this is reports. there are some server owners that want to use other rules then others. so when you get a penalty on one server you will have it on your record(account profile).
i think that a system like this is going to be very / too similar to Airio.
Lets say there will be some central reports, how will this be handled , how many people do you need for this. how can this be running.
(No qoute's now)(also @ Krammeh)
Like zeugnimod said, CTRA stopt because of the lack of admins. so if you want to make a new System, it need to be better at this. it needs to be able to get a hell lot of people / admins
some of the ways is to make it with money, for every report the admin will get money. thats on off the ways how you can keep the admins active.
( to get the money for this is going to be very hard )
EDIT:
Im not saying the the old CTRA just needs to turn on again, because that concept wont work anymore, there is indeed room for huge improvements, but you dont need forget the Key points of CTRA, with out the key points a new project wont work out
this is exactly why this will not work, the strong point about CTRA is that you will always end up with the same report, no Mather what admin handles the report. if the driver did not agree with the report he could appeal and a different admin will handle the report to get a fresh view on the report.
maybe it wolud be possible to use the CTRA leftovers for something easier to admin than the original at bigger scale
the software could run just like it did for the old CTRA, but the difference would be that any serwer admin could join the program,
so you set up a server within one of the defined classes, connect it to the database with provided access (by the whole system admin) and there you go
so any server connected would use rankings and all the rules but administrating would be spread out, every admin would take care off his own serever but bans and restrictions for players would be off course global, that way there could be qiute a big number of servers in the system, and every one of them would have an admin, so any admin would take care of incidents on his server
even if some servers were poorly administrated than they would benefit from the global ranks and bans, so would be kept alive by other servers admin
and the system administrator would only have to take care of the system itself
of course I have no idea if the current state of what is left of CTRA allows to connect any server to it, and the general idea is something like Becky stated above, but I'm thinking of something much simplier, something that could be run just like it was on CTRA, no extra features, only the one allowing any admin server to join the system and run his part of administration...
EDIT
well after posting I can see above that I am not the only one with the same kind of idea
I think I should have been more specific in my post: Are there any CTRA-like servers that have only single seaters? I checked out fox junkies but the racing is wayyy too dirty there.
I'd like to see the CTRA-like servers up aswell(with the database Krammeh has got obviously...),as I joined LFS in September 2008,which meant no CTRA for me.
Based on the actions by new users (as seen in IHR for example), the only ones who will enjoy a rebirth of CTRA will be those who used to race it, and let's face it, most of those guys have moved on or taken a break.
Too many people new to LFS generally have a shitty attitude and don't give a rats ass about having a good "simulation race", they just wanna play a game and crash and swear at others and generally be a pain in the ass.
Honestly, LFS is the same, the cars are the same, the tracks are the same, the servers are all generally the same.
All people really want is a collective place to view whether they have more points/wins/records/laptimes/licenses than someone else.
Personally, I'm gonna give LFS a break because the lack of daily competitive racing. Since my weekends aren't always free, I can't really commit myself to a league, so it means if I'm in a league, I have 'good' races every 2 weeks. By good I don't mean competitive, but organised and stuff. But the last year proved it's just as boring as hotlapping.
The current popular public servers are nowhere near to the old CTRA. I know it's hard to lure fast people to public racing, cause most of them is kinda sceptic about the standards of these servers, but it's a must do. And let's face it, if you have chance (and by chance I mean like 20% chance) to have a great exciting and fun race only every 2 weeks, it gets damn boring after a while. It's just no fun at all.
I think a CTRA-like system could work for a while with better admining, since it wasn't that bad after all.
I put my steering wheel under the bed after CTRA was closed but now looking for a new challange. Leagues are not for me. CTRA kind of type is something that might bring me back into LFS.
