Very true! So everyone who added here at least 1 post should connect to server X (give one free) at time Y (some good +-CET time) and we could have a good race. For example MiniGTRs @ KY2 :-)
Hm? :checkered
LFS is each part of we. "Lfsforum" everydays is in movement, every minutes. There are new registered users every months. New licensed racers. Every days people is working and enjoying of his passion working on things for LFS.
There are always new registered users on the forums and people are still buying S2 out there. You can't say LFS is dying because there are more people discovering it every day.
Yup, he did show IHR. Cargame.nl created a playground for unclean and immature racers with dubious and unsportsmanlike attitudes. I hope it continues to gather that kind of crowd so IHR can stay as it is, top quality racing... And CLEAN. Amen to that
I thought I would post my experience with LFS since I have not had it that long. This might be a good insight for everyone.
I bought S2 about 12 months ago. I had a G25 and was looking for games that had realistic clutch implementation. After much searching and forum reading I got pointed towards Live For Speed and downloaded the demo. After only a few laps around Blackwood I was amazed at how realistic it felt compared to games like GTR2.
I bought it more or lease straight away and have found it one of the most rewarding and entertaining SIMs I have ever played. I have a pretty good setup with a room dedicated to it, 27" LCD and a pair of 8" Studio Monitors for sound.
I have made a habit of getting friends and family to take the 'Blackwood Challenge' - 10 laps around Blackwood in the FBM and we record their best time on the wall. Much like the Top Gear Hotlap. This has been a hilarious and addictive experience for all involved. Some of my mates' wives and girlfriends are surprisingly fast!
As for my own online racing experience, admittedly there are not as many active drivers as I would like. Perhaps it is just because I am in the Australian Time Zone but I find it almost impossible to find an open wheel server apart from FBM/Blackwood GP. As a big Formula 1 fan I am amazed that there are no F1 servers, full to the brim. Maybe its because the cars are just too hard to drive. Fox Junkies seemed popular when I joined but I rarely see any cars in there now.
I believe the league racing experience is different but I am yet to sign up with any. They seem like quite closed communities so it is a little intimidating to just walk in.
That said though I am still really impressed with the game and have fun racing online fairly regularly. I see people complaining about the lack of new content but I really don't see what that has to do with anything. The game is about realistic racing with real people so it doesn't matter what cars you drive or what tracks you drive on. How does a new track or car affect your ability yo have a good, close race with someone of equal ability? Do you think F1 drivers complain about the lack of new tracks?
There is a very broad range of cars as well. They already have most types covered eg, fwd 4s, awd 4s, rwd 6s, rwd 8s, open wheelers etc. What is the sirocco supposed to add apart from eye candy?
If LFS has a weakness I would say it is a lack of marketing effort. This is an incredible simulator, with a realistic F1 car no less, and I only found out about it after a long time searching and reading on forums. For me as a professional marketer and sales person I think Scawen could do a lot more in this regard.
I believe there is a video of Nick Heifeld training with it on YouTube isn't there? Why isn't that plastered all over the site? And the tyre and suspension physics are said to be the best there is. Why aren't they promoting the strengths of this great product rather than letting people find out for themselves...
Anyway those are just my thoughts. The game certainly isn't dead because people like me are still buying it. 3 or 4 of my mates are going to buy it now after going through the hotlap experience. I think the developers just need someone dedicated to promoting the game.
Lol, avg age of lfs user = 5 yrs old. I'll take quality of user vs quantity, maybe lfs has 10x more users, but they all need permission to play from mom and dad, not so with the other service .
I'd rather race against semi pros or pros, then pro's at wetting their beds like the lfs kids that dominate the service.
One thing that is for sure, we are all due for a big patch. Just keep your hopes up, don't delete lfs, keep it on the side, because Im sure that LFS will become the ultimate racing simulator.
Don't worry about it. Sign up and get stuck in. Yes there are those that act like they own place but just ignore them and enjoy the race. The admins are generaly nice people, they are doing all the organising for nothing afterall, and will be glad to see new racers.
I agree. It's like long quiet before big storm coming.
It could, S2 have Z patch and there is no character left in alphabet so i think that they are working directly on S3
But it could be done faster if they let other players on this forum to help with development... there are hundreds of guys which can do awesome things with 3D or C++ and other else
As said, repeated in this thread, there are plently of racers online. Everyday. LFS is far from dead. However if you guys keep on posting "Is LFS dead?" or "why LFS is seriously ill..." threads it would not be long before it "dies". New users might be put of by all these thread and not buy a licence.
If you've done with the LFS' content, move on. I'm sure theres an email notification system when there are major updates to LFS - come back to try them out. Let the new guys try out the availabe content; theres plenty of content to keep you happy for months, if not years.
As said, there are plently of racers online. Everyday. Dont let my 'racername'/team tag fool you, I pretty much race around a lot. I love LFS for its ease of pick-up racing. Join in to a server and race.
Try R2R or cargame.nl or IHR servers or dMr or Redline Racing. Theres still the [AMG] and FM^ servers if you're into that. Try the [LFS] Hotlap league and prove your pace against some of the fastest hotlappers in LFS. If you'd like to have a bit of fun, jump in to [CAD] server.
Instead of moaning about it, how about all getting together and working out a few servers that people would be interested in;
UF1 (only) server racing on the shortest LFS tracks.
A F1/FO8 server (where a populated one is lacking, as djfatrod mentioned)
LRF only server.
MRT server for those who love that car, and such...
There is more than 500 public race servers online. Most of them are emptly. Maybe the larger (I say larger because quite a number of admins need to be around to keep the server in check) teams can work with one another and select to host a special server, running a specific car/class in various combos. Then people would know where to connect when they'd like to race their UF1s (or LXs or RACs or MRTs or...).
Maybe have a global blacklist; I know the forum dosen't allow drivers to be shamed, but if you keep a global blacklist off-site you can directly ban the twats in your-team-servers who just connect to cause chaos. Would reduce the workload on the teams/admins and would improve the quality of racing in the ^ said type of servers...
Hope something of the sort (or better) works out. At least we can look forward for the NDR public racing server.
I'd definitely be up for some of those ideas (if I had a working wheel, yeah yeah yeah). I love driving the UF1. I'd even be happy to do the longer tracks in it. Maybe not the extreme ones like FE Black, but the middle Aston configs would be okay too.
I also love driving the FO8, but I suck with it. It's rewarding when you get it right, but harsh and unforgiving when you get it wrong.
And the old Wrecker Barricade worked in terms of having a nearly gamewide blacklist. Shame it didn't last.
Some of you ought to listen to yourselves, I know this is the internet but you sound like seven year olds begging mummy for a new toy. Can't you find something else to occupy your time while you wait like a responsible adult would? I would suggest actually using LFS as a start.
The GPL community for an example has a pretty glacial development pace, and thats with community modding (still going strong after 11 years though!). But there is none of this crying and begging and the stupid question posts are met with either silence or sensible replies, the result is there is none of the shitstorms we get in this community.
The LFS community is an embarrasment, I can imagine there are people who visit or lurk this forum, and I wouldn't be suprised if they're pointing and laughing.
Then you could say GP Legends is not dead as well, because a lot of people play it today.
To that, I'll reply the GPL community is not dead, but there's no denying the sim itself is just going through a looong afterlife.
Of course, LFS is still not dead in the GPL sense, but every day that passes without the much needed updates, makes it evident that LFS is growing outdated and that the other sims are leaving it behind.
New players are increasingly less interested in the accuracy of the simulation and more in the gaming aspects of the experience. But LFS' stated objective is to be accurate and lifelike as possible. This divergence is interpreted by some as 'LFS dying'
There's only one man who can turn the tide, but the more it takes to deliver the goods, the harder will be to do the feat.