Hello.
I talked about this idea earlier and now I post it up as an improvement suggestion.
As a prelude: I enjoy driving LFS's roadcars. They are very fun cars and it is challanging to get them around corners nicely because they are heavy and don't exactly have the best tyres. It takes a lot of concentration to get these cars around fast. Everyone who drives the FZ5 will agree that the high weight of these cars makes up a part of the fun (and frustration) of these cars.
But, when looking on real race tracks, e.g. trackdays, you don't only see roadcars in their stock trim, but usually in a stripped out track-day version. Semi professional drivers often drive race-prepared road cars in racing-series. Racing-frame, bare minimum weight and the best tyres the regulation allows (often wide tyres with a minimum profile for rain-safety).
I'd like to carry this thought to LFS.
While LFS's roadcars are a lot fun in their current state they are definitely not equipped how they'd appear on a racetrack. They carry a lot unnecessary weight (passanger and rear seats, f.e.) and also, for stock cars, have too many setup options (gearing, suspension, diff etc.).
To get rid of both of these problems I suggest introducing a "-cup" class to each of our road-car-classes. The term cup derives from many real life racing series where racing-versions of normal road cars are driven (just as an example, the Renault Clio Cup). That'd introduce cars like XFG-Cup, FXO-Cup, FZ5-Cup.
The standard XFG f.e. would still have it's normal weight and power. It wouldn't be able to carry a LSD, viscous or locked diff anymore and would generally be restricted to 'sensable' setup options. On the other hand the XFG Cup would have reduced weight, about the same power, slight changes to the looks (f.e. smaller mirrors, because of weight-reduction) and would have all the setup options money can buy (yes, rebound dampening, adjustable castor, everything!).
On a sidenote this could be used to get rid of some balancing-problems. A lightweight FZ5-Cup with better tyres might be able to challange the LX6, f.e.
Driving stock streetcars and racecars (here race-prepared road cars) on a racetrack are two different things. A racecar should be nimble, light, quick, loud. A streetcar is a different challenge. A streetcar is more about carrying momentum through a corner than "slow in - fast out". I don't think LFS should try to mix these two types of racing up.
Now, before my post-counter raises into infinity because I have to answer the obvious questions, I'll answer them before you ask them:
- Some of you will argue that no one will drive the standard cars anymore. There are two positions to that. Firstly the cup and standard cars are close enough to each other for drivers to adapt, so that you can easily switch between XRT and XRT Cup as the driver and server-situation demands. On the other hand variety is the way to go for the growing LFS community. LFS simply lacks some kind of cars (race-prepared road cars) and should try to fill this gap. Also, beside the answers, I'd like to say that I'm not pressing anything. I don't demand these car-classes in the next patch. We can wait and see how demand develops and include this when the time is right.
- As always some of you will pick on the unimportant bits. No, the term "cup" is not necessary, the devs can use anything they want. And also no, I don't think it is impossible to create a second version of cars because we only have 3 letter abbrevations. I'm sure Scawen is clever enough to make LFS cope with that.
Oh, and please only post positive responses!
(Just joking, bring it up!)
Vain
I talked about this idea earlier and now I post it up as an improvement suggestion.
As a prelude: I enjoy driving LFS's roadcars. They are very fun cars and it is challanging to get them around corners nicely because they are heavy and don't exactly have the best tyres. It takes a lot of concentration to get these cars around fast. Everyone who drives the FZ5 will agree that the high weight of these cars makes up a part of the fun (and frustration) of these cars.
But, when looking on real race tracks, e.g. trackdays, you don't only see roadcars in their stock trim, but usually in a stripped out track-day version. Semi professional drivers often drive race-prepared road cars in racing-series. Racing-frame, bare minimum weight and the best tyres the regulation allows (often wide tyres with a minimum profile for rain-safety).
I'd like to carry this thought to LFS.
While LFS's roadcars are a lot fun in their current state they are definitely not equipped how they'd appear on a racetrack. They carry a lot unnecessary weight (passanger and rear seats, f.e.) and also, for stock cars, have too many setup options (gearing, suspension, diff etc.).
To get rid of both of these problems I suggest introducing a "-cup" class to each of our road-car-classes. The term cup derives from many real life racing series where racing-versions of normal road cars are driven (just as an example, the Renault Clio Cup). That'd introduce cars like XFG-Cup, FXO-Cup, FZ5-Cup.
The standard XFG f.e. would still have it's normal weight and power. It wouldn't be able to carry a LSD, viscous or locked diff anymore and would generally be restricted to 'sensable' setup options. On the other hand the XFG Cup would have reduced weight, about the same power, slight changes to the looks (f.e. smaller mirrors, because of weight-reduction) and would have all the setup options money can buy (yes, rebound dampening, adjustable castor, everything!).
On a sidenote this could be used to get rid of some balancing-problems. A lightweight FZ5-Cup with better tyres might be able to challange the LX6, f.e.
Driving stock streetcars and racecars (here race-prepared road cars) on a racetrack are two different things. A racecar should be nimble, light, quick, loud. A streetcar is a different challenge. A streetcar is more about carrying momentum through a corner than "slow in - fast out". I don't think LFS should try to mix these two types of racing up.
Now, before my post-counter raises into infinity because I have to answer the obvious questions, I'll answer them before you ask them:
- Some of you will argue that no one will drive the standard cars anymore. There are two positions to that. Firstly the cup and standard cars are close enough to each other for drivers to adapt, so that you can easily switch between XRT and XRT Cup as the driver and server-situation demands. On the other hand variety is the way to go for the growing LFS community. LFS simply lacks some kind of cars (race-prepared road cars) and should try to fill this gap. Also, beside the answers, I'd like to say that I'm not pressing anything. I don't demand these car-classes in the next patch. We can wait and see how demand develops and include this when the time is right.
- As always some of you will pick on the unimportant bits. No, the term "cup" is not necessary, the devs can use anything they want. And also no, I don't think it is impossible to create a second version of cars because we only have 3 letter abbrevations. I'm sure Scawen is clever enough to make LFS cope with that.
Oh, and please only post positive responses!
(Just joking, bring it up!)Vain
)
No need to make 6 more cars which dont differ that much. Maybe RWD road competitor for UF, and then make a race version of it to compete UFR. That class would be kind of training class for the big GTRs, like it is now but with RWD it would be better.