You might have noticed I'm very involved with LFS community for years and the most wonderful thing is LFS keeps on surprising me, despite general conception of community that it's dead, it's very much not.
It's just like any other thing in life, some people come and go and instead new ones arrive and there is always that small portion of people with strong beliefs that stay till the end no matter what. We as people love making idols and looking back thru time making something perfect, iconic, which really wasn't. Just have a look thru some of old bawbags MoE onboard races which we thought were absolutely perfect and you'll find a lot less stable pace, you think that's nothing, you'll also find spins, offs, punctures and these kind of things when in reality he would have no chance to win a races these days on level we are now.
The physics as they are and as you know haven't changed for years now, but there isn't really a big difference even when they change. It's simply because there isn't so much more to be found in the specific area. We've seen this a few times thru the past and fast remain fast, feeling changes ever so slightly. It's a lot more about mastering the car than anything else. This is what's really kept me motivated all thru the years. It just seams there is always more to be found and as if you can never really reach the perfection, so you just push on. Of course, sometimes I do get fed up with the car and I just need something different for a change, but with 19 cars to pick it's endless.
The thing that we need more than anything is more tracks. Devs have noticed this cry for help from community and gave us open configs, but it's just variations of corners in new order, barely new. However, it still did spark some life back among existing community and that's a good thing.
There is really one thing that screams to be said... All of us want LFS to be recognized for what it truly is, the best simulator out there. To be mentioned in fancy reviews and all the way thru the sim community. But we have to understand that we are not like the rest of sim community and we never will be, just like they never will be like us. Mainly because of presentation perception. We are a lot more closed and involved with hardcore part of sim whilst they are like American motorsports and in for the show and frankly we shouldn't be bothered so much by what they think of us. In the end we might have all these fancy things too, but they are going to be far from fancy, because they are going to be as detailed as the physics are. On the other hand we have already proved ourselves thru so many of our racers going to iRacing and instantly becoming winners, or the ones going to real life racing and also becoming instant winners. Non of the other sims has produced this amount of talent on this level and perhaps we are the only one to know this, but it's to our advantage only.
So it all comes back down to physics. You have obviously noticed that physics are the core of LFS, whilst you can't really say that for other simulations. They tend to be more balanced and look better in other areas than LFS, but when it comes down to physics they're worse and not only worse, they are much worse. That's simply because of amount of time and overall dedication of programmers put in certain area of development. Now you can understand why we have no updates on tracks, or cars, or damage model, changeable weather condition or whatever.
I can sense another thing that's kept from LFS public on behalf of devs. It doesn't take 3 years to suit tire model for a new car, hell it doesn't take 3 years to suit it and improve it. It takes so long because more new cars are coming with a new version of LFS, S3. However it shouldn't take more than 5 years either for this, no matter how difficult it is. We could be and probably will be kept at ground 0 for at least half a year to a year or two more, but once the new physics are public everything else will suddenly be easy for them. Because every other area of LFS is so far back in time that improvements are going to be gigantic in matter of months.
Now, the progress will drop in those areas too as they get better and better, just like with physics or anything else, but I believe that once this version of physics is out we are rarely going to see new cars arriving. With a new physics patch release or simply S3, we are also going to witness a few new tracks, or if not right away, in matter of a year from release. So all that is going to be a huge boom and this is of course going to attract new customers. Speaking strictly business here, it's a lot better to release open configs to give community something to feed on, whilst keeping ready tracks in reserve for a biggest release since S2. You can't really hold it against them, since it's really the only thing they are hiding from us.
Therefor as a friend I advise you to focus on your racing, there is so much to be found out there... the lines, qualifying, starts, close racing, chasing, leading, high fuel, mid fuel, low fuel, hot tires, perfect tires, cold tires, pitstops, driver changes, new tires, worn tires, and it's all different with every car and on every track to some degree and it's not going to change so drastically once S3 comes, so work on your skills, enjoy yourself and your racing and stop worrying so much about development of LFS or anything that you can't really affect, because I assure you there is nothing to worry about, it's going to be here for a very long time. And there you have it. Just like any other development it's one big puzzle and it's up to you to decide how to approach it, so take it as it comes and stay true to yourself.