I am in a thread regarding LFS Development, like I told cargame, Nobody put a gun to your head and made you read this thread, nor did they make you reply with such a wasteful response. Take your own advice and stop whining, That doesn't change a f*.
As you can see, what I said bar the last sentence is what we have been told (or basic maths), not speculation.
I could have speculated on other/specific reasons for their delay and other things, but I chose not to.
I even sat on the fence as to whether Eric has been working on other tracks or not. There haven't been any announcements or hints (other than "Westhill updates" whatever that means) so I'm not going to try to guess.
LFS ceasing to be indie would IMO be the worst thing that could happen to LFS. Sure, it would probably sell a hell of a lot more in the short term (mostly because of marketing) and while I'm sure quantity of content would increase with more people working on it, quality of the program would unlikely be any better, if not worse.
LFS exists because it's indie and is as good as it is because it's indie. Publishers have a nasty habit of rushing buggy code through, overworking employees and, especially more recently, throwing developers out to dry. Publishers are in it for the money first and the game later - indies on the whole are the opposite.
You are aladeen, and you aladeen. Because of that aladeen, makes no sense to aladeen. And one day aladeen will aladeen in aladeen, because of aladeen. Take your aladeen and aladeen us aladeen
They can take their time i'm still having fun with the game now but i play around with lfs tweak
I've been playing s2 since 2007 but was a solid demo player from around 2004 s1 was still fresh hell my old pc wouldn't play it that well but i still played it.
But a few updates or progress report which i know they have said it hard to give, but a status of what they're doing would be nice.
Being frank about why there hasn't been any content up dates, would restore a lot of faith in LFS.
Scawen has skirted around it several times, but there's not been a real explanation that would satisfy the majority IMO. Eric rarely posts, so there's little to be positive about new info coming from that avenue.
It will be great once the tyre physics get released and I'm sure they'll get there at some stage, but this whole can't release content until, just looks worse as time goes on. It's strangling LFS and it will get a to a point where there will be to much expectation. The community aren't going to wait another 4 years for a track and car, that's for sure.
It's time to be frank. Kick the monkey off their back. They'll get far more credit and loyalty in the long run and no doubt a weight off their shoulders.
I joined the lfs community in 2008, and back then people were banging on about Vws and Rockingham....
I've played a lot of LFS over the years and its a great game. I think what the lfs developers need to understand and appreciate from the paying audience is that they have sold us a product, and customers expect to see things they've been promised.
My S2 licence cost me £24. On the screenshots page on the lfs homepage there are many shots of the scirocco going round rockingham. Therefore potential customers and current users alike expect to see these kinds of features added as planned (thats why we stumped up our cash in the first place - to reward the current product, and fund future developments).
Honestly is certainly missing.
If the developers don't want the responsibility and effort required to release there promised features the answer is simple - stop charging.
As far as I know,there were no promises,just plans to add these features. Well,it went wrong,so it's delayed. There is no deal,where is said that you will get that other car with devs signature under it,so you can't request anything.
And you have all the content they sell for £24 - 7 track environments,20 cars,50 skin upload slots at lfsw,statistics logging,unlimited online time. Is there anything mising from this list for you?
It's explained a lot,why all this is delayed! And if it's not enough,take it as concept. You don't go to car manufacturers and demand to sell their concept cars,don't you?
Basic idea of all this - you can whine,demand,request,threat or whatever,devs have stated multiple times that they will work at whatever pace they seem right,you can't do anything about it. So relax,and do like me - don't care about that too much and enjoy what you have - one of the best racing simulators out there! If it's not enough,feel free to join iRobbing or anything else. It's a free world.
And that is, in my opinion, why the devs hesitate to show any more content that is being worked on for S3 now, because there is still a long way to go and some people would feel that the devs had promised something and didn’t release it in time.
But then we could have the discussion - should the devs care about that? Even if some people does not understand that everything does not goes allong the plan, should the devs focus on that critism and let the whole community out in dark?
IMO a better way would be to share what they got in pictures and what not, and if things does not go according to plan - ignore the whiners and have meaninfull discussions and talk with the PROPPER community.
Being frank about the content situation is essential if LFS is to have any success in the future.
LFS players have now gone 4 years without any content updates and suffered this steadfast refusal release/develop any intimidatory content. The ignorance and/or stubbornness that continues to cause the community to loose faith in the game is astounding and it begs belief that something is seriously wrong between the developers. Spending 1000's of hours making a game for the enjoyment of players, only to then disappoint them and have them give up on LFS, just doesn't add up. What the situation is, we can only speculate.
What is certain is, the games audience has lost a lot of faith and it's gone on so long, that it's hard to imagine a S3 release resurrecting LFS popularity in any meaningful way. The faith lost with the community will not be regained with a simple single milestone release, that much is obvious. The post S2 releases have only generated peaks in activity that have faded away after a few weeks. What many fail to understand is LFS's popularity is intrinsically linked to community engagement and evolution of the game. The game was at it's pinnacle when it had regular releases and content updates. The community thrived and developed addons and enhancements and ran a huge number of wildly popular highly competitions.
It will take years to restore this, probably more than it ever took originally. LFS now has more credible competition, older players have moved on and the newer generation are more interested in cruising / drifting.
If they do decide to swallow their pride and be frank now, then at least some faith can be restored and hopefully realistic expectations and enthusiasm will prevail.
I'm perfectly fine with having small updates over small periods of time, but I think it's pretty clear to see that waiting a long time and having no updates is simply not working. Yes, these patches are nice, but content is king, and if you are not willing to add content, then at least allow us to do it. Allow us to make cars, and track, and don't chastise us for it. The community here is great, with very many talented people that could do great things if we were given the tools. Some of us have made our own tools, but can't release them because we'll be banned. All we want is new content, and you don't even have to supply it if you let us do it. Allowing us to tweak the engine, add and remove HP, add or remove Co-efficiency, ect ... would make for many interesting options within the game environment.
There's nothing to swallow. It was unfortunate (and fortunate) that the VWS/ROC delay happened, but I don't feel let down, cheated, mislead or lied to. Does this mean can't be part of the community because I don't fit in to some pointless generalisation?
Has no one got any patience anymore? You paid £24 and got the game as is, all the updates after that are a bonus. Ofcourse I would like the new physics and content but, as the saying goes, good things come to those who wait.
All we should say is that to those who joined around the announcement for vws and rockingham - Welcome to LFS, an indie game that takes time. Just be patient and you will get the updates. For those who have been around a long time surely already know what the LFS development is like so why moan.
Really? It's not about patience, rather being honest and open. There are many who have waited and wait and heard the various reasons, PoV, explanations and speculation over the lack of content. It really is beyond a joke and as I said a couple of years ago, the devs show a lot of contempt for the community. About 2 years ago there was significant unrest in the forum after several members pointed out the growing divide between the devs and players. IMO it stemmed from a moderation spree by Eric and to his credit Scawen did respond to try to stem the unrest in the forum, but he failed to answer any questions around the content situation. Instead choosing to conveniently say, that's Eric department and nothing more. Since then not much has changed. A few bored hackers have prompted a patch to the multi-playing code, but still no word on content.
To put things into perspective. It took approximately 6 years to develop the vast majority of current content and in that same time we've seen a few screen shots/videos of 1 car and a track. What many forget (those around long enough) is the stagnation began well before the VW/ROC announcement. At the time there were many calls for smaller content releases, but these went unanswered as has happened so many time since.
The only thing to change is the number of players online "racing", heading south. And the devs seem to be content on letting that continue, ignorant of the implications it will have on S3 sales and the future popularity of the game (development funding).
Ofcourse it is about patience, I agree that the game does become stagnant with things staying the same however everything else you mention is basically summed up by people wanting updates (even if smaller ones) more regularly - how can that not be taken as people don't have the patience to wait for a bigger update?
As I said I agree about the stagnation if things stay the same but then when you consider that:
- We are spoilt really as a forum that we do have as much direct contact with the devs as we do. I am sure you will disagree with this but just compare to other game developers of indie games nevermind mainstream ones.
- You bought the game and since then have received updates and new content. I agree not much but it was still free, we don't have a right to demand more content.
- We are simply players of a game, the customer. You can argue as much as you like about good business practice, dwindling player numbers etc. they know this and maybe the devs read the comments and don't reply or simply don't read them but, like above, we don't have right to be answered.
- Smaller content updates often instead of bigger ones sporadically? Again not our game, not our choice.
I suppose it comes down to that you have expressed your opinion on how the devs should of been working and how they should proceed. It is your opinion though, personally I would rather wait 4 years (maybe 5, 6 etc.) for a big physics update (and anything else we don't know about) instead of some smaller updates that might add content but don't actually improve the game.
