So i think a lot of people that play LFS uses Steam, and i would love to have LFS on Steam aswell. in fact i would rebuy it just for get it on Steam 
Would it be a good or bad idea?
Would it be a good or bad idea?
Poll : LFS on Steam
Good idea
60
Bad idea
19
LFS on Steam?
why not.
more money to motivate the devs, more drivers to race with, what else ? maybe that will bring some kids crashers, but hey they existed since forever in LFS.
it's ok for me anyway, but I think devs will see it somehow like losing controle on their product, but who know maybe they will change their opinion on this subject, and tbh I'd like to see them finish what they started now ( S3, graphics enhancement, physics ) and update all cars and track to the new standard in a nearly future before any risky move in a unknown territory.
more money to motivate the devs, more drivers to race with, what else ? maybe that will bring some kids crashers, but hey they existed since forever in LFS.
it's ok for me anyway, but I think devs will see it somehow like losing controle on their product, but who know maybe they will change their opinion on this subject, and tbh I'd like to see them finish what they started now ( S3, graphics enhancement, physics ) and update all cars and track to the new standard in a nearly future before any risky move in a unknown territory.
Yes PLZ.
steam would not change much, exept that lfs would be advertised there and a new way to buy the voucher. People would still need to create an account here to use lfs since you cannot implement a grown stucture into another. At the end, it would be like iRacing on steam. And that's what you can already do by "add a non-steam game"
#5
- MousemanLV
LFS first needs a proper overhaul, just one update like WE won't cut it.
The "only" upside to this might be bigger publicity and perhaps more people coming in.
The rest was discussed to death in the past and we won't change anything anyway tbh. It's the devs who have to put it in there.
The rest was discussed to death in the past and we won't change anything anyway tbh. It's the devs who have to put it in there.
I don't really know what can the developers of a specific game on Steam do and what not.
In my opinion, of possible, the best way would be to put it up on Steam, but not selling there and keep the purchasing method the same as it is now. On the Steam store page everyone would see a working demo (or free-to-play?), the page would let them know there are 2 paid licenses available to buy. If they want to buy it, they MUST do it on lfs.net as at the moment.
Again, I don't know how do the Steam internals work.
EDIT: @MousemanLV yeah, I think exactly the same, as it would be simple advertising with no profit for Valve
In my opinion, of possible, the best way would be to put it up on Steam, but not selling there and keep the purchasing method the same as it is now. On the Steam store page everyone would see a working demo (or free-to-play?), the page would let them know there are 2 paid licenses available to buy. If they want to buy it, they MUST do it on lfs.net as at the moment.
Again, I don't know how do the Steam internals work.
EDIT: @MousemanLV yeah, I think exactly the same, as it would be simple advertising with no profit for Valve
#9
- MousemanLV
Don't think lord Gabe will allow that.
Of course not, as Valve makes their money through a percentage of all sales (and a boatload of TF2, CSGO and DOTA items).
The way to do it would be to allow people to purchase (just) a S2 voucher, which then would give them a voucher code to use on the website when creating their account.
That said, I think Steam is incorrect for LFS as LFS already integrates the required features for licensing. Given LFS' current state, more marketing isn't always a good thing.
OT: Would it be an option to merge all the threads?
(farcar)
DELETED
by farcar
After we see S3 it would be good to make LFS more popular by releasing it on Steam.
Why so many think that LFS devs wants to share their not that big profits with some multibillion company? They have already proved that they want stay indipendent. Also popularity would mean increase of player quantity,but quality will heavily suffer - ever been in public AC servers?
Nearly any developer that has produced even a somewhat successful game has reported immense success with Steam. Garry of Garry's Mod fame has probably done some of the more detailed articles about it, and how things like 50% and 75% sales of games on Steam rewards with extremely high percentages of actual sales income.
If LFS was "complete" (S3 content, rework of current S1 and S2 content to increase texture resolution and poly detail) I think Steam would be a good idea. Until that point, it's not worth putting in the effort.
As for public AC servers, I've had nothing but good experiences. The newer multiplayer model (without booking system) has worked fairly well for getting into a server and driving. It's not ideal, but it's usable.
The whole idea of selling LFS through Steam is based on the assumption that putting LFS on Steam would automatically translate into greater revenue and more players. I have however never seen a good series of arguments to support this claim.
If you think about it, LFS does not have much to offer. The graphics is dated, sound effects are not anything special and the entire gaming experience is almost sterile. LFS lets you drive around in circles in (mostly) fictional cars and that's it. There is no career mode, the AI is boring to race against, the damage model is quite simplistic, there is no dynamic weather, etc. You also get no actual driving aids and as far as my experience tells it takes most people a good long while to even complete a lap when they try LFS for the first time. Add the fact that you cannot even hope to be competitive without a decent car setup into the mix and you end up with a game with very high entry barrier and little to offer if you overcome it.
This is not to say that LFS is a bad game, it just targets a very specific audience. Even if you put it against AC or iR it still appears to be a clear looser; iR and AC at least offer real cars and tracks and nicer graphics. Why should I consider getting LFS that lets me drive FZ50 around Westhill when I can drive Ferrari F40 around Monza in AC? The actual driving part in LFS is still top notch but I would imagine that there is just a handful of people who recognize and prefer that over real content, better looks and multitude of additional features.
As for the notion that greater revenue would help LFS move forward, I suggest you look up some scientific studies done on the topic of using money as motivation. Simply put, more money tends to overmotivate people who then to do sloppier job. The better the money is, the worse it gets. Contrarily, people who have a chance to work on things they like and enjoy usually produce great results.
If you think about it, LFS does not have much to offer. The graphics is dated, sound effects are not anything special and the entire gaming experience is almost sterile. LFS lets you drive around in circles in (mostly) fictional cars and that's it. There is no career mode, the AI is boring to race against, the damage model is quite simplistic, there is no dynamic weather, etc. You also get no actual driving aids and as far as my experience tells it takes most people a good long while to even complete a lap when they try LFS for the first time. Add the fact that you cannot even hope to be competitive without a decent car setup into the mix and you end up with a game with very high entry barrier and little to offer if you overcome it.
This is not to say that LFS is a bad game, it just targets a very specific audience. Even if you put it against AC or iR it still appears to be a clear looser; iR and AC at least offer real cars and tracks and nicer graphics. Why should I consider getting LFS that lets me drive FZ50 around Westhill when I can drive Ferrari F40 around Monza in AC? The actual driving part in LFS is still top notch but I would imagine that there is just a handful of people who recognize and prefer that over real content, better looks and multitude of additional features.
As for the notion that greater revenue would help LFS move forward, I suggest you look up some scientific studies done on the topic of using money as motivation. Simply put, more money tends to overmotivate people who then to do sloppier job. The better the money is, the worse it gets. Contrarily, people who have a chance to work on things they like and enjoy usually produce great results.
LFS is a Multiplayer "game" and in this moderne era if you want to advertise your product you need to look where the players are the most active, and like I said they don't have to make such move without putting some effort to bring some attractivity in this game, even with fictional cars and tracks if they are well made it will be enough with the solid multiplayer system of LFS.
as for the money subject, let's be honest did you got your s2 for free ? no, sure at the beginning they started this project to make living with their passion but back then players base was pretty easy to satisfy compared to now, and since 2008 the motivation was dropping drastically for some unknown reason, maybe the tires physics was too big for a task for scawen or they needed to change air and stopping development of lfs for some times, no one know the exacte truth about that, but in the end what I'm trying to say is even if you are truly passionate about your job you can't reach something like a moderne simulation without a big income to get licensed cars, track, and the most important things is to hire people to help you to expend your game or to give you fresh idea and advice when you are struggling with a problem.
IMO what LFS really need now, is 2 or 3 artistes to update existing contenent and bring new one, to get new players and make them occupied with that until scawen will finish the imporvement of the core game, if you look at other small indi studios the majore part of the team are graphics artistes, and only one or two people have to deal with the core game development ( juste like LFS ), because the 3d work is the longest process in game development especialy when you aim to make something big.
this is just our oppinion, only the devs have the key to make LFS moving forward, we have only to wait for now, and sorry for my english!
I can't agree more with you.
This. I'm a game developer, and I totally agree with that, but there is a limit for it too. LFS needs more artists, but not too much, because Scawen need to integrate their work, and it takes time. And don't forget that right now, Scawen is working on several things just so Eric can work on higher quality tracks, so imagine if there is 3 artists on the team.
'TL;DR : For me, LFS needs more artists, but not sure if Scawen can handle intergration + improvement on the game + new/improved tools for artists.
@Scawen : What do you think about it ? I need your answer (and I know you are following the thread, as usual
).Eric can take the role of the artists group leader, the one who care about the work integration into the game engine, because he's used to work with the tools needed for LFS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
Note that Scawen already mentionned that Eric is working on S3 "intial tracks", and who knows how advanced are the already 2 (do not know if Rockingham is included or not) tracks from wich Scawen talked about some monthes ago.
And let's suppose the goal is a sequence :
- sort out S3
- tire physics
- provide the 'editor' (track, car ... who knows) ... allowing modders to show their talent
=> more artists is not necessarily the best idea (long debates about this included in the forums )
Note that Scawen already mentionned that Eric is working on S3 "intial tracks", and who knows how advanced are the already 2 (do not know if Rockingham is included or not) tracks from wich Scawen talked about some monthes ago.
And let's suppose the goal is a sequence :
- sort out S3
- tire physics
- provide the 'editor' (track, car ... who knows) ... allowing modders to show their talent
=> more artists is not necessarily the best idea (long debates about this included in the forums
)Integration means programming, adding IA paths, configurations, track in the track menu, compute path selection, etc. and I think this is on Scawen's scope.
I meant shaders stuff etc... maybe it's like the AC editor idk.
no you can't make quickly a detailed track with only 1 artist, even with a team of 3 or 4 you can take 2 or 3 months to finalise a normal track with 5 km length, and don't forget all the cars update etc...
of course any lonely artist can do every thing by himself, but it will take ages and people those days are not willing to wait any longer.
I know Dave, I know...
OK well..People use AC as an example several times... It's on Steam, real life cars and tracks..
But...
http://www.cargame.nl/forum/acservers.php?nfilter=&tfilter=&cfilter=&cfiltex=&pass=1&sm=pmode
Not much going on there heh.. Cannot get that enthousiastic about those numbers.. 4, 5 servers with some attention and thats it.
But...
http://www.cargame.nl/forum/acservers.php?nfilter=&tfilter=&cfilter=&cfiltex=&pass=1&sm=pmode
Not much going on there heh.. Cannot get that enthousiastic about those numbers.. 4, 5 servers with some attention and thats it.
it's already huge for the weird mp system of AC, LFS have better netcode but there is no much activity in the public racing servers compared to AC.
and at first I used to compare AC and LFS on the artistic side, because AC never pretend to be a massive multiplayer game and never will be ( until stefano improve his skill on mp coding ).
LFS on Steam?
(58 posts, started )
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