Whilst spectating a timing screen option would be good.

Also during qualifying, what I hate is people that go out, screw up, shift S, get a private jet to the pits, hop in a spare car and get back on track. To solve this, if shift-S is even permitted (it could be removed when driving in to your pit garage sends you to the pit screen) in qualifying, a driver should be forced to sit out a set amount of time (IMO 2 minutes 30 seconds would be ideal).

In addition, please could the garage screen in qualifying display time left somewhere on the screen, as well as the track and wind.

Please elaborate on timing screen, I'm interested,

Qual is about getting the fastest lap down by whatever means, so I think using shift+s is completely legit.

Garage showing time and track conditions would be good, I always forget them.

Quote from Davo :

Please elaborate on timing screen, I'm interested,

Like the formulaone.com live timing. Or like the MOE tracker, showing sector, previous sector times, best sector times and so-on.

Quote from Davo :

Qual is about getting the fastest lap down by whatever means, so I think using shift+s is completely legit.

I agree for the most part, but in real life racing series an accident necessitates at the best a tow back to the pits and at the worst a red flag for the entire field. Drivers who cause red flags in qualifying are usually penalized (either forced to sit out for X minutes or have their fastest qual lap disallowed).

So, I can understand wanting to have the (server-side, I assume) option of time-penalizing drivers who wreck during qual.

Not long ago I wrote this! In short: when a driver wrecks his/her car in Q, the qualy will be over. SHIFT+S will get you into pits, to tweak the setup etc, but impossible to get back to track. The car will be repaired for the race though.

I think that would be a good compromise between the real thing and the virtual world.
PS: It wouldn't be an option, or in other words: the only option available!

Quote from Davo :

Qual is about getting the fastest lap down by whatever means, so I think using shift+s is completely legit.

As others have said, this is not really true. Yes, you want to go as fast as you can, but you also must maintain the car for the actual race. This is one of the few things that NetKar got right. Your car has to last through qualifying or you don't make it on to the race. If you wreck during qualifying your car will need to be repaired. If there's not enough time to fix it before the race starts, sorry Charlie. I would like to see LFS handle this the same way.

There need to be consequences for crashing and abusing your car. Right now the damage model, Shift+S, etc. make everyone want to push 110% for every single corner of every single race.

Its not the only thing nKPro got right, their clutch/transmission/shifting simulation is also far better then LFS.

I very much would like to see there be real concequences for once actions in LFS. The damage and wear features of nKPro and how they are persistant also opens up further options for leagues, such as limiting the number of engines and tires a team has to use for the season. Breaking in tires during practice so they start at optimal grip for the race or qualifying, etc.

+1 to this. If you wreck your car during qualify, it's over, maybe. See if you can or cost you a lot of time to repair your car.

The timing screen could be toggleable with the "n" button. Or to have two different layouts for the n button. Ones for racing and anothers for spectating. Not really a priority but useful

I'm trying to think reasons why there sould be shift-S possibility but can't come up with even one... are there any good reasons for "allowing it"?

Quote from Hyperactive :

I'm trying to think reasons why there sould be shift-S possibility but can't come up with even one... are there any good reasons for "allowing it"?

Yes. It's really helpful for newbies. Most people can't make a clean lap when they first start playing LFS. If they had to wait for their car to be repaired or restart the session each time they went off, it would be a nightmare.

I would prefer to see Shift+S go away in virtually all public races (at the server's discretion), but before that can happen there needs to be another system which will remove cars from the track without them magically disappearing. Also, such a system needs to be able to be toggled so that leagues like STCC can use their safety car. Or, better yet, an AI safety car would be a great addition.

The penalty should be customisable e.g. /dead 150 - sit out 150 seconds, /dead 600 - sit out ten minutes.

Quote from Cue-Ball :

Yes. It's really helpful for newbies. Most people can't make a clean lap when they first start playing LFS. If they had to wait for their car to be repaired or restart the session each time they went off, it would be a nightmare.

That sounds to me like all the more reason to force them to learn to drive fair. There is an offline mode for learning the tracks, and while the AI might need some work to compare with real people, the corners remain in the same places.

I'm adamant that the more you penalise people for serious damage, the more carefully they'll drive. Maybe that way we'd see practically no damage on T1 (dreaming now).

Quote from Dajmin :

I'm adamant that the more you penalise people for serious damage, the more carefully they'll drive. Maybe that way we'd see practically no damage on T1 (dreaming now).

I totally agree with you that there need to be serious, realistic penalties for mucking up the car. But ONLY if the person running the server wants it to be that way. I've been playing LFS for a while now and am pretty good about conserving my car, especially when driving alone. But my brother is brand new to the game and has only tried the demo a few times. If I want to race with him I should have the option of whether or not I want full damage turned on. If it was forced on to realistic levels all the time I would spend the whole time driving around the track alone since he'd constantly be in the pits.

Personally, I would like to see damage selectable by the server from off to realistic. Servers and leagues that demand 100% realism could turn damage all the way up to realistic levels while newbie servers could turn damage completely off if they like.

I don't think the devs have any plan to allow the damage to be turned off. It would be nice to see an option to allow for more realistic persistant damage and all of the penalties that are associated with it for the servers or people that want more realism. I think a big part of the problems we see in open public servers are the result of there being real penalty for poor driving, as such there is no percived risk and everyone drives at 100%-105% all the time when in reality most race drives are pushing at 95%-99% and leaving a small margin of safety.