Hello Noobs! (That's not meant in a bad way)

In my days as a noob, I admit that I angered some people. Now as more of a seasoned player than a noob, it's the noobs that are angering me; now, with the popularity of LFS rising, swarms of noobs are infecting the servers, and the tension between seasoned and new S2 users is increasing exponentially. Although I may not be the best racer, I've picked up on a few key things that really seem to set off the seasoned players (they set me off, too). Noobs, pay close attention; it could mean the difference between being accepted and being rejected. I will continue to add to the list should a new item come up. Note that the items are in no particular order; they are not organized according to severity.

1. Constantly asking for a setup during a race -- This is severely annoying. Just don't do it. And if you do ask for a setup, do it politely (and after the race).

2. Asking for extraneous add-ons in the forum (i.e dedicated drift tracks, body kits) -- All the seasoned veterans are tired of this. LFS is for pure racing, and we don't wanna change that.

3. Not saying sorry after wrecking the field at T1; rather, you shift-s and continue like nothing happened -- It surprises me what little class some racers have. If you wreck the field, how about lay out for the rest of the race to show you're sorry?

4. Deciding to go "off roading" if you get a blue flag -- This is a minor annoyance in most cases; however, I may berate you if you end up sliding, out of control, back on to the track and wreck the person who was trying to pass you.

5. At the demo users - Treating the demo like it's a full game, makin' teams (clans too lol), demanding features, etc. -- You got the game for free, OK? Be thankful that the devs decided to increase your server limits. Feel free to try out the game but don't expect to get S2 treatment.

Well, that's all I can think of for now. Oh yeah, one last thing: Don't turn this into a flame war. Please keep it calm.

im guilty of 1,and 3 mostly 1 and errm can i have ur set plz

I am guilty of #5 and so are many now-s2 racers. C'mon, I'm allowed to make a team .

good to know, i just got this game not too long ago and this makes sense why i get booted sometimes =P

A couple of tips for newly self-titled "seasoned players":

1) We don't call people "noobs" here or use negative language like that in reference to new racers, except for the [noobs] team who are basically asking for it... We want more new players and we want them to enjoy themselves, be polite and courteous to them.

2) Inexperienced racers are often going to make mistakes, there's no avoiding it. Just be patient.

3) You have no business telling anybody when and where they can start a team.

Right on, Kev!

Send them to www.grownupracing.net instead, we'll take care of them! We all learned at one point. Many of the new guys have no experience with a proper racing sim and just don't know better. They need a polite pointer, not abuse. I'd rather spend an hour teaching a 'noob' than an hour looking over my shoulder waiting to get yelled at by som self-proclaimed know-it-all who thinks he owns the track cause ha can lap within a few seconds of the WR.

hsshoura: You should never be booted without an explanation, unless the reason is obvious. Making repeated mistakes can be a reason, but only if you are aware you are making them, and not being willing to learn.

Quote from BlackSheep720 :

2. Asking for extraneous add-ons in the forum (i.e dedicated drift tracks, body kits) -- All the seasoned veterans are tired of this. LFS is for pure racing, and we don't wanna change that.

I have purposefully never drifted in LFS and I don't care for it. But I would never imagine telling someone which feature request they can post and what not. I don't see how "the seasoned veterans" decide what will be included in the game. Only Scavier decides that.

Noob is such an ugly word.

Stop acting like LFS is a branch of the Moonies

Quote from thisnameistaken :

1) We don't call people "noobs" here or use negative language like that in reference to new racers, except for the [noobs] team who are basically asking for it... We want more new players and we want them to enjoy themselves, be polite and courteous to them.

Don't forget LFSn00b too I think newbie would of been a better choice of word than noob. As newbie is some who is new and in experienced, noob is used an insult.

I agree there does to be in an increase of newbie's (and some noobs) but alof of people want LFS to grow so we have to accept there will be new people, as we were all once.

As for your 1 - 5 list i don't think ive ever done any of them.

Pt. 1: In the case of a sensible and mature newcomer

1) Don't expect him to be able to race door-to-door on the limit for more than 1-2 turns.

2) Give the beginner some room for small errors which are bound to happen.

3) Do not spam "BLUE FLAG! MOVE N00b!" if he doesn't telepit the instant you appear in their rear view mirror. This is racing, not hotlapping. As long as he doesn't block or try to race against you, he's keeping it clean and it's your duty to pass him nicely.


Pt. 2: In case of idiots and wreckers

1) Save replay, contact server admin, deliver evidence and watch them get permabanned.

@ CSU1 below:
I have erased all my pbs several times during the 3-4 years of racing LFS. Overall mileage remains however.

Just and .

1. You shall have no other Sims but LFS.
2. You shall respect all members of LFS community with respect even if their cars are travelling sidewayz and their blowoff valves make you deaf.
3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lordah your God.
4. You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy and dedicate it for LFS.
5. Respect the devs and those who brake into T1.
6. You must not wreck.
7. You must not commit skin stealingz.
8. You must not crack LFS.
9. You must not give false evidence against your fellow racer.
10. You must not be envious of your neighbour's setups. You shall not be envious of his XRR nor his Torro tires, nor anything that belongs to your neighbour.
11. Do not commit spam
12. You must search

In short:
Brakes into T1. No swerving on the straights unless needed to avoid collision ahead. It is allowed to block once and return to your own lane but don't do this unless you know the other one is able to handle it. Do not use other cars to slow you down or do not dive into their inside at corners at the last moment. Treat others with respect!

rule 1 happened to me the other night. just as the race went green, some guy asked which is better ufr or xfr. and a second later he asked for a setup. this really annoys me. i was putting in the fastest times (most of the time lol) and when at the end of a race someone asks me for the setup, they get it. but this guy was just all about himself and he got no setup from me. when i am lapping someonei tend to flash my lights at him when i am within 0.3x or so behind (basically only when i feel i will be held up). the reason i flash my lights rather than spam "move noob!!!" is because it blue flag is only for the guy infront of me and i don't need to let the rest of the pack know that i am in traffic. same with good passes. instead of spamming good pass, i try to beep my horn (one short sharp burst) to only let the driver that passed me that the pass was a sweet one.
i have nothing against newcommers (we were all one at one stage) i even offer to help sometimes. after all, these are the people that might be in your team at one stage or another.

Quote from CSU1 :

Is strange I often look at racer lap/stats on forum and more often than not 'seasoned' drivers seem to have a mighty amount of laps done in the fxo

Were you around in the S1 days? I've just returned having not played since around the time S2 was released. In S1 most people would use the FXO most of the time, because it was so much quicker/more consistent than the other options. (I think rear-wheel drives were easier to keep on the road after S2). There were a few who insisted on sticking with the rear-wheel drive (myself included!) but these were a minority.

To be competitive in leagues you had to run the FXO, and everyone practiced in that car.

i got S2 2 nights ago so in my first few servers i entered i posted a message along these lines
"hey guys im very new too S2, so i apologise now if i spin out or maybe cause a crash"

most of the time people in the servers told me to go race offline my own (but in all honesty if thats what i planned to do then id have cracked the game)
in a few other servers, people were polite and just told me what blue flags ment etc
in atleast 2 of the servers people voted to kick me as soon as they read my message.

i mean wtf... seriously they were new to the game once also, telling us to race offline agains the "super intelligent" AI who u can lap on pro after 2 laps, how is that gonna help us improve.
this game is so much fun and im enjoying playing it right now but some peoples attitude towards new racers stinks because they seem to think they are the worlds best.....

I think we should come up with a new name for the seasoned players. Something that's mildly insulting, but not blatantly insulting. I think "jaded ****s" is probably appropriate.

But then that would assume that all seasoned players have the same attitude, which I know they don't.

On the whole my experience so far with the LFS community has been positive, even if short. Yeah, every now and then I get wrecked by another completely clueless new driver who does not yet understand that we aren't playing bumper cars. But more often than not I encounter a complete douchebag of a fast driver who thinks he owns the track and has no problem with spouting out insults over chat in the form of "BLUE FLAG MOVE OVER MORON" or "haha, look at all those Disqualifications, you f***ing N00BS!!!"

Quote from CSU1 :

but you must learn not to care too much about what others say/do on servers or in forum.
If others say 'kick ban the noob' , stuff them keep your eyes on the road and if you must just press the "-" key to block their spam

Yup, that's the best advice I've seen.

My first race on STCC i caused an accident on T1, apologised and got a load of abuse.
On my first few races on Redline Racing people who weren't anywhere near me were voting to ban me, for no reason at all.
I soon learnt to block messages and focus on the racing. There's a load of stupid, immature idiots out there, but luckily there's far more decent, mature, understanding racers.

As long as respect the blue flags, dont do anything too silly, and always apologise when you do stuff up then you will have no problems.

Try lots of servers as well, you soon find servers with a more mature (attitude wise) crowd that you will feel more comfortable racing on.

Have fun, and ignore the idiots...BLOCK MESSAGES during the race

Quote from Mykl :

But more often than not I encounter a complete douchebag of a fast driver who thinks he owns the track and has no problem with spouting out insults over chat in the form of "BLUE FLAG MOVE OVER MORON" or "haha, look at all those Disqualifications, you f***ing N00BS!!!"

In my limited experience, it's not the good, fast drivers that are spamming with the"blue flag" bollocks or insulting the "noobs" or as i prefer to call them "rookies".
It's usually the talentless morons that indulge in that sort of behaviour..it seems to makes them feel better about themselves.

Quote from The Moose :

In my limited experience, it's not the good, fast drivers that are spamming with the"blue flag" bollocks or insulting the "noobs" or as i prefer to call them "rookies".
It's usually the talentless morons that indulge in that sort of behaviour..it seems to makes them feel better about themselves.

Fair enough... our perceptions of what "fast" is may differ based on the fact that I'm genuinely slow right now.

I usually ignor others online anymore anyway. The only reason I bother to keep chat open at all is because I occasionally come across reasonable individuals who I'd like to compliment after the race is over if we had some nice wheel to wheel action and it was mostly clean.

The jump start rule is going to cause whole new annoying behaviour from both rookies and seasoned pros alike.

Last night I was on a race where one person false started. For the next three laps he constantly voted to restart and spammed the chat with the usual rubbish.

He was an experienced, fast racer, but not a good LFS citizen.

Quote from Storm_Cloud :

Last night I was on a race where one person false started. For the next three laps he constantly voted to restart and spammed the chat with the usual rubbish.

I just don't understand that stuff Why should everyone restart just because someone cocked up their start?
If you screw up it's your fault, don't annoy everyone else by spamming 'restart' over and over again.
Someone (who should know better)did this for about 4 laps on one of the STCC servers(silver+gold) the other night. If everyone votes to restart within a couple of times of you asking then fair enough, If after two or three times of asking for a restart you get no response the message should be clear...it ain't going to happen, so sthu.

All this talk of people spamming "Blue Flag, move NOOB!", generally calling people noobs, and general noobish behavior is truely surprising me. I see nearly everthing is being commented from over there where the main base of LFS is.

I've been racing nearly nightly for 2 years now with LFS. I am now pretty much exclusively on the STCC servers. I have to say, I rarely see folks doing all this chat yelling or noobish behavior. I can't count how many times I've run up on a guy a lap down or a midrace joiner who pulled over and let me by in the last few weeks. I have seen on occasion the "Blue Flag" spam, but it is rare. I also often see on the map someone just joined and is coming down pitroad when I'm coming by and I see them easing down the exit waiting for traffic to pass.

Yes, I do see this stuff, the blue flag spam, the blue flag ignorers, the midrace joiners entering the track in traffic, but it is very very rare. Another thing I don't see often is racers getting irate over being crashed. This is probably the one thing that happens more than the others, but it is still not all that bad. I will see someone crash another racer, the sorry pop up in chat, and a "np" or "no problem" follow. Lately, I have even seen the majority of crashes followed up with the guy who crashed the other waiting for the one he crashed to resituate himself and take the position back.

I do follow these topics that pop up on the forum and do comment sometimes, but it isn't because I see it as often as I'm led to believe judging from the comments of the UK/Europe based community.

Anyone else over here in the US/Canada base agree or disagree with this? I'm really curious.

Yeah, I'm learning to like the STCC servers. Even on the STCC's demo server people are generally well behaved and a joy to drive with.

The server that I noticed most of the bad behavior on was one of the S2 Redline Racing servers.


But what makes a "blue flag ignorer?" Generally I just try to stay on my line when I've been blue flagged and maybe ease off the throttle just a hair at an appropriate passing spot on the track. I'm starting to think that *maybe* a lot of people who complain about blue flag ignorers are the people who are capable of cutting really fast lap times, but not so good when it comes to dealing with racing maneuvers. But I haven't been playing long enough to make that judgement call.

Actually, how I deal with a blue flag depends on if I started the race with everybody else or if I joined mid session. If I joined mid session I'll drive my car way off the track and park it in the dirt if I need to to keep from slowing the racers down.

Quote from mrodgers :

I've been racing nearly nightly for 2 years now with LFS. I am now pretty much exclusively on the STCC servers. I have to say, I rarely see folks doing all this chat yelling or noobish behavior.

Your correct about it being rare on STCC, well, on Silver+Gold upwards which is where i remember seeing you mostly...and also i have a feeling it has a lot to do with the time your online. There is far less of this behaviour after about 11.00pm UK time..which i put down to having less of the youngsters online (and before i get a right slagging, im not saying all our younger racers are morons, but there are certainly more idiots from the younger age groups)

I have (in my limited time racing LFS) nearly always encountered the better behaved racers late at night (europe time)

Sorry about my 'noob' rant. I can tell that most people mean no harm by it, but it's the times when people use it in a certain tone that it really gets on my nerves.

My words weren't so much directed at the LFS community as the online gaming community in general.