Although I can definitely see why the devs want to just focus on what they are doing now. Trying to organize and import 3rd party content certainly would be more work. They have shown a preference to want to work on whatever part of LFS they currently see as the priority. Opening up formats for people to be able to use would also lead to an increased chance of hacking. Trying to open up formats when future development will change those formats would also add another level of headaches. Having to worry about being sued because some person included copyrighted content in something they submitted to and was included in LFS would also open up a lot more legal issues and worries.
But these are all issues that will have to be faced eventually.
Compared to what? Which is harder, creating a model from scratch or importing a completed model into the game? Admittedly, none of us really knows exactly how cars and tracks are put into the game, but I have to believe that designing the car and creating the model are 80% of the work, while importing it, setting suspension hardpoints, and determining balancing are the other 20%.
There's no reason that the LFS formats would have to be opened up to the public. Again, nobody but the devs know for sure how development is handled, but I would be willing to bet good money that Eric creates his tracks and cars in a standard program (like 3D Studio), then imports them into the game. So, while they may use a proprietary format in the actual game, they were most likely created with standard tools that are available to the public.
I have a feeling that Scawen and Victor rather enjoy what they do (coding and graphicsing respectively). But if a move was made to allow others to contribute to LFS, then both would have less time to do what they enjoy and would have to spend more time in a 'project management' kind of role; reviewing other people's work, managing changes and organising people, etc. And compared to being creative, this type of management work is boring
i know if i was making lfs i wouldnt want any other people to start helping. what if people who helped started demanding royalties and al tat sort of crap. plus if the only the devs do al the work, then they can call lfs "their" work without any doubt.
You're saying we shouldn't have more content because LFSW and the master server might not be able to populate so many results??!
Either way there are far more plus points to this idea then negative, I bet if user submitted content came out the 'nay' sayers would soon change their tune. Everyone wants more content so who cares if its from Eric or some other equally talented forum goer? You're still going to drive on/in it who ever made it, and you're still going to enjoy it so where's the problem?
Also there really doesn't need to be a committee to decide this so Scawen can continue to code his stuff, let Eric work with the people who create the content to improve or change bits. It will make his life easier and in the process we get new tracks/cars/etc.
The phrase: "Too many cooks spoils the broth" comes to mind.
- Basically it almost would amount to asking the dev team to stop developing, and move to become a test and implement team.
- Online gameplay would be affected (not necessarily hurt), but if 4x the cars and 4x times the tracks showed up, there would be a noticable toll.
I think if someday the community could be allowed to expand on the LFS core, i.e. only adding a car that fits well within a current class, and to full LFS standards, it could be benificial.
- Unfortunately, there is no feasible way for a community to really ensure that whatever is added is up to snuff. I know people out there are capable of adding top-notch additions, but I would be terrified if LFS allowed mediocre content.
I would hope LFS can remain relevent as it runs its course. Once the game reaches its penultimate stage, perhaps the superb physics base can be used outside the LFS developed content.
I think you're right, but I also think the "nay sayers" are not against the idea of extra content, but rather enjoy the organisation and structure of LFS at the moment, and only want extra content if it will not upset that balance.
Noone wants poor tracks and cars. They might be fun for 5 minutes, but (I believe) we want content with the lifespan of the current content, even if that means actually having less content. With organisation, and a large level of quality-control, then I think every one of us would welcome 3rd party tracks and cars.
Not in the least! Scawen could still do all the same stuff he does now. Eric currently handles all of the car and track modeling, so he should be the only one really affected. And, again, it's probably going to be a lot easer for him to import a quality car model than it would be to create one from scratch.
This may be true to a certain extent. However, I would argue that the effect would be positive, not negative. People would be able to drive the cars that they really want to drive, instead of the cars that are the closest thing that we currently have. And just think of how many more people we could bring into the community. Add a 60's F1 car and we might get more of the GPL crowd. Add a stock car and we might get more of the NR2003 crowd. Add a Formula Ford and we might get more club racers. Add a stadium truck or buggy and we'll get the off-road enthusiasts. The list goes on. And you can look at it another way as well...people are always saying that they want more cars in each class. What if we had 5 GTR cars instead of 3? What if there were a mid-engine MR2-type car to compete with the XRG and XFG? Quite the opposite of driving people away, you would create even more diversity in each class, and draw more people in to the races. In the same way, there are always people complaining about Aston being run on so many servers. Well, what if we had two other tracks that had the feel of Aston (long, high speed tracks), but that were totally different? Something like a super hilly, fantasy Bathurst or a clean and wide Miller Motorsports Park type track.
I love LFS as it is, but I would be lying if I said I wouldn't like to see another dozen tracks and cars. I don't want LFS to turn into rFactor, and I don't want to see it openly modded. But I do want to see more content, and I think the community is the best way to get a lot of great content without a lot of work from the devs.
Also, this could be an additional revenue stream for Scavier. I think that most users would be willing to pay a few bucks for a track/car pack (lets say, three new cars and two new tracks for 5 pounds). It's a win-win situation. It would keep the game fresh, add to the community, and please the fans. We get the content that we want and the devs get enough money to make it worth their while.
ok ill make this real simple for you
real tracks and real cars require real world real licencing which costs real money
the devs real-ly cannot approve real tracks to be added to their real sim unless someone real-ly pays the real licencing fees
so the only option would be to open lfs for modding with mods being added by the users rather than the devs with 0 approval process which will lead to an rfactor situation with a pletora of real-ly sucky mods
Or then we would have already more content than S2 currently covers... and we would be still waiting S3 what would have even more content.
You missed all the posts about the "mods approved by devs" idea? That does not mean they would be bundled with the core game and basicly it would avoid the licensing issue.
Anyone real-ly know if having an official 'approved by the Devs' stamp could open the door for legal cases?
(edit)
Shaky example: Someone steals samples or textures by from other games and does a content mod. Having a seal of approval (maybe the mod maker didn't come clean about the source material) could be taken as encouragement.
The mods for rFactor are not made by the rFactor devs themselves.
I haven´t seen ayone object to real tracks. Some people just don´t think they´re essential to enjoy the sim fully. So they would welcome them if they would get them, but if they don´t it´s fine as well.
