Fairly new to LFS and have a question about blue flags. How do you know if the car in front of you is being blue flagged because you are about to lap it (as opposed to racing it for position)? Is there any kind of on screen indication (for the lapping car driver) that I've missed?
You can tell by the colour of their icon on your mini-map.
If they are infront of you and its a orangey colour, they will have the blue flag. If its yellow, its for position and if its bright yellow, they are a lap or so ahead of you.
EDIT: Raced you at Redline Racing 2 today, never guessed you were new. Welcome.
EDIT2: 5k miles, not ever so new
Ah, yes, thanks. But I guess you still don't know when the driver in front actually gets the blue flag message - presumably when you are close enough (number of car lengths?), which I guess you can learn through experience.
Do you know what the exact criterion for the blue flag appearing is? Is it a certain time gap or a certain distance? None of the threads ive searched has any concrete info on it nor does the manual. If its not out there ill just have to acquire a "feel" for it.
EDIT: Beat me to it.
If its me, i normally like to indicate the appearance of a blue flag on my screen to the lapping car by panicking, losing control and veering off the track into a barrier.
I have seen times where the blue flag is displayed way too late. Just a bit ago I was with a few others on a server just running some qualifying and had someone come up behind and pass without ever seeing the flag. Also had someone run right up on me and that is when the flag came. Sometimes, if you have mirror LOD's low, they can sneak up behind you without you seeing them, and the blue flag is coming out just as they enter your mirror view from the low LOD's.
I dont think this is worth worrying about, LFS lets them know, just concentrate on what your doing & where you're gona make the pass. Please dont become one of those Blue flag spammers who think they own the track.
Doesn't matter - if you are faster than the car in front, pass it. If they are being lapped chances are they won't fight back, if they aren't then they probably will.
Don't wait for lapped drivers to get out of the way - they don't need to.
Having seen DGW on track I dont think that was the angle he was coming at this from. I would imagine, although he can correct and clarify himself later obviously, it is more from a planning perspective.
It seems sensible to assume that the car you are lapping has his own priorities and may not always be aware that a faster racer is appearing behind them. If you know when the car in front is being given the blue flag warning, you may be able to hypothesise when they will allow you to get by.
For example, approaching a corner. Has the car in front been made aware there is another racer closing early or close to turn in? With this information you might be able to make a more educated decision on whether to close up in case they leave the door open for you on corner entry or to give them some breathing space to compensate for newer drivers (who might have much longer braking zones or strange lines). You can then plan on waiting for a better opportunity when they have composed themselves and made a decision. Of course i may be overthinking this, thats what a morning reading about significant overlap and race theory does to you.
anttt69 - don't worry, I've no intention of spamming anyone with blue flag messages.
JimmyTH - yes that's exactly right. What I was thinking was that if you are gaining on/close to a car in front and it seems to take a wide line into a corner and you know it's being blue flagged then you know that the driver is probably aware of you and is probably going wide to let you through (rather than simply getting the corner wrong and being about to charge back to the apex etc). What I was thinking was that on a real track both drivers get a chance to see the blue flag (although I guess this does not mean that either actually see it). In contast in LFS only one driver (the one about to be lapped) gets to see it.
As others have said here perhaps the best thing is to worry about the pass - if there's a safe gap go for it - rather than wondering why there's a gap.
