This might sound like a bit of a cry, but with the ability of set ups i get the feeling that some people might be able to exploit the game a little, getting an unfair advantage over other racers.

Is there an option where you can force everyone to use the standard set up for a car in an online game so everyone is on equal ground?

If not does anyone think it'd be a good option to implement?


It's just been bothering me for a little bit and i couldn't find anything about it.

The forum search function is a handy thing

No there is no option.

No Explioit, because everyone has the same options.

Yes, a forced setup option would be a good idea.

And yes it has been posted as a request serveroption in suggestions already.

yeah i dunno, i guess i just kinda feel cheated when the main difference between me and first place is some guys spent hours fiddling with computer settings

takes away from the pure racing part of it

Quote from danben7 :

yeah i dunno, i guess i just kinda feel cheated when the main difference between me and first place is some guys spent hours fiddling with computer settings

takes away from the pure racing part of it

So you think that the main reason you can't win is down to setups?.

Sorry, but I very much doubt thats true.

Quote from danben7 :

yeah i dunno, i guess i just kinda feel cheated when the main difference between me and first place is some guys spent hours fiddling with computer settings

takes away from the pure racing part of it

Merry Christmas.

Setups aren't the "be all and end all" as people seem to think. Setups will add about .5 seconds maximum IF your on the limit of what your current setup will do - and if your 4 seconds off pace your not

Quote from danowat :

So you think that the main reason you can't win is down to setups?.

Sorry, but I very much doubt thats true.

yeah, haha i know it sounds up myself, but i do feel as though i'm at a disadvantage

i'll try these set ups and see how big a difference it'll make.

The difference isn't huge, if you are a fair way of the pace, I would look at your driving first before deciding it's the setup that makes the difference, heck, post a replay here, and we can take a look at it.

IMO, the difference between a good setup and a REALLY good setup is maybe 0.5-1% of the laptime.

Of course you are at a disadvantage if you use the default setups or a bad self-creation, but don't think that you'll be anywhere close to WR times just because you drive a WR setup.

Quote from AndroidXP :

Of course you are at a disadvantage if you use the default setups or a bad self-creation, but don't think that you'll be anywhere close to WR times just because you drive a WR setup.

haha yeah, well i just tried a quick run on the same car/course as i last raced online, with the new setup i dropped 3 seconds off my time.
Difference in turn in and braking was huge.
the other thing that was bothering me is corner cutting, i don't do it maybe i should start

BUT, i was no where near the guy who created it, 5 secs off his



I dunno, i do a bit of track driving in real life and just expected to be pretty good at this straight away


I would like to see a default only option for online races though, for the moment i'll stick with the defaults, see how much i can improve on them.

PLEASE use "Race_S" rather than "Race_1" or "Hard Track", "Race_S" is actually a fairly good base setup whereas the other two are crap.

As realistic and physically accurate as LFS might be, being fast in a game/simulator and in a real car are two completely different things.

It's probably easy to shave off another 3 seconds once you get a feel for LFS' physics and learn to interpret the cues it gives, but after that the next second to improve gets already much harder and the last remaining one will take you months if not years - or, like most people, you probably will never reach WR times. However, to have fun races that isn't even necessary, and I say once you manage to get within 103% of the WR in a few laps on any car/track combo you're already pretty well off.


Anyway, I agree with the server option to force a certain setup.

yeah out of all the sims i've tried LFS is the closest to real life

the main difference and problem i've had getting used to is the rear sliding, normally you feel it in your arse and you can anticipate it easily, in LFS i sorta had to learn how far i could push then try and feel it through the steering wheel, haha it's a weird feeling

Quote from danben7 :

yeah out of all the sims i've tried LFS is the closest to real life

the main difference and problem i've had getting used to is the rear sliding, normally you feel it in your arse and you can anticipate it easily, in LFS i sorta had to learn how far i could push then try and feel it through the steering wheel, haha it's a weird feeling

Liking that... hey?

If someone is better because of hours spent behind the wheel, it's ok, but if he is also better because of hours spent setting up his car, it's not ok? Every one can do that. If he is lazy or doesn't know how to set up his car properly, it's his problem. Laziness and ignorance are not an excuse.

and I'm driving FZR with default setup, hehe.

Quote from SpikeyMarcoD :

Liking that... hey?

haha it sounds bad now that i read it back

Quote from breadfan :

If someone is better because of hours spent behind the wheel, it's ok, but if he is also better because of hours spent setting up his car, it's not ok? Every one can do that. If he is lazy or doesn't know how to set up his car properly, it's his problem. Laziness and ignorance are not an excuse.

and I'm driving FZR with default setup, hehe.

yeah but my point was it's a driving simulator, not a nerdy setup simulator

ah i dunno, like i said, just having a cry

OK I get your point and I'm not saying that I disagree with you. I am just presenting my opinion. Anyway, I am for everything that adds more possibilities to LFS, be it new content or new options. The one that you have presented (server side setup-disable thing) is a good idea, while it can be turned on/off. I still think that LFS is 50:50 about driving and setups (because you have to be good at both to win) but I will support your idea

The key is, once you know the cars and know the tracks, you can learn to drive the setup. The reason folks state that it is more driver than setup is because you can learn to drive any setup. You may not like the setup, and may do better with one tailored to your own driving style, but you should still be able to drive any setup (yes, you can have a set that is terrible and impossible to make decent times though).

When you don't have to concentrate on the actual track layout, and you understand how the feedback from LFS relates to how the car is driving, then you should be able to know how to drive the car whether it is understeering, oversteering, terrible braking, etc, from the feeling you get back through the wheel FF and through visuals and sound.

My example is Westhill in the FZR that I was running around with someone I hadn't seen in quite some time. We both had PB's around the same time, mid 1:31's. We were the only 2 on the server and was more messing about than racing. We swapped setups. I don't like hugely oversteering sets. At Westhill, I have more of an early turn-in and 4 wheel drift style of lapping. His set I tried, the first corner, the car ran straight into the sand. My setup he tried, he spun out on every corner. I don't think mine oversteers much at all, but he said he couldn't keep the back end in line. After 3 or 4 laps, both of us were running close to our own PB times with each other's setups, even though they were VERY different. You just know what to expect from the car, and you adjust your driving to suit.

Quote from mrodgers :

The key is, once you know the cars and know the tracks, you can learn to drive the setup. The reason folks state that it is more driver than setup is because you can learn to drive any setup. You may not like the setup, and may do better with one tailored to your own driving style, but you should still be able to drive any setup (yes, you can have a set that is terrible and impossible to make decent times though).

When you don't have to concentrate on the actual track layout, and you understand how the feedback from LFS relates to how the car is driving, then you should be able to know how to drive the car whether it is understeering, oversteering, terrible braking, etc, from the feeling you get back through the wheel FF and through visuals and sound.

My example is Westhill in the FZR that I was running around with someone I hadn't seen in quite some time. We both had PB's around the same time, mid 1:31's. We were the only 2 on the server and was more messing about than racing. We swapped setups. I don't like hugely oversteering sets. At Westhill, I have more of an early turn-in and 4 wheel drift style of lapping. His set I tried, the first corner, the car ran straight into the sand. My setup he tried, he spun out on every corner. I don't think mine oversteers much at all, but he said he couldn't keep the back end in line. After 3 or 4 laps, both of us were running close to our own PB times with each other's setups, even though they were VERY different. You just know what to expect from the car, and you adjust your driving to suit.

Totaly right ! It is exacly the same thing like when you drive a new car or when you have more than 2 cars to drive and switch between them with different clutch diff press on the throttle diff brakes and at the beggining you may even fail to start the car but after 5-10 min and a couple of turns you are There again 100 %

Ones you say "stupid car sucks the other was better" and after that "ohh its ok now it rocks" i like this feeling =)

Quote from Jakg :

Merry Christmas.

Setups aren't the "be all and end all" as people seem to think. Setups will add about .5 seconds maximum IF your on the limit of what your current setup will do - and if your 4 seconds off pace your not

Try to get as close to a WR as you can with the RACE_S setup with the XRT, then you tell me its not down to setups.. thats like 1 even 2 seconds off the pace

Quote from danben7 :

This might sound like a bit of a cry, but with the ability of set ups i get the feeling that some people might be able to exploit the game a little, getting an unfair advantage over other racers.

Is there an option where you can force everyone to use the standard set up for a car in an online game so everyone is on equal ground?

If not does anyone think it'd be a good option to implement?


It's just been bothering me for a little bit and i couldn't find anything about it.

Umm, the idea of a set up is to make your car handle better for that perticular track.

For example, I took the standard "hard track" and spent 4 hours tweaking it for my XFG. I use the set at every track, it works for me.

However, it does not work for my freind. He cant race well with it.

I gain no "performance" advantage, nor infact, does anyone else who uses a setup.

I'm sure 80% of people use setups from Team Inferno's setup field.

However, some people, me included, find that thier sets dont always match with your driving style.

If you are beaten by someone, its because they are a better driver. You cant gain any unfair advantages by changing a cars setup.

And if you specialize in a paticular car, for example Me and the XFG, that helps alot
Next.

Quote from BlueFlame :

Try to get as close to a WR as you can with the RACE_S setup with the XRT, then you tell me its not down to setups.. thats like 1 even 2 seconds off the pace

When i was gunning for a WR at a certain SO/FO8 combo (i still want the record, so i aint posting it fearing some fast bastards gonna beat me!) having the "wrong" setup made .5 difference, however i did crash a little more, but purely because when you use every inch of the track and you go a cm wide, it's nasty!

Quote from mrodgers :

The key is, once you know the cars and know the tracks, you can learn to drive the setup. The reason folks state that it is more driver than setup is because you can learn to drive any setup. You may not like the setup, and may do better with one tailored to your own driving style, but you should still be able to drive any setup (yes, you can have a set that is terrible and impossible to make decent times though).

When you don't have to concentrate on the actual track layout, and you understand how the feedback from LFS relates to how the car is driving, then you should be able to know how to drive the car whether it is understeering, oversteering, terrible braking, etc, from the feeling you get back through the wheel FF and through visuals and sound.

There are numerous examples of professional race drivers being completely unable to drive a teammate's setup (Graham Rahal and Sebastien Bourdais in Champ Car are the most recent example I can think of), and those are people with (a) more talent than any of us, and (b) teams of engineers dedicated to fine-tuning the car.

In a noncompetitive situation, driving an uncomfortable setup can teach you things, as it may force you to drive properly in instances in which your preferred setup might have been covering for hamfistedness.

But in a race, when one has to be thinking about race strategy and about how the car immediately in front and the one coming up the inside are going to force a different line through the upcoming corner, it helps to not also have to be thinking "Oh, yeah, and this car doesn't rotate as much I'd like on entry, and thus requires more trail-braking to the apex." That's one too many conscious thoughts to have running around my noggin at race speeds.

I'm not trying to completely refute what you're trying to say, as I think you have a point. I guess I think set ups matter a bit more than you're saying.

There are some things about setups in LFS that are a bit contrary to real cars. You can build setups in LFS that are very opposite of how you would setup a car in real life, and you get good or better results than you would if you set it up "right". Some of these tricks will show up in most of the sets used for hot laps.
Also, there is a huge wide range of changes that can be made that wouldn't be possible on a real car. For example, you are not going to find springs for your personal car (even if there is a club race class it is used in) that give you spring rates above about 4 Hz. In LFS, it is possible to do such things. If you could find those springs, you wouldn't be able to find dampers to match. (Assuming you are not using a cutting torch and TIG welder to greatly modify the car)

But, still LFS is much better (IMHO) than the other sims out there right now. You can really feel small changes in setup, which I find amazing.

A good set will allow you to be more consistent, and therefore, faster eventually because you can find the little problems with your line and fix them. With an unstable set, you might be fast for a few laps, but you will wreck a lot too. You won't drive a consistent line making hard to evaluate your progress.