When I got LFS I bought S2 straight away without trying the demo online first. Boy am I glad I didn't!

It was like a destruction derby. People wrecking for the hell of it, starting ban votes on the leaders for no apparent reason, constant swearing and abuse. It seemed only a couple of the faster racers knew how to pass cleanly and the rest of the field would try to put you on the grass in order to get past.

In short, if this was my first impression of LFS, I wouldn't have bothered. I understand there is a disclaimer about demo servers before you join, but still.

There must be a lot of potential S2 purchasers out there not taking the plunge due to behaviour in the demo, and this is money the devs could do with.

The solution, not sure. But I do think that the demo is almost too fully featured.. It seems that many racers are happy to just use the demo features (and wreck) without feeling the need to buy S2. Just my 2 pence worth. What do you (more experienced ) guys think?

I agree with your last note about the demo being too beefy. It would be hard to find any other demo that has the features LFS offers for free (even the crappy arcade sims don't get this much demo content) Although I am working on getting the cash together to buy LFS, I still see lots of people that just play the demo, and are perfectly happy with whats there, with no thoughts of ever getting S2. Really tragic, because the licensing system is very professional, and has many many features. Not to mention the racing is a lot cleaner and faster.
~Bryan~

I agree mostly - our demo is way too complete. There should be one car (the XRT), one track (BL1), and limits on lengths of races (in terms of laps AND time elapsed), with a max grid of 6.

But it's up to Scawen, and if he is happy with the demo then our opinions are pointless.

what demo server were you on - most of them are fine..... apart from the odd crasher, but he is usually banned pretty quick. And most demoers are intellegent enough to know that the person setting fastest laps is not usually a crasher.

I reckon the demo is pretty much spot on in terms of content. If only one car were provided, you wouldn't get a sense of the diverse handling and feel of different cars. Been ages since I played demo but isn't it just Blackwood and the AutoX? Again, I don't see a problem. That's basically one racing track (any less than one isn't so good), one rally, and a place to muck about and get a feel for the cars.

A timed demo wouldn't work for LFS because it takes a lot longer than 60 minutes, or even 30 days- to start to feel comfortable with the sim, which is when people are most likely to buy.

People should know that the quality and quantity of racing on S2 servers is elevated far beyond what the demo offers. The demo, from my way of thinking, is merely a taste.

I think that having the BL Carpark in the Demo is stupid, because all it's used as a excuse to wreck people for no reason. I've actually had some fun in demo, spending a while getting the wreckers weeded out, by vote-banning with some of the more serious racers, and then it is good.

It`s not just demoservers, which contains bad drivers

It only take one, or two rotten apples, to spoil the races for many

I have an idea, about ppl, maby young ppl, playing need for speed, and other cargames, and they behave in the same, way, in Lfs.

Yesterday I was on a CTRA server, with about 8 ppl. I was hitted in the three first races !? That`s some of the most protected servers, so the problem is overall in the Lfs community. It will first stop, when we get cars, that can really go broken - Then they`ll learn

I sometimes visit the demo servers, and the ppl "out here" are sometimes better drivers, than the "chosen few"
But there are more wreckers - Real wreckers out there - That I give you. But there are many capable drivers too !

EDIT :

And I think that the demo as is, is very very good. Boy would I like to see other cargames/simulators do the same thing

Quote from J@tko :

what demo server were you on - most of them are fine..... apart from the odd crasher, but he is usually banned pretty quick. And most demoers are intellegent enough to know that the person setting fastest laps is not usually a crasher.

What demo servers are you on?

Playerzone is usually quite a clean server, as is another whose name i cannot remember. Im not saying that there are no crashers, but some people do exagerate the problems of demo servers. which do u use?

I was previously a demo racer since patch Q, and I will tell you now, it is not as bad as all you S2-licensed drivers say it is.

You're only used to how S2 servers are so strictly handled, that once you "downgrade" to a demo server even once, you start ranting about how all demo racers to is wreck and be dumbasses, and you beg and plead for the devs to kill off all the features of demo to likewise kill off all the wreckers.

Demo racers learn to get used to all the wreckers out there, and eventually, clean racing becomes more common, if not as common as the average S2 server. YES, there are many, many wreckers out there in the demo world waiting to pounce on the average racer passing by looking for a good race, but all in all, demo is not as disgusting and waste-of-timeful as many people think.

Quote from J@tko :

Playerzone is usually quite a clean server, as is another whose name i cannot remember. Im not saying that there are no crashers, but some people do exagerate the problems of demo servers. which do u use?

Cool, our server!
As i was in demo, i got wrecked a lot, i did ONE (1) clean race...then came S2!

Quote from J@tko :

Playerzone is usually quite a clean server, as is another whose name i cannot remember. Im not saying that there are no crashers, but some people do exagerate the problems of demo servers. which do u use?

I use the first Rallycross one I can find that'll let me use the XRT and has at least one other person there

i would buy lfs license too but its too exspensive to me (sorry for my bad english)
and i think that demo racers arent so bad at all the newbies only swear and crash alot
even i do crash sometimes big deal

Certainly there is some bad experiences, but there are good demo servers too, those that have admins around that do ban those not capable of following gentleman code.

I have sometimes raced on demo servers and there was really nice people that did drive like many drive in s2, also some new people that were not so skilled but other did help them, gave them setups and they did try to learn at their best, also said thank you and were polite and firendly, I remember several that were sure that they will get S2 soon, so it is not very bad picture that is in my head.

However there has been few small encounters where there was really lot of people on server, there many didn't think others being people with emotions and feelings at all, that made it rather bad experience, but I have thought that would be just minority.

(RANT) im considering taking all the good things ive said back after the experience ive just had. F***ing b****ards all over the bloody place.

(END OF RANT)

Good racing in between tho

I have found some clean demo servers. they are usally XFG @ BL1 or XRT @ BL1. carpark is useless. but then we'd have to kill hte training missions too.

TLDR the whole thread, but the demo is so popular and lots of people prefer staying demo just because it offers the very essence of LFS, which is not the cars, nor the tracks, but the physics. I wouldn't limit the content, I would limit the physics engine.

I would definatly NOT limit the physics engine.

TBH I think the demo does offer too much, and thats why i played it for so long. I got my PB on BL1 XRT down to 1:24.9 before I bought S2. S2 was well worth it though. I was amazed witht the first race that i joined. Everyone made it around the first corner! That just doesn't happen in the demo EVER. It was also funny because I had so much practice in the XFG I started winning simple combos that were easy to learn very quickly (like FE1 XFG).

The other day I wen't on a demo server for some BL1 XFG action but got wrecked within the first lap both times I started. I tried to dodge everyone, but some guy went full throttle into the second right hander, after the big straight, after i passed him around the outside. I rage quited and went back to S2

Sure you can get good races on the demo but its a lot harder than a pickup race in S2.

I think that the demo should only offer the XFG, and XRT, and Blackwood GP forward (not reverse - reverse is popular for drifters). the number of laps should be limited, so that would make drifting servers harder to run. The mode should be limited to race, no practice or qual sessions.

I frequent the demo servers, er... frequently. Not so much lately, but I've jumped on demo often because I do like XFG at BL1, which if I'm in the mood and CTRA isn't currently rotated to it, I go to demo.

I find both worlds on the demo servers. If you sort by connection list and join the server with the most connections, they seem always to be full of wreckers and idiots. There may be 1 or 2 that would be worthwhile racing against, but the 12 others ruin it. You also can't get a race started for about half an hour as everyone is enjoying the crashing after the race more.

If you see servers with around 8-10 others, they are usually calmer, better racers, more frequent and easier race starts, and little post-race crashing.

Any time I am on demo and I have an evening of enjoyable racing with folks, I tell them that we'd be happy to have them enter the world of S2 and that there are very very very few wreckers (at least in my timezone). I also, after telling them I'm S2 licensed, let them know that it was a pleasure racing with them.

well back in the days, i was playing the demo for almost 2 years and finally got bored by finding the right servers and people to have good fights with. Thanks to lfs.de i found a way to get me a licence Now everyone is making a decision for themselves which is obviously quite easy, either you give up or find a way to get a licence.
Thinking about the content and people moaning about the fact that theres just too much i'd like to add that the other main reason for me to get the full game was because there isn't enough, its just right to get an idea and i desperately wanted the check out the rest of the game. I was absolutly stunned and got more then i expected and i can only regret those who are unable to see the potential of this game and simple gave up just because some monkeys are going mad.
Now looking at my current situation, after years im still hooked to the game, im still making new experiences by trying different combos or improve my skills on those i know already. Why? Because this simulation has got a really nice physics engine with a huge variety of combos even if its still under contruction, you can have a quick race or a long run, take part on events and meet a lot of nice people. Now tell me another game which is or was, even under better circumstances as successful as lfs is and will be.

Quote from thestig99 :

What demo servers are you on?

Exactly!

When I played Demo I couldn't get any one of the idiots banned.

It took me about half a year to finally come to the conclusion of buying S2, and I'm glad I did.

I'm only new here on the forum but I've been playing the demo online for a few months now, (only joined the forum cause I'm going to buy it soon) but had I not played on the demo for a while I'd have been banned I'd say, I've learnt a lot by having to go around then annoying crash every corner people and get through the first corner. Its a great place to get a bit of pratcice done first when your not experienced, hell I've had some very good races in there with equally slow people Its just luck of the draw I guess.

Quote from Origamiboy :

When I got LFS I bought S2 straight away without trying the demo online first. Boy am I glad I didn't!

It was like a destruction derby. People wrecking for the hell of it, starting ban votes on the leaders for no apparent reason, constant swearing and abuse. It seemed only a couple of the faster racers knew how to pass cleanly and the rest of the field would try to put you on the grass in order to get past.

In short, if this was my first impression of LFS, I wouldn't have bothered. I understand there is a disclaimer about demo servers before you join, but still.

There must be a lot of potential S2 purchasers out there not taking the plunge due to behaviour in the demo, and this is money the devs could do with.

The solution, not sure. But I do think that the demo is almost too fully featured.. It seems that many racers are happy to just use the demo features (and wreck) without feeling the need to buy S2. Just my 2 pence worth. What do you (more experienced ) guys think?

I normally get looked down upon for this, but i paid my money to the Devs. Previously. I was using an.... 'extended' demo. And thats the only reason I wanted the S2, the demo mentality is just... stupid. And no offence to anyone, they are always talking about their 'friends' subaru and friends Toyota Supra with 1000hp.. LOL

It is weird that there are so many good, fast racers using just the demo. In order to get this fast they would have to have put in quite a few laps. If it was me I would not have the patience to deal with the wreckers long enough to get anywhere.

Kudos to those who race well in the demo, but imagine how good they could be in S2 if they showed the same commitment.

Today I yet again got one of my mates to try LFS. They did, and as usual too, were put off buying the game by demo wreckers.

This is really bad publicity for LFS, I think something needs to be done... But what can we do about it?