The road cars would be available with one IRL, that's reason enough. Obviously it would be silly for everything but the road cars.
Struggle all you want, but conventional autos ARE better for drag racing because they allow better control of launches, instant shifting, and guess what - they can (generally) handle higher torque throughput than a typical manual can simply by design; how do you like that?
Go hang out at a drag strip one Friday night, and see what percentage 11s or quicker cars run a manual!
edit: @above, not just "easier" to launch, which is true, but also MUCH easier on the trans. Repeatedly lauching a 600+ HP car with a clutch is just a source of heat, wear, and a money pit - all for something that doesn't work that well.
The strip may be a side novelty for now, but hopefully it won't in the future. Might as well consider what types of cars should eventually run there!
Just for realism? When was the last time you saw someone drag racing a car other than a 60's / 70's American Musclecar or a purpose built top fuel drag car with an automatic transmission? You won't see folks dragging a Japanese/German car with and automatic transmission.
When we see Musclecars in LFS, then I say code a proper drag auto tranny. Until then, it's a waste of time coding a real auto with cars such as the FXO or XRT type.
Fine, then either remove the magic autoshifting manual, or add the proper auto. Yes, that means no auto shifting in cars other than road cars. If you can't drive a manual, you shouldn't be driving race vehicles anyway. :P
But perhaps we need to step down a bit and allow that auto gears for race cars as there might be some really nice kid that has lost his arm and we don't like to spoil fun from him, even he would be somewhat slower by automatic
One thing we could also demand is gearbox casing flex.
When you put enough power trough box it's casing is about to flex and that is one reason why boxes fail.
Now thinking about situation that we could adjust our boost level a bit, so one could theoretically 'tweak' car to have more power, currently no any limitation, but doing gearbox flex with simple model (perhaps bit like ROR / bridgebuilder, you really need few links for this so not so expensive), now that would make whole lot of difference, shift badly and kaboom, that would be nice touch of realism
even cruisers use manual. we aren't lazy. cruise servers are like an AutoX layout. we try to drive around the barriers as fast as possible while avoiding police and other cars.
But a) YOU don't own it and b) You aren't restricted to number and letter combinations like a numberplate is, so it just ends up looking like your fingers went a bit mad on the keyboard
We're not really thinking of reasons why autos shouldn't be in LFS. We're just struggling of sensible reasons for their inclusion (apart from relevant drag cars). No one else would want to use an auto for racing so, quite simply, why bother wasting time coding one. If newbies (and noobs) want a shifting aid, then the current one is fine - it'll do it for you, until you can do it yourself.
I CAN shift manual and as I have said several times i always use manual. Just because i like the idea of a proper auto doesn't mean I cant race with manual!!!!!! Get the idea out of your head that i can't change gears... I CAN!!!
And stop having a go at my name... its fine...
'HAHA your name is XYZ'
'HAHA your name is ABC'
You don't need to complain about everything you see that you don't like.
Everyone I have talked to has called me Joseph so obviously it doesnt look like i have randomly mashed the keyboard.
Auto > Manual in drag, Auto sucks for racing, y can't people learn to drive manual, yada yada yada...
Why not the devs add hydraulic auto gearbox for the road cars as an option, taking into account the extra weight and stuff, and then those that want to race auto can do so and those that swear by manual can do so and then we can RACE TO SEE WHICH IS BETTER!!