I know there are tests at the moment in LFS, but i got the idea from Americas Army Operatations. When you do the training you have to do an "exam paper" where you are asked a question and have a mutliple choice answer, if you fail the test you have to do it again.

Is it possible that something like this could be implemented in LFS, the amount of times people ignor blue flags and stuff leads me to believe they dont know what the flags mean.

Then once you finshs the theory you have to do some of the driving tests, but not all of them because there are a lot!

It would also be good if you got an experience rank or different licences, so when you pass the tests your experience would increase, then on servers, they could restrict the users to a certain licence and skill level.


The actual test then wouldnt effect the cars you can drive, but would limit the number of people that arent willing to learn basic racing theory from access to certain servers.


It would be a huge thing to include, and may not be possible, but its just an idea ....

This is going to be controversal...

Its certainly an interesting idea, but definately one I dont think I'd be keen on.

I found AA to be extremely tedious, although it could be a very good solution.

might be worth a try

Multiple choice tests work as long as noone posts the solutions...

Funny that yo mention it, but I think, the test in AA are really badly excuted gameplaywise. Now, don't get me wrong, they are giving the game a huge increase of atmosphere, but neither the medic, nor the spec-ops test had any connection to the game itself, because they asked things which you did no use in the game. It was merely a immersion/time consumption thing.

Quote :

It would also be good if you got an experience rank or different licences, so when you pass the tests your experience would increase, then on servers, they could restrict the users to a certain licence and skill level.

This was something I suggested back in the s2 demo when we had all that k-ring f08 carnage and wreckers everywhere, but the idea got shouted down in rsc forum at the time. I still think it's a good idea, leaning more towards a grand-turismo career-style angle of online gameplay. :up:

Quote from ColeusRattus :

Multiple choice tests work as long as noone posts the solutions...

Funny that yo mention it, but I think, the test in AA are really badly excuted gameplaywise. Now, don't get me wrong, they are giving the game a huge increase of atmosphere, but neither the medic, nor the spec-ops test had any connection to the game itself, because they asked things which you did no use in the game. It was merely a immersion/time consumption thing.

Yep, thats true that is wasnt all relavent, but people who want to race and understand racing will surely not mind answering the questions, which they probably allready know. And people that just dont care about racing rules, will be more likely to race in servers with similar people.

The fact that it will be a little bit time consuming will deter the people that dont care, which is what the system would be aiming to do. Allow the people that have a good knowledge of racing to compete against each other, and people that cant be bothered to answer some simple questions, that they need to know, to race with each other.

Quote from al heeley :

This was something I suggested back in the s2 demo when we had all that k-ring f08 carnage and wreckers everywhere, but the idea got shouted down in rsc forum at the time. I still think it's a good idea, leaning more towards a grand-turismo career-style angle of online gameplay. :up:

But your idea was probably aimed at driving the cars. So you would need a certain licence to drive a certain car.

My idea is that you can drive any car you want, but the more experience you have, and the more you understand about racing rules, the more servers will be available and the more likely you are to having a good clean race.

This would be a good option, but if u start LFS by buying a license, u can only join the "bad crashing" or the "i dont care as long as i drive" so they couldn`t learn (apart from "training" lol) to drive in a "correct" way and not 2 become a crasher...

Also, there are many ppl who "crash n burn" although they have enough experience in racing, credits and all the other stuff (I know, the most of u wouldnt do that... )

difficult, difficult, but i`m sure, there will be a solution...
(maybe there should be smthg like an "official banlist" 2 download 4 the hosts, or u use the "private" protection implemented in LFS by setting a server password...)

I think this is a bad idea.

It's easy for those of us who already race to want these sorts of things to prevent "newbie T1 crashes" and such but the plain fact of the matter is that no "test" is going to prevent this from happening. Not to mention the fact that I, for one, would not want to have to take a "test" to play a game that I paid my hard earned money for. Take a look around at the reviews of GT Legends. The most hated part of that game is that certain cars are locked until you beat races to unlock them. This would be taken the same way, with races/servers locked until you took some sort of exam.

If the idea behind this idea is to prevent wreckers (even unintentional ones), it won't work.

I also think it is a very bad idea.

Such a method of keeping idiots of the track would only have the result of curtailing the prospects of lfs. I would not want to pay money for a game then have to sit a test in order to tell whether I was allowed to play it.

This really is a case of a proposed solution to a problem being worse than the problem it attempts to solve.

I have the same opinion about having to unlock cars/tracks very bad idea in my opinion.

I am one of the nubs around ... well actually I think that it could be a good idea to have a sort of "licence" to race with fastest cars and/or to join certain servers.

For example you could have to pass a licence test based on lap time to get to the internet servers and race with other people, once you have completed all the tracks lap time licence (that should NOT a WR time reach ), when a "nub" join a server he knows how to race decently.

Single player can be "open" to every car/circuit ... multiplayer "drive licence" based.

Actually is what i do by my self ... i load a single player race on a "new" track and i start race on it by my self untill i get used to ... then ... i join on line races.

So IMHO :

Join a multiplayer server should be "open" to everyone, but car selection should be "lock" untill you pass a "race licence". In this way "nubs" can watch the races, try to understand lines, speed and so on, but can't really join (and waste) races.

"Race licence" should be fair, not to so hard, not so easy. For example based on "Best of 3 laps" way.

After "X" number of ban from a server with "race licence", you have to do the licence again. (This could be stupid, but I like it ... ).

I think the best thing would be to have a driving school like the one that was implemented in RBR. But nothing with time trial (this was also in RBR and it was tough at first). Something where the base (race) driving techniques are explained. In detail this could be these things:

- How to accelerate and brake.
- How to drive different forms of corners (and also different possibilities)
- Acceleration out of a corner ( for FWD, RWD and AWD)
- Different forms of acceleration (smooth acceleration, or pump acceleration --> don't know how you called it really but this is used sometimes withy Turbos, you pump the throttle out of corners.)
- Braking into a corner (Different forms, like finishing braking before corner or trailbraking)
- How to catch an understeering and oversteering car.

I think if these things are explained in a good manner, (of course with tests) this would be enough to start with. Nothing to difficult, but these are the bases.
And I also think it could be beneficial to set this trials as a must, cause I've often see poeple on public servers that have a very odd way of driving through corners, if they 'learned' how to drive through a corner it would give more fun, not only to them, but also for all the others as they probably would be faster then.
I don't like time trials, as this depents to much on the individual driver skills and/or experience.

IMO this is not a bad idea, but problem of if is ineffectivness. Anyone can complete the test, but only reasonable racer will also keep the rules on the track. For elimination of these bad guys we have ban and kick, it works much better that a rules test.....

the problem with light and shadow, you can't have one without the other...

Yes it's clear that these tests are for reasonable drivers, or the ones who want to become reasonable drivers. For the ones that never drove any sims, so that they actually could learn how the driving techniques are. As this would facilitate there start in LFS. From time to time I find myself on a server where I'm running much faster than others, they then ask me for my setup, which im willingly share. What happens next: They still drive crap times because they just don't seem to know that there is something like an ideal line through a corner. I meant it for such poeple in the first place.

One things for sure: With seeing driving lines you don't get fast, you still have to practice.
Second thing: Wreckers will be wreckers, you can't change them by teaching them how to drive. (Actually there are also pretty fast wreckers out there.)

While I do think we need something like this in place, it unfortunately seems to be one of the dreaded things that only work in theory.

Something that prevents you from playing the game right away, a barrier so to say, is always a turnoff for people, and most will probably "play" through it annoyed, without learning anything from it. Learning only occurs when it comes from free will, and so we should have something that is a "can do" but not a "must do".

I think a button "How to drive" with multiple replays and commentary would be a sweet thing, some replays showing how to properly take corners (when to accellerate, what line, etc) and others the behaviour around other drivers. These should explain what to do and why to do it this way; and c'mon, knowing human behaviour, people will always be curious what's behind that button, especially newbies.

Nascar Racing 2002 was good in the respect to having lessons to watch rather than having to actually go through lessons to be able to use the software. Although it was annoying Darrell Waltrip, he took you through a lap at every stock track, explaining when to brake, turn, get back on the throttle, what speed you should be at in the turn, etc. These disappeared in 2003, but in both 2002/3 there were other lessons to watch from basic car handling to Nascar specific rules and regulations. They were a bit too much, but for our purposes, a lesson or 2 on the proper online racing ediquet would do. If it wasn't too long, then it could be mandatory to watch before going online for the first time. Won't help with the purpose wreckers, but I think most who are serious about racing online would take a few minutes to watch and actually learn something from it. That way, we wouldn't have the new guys coming on and not having any clue how to drive online with flags and respect for themselves being slower than everyone else at first.

For a contrast in making someone drive training lessons with a crappy stock setup to watching a "video" lesson on driving or rules, I've watched all of them including all the track lessons in NR2002 and I've only attempted 1 lesson in LFS and gave up when I had to brake and with the stock setup, it was way too touchy and I couldn't do what it wanted with even 1/4 deflection of my brake pedal. I especially can't do the lessons now, as I've been driving way to long with the good setups I've aquired to do lessons with the default set.

I don't mind new guys on the track who can't drive as fast as the veterans, as long as they have a little common sense and understanding of racing and flag rules, etc.

Quote from Cue-Ball :

Not to mention the fact that I, for one, would not want to have to take a "test" to play a game that I paid my hard earned money for.

Have you ever played the Playstation game Driver? You had to take a test of your driving skills. There were 10 things you had to do, I think. You had to first prove that you could do each skill, such as a sliding u-turn, individually, and at the end, you had to do ALL of them in a certain amount of time. Now, most of these skills would not be good in LFS. However, the point I am making is that to be able to play the game, and IMO, to play it well, you needed to have these skills. I don't think things tested on "paper" are things that cannot be tested on track, so all skills needed can be tested in the car park, and on certain tracks. I am looking forward to the time when we have to pass the tests to unlock certain cars.

Quote from banshee56 :

Have you ever played the Playstation game Driver? You had to take a test of your driving skills. <snip> I am looking forward to the time when we have to pass the tests to unlock certain cars.

Yes. I played it. And I HATED that. Ditto for all the pointless tests in Gran Turismo. I paid my money to play the game, not to be tested to make sure it's okay for me to play the game.

The less that LFS resembles a Playstation game, the better.

Edit: Here's the bottom line: What's the point of all these proposed tests? What is it that they're supposed to accomplish? If the idea is to make people better drivers before they play online it won't work. You can't force someone to play by the rules this way, but you sure can push away people who want to play but don't want to suffer through these pointless tests. I have no objection to putting additional driving tests in the game. In fact, I'm all for it - so long as they're not mandatory. But i'm very against being forced to pass these tests in order to play.