Hi, I am new to this game, I have been playing the demo for a few months now and thought it would be time to get the full version, I really hope that soon the S3 version will be available and the add car option will be there too seeing as there is not alot to choose from.

I'd like to see this sort of game become as big if not bigger than the grand turismo series. personally I dislike console games, not sure why, maybe because I am a real hardcore PC fanatic or the fact that I can only play off an LCD monitor becuase of my astigmitism..sp?, either way this game seems like its going for the gold, lets hope it does.

A little about me.

I live in Ontario Canada, 23 years of age and own 2 civics, my real life car experience is with rebuilding honda motors, its my hobby pretty much, I have built many engines and have done countless swaps and turbo installs.

Hope to see some of you online while racing.

Welcome to LFS! I think once you start looking at the variety of car/track combos, you will be pleasantly surprised. You'll be glad you bought the S2 liscense.

Hi Xgen and welcome to the LFS community. We are a bunch of addicts
some more purist than others, but you'll find your place i'm sure.

As for S3, in case you aren't aware, S2 full isn'T even out yet, what
we are using now is an alpha version. So before S3 comes out, S2 full
must be finished

Welcome to the community Xgen.
I too am not a fan of consoles and dont really know why

SD.

Quote from Fonnybone :

Hi Xgen and welcome to the LFS community. We are a bunch of addicts
some more purist than others, but you'll find your place i'm sure.

As for S3, in case you aren't aware, S2 full isn'T even out yet, what
we are using now is an alpha version. So before S3 comes out, S2 full
must be finished

Ahh, ok thanks for the heads up, how long do you think it will be for the full? I know when I first tried the demo the S2 alpha version was out already, this was a few months ago, closer to a year actually.

by the way, what part of canada are you from?

It'll be a while before S3 is out mate. So don't hold your breath. But there is plenty of content in S2 to keep you entertained.

Current estimates say about the same time as Duke Nukem: Forever

No seriously, as LFS only has one coder, the development is understandably slow, so I wouldn't expect S3 this year. Maybe next year or even 2008 are way more realistic estimates but in the end, only time will tell.

Quote from AndroidXP :

Current estimates say about the same time as Duke Nukem: Forever

No seriously, as LFS only has one coder, the development is understandably slow, so I wouldn't expect S3 this year. Maybe next year or even 2008 are way more realistic estimates but in the end, only time will tell.

That said, my main concern would be if LFS would be able to compete with the latest graphic engines at that time. 2008 feels like a decade away when it comes to PC technology. yet its just around the corner. the advancment in PC technology will be way beyond what the engine is made on now. might as well give the game a complete over haul.

In my personal opinnion...LFS is way ahead especially when you add in PitSpotter, Ghostcar, Texture Mods (Clouds, track, pit, tyres, etc.). Be sure to try the Shift+U feature. S2 alpha is way a head of most all betas and certainly better than most available finals. Hey...what's in a name anyway??

That said I think the are missing the boat calling this an Alpha as it may scare many people away! It almost did me. I generally DON'T do alphas but it was a snowy cold day and..........

Quote from Z06Vette :

In my personal opinnion...LFS is way ahead especially when you add in PitSpotter, Ghostcar, Texture Mods (Clouds, track, pit, tyres, etc.). Be sure to try the Shift+U feature. S2 alpha is way a head of most all betas and certainly better than most available finals. Hey...what's in a name anyway??

That said I think the are missing the boat calling this an Alpha as it may scare many people away! It almost did me. I generally DON'T do alphas but it was a snowy cold day and..........

I do agree, it is ahead now, but in 2 years? I like this game alot next to grand turismo 4, this is why I bought it, so yes its ahead of pretty much anything now, but in 2 years? and with the advancement in graphics technology from its competition it hopefully will get a makeover for S3

and what did you want to know about my name?

Anyway, I guess all I'm trying to expess is how worried I am for this games future, I would definetly like to see it move a step ahead and become the next best thing.

Quote from xgen :

I do agree, it is ahead now, but in 2 years? I like this game alot next to grand turismo 4, this is why I bought it, so yes its ahead of pretty much anything now, but in 2 years? and with the advancement in graphics technology from its competition it hopefully will get a makeover for S3

Anyway, I guess all I'm trying to expess is how worried I am for this games future, I would definetly like to see it move a step ahead and become the next best thing.

Yah, we know how you feel, everyone becomes a true supporter of LFS, because its progression is what keeps us involved versus other games that only last for a year or more and just come out with newer titles with different features.

LFS is different, and the way I see it, in its early stages, it had plenty of breathing room to be a breakthough simulation. But now simulations are catching on, and growing to become better and better --- rapidly. There is always this one sim that sets standards in one area, and one in the other. Makes it hard to decide what to choose. We all want a simulation that is a combination of everything, and with LFS in particular, LFS doesn't have everything, but it has something that makes it well-worth the money. The thing is, now people are wanting more and more from LFS and the developers -- probably giving them a heart-attack, or making them pull their hair out! Simulations have caught up with such a fast pace, people are eager to have new things.

This is one issue I see LFS as being in trouble with. LFS has been brought up to this point where once S2 was released, there now is a wide range of things to deal with, making (what I'd imagine) only a 3-man team very hardpressed for time and effort. I see other simulations make a very smart decision of recruiting new team members, to get the job done faster. It may not be their own creative work they dreamed about originally, but business-wise, it is a good move to get the game up to today's standards or everyone's wants and needs. I hate to mention it (again), but LFS seems to be slowing down to a crawl. Yeah yeah, people say that is not true, but if you look at the whole spectrum here and draw out a timeline in your head, you will see a 'graph' representation of fast-to-slow development (kind of like decceleration) that explains why so many of us are worried about what the devs will do next (or IF they will do anything at this time). About 3-4 years ago, it was at an astonishing pace and looking better than nearly all other simulations around. Progress, community activity, etc... it was all at its peak probably about 1 to 2 years ago I'd say. Things came to the customers frequently and consistently. Now there are intermittent pauses and ponderings about what is going to happen next -- mostly worries from fans in this case. Feels kind of like the same dying hope for some West Brothers fans.

So in a way, yeah I feel the same way as you, and understand why people want this game to grow. But in summary, I think three sets of hands won't make our dreams come true for this simulation when looking at how fast simulations are progressing. The last thing LFS needs to deal with is falling behind, as does the racing simulation market as a whole.

And I recall Scawen saying that he was tired of all the people asking for updates and such. But Scawen, to be honest, it is because we admire your abilities, as well as Eric and Victor's, and we all think you can do more and more. And we don't want to lose touch with you and/or the game. I look at it as a compliment, but then again, it is also annoying for you, yeah .
:lovies3d:

A bit of a turn for this thread, but I have a sense that some people could agree with this (or at least the veterans who have been around for a while).

Firstly Tweak I can see were your coming from .

But for us as external observers of the development process things can be rather deceptive I feel . What I mean by that is that before there was any public knowledge of LFS at all, pre 2002 and early 2002 the dev's were already working on the project. Scawen may have had the idea knocking around in his head for 10 years we don't know.

The way I see it is that in the years when you felt like it was LFS's hayday the developers had already put alot of work into the foundations of the sim and were then, in that time frame you site, adding content and polishing the "diamond in the rough" they had carved out earlier. What we are seeing now, is the developers going back to the foundations and strengthening them substanially, which will put this sim in a great position for the future. Although development feels like it is slow now, I believe it's because it is on stuff that isn't so obvious to us the users . Once they have finished with the foundation stuff again, I think you will see the "precieved" pace pick up again as the focus returns to adding features and polishing the end result...

I can see what you mean about how long they have been working on the game, and how they are just dusting it off making finishing touches... but my example is different.

Think of it as owning a pet (the game). You take care of a puppy and feed it, let it grow and become really cool, and then your kids (community) want MORE pets. You buy say.... 10 dogs :zombie: and try to take care of those :doh:

Basically too much to handle... and if they want more, you couldn't be the only one to take care of them and spend money on all those animals, you'd need some help. The kids want to help And if you wanted to get more breeds (new features), making that kind of decision would be tough with the current situation...............

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If Scawen and the devs believe they can handle it all on their own for say... 2 or 3 more years, so be it, but I don't see any recent evidence that they would last long for being so quiet to their loyal customers. And progress reports? Oh no lets not get into that... but hell, Scawen thinks forum updates are our progress reports. Those mean nothing, and are probably read by a small portion of the community. Except, it would mean A WHOLE LOT MORE if there was just one on the website... that gives me and aswell as others, the concrete, set-in-stone, assurance and evidence that the progress is coming along.

Maybe my Marketing major studies is affecting my view on this :doh:

Quote from Tweaker :

I can see what you mean about how long they have been working on the game, and how they are just dusting it off making finishing touches... but my example is different.

Think of it as owning a pet (the game). You take care of a puppy and feed it, let it grow and become really cool, and then your kids (community) want MORE pets. You buy say.... 10 dogs :zombie: and try to take care of those :doh:

Basically too much to handle... and if they want more, you couldn't be the only one to take care of them and spend money on all those animals, you'd need some help. The kids want to help And if you wanted to get more breeds (new features), making that kind of decision would be tough with the current situation...............

Nice analogy

lol

Quote from Tweaker :

Maybe my Marketing major studies is affecting my view on this :doh:

Quite likely it is

Yeah guess all I'm trying to indicate is that if it is how you say it is the only people that would really know for sure are the developers, and anything we discuss is pure speculation

If they were feeling overwhelmed by the task, I'm sure they would have some contacts to call upon but TBH while they have expressed some feelings (although very minimal) about community pressure, even reading between the lines they write in posts I can't see any indication that they feel the task is too big.

Quote from xgen :

I do agree, it is ahead now, but in 2 years? I like this game alot next to grand turismo 4, this is why I bought it, so yes its ahead of pretty much anything now, but in 2 years? and with the advancement in graphics technology from its competition it hopefully will get a makeover for S3

and what did you want to know about my name?

Anyway, I guess all I'm trying to expess is how worried I am for this games future, I would definetly like to see it move a step ahead and become the next best thing.

First thing for you to understand is, that NO game with all those "1337"-Shaders and the everywhere implemented blur (so you don't see how sh*tty the textures really are) will NEVER make a bad game get any better... Tbh, I like games like Schleichfahrt (don't know the english name), FreeSpace and others WAY more than all of this new cr*p they all call games now... HL2? Boring, honestly... They all lack the inspiration the old games had, and not the best graphics can change that...

Graphics can always be updated. Eric can be sending out updates till he's blue in teh face once the real 'game' is finished. Shiny pretty eye candy is all well and good but if there is substance to stick it too then whats the point. I'm perfectly happy with LFS atm, it works and it works well. To me that is far more important than playing something that looks pretty but has no backbone. If I want to do that I would use a Playstation and play Grand Turismo.

If you jsut want superficial visual and aural content from LFS then you are missing the point somewhat. It will come, Graphics is not normally the first things out of the production bag anyway. Gameplay and technical issues are.

Eric will be beavering away making models, textures and updating things here and there and probable doing a damn fine job of it too. But you won't see untill LFS is ready to accept them. Just be patient.

Welcome remebmer 5 for zoom