I just wonder if there will be S4 coming out, then 4 x 12 pounds becomes 48 pounds. In US most of the new games won't be more expensive than $50. If so is it a little expensive?
If there is no S4, so the S3 will be a complete release of LFS and we should be waiting for LFS2 S1 coming out?
I am just curious. Please forgive me if this question is too stupid.
Old timers around here will remember that the original plan was to have four releases, S1-S4. However, around the time S1 was released, this was narrowed down to three, S1-S3.
As many other people have pointed out, there will be no S4. But even IF there was an S4, the price of 48£ would be more than justified IMO. Even now in S2 Alpha I had more fun with LFS than with any other game, but it was only 24£ till now. Just imagine the pure awesomeness S4 would be, that's easily worth three "normal" games.
Or just think about the EA syndrome. Every year a "new" game for 50$. Is that really cheaper?
But what I was waiting for is that LFS could allow import or create new cars and tracks. As far as I know, S2 Patch Q doesn't allow us to do that (if it could, can some one please correct me?). I have purchased S2 but I am still considering something else becasue of this. I really like to race LFS in a real Track.
Every year for a "new" game for $50 of course isn't cheap, but you can see the EA F1, people are still playing it. How old is that game now?
Modding/adding cars and tracks will very likely not be implemented in S2, a better guess would be with or after S3. The reason for this is, with the game developing all the time, the tools are being modified too and it simply wouldn't make sense to release tools that have to be relearned every few weeks.
Personally, I'm rater glad we don't have that yet. The amount of car/track combinations is pretty huge even now and many combos don't even get played at all (it seems). I doubt adding mods would help this case in any way.
If LFS would continue on going the route of S4...S5...S6...etc. then it would not be good to continue the 12£ for each because eventually, total newbies to LFS wouldn't buy it. For us who are already licensed, an additional 12£ is a great bargain for each installment, but to someone just discovering, say S5 or S6, it wouldn't be an additional 12£ for them. It would be 60£ or 72£ and that won't sell any new license deep into LFS's future. Eventually it would have to start over again to draw new folks into the fold.
I think if we manage to go S6 S7 whatever we wouldn't be selling S1 to S5 as seperate package anymore, because by then we should already have a "completed" game and anything beyond is just additional and minor addons, so it can be something just partime for the devs, hence it doesn't have to charge as much as it does now.
I think this is part of why I can always find a race to join even late in the evening 5 or 6 hours out of sync with Europe (the biggest LFS market). Start allowing mods and suddenly the number of players thins out over more servers, and the extra players who might be attracted to LFS if it was moddable probably wouldn't compensate.
In FPS type games where the number of players online is orders of magnitude larger than LFS, mods, maps and total conversions are great, but in the niche area of online racing I think one of LFS's strengths is that the content is currently tightly controlled. OK, in rFactor I can fire up a pretty good recreation of Lime Rock Park and/or run the F3 mod, but it's a total ball ache ensuring you have the up to date version of any mod before you even attempt to find someone online who wants to race with it.
So I'd rather see LFS opened up to modding only once the project is totally finished (and from what I gather that's when S3 'final' is released).
Scawen's project of his life is LFS (besides the kid of course). He's good at making it, likes it, and I think will stick to it for many years. If there won't be S4, I'm still sure he will work on LFS after S3, maybe adding bikes, making editor, further polishing, the list goes on.
How much it will cost? I don't care. 24£ or 48£, anyhow a good value for the money.
