I've only been playing LFS just under a week, and I very much enjoy the game despite my innability to keep up with everyone. I have some thoughts and ideas of stuff I would like to see improved.

Full course yellow flags on short circuits.

A little blue square next to name of driver / overhead for anyone under a blue flag ahead.

The mini map to show drivers 1 or more laps down in blue, so that orange cars are ones to defend against and blues can be avoided if they are faster (people who have restarted but a lot better than me!)

The oval needs looking at, atm drivers reset themselves but it would be nicer to have this more automated and perhaps working with the full course yellow system.

Rolling starts option, where a course car drives around slowly and peels away at the end of lap 0. It could reduce those notorious 1st lap accidents.

Perhaps if a rolling start is introduced it might also be possible to include a safety car (it would be nice if somebody messes up your start not to end up miles behind). The SC could deploy whenever 3 or more yellow flags occur, and would work with the automatic car removal thingy too.

When a car is under lag would it be better to display it at 10% opacity rather than make it invisible? Cars dissapearing on a strait during an overtake can be very dangerous.

Alter the race order display to show last recorded split / laps difference rather than only showing a split when crossing the same split. Accuracy isnt important when you are 40 seconds behind/ahead, but knowledge that you are 40 odd seconds ahead rather than 80 is the difference between risking a pitstop.

Oh yes, and something to actually click or press in order to be placed on the grid so your 1 hour qualifying session is not spoiled by somebody who leaves their computer and isnt around when the race restarts.

Quote from Becky Rose :

When a car is under lag would it be better to display it at 10% opacity rather than make it invisible? Cars dissapearing on a strait during an overtake can be very dangerous.

The cars disappearing isnt programmed in by the developers its justs what happens when there is lag because no packets are sent to update the cars position.

Quote from Becky Rose :

Full course yellow flags on short circuits.

Any reason for this!? Only reason for a full course yellow is in the case of cleaning up a serious accident, in LFS we can just pit so no need for that imo.

Quote from Becky Rose :

A little blue square next to name of driver / overhead for anyone under a blue flag ahead.

Why? I can't see how it would help my race in any way.

Quote from Becky Rose :

The mini map to show drivers 1 or more laps down in blue, so that orange cars are ones to defend against and blues can be avoided if they are faster (people who have restarted but a lot better than me!)

This sort of thing has been mentioned many times before, but the orange cars are behind you so just look at the position list and you'll know if someone is way down the order of battling for position with you.

Quote from Becky Rose :

The oval needs looking at, atm drivers reset themselves but it would be nicer to have this more automated and perhaps working with the full course yellow system.

I think we should just get rid of resets and make people spectate or pit again.

Quote from Becky Rose :

Rolling starts option, where a course car drives around slowly and peels away at the end of lap 0. It could reduce those notorious 1st lap accidents.

I agree with this, rolling starts would be nice. Again, it's been mantioned MANY times before.

Quote from Becky Rose :

Perhaps if a rolling start is introduced it might also be possible to include a safety car (it would be nice if somebody messes up your start not to end up miles behind). The SC could deploy whenever 3 or more yellow flags occur, and would work with the automatic car removal thingy too.

IMO this is a waste of time, as i said before just make them pit or spectate, no need for a long drawn-out recovery process. Waste of development time trying to implement it.

BTW, welcome to LFS. Hope you enjoy your time here.

Quote from Becky Rose :

A little blue square next to name of driver / overhead for anyone under a blue flag ahead.

Quote from nikimere :

Why? I can't see how it would help my race in any way.

I'd prefer this to having to decipher the map for any blue'd cars.

Edit: good ideas overall

Quote from filur :

I'd prefer this to having to decipher the map for any blue'd cars.

I still dont get it, how does it help your race knowing weather someone else got a blue flag or not...

i think its meant to be the lack of way of telling who is a lap behind you or is fighting you for position thats all

Quote from nikimere :

I still dont get it, how does it help your race knowing weather someone else got a blue flag or not...

I don't know if by "someone else" you mean anyone? I'm saying it's a good idea to clearly see who i'm giving a blue flag.

I would for example very rarely attempt to draft and/or aggressively overtake someone who i'm giving a blue flag, since in standard public racing you never know how/when a blue flagged driver will react.

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Rather than that, what about radios and a voice saying "The car ahead is the race leader" or "the car ahead is a backmarker" or something like that.

Over that system, rally pace notes could work. People could make there own voice packs if they want to hear themselves.

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IMO this is a waste of time, as i said before just make them pit or spectate, no need for a long drawn-out recovery process. Waste of development time trying to implement it.

I disagree, I think it's exactly what the game needs - particularly at the starts.

I take great care at the start and now that i'm on a wired connection instead of wireless i'm able to avoid a lot of accidents and be reasonably safe ... but there is always an accident at the 1st corner in LFS, the question is how many and whether you are able to dodge them all.

From what i've seen it seems most people try to win the race on the 1st corner, sadly they do this in endurance aswell as sprint races, so there is no avoiding big pile ups.

Typically LFS races get very spread out very quickly and it's all because of the first corner.

A course car will regroup the cars after said idiots have blown off their steam and been put to the back, and resume the race from a rolling start so it wont be so bad second time around.

There's nothing worse then doing a 30-60 minute qualifying and having it all wasted on the 1st bend by a testosterone charged maniac.

I'm also more into the sim aspect than the competition aspect, and that might also be part of the reason i'm keen for course cars. I don't believe they'd take much to implement as AI code already exists.

Quote from Becky Rose :

I disagree, I think it's exactly what the game needs - particularly at the starts.

Let me stop you there. This won't stop T1 syndrome.

With regards to the blue's on the map - perhaps this is a good idea. I believe that too many colours would be a grave mistake, however.

yes a rolling start will not stop t1 syndrome.. infact it possibly could only make it worse.

eg on a particular track, let's say blackwood.

on a standing start you already have quite a bit of speed when you hit turn 1.
but on a rolling start you would have crossed the start line doing 80kph or so already.

this means you'll hit turn 1 most likely at race pace with all the other cars off the grid no doubt still up there with you.. same situation

With regards a rolling start the speeds are higher, but the speed differential through the pack is reduced. In real racing it works out much safer, despite the higher speeds.

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I agree.

Quote from Takumi_Project.d :

yes a rolling start will not stop t1 syndrome.. infact it possibly could only make it worse.

eg on a particular track, let's say blackwood.

on a standing start you already have quite a bit of speed when you hit turn 1.
but on a rolling start you would have crossed the start line doing 80kph or so already.

this means you'll hit turn 1 most likely at race pace with all the other cars off the grid no doubt still up there with you.. same situation

plus on stone cold tires!!! if there was a warm up lap that would be gd to get some heat into the tires so turn1 wouldnt be so hectic but a warm up lap would be very booring to drive and i can just see the incidetns on a warm up lap !!!! god no!!!

Quote from Becky Rose :

With regards a rolling start the speeds are higher, but the speed differential through the pack is reduced. In real racing it works out much safer, despite the higher speeds.

Did you ever play Nascar Racing 2003? That game had very well implemented rolling starts, but sadly they did almost nothing to solve the T1 problem. Even on a T1 as wide and gentle as Daytona, the idiots remained.

Personally I really enjoy races of around 10 laps or so in LFS, as I feel that's long enough that I can take a super-cautious attitude to T1, even to the extent of pulling off the grid to let everyone through into the pile-up that a minority of them so richly deserve.

There's the beauty of moving from S2 back to demoland for some races. After being use to the speed of the GTR cars, you just spectate until the race starts, join in the back, short shift behind everyone, then T1 looks like slow motion and you just mosey on through around everyone, hehehe .

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if there was a warm up lap that would be gd to get some heat into the tires so turn1 wouldnt be so hectic

To be honest warm tyres wouldn't help. Based on the evidence i've seen T1 is a problem because it doesn't deliver physical and financial pain in the same way real racing does.

I can avoid most of the carnage most of the time (ocassionally I bodge it myself too btw), but what upsets me is how it effects the pack of cars, after T1 most short races have already run their full course ... the pack becomes too spread out to change much whether you where one of the idiots or not.

On the whole the S2 crowd are pretty good, but I have to say there's a few muppets on steroids amongst us and it really does spoil the races.

This problem doesn't exist in real racing, it goes Pete Tong sometimes sure, but most first corners aren't as hectic as LFS. I think it's because drivers dont have to fix their own cars and wait for their ribs to heal.

A Gran Tourismo style finance system seems all the more appealing all the time.

Quote from Becky Rose :

This problem doesn't exist in real racing, it goes Pete Tong sometimes sure, but most first corners aren't as hectic as LFS. I think it's because drivers dont have to fix their own cars and wait for their ribs to heal.

I think theres a bit more to it than that, RL racers just generally know how to drive.
TBH i dont think you'll ever get rid of the T1 syndrome, and a i definatly dont want a GT4 type financial system.
I can picture it now, i miss an ESL race because some tosser drives flatout into the back of me and wrecks my car in testing and i have no money to fix it.... somehow i cant see it happening.

Maybe if the game didnt work until it detected the presence of electrical contacts on the body which give you a jolt everytime you papa oscar another driver .

Quote from nikimere :

I think theres a bit more to it than that, RL racers just generally know how to drive.

The biggest thing lacking in lfs's simulation of racing is in our heads, it's really really hard to feel any sort of fear while racing on your pc, this i believe is the major factor of the t1 syndrome, not if you know how to drive or not.

Isn't it also true that when testing a car / track in real life, you start out slow and cautious, building up speed as the laps increase, when in lfs it's often the complete opposite, you start out fast as hell and notice you can't really go that fast, so you start to slow down for certain parts.

The best way to reduce or eliminate T1 incidents is driver education. I'd hate to see features added that compensated for crap drivers. People just need to be a little more mature in their racing.

Agreed I'd hate to see LFS pander to careless drivers.