The problem with this question is that there might be "secret wip's" for s2 final and they may not want to say...
This comment was in 2007 by al heeley (a moderator) :
There was another comment by scawen about extra cars being made, wether he was talking about s3 or wether he accidently leaked his secret is still unknown
No-one knows, so this thread is pretty useless as it'll just start the "i heard..." "someone said..." "Scawen said..." "S2 final will have..." Chinese whispers game.
I am not sure. On alpha stage in development things can be added, changed or removed. On Beta stage the main goal is to stabilize and make sure everything is working as bug-free as possible. When the release / final stage is, most thing shal work correctly, and it should not need to be much patched.
So, the only time we are going to see new things like cars/tracks, will be on alpha stage I think.
IMO LFS needs to go on BETA stage now, fixing current stuff in game. The rest of adding they can do on S3
To be honest, as you quoted Al Heeley, I don't really it as vital as fixing some of the other issues. At the moment, for me anyway, there are only 3 car types missing for me or that I really care about and thats a GTP (GT Prototype, like the Bentley Speed 8 or Toyota TS01), a proper supercar (like the Enzo or Carrera GT) and finally, an unwinged low rank single seater (FF1600 or FF1800) but I don't mind waiting for those until S3 if it must but I have a funny feeling that the devs have a lot of great things planned for the final edition of S2 (hopefully, wet weather driving will be one of them ).
Please explain why? Why does it matter whether it is finished or not or how long it takes? Is it just to have the status of "finished?"
I don't understand all the comments on it needing to be finished "after x years..." They want X, Y, and Z features in this stage of development, so until X, Y, and Z features are coded and included, then it isn't time to move on to beta just to have the beta status. If it's time to stop developing and move on to beta, then what happens to the X, Y, and Z features that they want included? They get moved on to Stage 3 of development? That does nothing other than putting a status on development just to have that status.
Analogy: I want to become a race car driver. The first stage of becoming a race car driver is I need to learn how to drive a car. I need to learn how to operate a clutch and shift, how to steer, how to brake. The second stage is, I need to learn how to control the car and how to drive amongst other drivers.
I'm in stage 1 learning how to operate the car. I have developed the skills to steer and brake, but I'm having trouble with clutching and shifting. It's taking too long, so I'm just going to say I'm done with stage 1 and am going to move to stage 2 of learning how to control the car and how to drive amongst other driver. But wait? I havent' learned how to clutch and shift! Oh well, it's taken too long, it's time to move on to stage 2....
See how it doesn't work, just stating that it's been long enough and it's time to move on?
I am not asking for more features in LFS, and I do not saying slow developement is wrong either, btu I think it's time to let the patch adding new stuff or small details should be stopped. If it now takes half a year before next patch I don't care, but really want some groundbreaking new patch. What is left to do before beta?
And the complete damage system will not be implentet before S3, so I don't think we'll see it done in S2.
My points is, we don't need more features added, we need to secure that ther features in the game work as intended now, and fix old knowing bugs that has an effect on the overall gamer experience.
If it takes years I don't care, but it's a step in right direction, where we focus NOT on new contest and such, but completeing what we allready have.
Or we could do the other way, adding new stuff and never ever come off the alpha stage. IMO Lfs reputation would have increased a lot if it whent from alpha to beta, meaning that the features in LFS S2 is in place, but just need fixing before the final release of S2.
I heard in an interview with Victor that they are looking at karts for the future. I wouldn't reccomend adding them in LFS as designing a kart model is a whole different beast to cars.
I didn't say anything about adding features. Just that Scawen has stated features he wants completed for S2, X, Y and Z features which could be AI, damage, and collision detection for example. AI has already been worked on, whether he is satisfied with it or not we don't know. For all we know, damage coding and collision detection could be 90% coded on his PC, or 20% coded. But the fact is, he has stated for years that these things are the features that need to be done for S2. They are not new features, they are unfinished features that need to be finished. Calling S2 finished without these features is like calling yourself a race car driver without learning how to clutch and shift (using my previous post). It is just calling it finished for the sake of calling it finished.
The tag of LFS really doesn't mean anything to us. Or it will once the tag moves to "finished". It would then mean more cash out of our pockets (not necessarily a bad thing). The good thing for LFS is it would mean more cash in theirs. Other than that, calling S2 finished before completing what is wanted by the devs in S2 only moves those features to the next stage because they weren't completed, which you and I will then be paying for. So, the difference between calling S2 finished now as opposed to waiting for the features LFS wants done for S2 is only the difference between us getting those features in future patches, or paying 12 pounds in the future for them.
IMO, the way the test patches are, LFS should really fly straight through the BETA stage because as the patches are released, they've already been thoroughly tested.
I have started learning to play the guitar recently. I imagine coding LFS is very similar to me learning the guitar. I don't start one song and play play play until I know it. I get burned out doing it that way. I pick up a song or a "lesson" and work on it, then I put it down and try learning something else. Then I later go back to what was difficult last week and it is now easier and I learn more. I can see game development being like this, work on damage, move on and add a little feature that's been in the back of his mind such as the increase of racers on a server. Come back after that and fresh ideas for coding the damage is thought of. You can't just sit and pound your head on something of that magnitude continuously until it is done. You have to take breaks now and then and I think of the small features we have been recieving in the latest patches as the results of those breaks from coding the real important and more difficult stuff.
i doubt we will have newer cars other than maybe a RAC GTR or a RB4 GTR. IF you think about it we already have cars for every type of classification. Hatchbacks, street sports cars, touring cars, etc.
I bet after the devs see that people are simply making their own "cars" within the skins themselves(volvo skins, nissan skins, etc) they won't continue to make cars.
Ok so,you say Al Heeley said that back in 2007 and the FBM was released in 2008.....This is just the proof that new cars can be added in the next patches but doesn't mean there will be.
Huh? then I must be missing something or you have different classes there in the US.
Tin tops:
UF1/XFG/XRG/RB4/FXO/XRT/FZ5/UFR all have no obvious motorsport classes that I'm aware of. They're all just tuned "street" cars, (except UFR maybe).
European Classes:
Renault Clio Cup racing (XFR) - Touring cars (Nothing in LFS) - Something between WTCC & Le Mans (FXR/XRR?) - Le Mans (FZR is probably closest?)
Single Seaters:
Formula SAE McGill (MRT) - Forumula BMW (duh!) - Formula 3 (FOX) - Formula 3000 (F08) - A1GP/A2GP (nothing in LFS) - F1 (BF1)
Odd ones out : RAC & LX4/LX6
The lack of Touring cars and any form of Rally Car are obvious holes IMHO. They are also the two racing classes that are most likely to attract new customers to the sim IMO so from a purely commercial point of view should be considered for addition by the devs (at some point or other) before the final release of LFS as a finished product, (what ever revision that will be).
Other than that they've got it pretty much covered as far as I can see.
If I were to be critical there are too many "street" cars in LFS
).
