Usually I drive around a bit with the race_1 set or bob's easy race setup. Just to get an impression of the car and what it needs on this track. Then I think "well, quite bumpy, a soft suspension would be better" or "quite narrow and short turns, I'd choose high values for the diff" (at least I prefer that). That way I come from the one thing to the other and at the end I'm left with a setup that gets me around the track quite okay.
I almost fully agree with you with the fact that building your own setups is the best way to go. Understanding the different settings and altering them to suit your driving style is one of the challenges that good simulators always throw at you first.
However building good setups takes time and many laps of trial and error before it's any good. I am not ready to invest hours for just driving around on some track setting up my car. And the setups that are available at team inferno's site are always better than the setups I end up with.
I was some time ago very much against the high nose setups but the fact that I did 3 seconds faster time on F08 @ WE1 made me change my stuff. I am not anywhere near the good drivers and giving them the benefit of better setups would make me totally uncompetitive.
And after all it's the driving that makes the car go fast, though the setups play a big role in it.
I've just finished 4th in the MRNL FOX league (drivers are mostly between competent and alien abilities) and I was usually the only driver to not use the high nose exploit. It certainly slowed me down compared to what I could have been doing by using it. It just felt more honest.
And maybe I'm just that damn good I don't need it.
Wouldn't it be better if setup possibilities were restricted for online races? For example, when entering a race you would have to use a certain setup (or have a choice of 2 or 3 predefined setups).
Racing should be a test of your driving skills, not of your ability to find holes in the physics model (nor of your social engineering skills, to get copies of the champs' setups).
Well, yes. In a way you are right. But LFS technically shouldn't have any Physics holes and hopefully that state of Nirvana is on the way so the skills you have in setting up a car are just as valuable as your driving skills.
In RL racing you have a team that is dedicated to getting your car set up just right for a given track. They sift through reams and reams of telemetry and input to try and tweak bits here and nip other bits there just to get that extra few K's down the straight or an extra lap from the tyres. So Physics bugs aside a setup is invaluable to running your car fast and competativly.
Sure people could set up their own one make, one setup servers. It might be entertaining but for me, setups are where it's at. As well as the driving. That's there too. But without the Setting up it's only halfway there . . well maybe slightly more than halfway. But not much.
I've just been inputting my latest Setup testing for my FZR and already my PB's are dropping. 1.09.65 for BW. Mid 1.43 for AS. Nat. 1.39.xx for KY. Nat.
All thats fine, but in many classes of motorsport IRL, there isn't the infinitesimal amount of tweaking that there is in LFS, the gearbox is a perfect example, ATM I can choose thousands of different ratios in a XFG, that just isnt possible IRL.
The same with spring/damper and ARB settings.
A server should be able to set specific parts of the setup to a fixed value. That reflects reality. Yet, it is important that on other occasions we can alter the setup. Every race is a combination of setup and driver, and that's especially true in endurance races. I want to be able to decide myself how oversteery the car is because that influences the tyre lifetime and ultimately influences my strategy.
I understand. I also find it quite... interesting... that we can manipulate the gearbox of the GTI that much. Usually you'd have 1 standard gearbox, one Cup-gearbox and perhaps 2 aftermarket-gearboxes.
Same goes for suspensions.
I agree. LFS seems to be confused about a few things. Its aim is to be a realistic representation of cars, driving, racing, motorsport, I'm sure we'd all agree on that. Car setups seem to have been almost totally overlooked though, and things are adjustable purely because they can be adjustable rather than because the real-life equivalent can be adjusted in the exact same way.
[cynicmode] Are the gear ratios so adjustable just to show off the fact that the gear ratios have been programmed with that level of adjustability? Are 4 diffs available in the road cars just to show off the fact that 4 diffs have been modelled? etc etc[/cynicmode]
I'd just like to see a little more focus sometimes from LFS. Pick a series (or car) and copy each and every element of it as closely as is legally possible.
