I've seen about 20 threads now that all ask for the devs to make more cars, tracks, weather options and graphic updates and the response always seems to be that they're too busy, and it would take too much time. Now, heres a crazy thought that i'm having, my clock is showing 00.56 so sorry if some of this doesnt make sense i'll edit tomorrow;

There are 29,742 registered users on the lfs forum, but realisticly, lets say half of them, around 15,000 are still playing.

If they all paid a few pounds/dollars/euro to have some new things like a track & a few cars, or any of the other discussed things such as car parts falling off & weather, think of the money that could be made. (!!!!!)

Just a thought. I know i'd be willing to pay a fiver to see more frequent updates I'm just thinking that if i was offered a cash prize of (say the 15000 pay £2 each) ~~£30,000 I might feel more inclined to make myself even more proud of lfs, this wonderful addiction that Thousands play every day.


(I'm not ungrateful, or impatient with lfs, I just had this idea )

Most people want but are not willing to pay extra, there are loads of people that can't even be bothered to get full S2, I'm sure some would pay extra, but 99% wouldn't.

I don't think the devs need financial motivation, I just think there is too much work for the 3 of them to do that frequent updates are not realistic.

I would pay an extra 6GBP for the Nurburgring, and some FIA GT2 cars.

Well if we would pay more,they could hire more ppl to work on lfs,but maybe they would not even let other touch lfs

But ye,ppl are lazy to pay..(or they just dont have that much extra)

That's a very good point James, but common/monetary sense doesn't really apply to some people.

Like having the lfs shop full of stuff people don't want, hence trying to flog things off for like..... a pound. (or a relatively rediculous amount of money)

after 3 years of playin same ol' S2... i've gotten pretty bored. Iracing is taking away a lot of racers.


My biggest gripe is that there is no one on at this time of day, which is when i play mostly. No one to race against so I go play iracing where there are a ton of people at this time.


No one takes our suggestions on how to improve LFS that it just gets boring over time. Woopie we got 10 more languages for the same old game, wtf... come out with something new, revive this awesome game or it's gonna die out.

I have a hard time believing that iRaping is taking a severe chunk out of LFS with the insane cost.

Quote from flymike91 :

I have a hard time believing that iRaping is taking a severe chunk out of LFS with the insane cost.

Well, you'd better believe it, because a lot of the LFS racers are rather serious sim racers. And the target group of IRacing racers are exactly serious sim racers, who are willing to spend some money on their hobby.

The LFS racers who are facing towards IRacing I believe would be quite happy to pay an extra amount for new LFS contents, however there are simply not enough hands in the development group to make more frequent releases.

/Morten

Quote from flymike91 :

I have a hard time believing that iRaping is taking a severe chunk out of LFS with the insane cost.

if you look at iracing forums, theres a couple threads full of lfsers that complain about the same thing... same game for 3 years, no new content, no development based of consumer needs.

Quote from flymike91 :

I have a hard time believing that iRaping is taking a severe chunk out of LFS with the insane cost.

You'd be very suprised, I know of a number of high profile (if there is such a thing) LFS'er's that have dropped LFS in favour of iR.

FTR, there is nothing that the community can do to motivate, or speed up development, it is what it is, like it or lump it, it's been this way since the year dot, and it ain't gonna change now.

End of discussion.

Oh dear lord, not this again. The original post was about a decent - albeit not very original as I'm sure it's been suggested/mentioned a couple of times before - idea. But already after a few posts it's been reduced to the same old "not enough updates, LFS is gonna die out, people are abandonning LFS, yadda yadda yadda" posts. We've had that discussion before, people. More than once. Give it a rest, okay?

As for the original idea: as mentioned earlier, monetary "support" wouldn't change the frequency of updates. We all know that Scawen doesn't want to hire anyone to work on LFS, and he has his hands more than full with the stuff he's working on. Extra money probably wouldn't change anything.

I hope a mod closes this thread soon as nothing good can possibly come of it. Just the usual rehashing of arguments that have been beaten to death countless times before.

Quote from major_syphillis :

No one takes our suggestions on how to improve LFS that it just gets boring over time. Woopie we got 10 more languages for the same old game, wtf... come out with something new, revive this awesome game or it's gonna die out.

wrong.
cars have been added. interiors have also been aded. the lfs desktop has been tweaked by the requests of the conmmunity. we're getting another car (we didn't ask for it i know but we have been asking for more real cars).
the list goes on. think of LFS as a wheelbarrow, it's always infront of you

Yup, money wouldn't be proper motivation, not only cos it's pain in the ass for some ppl to pay, but because dev's wouldn't have much use of it... They'd never hire others to work on LFS and they can't work more then they can and I believe they work with full potential now, and that is probably best thing that we have in here, even it's pain in the ass when you're watching time aspect

So yah, they're already motivated with our love.


<3 dev's

Since Obsolum mentioned it could someone tell me why scawen doesn't want anyone to help out with developing?

Quote from dadge :

wrong.
cars have been added. interiors have also been aded. the lfs desktop has been tweaked by the requests of the conmmunity. we're getting another car (we didn't ask for it i know but we have been asking for more real cars).
the list goes on. think of LFS as a wheelbarrow, it's always infront of you

a car that will come in 2010 lol



desktop and interiors are a joke i hope

Because he just doesn't - I think he's happier working like this than as part of a large group at Lionhead.

I don't see how money will make Scawen work harder when he already does 16 hour days...

Quote from Electric Eye :

Since Obsolum mentioned it could someone tell me why scawen doesn't want anyone to help out with developing?

Maybe he has seen how life can be in the sweatshops of games development. I don't know how things were at Lionhead (where both Scawen and Eric worked), but for an impression of the dark side, read the EA Spouse story.

simply trust in developers and all will be ok

Im not the one to question the dev's work, but seeing the number of people (established racers) leaving, and the decreasing number of visitors even to this forum, one has to ask if there is much room left for faith...

Nobody is leaving. People take a break, because there's only so many times you can run round the track before you get bored. It happens to everyone, with every game - every so often. But it's not like we'll ever really leave - and we'll always come back.

But it's not the money that's the issue. The issue is that there's only 3 developers, and since Scawen is the main code monkey, there's only so much he can accomplish by himself.
Also, remember somebody has to be the Point of Contact when companies like VW and BMW (or Intel if you prefer) want something added to the sim. So I suspect he needs to take time out to schmooze with these execs as well.
AND the dude has a family, so I think he's entitled to some time off. God, I get sick of the complaining in here and I have no real financial investment in this product. Imagine what it must be like when this is your job! I swear, I'd have closed these forums down, or at best just blanket ban everyone who complains about development speed.

Try it yourself. Learn a programming language and start making a game with as much scope as this one.

Quote from flymike91 :

iRaping is taking a severe chunk out of LFS.

I know that I've turned the context of the original quote completely on it's head, but I think the above statement is true. At least from where I sit.

There is no question about the Scavier's commitment to LFS, but I reckon there are 2 things that desperately need attention for it to hold it's audience:
1/ At least one more track. 2 would be even better.
2/ A game structure to bridge the gap between pickup races and leagues. I sense that a lot of people can't commit to leagues, but get frustrated at the aimless nature of pickup races and the often crappy standards of driving.

The second point in particular I think is what has drawn people from LFS to iRacing. I also think that they would come back pretty quickly if this structure was put in place.

Anyway, the Devs are very smart lads, so I'm sure they know exactly what they're doing.

iRacing is new, therefor it's got people's attention for a while. But will it last, that is the question. For the most part, the massive subscription price is going to turn people away, and we've already seen a few LFSers who have paid for a year say that they won't be renewing. It's more like a training tool for semi-pro drivers rather than a sim for the "average" sim racer.
But then I bet the quality of pickup races is higher because it requires financial commitment.

More tracks would be nice, but there's technically nothing wrong with the ones we have. I think the problem is the same as it's always been - every server running the same old combos that everyone knows backwards. Yawn.
Scawen should remove AS3 for a couple of weeks to see what would happen

Some kind of internal league system would be nice, but it'd be a nightmare to try and organise. And I don't know if it would help all that much. I'm trying to think of a system that would reward everyone (not just the fastest guys) but there's nothing springing to mind... yet

Wow, a very intelligent, informative & generally mature series of replies! I only posted this morning

I apologise to anybody that thought I was asuming Scawen & co. arent doing enough work, since they are,

(please kindly recall the recent patch Z with AMAZING interiors in the XF and XR cars, (I found a fire extinguisher during a race the other day and nearly crashed! Shift+U in offline and take a full look around the inside of the cars) a new fantastic replay controlling device which helps movie makers like me an incredible amount, and physics updates)

It's just that I wanted to see what the response would be like if I put something involving more money into question. Some have said that even a small amount of money would not be affordable or botherable but i'll stress again the amount of registered forum members, (No one seems to have picked up on that). Thanks for the discussion! Please dont turn it into an arguement.

James

Monthly / 3-Month / 6-Month / Yearly
$20.00 / $50.00 / $90.00 / $156.00

I'm glad LFS doesn't charge 20 US$ per month. Take a 2 week vacation and you've lost have your money for that month. Looking at the yearly contribution, I can only say OUTRAGEOUS.

I love LFS and wait patiently for any updates.