At the risk of inciting hatred and stupidness from the forum trolls. I was wondering what people thought, or are thinking, about LFS in it's current state?

Does anyone think we'll get a content update soon (read sometime next year) or do you think the LFS community will eventually die off with no updates for another year or so? or do you think it's going to keep plugging along as it is until a proper LFS killer comes along?

Big patches tend to turn up every six months or so. The last one came in the summer, so maybe we'll see one soon. Scawen seems to like to clear his desk a bit before christmas, then take a nice long break, so again - maybe we'll see something soon.

I am not Scawen, nor am I speaking for Scawen. I am guessing based on the way things have gone since I've been here.

LFS will get content/major update within the next year


scirocco? hopefully :P

LFS will continue as it's always done, a patch here and there, people coming and going, but it will always be there and will always be improved as time goes by, albeit, slowly.

Quote from danowat :

LFS will continue as it's always done, a patch here and there, people coming and going, but it will always be there and will always be improved as time goes by, albeit, slowly.

+1

And some of us will keep playing.
Interesting sidenote: The more you race, the faster it wears out. In some years all that will be left in LFS will be beginners ("kids") and casual racers ("old farts with busy life")

Quote from Mille Sabords :

casual racers ("old farts with busy life")

Less of the old fart you

I think we will see a new track or new extention to South City, along with graphical updates to westhill, the rest of the car cockpits, and the Scirocco, all ready for christmas.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

I think we will see a new track or new extention to South City, along with graphical updates to westhill, the rest of the car cockpits, and the Scirocco, all ready for christmas.

For some reason I find that hard to believe in.

Do you think the injection of new tracks, be it fantasy or real life, would bring back most of the community? i.e. instead of another section of South City or another one of Fern Bay. I wouldn't mind seeing double the tracks we already have, but not new extensions, but new tracks. Maybe bringing in community modders do add some tracks maybe? Then get said tracks passed by the Devs before we can download/use said tracks?

Next year with major updates. There could be better damage models, updated interiors for the rest of the cars and the Scirocco!

Quote from Sub_Atomic :

Do you think the injection of new tracks, be it fantasy or real life, would bring back most of the community? i.e. instead of another section of South City or another one of Fern Bay. I wouldn't mind seeing double the tracks we already have, but not new extensions, but new tracks. Maybe bringing in community modders do add some tracks maybe? Then get said tracks passed by the Devs before we can download/use said tracks?

I think it would bring some people back, but not all. Personally, I'd love to see atleast one new track that isn't just a extension of an existing one.

Quote from Sub_Atomic :

Do you think the injection of new tracks, be it fantasy or real life, would bring back most of the community?

Who are we talking about?, do you have any figures on how many people have "left"?

Quote from Sub_Atomic :

Maybe bringing in community modders do add some tracks maybe?

How many cans of worms are you planning to open in this thread?

Progress happens as fast as the devs work. They are not planning to open LFS up to modding right now.

Quote from Mille Sabords :

and casual racers ("old farts with busy life")

Just because I keep saying that doesn't give you license young man

As for tracks bringing some of the older LFSers back, I'm not so sure LFS is continually evolving over time, some enjoy the path it's taking others don't.

Is this like a consumer confidence survey or something

I like LFS how it is now!

any update is just something extra

Quote from Glenn67 :

As for tracks bringing some of the older LFSers back, I'm not so sure LFS is continually evolving over time, some enjoy the path it's taking others don't.

I just don't have much time any more, and eventually I found I was racing so infrequently I packed up my wheels in the loft. I've had them out once since, when a friend talked me into going online with him. Then I packed them away again.

If new tracks turned up - which didn't consist mostly of existing stretches of track - I'd probably give them a bash. I don't think I'll pull out my wheel for the Scirocco though.

Quote from G!NhO :

I like LFS how it is now!

any update is just something extra

But you've only been playing since Jan '08

I feel the same, I'm getting a tad bored of the game how it is now... But it's still enjoyable. The only disappointing thing I find, is the lack of 'good' online racing. There's still full CTRA servers, sure, but maybe 4 or 5 of them are good and clean races. The rest are either fast and dirty, or slow and wreckless

Maybe implanting a totally new track, with the new car, might be a quick fix and bring some guys back, then we'll see what happens from there.

Keep in mind, I can't for see the future, and I'm not holding a crystal ball (unfortunately); none of us here are.
Anyway, although the dev's may not have brought out anything for a while, keep in mind that this game really doesn't cost that much to buy, nor are the dev's getting any extra pay. I'm guessing it would be hard to keep the motivation going.. So we have to understand this from their point of view as well as our needs too

Please let the FZR interior be available this side of xmas.

Any new content would only keep people amused for a very short period of time, I mean, how many people now have driven on all the 800 or so different combos?.

For me, LFS is about the racing, if it weren't for league racing, I'd probably never touch it, any content, i.e. track, car, would do nothing to change the way I feel about LFS, or the way I play it, it would be an amusing distraction for a very short period of time.

However, there are a number of issues and fixes that, IMO, should come way, way before any new content, fixes to the multiplayer side (there are some seriously easy things that could be done to improve that) and physics side (things like proper damage, improved tyre physics, turbo physics, engine management like water temp from damaged rads etc etc etc), these things would improve LFS, much MUCH more than any new content, and potentially bring back any LFS'ers who defected to iRacing.

New car or track is a publicity stunt, something to please those with short attention spans, WOW, new car, that wow factor stays for about, oh 5 mins, it's also a much more news worthy addition in terms of publicity than, "tyre physics improved".

Quote from danowat :

.

:smash3d: You hit the nail on the head. Except for me it's about racing with friends...

Quote from Glenn67 :

:smash3d: You hit the nail on the head. Except for me it's about racing with friends...

Nail on the thread?

Nail in the coffin of these types of threads, but I doubt it.

If I had a £ for everytime one of those popped up over the years, I'd be a very rich man.

Anyone remember the great "skidmarks" threads all those years ago LOL

It's the youth of today, bang bang new content, new content, such short attention spans.

I was in the xbox forums yesterday, and people were actually complaining that the demo, yes, THE DEMO, for Left 4 Dead was late, I mean jees.

Quote :

New car or track is a publicity stunt, something to please those with short attention spans, WOW, new car, that wow factor stays for about, oh 5 mins, it's also a much more news worthy addition in terms of publicity than, "tyre physics improved".

New car maybe (I think some people forgot we got the new BMW within a week or two of the patch ) but a new track would be kind of special.

Anyway, my guess is there will be an XMAS patch, it will include the scirocco, there will be a Westhill update (not huge), a couple more interiors, and maybe one or two more things like barrier bug fixed, or small improvements to the graphics engine.

Even though I havn't logged many miles in the last few years (heck, I've been here a long time...) It's still the only piece of software that's constantly on my harddisk since 2003, sometimes even twice for testpatches.

So I don't think it'll die off, allthough it has certain "ripples": high activity after a new patch is released, which wears off until the next patch is out. That pretty much sums how I drive: much when new things are there to be tried out, but declining. Still, I guess like most people in here, I never totally stop playing.

On a funny sidenote, other racing sims actually make me play LfS. Last time that happened with GTR-Evo: After getting tired with the Caterhams on the Nordschleife, I raced LfS more often, as, even though GTR drives quite well IMHO, it made me crave for LfS that does so many things better.