Bottom line, how hard is it for a Dev to stick their head into General and give us a quick heads up about how things are going? It takes 2 minutes of 'production' time and everyone is happy, the forum's are back abuzz having generated new interest and the whingers (like me) are sated.
It would bring a good dose of happiness back into the forums to boot.
It's really not that much to ask.
Sometimes I wonder if half the people defending the dev's are doing so because they believe what they spout, or if they believe that by 'sticking up for' them they might be keeping the dev's happy = new content... just a thought (of my own).
That's really not far from the truth. When you have one single coder who is responsible, you better not piss him off to a point where it's simply frustrating for him to work on.
As I see it, and I have about 10 years of Internet forum experience, he has a few alternatives:
1) As is now, say only the most important stuff, that is 100% sure to be in: causes whining for more info.
2) Say nothing at all: That is what those whiners from number one think Scawen is doing, so it would be basically the same concerning the reasons of whining, allthough there might be more of it.
3) Tell us everything he's doing: now that would prove to be desastrous! People would complain if features were abandoned, people would complain about Scawen working on a certain feature and not on one that is more important in their minds, people would complain that he's working to slow and they want the new features now (those same people then also would complain if a feature isnt 100% working once its released), people would complain if he would skip a "sitrep" or two, etc.
Also, I think that two much communication would make the developement of Live for Speed too rigid. Noone in here really knows how Scawen is working, but if I judge him by the way I work, it would be about like this:
He has a master plan of features he'd like to see in LfS. But he doesn't have an exact roadmap for when to code what. The lack of a plan that has to be fulfilled opens up creative possibilities. Perhaps when coding one feature, he gets an idea for another feature that wasn't planned, so he's sidetracked working on that, which would make a carefully crafted plan crumble. Now that looks quite inefficient, and it certainly is, but it leaves space for creativity and improvisation, which in the long run, makes LfS more complete and unique than otheriwse.
So I repeat myself: sit back and relax, enjoy Live for Speed as it is, and look forward to every update, no matter what it does.
At this point, any bit of news, is better than no news.
No ones holding the dev's to release dates or trying to dictate what should be included or not. I think that pretty clear from the participation in the suggestions and improvement threads.
Is it too much to ask to feed the community with a bit of news once a month or so. Spark a little interest and remind us that things are progressing slowly but surely. The fact this doesn't happen, makes it really easy to conclude there's nothing to report. That may not be the situation, but history tells us a different story.
It's an unpopular view, particularly with the Johnny come lately and optimist club, but it's one worth raising, even if there little chance of the dev's seeing it. :tired:
Well that's a little different. Intel are involved in PCs. LFS is a PC game. They can be said to be in connected, (if not the same), industries. VW are a car manufacturer. No connection with the Gaming industry at all, (under normal circumstances).
Actually, that does make sense. Specifically the bit about the short notice. It wouldn't surprise me if they went to EA Games or who ever and asked for a car to be knocked up and were told "sorry doesn't fit in with our project life cycle and we're not willing/can't asign resources to do it, (in that time scale). Go talk to xxx". Eventually VW probably finaly heard of LFS and in desperation at wanting any sim at the launch, (as now the decision had been made up high you can believe it was going to happen no matter what!), finally approached them. At which point the LFS devs jumped at the chance.
Very likely a condition of the development. Probably there are conditions that haven't been met yet or even contractual issues that haven't been ironed out and so it hasn't been released to the game. Even possible there is some dispute, (payment?), that may never be resolved and so it may never make it in to the game !
Maybe Scawen should just release the next patch when it's done and say: "Here you go, this is the final patch of LFS. I consider the game complete now, there won't be any S3 and there will be no more updates. Enjoy!".
Maybe then people would finally stop whining for updates? If you need updates - or news about coming updates - to keep you interested, then maybe LFS isn't the game for you.
There's a certain game that's been in development for about 7 years now. It was first announced to be released in 2003 I think (maybe earlier). We're almost 2009 now, the game still hasn't come out. The release date has been pushed back time and time again by the developers. The last "update" of the developers so far is that they're aiming for a release in early 2009. A couple of months ago the release date was still scheduled for October 2008. Needless to say, I don't really believe the game will come out in early 2009 either. However, there are a lot of people who have been waiting all these years. And although they whine and complain and get angry about the release dates being pushed back every time (they have every right to), I don't think they're whining as much as some people here. Something to think about...
It´s only easy to conclude, because you want it to, but the history, if based in facts, is quite different:
version W - released Mar 31st 2007
version X- released Jun 8th 2007
version Y - released Dez 21st 2007
version Z - released Jul 2nd 2008
So, if you look at those dates, you´ll see that latest patches were about 6 months apart, and Z was released more or less 5 months ago. I didn´t see anywhere that we won´t have a new patch coming at the end of this year, or any sign of development stoping or even slowing down... In fact, there has been two updates, this month only, regarding the dedicated host, to solve bugs that were reported. Don´t know what you conclude of that, but to me it doesn´t look like an indication that there´s nothing to report.
I must admit that, altough I think that people have the right of stating their views on the future of LFS, all this talk has became quite repetitive and boring, like ,that because some people got bored with LFS, they need to try and create the notion that everybody feels the same, and that LFS is heading to a slow death...
Since the conception of LFS I've come to know this time of year as "silly season", thanks to a few recurring trends on LFS forums.
- Usually around this time of year, or not too long after, LFS enjoys a significant update to its features and some bug fixes, and often some new content or some significant content update.
- Usually around this time of year, or not too long after, a thread or two will be created and some members will complain that they never get enough updates, or things are taking too long, or how unfair it is that they don't get to know what's going on behind the scenes in the Devs work environment, demanding their "rights" and generally bitching about how it sucks to be them in the world of LFS.
- It is not entirely unusual for some members who bitched and moaned initially, to be a short time later crowing about the new updates and how God-like the Devs are, how the latest update includes their new favourite car, track or feature, and can we all make babies with the Devs so that our genes can become a part of any future projects the Devs may participate in.
LFS people can be so cute, can't they? If I had a bigger back yard I'd take many of you home with me to be my pets, and I could feed you biscuits and throw a ball for you occasionally.
Compared to previous time frames, development has slowed to Duke Nukem forever pace (especially in the content area) and is the basis of much of the concern.
Already....and you've only been around for what... 3 years?
Seriously though, this is what the thread is about, no one's forcing people to read/comment on this thread if it doesn't match your take on the situation.
It's certainly not a competition to compel others to adopt the same thoughts... That battle was never going to be won given "sympathisers" would rarely visit this forum for the exact reasons we are debating.
Seeing as its silly season, I have to ask... do you have cookies and if so how large is that back yard?
/me runs off to chase the cat
As stated in my other post in this thread , dont want to chose any of the options ,but if the poll had a "LFS is like doritos chilli heatwave tree" i could of voted for that.
LFS is seemingly plodding on as its always done. Which is nice
Imagine if scawen was updating the physics every other month breaking peoples sets, racing styles, hotlaps/lfsworld.
Then you would get "oh the tyre wear in ax17 was better then aa1b "
"The blanacing is broke again in X group of cars"
"fuel consuption has gone up for my UF1 !!!"
That to me would be more upheaval. And im sure this has already been pointed out.
I think ChunkyRacer made a few good points, a few posts back.
Its always the ones that are bored that are complaining. Not that im copmlaning about those complaints , its just mm obvious why they do
They dont RACE enough imo.
If i would leave this post there.^
Im pretty sure i'd get hte reply but i dont want to race the same stuff "again"
well neither do i but, once i get that feeling and im side by side with a few laps to go with the leader, t could be racing round disney land, its the feeling that counts, not the track not the last patch, the feeling, the racing !
Trying to recapture your lost passion is somthing akin to being married i would imagine... mmm if i left it here would i start a divorce somewhere in the world....
Its not just onesided thing, the devs or LFS cant give you that passion for the racing feel.. your just as much respoible for that as the game is, the devs are, so on and so forth.
I dont know why, but i want to end with an alley'oop with my post here quoting a Will Ferrel film semi-pro
I Reckon Most people will move on after a while.. as you can see on the forum most people want Real Cars, Even though LFS Is starting to get real cars.. For many people its to late, and people are looking for other games, The Only way im gonna play Live for speed again is if they update the weather or a few cars but im already looking at other sims.
On the other hand, many people Are Getting bored of other sims and probally are interested in buying Live for speed
However slow the development is, LFS is still the best sim you can buy imo. Even if the updates are slow coming, they are still slowly making this already fantastic racing sim even better.
A dubious statement at best. Where can I see this?
Aye, but the last few have been more than a little lean on content. Particularly Z. It had some nice touches, but didn't seem like 6 months worth development. To me, it feels like a year since anything happened.
I totally agree, but I remain a concerned fan in regards to ongoing development.
+1