2010 was a tough year for my gaming community's LFS section. There were two occasions where numbers had dropped so significantly that we seriously considered pulling the plug and taking our server off the grid. A very small number of our racers saved the situation by seeding the server as often as possible, trying to attract drop-in guests and, hopefully, see them return again. There were, however, many nights where a 3 car race was the only show in town.

I mention this because I can't believe we are the only server provider to have faced these problems. Without servers, there is no LFS. The decision taken by the devs to cease the drip feed of new content (that we had all been used to seeing) caused, IMHO, numbers to decline. Scawen telling people to 'play something else' wasn't exactly a great help to us either.

2011 is probably going to be tougher than 2010 for the server providers. I don't have a crystal ball but the so-called 'progress report' didn't inspire me with confidence that new content is imminent so my guess is that we will all be playing the same hand we played in 2010 for much if not all of this year.

So here's the thing ...

However you feel about the state of LFS development expressing your view on these forums one way or the other will not make any difference. However, regularly jumping on a server and enjoying the experience will. The people who spend the time and money to provide the community with somewhere to race/drift need your support now more than at any time in the past. If and when S3 is released it would be good to know that there are still servers out there to actually run it on.

Quote from GreyBull [CHA] :

... Or just search for Scawen's posts perhaps?

Quote from GenesisX :

Nah...Too much work.

Here ya go ...


http://www.lfsforum.net/search.php?searchid=4009940

Quote from Gener_AL (UK) :

... And finally, if a tree falls in a forest, but noone sees it, does it make any sound?

If a man speaks in a forest and there's no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?

Dead Men Racing

I can guarantee that the racing there will be clean, fair and fun.

However there are a few things to consider ...

1. the vast majority of our members are mature guys with jobs & families and, as such, the server will only be busy/admin controlled between 7pm -10pm UK time.
   
2. we use a set combo for seven days at a time culminating in a 1 hour race on Thursdays at 20:30 UK time.
   
3. Wind is on. Fixed cockpit view is on.
   

Hope you find what you're looking for.

Quote from EQ Worry :

Hm, try F5? I see there this:

11. [B]unicode nickname[/B] (only in tab-separated file, for easier display on Web pages)
12. [B]raw username[/B] (only in tab-separated file, raw LFS format, not converted to lowercase)

I think those column names are reversed. It looks to me (and I'm happy to be corrected) that it should read:

11. Raw username
12. unicode nickname

Quote from EQ Worry :

Hm, try F5? I see there this:

11. [B]unicode nickname[/B] (only in tab-separated file, for easier display on Web pages)
12. [B]raw username[/B] (only in tab-separated file, raw LFS format, not converted to lowercase)

Yep. Appeared after a refresh.

Quote from EQ Worry :

... The link you mention actually contains the items 11 and 12 explained. While I'm not capable to update other pars of docs, this explanation is complete and correct. Basically, the two additional items are used only in tab-separated stats and contain nickname in Unicode and username in raw form.

Items 1 and 2 actually have it the other way, that is raw nickname and lowercase username. Having nickname in Unicode is handy for displaying on Web pages - you just need to convert special chars such as /, \ or * (but I plan to convert even these, I just need to consider the consequences) and color codes.

Thanks for the explanation although I have to confess that I'm struggling to find it described there.

Firstly, thank you for taking the time to not only give us Airio but for the ongoing help and support you provide. It's very much appreciated.

I have a query relating to one of the stats files. The information here states that there are 10 fields in the airio.sta.un.txt file yet my file contains 12 fields - the last 2 being a copy of the first 2. I have created new files from the latest version and this discrepancy still exists. Is there some reason for this?

Any additional ports to open up to UDP?

Excellent. Many thanks

Quote from bunder9999 :

gotta add the ^3 etc code to the url... that's what i had to do.

Ah. Of course. Apologies

Quote from Victor :

alright. I think the only thing I had to do left is create some form of default look.

There might be a bit more

We are currently running two servers:

Dead Men Racing and Dead Men Racing D

If I try the following links although the server name appears to be correct the rest of the info displayed is that for Dead Men Racing D (our demo server).

http://www.lfsworld.net/hoststatus/?h=Dead%20Men%20Racing

and

http://www.lfsworld.net/hostst ... h=Dead%20Men%20Racing%20D

Quote from Victor :

Well, I was making this not too long ago : http://www.lfsworld.net/hoststatus/?h=Blackwood%20XFG%20XRG but never finished it because there wasn't really a lot of interest. Or maybe I posted it in the wrong thread : http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=1017787#post1017787 (read from that post onwards).
It's fairly easy for me to finish it, if that's what you were looking for.

Yes please. Not sure if it's already there but please add a list of racers currently on the server too

Quote from Yisc[NL] :

But why you want to do that?

On servers where FCV is always enforced maybe?

Good luck with the Radicals, chaps

Any plans for an (optional) MySQL backend?

We have experienced some problems recently whereby our servers (both Z10) would only allow one (occasionally two) racers to connect. Anyone else trying to join would disconnect with a JOOS MPSYS error.

For as long as we can remember whenever there's been an update to the server files we've continued to use our existing setup.cfg file.
When I compared a new setup.cfg file with our old faithful one I noticed that the new one had an additional line for something called ndebug (network debug). I added this to our existing file and the problems went away. Why this problem has only just surfaced I don't know but if you are experiencing a similar issue then this might be of assistance.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

The only complaint I have is I'd have a hell of a time working through an hourish campaign with some dickheads on this forum

The Multiplayer is broken into sections which last about 10-15 minutes. So it is a game you can drop in and out of without committing huge amounts of time to.

L4D is great fun. It's ideal for people, like our community, who enjoy teamwork based games. You can quickly setup a co-op game with friends or strangers and work together to complete the mission. It's a blast playing as the infected where the Boomer is my particular favourite. There's still something of the naughty schoolboy in me that thinks it's hilarious to sneak up on someone and then vomit on them

Congratulations JR

Quote from NotAnIllusion :

Btw, Heidfeld gets grid penalty for impeding Coulthard. Neither was on a hotlap at the time:
http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news ... dfeld-given-grid-penalty/

Out of interest ... does anyone know how long after qualifying finished was that penalty announced?

Best of luck, chaps. Tally Ho!

How about stopping this charade of a winner's ceremony when the result is provisional and there's a stewards enquiry underway? That would make a huge difference because F1 couldn't possibly live with that - too many sponsors/TV companies to keep happy. So, instead of 2 hour delays, decisions would have to be made quickly and, rightly or wrongly, the decision stands. Fans leave the circuit debating controversial moments, studio pundits get to perform the race post mortem and everyone moves on. It works in the best football leagues in the world so why not F1?

Quote from SamH :

It no longer matters to me whether the decision stands or is overturned. For me, the damage is done.

The end of the race was magical. It was fantastic.. but it pales in comparison with the low, for me, of the controversy that followed it.

Since Kimi finished his race in a wall instead of parc-ferme, and the decision to penalise Lewis was made after this, the whole thing just smacks of the excessive influence of petty politics on a beleaguered sport.

In light of the facts of the race, the decision was petty. The controversy is petty, the appeal will be petty, the final decision will be petty.. F1 is petty. They shafted a sport that I loved, and I will never forgive them for it.

Well said. Sums up the whole incident. All this frame-by-frame forensic analysis is pointless. The sport shot itself in both feet and then proceeded to stuff them in its mouth.

Not sure if anyone's read this.

Quote :

I am not suggesting that the stewards had anything less than honourable intentions. However the way events unfolded after the race to the amazement of millions of bemused people hearing news reports was beyond farce. The stewards had gathered Formula One as a credible sport up in their arms and raced to the edge of the cliff.

Nice one. Well held