What does brake assist actually do? I thought it might be a bit like ABS, but when observing the wheels under maximum braking the wheels spend more time locked than it does spinning (which sort of defeats the whole object of ABS doesn't it?).

The reason I ask is because I thought it would help me with braking at corners, because currently this is where I'm doing badly (having to brake down to a third of my speed to corner, since I can't brake while turning and LFS doesn't detect that my controller has proportionality in the buttons (so it sees a light press as just a full press meaning I can't brake slightly, same happens with the accelerator so I wheelspin a lot).

It's like a primitive version of ABS. When the wheels are about to lock up, it simply pumps the brake pedal for you. That of course means that you can waste a quite substantial part of braking potential because all brakes are released if one wheel is about to lock up. However, I guess it can help newcomers and people with crude controllers (or rough motoric skills :tilt.

Buy a wheel

Also, Brake Help is like ABS but not 100%. Its only help, not "its ok, I'll do that for you" If you reduce the brake power per square foot (or whatever its called) in your setup that should help.

It's not a crude controller lol :P

It's actually a Sony PS2 controller and I know for a fact that all of the D-pad buttons have proportionality but there are very few PC games detect and utilise it (I think NFS is the only one I've found so far).

As for motoric skills, yes I am a noob and have only been playing for 3 days, and this is by far the most realistic racing game I've ever played.

Because this game is so realistic, everyone is a noob to start off with...Even me!

Quote from janipewter :

It's not a crude controller lol :P

It's actually a Sony PS2 controller and I know for a fact that all of the D-pad buttons have proportionality but there are very few PC games detect and utilise it (I think NFS is the only one I've found so far).

As for motoric skills, yes I am a noob and have only been playing for 3 days, and this is by far the most realistic racing game I've ever played.

As far as I know there aren't any PC games that support analogue buttons. Use sticks, there were a guide about setting up your gamepad in LFS somewhere in this forum

You're wrong, every game I've played which has controller support, the analogue buttons have worked on. It's just the proportionality which some games have problems with.

Just before you jump in and have a go at him, i used brake help for ages (and i might still do...) and you can still be quick using it.

I recommend that you learn to drive without it though, as while originally it gains you consistensy, as you get more miles it just costs you time.

I don't use it and I'm slow

I have used it recently though.

I find it causes unwanted weight transfer, especially in those hairy situations. I might use it more often if it ACTUALLY simulated ABS, but it just seems to cut braking power (on all four corners) whenever one tire wants to lock up. Not too efficent if you ask me.
~Bryan~