Ok so some very valid arguments against

But a small number of excellent mods developed by well expeirienced developers would solve this.

Good quality so nothing to worry about.

Few mods so no trouble constantly having to keep up.

I can quite happily wait till after S3, however i will be very dissapointed if modding is never introduced at all

Maybe not mods then, but semi-official addons tracks and cars.

I bet there are plenty more track owners and cars manufacturers ou there that would love to have their tracks in such an excellent sim

I really would love to drive some real tracks in LFS, fictional ones are all very nice, but I think real tracks will massivley increase the attraction of LFS, and i dont mean more silly people, I mean people who are seirious, excellent physics AND real life circuits and cars would elevate LFS from already being ONE of the best, to being probrably THE best.

It would be sad if modding is not intrioduced after S3, it would be like strangling the game engine, restricting it, and soon enough people will get bored of the cars and tracks and LFS will become forgotten.

Joe

i think that it wouldn't help the realism much but it would be more fun, knowing that you mastered a REAL track, and that with a pedal set and lfs's Uber-physics, you actually know about performance driving.

i hope

i remember an episode of top gear where jeremy tested grand turismo against reality and he said that all car sims are still video games and therefor shouldn't be used to compair cars in real life. I honestly hope that LFS would prove his statement wrong!

Quote from keiran :

I'll tell you the biggest con that a solution will be hard to find for; online play. I can be online in a server sitting in the pits within seconds in LFS.

If there were mods I'd have to go source the correct version of the mod because mines out of date at version 0.102.2049 and then source the track which there are probably millions of different half-arsed conversions...

has anyone ever played descent 3?
it has a really neat auto downloader that gets a list of (non official thus neatly avoiding the licence issues) mirrors from the server and automatically downloads and installs the map you need
with a quickish pipe youll be online in less than a minute

awsome! speaking of that, we should copy and paste every good thing about every other racing game together and try to smooth everything out... or just try to convince polyphony that our game is superior and would beg the devs to merge with LFS

Quote from atlantian :

awsome! speaking of that, we should copy and paste every good thing about every other racing game together and try to smooth everything out... or just try to convince polyphony that our game is superior and would beg the devs to merge with LFS

I dont know if your being sierious about the secon part, but simply copying and pasting and then trying to iron out is perhaps a bit far, that would just leave an inconsistent mess, imagine trying to write in all those differnt types of code! Its not that simple im afraid.

Just the addition of a few real life tracks and cars is enough to make LFS great, apart from maybe some minor additions the Game engine is already there and does not need to be molested and ruined.

Joe

i think that the game engine would look good in GT, that's all, gt5 has sexy graphics and a delicious looking menu of cars.

but, yes, i was joking about "Frankenstein-ing" games together...

I just want to make the point that modding a sim can put off noobies like myself as you never know where to start.

Initially I thought the few tracks and cars in LFS would be limiting, but it's quite the opposite. You get to know the cars and tracks in a much better way and it's baby steps to getting betterr rather than having six versions of the Nurburgring to get used to.

Plus the other good thing is when an official patch comes out, the excitement of trying out the new car or track is fresh for everyone at once so you get great discussions here and packed servers with everyone trying out the new stuff.

LFS is perfect the way it is...for now.

Quote from petercollins :

I just want to make the point that modding a sim can put off noobies like myself as you never know where to start.

Very fair point, but I think if mods are very carefully managed, (e.g fewer, high quality mods and one site where they can all be downloaded), then knowing where to start would be much easier. Also unlike Rfactor, where mods get announced as the very foundations are being made, mods could only be allowed to be announced when close to release, so you dont get hundreds of mods and only 3 getting released, or getting 3 mods of the same thing.

But I bet you that anyone eventually (I mean in quite a while) will get to know all the cars and trackso so well, that LFS will loose its entertainment value, ofcourse this will probrably be many years in the future, but at that point is when modding should be introduced, to keep interest in the game, and also by then there will be lots of LFS 'veterans' in the community that can be trusted to do a good job if they choose to mod the game.

Joe

Quote from atlantian :

....

If you want to see what happens with modding in the race sim setting take a good hard look at rFactor.

The reason I say this is that it has mods coming out of its ears and if pulls in far far fewer people on a regular basis than LFS. The reason is simple, too many madders that do not understand they catch patch their mod every 5 seconds the instant a bug is found.

So you end up not being able to join servers without a constant file conflict battle.

LFS works online because you jump on a server and you can play. Something that would have a big negative impact on LFS were this to change.

You also have to consider the effect on LFS world. What mods should it track and when it tracks them what version etc etc etc.

When you really look it starts to become obvious that modding is not always the solution.

All of this a a moot point though. You say you want more content but yet you only have demo. If you spent some cash you would get 5 new track environments and loads of new cars.

omfg! how did they get this!?!?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrtnNBWrxvU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqRbutbyf3k

^I really want the top gear test track

on a side note, have you guys experienced this on any race servers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJW6HjERZgE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... zQoNc&feature=related
so hilarious...
and this guy is pretty cool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i77BuuI8o_I

Quote from atlantian :

omfg! how did they get this!?!?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrtnNBWrxvU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqRbutbyf3k

its just some layout for the autocross editor that comes with a lfs licence

Quote :

on a side note, have you guys experienced this on any race servers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJW6HjERZgE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... zQoNc&feature=related
so hilarious...

sadly yes ... daily back when banger racing was popular too many people that dont get the racing bit

Quote from Nathan_French_14 :

I suspose i should have stated that what i said was my own opinion because in my opinion, i dont find it terribly realistic, but hey, each to there own.

Well, yes, each to their own, but I'm really interested to know WHY you think that way, what particular events and experiences formed your opinion. It just seems unfair to toss such an opinion at someone who has yet to try the simulation for themselves.

So Luke, try it out! The downside of the sim is that it's not very straightforward to install (especially with all the mods...), but once sorted out it can be an absorbing experience. The commonly known flaws in the simulation mainly boil down to a lack of low speed grip, but otherwise its a very fair representation of what its like to drive an over-powered lump of metal riding on treaded tyres.

Install the 65 mod at least. These cars have half the horsepower of the 67s and are just sweet to drive, difficult to drive fast (and need to be handled in a very different way to the 67s), but, in my opinion, handle in a very realistic way (that's to say in a believable and consistently predictable way).

Quote from Woz :

If you want to see what happens with modding in the race sim setting take a good hard look at rFactor.

The reason I say this is that it has mods coming out of its ears and if pulls in far far fewer people on a regular basis than LFS. The reason is simple, too many madders that do not understand they catch patch their mod every 5 seconds the instant a bug is found.

So you end up not being able to join servers without a constant file conflict battle.

LFS works online because you jump on a server and you can play. Something that would have a big negative impact on LFS were this to change.

You also have to consider the effect on LFS world. What mods should it track and when it tracks them what version etc etc etc.

When you really look it starts to become obvious that modding is not always the solution.

All of this a a moot point though. You say you want more content but yet you only have demo. If you spent some cash you would get 5 new track environments and loads of new cars.

Yes, but who says LFS has to be the same, a well controlled modding community, with few high quality mods wouldnt hurt would it??

And plus, im for modding and I have an S2 liscense!

Modding after s3, I can wait.

Joe

I'm a little late to the thread, but I thought I'd chuck in my tuppence worth....

I was a GPL addict back in the day, played nothing else for years. It was amazing, most realistic thing at the time. From 1998 to 2000ish (my most solid GPL years) it was unmodded, as the community hadn't figured it out yet. The community was solid, everyone racing on the same 11 tracks. You could join a league and instantly be competitive, as you knew the tracks inside out already.

I've tried rFactor, and, weirdly enough found it very restricting. There are SO MANY mods, it's unreal. Completely putting aside the "realism" or "general crapness" of many user made mods, the fact that there are so many thousands of track/car combinations means that you can never stay in one place. Excellent mod (a) comes out, and the new track (b) is the perfect setting for it, great. Spend a couple of weeks setting the car up, shaving those last tenths off your lap time, and by then the community has moved on to the next and new "Bestest Mod Ever". So you never end up racing - which, after all is what this is all about.

LFS on the other hand has only a handful of cars, a handful of tracks/layouts, and is IMO the perfect mix. There are enough track and car combinations to keep the interest up, but not so many that the community is fragmented. There's always some server or other racing your current preferred combo at any one time, and you can get some actual racing done!

but what if you(me) are actually interested in some rally style(discovering the track as you go) racing?

But, even if the track is foregn, if you have the same knowlege of the track as the other players, it'll be an even playground

i never bother to master any tracks, exept for some i master(memorize) unintentionally when i drive on it every time.

Quote from atlantian :

but what if you(me) are actually interested in some rally style(discovering the track as you go) racing?

Then you go and play RBR.

Indeed, if you want to go rallying, play a rally sim. LFS is a circuit racing sim, and in circuit racing, you know the entire circuit - that's how it is.

The problem with rFactor is (as I sort of tried to say above) is that it tries to be that rally sim. It also tries to be an offroad sim, a drag sim, rally sim....etc, and only ever comes as close as the mod author wants it to.

The only mods worth playing in my experience are the new F1 1979 mod, and the F1 1955 mod - both of which come with severely hacked about tyre physics by the mod authors. By the looks of things, they've spent an awful lot of time trying to get the tyre physics right - and those 2 mods feel great to drive, head and shoulders above the rest of the stuff that's available for rF.

The 1955 mod is spectacular - and well worth a play, but that was the next big thing a few months back, and nobody's playing it anymore. Which is why LFS is great - it's entirely dev run, there is no "next big thing" and any new releases (Formula BMW for example) can be tweaked, refined, honed, and made to be as good as possible before release.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... zQoNc&feature=related
woot i just saw my self on this vid woot