Maybe there should be a requirement to pass all of the training missions for each car before we can drive it. It would make the races somewhat cleaner.

Suggested a couple of times, but nobody's really cares because they all drive the licensed servers, where the skill level is a lot higher than in the demo...

Yup. Get the licence and you'll get cleaner races too.

Blue Flags are always down to the individual's point of view... Someone said in another thread: "Ask 3 people on their opinion about blue flags and you'll get 4 completely different ones..." Just have patience, either they're pulling to the side just a little later or you can pass them anyway as the better driver...

But I fully agree (as stated in every other thread of this kind) that you should have to finish training before you can use the cars online... Given, if you finished training, you're even then far away from being a good and/or clean racer, but at least you have felt how the cars work (with a really bad setup)...

one thing i find - especiallly at the oval - is that people assume you will do all manner of crazy things when ol bluey is out, like one person started cursing me as i held the racing line, even though he was just a spec in my rear view mirror, if he was closer i would have let him past, but in the end i pulled away from him, but he still comlained abut me not understanding it!

Race on a private server and you will get cleaner races too. No need for training challenges.

If some skilled FO8 racer have to reformat disk, he will have to go throught all the Training to access his car? No, this is not a good idea.

Quote from MadCatX :

If some skilled FO8 racer have to reformat disk, he will have to go throught all the Training to access his car? No, this is not a good idea.

The Training itself is finished in half an hour, if you know what you're doing, so I'd rather take the inconvenience of doing all the training again if just the level on the servers would rise up...

Could have test status saved on LFSW - so unlocking returns your status. Not that I'm entirely in favour of 'tests' to get the cars, although I agree a lot of noobs have access to cars they really shouldn't attempt.

The training doesn't teach you anything. I did the training using my laptop-keyboard and got "Professial" rating every second time (but I had to stop at the MRT autocross, the slalom is nearly impossible with keyboard). So there is propably no one who couldn't do the trainings with ease and no learning.

Vain

As I said, for someone, who knows what he's doing, the training is no problem at all... It's about the noobs, who are lacking this (or every other) knowledge...

Even then they will probably not address it with the right attitude. They might not take it as the training exercise it should be instead of merely going thru it as fast as they can because they have to. I know I would. Besides, even after the training I couldn't drive a clean lap with any of the RWDs so much use that was, eh..

Passing the AI exercises are not of much use either as online behaviour differs greatly. I found I'd have far more contact with the AIs than online, because the darned bots didn't turn their heads and look when I was passing

In real life one does not jump into a car & track first time ever and go to race totally clueless, it would be insanely dangerous. I think LFS should somehow reflect this. I don't know what a feasible solution would be, but I hope one will be dreamt up

Well, I think, for someone that can't control his car properly, the slaloms can be a huge pain in the ass...
And yes, when I first tried the passing trainings with the AI, it was pretty frustrating because they would turn into that bend no matter if you're there or not, and even the slightest touch is your fault... Pretty frustrating, till I learned to wait till my time comes to pass them safely and without any risks... This may be one of the reasons why I never had one of those blue flag incidents with a slower driver...

Yeah, you can finish the training without having learned anything... But it would be a good way of getting only people on the servers, who at least heard of the basics...

Quote from tristancliffe :

Could have test status saved on LFSW - so unlocking returns your status. Not that I'm entirely in favour of 'tests' to get the cars, although I agree a lot of noobs have access to cars they really shouldn't attempt.

i havent looked over all the posts here but i got an idea... i myself havent done all the tests but i know how to drive decently in lfs.

so... maybe... if your account is less than 6 months old, you must do all the training? or at least complete the training for certain cars before you can use them.

Well, I'm only a demo user, and I haven't found one server where everyone doesnt wreck on turn one. But, apperantly its different on S2 server. As soon as I get a wheel, I'll get S2.

Quote from Clownpaint :

People tend to get very nervous on LFS if you don't ruin your race to move out of the way for them. I've often tried to do an F1 like maneouvre and let them slip by, right up until the last minute they are screaming BLUE FLAG!! BLUE FLAG!!! MOVE!! Then it works like clockwork and I get a smile. I think people should definately be way off the racing line and shouldn't interfere with the passing cars race at all though. As soon as you disadvantage the car lapping you, you are in the wrong in my opinion.

This is where the poster who said ask 3 people their opinions and you'll get 4 different answers. You say "I think people should definately be way off the racing line......" under a blue flag. Lap cars are a part of racing and I have several posts out there about blue flag that I've said you should hold your line and when the lead lap car makes the pass, lift, brake early, keep wide in the turn, whatever to allow the lead car to pass easily. I am still racing even if a lead car is coming up behind me and will not pull off because he is screaming "BLUE FLAG!! BLUE FLAG!!" It is up to the lead car to pass the lap car and up to the car being passed to allow him to pass without interference. Not for the car being passed to throw away his race because someone happens to be faster and coming back around behind him.

As for the training to drive online, the biggest problem isn't people knowing how to drive, it's people's attitudes. If you are new and don't allow the lead car by easily and continue to "hold him off" then a simple, "hey bud, you should let that guy behind you go, he's faster and you're not racing him" would do. What the new guys do with important information the veterans tell them is the difference. I saw a guy last night who did that. I said, "let him by, he's the lead car" as he kept it floored cutting the lead car off at every turn. This guy wasn't just going a lap down, he had spun, turned around, drove the wrong way a bit, done some donuts, until he turned back the right way and continued down the track as the lead cars were catching up. So, he was no longer racing after the driving the wrong way and doing donuts thing. The response I got was "Why" "I am king I'll do what I want!" "Shut up!" and other things. That is an attitude problem, not a problem with driving past a bunch of AI cars that don't see you. I checked his stats and he only had a couple hundred total laps to his name, so fairly new. If he would have responded with "Why, what's Blue Flag?" "Oh, Ok, sorry, didn't know!" and later obeyed the blue flag warnings and warnings not to do donuts on track and stuff, that is the attitude I want to see in the new guys. Those that want to actually learn and race respectively, not go online to screw around. No amount of training will help that. I'd rather race with the new guy who makes mistakes and even big ones, learns and accepts the help from others, and respects the other racers rather than the guy who can pass a few AI cars and brake in a certain distance by himself, but comes online to screw around and won't listen or respect that this is real people he's online with.

Whew, I'm off work for 2 weeks now for the Christmas break and I think I have been typing longer and longer posts every night. Happy Racing!

Quote from bbman :

The Training itself is finished in half an hour, if you know what you're doing

I don't know if I have the same training section as you, but I have 90 lessons into it. Completing it in 30 mins means you can do 3 lessons per minute which is 20 seconds per lesson. Congratulations to that but for normal, stupid people like me I would rather calculate with 2 hours or more considering you might fail the one or other lesson because you don't drive all the cars every day.

I myself did some of the lessons but since you have to "unlock" them with the previous lessons I have stopped at the lx4 because I don't intend to ever race it. Also the completed lessons tought me nothing except for the overtaking lessons. That is because I went out and hotlapped the appropiate car until I was able to beat the ai.

My suggestion: One overtaking lesson per car/track combo (not in forced order), each one of these lessons will unlock just the car/track combo you have completed for online play (not single player). Then you have at least a minimal learning effect and not have to waste your time with tons of useless slalom lessons.

it's not a good way of doing it, you'd just get people being really hacked off with it all and not bothering to go through it all, it's also xbox or playstationish for lfs, is it really that hard for admins to ban drivers who destroy races?

I think the idea of unlocking anything in lfs is a very dangerous idea as if it gains too much support and is implemented would send the game into arcade nonsense land, much like the idea of having credits and performance addons for the cars.