Anyone remember that quote from the C64 game 'Impossible mission' ?
Pretty much sums up LFS for me
I thought I'd write this post to put some things that have been said recently about the development of LFS into perspective.
I remember a time before LFS when every racing game I played, although fun to play at the time i.e Night driver (Atari 2600) and almost every other racing game since (believe me I must have tried hundreds on many platforms across the decades) I soon got bored and moved on to find the next best thing.
Then one day about 3 years ago I was browsing Internet sites looking for 'The next big thing' when I found a small demo called Live for Speed. At the time I was playing GP4 and thought that was excellent, especially when linked up to another PC and I could race with my mates. So anyway I downloaded Live for Speed and thought I'd give it a go. I must admit though, I was not expecting anything special and like some other demos around at the time, I did not expect it to stay on my hard drive for more than ten minutes or so..............THAT WAS 3 YEARS AGO!!!! JESUS H CHRIST!!
Let me say this, NOTHING before or since has gripped me in the way that Live for Speed has. I Still try every other sim/arcade racing game out there but in my heart of hearts I know they will be unistalled within a matter of either minutes or sometimes days. rFactor (deleted), GTR (deleted), GT legends (I gave it a month), NS2003 (stayed on my HD for about a year but didnt play that much), the list goes on.
I remember when S1 came out being overwhelmed by the amount of new cars and track combinations, some of which I still havent tried. When S2 was announced I remember thinking "I'm loving S1 so much that I hope I wont be disappointed by the new physics and car changes". I loved the simplicity (menu screens etc.) and the way everything worked and was afraid that all this would change for the worse. Sometimes change is not a good thing. Thankfully, I was wrong. S2 alpha was better than I could ever have imagined.
Anyway, back to my point. When people talk about the cost of a game they fail to realise that with the majority of games out there, there is a limit to the amount of time you play that game before the boredom factor sets in. OK, I'm not an avid game fan and do get bored with games quite easily, FPS are so samey these days as an example. So what do you do? You put the game on the shelf and go out and buy a new game. Within a year you may have spent in excess of £100 on new games. Live for Speed has cost £24 for 3 years of gaming. ABSOLUTE BARGAIN I say. In fact I suggested a while back having some sort of donation fund set up to support the developers (I mean, come on, Scawen deserves to be RICH and could surely get someone to do his kitchen for him. Make no mistake, he is a genius in my eyes). Someone suggested I just buy more licenses but I dont like that idea as it would give a false representation of the number of racers. I am going to pursue this idea further I think as I really want to support the developers more than I have so far. I mean, If you can afford to (for those who are fortunate enough) why not donate a few £'s,$'s, Euros every month or so. I am not suggesting this as a given, just as a voluntary thing.
Ok so the game is not finished, but who cares when you are having this much fun with what we have already got and have had for more than 3 years. I honestly thought the release of S2 was too soon as I was just getting used to the subtleties of S1. Now we've got S2 (and I'm glad), i bet most people have not even raced half of the car/track combinations, especially online, I know I havent. And yet they want more
illepall.
So to end I just want to point out to all those who want updates/patches, that If you go out there and join a few races and get better at driving and most importantly become a better racer you will/should enjoy/relish what we have already got.
To the LFS team.
Please, Please, Please continue the development the way you wish and do not be pressured in any way, shape or form in what some people may say about your game. This is a work of absolute genius and has brought more pleasure than you'll ever know to mine and many other peoples lives (and no I'm not licking arse here, I am telling it how it is). Your philosophy in my mind is the way it should be and I feel it is the way forward for niche games like simulations. It is up to us, the community, to ensure that our support enables you to continue to develop without distraction and financial pressure. We will, I am sure do that
. It has taken 25 years getting there, but I know I'm there with LFS. Thank-you 
To the racing community.
You know what I mean when I say this game/sim feels RIGHT. I'm no good at engineering and computer physics models, but I know this, I have played them all, Only a few come close, but Live for Speed just feels......RIGHT
So lets saviour a moment in gaming History and go out there and have great races.
As quoted in the subject title, Once you arrive and play a while, you WILL stay FOREVER
Happy, Race fuelled New Year
Oh, 1 more thing, a question/idea perhaps to the devs. Is this do-able?
A virtual Pit Engineer.
Can a setup system be made whereby a driver goes around a track a few laps, pits and gets prompted by a series of tick boxes or something e.g. Too much brakes, too much over/under steer, you know that kind of thing, like a wizard or something. If the car could be analyzed while it is going round the track, then perhaps the 'pit engineer' may suggest higher/lowering, stiffening/softening the suspension etc.. The reason is this, even though I have been racing for several years, I still dont really understand how some of the settings affect the car. I suppose I know them in principle, but as said earlier, I am no engineer and would prefer to have a virtual engineer do all that work for me. At the moment I rely on setups from other drivers but cannot be sure if that particular setup is suited to my style of driving. I do alter some things, like brakes and downforce but know I am only scratching the surface when it comes to the more complex stuff like camber settings and slip diff. etc.. I'm waffling so I'll stop there. But can this kind of thing be done? Please dont think I am suggesting for one minute that it should be implemented or anything, just whether it could be done and whether you think it is a good idea or not.
Pretty much sums up LFS for me
I thought I'd write this post to put some things that have been said recently about the development of LFS into perspective.
I remember a time before LFS when every racing game I played, although fun to play at the time i.e Night driver (Atari 2600) and almost every other racing game since (believe me I must have tried hundreds on many platforms across the decades) I soon got bored and moved on to find the next best thing.
Then one day about 3 years ago I was browsing Internet sites looking for 'The next big thing' when I found a small demo called Live for Speed. At the time I was playing GP4 and thought that was excellent, especially when linked up to another PC and I could race with my mates. So anyway I downloaded Live for Speed and thought I'd give it a go. I must admit though, I was not expecting anything special and like some other demos around at the time, I did not expect it to stay on my hard drive for more than ten minutes or so..............THAT WAS 3 YEARS AGO!!!! JESUS H CHRIST!!
Let me say this, NOTHING before or since has gripped me in the way that Live for Speed has. I Still try every other sim/arcade racing game out there but in my heart of hearts I know they will be unistalled within a matter of either minutes or sometimes days. rFactor (deleted), GTR (deleted), GT legends (I gave it a month), NS2003 (stayed on my HD for about a year but didnt play that much), the list goes on.
I remember when S1 came out being overwhelmed by the amount of new cars and track combinations, some of which I still havent tried. When S2 was announced I remember thinking "I'm loving S1 so much that I hope I wont be disappointed by the new physics and car changes". I loved the simplicity (menu screens etc.) and the way everything worked and was afraid that all this would change for the worse. Sometimes change is not a good thing. Thankfully, I was wrong. S2 alpha was better than I could ever have imagined.
Anyway, back to my point. When people talk about the cost of a game they fail to realise that with the majority of games out there, there is a limit to the amount of time you play that game before the boredom factor sets in. OK, I'm not an avid game fan and do get bored with games quite easily, FPS are so samey these days as an example. So what do you do? You put the game on the shelf and go out and buy a new game. Within a year you may have spent in excess of £100 on new games. Live for Speed has cost £24 for 3 years of gaming. ABSOLUTE BARGAIN I say. In fact I suggested a while back having some sort of donation fund set up to support the developers (I mean, come on, Scawen deserves to be RICH and could surely get someone to do his kitchen for him. Make no mistake, he is a genius in my eyes). Someone suggested I just buy more licenses but I dont like that idea as it would give a false representation of the number of racers. I am going to pursue this idea further I think as I really want to support the developers more than I have so far. I mean, If you can afford to (for those who are fortunate enough) why not donate a few £'s,$'s, Euros every month or so. I am not suggesting this as a given, just as a voluntary thing.
Ok so the game is not finished, but who cares when you are having this much fun with what we have already got and have had for more than 3 years. I honestly thought the release of S2 was too soon as I was just getting used to the subtleties of S1. Now we've got S2 (and I'm glad), i bet most people have not even raced half of the car/track combinations, especially online, I know I havent. And yet they want more
illepall.So to end I just want to point out to all those who want updates/patches, that If you go out there and join a few races and get better at driving and most importantly become a better racer you will/should enjoy/relish what we have already got.
To the LFS team.
Please, Please, Please continue the development the way you wish and do not be pressured in any way, shape or form in what some people may say about your game. This is a work of absolute genius and has brought more pleasure than you'll ever know to mine and many other peoples lives (and no I'm not licking arse here, I am telling it how it is). Your philosophy in my mind is the way it should be and I feel it is the way forward for niche games like simulations. It is up to us, the community, to ensure that our support enables you to continue to develop without distraction and financial pressure. We will, I am sure do that
. It has taken 25 years getting there, but I know I'm there with LFS. Thank-you To the racing community.
You know what I mean when I say this game/sim feels RIGHT. I'm no good at engineering and computer physics models, but I know this, I have played them all, Only a few come close, but Live for Speed just feels......RIGHT
So lets saviour a moment in gaming History and go out there and have great races.
As quoted in the subject title, Once you arrive and play a while, you WILL stay FOREVER
Happy, Race fuelled New Year
Oh, 1 more thing, a question/idea perhaps to the devs. Is this do-able?
A virtual Pit Engineer.
Can a setup system be made whereby a driver goes around a track a few laps, pits and gets prompted by a series of tick boxes or something e.g. Too much brakes, too much over/under steer, you know that kind of thing, like a wizard or something. If the car could be analyzed while it is going round the track, then perhaps the 'pit engineer' may suggest higher/lowering, stiffening/softening the suspension etc.. The reason is this, even though I have been racing for several years, I still dont really understand how some of the settings affect the car. I suppose I know them in principle, but as said earlier, I am no engineer and would prefer to have a virtual engineer do all that work for me. At the moment I rely on setups from other drivers but cannot be sure if that particular setup is suited to my style of driving. I do alter some things, like brakes and downforce but know I am only scratching the surface when it comes to the more complex stuff like camber settings and slip diff. etc.. I'm waffling so I'll stop there. But can this kind of thing be done? Please dont think I am suggesting for one minute that it should be implemented or anything, just whether it could be done and whether you think it is a good idea or not.
