I've been a LFS fan for a very long time.

I'm sad, I'm frustrated but most of all I'm just plain curious.
I said to my self I wasn't going to this, but I've been a loyal LFS supporter for almost a decade. Close this if you will which will most likely happen but I kindly and respectfully ask you don't delete it.


So....
Let's jump in our time machine of history and look at the transition from S1 to S2. There was copious amounts of progress reports.

With S3, I guess the best analogy is to take candy from a baby.
S3 is promised. At the same time it's never delivered. Now I understand that it's not something that can be produced overnight. Believe me I do.
But....
How about a little courtesy for the devoted fans. The people who a loyal to the franchise. I love LFS I really do. It's the best racing game of all time and for me it always will be. I ask the Dev's for just a little bit of courtesy for it's fans.

There's nothing on the market that can provide the same form of enjoyment and experience as LFS. Yes. I play iRacing and Rfactor and all that but LFS holds a very special place in my heart.

This thread. It's not a complaint it's a suggestion yet almost a begging. All I ask from the team of Dev's yes I know it's small and yes I respect that. Scawen. I know you worked on B&W and that's one of my all time favorite games too. I wish a 3rd would come. It makes me wonder and it makes a lot of people wonder. What's happening? What's the secret?

I don't care if there's not gameplay footage or screen shots of S3. All I ask is a little more communication for the community of devoted fans. It doesn't take an educated person to look at this and come to the conclusion that this fantastic simulation is shrinking day by day.

Give us something, Be it weekly or monthly. Just don't leave us wondering in the dark. It will give me and I'm sure others a little peace of mind just to let us know that hey... "Today we worked on some more tyre physics it"

I'm sure you see clearly what leaving the community in the dark can do and I know you get frustrated at some of the replied and accusations that come with that. I'm not here to accuse you of wrong doing. Only not to keep us in the dark.

Anyway.

I'll end it here. You get my point.

Here's a pic of me my GF took last week.

Its time to move on hun...

What you wrote has been written before by others. Everything that can be said about this topic has already been said (after all, 5 years are a long time). All the replies you'll find here were also replied before. Reading LFSforums sometimes feels like being caught in a time loop.

Forget about LFS, stop waiting for S3. When S3 is out, it will wait for you. (<-- did i mention that this was said before?)

As someone who's also been playing for a decade I have to say that if you are as supportive of the devs as you claim to be, why not simply step back and continue enjoying what we've already been given and help them by not begging for updates or reports.

Stop thinking about what is to come and enjoy what you've got today. It will make any future progress all the more enjoyable if and when they arrive.

Too bad they don't care how loyal you are.

If any dev will even reply to this thread, it will be something like "Closing."

Yeah. it's a real pisser... It's easier to get N. Korea's nuclear plans than it is to get any development news about LFS.
One thing that really annoys me are the poor excuses for the cheats and mods that are out for it.
First off, there ain't very many mods and most are un impressive at most.
Second, if you must mod a car, at least be original. Mod a hybrid.
Then there's the cheats. Talk about lame. There's a cheat out there that makes your car bullet proof. No damage. What the hell kind of cheat is that for LFS? Isn't the one sellable factor about this game the damage model? If someone bought the game because of the damage, then why would they want that cheat? If they must make cheats, then make them so everyone will like them. Like cars that sling out spikes or oil or something. Now THAT'S a cheat.
Maybe the cheaters could work with the modders and make a passenger with an assault rifle.

OP is legit. They are humble and understanding. We should not invalidate people for politely expressing how they feel about anything, no less LFS.

It's summer here, but it's winter in LFS.

It is nice when other members of the community start threads like this.

It also feels nice knowing that others are having the same concerns regarding the state of LFS and it's development.

Most, if not all of us, are already aware that LFS is hobby and not a primary job for developers.

At what point tho, is the hobby considered abandoned? I know that is not the case with LFS, but it sure feels like it a lot of the time.

If this project is no longer the main focus of that developers, what will it take to get them to open LFS to third party developments?

We all know there is plenty of talented people within this forum and community that would love to move forward with the progress of LFS, but the developers seem stuck on having development come their team and only their team.

What is wrong with third parties adding a few new tracks to the game to add a new and fresh aspect to the game? We don't necessarily need them added to the LFSWorld stats because I know that would add more work for Victor. What is wrong with adding them to say a custom tracks feature that is separate from LFSWorld?

If the ability to add custom tracks that were denied access to LFSWorld stats was added, I bet there would be a significant increase in new licenses as well as old licenses returning to once again participate in LFS.

Not only would it add new content, but it could spark all kinds of league and competitions as well.

I guess this is all just a dream tho as we already know the developers will not allow such actions.

One can only dream, I suppose.

I have the same feeling, but I can not express because I am very bad in English ..You just talked about all the stuff in my heart

<3 Thanks

Quote from edge3147 :

If the ability to add custom tracks that were denied access to LFSWorld stats was added, I bet there would be a significant increase in new licenses as well as old licenses returning to once again participate in LFS.

Not only would it add new content, but it could spark all kinds of league and competitions as well.

Speaking as a league admin / LFS user for this entire post! Don't let the fact that it says "Moderator" under my name affect your interpretation of this post!

I would absolutely NOT use tracks that were custom, but not reported to LFSWorld. The reason for this view is not because of a quality concern or such, but just what your idea says - stats-less use of the tracks. I regard the LFSWorld stats tracking as a necessity, it allows not only the tracking, but the ability to use those to establish entry requirements to try to ensure a certain level of competition.

Wholeheartedly would I LOVE some new tracks for LFS! It would make league scheduling a fair bit easier, offering more to choose from, and reducing repetition in a season. The need for more tracks of a longer variety for the faster cars is there in addition to the need for variety. I've got absolutely no complaints about the current offering, we make them work, and work around issues as needed.

I will refrain from commenting on progress report desires, because in this current community environment, any reasonable discussion will get lost in excessive criticism / complaining.

I would much rather most of the energy spent complaining / asking the same question in forum over and over again be spent more supporting those who are trying to keep LFS active, providing servers of any type you wish to partake in, those who are trying to provide leagues for you to race in. Recently, a league had to be cancelled because of extremely poor attendance. Attendance has dwindled at many events lately, but oddly they have had reasonable signup numbers.

I'm of the opinion that while you can be upset with the current visible path of LFS, I firmly believe you can still get plenty racing enjoyment out of what still exists. A race is always a race, but no two races are exactly alike. Races aren't really any fun when there are only 10-15 cars, and they get spread out. A 20+ car field usually keeps things a bit busier, and gives more opportunities for battling. And by participating, you're showing your support for those who expend their time and energy to support LFS in it's current state. That's all any of us have to go on right now, so why not get what you can out of it? We seem to still be getting good mileage out of what we have, as long as competition is high, it's worth it!

Quote from dekojester :

We seem to still be getting good mileage out of what we have, as long as competition is high, it's worth it!

That's a really good attitude.
I like your advice about spending energy on positive things. A lot of people around here need that advice.

Anyway, I've found special software that enhances my LFS experience offline, and so have be occasionally enjoying it that way.

Regarding non-LFSW custom tracks: That seems more like misguided bargaining than a well thought out idea. I imagine that adding tracks to LFSW is a trivial matter. An image and some database entries.
Take a look at the LFS mod scene. IP infringement is prevalent, and the quality varies extremely. User generated content would have to be curated. I imagine it'd take a lot of time to get LFS ready for user generated content, and it'd take time to get the content ready for LFS.

The best system for this kind of thing is I know of is DOTA2 on Steam Workshop.

Anyway, my final word on user generated content is this: http://automationgame.com/

Was just a thought, not a true suggestion.

Just dreaming of new content being added.

Regarding the OP....I agree with what you say, a simple update is nothing, no matter how small it is or big, just something, as "its done when its done" is getting tired now.

And before you get the "oh here come's the oldies whinging again" posters we are not, we are purely asking for a little, if so little progress report. Scawen and co must know how much progress they have made and when it will be approx finished, if not, then there is no project management going on. Done when its done does not work in any project or company I have ever worked for, no matter what problems are thrown at you.

We, as a community don't need to know the added content, what we can expect in S3, but just that is getting closer would be nice.

Again, like most, I have been here decades, and still here, doing different things, trying to keep it fun and interesting but something from the devs would be great.

Even if they said "we are planning on a October release" for example and them have to put it back due to unforeseen problems, at least we know...they are fixing them before a final release.

Fordie

Quote from fordman :

regarding the op....i agree with what you say, a simple update is nothing, no matter how small it is or big, just something, as "its done when its done" is getting tired now.

And before you get the "oh here come's the oldies whinging again" posters we are not, we are purely asking for a little, if so little progress report. Scawen and co must know how much progress they have made and when it will be approx finished, if not, then there is no project management going on. Done when its done does not work in any project or company i have ever worked for, no matter what problems are thrown at you.

We, as a community don't need to know the added content, what we can expect in s3, but just that is getting closer would be nice.

Again, like most, i have been here decades, and still here, doing different things, trying to keep it fun and interesting but something from the devs would be great.

Even if they said "we are planning on a october release" for example and them have to put it back due to unforeseen problems, at least we know...they are fixing them before a final release.

Fordie

+1000

Sir Fordie, you mentioned that you've been around for decades. A decade is ten years. Not sure if mistyped or something..

Quote from MousemanLV :

Sir Fordie, you mentioned that you've been around for decades. A decade is ten years. Not sure if mistyped or something..

Nope MousemanLV...I Found LFS in 2001/2002 I think, and my join date here is 2003, so now in 2013, so that's 10yrs just on here, but LFS was going strong way before, in RaceSimCentral forums.

So no, not a typo.

There is plenty of us around, that have been here a decade, and still are, not just me.

Like my avatar says, I am not a tourist...I live here LOL

Fordie

Fordman, the Join Date here is synchronized to whenever you created your LFS account (so likely when S1 was about to be released).

His join date here is the same as the devs so I guess it is when this forum was created and moved from rsc?

The forum wasn't moved from RSC. This forum is completely separate, and no data that was part of the RSC forum is here (unless duplicated, which if you look at some really really old threads, people did have a habit of making threads both here and at RSC).

He's been around over a decade, and many others, even me, although I came very late to the party; used the demo for years, wanted to wait for more content, and then buy.

Anyway, why is it such an issue, and why is it so hard to believe, some of us are old, older... and have been around a very long time on the pc sim scene. I started building my own systems for the sole purpose of simulators in the mid 90's, so I got lucky, I was around for the golden years. Although I feel confident the best years are to come.

But, waiting sucks. We old farts are just more patient I guess?

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Fordman, the Join Date here is synchronized to whenever you created your LFS account (so likely when S1 was about to be released).

Hi Dawes, no it's not mate. It is the date you joined this Forum, it is not linked to LFS the Sim in any way.

LFS was operating from RSC for a good 2-3yrs before it moved to it's own dedicated forum. My actual join date that I first started racing LFS was 22nd September 2001. I know sad that I remember this date

Quote from DHRammstein :

Anyway, why is it such an issue, and why is it so hard to believe, some of us are old, older... and have been around a very long time on the pc sim scene
We old farts are just more patient I guess?

Well Said DHRammstein LOL

Fordie

Quote from Fordman :

Hi Dawes, no it's not mate. It is the date you joined this Forum, it is not linked to LFS the Sim in any way.

LFS was operating from RSC for a good 2-3yrs before it moved to it's own dedicated forum. My actual join date that I first started racing LFS was 22nd September 2001. I know sad that I remember this date

Well, remember that in the Pre-S1 days.. there was no LFS account, you joined servers just non-chalant with whatever nickname. It wasn't until S1 was released that we all started to have an LFS account.

This forum was created in 2004/2005. There was no way for any of us to have joined before its creation.

The join date that is listed is the date that one created their LFS account, either for the purchase of S1 or just because they wanted a specific username.

It is a shame that development seems to have petered out, but y'know software projects don't live forever.

It would be interesting to hear what the devs are up to these days though, assuming it's commercial software anyway.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Well, remember that in the Pre-S1 days.. there was no LFS account, you joined servers just non-chalant with whatever nickname. It wasn't until S1 was released that we all started to have an LFS account.

This forum was created in 2004/2005. There was no way for any of us to have joined before its creation.

The join date that is listed is the date that one created their LFS account, either for the purchase of S1 or just because they wanted a specific username.

Hmm not correct. As my join date here is Jan 2003. I just checked my LFS account, and it says I paid for S1 on 29th May 2003 and this was before the release. This forum was created in 2003, hence why we all have a join date.

Check here http://www.lfs.net/?page=oldernews and scroll to the bottom, Sep 2002, so I was 1 year out on my "find" date, 2002 is when I found it and joined RSC. New website (Jan. 8th, 2003 15:05) and Forum was released at the same time.

thur, jul. 17th, 2003 23.45
S1 is out! - Offical news S1 was released for download

So as you can see, the dates don't tally up when you needed a S1 account and joined the forum.

Fordie