Hello.
Been years (maybe 10) since I last played.

Gotten back into sim racing recently and remembered this game and how great it was back in the day.

Is it still active? I think CTRA with their lap record and adhoc racing championship plug in was all the rage when I was last active.

Still a lot of racing / tournaments going on or is it sort of dead now?


Basically wondering if it's with re downloading and getting s3 or not.

Hi dude, welcome back, and oh boy, so many new things are going on right now in LFS, and buying an S3 license is more than worth it. Devs recently released moded cars support, and there are already many new cars created by community members in S3 already as mods. Aside from that, there is a league race 1h+ almost every day.

About leagues and organized racing, there is pretty much an event every day of the week, like rane said, some days even multiple. Some of them are streamed and commentated live by Sim Broadcasts. See this week's schedule for example: https://www.lfs.net/news/1448 . On some events, for example FM GTi Thursday or FOX Friday, we are usually filling up all the server slots and we have to miss those who don't qualify in Top 40 .
As for community, the LFS Discord server is also growing big now! If you prefer to join, you can find it in Discord's Server Discovery search feature, or join using this link: https://discord.com/invite/wZrUTJN

Thanks for the Disc link Mandul, I've joined it.

Rane, looked into the mods, seems to just be some basic mods rather than the level of Asseto Corsa for example, but better than nothing I guess!

Is there an equivalent to CTRA today? I don't tend to spend 3-4 hours racing as a go, I liked the CTRA method of being able to jump in and out with the lap records and points earnt etc.

And are public racing lobbies still active in Multiplayer server browser? I remember there used to be the random drift servers and the racing servers that did 15-30 minute races etc?

Also, there used to be a big skinning community with the cars, are those still active? Is there a big file I can download which has lots of different skins for cars as opposed to getting them individually

Sorry for the questions, I'm a boomer now so I've forgotten how to do anything ! :-)

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

Rane, looked into the mods, seems to just be some basic mods rather than the level of Asseto Corsa for example, but better than nothing I guess!

Mods have been available to create in LFS for under a week. It's still in active development and not in an official patch release yet.

More info: https://www.lfs.net/forum/498-Vehicle-Mods-TEST-Forum

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

Also, there used to be a big skinning community with the cars, are those still active? Is there a big file I can download which has lots of different skins for cars as opposed to getting them individually

Skins are being made, and a few of them are pretty good quality IMO. But I think calling it a community might be a little far fetched.

You'll still have to download skins individually, nothing's changed. Although my guess is (pure speculation alert) that it will have to, when vehicle mods support drops.

Skins back in 2010ish were the bomb. Now it's ok, there isn't that much talent left as there used to be.

I installed and downloaded the game again once I got my wheel mount sorted, did some searching on here and got some of the texture and reflection packs so it doesn't look awful for a 15 year old game!

Must admit was disappointed with the active multiplayer servers, there was only 1 actual racing server I could see - which was a FBM server doing 4 lap sprint races - which was OK - reminded me how rusty I am :-)
Was well off the pace!

Probably won't get S3 , given how dead public multiplayer is, the most players on any server was 12
I see little point of spending the £12 just to drive around Rockingham

I remember back in the CTRA days there was multiple servers with 20+ people, I was hoping there was still a core active community

Oh well, if the FBM racing is all I can get then I'll take it for now and just dip in every so often but I'll probably stick with AC/ACC/PC2

S3 now is not just Rockingham,but also all the user created cars - that opens up quite few options in racing (allthough not sure how mod cars will affect pick up racing). Check https://www.lfs.net/online/activity to see current online activity and what kind of cars are raced.

If you have an S3 license the only server I see that opens up is another TC City Driving cruise server which is not interesting to me.

Surprised the TC thing is still going, I remember they used to have servers a decade or more ago! Was nice to chill out on

Shame as the physics are pretty good still considering the games age, I pray one day CTRA or a similar league comes back lol

Numerous leagues throughout the week https://www.lfs.net/leagues

Is there an active community: yes, I would say so
Is it as active as it used to be: erm, sadly not, no
Is there an active drift/cruise community: strangely, yes, although I don't personally see the fun of it - I prefer racing
Are there multiple, fun, crowded, pick up and race options: no
Are there scheduled, organised events you can join if you have the time: yes, there are a few and they seem good options with reasonable numbers
Are the physics still the best: in my opinion, yes
Is the VR implementation the best: again, in my opinion, yes
Are the graphics the best: no, but I value physics over eye candy
Are the sounds the best: no, but I value physics over ear candy
Do I play LFS as much as the other sims I own: no*
What the hell is that all about: search me!

* technically, in the last few weeks, the answer to this is yes, but over the last few years, its no.

Sure there is an active community
we organise Cups and events twice a months in 5 rounds !
we also launch Enduros regularly

and yes, we are in your case, we ran LFS 15 years ago and refind it
we now have a family, a job and we do not spend hours to train, so all levels were accepted in our Races. the only word is : FAIRPLAY

of course, servers are not plenty of drivers but at the day race, the competitors are here !
so come in :www.gumgarage.editboard.com

we are also very active in Discord : https://discord.gg/8vbB25V

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

I pray one day CTRA or a similar league comes back lol

CTRA is definitely not coming back but there is nothing to prevent something similar being created in the future.

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

If you have an S3 license the only server I see that opens up is another TC City Driving cruise server which is not interesting to me.

Surprised the TC thing is still going, I remember they used to have servers a decade or more ago! Was nice to chill out on

Shame as the physics are pretty good still considering the games age, I pray one day CTRA or a similar league comes back lol

+1
I really miss CTRA servers They were very good when you have 1h and you want to RACE with good, skilled racers.

CTRA is the best what happened to me in LFS life Really miss them.

XFG on FB Club...