Karting
The weather was a great mix for the karting, a drying track to start out which gave way to walking pace drifting once a shower hit (never laughed so much when racing). Could almost spin the wheels in a straight line, madness.

After the rain stopped, the weather just got warmer throughout the day and the track dried and increased in grip, to the extent we were back to only dabbing the brakes for the reverse Eau Rouge style corner. Quite the change from earlier.

The karts were more closely matched this time, with no obvious super fast or slow karts. Not saying they were anywhere near as even as we would have liked but complaints on this front were definitely reduced this time. I had some of my best racing this year, was nice to end up part of a pack at times.

My sympathies go out to the Swedes (Mike & Andreas), who, after traveling so far, ended up with some of the worst luck regarding karts.

The endurance race was unexpectedly cut short soon after our team (myself, cargame and ACCAkut) stopped for our last drive change + fuel, only to find there was none left. The marshals were also citing running out of karts as a reason. They did at least make up by letting some of us take out the "Thunderkart" for a few laps apiece which went down very well (allegedly circa 30hp, vs a measly 5½hp for the hire karts). Can we get 9 more for next year?

Evening
Amusement began soon after the awards ceremony when I awkwardly discovered at a roundabout on the way to Jason's that cargame and I were following one another. This was soon rectified though and the rest of the journey was without incident.

Alcohol did give way to some amusement as the night progressed, after nominating myself chef and even managing to cook some food (apart from the sausages Jason had hidden and neglected to tell us about) we had some laughs with twister though many (wisely?) declined to join in. Embarrassing photos to follow?

Poker and pool seemed to go down very well also, TVE is a flukey bastard at darts, three_jump is inventive with Jenga blocks, Stormcloud wins an honorary award for "most severely passed out" and people seem to think I'm starting to resemble Simon Pegg. The anniversary cake was quickly consumed, pretty healthy going for a cake I think; makes a very pleasant change from the chocolate encased variety I usually seem to be offered.

Morning after
Usual pleasantries, breakfast, helping clear up and people making their leave. Some people watched the F1. Becky, TVE, ACCAkut and I left in convoy about half way through the race and later grabbed lunch at a service station somewhere in the midlands before Tor and I had our tearful goodbye.

Will we be able to buy more points for real money, and can we spend points in game on comfier seats for our avatars?

How do you protect against the use of bots for point farming?

Something's wrong with your pool table. Like it's missing something...

Quote from franky500 :

Bob, Looks like you'll have to take double surprise buttsex from T.V.E as i'll not be there!.

I'll pack my lube. Girlfriend's not putting out tonight so I'll be well up for it.

If not, those times fit in pretty well with me, and the detour is very small. So there's a backup plan.

£2.24 fee for transferring the money by PayPal, even as a gift? Is there another way to pay?

Quote from Sueycide_FD :

How is mars bermuda triangle of space? I thought we still had a rover scaling the sruface for several years now

This will be the third rover, IIRC.

Crucially, however, they don't work *well* anymore. The basis was to create sets that weren't too stiff or over-damped, so the suspension could work and give you a softer, more controllable car. Some understeer for stability but not so much that you had an unpleasant drive, or got used to driving something that was too far removed from a fast set.

I think we've all been here long enough to know that progress reports happen when they do. In the meantime we don't need more threads trying to make conversation about something that hasn't happened.

OK, consider me in, but I'll have to meet you Saturday at the track as I won't be sober enough to travel down Friday night (free bar with work that day).

^^ Ditto. I saw my domains now point somewhere again but only some settings seem to be have been brought over so far (e.g. mail accounts exist but all mail ends up at the default account), and none of the web content itself is yet present. Progress at least.

Update: Sites are now back, can receive emails but not send. Nearly there!

Last edited by Bob Smith, Sat 21 Jul 2012, 09:20. Reason : update

Maybe at some point but I don't have the enthusiasm for this I once had. It's the amount of work that puts me off more than anything.

The download site sould be back up and running again soon, been down over a week now.

What's the lastest update?

Please keep at it Dean, I haven't had any emails for a week now, this bothers me far more than my sites being online! You'd think they would treat this matter with a little more urgency.

Regarding my web-hosting, would I need to make any changes with my registrar for DNS reasons? Realised I've not given you anything in ages, once it's back up expect another charitable donation your way.

Frankly I'd lost interest in updating it until the new tyres physics came along. However I don't think the devs are allowing tweak apps anymore, so getting my motivation back isn't the biggest problem if I want to respect their wishes, which given my position, I really should.

Nice to see the game is picking up. Wonder if they're still using my tyre physics.

Quote from Nadeo4441 :

Does anyone know if there will be clutch support?

It really wouldn't be difficult to add manual control, however some work to the gearbox simulation would be needed for there to be a point to all this. Assuming that this hasn't been added since I worked there, but since last I heard they still don't have a new dynamics programmer, I doubt it.

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

Often done when on a long straight at full pelt and they shift and the engine then revs at a higher engine note...........

Everyone knows you have to downshift to accelerate faster.

Or at least they should...

Quote from Becky Rose :

There is nothing about that model which suggests sustainability to me, which I suggest is a contributing factor to why LFS has slowed to a development crawl.

I think the model would be sustainable, if they kept cranking out good quality content. This would also reduced the appeal and desire to mod. Trouble is, they don't. That's the killer. LFS needs more artists... or maybe just one who releases their work.

Yeah it's a known issue even on Windows (though not as pronounced), I've got a good idea on how to fix it. Just need to get around to working on this again.

FYI: cPanel is down again for me. Logged in fine yesterday.

No authorised tweak style app will work with a demo account.

Quote from Tanuva :

Its the clutch part: taking the input force (moving vehicle's torque induced through the wheels), calculating it's effect on the engine and then going that way back: engine output torque -> gearbox -> wheels.

You sound like you're currently simulating the rotation of the drivetrain as a fixed piece. This is fine for normal conditions. When you need the clutch to slip, simply start simulating their rotations separately. Engine speed is dictated by output torque vs clutch torque, while the drivetrain speed is dictated by clutch torque vs the resultant torque generated by the combined longitudinal forces of the tyres in the driven wheels.

If you have more specific questions, just ask. I'll subscribe to this thread.

Quote from lol_men :

Hello!

Download link is not working can You guys update it please?

Works for me?

If it didn't change, it would be a waste of the past few years work.

Requested since the dawn of (LFS) time; we don't need another discussion on the matter. Listed in post 2 in the improvement suggestions log.