Honestly I don't think it makes much sense for Scawen to implement a third party service like that, given the privacy concerns. Plus it's just work to undo if Discord dies at some point (whcih given LFS' longevity so far, it seems more likely that LFS will last longer than Discord).
I like Discord, but I think third party clients is the right thing for that kind of integration.
The AIs do calculate fuel and do pit if they need fuel.
The AIs also haven't learned on their own for over 10 years when Scawen overhauled the AI waaaay back. The initial release of AI learned but was dreadfully slow.
Not that I know of, but I have faith that things will work out. Although I'd argue that the current Canadian dollar should push us into one of the cheaper licence pricing zones
It's just not a good use of Scawen's limited manpower to even try to concept anything. So many things can change between now and then, that it's not worth the thought process. Sharing these thoughts are even more dangerous due to how maniacal this community is
There's nothing for YOU to plan as you're not a developer of the simulator
ACC is probably the best package of "features in a sim" but I still have never managed to join an online race in ACC, and racing against AI doesn't really enthrall me.
I don't know how correct you'll be. At this point it's LFS playing catchup to other sims like iRacing, but LFS is like a single guy building a log cabin versus a 50 person crew pouring concrete, framing, and throwing up walls every hour.
For myself, LFS holds a special place and there's still things that it does much better than any sim on the open market, but the places where I felt LFS always thrived.. other sims have caught up and surpassed.
iRacing's new tyre model has some flaws, but it's by far the best tyre they've created. You can slide and recover slides and actually drive the car over the limit without fear. The damage model is very cool and has improved racing because people realize that contact can be and is race ending.
Now LFS' implementation of day night cycle looks like it'll be really good and significantly better than iRacing's, and on par with ACC. But I don't forsee much endurance racing in LFS anymore outside of 1 off events.
That doesn't even have the information of the latest implementations where heat from the sun and tyres gets worked into the track surface (and underlying ground) which affects how the track convects heat during day/night cycles as well as it simulates the "initial" track state based on the weather of the session.