+1 for this. I think its almost inexcusable to not have a favorites list, and it'd be very easy to add.

Quote from Becky Rose :

I cant find ANY clean skirts or trousers that still fit me, have I put on weight?

Hah! My wife was out of town all week and didn't hire a babysitter for me. So I ran out of bread, cereal, frozen pizza, macaroni and cheese, crackers, and clean clothes. She came back just in time. There were 8 dirty pairs of socks next to my desk in here.

http://img.enginuity.org/main.php?g2_itemId=12925

Exhaust, Konis, sway bars, 450#/in springs, and tuned with software written by me. And finally with race rubber!

I'm running the server on my PC. I opened the ports (29339 and 63392)? I also noticed the server is showing up on the master server when I get a list. Sorry if I'm missing something I could have searched for, but I did try.

Edit: Oh, I am running a demo mode server. Might that be the problem?

Edit again: Double checked firewall (none) and router, everything looks (to me) like it should be working.

Last edit: I tried an S2 server and its working. Guess its a demo thing. I'll have to keep working and get my friend to buy S2.

Last edited by qoncept, Thu, 21 Jun 2007 02:28.

I've been running a server for my buddies and noticed the stats aren't being reported to LFS World. No big deal, but my PBs aren't showing up Is there a setting I need to change or does it need to be in dedicated mode or something?

Ugh.. Where do you enter the port? I'm getting "Host has a different game code" Has the password changed?

Edit: Yeesh, and a "different version" if I try to connect via IP. Still using patch W?

I'm having trouble finding the server.. Is there a place to enter the port?

Ah.. that one. I see "pit?" over and over again too, you'd think they'd know. Adding "compulsory pit" to the $track command couldn't hurt, though. I had another idea for a suggestion, but I can't remember right now -- fortunately, it seems you've probably already thought of it along with everything else.

I did a couple races today on non-CTRA servers but the reward of points makes it seem much more worthwhile and I think I may just make this an extended break until CTRA goes live again.

Quote from Becky Rose :

On the plus side the new $track command is really cool, and will help you plan race strategy on longer races, and will reduce one of the most commonly asked questions.

Oo, does it tell you what the next track is?

Becky, if you have any specific questions about SQL don't hesitate to give me a whistle. I've got years of experience with some complex work. My AIM name is qoncept if you've got it.

So uh.. where do you go to pay for the high res skins?

I run a donation system for my open source project and it's not all that successful. The good thing is that it doesn't take anything to maintain the donation system so anything donated helps, period. Paypal even has an option to do a "subscription" donation, where people could donate $5 a month or whatever. If half of the regulars were to donate $2 a month it would go a long way toward paying for almost everything and help decrease the burden.

I vote "definately" as there is no obligation and the money can definately help the devs and admins.

Quote from Jakg :

Enjoy Becky.

Oh wow, I forgot that was even there. Doh!

Quote from Becky Rose :

That'd be every race ... and you do realise there are more hours of racing in a day on the CTRA, than there are hours in a day ! .

That's what I was thinking.. Hopefully the new system will make it easier for the admins so they can spend more time racing.

Quote :

I'm not sure I know what the previous race info on LFSW was, all I can think of is the progress system. I've only been in LFS just over a year so was this an S1 thing?

Nope, if you log in to lfsw.net and click on "Online racer stats", just the stuff directly under your name. Server, time, finishing position and best lap. And car and track. I think maybe that plus starting position and points awarded would be perfect.

One thing that would maybe be kind of difficult in producing a "race log" for a single racer would be eliminating races they didnt actually race in. ie, every time I quit, I usually hang out and talk with the people I was racing with and don't get out till the race is about to restart. So I end up with my last race on LFSW saying something like it does now: 5th out of 3 racers, finished in 20:20.800 because I didnt actually race it.

That would probably all end up being web based stuff, let me know if you need a hand.

Storing replays indefinately would be neat, but definately not neat enough to justify the disk usage. Automatically keeping them for a few days for reporting purposes is great though. I think it is kind of important to keep the replay and go back and review it to make sure something wasn't actually your own fault before reporting someone, though, and I'm sure the admins would appreciate that.

Are admins going to automatically look at replays where collisions are detected, or does that just help with referencing for when something is actually reported? I'd guess the latter since even though the racing is clean there is still a fair amount of minor bumping going on, and even some bump drafting every now and then.

Becky, any plans for a detailed race log? Kind of like the "previous race" info on LSFW, but for all CTRA races? That would be great, especially if the number of points awarded is logged.

If someone has already brought this up, please dont throw stuff at me. I was racing on 1a Tuesday and for endurance races, there is the compulsory pitstop. For some reason, the SO sprint tracks made it in to the rotation and everyone was getting DQ'd until we could talk everyone in to ending the race. Anything we can do about that? Thanks!

My first reaction was "what the hell? we bought the game? what is £1 going to do anyway? we already bought the game." But thinking about it more, it seems to be a very good option.

The bandwidth has clearly escalated to the point where the devs decided more money was needed. Anyone else would have simply started charging a monthly fee like all the other online games. With the pay-for-hi-res-skins deal, you actually get what you pay for instead.

Not sure this is the place to talk about it, but are all the servers privately owned by you? I had kind of guessed that that would be overly expensive and that they were probably owned by other people, sort of like a franchise.

Ah, I wasn't figuring in the cost of web hosting. That does get expensive.

Becky, have you ever asked for donations to help offset the cost of the servers and such? I'm sure you wouldnt get all your money back, but I'm also sure there are many people who would be willing to give at least a few bucks (and now to the CTRA), and every little bit helps.

Sam, maybe it would be better to have a seperate server running the STCC(/UKTC) instances and the DBMS? Not sure if its a possibility, but that give the LFS server all the resources possible and minimize hiccups. I'd guess the STCC software and DBMS take up next to no resources most of the time, and several instances could run since its not as realtime sensitive as the LFS server.

Quote from Becky Rose :

Now there's a complaint above for not training an apprentice programmer? ARGH! I just want peace and quiet. I'm exhausted, stressed, and I cannot take any more.

Yes, that's exactly what I said. I was afraid someone might read that as "I don't think its as impossible as you do for someone to take over for Becky" -- thank god you read it correctly.

The whole point was I was telling you, Becky, that I felt we had something in common and I was offering my advice and support. At the same time, I was trying to let other people know that (at least I think) running the STCC in your absence (edit: typo) isn't impossible. But you've made it clear enough that we are absolutely nothing alike and now the only advice I have is that if you can't help but misinterpret or ignore everyone's kind words and can only see the complaints, quit reading the damn forums.

Well, I wasn't under the impression that Becky was keeping the source to herself. That I would truly not understand.

If Becky comes back, or if you or someone else begins working on something new and could use input or some work from another developer, I would be willing to try to fit it in to my schedule.

Quote from mkserve :

Unfortunately, although the league itself could be managed by people other than Becky, the Fundimental software that the league requires to operate, and much of the Broadcast recording, cannot be done and maintained without her.

I don't buy that. It's clear Becky is a pretty accomplished software developer, and, at least everywhere I've ever worked, leaving yourself an "out" due to developer retention is a huge concern. I'm a programmer in the Air Force where we go through people constantly, and having a plan for a replacements is just something the industry needs to do. Coming in with no prior knowledge and picking something this kind of project isn't at all impossible -- it happens all the time. Sure, it won't happen without a hiccup, but "cannot" is simply not true.

I've personally spent the last year and a half developing an open source tuning suite (shameless plug: www.enginuity.org ) and have had to deal with many of the same issues as Becky -- real life cutting in to time I had for the project or causing other stress, supporting users, maintaining a forum, threats and accusations from dirty commercial entities, etc. Recently, like Becky, I decided it was just all too much and handed over the position of program manager to another team member. It's very tough -- I wrote it from the ground up, spent countless hours researching, coding, testing, answering questions, defending myself. Luckily more and more developers came along and have made it far better than I ever could have alone. It's my baby, but unfortunately it was best for me and everyone else to hand it over to someone else and take a lesser role in the team, but not just call it quits and apologize for it ceasing to exist.

I've only been around for about a month and I love the STCC. For me, it gave the game purpose. Joining pickup races or going for personal bests is fine, but the STCC gave me the only place to race people whose skill I could even come close to, and it gave me a way to progress. I have tremendous respect for Becky and all of the other team members and appreciate everything they've done. I can't imagine that it won't return in some capacity. One more vote for finding a way to bring it back.

Becky, if you read this (and you've probably heard enough of everyone else's insight, but here's my piece), it seems to me you've wanted to be in control of as much of the STCC as possible and its hard for you to hand it over to someone else, which I can relate to. But I think you'll be happier in the end to see it succeeding under someone else than to fade in to obscruity. Thanks again for all the work you've done in making the STCC what it is.

Mykl's video card cleared things up. I ordered a Geforce 7600GT, should be good to go next week.