Hi All,

Not had LFS for very long, just a few weeks. I'm trying to figure out how old the present S2z version is.

Also where would one see announcements for new versions? What is the usual time between updates? Will the next one be S3 or some other number(s) before S3?

I'm unclear on that as we seem to have simply run out of alphabet, but a major upgrade does not seem anywhere near ready from what little I have seen reported so far.

It's alpha 0.5Z now, next update will be alpha 0.6A

Quote from G!NhO :

It's alpha 0.5Z now, next update will be alpha 0.6A

I'm sorry, I was misled by the main web site, and was simply quoting that!

Now I am really confused!

Thanks for trying to help though!

Quote :

I'm unclear on that as we seem to have simply run out of alphabet, but a major upgrade does not seem anywhere near ready from what little I have seen reported so far.

Yes, you're right. There are not any updates info cause of people moaning about *promised* functions/addons, which were not taken into game and stupid problems like that, so devs took decision of not-showing info until officially releasing patch. Though, you can read forum /or search scawen's posts/ to know much more about this problem.

Yes, next patch should be 0.6A as G!nho said. In 0.5Z we're for a year and month or so. From what I heard, there used to be updates every year on Christmas or near Christmas. (or twice a year? not sure about that).
I hope it's enough info for you

Thanks very much, I shall go scavenge for information now, it's a great shame that is the official way to get information though; it's not an entirely "customer facing" approach is it?

According to the LFS website, patch Z was officially released on 2nd July 08.

- LFS is a 3 stage release consisting of LFS S1, LFS S2 and LFS S3. Think of it like Doom, Doom 2, Doom 3.
- Each stage consists of an alpha, beta and release phase. Major advancements are denoted by incrementing the 0.5.
- Each phase consists of a series of test patches, big test patches get their own letter, like X or Z. Small test patches are denoted by the number postfix.

So LFS S2 Alpha 0.5 Z15 means we are using a late alpha of the second major "retail" version. Which can be construed as approaching beta, if you want to be really optimistic

Quote from NotAnIllusion :

According to the LFS website, patch Z was officially released on 2nd July 08.

- LFS is a 3 stage release consisting of LFS S1, LFS S2 and LFS S3. Think of it like Doom, Doom 2, Doom 3.
- Each stage consists of an alpha, beta and release phase. Major advancements are denoted by incrementing the 0.5.
- Each phase consists of a series of test patches, big test patches get their own letter, like X or Z. Small test patches are denoted by the number postfix.

So LFS S2 Alpha 0.5 Z15 means we are using a late alpha of the second major "retail" version. Which can be construed as approaching beta, if you want to be really optimistic

Oh wow, that is all quite a revelation!

So basically by some quirk of fate I have registered for S1 which it turns out is the only version to make it as far as retail, and S2 has not yet got as far as beta, but rather a lot of people bought it in this present alpha stage. Good lord! That is not something you'd expect to see happen every day.

Thanks for your truly immense insight. I'd never have guessed it was like that in a million years, but sure enough that does seem to be the way of it. Most odd.

Quote from MudPuppy :

Oh wow, that is all quite a revelation!
......and S2 has not yet got as far as beta, but rather a lot of people bought it in this present alpha stage. Good lord! That is not something you'd expect to see happen every day........Most odd.

Don't get this info wrong!!

NotAnIllution's post is 100% precise (as info), but I must say that, though it's "ALPHA", the current version of LFS has nothing to do with a real alpha version of any software...
I never had a crash, a BSOD, or whatever. It's rock solid, go for it.
Plus, you get all those extra lovely cars & tracks.

Quote from MudPuppy :

So basically by some quirk of fate I have registered for S1 which it turns out is the only version to make it as far as retail, and S2 has not yet got as far as beta, but rather a lot of people bought it in this present alpha stage. Good lord! That is not something you'd expect to see happen every day.

With LFS the alpha and beta tags don't mean what they traditionally mean in software development. S2 alpha is just a continuation from S1. S2 is stable as a rock and all the features in it work fine (unlike traditional alphas). The only reason the S2 still has the alpha tag is because it does not yet have all the planned features.

Also the S1 and S2 licenses just mean what cars and tracks you can use. Even if you have only a S1 license you will still play S2 version of the game, only you don't get to drive all the cars and tracks.

Add these two together you can see why almost everyone has bought S2 even if it's still in alpha stage.

Quote from geeman1 :

Add these two together you can see why almost everyone has bought S2 even if it's still in alpha stage.

I'll possibly buy it too, once it reaches it's "having cars and tracks for rally cross, like S1 does" stage.

Whether there's going to be a rally pack for S2 final is unknown at the moment as far as I know, it could be a long wait in the end. Admittedly there isn't much incentive to get s2 as a rally fan, the uf1 and fz5 being pretty much all you'd get. Undoubtedly the biggest reason to get s2 is that there aren't many people to drive with. From a rally perspective also being excluded from rally tracks because of s2 cars being allowed on the server. I wouldn't know how often that would be the case, tbh.

Let's hope there'll be more stuff to come for the fans of the loose surfaces

That is a really interesting point you raise towards the end there. I wonder, I've not looked into any of this at all yet, but is it technically feasible to run an S1 only server? You've made me wonder. I shall perhaps grab a copy of the server later to see if there's any clues to be gained.

I'm a firm believer that support and encouragement are a two way street. S1 only might be a bit more supporting to S1 racers and a bit more encouraging to devs to provide S2 purchase incentives to the whole community rather than merely to a sub set of the paying customer base. Those who supported development by buying S1 so far, are quite probably due some ongoing support in S2 it would seem. Tracks being the biggest thing as cars tend to come and go.

Quote from MudPuppy :

is it technically feasible to run an S1 only server

It's not possible to run an s1 server to which s2 licensed drivers can't join. The dedicated server doesn't even check for the hoster's license, so theoretically a demo users can set up a fully working s1/s2 server. Caveat: the host can't join his own server Basically, regardless of what the license of the host is, if the host setup options match s1 criteria, it will be accessible to s1 drivers.

I'm not quite sure I got it with the caveat, as it seems to suggest that if I set up a machine and dedicate it to being an LFS server and pay for the bandwidth then I am not allowed to use it? I think I still know a raw deal when I see one.

I'd imagine that must mean I misunderstood, as otherwise it makes no sense that I can fathom.

I noted that you can limit the cars, so limiting to S1 RX cars and tracks would seem to be the way to go to have effectively the same thing as S1 only. S2 welcome as long as they are happy with S1 kit. S1 users of course would not even notice any difference!

Go for S2, it's very awesome Also, lots of updates in terms of content is awaiting for S2, as far as I know. This isn't the case for S1, although even demo users will get the new tyre physics coming up.

Quote from MudPuppy :

I'm not quite sure I got it with the caveat, as it seems to suggest that if I set up a machine and dedicate it to being an LFS server and pay for the bandwidth then I am not allowed to use it? I think I still know a raw deal when I see one.

I'd imagine that must mean I misunderstood, as otherwise it makes no sense that I can fathom.

I noted that you can limit the cars, so limiting to S1 RX cars and tracks would seem to be the way to go to have effectively the same thing as S1 only. S2 welcome as long as they are happy with S1 kit. S1 users of course would not even notice any difference!

Maybe I'm making it a bit complicated If you set up a host to use s1 cars and tracks only, you can connect to it, of course.

What I meant that with the dedi you could host an s2 car/track combo even if you had an s1 or a demo license, but you couldn't connect to it since it's of a higher license requirement.