compared to 4,3 years ago there appears to be less servers in North America. quite often i end up not playing online because theres no suitable server to play in. all the servers seem to be europe and latin america.
also i hear S3 is coming ? is that just to get another track ? kinda sucks we have to keep paying for new content each time. LFS would get a lot bigger if they just opened it up (like track editing tools)....remaining closed source is going backwards in modern development trends...
I'd imagine most people are waiting for the patch.
I'm in the process of buying a house and selling my apartment, so my stuff's been packed away for a while. Hopefully when I move and unpack, there will be a shiny new patch waiting for me. I'll spend some time online then.
Don't bother about the closed source argument. It's been had many time before and like it or not, that's how LFS is.
(I like it by the way...)
I'd hardly say you're paying for content each time, look how many cars have been added to existing licences for no extra charge. Would you prefer if content was free and patches were charged for? I hear Vic is quite the botanist but hasn't yet managed to create the money tree, thus the devs will have to remain charging for something in the foreseeable future.
The OP started out alright, but went off at a bit of a "I want stuff for nothing" tangent.
We're not charged to play online, we're not charged for the skin uploading or downloading, we're not charged for the amazing LFSW service. We've had a range of new stuff added to existing licenses that hasn't cost us a single red cent.
Treading old ground here, but the price of LFS is still way under what you'd pay for a regular game, and those have no fixed plans for the future beyond releasing a sequel to get your cash again. For example, NFS:Shift has been out a couple of months and they're already working on the next one. Each one around £40 here in the UK.
I'm sure the 360 and PS3 fans would be happy if Forza and GT supported modding too, but they don't. You pay full price for what the developers give you. Nobody is forcing you to spend anything.
Not LFS, Devs or game faults, but your fault. Maybe you race on the wrong hours ? Hang out with the wrong people ? Find a (better) team ? Participate in more leagues ?
I'm having no problem at all to find good (occasional) racing
No matter what your timezone is, you can still choose when you race. For example if you prefer watching football on tv and therefor not race on a moment when the servers are more crowded but he do races ahead of the football match when people are still at work or school, then it is his "fault" indeed and not the "fault" of LFS, the Devs, patches or other. See what I try to say ? 24 hours in a day, no matter what your timezone is. I'm also staying up later than I normally would, simply to race with teammates. I can decide not to do that and then complain in the teamforum that I never see them online (which is comparable to what he's doing here).
And the 'paying for content' stuff is completely wrong. I payed £36 I believe for S2 around 3 years ago ? I'm still playing and enjoying LFS. That's different than for example the 100 euros for a year of iRacing (or the 7,90 euros for one cinema ticket).
That's true if you are unemployed or not going to school. The peak hours for LFS are when it's evening in Europe. Which means the peak hours in America are in the middle of the day. Most people are at work/school around that time.
Also there is lag to consider, the lag is quite big when playing from across the pond.
You have to be honest... The LFS community is really not in it's best shape and yea it's because of the patch delay. People lost motivation because they are waiting for the patch...
Just compare the 16Hours one year ago and this year (97 cars in 2008, 77 in 2009)
But when the patch will come with New Physics, New interiors (probably), Scirocco, Another new car and Rockingham, the LFS community will grow again
That's just how LFS works
That's the way it goes across the entire net. I bet more people pick up Halo 3 or Gears of War every time they release a new map pack or address a balance issue. I bet Dawn of War 2 multiplayer picked up when they released the Last Stand mode.
Then it'll tail off again.
I have no life cause I stay up one hour later on some weekdays for good racing ?
How do you come to this conclusion kiddo ?
And really, blaming the lack of patches or updates for not racing is incredibly morronic. But I guess this is part of the younger generations, eyecandy, updates and new toys is all they care
Quit complaining and making completely faulty arguments.
about. What about having fun with what you have ? Isn't that good enough already ? How many of those complaining about the "lack of updates that's why I do not race" have decently tryed ALL the LFS availlable cars ? How many of you have done races at FE Black Rev (to name a track) ? How many of you have even tryed controlling the LX6 ? Ect....
Wrong, if for one reason the LFS Community is not in it's best shape it is all because of the community.
First of all, why wouldn't you race or have fun without a new patch ?
Secondly, patch delay ? What delay ? Cause the kiddo's around here got overly exited about the VW ? Get mature, that happens in every game. Let the Devs do their work and stop ruining OUR community with YOUR nonsense.
Back in S1 we had 6 track layouts and 3 cars; and the community was great and large. But you people's attitude these days, that's whats wrong. Unthankfull kiddo's who can't focus on something and keep for a longer term playing with it. It's like those kids who lay on the floor in the supermarket crying why they don't get the latest Mega Mindy action doll, despite already have a dozen of dolls at home. Going a bit off-topic, but please... Get lost with your patch whining and blaming everything on that. This is a sim racing community, this is a hardcore, low numbered and close group of people. Go fix your attitude, patch or not has nothing to do with LFS. And if you so badly need patches and eyecandy; then LFS is not the quality racing simulator for you. Go play one of EA's games then, but at least stop polluting our community and forum with your idiot nonsense.
I'm looking forward to the new tyre psychics and a possible change in the damage model, and hopefuly the VW and Rockingham get delayed for another year (in the hope that the kids who can't wait go away and we can have our sim racing communtiy back, with some decent high standard).
Just to add to the picture: I am closely (read: daily) following the progress of development and try out every test patch using a gamecontroller, but my wheel is in the basement waiting to be unpacked once the new patch comes out.
I imagin that there's a good chunk of the community that treats LFS similarly.
Well, it started with your faulty argument: "Not LFS, Devs or game faults, but your fault. Maybe you race on the wrong hours?" and "No matter what your timezone is, you can still choose when you race."
Because of work, the earliest I can race on weekdays is about 7pm, and that's assuming I don't have dinner after work, 8pm-ish is more reasonable. I'm 6 hours behind Europe, so that's 1-2am. You can check on lfsworld what is the number of racers at that time. Most of the time, if I filter out drift/cruise/demo/oval servers, there will be a couple of servers with more than 3 people. Even AS3/GTR has like 5-10 people tops. These are the only hours I can race, so tell me, how do I choose the right hours to race?? Are you seriously suggesting that I should quit a job I like just because of what is ultimately a computer game?
Isn't that exactly what the OP is asking? Where are the lfs players that make up this community?
Since the FBM arrived, I noticed a large lack of active servers running the AS2/FOX combo. Instead, the BL1/FBM combo.
Since I obtained my S2 license, there were hardly any active F08 servers, but rather the BF1 at Aston National (Which I had no problem with, I was just very unexperienced).
The BF1's popularity also fell when the FBM arrived.
Then I got pissed off, and wandered off somewhere.
Meh, Rockingham's coming soon, and I'll be pre-paid soon, so you do the math--a new car, a new track, every server running it.
