hello all
a few days ago I got the confidence to go onto a public server for the first time, as my confidences was hight due to posting on the My3id Forum and the team giving me a bit of advice.

I went onto the [FM] Fox Junkies server. I watchyed the end of one race, and then desided to join in the next one I did one lap and a little message appeared in the message area saying i needed to be much quicker than i was(track was SO Chincane Route) it said that i needed a 1:07x I laped in the 1:17x so I desided it was better to quit the server.

Its very hard for me to ask for help as, I fells what I want to know Ill get flamed for. which does not help my conferdence.

Id love to get online and race but its the following facters my i dont and it all comes down to:
Confidence-
Im not the best driver
Im worryed about gettting ban for bumping someone on accedent
Id love to join in the fun races and the leagues

Id joined AB but i dont hjave the confidence to join in
any comments are welcome

thanks for reading

Dave

Please note-
Im not sure if i should post it here or should it have been posted in the LFS Gerneral Discusion and please do not Flame me as im only asking as Im new to online racing and every one needs to start somewhere

also if you have viewed my LFS Stats I know there is alot of times on there that from me trying out multiplayer new host

You don't necessarily have to be confident in your driving ability to enjoy online racing, as long as you're capable of interacting (mainly by verbal communication) with other players, you'll be fine.

Every single person on this planet makes mistakes, don't be afraid. Nothing happens when you accidentally bump into someone, not even if it pushes them off the track into a wall. Apologize, try to evaluate the events that led to the accident and pay attention next time. Obviously if you cause a series of accidents or risky driving that could potentially lead to accidents or requires another driver to perform a dangerous manouver to avoid an accident, you may eventually receive a ban.

The only way to improve is to practice and some elements of racing in a field cannot be learned with AI. Single player practice with AIs will eventually improve your laptimes, but not necessarily your situational awareness and perception of a racing field. Drafting, for example, is something you just can't practice with AIs because they are glued to their driving lines.

It's simple: go online, give it your best and have fun! You can't really do much damage

Thank you for your warm words, its made me think its not that bad to go online even if im a slowish driver and my set up isaint that good as long as im happy and having fun with other people.

1st of all, don't be worried. You're welcomed even if you're not so good.

Concentrate on one combo (car/track) first. Drive beginner level cars like XFG/XRG and keep practising on one ( or a few ) track(s). ( BL1 is popular, but you can try anything you like as long as you can find competitors online. ) A familiar combo makes it easier for you to drive properly. Don't try LRF/GT-R/OW online now, you'll ruin others' races.

You can have fun at any time online, but you can't really learn how to drive and compete with other racing cars around if you're not fast enough to be a tail of anothor racer. If the server requires 1'07 but you're doing 1'17, quit. Practise in single mode for better ( fast and stable ) lap times. It won't take much time if you focus on a combo.

Stop thinking about overtaking or winning now. You can follow drivers who's a little better than you, corner after corner, lap after lap, and try to copy the moves. But trying to overtake cars usually don't do much good. Follow cars first, then overtake when the car in front makes a mistake, in this way you'll gradually know how to switch postions with other cars safely. "Attack" is a much harder thing which should be considered later.

Don't hesitate to ask for help on this forum. Post in this section ( Beginners' Forum ) if you're posting your spr for advice.

Have fun !

It's sad that people are afraid to venture into online racing in LFS. People shouldn't be afraid, no matter what their abilities are, as long as they are sensible drivers.

Typhirion, are you sure the message said you needed a 1:07 to drive on the server? Because many servers running Airio display messages saying you need a certain time in order to be displayed in the top 10 list (or something along those lines). That doesn't mean you can't drive there if you're slower, just that you won't be in the top 10. If a server requires you to have a certain laptime in order to drive there you will get kicked out if you don't meet the conditions, rest assured So I think you can just keep driving on the Fox Junkies server to improve your skills.

Just keep practising and maybe watch some faster drivers. Don't worry if you can't get down to their laptimes, some drivers are very fast while others are slow. There's no shame in that and it definitely shouldn't prevent you from having fun online. If you don't feel comfortable racing a particular car try joining a different server where people drive different cars.

What I would suggest to all beginners: race with AI1 and AI2. When you are able to catch up with them and to cleanly overtake them (at least AI2) your pace is enough for online play. Top drivers race usually 2-3 seconds quicker than AI1.

Second thing - minimum laptime at the combo. If your PB does not let you join the server just pick an empty host (there are hundreds of them) thet has the same combo (or has option to change car/track enabled) and make your online PB there.

Hi Dave

I'm going to be honest here: You will meet people who get on your back over nothing, and take the game too seriously. It's only happened to me about three times since I started playing, so don't get worried about that. It's just something that happens occasionally and if it happens on a crowded server, the guy who's berating you for no reason usually gets called out by the rest of the server. People will stand up for anyone who's been wronged, but I feel that not telling you about the few individuals who make this game less fun wouldn't be fair.

The vast majority of people who play this game are great, very friendly and understanding towards people who are new to it. The problem is that in racing games, much more so than in other genres, people get very caught up in the moment and get riled up easily. It's why they're extremely wary of newcomers. Opinions are formed before you even prove yourself, and a lot of players seem to equate fast lap times with good driving when it's often quite the opposite. The best racing I've had is with drivers in the midfield or towards the back, because they concentrate more on being fair towards others and avoiding contact. This is the key to gaining confidence online. As long as you can hold one line and let other drivers know where you intend to go, they will do the same for you and before you know it, you'll stop worrying about getting in others' way.

I can see how it's intimidating for new racers. The most popular servers greet you with something like "Welcome to our server, if you do any of the following things you will be banned". Frankly, seeing the word 'banned' appear the first time I join a server is enough to make me doubt my own abilities and think that I'll inadvertently get myself kicked out. It's like the general attitude is that if a new guy makes any kind of mistake, he's going to be one of those people who gets in everyone's way. Definitely not the case, but try telling that to everyone on a server.

I think what I'm trying to say is that, even though online racing in LFS is very daunting at first, if you can just prove yourself as a clean and fair driver it doesn't matter how fast you are. It might take a bit of practice in single player, but that's worth it. I'd second the idea of choosing a car like the XFG to start with, and just learning about it. I also think joining a server and introducing yourself helps immediately. People will be more than willing to help you get going online, as well as on the forums. For what it's worth, just making this thread says to me that you're thinking more about others than yourself, and that you're already much more polite than half the people I race against. As far as I can see, you've no reason to doubt yourself.

One point to note, you said the server said "1:07" and you said you ran 1 lap at 1:17. If this was lap 1, then obviously you are not going to drive a 1:07 lap time since you are starting from a standstill.

A lot of servers do say "must drive xx to be on our server". I certainly don't drive elitist times, especially since I haven't raced much in the last 2 years, yet I've never been kicked from a server for not meeting the elitist time criteria. I haven't seen anything automatic that will kick you if you don't meet these times. Perhaps an admin will watch you and kick you if you are driving like an idiot, but I've yet to see anything automatic.

Thank you people for the advice, when i went onto the fox jinkies server i may have been mistaken about the "need to be in the 01:07 ss" as kindly pointed out by obsolum

Last night and tonight i went onto the AB{s2L) server as their are doing a S2 league and desided i'd practise for tomorrows race which i think i will take part in, as thanks to a lot of you for the adive saying 'its not scary it just life get on with it' but in a kind way.

Its made me happyer in myself that iv made a topic that has cleared up most of my questions, without getting Flamed etc. I think its nice that there is a lot of member who are willing to help newer member of the lfs communty

Dave