The online racing simulator
Timeline of LFS??
(22 posts, started )
Timeline of LFS??
Hello all. I'd like to reach out to some of the vets of the forums on this. I have been with LFS since 2003. Basically I fell in love with the game, raced heavily for a few years and I noticed slowly but surely the updates were released less and less frequent, the online races died out some time ago etc.. Ok so here is my question, when did all this occur and why? I remember a time when I couldn't find a server to race on because everything was at capacity. So vets, what happened to the devs and in what year was the big turn down?
league racing is still going. although last 24H race it was the first time where you could notice the downfall of LFS
#4 - CSF
Quote from CodeLyoko1 :league racing is still going. although last 24H race it was the first time where you could notice the downfall of LFS

It's been noticeable since 2009...
The last content patch wich was to feature the VW Scirocco was first announced to be released around christmas 2008. Since then, there's been only very little progress concerning released versions.
When and Why was there a downturn...

The last major content update of one car and one track was estimated to be ready in early 2009...we are still waiting for that one car and one track.
Timeline of development can be seen at
http://www.lfs.net/ and in testpatch forum
https://www.lfsforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=66

On online racing:
I never was too much into public racing.
There are enough leagues with (multiple) full grids and as far I can tell, that did not change.
I think the biggest "downfall" that maybe has occured is how people act:
Nowadays when a beginner asks something there are often postings like "do not bother, it is dead" instead of just answering the question.

Then some vets seem to think LFS word rotates around their veteran events: "Only GTWS, LFSCart and iTCC needed to keep lfs alive", there are many posts like that. Ignoring that they are other leagues, too.
And when after many years some vet gets bored of LFS, it of course means that no newb can ever have fun in LFS! Better tell everyone on the forums! There are many examples of that. Perhaps the real downfall is in old part of community who assumes that they are the only people who matter in LFS world? Because they are bored everyone else should be, too?
And once all the vets have become bored, LFS is dead?

But luckily there is still new people coming: Perhaps if you want more drivers in GTWS or 24h races or whatever, you should not try to turn away them at every oppurnity.

This thread is example of that too. Appearently there is more interesst to discuss how everything is sooo bad, instead of just asking "Where can I race?"
The LFS racing scene was at its peak in 2008/2009 bit it's gone downhill since then. The cruising scene is still on a high but has definitely levelled out (from [TC]'s perspective at least).

In my opinion, all that matters is that the closeness of the racing that LFS offers even to this day is unrivalled by any simulator past or present. That's why many of us are still here, myself included.

If anyone's on the look out for a league to sink their teeth into then the upcoming Genuine Racing GTi Trophy is guaranteed to provide some close racing.
Quote from CSF :It's been noticeable since 2009...

I think CSF hit the nail on the head. That being said, league activity from 2009-2013 was still top notch and plenty of it around. This seasons GTWS still had great competition, but you could see that there was a decline in activity with only 6 GT1 teams. Though, something like 18 GT2 teams took to the track for 24 hours.

I still think GTWS will continue to pull good enough numbers to survive, but we will see after summer, which is usually a slow time for league racing. It really all hinges on whether or not Assetto Corsa's multiplayer has been overhyped or not.

Or if it comes at all.
Because I was bored, and wanted to see what the LibreOffice Excel-clone is capable of, I made a Timeline of LFS:

Attached images
LFS.png
I packed my wheel away for about a year and only plugged it all in and reinstalled LFS last weekend. It is still a very - very clever sim and given its age it still makes a lot of the newer so-called sims look pretty silly - I have been trialing a few this week and sure the tracks look great and the 'real' cars look great but so far I haven't found anything that feels as real as LFS.

It is however harder to find a decent race server with something happening ( I am in Australia) and racers taking things seriously. That is probably the main issue as without active racing the user base will start doing what I am doing ie: trying other apps. The risk is we might find something that suits.

I know the devs continue to say the old pay once system will remain but I for one would be happy to subscribe and get something now that will take full advantage of the computing power sitting under my desk and the one the after that.
Where is stated that more money speeds up anything?

Government tactics.. "Lets throw more money at it, surely does something".
miss this game
Quote from cargame.nl :Where is stated that more money speeds up anything?

It is an incentive that's all and if resources are limited then money can buy more.

So I am just saying I would be really sad to see LFS fall too far behind.

And BTW cargame.nl your server was my favourite with good clean racing and interesting tracks but it became very difficult to find other racers in my time zone. I'll have another try this weekend
Quote from jmeade :When and Why was there a downturn...

The last major content update of one car and one track was estimated to be ready in early 2009...we are still waiting for that one car and one track.

im not sure if this is true or not but i got told that Eric has two more secret tracks coming :hyper:
Quote from k_badam :im not sure if this is true or not but i got told that Eric has a few secret tracks coming :hyper:

Ftfy

Just because Scawen drove on the 2 tracks, doesnt mean its just 2.
Quote from keychange :It is an incentive that's all and if resources are limited then money can buy more.

So I am just saying I would be really sad to see LFS fall too far behind.

It's commonly known that team Scavier don't want to buy more brainpower/hands so as long as this way of thinking is being continued then LFS will keep it's "hobby" status. The team became simply too old and stayed too small to make big game changes.

Quote from keychange :but it became very difficult to find other racers in my time zone. I'll have another try this weekend

I know, there is not much which can be done about that. Besides, I wouldn't want to say that people from Australia are not welcome but they have the biggest latency of the world causing problems with door-to-door racing. If only LFS was more popular I could reopen that LFS server @US California :/
Quote from McEscher :Ftfy

Just because Scawen drove on the 2 tracks, doesnt mean its just 2.

Yes.
Quote from Scawen :Eric has been working on new tracks. He slowed up a bit during some of the great English summer which we don't get very often. I have enjoyed test driving on two of his new tracks which look great and I look forward to the time when they can be released.

3 or more, hopefully
Quote from Flotch :+ rally pack (maybe not )

51 minutes later and The Very End isn't here. I hope he is ok

Timeline of LFS??
(22 posts, started )
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