This is a great idea! Also, it would be cool if, when the weather clears, so does the game. Might be a bit complicated, but if it can be thought up, it can be done. Oh yes, it can be done.
This is a great idea! Also, it would be cool if, when the weather clears, so does the game. Might be a bit complicated, but if it can be thought up, it can be done. Oh yes, it can be done.
This is one comment that I wouldn't want to see. I race only in the evenings/night. I don't want to be racing at night all the time, only some of the time.
Mike, simple way to avoid driving in the dark. Call in sick for work for a "personal day" and **** around in LFS at daytime for once.
The Flight sim X-Plane has a option for real time weather. It's pretty fun, you can have real time weather, but you can also change the time to what you want instead. Or just use Real time also.
And, this has to do with GPS...... how? WTF are GPS coordinates? What a brainfart of a thought.
He said GPS-Based meaning that FE would be in the Jamaican region, Kyoto would be in .. well Kyoto Japan, and all the remaining tracks would be based in different England locations.
I'm tired of your recent smartass comments wheel4hummer, watch out.
I'm tired of your recent smartass comments wheel4hummer, watch out.
I did just that yesterday. Unfortunately, the 3 year old kept me from finishing a race all day. That little tiny girl eats like a horse! Every time I started a race, "Daaaaaaaad, I'm hungryyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"
that was a pretty bizarre response there, hummer.
I definitely wouldn't want to see it as standard, god no. I'd hope that the current 24/7 sunny, no wind, day servers would still exist alongside a few real time servers.
I don't think "real" weather will be very popular. Some admins will want the weather to be constant, others will prefer a randomised rotation of weather types (blizzard on FE, anyone? ). If you tie the weather to the actual conditions, there will be too much variation for the former group, and too little for the latter. And besides, no one wants his race postponed or cancelled because of the weather.
). If you tie the weather to the actual conditions, there will be too much variation for the former group, and too little for the latter. And besides, no one wants his race postponed or cancelled because of the weather.This is the idea I almost posted up yesterday. I'll post the reason against it after.
Relative weather settings for each track. They all have default states (warm/dry for FE, cold/moist for BL, etc) and the Master Server periodically changes state. For instance, "+50% wet" would make it heavy rain at BL but light at FE. "+50% wind" could create a tornado at FE but just moderate winds at BL. "+50% fog" could make zero visibility on a naturally misty track, and reduce view distance on the others. A bit rough, but you get the idea.
Day and night settings would be run independantly with maybe a 3 or 4 hour rotation (and obviously it wouldn't be night at the same time on FE, KY and BL because they're so far apart).
The biggest problem I could see with this idea yesterday was that it would have the same issues as a global weather/time setting. If it was wet, it would be wet on every server using the sync system. If you didn't want to drive in the rain/snow/fog you'd be pretty much SOL. And if too many servers chose not to use it for this reason, it'd be as well not existing.
Relative weather settings for each track. They all have default states (warm/dry for FE, cold/moist for BL, etc) and the Master Server periodically changes state. For instance, "+50% wet" would make it heavy rain at BL but light at FE. "+50% wind" could create a tornado at FE but just moderate winds at BL. "+50% fog" could make zero visibility on a naturally misty track, and reduce view distance on the others. A bit rough, but you get the idea.
Day and night settings would be run independantly with maybe a 3 or 4 hour rotation (and obviously it wouldn't be night at the same time on FE, KY and BL because they're so far apart).
The biggest problem I could see with this idea yesterday was that it would have the same issues as a global weather/time setting. If it was wet, it would be wet on every server using the sync system. If you didn't want to drive in the rain/snow/fog you'd be pretty much SOL. And if too many servers chose not to use it for this reason, it'd be as well not existing.
While a global system adhering to real world weather and time of day could be restrictive for players in some senses ('raining at BL, hmm... I think I'll skip that'), the flipside is that the tracks themselves would most likely gain an incredible amount of added atmosphere and believability. If it's night-time and raining softly at BL for everybody everywhere, it helps cement the notion that Blackwood's a real location somewhere, naturally operating under it's own laws of environmental and temporal variability.
I thought at the beginning of this thread that it should be optional to toggle real world weather/time data- but what if it weren't? It means you'd have to adapt- take on the track and the weather on their own terms... a thrilling proposition! And sure their would be restrictions, but hey, that's life. If for example, you didn't enjoy night driving, you'd have to choose another track that was in the day cycle. That would shake people out of their preferences, and encourage them to seek out new combos. A few more tracks added from different parts of the world, and I'm pretty sure it could work. But maybe I'm being optimistic.
At present, LFS is defined as the online simulator where 'you' do the driving. Imagine the possibility of an LFS where you do the driving, but 'nature' does the weather!
Well like I said, the problem would be every track having the same conditions at the same time. IRL it's not very likely 
Why not just use the 4 digit city code like you do with desktop widgets that report weather? You will get Temperature, cloud cover and precipitation, scattered showers, heavy rain, whatever. LFS would default to a minimum temperature of say 5C, unless we're going to have snow!
So if you're running a Fern Bay server, enter the city code for Kingston Jamaica or some other city in Jamaica, or anywhere in the world, or of course you could set the weather manually to whatever you want.
So if you're running a Fern Bay server, enter the city code for Kingston Jamaica or some other city in Jamaica, or anywhere in the world, or of course you could set the weather manually to whatever you want.
Yeah, hooking upto a system like that could be really handy.
Yeah, but FB should have a higher average temperature than say, Blackwood!?
Yeah, but FB should have a higher average temperature than say, Blackwood!?
I'd definitely think so
So overall I think it'd probably be better if each track had it's own automated weather settings, since we don't usually get tornados in the UK and Jamaica doesn't usually get snow. Their weather systems should be realistic for the environment, but obviously with the ability to set up whatever conditions you want by disconnecting from the weather tracker on the Master Server.
But the day/night cycle should definitely not be realtime, since that'd mean some people would be in the same condition every time they play.
Sorted
So overall I think it'd probably be better if each track had it's own automated weather settings, since we don't usually get tornados in the UK and Jamaica doesn't usually get snow. Their weather systems should be realistic for the environment, but obviously with the ability to set up whatever conditions you want by disconnecting from the weather tracker on the Master Server.
But the day/night cycle should definitely not be realtime, since that'd mean some people would be in the same condition every time they play.
Sorted
Agree with most of the last post.
I still think the real life weather should be global, but able to be turned off at the server level. i.e., admins can override it if they want.
I think the immersion that ElektricKar talked about is key here.
I still think the real life weather should be global, but able to be turned off at the server level. i.e., admins can override it if they want.
I think the immersion that ElektricKar talked about is key here.
:uglyhamme And, I'm the ONLY PERSON who writes smartass replies?
+1 for this idea, sounds very cool.
I strongly agree. I'd love to see a global weather system that simply cannot be turned off. Drivers would have to adapt their driving style, and league races definitely were a lot more interesting. It's a simulation, after all
Track and vehicle usage is also likely to change with the weather, and that's a good thing.
I see a problem with global time zones, though. Some tracks could just be raced on at night time for certain users, which is unfortunate. Splitting the global weather and time system into separate worlds (LFS World #1, 2 and 3...) could solve this; Users with certain track and time preferences are then able to choose something close to their preferences. The user base has to be big enough to ensure every world is populated enough, though.
I can also imagine that many lfs players would not like such a system at all.
Yes i use this option all the time
Select location, upload real life weather, adjust time, and ready for take off.This cind of option lookes awsome in LFS to me
No, its just I think you were in a really bad mood the other night, and made several negative posts.
Shake them out of thier preferences or cement them to the "only track that has aceptable light conditions?"
Like several people have said, I think it's possible to divorce weather from time of the day/night cycle. They're not overly related in real life anyway, so I don't mind it being fudged a bit in LFS life. I'd be happy with an (optional but omnipresent) track location-based weather system but fully selectable time. It would be cool, though, if the weather system also carried in it the data for the time of day, so you could go super hardcore if you wanted.
That's just a small step away from having everything selectable- so it'll probably make the most sense if everything were user-controlled. If someone doesn't do night racing, there will certainly be others who don't do racing in the wet, or only want wet weather racing- so you'll have to cater to those folk as well. 
That kindof cheapens the weather possibility imo, bringing it back down to the level of cool novel effect, rather than something that will have a realistic impact on serious racing. Perhaps everyone will want a day/night cycle that cycles 24 hours in ten minutes, so you can see the changes in lighting. Again, cool effect...
That kindof cheapens the weather possibility imo, bringing it back down to the level of cool novel effect, rather than something that will have a realistic impact on serious racing. Perhaps everyone will want a day/night cycle that cycles 24 hours in ten minutes, so you can see the changes in lighting. Again, cool effect...
S3ish suggestion: realtime GPS-based weather
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