Quote from theirishnoob :

buy s2 , i play with gamepad and tbh its better then almost every wheel in the market ( the ones if seen anyways )

Makes me wonder which crappy wheels you have seen and if you even tried any of them. I would even recommend a cheap non-ffb wheel over a gamepad.

Quote from theirishnoob :

buy s2 , i play with gamepad and tbh its better then almost every wheel in the market ( the ones if seen anyways )

Rubbish.

Quote from Gunn :

If you buy S2 you might not neccessarily buy a wheel, but if you buy a wheel you will definitely buy S2.

Yep.

Get S2 and save for a Really good wheel like Logitech G25 no point in going cheap with the wheel

If he could afford a G25, I'm sure he wouldn't be needing for a decision on whether to go for a wheel or S2. Sheesh, I wonder sometimes what you people do for a living that you can talk about $250-300 for a game controller like it's nothing....

OP, I would recommend a wheel first. Compared to a wheel, S2 will be a bit cheaper. Or, as been mentioned previously, you could go S1 for now too. It's been mentioned that there are hardly any S1 racers, but the current most popular servers are the CTRA licensing servers which runs the beginner's server on S1. It's always populated. Actually, with S2, you won't find much other than drift or cruising servers (no racing) in the US.

So, get a wheel (not the cheapest you see) and S1 at first if you can handle it. Once you progress through the copper and bronze server of CTRA, you will do whatever you can to join the silver server which means you will buy S2 eventually.

Quote from theirishnoob :

buy s2 , i play with gamepad and tbh its better then almost every wheel in the market ( the ones if seen anyways )

yeah, a nice PS2 pad owns my G25 - who needs a gearstick anyway? or pedals? and who needs to use the wheel-y bit anyway?

why dont you buy an affordable wheel, and s2. because really all wheels do the job as long as it has force feedback, my wheel has and it was very cheap compared to most.

+1 to that

Cheap wheel, even a second hand sidewinder FF will be a massive improvement on a game pad. (& they dont break)

& S2 loads more tracks cars, more combos than you will ever need.

I dunno now...

From what i've been hearing, most US servers are either Drifting servers, or just full of crashers.

Maybe I won't get LFS :\

Quote from sinkoman :

I dunno now...

From what i've been hearing, most US servers are either Drifting servers, or just full of crashers.

Maybe I won't get LFS :\

Definitely not crashers. Just to give you an idea, currently at this moment, 10 pm on Friday evening on the East coast there are 22 servers with connections:

Redline Racing 2
AV Mex Racing Centers
CTRA 1b
Gentlefoot Formula Racing
Liveforspeed UOL blah blah
CTRA 1a
LFS LeMans League
XL Racing
CTRA 2a
AirAttack RallyX racing
Herbs Hairy Hairpin

A total of 50 people. All racing servers of the 22. The rest would be drift or city driving servers. That would be a 50/50 split of racing and drifting or other.

S2!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm starting to lean a little more towards the wheel.

I'm finding it hard to lap competitively in the demo with my controller, not because of my lines (well, i'm sure my lines contribute on some level :P), but because it's really hard to control the car subtly, and moreso, CONSISTENTLY, with a gamepad.

The steering is really just too finicky with the thing, and while the steering with a mouse setup is allot more accurate than with a joypad, I lap even WORSE using my mouse, because it's so damn hard to break without locking your tires.

Wheels suck. I'd drive a real car with a mouse if it didn't weigh or cost more overall. Pedals, however...

(get S2! support your local developer, and it's cheaper than a really good wheel, which you'll probably end up getting sometime anyway!)

My PS2 pad was all 'finicky' as well. Until I figured out how to calibrate it and lower the sensitivites. After I did that, the game pad was quite easy to use.

This may help configure it if you haven't done so already: Guide: Using a Gamepad with LFS.

Get S2..... 32 Simultaneous Racers..... sign me up !

Quote from JasonJ :

My PS2 pad was all 'finicky' as well. Until I figured out how to calibrate it and lower the sensitivites. After I did that, the game pad was quite easy to use.

This may help configure it if you haven't done so already: Guide: Using a Gamepad with LFS.

Get S2..... 32 Simultaneous Racers..... sign me up !

The original poster of that thread removed the guide and replaced it with the words "[useless]".

The problem is not in the calibration of my PS2 pad (which is just fine), it's just that the pad, being its age, is a little... Sticky (dunno how to explain it really).

It's really really hard to make minute movements with the joystics, because the pots aren't as smooth as they could be, so the joystick will be smooth for a few milimeters, get thick and hard to move, then, from the pressure of trying to move it in the "thick" spot, it'll JUMP to a location, further than I wanted it to, and I have to jerk the joystick in the opposite direction to get my car back in control.

(by the way, to give you an idea of this pads age, it's an ORIGINAL PS2 pad. As in, literally, a pad from a Playstation 2, back when they FIRST were available in the US, wired to a parallel port).

I voted for wheel first.

an S2 licence can be bought in 2 parts (S1 & S2) so can be done in steps rather than waiting until you have the full amount like it would be if you went for S2 first and needed to save for a wheel. Although you won't get a lot of online opportunities with S1 it will give you extra cars (and tracks?) to show you what you are missing and help motivate you save for the S1 to S2 upgrade.
The other advantage this way is birthday presents of £12 value i.e. LFS vouchers could be split between two relatives/friends whereas a wheel would require them to organise it between them.

Maxim

my advice is dont use a pad instead use the mouse if you dont have a wheel

I'd buy a wheel, defenately. It is true that LFS can be quite enjoyable with mouse+kb but personally I'd take wheel because it makes the driving more fun. With proper wheel you can test the demos of other sims (nk pro, GPL) that won't necessarily support mouses as controls.

For more fun, choose wheel

Quote from Shotglass :

my advice is dont use a pad instead use the mouse if you dont have a wheel

Why's that?

Mouse can be much smoother, imho.

I'd buy the wheel and remember that the demo has a lot of limits and a lot of stupid drivers compared to S2. Yet, there are some very fair racers and good admins too there. I have some good memories of Dark Side Racing from the past, for instance. These memories are old, but they could still apply.
Short history of mine:
Bought need for speed underground. Played a bit with keyboard, then joypad. Something wasn't right.
Bought a Momo black. Played nfs underground again. Something wasn't right.
Fished for a sim. The one suiting me better was LFS. Played the demo. The wheel felt MUCH better than with anything else I tried. Bought S2.
Bought a G25. I wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't for S2's force feedback responsiveness.
Now I occasionally play S2, because I have little time/other interests. But it's the only "game" I play, right now.
So, all things considered, for me the wheel and S2 are a couple that cannot be separated. I couldn't say the same for other games/sims.

because with a mouse you can get any degree of accuracy on the steering youd like ... with a pad youre always limited to a tiny crappy stick
also if you dont like or cant tap you can use a joystick or the mouses y axis for analog gas and brakes

Quote from sinkoman :

The original poster of that thread removed the guide and replaced it with the words "[useless]".

The problem is not in the calibration of my PS2 pad (which is just fine), it's just that the pad, being its age, is a little... Sticky (dunno how to explain it really).

It's really really hard to make minute movements with the joystics, because the pots aren't as smooth as they could be, so the joystick will be smooth for a few milimeters, get thick and hard to move, then, from the pressure of trying to move it in the "thick" spot, it'll JUMP to a location, further than I wanted it to, and I have to jerk the joystick in the opposite direction to get my car back in control.

(by the way, to give you an idea of this pads age, it's an ORIGINAL PS2 pad. As in, literally, a pad from a Playstation 2, back when they FIRST were available in the US, wired to a parallel port).

So sorry. I didnt know the thread was deleted by the opener.

I was assuming your pad worked good so thats why I suggested getting S2 because you could still drive reasonably well. If your hardware is faulty... well , S2 or Demo wont be fun with a shonky control method that you aren't happy with. After I started demo using my PS2 Pad I realised the centre zone was dodgy and twitchy....so I just went and bought a new pad. I've gone through about 4 over the years.

But I cant understand why your not sure what to do. I imagine the cost of a half decent wheel is vastly more than the small cost for S2. If you can afford a wheel or another pad, I think you need one. Anything is annoying and frustating if the your tools dont work properly. So I've done a back-flip on the light you had shed about your current controller situation...

Can I change my vote... hehe

Quote from JasonJ :

I imagine the cost of a half decent wheel is vastly more than the small cost for S2.

Nope..Im sure a USB Sidewinder FF wheel can be picked up on e-bay for less than the price of S2, and it's perfectly adequate for a first wheel.
I'm still using mine that i got the day they came out.
It's a hundred times better than playing with a pad or KB/Mouse.

Stop voting for S2, he'll get it in the end [etals:]

Wheel FTW, I had a Logitech Wingman Formula Force cheapo for years and it served me fine, joypad doesn't even compare!

G25 however... :banana:

Well, it's not that the joypad is "faulty", but it's as i'd imagine how all joypads are (amplified by its age), with the steering being inconsistent.

On a wheel you can just kinda tilt the wheel to either side a smidge, and make minute adjustments that are REPLICATABLE. On the wheel, you can see, in three dimensions, the exact same thing as what's happening on screen.

The joypad however, is nowhere near as consistent or replicatable. I can make VERY minute movements, but it usually is guesswork as to how much I need to move the joypad again to do the same thing.

And i'd LOVE to use the joypad for analogue accelerate and break, but I don't know how i'd do that. In game, the control options list "kb/mouse", and "wheel/joystick".

There's no option for me to turn my mouse into a useable axis in the wheel/joystick setting, and there's no option for me to turn my gamepad into an axis in kb/mouse.

If anybody knows how to do this, i'd greatly appreciate help