It's been a long ass day, a 4am flight from SFO to the cold and remote Winnipeg in Canada for a two day business trip makes you want rebel a little against life and hope for some anarchy amongst the order...

Well, just before I call in the wake up call I thought i'd drop some thoughts onto this eclectic forum and share some observations of late.

Since the CTRA dropped off the planet i've found a rather big hole in my lunch hour. As always, the server list is sorted by numbers racing and to my delight after the rigid, rule ridden and amazing quality of racing on the CTRA servers. I was thrown totally to the other extreme... that of the Destruction Derby server...

Within minutes I realised what a breath of fresh air it was to blast around a mad hat track, jumps and all, crashing into everyone, in the hope that I didn't get 4 screwed up shocks to make it over the finish line. Fun? It was like spending a day with smelly granddad, having to listen to his war stories whilst eating 2 year old chocolate cookies that could break teeth and THEN being let out into the fresh air to run around like a loony and play in the sand. Bliss... (NOTE: I'm not making any comparison to smelly granddads and the CTRA, simply that I need a rather strong image of two opposites.)

Anyhoo... the DD server has been amazing fun over the past few weeks. The admin who hasn't a clue has provided much amusement, in fact I am sure once he announced to a server of 20+ people that some lady friend with a rather large set of frontal glands was to make her acquaintance that evening for some "loving". The server also seemed to attract a few ex-CTRA types who also relished in the madness...

Then, unfortunately as usual, the obvious happened. Some who are less fun complained about the quality of the people on the server. Note I leave out the word "racing" from that statement, because i'm not sure if the DD server is actually racing.

Anyway. My real reason for this rather stupid tirade is that as much as this server is great fun I am stunned at some of the quite futile comments from people who seem to think that a server with no (ok, VERY little) rules is actually going to be anything other than anarchy.

What am I on about? (And i've had a few gins, so you might well be asking)... Whilst bumping about on the DD server i've seen the following comments...

1. "Hey! You can't run into me at full throttle!! Its against the rules..."

Really? Well until the server admin figures out how to write an InSim app that monitors my throttle level and kicks me for hitting other cars with a go go pedal depressed further than 50%, you're gonna have to just live with the dint in the car I just made.

2. "Stop ramming me!!!"

Read the title of the server young laddie and get over it...

3. "Wreckers! Stopping wrecking on T1!!!"

The safest place to be is either on pole and with your eyes GLUED to the mirrors and have the luck of the gods to avoid the masses of people piling in behind you OR be at the very back. Anywhere in the middle is going to be a mess, not because people are trying to "wreck" but because the DD server seems to be all about fun, messing about and some good ole anarchy... Wrecking is the point... if you survive T1 with a car perfectly untouched, you are cheating and should be banned

4. "Why do you keep hitting me every race?"

Because you keep complaining... you know, you CAN crash into me as well. It is all quite legit you know...

*sigh*

Actually, on a more serious note. I've found that months of CTRA driving have actually given me some amazing "crash aversion" skills and I can pick my way through the most amazing mess of spinning, upturned and flying cars and often finish, sometimes even win a... ummm race? on the DD server.

Quality times. My stressful days working on J2EE apps, dealing with customers and realising I have way too many emails to read are nicely intervened by 30 mins of running around smashing into others and having a good old time... LFS is great. No matter what its for... I've even (and this is the REAL shocker of the post) started to accept that a cruise server might actually not be that bad after all...

thanks for the nice pre 8am read

makes me want to try that dd server

Haha I hope that "clueless" admin is the [cas] server admin and not me Either way, would take that as a compliment, compared to all the things others could say ^^

Yeah, the server(s) are good for a laugh, would like more relaxed people on them tho.

Quote from Da Hoe :

thanks for the nice pre 8am read

makes me want to try that dd server

If you get back on your wheel, I'm with you!

Totally true. The [n00bs] server is so much better.

The layouts [and the people] are much more fun.

I totaly agree with J@tko, the [noobs] DD server is much better. I just came off the [cad] server after having massive fps drops in every race at T1, that only happens about every hour when I go on [noobs] server.

The noobs server is where all the drugs are at. This is why the tool is always there. He is a smack-head.

The only problem with that server is what Ziggy said below. I have to block the chat so my sensitive ears wont be destroyed.

Quote from th84 :

I have to block the chat so my sensitive ears wont be destroyed.

Hm, how come you still hang out in the [noobs] forum then?!

i don't go on the noobs server cause no one is there ever there.

Quote from avellis :

Hm, how come you still hang out in the [noobs] forum then?!

It's like crack, once you start its hard to stop.

Even though I was kicked off the team, I still like to read all that crazy shit you people type.

I'm now a [CAD] admin, but that doesn't mean I will now go "omfg [CAD] is da best [noobs] suxx0rz!!!1"
It's hard to believe, but in the 5 or 6 months that the idea of DD has been on LFS, some people are still thinking that the servers are either:
a) racing
b) pure wrecking
Somehow these people mustn't read the forum / have any idea what DD is meant to be about. It's meant to be "racing while crashing", not one or the other. I think that if everyone tried to follow that principle, then DD would be much more enjoyable than it can be at times.

Re: the server itself:
[job interview-speak LOL]
I think that I asked to be an admin because I wanted to gain the experience, and also to banish the negativity that's been spread on the forum by some (myself included). So far I think that it's working. I'm trying to not be as strict as some of the other admins, but still try and enforce some sort of order on the server.
[/job interview-speak LOL]

Quote from mutt107 :

i don't go on the noobs server cause no one is there ever there.

Its not a very time zone friendly server for us on this side of the pond. If you keep an eye on the Noobs DD thread, TVE usually announces when a game is on. OR you could just join the empty server, it doesnt take very long for others to follow.

The only thing that pisses me off about the CAD server are those sore losers who wait at the end of the pit for your last lap around and BLOW you away so your first place finish is kissing gorilla ass. Other than that hell yeah those servers are kick ass.

Haha, as TH84 says, sometimes there can be a little too much bullshit in the chat, I am sure if I had copy pasted the text written there Sam would fist me with god knows all kind of stuff to punish me, so lets do not.
Thing is, dirty humor is ok, but starting to talking about sex with dead people just takes it to a new level lol

Oh, and I'll be online in the weekend at the server at some time, so we cam do some DD then.

Quote from Jon606 :

It's hard to believe, but in the 5 or 6 months that the idea of DD has been on LFS, some people are still thinking that the servers are either:
a) racing
b) pure wrecking
Somehow these people mustn't read the forum / have any idea what DD is meant to be about.

i have a similar problem on my server... it's like people don't read.

i've seen people join my server, and spam the join button repeatedly for minutes on length... it's like they don't see the messages telling them to buy a wheel, or to stop being a noob and turn off auto shift.

i'm almost tempted to change my lapper motd to a big red sign saying "you need a wheel here, and turn off all automagic crap!"

the CAD server has definitely become more enjoyable but the noobs server is still the best, hands down. I think the years spent in banger racing servers in LFS have afforded me some degree of skill at avoidance too but if you get unlucky you get unlucky, s**t happens

the only problem I seem to have with the CAD server is the somewhat temperamental connection, it has more timeouts than the Cadbury's factory

Quote from yeager :

2. "Stop ramming me!!!"

Crashing into someone and sacrificing your car to take out a dozen people is completely different. People in the Cad server have a hard time figuring out that the whole point is to finish the race at all. Raping someone's rear end won't help at all.