The online racing simulator
Over a year without updates (the lack of racers)
Hi everyone,

LFS is still one of the best Sims out in the market and thanks to some loyal racers and astonishing leagues like CESAV, Fox Friday, GTI Thursday, Street Obsession this sim is still kept alive. Unfortunately, the number of racers gone back dramatically, as the casual player waits for something to happen and due to impatience and lack of variaty the player is forced to switch the game. It goes to a point when there are only 1- 2 players (normally around (5 utc- 12 utc) actually racing if we check out the stats on airio servers that make out 80% out of all actual racing servers http://airio.eu/AirioServers.aspx. On peaks it can reach up to 120 players which is not bad, but still not enough to keep this sim in a lucrative position. (The stats on LFSW can't be taken seriously, as 80% out of all drivers are non-racers (drifters, cruisers, drag racers, crash drivers).

This sim needs to provide activity over any time in any day. Unfortunately, that doesnt happen right now. When the europeans are all going to bed, the number decreases drastically as only some South Americans are racing and it gets even worse when they have to hit the sack as there are absolutely no racers in asia and oceania which means the european has to fill up the server to provide a full race server. And some day the european will be fed up with this cyclus as no one wants to race against few players. We want to be assured that if we join the server, we will be guaranteed to have full race servers. Like IRL when the F1 US Grand Prix where only 6 guys started, no one wanted to experience such a race again as it was plain boring, same goes to racing series that had to suffer over years like WTCC and Formula Renault 3.5 (V8): in 2005- 2007 they both had a huge pack of racers with mindblowing battles, at around 2014 the series has died out and it was not fun too watch anymore.

Therefore something needs to change.
Quote from RussianAttack96 :This sim needs to provide activity over any time in any day.

How do you expect the sim to provide anything? It's the users that make sim active. From nothing comes nothing - if noone wants to be the first in server then noone will join. If the userbase gets smaller then the best option is timed/organized racing - when users know when something happens,either a league race,event or just gathering up in public server.
Quote from RussianAttack96 :Therefore something needs to change.

It's up to users to change something - they're the ones that make the activity. You can't expect from devs to change that - last content update for most casual joiners was interesting 2-3 weeks before they left again. So - what would you change?
Quote from Eclipsed :
It's up to users to change something - they're the ones that make the activity. You can't expect from devs to change that - last content update for most casual joiners was interesting 2-3 weeks before they left again. So - what would you change?

Strongly disagree. I raced here for many years and the reason I no longer do is that the sim has fallen behind in number of tracks. The most fun to be had was from series like MiniFBM and GT World Series. We even tried at one point to make a modded WRX car out of the UFR/XFR and run on layouts, but that was not easy. The point is there are plenty of things to do, but they are not easy. So people will want to use the base content. Until they get bored, then they will either adapt or drift away. You cannot expect the average person to adapt to have new content when there are other games out there with much more content, and newer features. I would still participate here in NDR if there was an endurance series, but other than that - no interest.. it gets boring.


Truthfully there needs to be the release of 4-5 new tracks, all at once, and a few new cars to really capture people. Maybe some technical improvements too if possible to catch up.
Another thread with same complaining as others. Lock incoming.
Quote from RussianAttack96 :Therefore something needs to change.

if u had read this

Quote from Scawen :Well, since you ask about the physics, I might as well say, although I am very well aware and should point out that plans may change.

I'm really working as hard as I can on the graphics but taking care not to go into mental fatigue. The reason is that Eric should have the best version to work with, so his work looks the same as it will end up.

To explain what I mean... for example, right now he doesn't have the new shadow code because really it needs to look right in the track editor, and the old shadows have disappeared at this point. But currently the shadows only work in game because it uses a special draw mode. So I need to make that draw mode work in the track editor. So there's the work for the week, as each time he moves an object it needs to update the object on the GPU so the shadows can appear.

What point am I making... well every graphical change has lead to repercussions, other things that should be updated to make the most of the new stuff. It's quite exciting and that's why I've been very motivated to do a lot of work recently.

Anyway, as some of you know, due to a separation in the code when the new tyre physics was to be released may years ago, there are two separate versions of LFS, the development version with the new tyre physics and the public version with the old tyre physics. The trouble is that updates (to graphics, interface, etc.) in each version need to be merged into the other version. It has been like a chain around my neck attached to an iron ball and one that I want to get rid of. At the moment there are just so many changes for the new graphics, it would be a bit of a nightmare to try and merge that into the public version. The only way to avoid that tedious merge now is to get the physics complete to a point where it is good enough to release. So the development version can be finally released to you and LFS will be back to a single version again.

So my intention is to keep on this graphics stuff as much as Eric needs right now, then get that physics suitable for release while he is finishing the remaining tracks.

That's how I see it right now, it's an exciting thought that LFS development could be kind of back on track again and that's why I am hoping to be able to do. But in reality as we have seen, there are sometimes unforeseen things that come up and change the plans. I hope it will all go as planned! Smile

#6 - lucaf
Quote from Eclipsed :
It's up to users to change something - they're the ones that make the activity.

+1
"...absolutely no asia and oceania racers..."

Sorry, what?
#8 - lucaf
Nova u not racer anymore u spend too much time on cruise servers Tongue
I occassionally pop in the fast time at SRT or FM Friday, or demo, then cruise. Theres literally 0 leagues of any sort catering to the Oceania time zone, which is sad, because there isn't enough audience in the region... or LFS in general.

Problem solving :
Problem : Lack of activity/variety or expansion of leagues
Why? Not enough users
Why? Insufficient content to make game (product) attractive to targeted market.
Why? Lacks consistency and variety of updates
Why? Effort not focused enough on developing game
Why? Dev team have not properly researched or did any form of public surveying or secondary research in order to determine what the community wants (or what the public wants from a simulator of such potential niche, like LFS).
Root cause : Improper planning and lack of understanding.

Have I nailed it though? Marketing and business modules are really helping Smile


Again, not trying to be hurtful, but I'm just blunt and straightforward. I'm not the sort to dumb it down to make it easier to digest - its just the way it is.. but I hope my opinions and critism would contribute to the development of the game, and not affect it negatively to deter development instead. Refocusing is key as I'm adamant that the community will go for more tracks over a graphical update. Its all about weighing the options, and at the moment I'm inclined to say, tracks.

Shift the focus, resources, all to crafting new tracks, or at least revamping the ones we have now.

Baseline is, tracks is one of the most vital key to a simulator, and graphics should not be the first thing to look at when trying to present more content.
A simulator without tracks (or enough tracks, in this case) is detrimental. Graphics.. not so. We could live with mediocore graphics.
You have amazing graphics but a handful of tracks, you still have the same lack of content, just that it looks better. Pointless.

As a simracer I'm holding on to LFS, but with a wheel and new desktop, I'm struggling to stay on the boat and not shift to iR or rFactor (or even Codies). There just isnt enough oomph anymore.

Hope you're hearing this mate @Scawen.


Bless,
Nova.
Quote from Pasci :Check out the latest comments of Scawen here:
https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/1933469#post1933469
and
https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/1933477#post1933477

If you bothered to read the top and bottom of that thread you'll notice I'm om that too.

Yes, its good to hear some form of response. But...

Verbal announcements are too norm now. Its pretty much the standard answer every single time - where are teasers or at least a proper estimate? It's as if the updates are dragging their hind legs trying to move along over the course of this dozen years LFS has been around.
Quote from Pasci :Check out the latest comments of Scawen here:
https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/1933469#post1933469
and
https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/1933477#post1933477

I bet he did read that


And I also see point. When I ran my own series, there was several rounds "outside" of European timezone, there were not many, but was refreshing to see some new guys around there.

Now I am sticking to 18.00 UTC because there is no room to do it otherwise due my personal life. Gotta be fresh when job starts again, sooner or later. Heck, I even changed Thursday to Friday, by people's opinions. Not sure if that will bring much people, but if it does, that's good.

Approximately waiting 5-10 racers per Round.
Where is proper estimate... going on their previous experiences, they will open patch test forum about 1-2 weeks ahead of planned releases, which means the version will be delivered in 1-2 months since then. There's no point to provide any estimate before that stage, as those plan did change in *years* units, slowly reaching phase of *decades* units, so there's no point to release any teaser, if the test patch is not ready yet, teaser *years* ahead of release is sort of pointless.
Also alot of us have played this game for a very long time.
Over year for updates wont keep much players. I hop on racing from time to time but I dont get woved because the same cars are used for racing everytime so I usually drive few racers and go cruise because more players and the situation has come that racing isnt that fun for me anymore.
I mainly both the s2 because of cargame. nl when I saw the full server with bunch of different classes racing I hoped on instantly it was so fun for me FULL server with many battles now that is all gone. Dont get me wrong B2R can have full server mostly but its demo cars and they are not fun for me anymore they are to easy to learn and pro racers can win easy so they dont bother to drive other cars. Its funny for me that people complain about content when they dont even use half of it all racing servers I see is demo and the only server that uses most cars is biggest cruise server TC. Question on my side: Why is it so hard to fill up NGT or GTR or TBO class servers? Whats wrong with learning new excperience that isnt demo.
Seems almost nobody wants to be first on a server and wait for others.

AMG has rotating GTR FM has a rotating fox and B2R has also rotating TBO.

I'm sure there are more good race servers.
TBO is not balanced.
I think its just old school to race outside leagues nowadays. There is so many great sims and so many attracting leagues, that even you choose a modern sim, its not said that you find some good multiplayer races with the cars/tracks you like. Join leagues...I haven't seen you at Cesav neither at Absolute Beginners, and what about Rony's Tuesday events?
I like quick races more, maybe i'm still oldschool
I like the competitive factor where u know everybody trained and wants to win and not where half of racing grid is here for goofs :/
Leagues can be very fun I actually like good organized league they are fun for me more than regular races. Too bad im missing most of them barely have time for Street Obssesions league.
What about Forza! ?

I don't hear anybody talking 'bout Project Cars too either. Muss be big. One day I invested in it also (without knowing).
Quote from RC-Maus :I like quick races more, maybe i'm still oldschool

me too, i love oldschooling

Over a year without updates (the lack of racers)
(24 posts, started )
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