rfactor should i buy??

wenmo · Post by **wenmo** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 2:05 pm

I love lfs but most times i play the servers have a dozen or so listed with only 3 or 4 log ons,boring. Is it better in rfactor?
have read lots in this forum which is good, now that the game has been out for a while is it a better game then when 1st come on the market? Are the graphics and multiplayer aspect on par or better then lfs?
I would be interested to read some feedback!
cheers have a great day!

ysu · Post by **ysu** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 3:51 pm

what do you mean 3 or 4 log ons? If you mean the number of people online, then no in rF you'll have less (aussie) people online, and the races will be dirtier.
Same for GTL. You can usually find overseas races for both. But you can find some for LFS as well, and LFS still has many more people online than the other two together.

the rF is still pretty much the same, with the extra user addons. Sun's still missing (hehe) and you still need a powerhouse to run it with full details
pretty much the same for GTL, but it was better graph-, sound-, ai- and car-wise (look, sound, feel) straight away, and a bit weaker on netcode (not the connection stability, that's ok, it's the features I miss very much)

but gtl has the 'starforce' player killer addon...

I still think GTL is better fun

There are already two excellent track addons for that too, The Mother and LeMans.

GT VIRUS · Post by **GT VIRUS** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:30 pm

i would recomend rFactor, the mother (nurburgring nordslief) is as good as the GTL version, and i think that the graphics engines are on par. ATM however, i think that GTL is a bit more realistic, but with some killer mods coming soon, like the new track from scott_j, A1GP, lawnmowers, NAGT, Nurburgring 24H (and a rebuilt nords with it), Cart Championship, V8 Supercars, F1 2005 (both CDT and RH) and many others (fantacy scratch built series, even jetboats?)

wenmo · Post by **wenmo** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:52 pm

Thanks YSU & GT
Yeah, i mean logging on and only racing against 3 or 4 people and racing any cars, a bit boring. i agree it is much better to race against aussies, i think the locals drive very well and obey the rules of good clean racing! Lets face it, if Gt Virus hit my car in a race i would drive to Pt Lincoln and punch his lights out. I would'nt be able to do that if i was racing someone overseas, i would not be able to afford the airline ticket. I think i might hold back on rfactor at the moment and wait for GTR 2.
Dont worry GT just bullshiting!
I would take the bus over.
See you on Wed racing
thanks guys!

GT VIRUS · Post by **GT VIRUS** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 7:06 am

can work both ways wenmo

Bacchulum · Post by **Bacchulum** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:56 am

I had a race last night, all Aussie, 23 starters for 45 laps of Sandown in the rF3.

Hazelb · Post by **Hazelb** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 12:24 pm

And I had one last week...34 or 5 starters PCC at Sandown...

Austeam and AOR have some pretty good RF series happening

ysu · Post by **ysu** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 3:01 pm

altho for honesty's sake let's mention those are paying leagues

Hazelb · Post by **Hazelb** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 3:27 pm

Hold your horses fella.....

AOR is.....

ATR is not....

Havent run at AOR, but i can recomend ATR as a great place to race with a great bunch of blokes...I guess its a bit like the LFS community, pretty tight knit and certainly open to new members as long as they abide by its rules.

Bacchulum · Post by **Bacchulum** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:46 pm

ATR's completely free and as long as you live in Aus and follow the rules, you're more than welcome.

ysu · Post by **ysu** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:13 pm

Bacchulum wrote:ATR's completely free and as long as you live in Aus and follow the rules, you're more than welcome.

nice to hear it
aor and ausorc are the paying ones indeed, my bad.

wenmo · Post by **wenmo** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:57 am

Some interesting comments guys, it sounds like their is a following for rfactor in Australia. Would it be fair to say that LFS & Rfactror would rate the same or be it rfactor a point better because of mods?
As for logging on to servers in lfs i always go to the server that has the most players racing regardless of what car i have to drive, it would be great to look at the servers and see at least 10 or more people playing on each. Maybe in time this will happen as lfs steps forward! I am a big fan of lfs and hats off to the developers, but like most people i want to play the best racing sim out there, i think LFS is it! well this week anyway. I will keep a close eye on Rfactor.
have a good week guys!

Hazelb · Post by **Hazelb** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 12:34 pm

LFS is great, but in some ways a little arcadey. DOnt get me wrong, I played it for two full ATR series with Cutter and around 10 entrants and we had a ball. Sound really lets it down but its still a fantastic game

rFactor on the other hand has endless possibilities. Net code whilst new is pretty strong, we had issues at ATR on week 1 of our PCC series but last night, with 26 starters it was as solid as an offline AI race - bloody sensational. With all the mods on their way I reckon RF is better value, but if it wasnt around, LFS is what i would be playing..

CLP · Post by **CLP** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 1:57 pm

Disclaimer: LFS fan

wenmo wrote:Some interesting comments guys, it sounds like their is a following for rfactor in Australia. Would it be fair to say that LFS & Rfactror would rate the same or be it rfactor a point better because of mods?

how they rate i think depends on what you're looking for in a sim. In my opinion, allowing mods ranks as a significant negative and yet some people won't bother with a sim unless the potential for modding is there. Once again, what do YOU want in your sim experience?

Hazelb wrote: LFS is great, but in some ways a little arcadey. ... Sound really lets it down ..

about the only thing i find particularly "arcadey" is the starts (ie no chance of a false start etc..)
the second part i quoted relates to the above comment i made..ie. Depends on what you're after in a sim. I find the sounds in LFS better simply because they tell me more about what's happening to the car. I'll be the first to admit however that the sounds in rFactor, GTL, GTR (hell, almost any other sim!

) are far more immersive than LFS sounds are! So what do you want? immersion or feedback?

wenmo wrote: I will keep a close eye on Rfactor.

same

ultimately, my view is that it probably doesn't really matter what you choose.. as long as you enjoy it

so to the original question you asked.. should you buy rfactor? sure, why not

For the amount that you'd pay for rfactor you'd be getting significant entertainment value and no doubt meet a few people online in the process.. how can you possibly go wrong with that?

I've made my choice a long time ago, but at the same time don't mind having a bash at what other sims have to offer. In an ideal world you 'd have them all (as well as the time to play them all)

CLP

Exar Kun · Post by **Exar Kun** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 3:59 pm

CLP wrote:So what do you want? immersion or feedback?

CLP

Very good point and probably the one that has the most bearing me not playing LFS OR rFactor. I've always played sims because I want to feel like I'm driving the real thing. Not an imaginary car but one that I can see on TV or real life at a track that is also real. The first thing I did when I got F1GP was change all the names to the proper ones. So yeah, whilst I've had some fun and some close racing in LFS and a little in rFactor, both fall short in that area. LFS really doesn't help with graphics and sounds that aren't immersive either. I'm very much looking forward to the V8 mod for rFactor though.

In the meantime, there's GTL and GTR 2 is around the corner. And it might be some time away but iRacing's offering is sure to be very, very good.

Bacchulum · Post by **Bacchulum** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:04 pm

Don't forget nkPro.

ysu · Post by **ysu** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:15 pm

Bacchulum wrote:Don't forget nkPro.

Damn I almost forgot it!

Seriously, you used to be some kind of insider around there...do you have any news?

Bacchulum · Post by **Bacchulum** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:24 pm

Good choice of words ysu, "used to be".

As far as I know they're sticking with the 1Q 2006 release date, so within the next 52 days sometime.

Exar Kun · Post by **Exar Kun** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 5:40 pm

Bacchulum wrote:Don't forget nkPro.

Oh, I haven't forgotten it but it goes against my argument for wanting sims based on real life series (despite the presence of one real car) so I couldn't use it in my example. I am, however, very much looking forward to it.

Bacchulum · Post by **Bacchulum** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 7:32 pm

All the cars are real...

The first thing I did when I got F1GP was change all the names to the proper ones.

...just think of it as F1GP revisited

Formula Ford 1600cc, Formula Ford 1800cc, Formula Renault 2000 & Formula 3 have all been replicated in detail, which 4 will make it to the release I don't know, as there is apparently a mystery car as well.

Sterling · Post by **Sterling** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:30 am

Well I took the plunge and after an evening of rFactor, this is where I stand:-

-The openwheelers are pretty good, they actually are modelled well and feel pretty good, very chuckable, they bounce, twitch and skip, but also turn and accellerate hard, you feel on the edge, and they reward hard driving, but if you go over the edge you can still bring it back.

-The GFXs are pretty good and it runs well on high settings even on my 9600xt.

-The original supplied tintops are very ordinary, they a plain, uninspiring and really just don't look like functioning race cars inside or out - hello step back to the eighties.

-The Porsche mod is excellent, absolutely blows away the original rFactor tintops in terms of looks/sound and feel.

-Damage modelling is very ordinarly, sure bits fall off but LFS still has the best method, the pinball bounce off stuff and keep going just doesn't cut it anymore.

-Lots of tracks to download, some are ordinary conversions but some are really excellent, its nice to be able to race on real life curcuits, the variety is a really big plus and I can only see them getting better and better. A full season of openwheelers on real life tracks...that will would be brilliant.

-Not completely sure if the turn point of the car is at the front wheels, its as if the turn centre is more towards where the driver is sitting which means it is just not quite right for hitting apexs and gives a slight impression of gliding etc. In LFS I find that I go wide of the apexes but with rF I find I'm cutting them too much.

-The interface is just atrocious - its ugly, its clumsy and just plain confusing - really shows how clever the LFS GUI is - something I took for granted. The screens feel all over complicated and crowded when they don't need to be, its just not intuitive. Time to fire the designer and artist!

-Out of the box the controls are just wrong and it makes the sim feel very akward, once I had taken a bit of time to play with the settings to suit me the experience really started to improve and by the end of the night it felt pretty good.

-The force feedback feels unusual, I still haven't found a setting that suits me in terms of strength and forces, the forces when the wheel is straight are very light and then get progressively harder as you turn the wheel but the force strength doesn't seem to adjust to whats happening to the front tyres. I probably still need to play with this.

-Its the same engine as GTR(I didn't know this) so if you have played GTR you will have some idea how the cars will feel.

-The sound isn't brilliant but it isnt bad either, the downchange really annoyed me early on, ARRGGGHHHH but the friggin 'BING' chime when you move the mouse over the menu options just plain pisses me off.

-Ease of skin trading has been neglected, there also doesn't seem to be a lot of setup sharing/downloads available. Whilst I can get online and race it doesn't really feel like a community. Racecast has a similar purpose to LFSworld but is not as intuitive or straight forward. Have I mentioned firing the artist and desginer?????

Is it worth it?.............well with the open wheelers and the Porsche mod I say yes........ Once you get past the clumsy interface and sort out the controls it becomes a lot of fun, I can see why the community for rF is really growing, there is a lot of potential to offer some really quality organised league racing of whatever you want........ hopefully the V8 Supercar mod will live up to the Porsche mod quality.

So guys me being the noob on the rF scene, where do you all play and when usually?

Exar Kun · Post by **Exar Kun** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:46 am

I don't get the people who say the LFS menu system is good (I'm not saying the rFactor one is either, by the way). Unless you're really used to the LFS system it's a nightmare finding a particular graphics setting or control setting. Took me bloody ages to figure it out. People take it for granted because it's what they are used to. I'm sure people used to the rF menus find them great and the LFS ones hopeless. Me, I'm in the middle - don't like either and not the biggest fan of how GTL/GTR are structured either although at least most options are grouped.

The biggest strength with the LFS system (and what I'd love to see in all games) is that you can access every setting from with the actual game so see how it takes effect straight away. A big thumbs up to that.

Sterling · Post by **Sterling** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:58 am

Exar Kun wrote:The biggest strength with the LFS system (and what I'd love to see in all games) is that you can access every setting from with the actual game so see how it takes effect straight away. A big thumbs up to that.

Yep....agree, thats why I called the rF menus clumbsy and over complicated, with LFS you can flick through the options screen quickly. The menus in rF are functional and serve their purpose and its certainly not the deal breaker in terms of whether I would recommend/enjoy the game or not..........but they certainly could be cleaner and less disjointed.

wenmo · Post by **wenmo** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:15 pm

Thanks Sterling, a good post, i might just hold off for a bit with rfactor, people from the sim community on posts that i have read say the best is yet to come with netkar, gtr2 and 1 more on the way. with so much on offer it gets confusing but its good to read on this forum in general what people think of racing games. All games have weaknesses and strengths and modding allows for games to be changed in lots of different ways good and bad, have u read this months auto sim?
wenmo

Sterling · Post by **Sterling** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:51 pm

wenmo wrote:have u read this months auto sim?
wenmo

Downloaded, haven't had the chance to look through it as of yet.