added fri, Nov. 29th, 2002 06:00 AM
>We have release plans!
Hello Racers!
The LFS development team has come up with a plan for Release 1.
Firstly, note that Release 1 is intended to be a complete product and will contain a range from road cars, through modified rallycross cars and up to GT cars. Karting, single seaters and buggies are to be left out of Release 1 and will come out in later releases. That was decided a while ago but please read on to find out about the new Release 1 plan.
Note : all dates given in this announcement are only estimates - not promises.
The next proper update is Demo Test 0.2 - this will be very like the current Demo Test and of course free of charge but will contain mainly improvements to the tyre physics and multiplayer system including qualifying, better reliability and reduced lag. In addition there will be minor improvements to the track and the car models including working dials and so on, non-uk keyboard support, clutch and shifter support with associated engine damage and some other things that have been mentioned on the Suggestions for Improvement forum. We may include a skid pad as well. This is expected in early January 2003.
Our new plan for Release 1 is to release it in 4 downloadable stages, we will charge a price for these - each one at 25% of the total price of Release 1.
The first 25% release will come out a few weeks after Demo Test 0.2 after sorting out any bugs or problems that come up. So - we estimate early February 2003. It will contain the 3 cars from the Demo Test and 3 more road-style cars including one or two four wheel drives. Two extra tracks will be included - a city track and a country track with a few configs in each. More music will be included as well. At that stage neither the full damage system nor all the planned improvements to graphics and sound will have been done - the idea is that while Eric is continuing to add or finish more tracks and cars for subsequent releases, I will be continuing to develop the program all the time as well on the way to Release 1.
The next three 25% releases will contain in the region of 4 cars and 3 tracks each and will come out at intervals of 2 or 3 months. (
DDDD) The 4 stages are downloadable and a CD will become available when the full Release 1 is completed (i.e. the 4th stage is finished).
We like this plan a lot because we avoid any need for the services of a publisher, the community will no longer be bored with the same cars and tracks, we start to earn a living, we continue learning and improving our methods with each 25% release, and the whole thing builds up in a way that we can handle.