[TC] Gaming Forums

Please clear this up for me.

Back in the day the choice in vehicles in LFS was quite limited. So it made sense to make a skin of a real life car you like, and put it on a vehicle that you like to drive in LFS. So far I get it.

Since a few years mods are introduced. Nowadays there are tons of mods you can choose from, even within TC. From actual real cars to more simple tweak mods that are based on default cars. There is something for everyone.

But here is what I find difficult to understand, why do some people still use default cars with real life car skins like in the S1/S2 era? Really, what is the benefit? For instance, what makes an FZ5 with a Porsche skin better than an actual Porsche mod? And what about COPs that use the default car instead of the available lightbar version of that default car? I mean, it's basicly the same car, just with a proper lightbar/lights on it. When was the last time you saw a real police car with only his regular lights and hazards flashing, but no blue light? Is it only because you have an old setup for that default car that you works on for years and you don't want to start from scratch with a lightbar version?

PS. : If you play with default car with real car skins, I'm not here to say you should change, I just genuinly would like to know why people still stick with this (imo) outdated playstyle. Enlighten me.

HI!
I drive default cars with real car skins sometimes, because there isn't a mod for the car I want to have. Also yes, I do have setups that I do not want to make from scratch again

The suspension & handling geometry can sometimes not be very good, despite the actual car model being very good. I’ve found that to be the case a few times.

The default cars just simply work, people have driven them for a long time and mastered the craft with a setup they’ve had for a long time.

I still like driving FXO because it is the car I'm most familiar with. Carl makes good points.

Furthermore, vanilla cars are the only cars which aren't going to be suddenly pulled at a moment's notice due to copyright, modelling or LOD issues. Making a high quality skin for such a vehicle won't be a waste of time like it might be for other (modded) vehicles.

I personally don't give it a second thought when I see people driving vanilla cars.

(2024-02-25 12:47)Marty_Deslions Wrote: [ -> ]For instance, what makes an FZ5 with a Porsche skin better than an actual Porsche mod?

Many people who play in this manner have used these default cars for sometimes thousands of hours over many years and have completely perfected their setups to be exactly how they want them to be as well as a variety of skins that will take a very long time to remake for the relatively newly added modded vehicles.

When you consider that most of the people you see on the server using default cars are doing so as COPs or civilians who have an interesting in running, which is inherently a competitive aspect of the server, it's understandable that they want to use the vehicles they are most comfortable and experienced with in order to be the most competitive they can be.

If you then couple this with the fact that many of these mods will probably have their suspension geometry, engine stats, or other things changed in the future, which can cause setups to become completely unusable in some cases, then it's understandable that some people who are interested in the competitive aspects (e.g. copping) will stick to what is familiar and stable. And that's before you consider that some mods just get deleted at random without warning so if that happens then you will have to start all over again with a different mod and I'd imagine some people just don't want to waste their time worrying about such things.

The part about the fake lights, grille, etc ("real life car skins") is probably just because many people want to use the skins they've made previously or want to use their team skins - both of which have often been made many years ago before modding was even a possibility in LFS. You could argue that we should go and "fix" all of these old skins and/or adapt them to newer modded cars etc but that is not an easy process and considering what I said previously about the mods being updated or removed without notice then I would imagine that many people don't see it as a good use of time. And that's without mentioning that probably a lot of old skins people have made only exist in .jpg form these days and I would imagine not many people still have the old Photoshop files of their skins from years ago lying around anymore.

(2024-02-25 12:47)Marty_Deslions Wrote: [ -> ]And what about COPs that use the default car instead of the available lightbar version of that default car? [..] Is it only because you have an old setup for that default car that you works on for years and you don't want to start from scratch with a lightbar version?

You can actually sometimes copy the setups directly from the default cars into the lightbar versions but it doesn't always work flawlessly and I would imagine that many people don't even know that is possible. Even then, sometimes there are things that are slightly off (minor changes in the modded version, intended or otherwise) or make the setup feel different to the default car, which requires a bit of messing around and some time to figure out which probably puts some people off.

Also, having to upload the skins you want to use again to use them on a lightbar version could be another reason though admittedly probably a minor one. It is however still inconvenient in a similar manner to the setup problem mentioned previously and if the skin templates don't line up 100% then I guess it can cause issues too.

tl;dr: People want to use what is familiar and stable in competitive settings and want to use the skins/setups they've spent often many years creating and perfecting without fear of randomly not being able to use them in future whenever the mods they migrate to get changed or removed randomly.

(2024-02-25 14:50)Gaz Wrote: [ -> ]...

Ah, I understand. Tslm for your thorough answer.