'Elitist' server proposal

[Sainted]

Just to follow up on a small rant in a different thread.

5 races in a row an AA GTI I have been taken out in Turn 1 or the first chicane on the very first lap. These were not accidental gentle taps and a slow spin, but rather violent Destruction Derby'esque crashes with 5 cars entering the chicane without making any effort whatsoever to emerge unscathed at the other end.

At the time of writing I am extremely unimpressed by this standard of racing, and I do not feel like returning to the server for the next few days. To those who preach "Relax, this is just a game", I would say you should shut up and think about decency that has to be practiced on a public game server.

With this in mind, I have a proposal. Maybe we shall set up another server with very strict moderation standards and some sort of entry criteria that will only allow decent racers to join. The proposed criteria are:

1. Current RT on AA GTI of 85% or higher.
1.1. Should the entrant's RT be between 80% and 85%, he / she will be allowed to race by admin's sole discretion, as RT tends to be compromised by events outside of the player's control (see intro to this thread).
1.2. Anyone with RT lower than 80% is not allowed on the server under no circumstance. He / she shall gain the necessary RT at AA GTI server before attempt of re-entry.

2. The administrator(s) will be chosen from well-known and generally respected racers like Jacques, Destruction Derby, Caerdrion, known for their clean driving ability and general human decency.
2.1. Any driver with RT at and over 95% gets admin rights.

3. General LFS rules regarding clean racing, deliberate crashes, retaliation and general poor behaviour shall apply.
3.1. Monitoring of such will be the duty of the administrators.
3.2. Any person found to be causing deliberate crashes, retaliating against other players will be banned from the server for 7 days without warning.
3.2.2. No exception will be given for "but he crashed me first" claims. No deliberate crashes or retaliation, full stop.
3.2.3. This rule applies to all players regardless of their current RT on the server, 'general image' or 'authority'.
3.3. Racer known as BAR will not be allowed on the server. Those who get crashed by him all the time will get the idea.

4. All races, except for Special Events, will be 6 laps long and will take place at Blackwood GP circuit.
4.1. Server will occasionally run Special Events, the format will be separately designed, discussed and communicated.

5. The server can either be permanently live, or on-demand at pre-agreed time slots.
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Any thoughts?

[AA™| Seven]

We've thought about this previously, many times even in my 3 years here. It was turned away for these reasons:

- Money. We don't have money to spare to upkeep a server that only a few people will use.
- Availability. We take pride in having all our servers open to anyone, sure it has drawbacks like what you listen but this is why we have staff and the User Report section of the forum.
- Popularity. Having another server open exclusive to only a certain people may send the wrong message out about us, for example: "You can only race if you're safe." This could give us a negative reputation in an already shrinking LFS community.

Those are the main reasons that stick out from the top of my head. Now your individual points which planted madly large red flags in my eyes:
1. Current RT on AA GTI of 85% or higher.
- This is incredibly easy to lose: Inactivity, a bad race or two, etc.

2. The administrator(s) will be chosen from well-known and generally respected racers like Jacques, Destruction Derby, Caerdrion, known for their clean driving ability and general human decency.
Why make criteria to join an already established Demo team for difficult? We like to keep ourselves equal around here. We only have higher administration as they are the most experienced people with the know-how about using the mass of commands. The judgement is pretty much the same across the team, higher administration are purely appointed based on managing our staff, finances, server control, etc.

3.2. Any person found to be causing deliberate crashes, retaliating against other players will be banned from the server for 7 days without warning.
- Without warning is incredibly unfair. We warn all our crashes (unless they're blatant destroyers who take out multiple people / repeatedly target people). We believe in chance.

I don't mean to sound harsh in this post - it's just that we're a very open team. Not many discussion happen behind closed doors, why should any racing? A lot of the extra points you put in are also generic rules in LFS and AA servers as a whole. Don't get me wrong, it's a good suggestion but it wouldn't be worth it in the long run IMO.

[AA™| joruss]

I'd throw one more thing to Seven's good writing.

If you try to have one PRO-invitation-only server then you may as well lock every other away as well. If all "good drivers" (I'd imagine that among them is majority of limads as well) are on locked server then in turn none is keeping an eye on "open" servers. This in turn converts them into crashers paradise and source of frustration for those non-privileged ones or totally deserted, as they won't show on server list if there's none on-line.

At the time of writing I am extremely unimpressed by this standard of racing, and I do not feel like returning to the server for the next few days. To those who preach "Relax, this is just a game", I would say you should shut up and think about decency that has to be practiced on a public game server.

So instead of taking a high road you're deciding to throw a tantrum and abandon us for "next few days" as some kind of punishment? Who are you punishing? Us? Crashers? Yourself?

Please do remember that things in life that come free usually come without a guaranty. We are doing our utmost to assure the quality of racing is reasonable (and have a lengthy ban list to prove it!) but occasionally there's none available at hand to sort the offender out. In such cases, as Seven said, dump the replay on forum and, if you don't enjoy having a little fun with crashers, leave the server for a day or two (or whatever it takes for crasher to become bored enough to leave on its own) instead of spiralling into frustration rage.

I hope you'll get over this issue and visit our servers again soon.

[AA™| E A Presley]

Saints is that bad experience worster when there is not aa-racers racing.

[AA™| Jacques]

Currently most of our servers are running empty, so why not convert one of them for the "Elite" to use? Well, its a good idea on paper - but would just end up being empty. There are not enough "Elite" demo racers racing at the same time to fulfill a demo server dedicated for them. And truthfully, Sainted, you would not be among the racers that would get access to it. For the same reasons you often find yourself being crashed into - too aggressive driving, blocking and leaving no room for the other party. Due time you will notice that the more relaxed way will also benefit you in many ways.

Blackwood GTI (as well our Blackwood servers on other classes) used to be top racing servers among the LFS demo scene, but our current state is our own fault for not recruiting new active members to replace the old and inactive, furthermore most of the good racers have stopped playing the game. When popularity goes down like this, we lose the possibility to refresh our team with new members.. Few years ago there were those who were stating that our servers maintain the high class even without members online, guess we can now see the result.

[AA™| senna]

Blackwood GTI (as well our Blackwood servers on other classes) used to be top racing servers among the LFS demo scene, but our current state is our own fault for not recruiting new active members to replace the old and inactive, furthermore most of the good racers have stopped playing the game. When popularity goes down like this, we lose the possibility to refresh our team with new members.. Few years ago there were those who were stating that our servers maintain the high class even without members online, guess we can now see the result.

Agreed :/