The thing is the online part is extremely bad. They didn’t expected it. When they advertise so much the ability to interact with other players and the fact that you’re not gonna be alone in a huge map anymore but you’ll have 72 players to fill the gap, all of these statements show that they clearly wanted this to work. BUT it is so much the opposite. Even if you get to a session with 50-60 players they are all doing random stuff, they are progressing their solo career or just being paused at some menu. And when you manage to see an actual player on the map, then chances are you’re not going to notice him at all because we are all ghosted. So this makes the whole online experience feel more single player than ever before. We are completely disconnected from each other, and one of the game’s main advert was the ability to interact with other players online. They put so much effort convincing us that the always-online part won’t ruin our experience, hence they introduced the pausing features etc. So it’s clear that their intention was to create a great online experience, a game that was so good in single player(which they already knew, and we all admit it is) and a game that will invest so much in online to be a step up from any previous title. But as things are at the moment, I feel more disconnected from the online experience than I ever was. I’m being honest when I say sometimes I don’t even know whether I’m playing online or solo and I literally have to pause the game to see.
Yes, the game has other bugs too. For me the worst one is the sound glitch when you change gears with a real clutch. It makes driving in cockpit unbearable. It has been reported since the demo and it hasn’t been fixed. But all in all, it is a masterpiece of a game. The fail right now is with the online part of it, the part they tried so much to improve and as it seems they fell sort of it.
For me the worst of it is that any custom single pvp events via blueprints with specific cars/classes/settings only goes out to the people currently on your server. Even a full roster of 72 would never be enough to fill a single match since most people are just doing their own thing, some won’t even see the quick notification, and others won’t want to break with what they’re currently doing to join in. I know because when I see player initiated event I’ll ignore them if currently busy with something, or not even notice them in the first place, or see them and join after it’s too late. And the few times I am free to join and do get in on time, I’m usually the only other one in there besides the creator / host.
I can see why they may have thought there would be more than enough players on a server to fill out random 12 player matches since the server max is that much greater, but in practice I’ve only ever seen 2 others join up at the most. Majority of the time it’s just 2/12. They really need to figure out a way for these single game proposals to be visible and searchable and joinable across all servers. Have them update to a master game / lobby list then relay that list out to everyone playing online. Or maybe they could do some servers dedicated for specific things for people to join. The default / automatic being single player online, but you can opt into joining some entirely devoted to pvp and playground games, others made for pvp dirt or street racing, coop etc, sub-categories for specific classes and all, so it’s not just some large percentage of people off doing their solo stuff online, it’s people actually wanting to do online events with other people playing together on a single server.
Feel like either of those make sense and might be feasible for the devs to implement, but there’s probably some better solutions they could conjure up, too. All I know is that something significant has to be done or else it’s almost always going to be 2/12 for these online events, especially when there’s 20-40 randoms on the current server like usual. Maybe just let us choose to fill the rest of the slots out with drivatars as an option for now, like collision on/off is via blueprints.
I’m trying to be as polite as humanly possible here but it appears like this game is failing to deliver on one of its core features that’s honestly essential to the overall experience. I have been playing since early access and I can honestly say I can count on one hand how many times I’ve actually been in a full server. My average player count is somewhere between 20-40 players and even then things feel pretty dead. Why does it just not seem possible to part of a full server? How are you guys allocating players throughout your servers? Are you filling each one and I’m just getting unlucky? Are you spreading players out to ensure a maximum amount of lower count servers because full ones cause too many issues for you and players?
The fact that we have ZERO control makes this infuriating. I’ve searched for new sessions for 5-10 mins at a time and it always ends up with low player counts.
Also, who you see in the session is incredibly inconsistent. I get we can only physically see 11 other players, which in today’s standards is abysmal, but more often than not I can see their dots but no car. See a group of players hanging out and fast travel to them? Nope, they are gone.
Forzathons? This could have been the ONE time this game redeemed itself but even its broken. Those people your chilling with before it starts? Most disappear and are replaced with strangers. After the event ends? All but maybe one racer vanish. Why guys? Can you please just tell us why this game is failing to deliver the most basic advertised feature? I spent $100 on this and have supported every Forza game ever released. I pay your wages. I think we deserve some transparency and explanations.
Do you have the name of the staff member you pay so they can come and give you the answers you deserve?
Also do you provide any benefits like a dental plan or a company car? (other staff at PG, Turn10 or XBox might want to work for you instead of their current employers, I know i’m not providing such things so i’d guess my employee whoever they are will be very unhappy if you are.)
Perhaps we can organise a public record to help people find their members of staff in a company?
maybe I’m confused, but are you trying to say you’re happy with H4’s online experience? …is that even an applicable question when the majority of the game modes don’t actually work as intended?.
I can appreciate the OP’s frustrations as the online in H4 is borderline beta quality.
Not sure this is even worth a response but here goes anyway. These companies would not even exist if not for us. They are selling a product that needs to work as advertised and promised. If not, then ya they should offer refunds just like any other product that is defective, regardless of playtime. Look at any game studio that has shut its doors because of poor sales. [Mod Edit - Abbreviated profanity, profanity and profanity that is disguised but still alludes to the words are not permitted - D]. Now I will admit it takes a LONG time to make a dent in a franchise like this but it can happen and frankly if FH4 doesn’t change course by the new year I will be done with the series unless the next game can do things better. [Mod Edit - Abbreviated profanity, profanity and profanity that is disguised but still alludes to the words are not permitted - D]. Expect more. Can’t see how you can possibly defend this broken and poorly designed game. WHY?
I generally don’t have problems finding servers with 55+ in them, unless it’s in the wee hours of the morning which is when I do a lot of gaming (3-4 AM, EST,) and even then I can usually find 35+. I find the best times are prime time, like when people are usually getting off work. Love doing Forzathons around 7 PMish, as it only takes a few minutes with a ton of people doing it.
Might as well call this a solo game cuz the multiplayer experience is just not there, there’s not even any proxy chat from people you are around, you see dots on the map, drive to it and can’t even see them. They messed this all up bad. I done quit the game but I’ll keep check forums for updates to see if they make it better