I try to play Custom dirt racing and it seems very difficult to get a lobby with more than 2 people. Even if i get a lobby with more opponents after like 1-2 races most of them leave. For example i got earlier a lobby with 3 opponents in A class and the game put me in the 3rd race (Mangrove), but after i won it way too easily, none of the opponents came for the next set of races and the game disconnected me because ‘‘not enough players to start the session’’. I mean i am not very good at dirt racing but they weren’t competitive at all.
I don’t think that is only the bad matchmaking who does that because road racing is somewhat better. I really hope the expansion will bring people’s interest in dirt racing back.
Race in Mangrove which as you can see it’s not the car i ran too meta (like a BoneShaker or Daytona or 8CTF etc) since both Lancer and Coupe 32 are capable of better time than mine.
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Time of day is very important context to have when discussing multiplayer activity.
Assuming you matchmaked shortly before the time you posted, most of America is asleep and most of Europe is working (and it’s a Monday).
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Time playing affects the whole thing but can’t be the only reason that lobbies in dirt feel so empty. In road racing in the same time i can find lobbies with some people in them. There are many almost dead lobbies in road racing too but if i try again i will eventually find a lobby with some people in it. In dirt that’s very difficult and lobbies get empty more easily.
I don’t expect dirt to have the same number of players with road but there should be a number of players who prefer it over road but it seems that this number is very small.
I guess that many people don’t realize how empty many lobbies are because they play only as convoys with their friends but if you enter alone you will see many empty lobbies with max 2-3 people.
It was weird this week. After long time complaining about always being dumped into late stage lobbies, often final race, sometimes even with that race over and then being dropped into a totally different race (always AFTER waiting ages for finding, joining, readying, etc. etc. etc.) this week I was looking for a quick and useless third lobby join just to complete it. And what does it do ? Yep, straight into first race in no time. Sparsely populated of course yes. The whole thing really needs work.
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The game is also 1 and a half years old. The player base has dwindled and thus less players are playing.
Yes i got also some times a lobby from the first race which is great since it reduces the waiting but the exactly most of them were with lmost no people. The latest was 3 races against 1 only opponent who was running a stock Hoonigan Cossie 
Probably just there for the playlist task, I only took an 892PI Escort in for that myself.
Why this series can’t do something as simple as give players a list of available lobbies I don’t know.
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Also no incentive for players to keep playing given that there is no ranking system or other way of measuring improvement or skill level.
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You might be better off going with regular opens for dirt racing. I think the reasoning for most players, who either like it or are at least ok with dirt, is that they would prefer the variety over doing only dirt races. Unlike street/road where there’s a lot more of a diehard playerbase that want to only race on street/road and nothing else. For sure there’s still those dirt diehards, but I think it’s just a smaller playerbase to the ones that want variety (including dirt).
I recently started playing opens more because I wanted to tune a bunch of dirt cars and see how they feel. I test them on both CC and dirt, both usually getting a surprisingly packed lobby.
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I cant wait for the expansion!
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They didn’t want any kind of ranking or tier system, even if not individually numbered and the result is 5-10 seconds a lap difference even on the shorter circuits and often people DNF and leave. It feels like the faster you are, the less ideal opponents there are to hopefully bump into.
(I still miss lobbies.)
Is it possible that there is something wrong with connecting people?
I had a break from Horizon Open, but did some races in last two days in dirt A lobbies. And it was pretty empty, but there was something that gives me no peace.
Yesterday I was in 3 different lobbies/adventures (once picked wrong car, once got disconnected) in short period of time and each lobby had max 3 people. Maybe there is something wrong getting people into one lobby?
Yes, that’s exactly what i’m talking about! I can try to enter several times but nearly every lobby has max 2-3 people.
Mangrove is not exactly a small circuit because it seems that benefits almost only acceleration which means that in a different more balanced track the difference could be smaller (or bigger).
There are much faster drivers than me as well. Imagine you join your first lobby, just trying to get up to speed and someone like Raaz is there.
I don’t see why some kind of tiered matchmaking system wouldn’t help. (if they are deadset against the old lobbies.) Gold, silver and bronze drivers for instance. I can imagine how more people might feel incentivised to queue up then.
Due to a lack of a basic match making system I never play seriously. I will generally let all cars pass me at the start, then I’ll take the lead and do a 360 on a straight, take the lead again and let second place pass me then take the lead in the final seconds to win. This way things are fun and competitive.
Players that are new to the game should avoid the online part for a while until they get used to how the game works because it can easily become a painful experience even if the lobby is not that strong. I have seen lots of newbies getting dnfed in online lobbies.
However even if someone is an okeyish driver that usually gets okeyish results online, randomly gets placed in a lobby that a convoy of competitive players racing he will be shocked of how difficult is to compete with others. A tiered system could fix it i suppose but not sure if there are enough players to do that on anything outside A class road racing
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Don’t get me wrong but doing stuff like finishing in reverse a race just because opponents are not very good gives me the impression that is lack of respect for the opponents.
I don’t think they were being (completely) serious.
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I think the best thing you can do is get online once you are confident. Lots of people can do a fast rivals time, but when it comes to racing often you are taking different lines, can see what people do and even ask them/check their hub to learn. I just think there could be some kind of matchmaking and then more people might feel more inclined.
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