I think Homologation was a great first step. With this game release, I hoping they take what they learned and just make it better. But this type of racing needs a Homologated class and an PI “open” class, each with their own Rival Leaderboards.
3 Likes
Homologation is fine and understandable for online to even the playing field, but I’d rather it stay far away from single player. I never really modify my cars in any Forza games unless I’m forced to, especially since most games in both the Horizon and Motorsport spectrums are usually pretty good at giving the player the freedom to modify/tune or to not modify/tune. Motorsport 7 stripping this freedom away in the career mode for every single event was a major factor in why 7 didn’t work for me.
3 Likes
Forced homologation discouraged me from playing Career mode in FM7 too. I wanted to drive full stock cars (I don’t mind difficulty increased due to having less power).
So instead I’ve spent countless hours gaining XP in Free Play (with Forzathon challenges), it gave me somewhat satisfying sense of progression as well 
2 Likes
I think homologation wasn’t a terrible idea, but it wasn’t implemented well. My problem with Free Play was not so much that it lacked structure or progression, but rather that the UI made setting up every single race a tedious exercise. Still, I’ll take it over PC2 any day of the week just because once I get to the race in FM7 it’ll be a better experience driving with a controller.
Yes, the UI for Free Play was terrible.
To this day, on both PC and console, it still wants to put you into a the “new” drag race mode and basically locks you out of everything else until you try it. You can eventually skip it, but I’ve never seen a UI/menu done so badly it actively prevents you from doing what you want to do. This shouldn’t be that surprising since it’s a bigger reflection of the game’s shortcomings (lack of player choice), overall.
For the record, I understand why Homologation was implemented for both realism and trying to give MP more structure. But like others have commented, it doesn’t work well in a single player environment where players want as much freedom as they can get to do whatever they want. This goes double in a racing game where tuning and playing around with different builds and having a real sense of progression is a core component of the overarching experience.
PC2 doesn’t play well on controller, but can be very fun once you dial in the right controller settings, and also adjust how you play a more sim-oriented game on a controller.
You have to be lighter on the throttle trigger and steer a lot more precisely (slowly, smoothly) with the left analog stick. Of course, a wheel is optimal for most sims and simcade titles, but not everybody has the space and/or funds to go out and buy one and set it up. But sims… Like Rfactor 2, Automobilista 2, etc. can be played with a controller, but you have to take the time to find the right settings and relearn how to play them compared to more arcade style racing games.
I will give credit where credit is due because I feel the Forza series is a good stepping stone for players who want to go from arcade, to simcade to full sim because even with all its shortcomings, the base engine has always been advanced in the types of physics it simulates… Especially, if you turn off all the assists (there are some assists that are always active since it’s primary control scheme is a controller vs. wheel).
It gets the basics of sims right… Like not being able to accelerate as fast while turning unless you brake slightly… That teach you good habits that translate into more successful sim driving.
2 Likes
The irony is that the Forza community keeps repeating the game needs a better career, but FM7 had the best career mode of the Xbox One era. FM6 was very short unless you repeated all of the cups (I did so and it got really, really boring towards the end) and FM5 had basically a list of events like GT Sport’s GT League (which also wasn’t all that great).
Homologation wasn’t a bad idea. I’ve always been a supporter. But it was very restrictive and badly made. Some cars were nerfed hard to fit into the restrictions, which killed their competitiveness. And some cars were the very reason why some categories were imbalanced.
2 Likes
I like FM7 career too, with options which events to finish and still progress.
But there are different kind of championships i various sports
- one where everybody meets everybody and gain points
- more of a cup style where a bit of luck is involved in which group you compete initially
- and there are world championships
- and there is Olympic games
- World Cup
- Branded cups like Davies Cup for tennis
Nothing is stopping racing to have similar championships and you can pick which you want to take part in. Different rules for each.
A world of options open up here.
- Porsche can have their series
- various manufacturer countries have theirs like only european or japaneze etc
- then various classes like exist like Indy, F1, Nascar etc
Smart businessmen also put in substantial money for those high ranked. It boost that series a lot. There exist for professional eSport gamers of course.
Personally, I thought there should’ve been multiple tiers of homologation (like, say, two or more of Street/Sport/Race/Unlimited) within many of the car categories, with different associated restrictions/PI.
2 Likes
I really disliked the homologation. In previous games I got a huge thrill when I won races using cars that were below the recommendation. More often than not I could win with a car 2 classes below, despite the game thinking I needed to upgrade to be competitive.
1 Like
I wasn’t too miffed with homologation, as IRL racing series have rules that are similar in concept, to keep parity (not unlike BOP). But building it off of a broken PI system always seemed a bit off. The PI system has been broken for multiple games now, especially for the lower classes (E, D, C).
I started doing Rivals event by class in FM7, first Class-C and a C500 car and drove and checked leadboards and it said “non-homologated” on top over board.
I did not check how big a spread there were in classes, thousands of rows, but exist it seems.
And as I entered event in other races you could get a dialog asking if you want to homologate and could say no if you wanted. So you could participate with lower class it seems to me.
Sometimes I got a dialog asking if to purchase upgrades for car to match the event, or similar. You could say yes or no to that.
But so little is told about how things work, so very much trial and error on so many things. It’s a pity, if you fully can exploit what is there you would appreciate game more.