Hello everyone,
So basically, I’ve been playing Forza for a very long time and I mostly enjoy playground modes like the ones in Horizon 5. I even play virus a lot in Motorsport. It’s almost the only kind of thing I play in any Forza game and I used to have a community of people who “tagged along” in my endeavors to make the playground games more creative and engaging.
This post is essentially to explain how the current modes play from an experimental approach while also giving tips on how the future of the PG games development, with its loyal community, can balance the playing field while keeping it relatively fun for all audiences.
So to start off the basis of the playing field, we need to break down the community into two groups:
- competitive/ranked
- casual players
Other development studios have already implemented this sort of categorization for their player base and it seems to work pretty well. I believe that doing the same thing for the future of Horizon and Motorsport would improve the engagement even more than it already is.
- Casual Players
Let’s start off with breaking down ideas for casual player engagement and going over the existing philosophy that makes the game engaging already for this audience.
Number one is:
- Fun environments.
When a causal player comes on, they’re not searching for a super competitive arena most of the time. What I find in PG modes and their maps is that the environment is fast-paced and sometimes chaotic. Map environment chaos includes things like logs that cars bounce off of, jumps that cars take to get away from players, and different terrain structured for different tire compounds. All of these things work together very well for what I think a majority of the community prefers, being the casual players.
Most people get in these modes just to have a good time without trying too hard and I think that’s a great thing. Everything flows together pretty well for how the map environment is incorporated into the game modes.
Number Two:
- Fun Cars
This one is pretty simple, there’s any car to choose from, so long as it fits in the Class for that game session. For a casual base, there’s absolutely no downsides.
Number Three:
- Game session length
The games are short and fast paced. There’s almost no downsides to how it is already, considering people have good connectivity.
So all of these things work together to make PG modes a great experience for casual fan base as it is already. The point of this post is to further expand on that, and explain how to bring in a competitive environment to add on top of what exists.
Obviously, this will be a minority grouping of players, but I believe it can still have use in keeping engagement fun if everything is balanced correctly. So let’s break down how to do that.
- Competitive/Ranked
Number One: Weight
So first thing’s first. Forza physics are ALL about weight. there is no denying how weight impacts lap times, acceleration, turning, braking. It’s everything for about 97% of the cars.
What I find in PG modes is: Lighter cars = more wins. it’s blatantly obvious unless it is team-based modes but even in these situations, the randomization of players doesn’t always matter when 3 people are in super lightweight cars, even if they’re not great at the game. My point is that casual players who might not even see PG modes as a competitive environment could potentially beat a cluster of good/great players if those great players used heavy cars or trucks.
The weight system works along side PI for class grouping. And this is fine, I’ve explained before that PI could use a rework, but it is just enough for now that it seems to work in a semi-pro field (pro fields have custom PI per car). But with all of this said, weight is the dominant factor for a competitive playing field and we need to discuss how the structure of online lobbies could be setup with this in mind.
- Trust me, I know it sounds like I’m looking way too much into this for it being “playground games”, but I know roughly 20-30 people who have wished for, or at least mentioned things would be better with an advancement of a competitive environment to balance the game. A couple friends even setup custom leagues (which I can elaborate on in the end of the post.)
So how do we fix this issue with weights? The answer is to categorize competitive/ranked into weight groupings within that class. Each pre-game lobby would visibly display the required weight class before players load into the match.
For example: if you had a Peugeot 205t that weighed 2,518 lbs, it could play in the “2,500 and over” lobby. And just like Horizon currently displays available cars, it would do the same here. But with each car, the weight would be extremely visible and clear so people know if they’re going to choose a car that is excessively more heavy than the 2,500 minimum limit.
(lobbies could also display a weight maximum for physics balance, such as blocking flag zones etc)
Number Two: Engine swaps
If weight isn’t enough to balance a playing field, the engine swaps are. Throughout the last few forza titles, there’s clear as day what can be considered “overpowered engine swaps” like the Rally engine in Horizon 5 or the V6 in motorsport 7. To fix this issue, it comes down to more of balancing the game mechanic’s PI and it isn’t really a player-based solution. However, weight restrictions should definitely help even if engine swaps are unbalanced. My solution would be to test out restricting any engine swaps in a sandbox environment to see how the outcomes are, but I do not have the power to do that.
Number Three: Environment/Arenas
With a competitive environment, there unfortunately needs to be less access to airborne maneuvers. Why? because competition is all about car control and when a car is in the air, the landing can be chaotic and less controlled. The arenas need to have fewer chaos such as the logs on Ek Balam or the jumps on the Baja Circuit. Sure, it’s less fun but some people classify fun as a competitive playing field that has an even ground under it. Such as Motorsport’s Air Field Test Track.
The arenas should be like, well arenas. There could be dirt ones and road ones. I’ve seen some great creative hub arenas built, made out of road flooring etc. There needs to be multiple arenas with a few different sizes. Currently, I think it’s exactly like this but catered to the casual player experience, as stated above. For it to be competitive, take the Football Stadium arena and just remove the middle pyramid-like structure. Change the grass to road and there you have it. That’s one example of keeping it ground-level with multiple lanes. It may seem boring, but this is how the competitive scene likes to play.
Number Four: Skill Based Matchmaking
as a side note, there should not be skill-based matchmaking even in a competitive environment. I believe it deludes too much of the randomness and would turn away too many people from enjoying the lobbies.
Number Five: Keep Classes
The class system works fine how it is but would be better with balanced weight.