Hi all,
Brand new to forza this generation, I love a game with a challenge and even if I’m not great at something I like to finally master something.
So what assists should I have on or not? What is regarded as racing the way it should be and not frowned upon? I want to be competitive but don’t want any cheating assists going on haha, but also don’t want to lose too much time.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
If you’re interested in experiencing the game the same way that most high-level players do, you’ll want all assists turned off. There’s a reason that there is a “hardcore” leaderboard.
However, this can be pretty overwhelming if you’ve never experienced a semi-realistic racing game before. Most gamers have been taught by arcade racers that speed and handling are completely independent values, and that has substantially altered the way that they play driving games, even on an unconscious level.
If you’re coming from a gaming background steeped in Need for Speed and MarioKart, you’re going to want to start with a few assists turned on and driving lower class vehicles until you get the hang of how the physics work in the game. I suggest the following:
Start with TCS and ABS turned on. Set the transmission to Manual (without Clutch). Get used to driving smoothly and shifting at the proper times. This is the hardest part, and it will take you quite some time to get reliably good at.
Don’t worry about Stability Control or Friction Assist. Those cause more harm than good and it will take longer to adjust if you start learning with those turned on. Once you’ve got down the basics, start turning other assists off as you see fit.
TCS eases the throttle control for you, so if you feel like you’re ready for a more nuanced approach to throttle, turn it off.
ABS prevents the wheels from locking up during braking. turn it off to learn proper braking methods.
Adding the clutch to the manual transmission makes shifting more difficult, but its also significantly faster than manual without a clutch.
However, the NUMBER ONE THING you should do to play like a real racer: RACE CLEANLY.
That means NEVER hit another car, even if the cause of a collision is not your fault. And ALWAYS apologize for making contact. This is not Burnout and there are no extra points for smashing other players. A big part of racing is trying to find the FASTEST and SAFEST way around a track filled with race cars. If you can’t make a safe pass, don’t do it.
Don’t use ABS, just makes you brake earlier than you need to.
Don’t use Stability Control, barely does anything.
Don’t use Automatic Shifting, it’s very slow.
Don’t use Friction Assist, it’s cheating and dirties your lap times automatically.
Do use Braking Line, it helps with memorizing braking points.
Do use Traction Control (to start off with), help prevent slides.
Start off with Normal Steering, then move up to Simulation once you can drive smoothly.
Keep in mind that throttle, brake, and steering inputs are live and not just 100% or 0% like a button. You have to know how to control each of them.
Do rivals to improve quickly, then move to multi-player to learn racing etiquette.
The only assist which seems like cheating to me is Friction Assist.
What other assists you use will depend on many factors e.g. what other car racing games you’ve played, your level of expertise, whether you like to win or don’t mind coming 2nd or 3rd etc, how easy or hard a game you want, your expectations and aspirations and whether you have the time or desire to become a better driver. What is certain is that those who manage to drive well without assists put in the fastest times on leaderboards.
Different tracks require different levels of expertise. Many people may be happy turning off all assists on ovals but will use different settings on more demanding tracks.
As well as assists, there’s also drivatar difficulty i.e. what level of opponent you want to compete against. Unlike some of the earlier Forza games, you’re not greatly penalized for using assists or some of the drivatar difficulty settings.
Some typical settings:
Not everyone agrees but setting Limit Aggression to off may have the opposite effect of what you would expect and the off setting may limit the aggression of the other drivers.
If you are using pad, to better control throttle and brake pedal try finding a sweet spot with sensitivity of triggers (dead zones). For example, I feel the best with brakes trigger set from 0% to 100% and with throttle trigger 15% to 100%. Of course same is with steering wheel.
I think that it is good to use full suggested line as a beginner and trying to learn standard racing lines. Later you can use only brake line, many pro players are using this assist because cars are very different and sometimes it’s hard to predict the perfect breaking point for each of them.
Learn racing lines and remember, if you are playing online, respect another players. If someone is passing you on the corne, give him a space to do it, don’t force and ram, try tactics, defensive lines etc. but don’t try to drive thru corners bumping from another players 
Just want to thank you all for your replies and taking the time out to do so.
Really appreciate it and all advice taken on board. Hope to see you guys out there.
p.s my gamertag is Rhys1987 and would love to join any of you for a race.
Peace out
