I’m relatively new to sim racing. I was a casual Forza 4 player and ever since its release Ive been hooked on Forza 5, in fact I actually just got my Thrustmaster TX racing wheel! I am a personal believer that experience is the best teacher so just by diving into the game with no assists I’ve understood the basics such as the racing line (and driving without the suggested line), over/understeering and driving with a manual transmission. Although I feel like my learning has plateaued. I find it nearly impossible to drive almost all of the cars in the game (A/S class and up) and im stuck driving only 2 of my cars which is making the game boring and frustrating (My Mistubishi Lancer Evo +Tuned by Worm tune is godly but not making me any better). So I believe that the change in my approach should be to try to understand cars and racing more.
So my question to you all is how did you guys get better at this game and become more knowledgable at cars and sim racing? If you guys have any tangibe guides or things of that sort that I can read please send them my way. Any help is much appreciated, thank you!
Honestly, just practice. Play just outside of your comfort zone. Tuning helps, find a style of tune that suits your driving style and stick with it. Learn to do basic tuning yourself, adjust tire pressures, differential lock percentages and whatnot. Driving with a wheel is a totally different world, so I can’t honestly say. I’m a gamepad racer myself, but I do basic tuning and stay in the top 1-2% when I do Rivals.
Another big thing is learning the tracks inside and out. Just like in Call of Duty, you have an advantage if you learn the maps.
We all plateau at some point, but if you think you can improve more, practice at what you think is your weak point and go from there. I’m no pro but if you ever want help with something you can always PM me.
I played Gran Turismo 3 and 4 and when I bought an xbox 360 FM1 and FM2 were bought as soon as I could. I raced with all assists on. Same in FM3 but I took more notice of leaderboards.
I started FM4 with lots of assists on but then 2 things happened. I found rivals mode addictive and decided to drop the assists as much as I could.
Chasing rivals and challenging myself to improve my times in rivals is what has got me to today. I am not as quick as the players in the threads above but top 100s in FM5 are usually within my reach (but in FM5 that is still multiple seconds off the top).
Getting outside of your comfort zone is going to be difficult and frustrating, but you need to stay focused. First thing I would recommend is buying an F50 in either A or S class, not because it’s the fastest car in those classes but it’s very stable and forgiving. Get tuning it yourself or find a good stable tune and just start driving. The car is very compliant and can get you comfortable running at a faster pace, and when you do make mistakes the car tends to recover quickly. Also sometimes jumping head first into a R class F1 or GT class car can get you into the grove faster. The cars can have a lot of downforce at first and as you get comfortable start turning the aero down witch will decrease grip at a controlled rate. Throttle control maybe tricky at first but noting teaches you quicker than a high hp low weight race car. Next thing you know you will running a Hennessy Venom with out TCS around Long Beach.
The forums here are a good way to learn stuff. People are generally helpful if you ask politely and give them something to work with. Aside from the forums, they are sometimes willing to have you work with them in the game by inviting you into a lobby and giving you tips and pointers.
I bring that up largely because that is a challenge I have - the whole “social” aspect of gaming is new to me. I actually tried to join a lobby once and I felt like a grandpa trying to get the VCR to stop blinking 12:00. So, I definitely recommend figuring out how to do the social things with the XBox One (like, responding to invites/adding friends and such). Should give you a lot more opportunities.
I hear you on the plateau feeling. That’s kind of where I am, now. I think a lot of that is spending so much time on one car that just hasn’t worked for me (see my X-Bow thread in Racer’s Lounge). I’m looking forward to trying some new cars to see if I can get out of that rut.
i always found that rivals was the best for me, set the best time you can with how you drive, then set a bench mark for yourself. Say you do a rival and are sitting at 1000th scroll to the 900th and race that one watch how they drives takes corners and what lines they go for. then as you get better turn assists off and go for the next bench mark, thats what i did in forza 3 was getting in 5000’s in rivals in forza 4 started getting in top 500 for trying what i said and now in forza 5 i have some in top 100 and had a few in top 10.
try tuning the car for yourself you can download the best tune you can find but the tuner may not drive like you and there for your are not getting your full potential, only you know how you drive and what you like.
you can try slower case say in B class and learn the tracks in them and throttle control and when you get to fast cars you will have the throttle control to take them smoother, i think knowing the tracks well also will help you a lot so you know what corner is next and you know how you need to come out the corner you are in and where to place the car on the track ready.
As a wheel user with no assists, you will struggle with the more powerful cars if you are relatively new. Heck, I’d imagine even the most seasoned of us would struggle. It all comes down to practice and patience. There are however tons and tons of features and knowledge you can utilise to become better at the game. Coming here and asking for help was a great start! I’ll echo what others have said, if it’s raw pace you are looking for then Rivals is a great start. You don’t even have to race against ghosts, having a time to aim for is a great tool and you’ll find that as the goalposts move, so do your ambitions. It also offers a platform to learn new cars and tunes without the pressure of actually racing. If you stick at it, the rewards will follow.
Another way of improving would be to find other people of around your skill level, perhaps slightly better and race with them, improve together. Watching replays of the fast guys on each track will also give you a great basic idea of ways to approach each individual car and track combo. You could even watch streams using Twitch. Finding a tuner that satisfies your style is also a great asset. I’d recommend Raceboy77 as he has a huge range of tunes in all classes, so you aren’t just pigeonholed into driving the same stuff over and over.
My story is a bit less exciting, but back in the Forza 2 days (my first Forza game) I used all assists. Then the FM3 Demo came out and because the demo had leaderboard integration, I wanted to see how high I could place, realising that no assists mostly equals a quicker time. I switched each assist off one at a time until my times were considerably faster. I only turned the braking line off and began using manual+clutch when FM4 came out, the same way I learned with the FM3 demo, turning each one off separately and just practicing. Little side note, I used a stock Nissan Versa on the Nordschleife for practicing. I have no idea why, but by the time I had all assists off I had it down to a tee. Good luck!
Hey Steen, haven’t read everyone’s responses, but what really helped me was sticking with B Class cars and chasing ghosts on the rival class challenges. Helps you see where your making mistakes, just don’t pick a rival that is way ahead of your skill.
Also, although i’m not sure if this works with the wheel, if you go to your profile in the controller settings, to the advanced settings, you can change the dead zones. This means you have a bit more give in your steering and pedals, turn it as far down as possible until you get the hang of things.
Try to remember your racing line and position into turns, is far more important than speed. There is a good FM5 racing guide on youtube.
I started racing properly on forza towards the end of forza 3, I learnt that using no assists did infact make you quicker, what I feel a lot of people miss out is that its not just about a tune in a car, you also need to know how to build a car towards a certain track, take sebring for example, you look at the track you see quite a few corners but the corners are all basically the same, 90 degree angle turns followed by quite a bit of a straight, you don’t need a handling car for this track or even a good top end just pure accel to get to the next corner as quickly as you can. I think that building the car is as much important as tuning it, if your somebody who likes to tune/build your own set ups then just take a look at the track, long sweeping corners alps etc require good handling, sharp turns and mid length straights are for accel and long straights, probably tracks like the ring need top end cars and less accel, this is just my opinion, im pretty sure there are better experts than me who will give you a better idea. I tune and build 99% of my own cars and have about 7-8 top 50 times in c class which I would say is probably the most competitive class, so I must be doing something right
I improved in the forza series by taking non upgraded cars around the Nordscheilfe, and have been doing so since FM1 (and will be now in FM5 as well). I would even race the default non upgraded cars online in Forza 4 public hoppers, which was an absolute blast. But my racing game history goes way back to the Sega Master system/NES/Amstrad CPC days.
if you get a chance get an original xbox and fm1. half of the game was teaching you to drive, how to corner, when to brake, how hard to brake, when to get on the gas, how hard to get on the gas, how to navigate elevation changes, when to shift etc…and who to use telemetry to tune. thats not possible in fm5 but hopefully it’ll make a come back. driving is half the job and tuneing is the other half.
turn ten should release fm1 for the xbox 1. it would help alot of people even with the old graphics. the only major change code wise that would be needed is to replace the analog button code with digital button code. on the xbox the buttons were pressure sensitive just like the triggers so you could handbrake around a sharp hair pin. they could even release it as an arcade game for $5-$10 and make money. it would bee the best $10 i ever spent.
Tuning is a major help if you know you’re driving style. You can make the car just how you need it to do well in races. I still run a few of the assists like Tcs, abs, neckline, and normal steering with automatic shifting… Don’t try to force urself into manual until you can drive ur car right. I run the same times manual or automatic so I stick with auto so I can focus on corners better. Once I think l can run my best time in a specific car with auto I go back with manual to see if I can beat it. Rivals is a big help also if you don’t have a really fast friend to race against. You will find you get better before you realize it cause ur chasing them trying to beat them. When I started I was always last and Nvr beat one of my friends. Now I am ahead of all but two of them cause I’m still chasing those two while the others get better chasing me.
Normally I like to run around in b class with my muscle cars. I did feel like I hit a wall to where I couldn’t get my fast cars to go faster. So to change that I dropped down a class and built some speed cars and did some rivals… it’s amazing how some in different can speed up your overall speed… hitting corners in cars with less grip is always exciting. So when I moved up to b class not only was there more grip and power but there was also the experience of driving cars with a lot less handling. It teaches u how to take corners better so in your regular cars u can push yourself harder going into and out of the corner.
I would also recommend for those who are just casual race fans or all around new to racing, take yourself too driving school! Weather your just hot lapping or racing in lobby’s and trying to improve get a book or go online do your homework. Get back to basics and be critical of what your doing and how your approaching each corner of the track. Make mental notes and try correcting your mistakes or improving your lines through them. Understand the differences between going fast and being quick around the track. As someone else stated earlier be social find someone better or with the same willingness to improve and go start a private lobby put a timer on and watch each other. Sit in a corner and watch each other until your making the correct lines. Practice but remember to have fun while your doing it so you don’t get frustrated and discouraged.
Drive lots of different cars, drive them stock, drive them upgraded. Keep running laps.
Track knowledge is of utmost importance and the only way you get it is out there on the track.
I even suggest watching on board videos and looking at track maps available online to increase your knowledge of particular tracks.
As for getting better at racing with traffic, the only way you can do it is by racing. Get a couple setups in a class you like and hop into an online hopper. Yes there are crashers and the other online annoyances, but you’ll start to get the flow of driving in traffic.
Turn off all the assists you can. (I only use the braking line, everything else is off.) People argue about this point, but in my opinion, you’ll be faster with no assists.
Just keep driving. I have put hundreds of hours, maybe thousands, into the Forza series. And even then, there will always be someone faster than you.
If you are using the thrustmaster ffb wheel, race the lotus e21. As far as I can tell all the other cars, with possibly the exception of the e-tron Audi drive like canal boats on roller skates with the wheel. The lotus, however, is perfect.
Started in FM2 and all I did was beat career mode, clear my fm2 data and beat it again. I did that 3-4 times. Once I got internet, I used untuned cars online. I eventually learned to put max downforce on all cars and would also adjust the sway bars. I never used a differential upgrade.
Raced like that for a long time and got up to 19 on trueskill (basically means I was average/slightly above average)
Then 6-7 months in I started using tuned cars from the forums and raced online for several years up until near the end of fm3 where I experimented with hotlapping. Hotlapping single handedly drastically improved my skills. However, I’d say racing that long helped with my car control fundamentals.
After that, I just mixed it up between hotlapping and racing. Improvement just kind of happens if you try and also challenge yourself.
Good luck!