I’m a big noob in Forza and in motorsport in general. I never even understood much and had interest in cars in life. This game is changing it, but as you can imagine, I have a long road in my front.
I’ve been playing the game causally for a while, only in career mode (never in online multiplayer) and, of course, with almost all the assists.
Now it’s the time that I decided to go deeper, turning off almost all the assists, trying to be more competitive and… learning more about cars!
So, as you can imagine, I don’t understand nothing about tuning. For now, it’s been almost impossible to do a lap without going out of the road with the majority of assists off and what I wanted to know is if it’s totally possible to be competitive and achieve good times, with the assists off and without tune any car and just use what it comes when you buy one. If not, how can (and where) I know what tunes the car need?
I read a very nice thread about ABS on or off. Can you point me one for the TCM?
Just another detail that I read in the FAQs but I’m not 100%… I cannot make any modification in car in the career mode right?
It is possible to be competitive without a tune or a stellar build but it varies per car per track.
Just download a tune if you’re unsure how to build a car and tune. From the upgrades menu select upload tune and that’ll also bring up the sharefront that has literally thousands of tunes for whatever car you’re in.
See the Tuning section of these forums for topics on tuning and specific details on some tunes shared by others.
Don’t drop TCS until you can keep the car on the track. Additionally in many classes TCS is highly recommended to be competitive.
I recommend you also read Jawshe’s guide. You can find it in the Racer’s Lounge. When you first start downloading tunes, I would suggest focusing on ones with the word “grip” in the title. You can’t go wrong with the “Tuned by Worm” tunes to start.
You should notice a big difference running a car with a good grip tune as opposed to stock. Or, since you have been in career mode, I’m guessing you have been doing the automatic upgrade for the cars. Those automatic upgrades tend to just maximize HP, which makes the car even more difficult to control.
It’s up to you if you want to take the cold turkey plunge with the assists or start shedding them one at a time. Try to lose automatic transmission and automatic braking as soon as you are able. Those slow you down a lot.
I have been doing just fine using the publicly available tunes. I think finding the right tune for the car is necessary to be competitive, but by no means do you need to make them yourself.
a good tune and be the difference between 1st and last place. you can and should use tunes in career. go to rivals where you can run unlimited laps. start slow, concentrate on keeping the laps clean not on going as fast as you can. slowly increase your speed 1 mph per lap. your subconscious will adapt for you. if you start running dirty slow down a bit and concentrate on running clean again. dont be afraid to download and change tunes until you find one that fits your driving style. dont think you have to keep your car on that recommended line. that line is the safest line around the track not the fastest. in the upgrades section hit the double square button to go into tuneing, hitting the double square button again i think load tune will come up. hit the double square again and it gives you search functions. select the class and track you want the tune for, it’ll automatically be for the car you are in. there is no magic tune that can win at every track. you will need multiple cars/tunes to be able to win on every track. i use atleast 5 tunes per class.
Rule number 1- To get the most out of any car in FM5 maximize your build. That is the most important thing in FM3-5. Some cars with a great build you can get top times in.
Rule 2- equally as important. Better yourself as a driver. The cars don’t drive themselves, decide what assists you need if any and become comfortable running with/out them.
Rule 3- Learn the tracks, drivetrains. Run laps to you are sick of a particular car/track. Take corners in different gears or with different lines to see what gives you the best results.
Rinse and repeat and you will be well on your way.
There is so much to choose from as far as building your own and choosing downloadable tunes. A lot of people focus on the tune, power, grip etc. However getting practice on all of the tracks is the best place to start. You could download the best tune that set the best lap time by someone at a track and find out you cannot replicate that no matter how hard you try. But if you can watch some replays of other people, join lots of public lobbies and watch their racing lines coming in and out of turns. Do a bunch of Rivals, and race some ghosts. You will start to see and pick up on sections of tracks where you were braking, sliding out etc.
I have tuned in Forza since the beginning and have been in the forums for a long time. There are a lot of great tuners out there. But some ownership must be on you to get the tracks down. You will continue to get tons of advice in here. Keep at it and enjoy the game. Do not try to hard, it is not a job to play. You will get better.
“You Tube” FM5 Tuning. Watch and take notes. You can compete using tunes off of the storefront but if you keep playing long enough you will develope you own specific driving style. Building and tuning your own car to your driving style will give you optimal results in lap times and in race results. If you are considering using a clutch you should go to your controller options and use the layout with the “a” button as the clutch.
I’m amazed with how fast I got so many amazing advices! Thank you all!
Your replies are making even me more motivated to keep going into this new world for me!
I’m happy that I don’t need to start already trying to tune, as “I would be a dunkey starring to a palace”.
BoatManDawgs, thank you for the tip of clutching with A. I already knew it and tried it. I know that it should be the most popular method but, somehow, I preferred the LB for clutching and I’m adapting myself to brake with my middle finger.
I’ll follow your advices guys, of doing a lot of laps in rivals and starting to download tunes from others. When I’ll be more experience I’ll try to put my hands on it too!
For the register, the assists that currently I’m using is the braking line, normal steering, TCS and ABS. Not wanting to create a discussion about assists now, but the next one that I’ll try to switch off is ABS and after TCS. But just to know how to drive with TCS because, from what I’m reading here and what I can see in some leaderboads, TCS on in some cases should be quite important to be faster in some class/car/track. Also the steering seems to not be consensual so I’ll see it later…
Yea TCS is great if you can keep the TCS light from flashing (easier said than done). You get a little more grip than what usually can be achieved with no TCS. The principles for driving fast with TCS are similar to no TCS. The only major difference is when to floor it.
The right build for the right track is the most important thing. I can get a top 50 time with a good build/ bad tune. Its hard to get in 200-300(or worse) with a bad build/amazing tune.
It boils down to this: Driver first, car/build second, tune last. You are the biggest factor. That being equal the correct car/build will win out. Tune just makes the car predictable possibly slightly faster, although the worse the car is naturally the tune can have more effect.
A tune definitely makes a difference but the build is more important, and the driver is the most important.
Many of us have been playing Forza for years, and other simulation racers for years before that. There’s a lot of practice time and experience behind us.
For now, I recommend to download tunes for your cars. There are lots of good ones that people share with the community. Keep reading the forum in the tuning section and you can learn more if you eventually decide to tune for yourself.
Also, don’t go cold turkey on all the assists. Start with learning how to drive manual with clutch. That alone will make you significantly faster. If you switch it to manual for awhile first, you can get used to having to shift before turning on the clutch and complicating things. (Although it will eventually become a natural act if you practice.)
Driving manual w/clutch also means you never have to use a clutch upgrade in your builds, saving you valuable points to use in another beneficial upgrade. (The clutch affects auto transmission shift times, you can shift as fast as you can press the buttons with manual.)
Then you can turn off ABS and TCS if you wish. I personally never use TCS, although many choose to in the higher classes.
The best advice is just to keep practicing. It’ll all come together with experience.
Build and driver skill are definitely important but I would not minimise the importance of the tune.
I would put forward X class as evidence. Build is non existent, skill is important but tunes can make multiple seconds worth of differences for most drivers.
I am not suggesting it is more important than anything else but would not want to minimise its importance.
This is a good post, but I have some things to add.
If you want to be fast, turning off ABS is a must. That’s the first assist you should take off. You’ll learn how to brake without locking up and you’ll notice how much quicker your times are.
If you’re using a high powered car, s-class and above, I’d say TCS is needed just for the sheer power of the car. I know a ton of fast drivers who don’t use it in the lower classes, but in the higher classes they’re more rare. I use TCS personally.
For STM, I’d say this is personal preference. The fastest GT driver I know uses it, but it’s a hinderance for me.
Whether or not straight manual is slower than manual w/ clutch is debatable to me, in certain classes/cars. For S-class and below, manual w/clutch is a must to be very fast. However, I’d argue that with the actual race cars (GT, Prototype, and F1) straight manual is faster. I’m one of the fastest GT drivers yet I’m a second or two slower than usual if I use manual w/clutch.
Now, with the tuning aspect, I must say my knowledge is incomplete. For my E92 BMW GT car, I’ve found a tune that fits my driving style perfectly. But now, I feel like not having my own tune is stopping me from being the best. So for now, you don’t need your tune but once you start becoming better, it’ll probably be useful to know how.
You don’t need to have played Forza before you’ve played this one. F5 is my first serious racing sim. When I started to play Forza online, I’d say I was an average racer. To become faster, I first got rid of some of the assists I was using and I changed classes until I found a car that I love. From there I found a tune that fit me and my driving style an then proceeded to practice, practice and practice. It took me two months to break into the top 1-2%. To become even faster, I started racing against faster drivers and learning from them. Another two months later, I reached the top 500 in my class. Fast forward to the present, it took me 7 months in all to get to my skill level. A top 50-100 GT driver and a top 200-300 R-class driver.
My point is that you can do it if you’re willing to put in the time and effort, but remember that this is just a game and we all do this for fun!
I do think that in Class events or Class rivals when you can have any car/tune/build for a certin class, the right car/tune/build slightly beats out skill. I find that I am around 100-500 on the leaderbord and nearly eveyone “near me” is using a “leaderboard car/near leaderbord car”.
