i recently started playing online although I’ve been playing forms since fm4 (I spend most of my time painting) I can hold my own and usually place in the top five but have only finished 1st twice… so I’ve decided to drop all assists one by one, except for braking line.
I’ve been doing ok and my lap times have improved but I need a few pointers to gain more control over the car.
Here’s what I need help with:
-should I start breaking once the braking line is yellow or red?
-when shifting with the clutch do I have to let off the gas?
-advice for transitioning to no braking line
-having trouble with mid engine vehicles… I tend to lose control while going into and out of corners
-REALLY having trouble with no tcs on classes above A
Easy one first. Don’t lift while shifting (only do this if your are just playing around and want sound to be normal-- if going for times never lift while shifting up.
When dealing with when to brake. Treat the line like another marker. Red primarily is where but judge for yourself while memorizing the track. If red is too soon go deeper next time and vice versa.
TCS is practice, no one just have throttle control. We all have lost the rear end. If you are tuning the car you can back down accel dif to ease the transition a bit. But it’s just getting used to it.
I can’t answer all of those easily but I’ve got some videos on my YouTube channel which address a few of those points if you’d like to check them out.
Lift off oversteer is pretty rough in this game, try balancing the throttle as a last solution to solve the back end coming around under deceleration.
Running no brake line isn’t that hard as long as you make your reference points before then refine them. An easy way to do this is run brake line and when it comes time to brake, look around or go to photo mode to look for visual references.
No TCS is mostly experience. As you know sometimes it can be very easy and sometimes very hard. It really just takes practice to get dexterity in your throttle trigger and get a feel for the slippery cars.
Having been through this only a few months ago, here’s my two cents…
Depends on the car, from what I remember some cars I didn’t start braking until I was a bit into the red, but others well before it, best option is to test this out yourself, brake at the red and see if you slow down just enough or too much, if too much extend the braking line, if just enough well then…you’ve found it.
I don’t, but some do though, I doubt there will be any big difference, do what you feel is more comfortable.
Hands down the best thing for you is to create your own endurance races in Free-Play, this is a big part of how I was able to get rid of the braking line.
I preferred the R-class GTLM type cars for this but use whatever suits you and also whatever difficulty you want, it doesn’t matter because those 23 drivatars provide a excellent spectrum of difficulty for you meaning somewhere in that lineup is a drivavtar that matches your skill (usually is the one you can’t pass or one you can barely keep up with) and just try and race with it, focus on when that drivatar begins braking for turns, the line it takes through them, and when it accelerates out of them. This will teach you braking points, turn-ins, apexes, and exits lines without depending on the assisted line…and once you learn this you can then learn how to take quicker lines, brake later and get quicker lap times. The driving line doesn’t always show you the best route.
This also helps you to learn track layouts too and in time you will know turns and breaking point off by heart.
plus will also teach you how to race in a pack.
Don’t really have enough knowledge of front-mid-rear engined cars to help you with this…all are different and require tunes or finesse to drive perfectly.
For getting better without TCS the first thing to do is to adjust the deadzones to your liking, on the main page scroll over to “options” the select the “controller/wheel” tab…hit “X” on the controller to enter the advanced setting (aka deadzone settings) focus on the [acceleration inside] and [deceleration inside] options. Both of these effect the “throttle” and “brake” triggers on the controller…the higher the number it’s set to the further the triggers will have to go in order for brakes or throttle to start kicking in…meaning more play in the triggers…this can also be applied to [steering axis deadzone inside] if you find the cars to jerky, increase this number until the steering is to your liking.
Learning throttle control will help a ton here too, it takes time but can also be learnt through free play races.
To be able to race without any assist is a learning process, but is very rewarding, good luck!
I would recommend just switching the braking line off. I don’t imagine watching for a breaking line while your racing will be doing your driving any good.
I just switched all assists off and played rivals to learn how to drive and learn the tracks.
I struggle above A class without TCS. I’m racing C class at the moment and I’m enjoying that.
Turn it off, and practice. You’ll never get optimal braking if you’re waiting for the game to say “when”.
Usually, no, but there are some exceptions. For example, when running some AMG models with full simulation damage, no-lift upshifts will burn out the clutch over time.
Use trackside signage and landmarks, and practice x3.
Use trailing brake or light throttle to keep the car stable. Never try to turn a M/R or R/R (or F/F for that matter) sharply with no throttle or brake applied.
Then use TCS
edit: Many high-end road cars and race cars have TCS, for good reason.
I can’t help you with braking line unfortunately… I’m colour blind so I’ve never used it!
You should lift off the gas, I feel it reduces shift times slightly and makes the car more stable doing it that way.
I’ve never used braking line but the way I learned was to drive on a heavy braking track (Road America is good to learn on) in a car I liked. That way when i went on to tracks with slightly lighter braking zones I felt like it was much easier to guess the stopping distance… in short learn on a track with long straights with heavy breaking zones and other tracks will come easier after that.
Going into corners try to keep a little bit of throttle on if you can. Don’t turn it too aggressively either… that’ll keep the car stable but if your driving an upgraded car turn up the deceleration on the diff. That can make the car a little more understeer-ish if you go too mad but it’ll
help the car be more stable. Going out of corners, if you’ve had the throttle on mid corner you’ll get a better, less dramatic exit. Be cautious in the power, short shifting can help and reduce camber on the rear of you can.
In regards to no traction controll, the tune is very important. If you like driving cars stock then again be super cautious on the throttle. I like to keep the gas at a consistent rate when exiting a corner (don’t spam the gas on and off!) I find that just makes your car unsettled if you do. Short shifting can help again, I barely ever go to the red line in the year I’m exiting a corner in unless I have total controll.
I drive all assist off apart from SIM steering… (too twitch on a wheel) main advice is be patient I sucked at first especially with no traction, but I got good and honestly it’s a lot more fun now. Hope this helps!
I’m not going to repeat the above too much, I’ll keep mine relatively short and sweet
The braking line. Honestly, I’d turn it off. The line turning red gives a very very safe margin to brake in, and is pretty much designed for use coinciding with ABS. ABS gives reduced pressure to each brake so the wheels don’t lock (you basically get mini skid marks behind the car) which makes your braking distance longer. If you aren’t already, try turning ABS off and racing again with the line on as you otherwise would, you’ll see the difference. Then turn the line off. The markings on the side of the road (the boards with 300, 200, then 100 yard markings, or sometimes 3 lines, 2 lines, then 1 line) should give you a clear indication of what distance you have to slow down in - it’ll become second nature after a short while
It depends. Shifting a high powered car with full power massively upsets the rear wheels and can lead to further wheelspin or a spin. Anything over a B or an A class I would discourage it.
That beings said, in lower classes you can. In a low powered car, by building the revs and power whilst holding the clutch, you are giving the car a small boost after each change to make up for the time lost in each gear change. It’s called a power shift. It won’t upset the rear because there’s not a massive amount of power, unlike that of, say, a Ferrari. You’ll get a small chirp from the tyres, and that’s it. If it doesn’t make sense, let me know
Have a look at what I put above in number 1) about the distance boards - they give you a pretty decent idea of what distance you want to be braking from. I can’t advise easily on when to brake - every car is different - but obviously the faster you’re going, the earlier you’ll need to brake, and vice versa
Mid (MR) and rear (RR) engine cars are generally more awkward, and it’s to do with the lightness of the front and rear end. Really, if it starts to lose grip, you must keep a tiny amount of throttle going, only like 5-10%, because the rear end will be trying to slow down, and the front trying to keep going. Generally this is the same for all RWD cars, but MR and RR layouts suffer more. By keeping that tiny bit of power on, you’re reducing that effect. If you take the throttle out, that’s when you’re more likely to spin. It’ll seem counter intuitive at first, but give it a go.
Also, AWD cars are much better at coping generally. Try driving a Ford RS200, or an Aventador - you’ll find that because the wheels are all connected to the same power source (ie the gearbox and transfer box) the front and rear ends are more connected - both are trying to slow down unlike the above.
It helps too if you try not to over time a car. Keeping a car within 2 classes of its standard class is generally best. For example, a car that starts as a C class shouldn’t be tuned any higher than an A class (and that’s a push anyway to be honest!)
Really this is all about practice, learning car control is a difficult thing, granted, but it will just click. As an idea, learning how to hold a slide/drift will help you massively for sideways control and with throttle control.
If you want to go more complex, learn the friction circle theory. The telemetry will give you a screen with 4 circles, each corresponding to a tyre. The line in the middle will move about depending on how the car is being driven - the closer to the edge of the circle that line is, the closer to the traction limit you’re at, and the more likely you are to spin the rears. Thay being said, this is if you want to be particularly advanced, and is not wholly necessary if you don’t want to
This and this should give a clearer idea on how it works
I can’t say much for some of these, but i will chime in that I am much slower with the driving/braking line on. I find I can subconsciously pick better braking points on my own rather than relying on the game to tell me. The game uses a generic (and fairly conservative) driving line that very rarely matches what you can actually do with the car.
I’m not so sure that turning the line off is necessarily such a good idea. If you’re only hot-lapping, or you only drive a small number of similar cars, and you always practice a track before racing with other people, then it’s certainly a good idea (it’s much easier to look ahead through turns when there isn’t a bright red line in front of you), but if you jump around between classes and cars a lot you need to learn and remember several different braking points for each corner on each track, and even after doing that you could easily find yourself in an unfamiliar combination. Under those circumstances you’ll really miss the braking line.
Personally I leave it on when I’m playing MP and only turn it off in Rivals, but I really struggle when I jump back into MP and forget to turn it back on.
I’m certainly no expert, but I will offer what has helped me.
should I start breaking once the braking line is yellow or red? - I never trust the brake lines location or color. I use it as a reference point and then pick out landmarks to use. I am trying to brake as late as possible and maintain the most possible momentum into the turn and then accelerating at the apex and out of the corner. Choosing landmarks will give you better guides, but you should always be pushing those as far as you can.
-when shifting with the clutch do I have to let off the gas? Short answer = No. There may me times when doing so will make for a better pass or turn, but generally, the quicker you shift, the less momentum you lose. You want to shift at the top of the power band, where the engine will be making the most power before and after the turn.
-advice for transitioning to no braking line. - Practice, practice and practice. Learn your landmarks and push those marks to suit each car and situation.
-having trouble with mid engine vehicles… I tend to lose control while going into and out of corners - Mid engine, rear engine, fwd and awd are why I learned more about tuning. There are several ways to tune for this, but it has to be something you feel as YOU tune the car, to gain the knowledge and benefit of it.
-REALLY having trouble with no tcs on classes above A - again, this is practice. Smaller, smoother inputs. Smooth is fast, from your accelerator trigger to your approach and your brake trigger, smooth is what you are looking for. Sometimes, before doing a rivals race in a high powered car (above A class), I will go into test drive wth an over powered muscle car, with no assists and try to run clean laps at a track with a lot of corners and elevation changes. Once I am running consistent, clean laps, I am ready to go try the high powered car.
It’s all about looking where you want to go in my opinion. Yes like others said about landmarks but usually this is just perifiral vision for me.
Like driving your real car you usually just judge the turn and look into and down the road to where you want to be
For me the line is just another landmark. If it wasn’t there the same question would apply. Start braking at 200 board, or mark on track? Nope that was too deep, nope that was too soon, etc and adapt
But ultimately I think you’ll find that you tend to go where you look so be looking where you want to go and it sort of becomes natural. I find having the line gives me more consistency similar to TCS in higher classes , its a tool as well, not a need.
TCS: Just turn it off and practice with your throttle control. For that matter, turn all assists off and practice. It might suck at first, but ultimately, you will be faster with them all off especially ABS.
The Breaking Line: Turn it off and go into rival mode and chase people that are faster than you. Use the same car if you can. Tuning will likely be a little different, but you will get a good idea about what cars need to break where, on which turns. Other than that, just practice and use the Y rewind button, See how far you can push it into a corner and still make the turn quickly and in control. If you don’t make it, rewind and try again from a different breaking point. Practice, practice, practice. It’s different for each track and every car.