There is something wrong with this event. It is way to long, do not shout its a “endurance” race immidiatly, let me explain.
The “standard” event duration is 81 laps, aprox 2 hours and 45 minutes. Driving that long without pauses, specially with a controller, is not healthy. There should be a way to save midrace or let the AI do a few driver stints. In real life endurance races a driven by a team of drivers. In most endurance races the maximum stint time for a driver is 1 hour and 15 minutes (I know, there a exceptions, like le mans).
So why does t10 think it is realistic, fun or not unhealthy to let gamers drive a 2 hour 45 minute race while professional endurance race drivers are protected by a maximum driver stint time?
Yes, you can pause the game, but not save it, so you need to keep your computer running. So its not immersive and not really energy friendly!
Other points that are far more noticeable in this event and make it very strange are (I know Forza is a simcade and not a sim, but even so, they should have got this right!):
-Fuel flow rate is way, way higher for player then for AI, resulting in 2 or 3 less pitstops in this race.
-AI lap times are in no way connected to their fuel load or tire-degradation
-AI cars do not drive their own pace, instead all use the player laptime + or - a few percent. So in essence you’ll drive around in a train. When you fall back in the midfield, all AI slows down (up to seconds a lap) until you drive in top 4 or 5, then the whole field starts to match players laptimes again.
All in all, I do not enjoy this event, while I do endurance races in other titles, AC,ACC,RF2, all the time. It is way to long, and because weather, time of day, track conditions all are completely static and AI drive like a scripted train it is extremely boring.
It got even better, after 73 laps my xbox controller was empty (I am on Laptop) so I changed the battery pack. And then Forza 7 decided it woulld not recognise the controller anymore when I reconnected it! Tryd everything, nothing worked. So I had to end the race driving with the keyboard…After the finish I got the reward cards, but no XP and no credits… (I could not care less about the credits, I have all cars, more then 50 mil credits, so not racing for that, racing only for completion).
I am so happy the GPU of my main computer connected to my sim rig is repaired soon so I can co back to the real sims. No, I am not a elitist, I played Forza motorsport from Forza 1 till now. It might be fine for consoles, but man, does it leave a lot to be desired on PC and compared to the real sims.
Just pause the game if u cant manage 80 laps without a break, is it that big of a deal?
And to refute what you are saying about length i regularly do endurance races on iracing my team usually does double stints before changing driver. In most cases a double stint is like 2 hours and 20 min for 2 full fuel loads.
Regarding the ai. It is well known that the ai rubber band and dont follow the same rules/physics you have. Take the time sometime and look at the telemetry of an ai vehicle on the hardest mode and see what the hp is their vehicle when you do force no upgrades.
Pausing is not a option, as the game stops recognizing the controller, controller shuts itself down on pc after few minutes of inactivity. When you reconnect controller will not work and you’ll need to end the race driving with the keyboard.
And no, I do not play forza with a steeringwheel. My steeringwheel is mounted to my Sim Lab rig, with a 32/9 49inch monitor attached. Because you can not change FOV in Forza (stupidest decision ever made for a race game…it is even possible in forza horizon!) it is completely unplayable on that monitor.
So I am very happy my GPU is repaired and I can go back to RF2 abd ACC!
I hated this event. The other endurance races were all fine, but I had to constantly switch sim damage (fuel) off in this one in order to keep up with the AI. It would have been impossible (for me anyway) otherwise.
I don’t have FM7 but I’m a little annoyed that when I get it this is in again, I and many others have drove thousands of laps around Sebring since FM2, they seriously couldn’t have used a fresher track for a 300 mile endurance race? Add to that it is probably the most overused track in the franchise and it will be mind numbingly boring.
19 laps of the full Nurburgring, 90 odd laps of VIR, 83 of Bernese Alps, 75 of Road America, I’d rather do any of those than another Sebring run, I can’t actually think of a track I’d choose Sebring over to drive 300 miles on, it’s a good track but has been hammered into every Forza so much that I roll my eyes every time I have to race on it even if it’s just 2 laps.
I don’t mind the length, don’t mind pausing and letting the system sit for awhile (although IIRC, you could save mid-race in the GT series as far back as GT4). I don’t even really mind rubber-banding. It seems that’s just the way it is in racing games these days.
What I really can’t forgive, though, is how the AI straight up cheats when it comes to HP and fuel/tire usage. There’s no other way to say it and I’m sure somewhere on this forum someone has tried to explain away why it’s not cheating (or that I just need to “Git Gud”), just part of game design but whatevs. I have no guilty conscience when I switch of simulation fuel as I run out.
I feel stupid, I didn’t realize I could change this race’s length…
Just did a 5.5 hour race. I was in 3rd place on the last lap and the leader was lapping me and spun me out on the back straight. No flashbacks available. Finished 8th. Agree with the OP that this is a terrible showcase of FM7’s faults. Could have been so much fun. Not looking forward to the Le Mans 250.