Status update: After several server-side changes, though we’ve seen some improvements, we’re still not seeing the quantity of very large lobby sizes (21-24 players) that we would like. We are investigating future game updates to further address this. Thanks for your patience.
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Thanks for the transparency, hope you find the cause soon!
Sore alittle improvements Sunday night UK 8pm - 10pm was racing against players I know are good and don’t usually see then for what ever reason
Would still be good if we could get abit more in depth knowledge how matchmaking works at your end so we can provide better feedback for you might open floodgates but feel some of us can be constructive.
Will there be any changes to make the matchmaking actually match racers of closer levels? Or is the goal just to fill lobbies regardless of levels of competition? Which is unrealistic and pointless. Because half the lobby is going to drop out before the race ends. Especially one those gawd awful long 30 minutes and long races.
Game is almost unplayable right now.
Desync is ridiculous and it happens mostly in corners. Frames drop, game slows down, inputs don’t register properly, slide off track and your race is basically over.
Matchmaking is ridiculous. If you do get a full lobby, it’s full of people who seem like AI from single player. Excessive blocking, ramming, complete lack of racing etiquette/sense.
I could deal with it if I didn’t start from dead last if I don’t qualify 99.99% of the time. So I have to deal with this every race. If I pass them, it doesn’t matter because I get rammed into the shadow realm on the next corner. Occasionally they get penalized for that (usually they don’t).
There’s definitely some issues with safety rating on matchmaking side.
When I got A/S lobby usually looks empty
But when I got forced down to B It did seem to have more players (and rammers) per lobby.
Forza has a serious problem in terms of user population and we all know that the reason is NOT bad or boring gameplay.
It is the LACK OF CONTENT for 1 player and the lack of incentives for online players.
More than 18 months and still no:
-General statistics
-A career mode like other games in the series (go take a look at the career mode of flight simulator 2024, I love it, I want a career mode that shows me everything it takes to be a racing pilot).
-A seasonal ranking for online competition (the only thing we have is the rivals mode that most people are not interested in) you need a ranking that shows your progress throughout a season online and that is visible to others.
-Replays
-Online races with damage (what is the restriction section in the events for??)
-Dynamic weather in races (removed by people who never played the game again).
And so I could go on, but the shortcomings are already known and I repeat, it is not a problem of gameplay, physics, sensations or whatever you want to call it.
The simracing genre is growing like never before and the truth is (with all due respect) the people in charge at T10 or MS have no idea what people want.
You copied the event and registration format from other games, but you didn’t copy the player separation and organization format (seriously!?).
MATCHMAKING SHOULD BE DONE AT THE END OF THE REGISTRATION PERIOD!
At this point the most sincere and humane thing they can do is to admit that the current system doesn’t work and start working on one from scratch based on the games that offer fair competition for everyone.
(and for those who prefer an open lobby system, no thanks, I don’t want to join a lobby and besides worrying about playing with potentially toxic players also have to deal with a toxic host who doesn’t do interesting events).
Forza needs to recover players and the only way is the above mentioned.
-Give the players 1 player content (career mode)
-Give more tools to the online communities to make better championships (Do you have the slightest idea of how popular this game is in Latin American communities? we love the game!)
-Give us a real matchmaking for online players (this will bring people back and new people to try the game, not all of us have the patience for hardcore simracing like assetto corsa or iracing).
UNDERSTAND IT.
The game is fun, it plays and feels great with steering wheel and controller.
Admit what’s wrong and look at the competition.
Forza is an easy game to understand and enjoy.
Stop beating around the bush, the solution is right in front of you.
DO IT.
love u all!
i agree we need registration for online multiplayer, stats and damage it doesn’t need to be in all the races but it will make the races much cleaner and more fun since you will need to worry about damage.
one more suggestion it to do rolling starts like gt7 putting everyone half a second between each other so that no one tries to dive bomb on the first corner
So after a week of waiting, watching, the thing is still absolutely broken.
Forza - you have lost a loyal player.
I cant even get a single race, and i just end up turning it off after an hour of trying.
I think im actually done.
The lack of support, transparency, or just fixing the issue, has destroyed any love i had for the game.
No one cares about a new track.
Just fix your product
Having damage enabled is sort of pointless for multiplayer as it right now. Ghosting prevents (most) turn 1 atomic divebombs. Screwing up and wrecking your car is obviously more towards realism but that doesn’t necessarilly make it any more fun to play a game. People would leave races anyway if they’ve wrecked out.
If you really want this, best this is suggested somewhere outside this topic. I think, in terms of damage being disabled, it’s fine as it is for featured multiplayer. There are much more important things that need to be looked at and enabling damage really isn’t one of them (imho).
I am from Australia and played from 10am onward to 2-3pm local time on 26th March 2025.
I did 5 races in the Featured Forza P2 Spec series and all lobbies were dire, had 1 lobby with 6 or 7 players but when the race started 4 of those players left which only left 3 of us and my other two opponents were off pace.
Worst lobby was a 4 player race start where 1 player already left during fuel and tire prep before grid start and everyone else ended up leaving when the race started.
In all those Featured Forza P2 sessions I never got in a lobby with more than 10 players and I left multiple low player lobbies to try and get into a fuller lobby with no avail.
I decided I would then drive in Open Series Multiclass, first lobby 20 players and then every consecutive lobby thereafter had less and less towards the end of my play time, last lobby had about 6-7 players which I’m sure is just a time zone issue here.
Matchmaking times are still long when finding a lobby.
Having damage will make people more careful where they overtake because right now if they see a space they just jump for it and overtake in crazy places that make big crashes
Last night in TC had 18 players had a gap 8 secs per lap I was S got dropped to A after a collision penalty, lobbies seem more competitive at A rating which makes me think the A & S should race together if your skill rating is similar
Would be good if some could explain the current system
F1 has had damage for a decade in online lobbies.
The public lobbies are often more hectic than Forza’s.
Damage isn’t the issue with online having so many incidents in most games, it’s more that many people either don’t know how to race cleanly, don’t care, or drive cars that are well beyond their skill level.
Remove the racing lane would have more impact than activate damage.
Peoples doesn’t learn how to take differents lanes, manage their throttle/brake.
It wouldn’t be enough, but still a good thing imo
Imagine if there was a career mode with a sort of “academy” that would teach players the different techniques of driving and passing…
With a sort of progression that would open up new events with faster cars and more crowded races…
But no, instead the game literally starts with a car at 100mph just meters from a high speed corner where I’m sure more than one of us couldn’t get it right and our reaction was “God, this is too hard or I really suck”
*sigh
Enabling damage would likely turn this game into an even bigger wreck-fest than it already is, and would probably instantly eradicate most of this game’s already-withering public multiplayer population.
Enabling damage would only give rammers even more power to ruin more races.
Trolls wouldn’t care about damage ruining their own race as long as they get their ‘satisfaction’ from ruining someone else’s race.
Enabling damage would eliminate the ability to recover from being rammed since your car’s performance would be hindered for the entire remainder of the race, so there would likely then be even more quitters/DNFs than there already are.
Yeah, damage in multiplayer, except potentially in set events with some sort of qualification criteria, would be a non-starter.
I strongly agree with that. The racing line is a cause for many disasters. Many people drive to follow it at any cost, even with other cars besides.
However, removing the racing line would increase a lot the difficulty. This might cause a massive drop of players online.
I don’t see it this way, those who want to drop the game will drop soon or later, racing lane or not.
When you end playing a car game, and especially one more focused on racing, it mean you already have, somehow, an interest for that.
And if you learn to drive with the racing lane, it’s just going to delay the moment where the “difficulty” come, when you compet against peoples who learned theyselve.
The way games introduces racing lanes, it’s like if they tell to peoples “that’s the faster way to go/ how you have to go”
But they never say (or at least some, like FM here) “that’s not always the faster way to go/ you can’t go this way because of …”
Because of this they’re many peoples sticked to the racing lane who doesn’t understand why they are wrong on some situations, for example :
Racing lane players on the outside, an other one on inside. Racing lane players follow the racing lane, ramm the one inside. > Racing lane players think the one inside dive bombed him, so think he get rammed.
Many times (especially at the release period and few months after), you get rammed back by someone who think, because of the racing lane, that he get rammed.
Then they think the game is full of rammers, then they drop.
Rammers is an issue, but that’s something totally different.
But on the situation above, i get messaged back by those kind of peoples, they pretend I hit them on purpose, while they just went where my car already was.
They’re totally unaware, and think they’re right, and end to think the environment is more toxic than it is.
Racing lane should learn you how to drive when you’re alone.
Remove racing lane on multiplayer should educate you about how to drive when they’re peoples around you.
By educating peoples you can make the environment less “toxic” , and i think it can retain players more than having one who feel a bit easier