I am curious about multiplayer and the expansion of the grid from 16 to 24 spots in FM6. In FM5, while racing with 16 folks was possible, it rarely worked flawlessly. We would always have folks who would get disconnected when the race started, several folks not being able to hear or speak to others via game chat when the race started. We would have cases where cars would be floating around the track due to latency issues.
I know some of this is outside of Turn 10’s control, but I believe much of the game chat issues and stability issues could have been fixed in FM5.
Is the multiplayer model in FM6 changing (for example, switching to a client/server model) in order to support 8 more connections? Will Turn 10 be providing any guidance and support to ensure these large grids will work as flawlessly has possible once released?
Honestly, I believe the only multiplayer issues that were really in Turn 10’s hands and had a chance to be looked at better were the quit to dashboard type events. Individual gamer lag and latency are on the end user’s connection and, barring worldwide high-speed internet availability, these issues will always be a problem. Also, as the host of many one to two hour endurance races and traditional hopper lobby events, I really didn’t come across too many problems that could be blamed on Turn 10, apart from the aforementioned dashboard events. In instances of lag, I would politely request the user to leave the race if the problem persisted beyond two or three laps.
Do you have some examples of multiplayer problems that Turn 10 could own?
The most frequent issue was game chat. Nearly every race in our league would have several users not being able to hear one or more of the other users once the race started (communication would be fine in the lobby).
I agree that once a packet leaves the machine there is not much Turn 10 can do to ensure it reaches its destination. But when we had full lobbies, the stability was shaky. For example one ore more might get disconnected and dropped back to the lobby. Another cars would warp around the screen resulting in unexpected collisions (sometimes to spectacular degrees). These type of issues can be addressed by Turn 10 given that other games which are sensitive to latency have shown to be far more stable. Granted, those other games use a more robust networking model (dedicated servers).
And again, sometimes it worked with no issues, so it wasn’t horrible. But we are talking about a 50% increase in player count here. That is significant. If 16 players in FM5 is a on the fragile side, how will 24 players fair if they use the same network model?
Only really gamebraking issue I have come a cross is someone “not being able to see” another player at all.
And if they collide the one who isn’t being seen car has no mass, while the one who isn’t able to see has “Solid granite car”
We had this once happening on Failrace recording. FailRace Forza 5 Obstacle Course Racing Outtakes - YouTube at 11:30 onward you can spot the issue. I was the one on the mustang, we had sim damage, I saw the original replay and on 3 laps out of 4 laps I literally plow’s trough the RR, and I did not have any damage when I finished the race.
And you can see how the mustang (2.251lbs) is not effected at all, and RR wraith (5.380lbs) goes flying and get’s rather significant damage.
I have had times of less than stellar internet. Same with a few friends. At least in FM4 and FM2, if I was having lag issues, I could find a lobby with collisions off and still have some fun without affecting anyone else. Custom public lobbies need to return. Or the ability to search for private lobbies and see their settings and then request to join the lobby.
OP, you’re right about the larger the lobby, the more likely it is to experience lag and communication issues. I’ll be amazed if I ever have a smooth 24 person race. It’s bad enough with less than 10 people in a lobby most of the time.
I quote, “Compete in epic 24-player races in campaign mode and on Xbox Live”.
And no matter who’s “fault” it is, I hope that Turn 10 champions any issues in order ensure multiplayer is a much smoother experience that it was in FM5.
I wanted to bring this issue back to the top of the list in hopes to get some official details. We are just over a month away, surely multiplayer specifics can be divulged at this time?
I appreciate the link and Online leagues sounds cool. But my post is more concerned with will it work and how will it work technically. I don’t feel like spending time digging through the FM5 forums for all the online issues we encountered but the short story is, the more players in the lobby, the greater the chance of something messing up and ruining a race.
How will laggy cars be treated?
How about game chat (a notorious issue with XBOX One racing games)?
Any work to address stability?
I think forza 5s multiplayer issues like robot voices and not hearing certain people were ironed out in horizon 2. I dont think it was 100% turn 10s fault, but something wasnt right. I think 6 will be better stability wise but like others have said lag will always happen.
a big reason multiplayer is like is in ANY game (lag, connection issues, etc…) is because there is a connection speed that is required for xbox live to function properly on the xbox one (3MPBS). there are quite a few people in the world who do not get this, thus all the connection and lag problems when they try to play online.