New to Forza 7 - advice required on a few things.

Forza Motorsport Legacy Motorsport FM7 Discussion
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Hey,

First post on the forums, be gentle with me! So, I’m a real late-comer on the Forza bandwagon, I played a little bit of FH3 and some FH4 but longed for proper track racing. I put obscene amounts of hours into some of the older Gran Turismo games, way back before multiplayer racing was even a thing. I saw FM7 was 50% off this weekend so decided to give it a try.

I have a T150R wheel, which I’ve only ever used for ETS2, and a 360 controller. I play on PC exclusively.

I thought I’d give controller a try first, so I jumped into free play, took off all the assists and it felt horrible. Huge amounts of understeer through the slower corners and the back of the car was constantly coming around through the quicker flowing corners.

Ok, now I’m not a complete noobie, I understand weight transfer and braking points and all that, so it must be controller, right? Plug in the wheel, and… yeah exactly the same. Trail braking just results in massive oversteer and on tighter corners I just can’t hit a damn apex for the life of me. I’m just bad, right. Then I thought, oh let’s switch it out to cockpit view, not gonna be able to see a thing but give it a try. And then it clicked. Suddenly I was picking my braking points up, feeling the weight transfer through the wheel match what was happening on-screen and beginning to hit the apex of corners well. I spent a few hours just lapping Brands Hatch Indy in the MX-5 cup car and started to feel like it was coming together, my lap times were coming down and I was getting something resembling a decent consistency lap after lap. Being able to modulate the throttle and brakes into and out of corners and shaving off tenths of a second had me hooked.

So, after all that, I decided to do the first hot hatch single player event. I made a few mistakes along the way but with the AI on normal I lapped half the field and at the end of the race something came up on the screen saying my lap time was in the top 1000 players. Now I appreciate that doesn’t make me a good or quick driver by any means, I’m a whole 7 seconds off the number 1 placed driver, and I don’t know whether I should be proud of it or not given I’ve not touched a FM game ever, but anyway that all got me to thinking about multiplayer.

I searched up a few of the bigger FM7 youtubers and quickly realised they all exclusively play MP in chase cam, on controllers. Chase cam obviously gives much better situational awareness than the interior cameras, especially when trying to overtake or defend into a corner. And it seems that all the very quick and good drivers all use controller, and not wheels.

I’m really in a dilemma about this, I’d love to get into the multiplayer but feel like I’d be at a considerable disadvantage by only being able to be even remotely competitive in cockpit cam. Also the cars seem to be a heck of a lot more twitchy using a wheel compared to controller, I find with the wheel oversteer induced by trail braking into faster corners is killing me while people using controllers just have a much more planted car while doing the same thing. I know tunes are a thing, but this is happening even with things like an Aventador or a track toy like the Caterham.

So, what do?

Do I just suck it up and race in multiplayer using 1st person view and the wheel, and potentially be a danger to everyone around me because I can’t see around me nearly as well as everyone else can, plus there’s the apparent twitchyness of the cars with a wheel meaning I’m having to compromise where I’d ideally like to brake and turn in. Or do I concede that FM7 is designed to be used with a controller and in 3rd person view, and put the god-knows how many hours into starting training my brain and muscle memory to be able to pick a braking point and being able to even get close to an apex with a controller?

TL;DR - FM7 noob can’t drive with a controller and chase cam, feels like she’ll only be competitive in MP if she ditches the wheel and cockpit view. Confusion happens.

Opinions/advices are welcome. :slight_smile:

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I think its mainly down to the tune when it comes to the cars behavior. When you turn off all the assist it just about requires that you have a good tune for you to feel comfortable driving cars hard. For stock cars you just have to get used to its specific characteristics, but for upgraded cars they almost always need to be tuned. Differential, brake bias, and alignment can really take care of the twitchiness that you feel. The Anti-roll bars and suspension tuning (springs and dampers) can take care of the understeer/oversteering that you might have. You can also download a tune from some of the popular tuners, but I also think you learn more about the car when you tune it yourself. I highly suggest watching the Gallium Racing School videos about Forza tuning on YouTube.

Edit: Also just smooth transitions with the wheel help tremendously for cars that become unsettled easily.

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In terms of camera view - use what works for you… I have known for years that alot of the top players use chase cam but i have never bothered and I am competitive in the classes I race albeit I use bumper cam rather than cockpit.

As a general rule the pad is quicker than the wheel but there are exceptions especially on ovals. Tuning can help you over come the turn in issues you described. Can’t say I have noticed it but then I have been playing Forza a long time and rarely play GT nowadays.

You clearly have the fundamentals down if you are lapping inside the top 1% on your first attempt. My advice would be practice loads - get to know the tracks. And then when racing online give yourself a few races to judge how human players race as opposed to the AI - you will see some massive differences!

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I race hood cam and I’m not too far from the top guys. The problems come when racing door to door. I can see why chase cam would be optimal but it’s not a prerequisite for being quick at Forza.

Controller is king for now but Turn 10 are reworking the games physics to work better with a wheel over the coming year.

The way you describe the car spinning during quick direction changes, this sounds like sim steering. You need to be Lazer precise and ultra smooth to get the best out of this. I would definitely recommend normal steering until you understand the tracks and game physics a little more.

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Few things, you said you are on a wheel. What settings do you run on a wheel? Secondly what assists do you use? Thirdly, do you tune your own cars or use other people’s tunes?

Controller adds a layer of assists to things like weight transfer and speed sensitive steering to compensate for you not actually being in the car. This gives the controller a big advantage over wheel users. You can be quick with a wheel but it’s far harder & I myself still struggle to hit my controller times & I’m no slouch on either controller nor wheel. Here’s what is said on the Forza FAQ:

"Q: Why are so many gamepad players faster than wheel players?

A: Gamepads add additional physics layers which account for some of the missing feel of not actually being in the car. Wheels, comparatively, are raw. The more fidelity and feedback we add to wheels, the faster wheel drivers will be. Our goal is to bridge the gap as much as possible."

As for assists. Never run STM or Stability Control. That is the devil & will make you understeer. ABS off is preferable for trail-braking too but not a necessity though ti will save you a lot of time a lap if you have it off. Do not have friction assists on either in Dry conditions. It helps in the rain but not in the dry.

If you are tuning the car yourself & are getting lot’s of lift off oversteer under trail braking, either move the brake bias forward, increase the deceleration or adjust the rebound, springs and roll bars.

As for driving position with a wheel. Cockpit, dash or bumper cam are the best imo. On controller, chase is far superior.

If you need tuning tips, FFB tips or anything, let me know, I’ll see if I can help.

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The fast guys are either using an Xbox one or elite controller. I would imagine the 360 controller may not be totally optimized for FM7.

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Thanks everyone for the comments, they very much appreciated.

I bit the bullet and got myself an Xbox One controller today, and it just feels so much better with this than the 360 or even wheel. In close chase cam I’m beginning to pick the braking and turn-in points out much better with the Xbone pad and the feedback through the triggers is nice. I’m already within a second or two of my best times after a few hours.

It’s going to take some getting used to but I’ll put the hours in and stick with the pad. Thank you again to everyone who replied. :slight_smile:

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Glad I came across this post. I’m a newb myself and have been playing with an XB One controller and was about to upgrade to one of the Thrustmaster wheel sets. Guess I’ll hold off, unless it’s useful/fun on Horizons 4.

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I play bumper cam, used to it by now. I can take the right line through corners and hit the apex. Door to door racing I quickly tap side view. Works for me. I can hold my own with other players. In Chase can I can’t even control the car. Feels unnatural.

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The game and physics definitely cater to controller more so than wheel, after more than a year using a wheel i still can’t match my controller times. But I have WAY more fun on wheel. Any noobies who want a slightly above average player to get slightly above advice from can add me I need more forza friends lol.

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Chase cam is the only option if you want to race clean against other players. A friend of mine who I race with uses only cockpit cam and it’s a nightmare because I know exactly where he is but his view is so restricted and he is unable to really look around himself, plus no proximity arrows it basically results in me having to commentate my entire race to him to prevent disaster. Believe me, I’ve tried to convince him to adopt chase cam.

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I would suggest time trial mode start off with a slow lap than gradually go faster so then you can work out the kinks with car and controller in time youll get faster and better and a tune setup or two. Because everyone drives for example me and brother we race quite abit he’s better in the straights but weaker in the corners / turns and vice versa for me, we use different set ups and views our races against are generally close but that depends on track and car plus the cars setup

Plus it is all trial and error I hope this helps you out and just do what fells natural to you