Here’s the thing - I’ve been road racing FH4 for over two years, almost exclusively against the AI. I usually race against the unbeatable AI, depending on the car I’m driving, and rarely lose a race unless I get balled up in traffic and lose contact with the leaders and maybe settle for a second. I’m rated 5-star, 600+ for all this experience, but I race only in the lower classes. A800 is just about at the top of my skill level; in the S’s things just happen too fast for my reflexes.
Lately for the last couple months I’ve ventured into the weekly trial races, for the challenge and because I feel like I’d like to measure myself against live racers. In the trials I’m basically a middle-of-the-pack racer, mostly because I try to race clean and I’m just not good at the rammin’ and jammin’ that seems to be the style of live racers around here. If I can ever get clear of my teammates’ demolition derby I can run with the leaders, but every race is a crap shoot.
So I’ve looked into the online adventure races, which I’ve never yet attempted. Yet every time I try to sign up for one of them it’s at S1 900, which is way above my skill level. Today for the first time I had my first venture at one with the fastest racer I have, an S 820 Ford GT, just to see what would happen. and got absolutely crushed. I was at least able to finish before the time limit ran out but I was way outclassed on car speed.
So am I basically screwed here for live racing? Aren’t there any live races at lower class limits that I could gain some experience with, say B700 or A800? If the upper S level is all there is I might as well settle for racing and beating the AI for the rest of my time in this game.
Hi!
I feel you. It was like that for me a few months ago. I started playing this game last march, because I wanted to get familiar with using a controller, so I wouldn’t embarrass my kid when we play online. I have found that having a good tune on your car can make all the difference for speed and handling. Just get into an s2 or an X to freeroam and go crazy. It will help you get accustomed to the game physics. Also Forzathons are a good place to get in practice if you don’t feel like sliding around trees, rocks and buildings ( I personally enjoy seeing how much air I can grab while still shooting a gap, or doing multiple somersaults and landing wheels down) Do as many online races as you can, they will get you used to getting bumped off the course and you will learn to anticipate and get quicker at recovery. I’m still not that great of a driver ( we wont even talk about my abysmal performance in other games…keyboard and mouse is HARD!) but I can usually get a podium in the Trial, if I really want to, though I honestly don’t care who gets it as long as we win the car. lol And don’t worry about being better than anyone, that, for me was the first lesson. I made more errors when I was trying to beat people rather than just letting things work out however they did. (If you’re interested you can check out some of my driving and online stuff on my YouTube channel for an example: Raw Footage V1- Rush "Limelight" - YouTube ). I gotta say I enjoy the game, but the racing for me is not as fun as just goofing around in the map.
Please somebody correct me on this one, but isn’t there an option to quit or not select a car for online race, that will make you leave that race? Never did try it myself, but heard it is possible somewhere.
I also don’t really feel the speed of S2 and S1 is just on the limit.
My online races mostly go from S2 to A, not sure if I ever got into B race. Also still chasing my first championship win, I had one, but got DC after crossing the finishing line on last race and ofc got nothing.
You know that bringing a S1 820 car to S1 race, is more or less like bringing a knife to a gunfight … having a proper tool for the job and all that. Maybe some people can pull it off, but … yeah, sorry.
Anyway, good luck with online races and also have some sedatives handy (I prefer mine in liquid form ), as there’s plenty of ramming and pushing involved in those races too.
Or to speed it up if on PC, disconnect and reconnect the network and you go back to free roam without having to wait for the timer. Also avoids the real danger of accidentally joining the adventure because you touched the stick slightly or something.
For standard adventures, whether ranked or unranked, the game will randomly select one of the following:
B dirt
A road, street, dirt or cross country
S1 road, street, dirt or cross country
S2 road or street
So, assuming all those events are equally likely, your odds of getting B or A are slightly less than 50-50. The only way to ensure that you are racing B or A would be to do a custom adventure and select either A or B (note that these races are not ranked and the standard in custom can be quite high).
You can always play unranked. Go to “online adventure” → “quickplay adventure” → “custom advenutre” → here you pick what do you want.
You definitely want to turn off “freeroam rush” for road events.
Thanks for your comments, folks. Very helpful. I’ve tuned up a corvette to S1 900 and I’m running some rivals on the circuit courses and a few circuit races at pro against the AI, and it’s going better than I expected. I used to think that I had no business even sitting down in the driver’s seat of an S-class car, but this will probably go OK. At least I won’t embarrass myself too much.
Knife to a gunfight? Yeah, I get that. I put that S1 820 out there knowing I was going to get rolled, but I kind of wanted to know if I could race with them on my skills.
you also need to realize like most games this game has a meta. certain cars are just faster than others on specific courses and some cars will not even be able to escape last place. Always download a tune as tuned cars are faster. luckily you can download a tune and try them until you find one you like. if your beating unbeatable that means you are good at racing vs people but is your racing efficient. for this take it to rivals. if your in the top 1% you should climb in ranked. this will show you if you can gain based on racing lines and hitting things.
with the right car and right tune some S1 class cars feel way easier to drive then A class cars.
As a really rough ballpark figure, I normally reckon each class is around 5 secs slower than the class above, for the circuits that are around 45-55 seconds. So at 820, you’ll be about 4 secs a lap slower than at 900. In the last ranked adventure I did, everyone’s fastest laps were in a spread of more like 1 second fastest to slowest, so you’d have no chance giving away 4 seconds a lap.
I do my own tunes and they tend to be quite successful against the unbeatable AI. I almost always have at least a small speed edge, which helps, and the rest is driving skill. But I drive cars that I like, rather than researching the fastest cars in the game for a particular class and type.
So when I go to run the trials and other live races, I’m still going to race my favorites, and they’ll do well or they’ll do ill, but at least they’ll be pretty competitive if they’re up at rating. I’m not in it for my own reputation or anything like that, but just to have fun in the game. In a team environment I’ll race for the team, not necessarily for first place for myself. I push hard and I’ll go for a first, and if it comes to me so much the better. But the goal is for the team to win, and if I’m ahead of the red cars it doesn’t much matter what position I finish in. And definitely, there’s no way I’m going to blow away a teammate who’s ahead of me so that I can finish ahead of him.
), as there’s plenty of ramming and pushing involved in those races too.