Sense of speed/PI class/type of shifting/street furniture

Forza Horizon Forza Horizon 5 FH5 Discussion
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Don’t know if I just need to vent, share my opinion or do I want to discuss something, but here is what I think.

1.Sense of speed
Anyone else feels like cars in FH5 are too fast? I had that feeling since FH5 came out and nothing has changed. I don’t know if it is more a thing of lowered PI (compared to FH4)?, something was changed in display/graphics?, changed physics?, maybe I’m older?, maybe all of these factors? The higher the class, the harder it is for me to keep up the pace.
Not gonna lie, even in FH4 (ranked races) I was avoiding most of S2 and S1 races, but I was able to control cars better. Now I don’t even touch anything above A class. And in last 2-3 months it was almost always B class and lower.
IMO every class should have pace of one class lower e.g. A → B, S2 → S1, etc.

personal note And on top of that comes my weak PC, where if I drive above 300km/h for longer than 10sec it will message me with “low streaming bandwith” and start to freeze (that highway speed zone was pain to get above 400km/h). Same message pops up e.g. in Reservorio sprint when I enter Mulegee town - my car just stops for 2-3 seconds even in B class (in freeroam or Eliminator it is not apparent).

  • Pace is too fast (in FH4 they were also too fast)
  • Pace is too fast (in FH4 it was ok)
  • It is OK
  • They are to slow

0 voters

Alsmost added “I’m speed” into the poll, but I know what I would vote for :wink:

2.PI class
That is another thing. Don’t know how for others, but for me A class should have pace of lightly upgraded street cars (e.g. Lancer EVO IX with maybe some weight reduction/sport tires and +20/30HP more) and not 600HP rally tires with weight reduction. So basically same thing as I said about pace in first point.

I wouldn’t mind also if gap would be lower between classes. For example around Horizon Mexico Circuit stock Civic type R 2004 (C600) can do 1:17, uprgaded to B699 can do 1:11 and stock Civic 2016 (B699) can do 1:12. I have checked other classes and it is around 5-10sec between classes.
Don’t know how, or even if, it would help with gameplay in any way, but IMO it make sense to make it closer.
Also if someone can check or remember what was the gap berweeb classes in FH4 I would be grateful. Can’t do that on my own right now.

Would point 1 and 2 together cause that some of stock S2 cars would be unusable in races after changes? Maybe. Maybe changed calculation would make them usable. Who knows.

  • Lowered pace by 1 class + closer gaps between classes
  • Lowered pace by 1 class + gaps as it is
  • Leave it as it is

0 voters

3.Shifting method
IMO it is unnecessary to punish/reward people using different shifting A/M/M+C. Here comes example.
Stock Civic Type R 2004 (C600) around HMC:
M+C: 1:17,271; M: 1:17,894; A: 1:18,236

Festival drag strip in the same Civic (compare just times within one tune, not between tunes):
C600 stock: M+C: 25,477; M: 25,964; A: 26,401
B607 FWD race clutch/gearbox: M+C: 25,365 (shortshift* 25,481); M: 25,626; A: 25,879,
B622 AWD race gearbox: M+C: 24,845 (shortshift* 24,831); M: 24,726; A: 24,798
*- point was to immitate when A gearbox changes gear and to compare how much time A loses to M+C just in gear changes

As you can see for FWD setups even with race clutch/gearbox A was losing to M+C.
I guess M+C had some trouble with getting of the line in AWD setup.

IMO there is no need to punish/reward people for using one or another. As keyboard racer using M+C (just smashing two keys, instead of one), I see no reason why I should be rewarded for using stock gearbox/clutch.
It would be also nice to get rid of the gap between no and race upgrades when you keep stock drivetrain. Like AWD swap closed the gap, but there is still difference between A, M and M+C for race clutch/gearbox.

Hence A is changing gears always right beforer redzone maybe we should also think about making it adjustable. Like you could set it in tuning menu when you want to change gears.

  • Agree (with limiter)
  • Agree (without limiter)
  • Disagree

0 voters

4.Street furniture
Well, do I need to tell more? Don’t know if anyone finds challenge in avoiding them, but for me it is just anger generator.

I guess it makes sense for street racing to have street furniture cause “illegal races on open streets”.
For CC/dirt races it also make sense to have some obstacles. Still would be nice to not have them on racing line/in the middle of the road e.g. barrels in 2nd corner of Airfield circuit or rocks around Caldera scramble.
But I just can’t stand street furniture for road races. It is so much pain if you try to catch that person in front of you just to be stopped by fallen lamppost. Basically any Guanajuato track is victim of that. Still my favorite is that one random wooden wheel on one of the last corners of Tierra Prospera.

My first thought was to just cut out street furniture for road racing events, but maybe it would look stupid/empty. So maybe more barriers ? But Guanajuato streets are not that wide.
I hope it will get better in the future.

  • No obstacles in the track (any type of races)
  • No obstacles in the track (road racing)
  • Add barriers (any type of races)
  • Add barriers (road racing)
  • I don’t mind them

0 voters

Sorry for the wall of text. I feel a bit better after writing this :slight_smile:
Now going back to Trial to try another 100 cars/tunes.

2 Likes
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I also avoid driving in the S classes, mainly because the cars in that class aren’t as interesting to me. I know most players like them, though and it doesn’t bother me to have to race them once in a while for weekly requirements. I would probably find them easier if I drove them more frequently but I don’t enjoy them as much. I do find most of them cartoonishly fast, but that’s probably how I would find them in real life as well.

4 Likes
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FH5 feels slower to me. 200 mph cornering in my 911 GT1 Passionversion feels like I’m jogging round the bends. I don’t think it needs adjusting, but if they made it feel faster I’d understand.

1 Like
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I find S1 and S2 road racing too fast so avoid doing online racing in them. For playlist championships I can beat the driveatars at highly skilled but I detune the cars as this slows the driveatars down to match my tuning e.g. rather than loading up the fastest S2 998 tune I make my own S2 901 tune. This significantly slows down the driveatars. A similar effect can be had with S1 and this is what I did with this week’s S1 900 Porsche championship. In fact I first tried with a S1 900 tune and got my butt kicked then removed the tune and drove a lower stock tune. With the stock tune I easily beat the driveatars.

Hope this helps anyone else that struggles with S1 and S2 road racing.

4 Likes
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I found the speed sense/control similar (but different :wink: see below) between FH4 and FH5. Similar in that in both my comfort level was always top in A class, drop significantly in S1, but oddly rose again in S2 and X with S2 being just a little better than S1 and X feeling like A (but faster lol). At least initially. I am getting more comfortable in S1 again like I did eventually in FH4.

The difference I noticed when starting FH5 was a sense of a total shift in many habits needed. Reaction times across all classes felt wonky and even braking and steering didn’t feel the same. Now I’ve adapted (I guess) and don’t notice the difference (as much) though I haven’t really been back in FH4 for weeks/months.

Although, all that said, this last couple/few weeks I’ve felt, especially in the E Extreme but not exclusively, that there’s something wrong with the steering again. Serious lag and sometimes total lack of response unless I tap the brakes. Might be an input issue, nearly new controller going fubar already (I blame FH5), or the game has secretly reset my deadzones and settings, again. Or, PGG saw fit to tweak something and mess up something else in the process. I dunno. All I know is the “fun” quotient took a nose dive. I didn’t notice it while grinding through the HW Academy chore (because… brakes ? steering ? what’s that ? those track walls are there for a reason no ? lol)

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the sense of speed mostly depends on the FOV (Field of View)
small FOV = low sense of speed / wider streets / better intuitive finding of breakpoints
big FOV = better sense of Speed / narrow streets / finding breakpoints get harder

thats why most simracers have a very small FOV
but also depends on the screensize with a big screen a bigger FOV is possible without losing the intuitive breakpoints.
Some people using a FOV calculator: https://www.fov-calculator.com/

if you feel to much sense of speed just lower your FOV and vice versa

small FOV vs big FOV:

fov_difference-1400x391
fov_difference-1400x3911400×391 74.1 KB

IMHO the PI System just need a complete overhaul and more classes

2 Likes
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Pacing was fine in the last game and so was PI, now speeds are elevated (especially in HW) but I still play all classes and the PI system is way past broken. It felt a bit more balanced, as you mentioned too many cars can add hundreds of hp without having to compromise on weight or grip. Steering and braking was very bad in the early days of FH5 but I have also adapted to the revised system.

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In terms of obstacles, online racing should remain as is. But obstacles could be added in a new online racing mode or through custom lobbies which would be cool.

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The PI restrictions all moved up in order to account for new cars that would have otherwise started in X class.

This means not only that each class is faster, but the gap between the classes is wider.

It’s not just you, the cars are actually faster.

The perception of speed however is very easy to distort, so I can understand wanting to confirm. A 3D image projected on a 2D screen for example is often perceived as looking quite slow. I lot of early video game developers got around this issue by making the character the player was controlling rediculously fast. Later on, motion blur was heavily used to punch up the sense of speed. Sounds effects are also used to try and impart the sense of speed to the player. It’s a tough problem to solve.

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The sense of speed changed when the tyre physics were changed in FH5. Now you don’t have as much grip at 200mph. So S2, and X Class are much harder to drive.

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Thank you for all replies and votes. Happy to see that I’m not the only one who thinks cars are too fast. I guess we need to live with what we have.
Maybe at least some C class in open racing. Devs?

Not gonna lie, I’m very surprised for how ppl voted in the “street furniture” poll.

@CJoke23 That was interesting information. Unfortunately I see no difference. I use “chase far” camera, so maybe it is not that noticeable with it?
But thank you anyway. Now it is set to higher FOV, so I can see other ppl earlier.
Tried also to play with “motion blur” options, but also to no effect.