I guess this question isn’t directed towards the established players so much as it is the newer players like myself. I just find getting better at this game to be rather odd and was wondering if others find that the same happens to them.
I will play hours and hours of this game and pretty much stay at a certain level. All of a sudden though, I will just find myself in a zone and I start knocking out PBs left and right like they are nothing. Eventually, that zone goes away, I regress, and it takes quite a while (days/weeks) before it comes back. Its all spurts for me. Fortunately, I keep moving forward as a whole, but I’m amazed at the drop off in my level of play from one day to the next. I was feeling it yesterday and the game almost seemed easy to me. Today? I can’t seem to make a simple turn anywhere on any course. I go through stretches like this all the time and it really baffles me. Is it just me, or do others have a similar set of peaks and valleys too?
I used to have that issue. Tell you what, you will find that going away the more you play. Eventually it’ll be non-existant. Keep playing, keep pushing. Soon it’ll just be picking up the controller and putting down fast times with little effort.
I broke 16 pb 2 hours. Next day you cant do sh’1. It happens to every body. Yours highs and low will keep improving.
No matter how good you get, you will never fully conquer this game. Your alway going to be chasing the high of improve.
This is very common for a lot of people in everyday situations. Much like you said, I call it “Being in the zone”.
There are a few things that can influence your peak performance and concentration, one of the main factors being sleep. You may not even notice at the time, but when you’re tired or fatigued, that can impair your gaming.
You ever noticed when playing a game, and you get stuck at a hard part, but yet days/weeks later after taking a break, you come back and dominate that game? The same thing works for Forza. Set your goal on improving one thing at a time. You must concentrate heavily on improving one aspect you’re lacking at, then after a while take a break and come back to it.
This is something that works for me, but we all must find a way that works for us.
True. That wasn’t what I was implying in my post, though. From my past experiences, when it just seems like you’re “out of it” whether it being fatigue, or some other mental, physical, or outside issue, it’s better to take a break for a while, and come back stronger from rest or when you feel better.
When I started playing Forza years ago, I was the same way where I’d just get into these zones and run pretty respectable times. These days I run pretty respectable times all the time, but I still have those time where I get into a zone and can knock out some incredible times and surprise myself.
As others have mentioned above my big downfall is tiredness. If I play fresh as a daisy I run to the best of my ability. Pick up the devils controller when I’m tired and I might as well be. Noddy chasing big ears.
What always works for me if I suddenly drop off the pace is to take a quick break. Fifteen minutes completely away should do it. If I’m tired I stop playing straight away and get some sleep. Sometimes when you’re concentrating really hard you don’t realise you’re tired. If you’re aged as am I then a big clue is that my vision goes blurry. Very blurry.
Why? I typically don’t savor anything. I got a #59 yesterday and was immediately annoyed with myself that it wasn’t #49. As long as there are people ahead of me on the leaderboards, I have work to do
Just kidding, I know I’m never catching the top guys, but it doesn’t mean I can’t try.
As always, I’m storing everyone’s comments in the memory bank. Thanks all…
I’m not quite as bad. But my rate of improvement will drop off, and then take significant leaps forward. I tend to focus on a track of group of similar tracks with a car or two, really working to tun and perfect it. This process usually takes a week or two, during which I come across some sort of tuning or driving “epiphany”. A better way to take turns, how to drive without ABS, manual with clutch, finally comprehending what changing a particular tune setting does. I then apply this to another car or track I haven’t ran in a while and beat my old PB by 100s (or tens if it was already high haha) of spots. It seems to be more of a step wise than continuous function. The game has so many aspects, between tuning and driving, it’s quite overwhelming.
This is how it always is. Being in the zone and having that more natural-feeling connection can lead to a new PB 3-4 laps into a session, when 30 laps the day before didn’t do it. Heightened concentration, and the feeling that you can better predict and control events is something to make the most of when it occurs.
There’s a lot of things that can affect it - your fatigue level, hydration level, and luck!
Also I find that trying too hard, as silly as that may seem, is a very good way to hurt your lap times. Staying Smooth and calm is much more effective in achieving not only faster but also more consistent laps. Look at some of the number one replays or check out raceboy77 and tn eagle on twitch. they make it look so easy with how smooth and effortlessly they drive. This should be your goal or mental picture while driving.
During the past week I’ve been working on lapping just one track and not improving what so ever. I was actually wondering how I even ran a 130.66 which had me in 23rd. I got the above advice and today I dropped my time to 130.27 which is 13th with a dirty lap at 130.08 which would be 5th. Better yet my average lap dropped from low 131s to mid 130s. May not sound like a huge improvement but that high up tenths are hard to come by. My goal tomorrow? My first top 5
Would also like to thank craviator, tn eagle, and raceboy77 for their help and support