I just wasted 20 minutes of my life on the trial thx to my useless teammates.
It combines the absolute worst of PvE (the unfair difficulty of computer opponents, having to rely on teammates) with the absolute worst of PvP (griefing).
That’s why it desperately needs the online, anti griefing mechanics. I got rammed and lost crucial points and now I don’t have the M3 Competition.
Who agrees ?
I still quite like the Trial most of the time. Occassionally I will get a bad set of teammates, but more often than not it is two races and done.
The events I don’t really care for are Eliminator and the new Hide and Seek. Then again, I know that some players do like these events, so thankfully there are plenty of things to do each week and 100% completion is not required to get the cars.
Personally, the stunts are my favorite, especially Danger Zone. I also like to just drive around and explore areas of the map that I know a good number of players never see.
I just deal with it, if I get a bad team, I quit after the first race, and then start again with a new team.
I get my 20 points per month (usually 40) without even doing the trial.
There are some idiots on there but they can be idiots when I’m not playing
I got pushed out of a checkpoint, first one actually.
There i am, dead last with the group way up ahead.
Well, better get a move on i thought.
Nothing better than letting them know you were last and now just weaving driving magic through them like butter.
Player up in first (who knocked me out of checkpoint) got a rude shock when they seen me in their rearview mirror 
Must of been frothing at the mouth when i scooted past on a corner and proceeded to leave them in my dust 
I do agree though, seems like all the clowns decided to play en mass today, 
even in seasonal co-op championships.
it’s hard to disagree. I’ve only done the trial a handful of times this year. I get matched with the absolute bottom of the barrel, too many 1st place finishes in team losses. I gave up one week after 5 or 6 attempts, and that was it
system broken. some players are not bottom of barrel.
but matching system …
am not kidding and was able to check my own net work logs.
are straight up from different countries.
i knew for like 3 months the match making kept putting me into Asian region servers .
like match matching is broken in this game now.
btw i leave a half a state away from the match making main cdn loction for my part of the usa.
oh and the their system now cant figure out if car is front wheel,aws or rws. it randomly will choose for you in trails now!
or there’s not enough players to fill a more regional server request, I used to be with all people from somewhat nearby, but a lot of them did stop playing. could be a wider issue of decline
All the reasons I have never ever tried the Trial. The Trial and Horizon Open are the Events I always miss on purpose, however, I get All the cars every time as there are enough other activities to fullfill the points required
Sooo… Just leave it be I guess
I agree the quality of the teammates in the Trial has drastically declined over the last year. Unfortunate but understandable given the lifespan of the game. Most people that join are newcomers judging by their ranks.
That being said I still complete the Trial on the first try every week. If you are capable of beating the AI what’s holding you back to use your skill to help the team?
I block the AI in ~70% of the Trials to ensure a team win. It’s no fun but still better than to have to do it multiple times to complete.
The speed sensitive ghosting of Open would be very welcomed though.
I do the trial each week (sometimes more than once with a different car) and don’t have a problem with it. Open racing I do occasionally now but if the lower classes were added I might do more. I think if you can arrange a good convoy situation it will make it easier but that’s not always possible. I always race with random players and fully expect there to be either novice or poorly skilled players. I understand that for many players, FH is only one game among many that they may play and it may not be their priority game. Age range can be another factor.
What I don’t like or get is deliberate rammers, it’s usually easy to spot the difference between them and poor driving skill. I record all my online races and in the case of quite clear deliberate ramming, I will report them but that actually doesn’t happen that often.
The game is as it is and people can choose to do online racing or not. From my point of view I’m glad there’s still racing which I’ll take any day over Hide/Seek/Eliminator/Games.
Weird. Maybe 1 in 20 times i have some kind of problem with trial. But most of the time its fine. But i drive very very clean and don’t even get close to other players and if i do i make it clear that i wont be dirty, so i guess they dont see me as problem. And most of the times im in first place after 2 corners so there is really no1 to ram me. And the good drivers who keep up are 99% clean drivers too. I guess if you keep youself back in the pack it will be less clean.
This tends to be my experience as well. I do my best to race clean with the other humans, sometimes it is too difficult to do that with the dravitars. I also don’t care if I finish in 1st so if I only have teammates in front of me I will drive less aggressively, this doesn’t mean that I won’t pass you, and do my best to hold onto the points so the team wins over getting a few more useless XP and Credits.
9 out of 10 times the Trail takes 2 races and is the quickest way to get to my 20 points a week.
I would do the trial every week, but they’ve made it incredibly easy to get the 20 point car in a few minutes without any races. exclusive 40 point and 80 point cars almost guarantee everyone does the trial, maybe backstage passes will help. I’m definitely more likely to grind for a BP than I am for the random repeats we’ve gotten
Poor tracks and a poor class of vehicles was this weeks issue. Got lucky. We won the first 2.
With the exception of the point value that the Trial is assigned per playlist, it’s the same as any other playlist item: It can be ignored and the points can be made up elsewhere from other playlist items.
You’re never going to get away from being paired up with inferior teammates; nor should you ridicule those who aren’t at your level. Remember, you were also at their level once and not everyone is “bad” on purpose.
If you can’t resolve that, take a breath and just hit the Horizon Open races to get that challenge you crave. Or maybe concentrate on Rivals to avoid “contact” while still competing against the entire community.
The game offers lots of other avenues to keep you busy.
I don’t mind the Trial in general, but what really annoys me is when the car restriction is a total mismatch for the chosen tracks. Case in point: the last two weeks. Last week was heavy Super Saloons trying (and failing) to get lateral grip on dirt, so it was one big game of pinball. The second race was the only one that was easily winnable, and on my successful attempt I had to play some ridiculous hero ball to just barely track down the lead AI on the third race. Then this week shows up, I pick the RWD Vauxhall Monaro , and whoops it’s dirt again so I’m at an instant disadvantage. (And to add insult to injury, I got deliberately shouldered outside of a checkpoint on the first race.) Now is this on me for failing to check the surface before choosing my car? Yes, but in an ideal world the restriction shouldn’t include a bunch of cars that suck on that surface. Not to mention the fact that both of these weeks have featured some truly disgusting runaway AI that were impossible to track down.
I love the Trial. Sure, it can occasionally be frustrating due to deliberate corner bombing teammates but all in all I have a good time.
The biggest issue I have is the awful AI. It’s pretty clear we’re only racing the front 2 AI while the other 4 are there just to impede the progress of the players.
I thought the Trial AI was fine when the game first launched but the community endlessly whined it was too challenging, so they nerfed it. It’s not a big deal if you have to play the Trial more than once to find a decent team.
Some teams not being able to win is also not a big deal but not having any challenging content in the festival playlist kind of is.
I do it sometimes for the points. While I usually avoid multiplayer racing like the plague, beating the Trial saves me having to slog through the boring championships since beating the Trial first try is a much quicker 10 points than completing two championships.
As with most online things, I like the idea or the fantasy of the Trial. 6 people working together to give the team a win. I think it’s a wonderful picture.
Unfortunately, randoms ruin everything. Anybody whose spend any significant amount of time on any online game could have told PGG that. This is why I hate modern online gaming so much. There is so much focus on the potential of online gaming but almost no design or thought has gone into the reality of online gaming. And the horizon franchise has been deleting offline and convoy only tools in order to funnel more people into the horrible world of open matchmaking.
The trial is just a symptom of a much deeper issue, but it’s also one of the very few forms of racing endgame in this game.
The Montana Trail (sic?) is a cheeky addition. Unless your toonmates are on the ball, it’s given to turning into a game of pin ball.
I took a grippy off the shelf tune for the old Bentley 8 litre and I sailed through it, corners a doddle. I let the rest of my toonmates play pinball behind me.
It does happen that I have to do it a 2nd time due to bad toonmates but it’s very, very rare I’d have to saddle up for a 3rd go. So I’m pretty happy.