Let me premise this by saying that I love FM6 so far.
One thing that has been bothering me though, is the tire walls that appear on the inside of some corners on some tracks. I’ll use Laguna Seca for example. The track has lots of open areas on both sides of the asphalt, so T10 added these walls to prevent cheating, I guess. However, it looks terrible. I love Laguna Seca (I go there at least once a year), so it’s really obnoxious to see the walls, especially ones like at turn 10 where if you cut the corner with only two wheels off, you’ll slam into the wall.
I would much more prefer the slow dirt from Forzas past. I know that a lot of people hated them, but at least it kept the aesthetic integrity of the track while also preventing cheating. What are your guys’ opinion?
The invisible quicksand was an immersion-breaking abomination, so I’m not sorry it’s gone. However, you’re right that inappropriately-placed barriers are not really an improvement.
Some day, a game developer will take the time to develop a proper system for penalizing course cutting. Like, if you go all four wheels off the racing surface on the inside or exit of a corner, and your sector time is improved, you get a time penalty or a drive-through. DiRT Rally is doing something sort of like this in their Rallycross mode right now, though I haven’t quite figured out exactly how the mechanics of their system for handing out penalties works.
Unfortunately, the two big console racing game franchises, Forza and Gran Turismo, haven’t fundamentally updated their gameplay structure in over a decade, persisting with nothing but short races where you always start in the middle to back of the field and have to either drive like a maniac or dumb down the AI, because getting a podium is the only way to advance to the next race. So I’m not holding my breath that we’ll see any actual innovation in gameplay any time soon. But I digress…
I for one personally like the new barriers imposed, it does kind of take away from the pretty scenery but this is a racing game and when it comes down to racing I dont notice the scenery as much. My biggest complaint about FM5 was the amount of people who would cut corners and have no penalties doing so. Yas Marina is a prime example. The race in Online Lobbies was next to impossible to win playing the track fairly. EVERYONE cut corners, it was extremely frustrating. Im from Atlanta myself and have been to Road Atlanta numerous times. I like that they added a barrier on turn 3 to stop people from cutting it.
To each their own I suppose. I really like the barriers on most tracks. It levels the playing field and forces people who cut corners to actually race the actual track itself. Someone offered this a suggestion in a previous thread but perhaps turn 10 should have made the barriers invisible? But that would also cause problems
It is what it is, the tire walls have become necessary because of the corner cutters. I praise T10 for removing all the unrealistic quicksand and sticky grass in place of tire walls. I do feel that a black flag system would be better where players are simply disqualified for too many corner cuts but it seems T10 doesn’t want to go that route. Either way, the tire walls IMO are a better option than what we had before.
I would say they are good for stopping people cutting corners
But so far my experience in multiplayer has been that when people bump you off … Either on purpose or accidentally there is nowhere to go and straight into the tyre barriers loses a ton of time
I agree the walls are ugly but they do a much better job of deterring corner cutting than the quicksand ever did. The quicksand actually helped bad racers get control of their car when they flew off the track. Now they have to learn to actually drive the car, because smashing into a wall (even if it doesn’t damage them) still causes them to switch to reverse or downshift severely, which can make them drop several places during a race.
You are so right. Forza has always been more about car collecting and tinkering than racing, but I would have thought they might actually progress rather than regress. They ruined all the tracks just about. It’s like swatting a fly with a hammer, this obsession with corner cutting. Is it really that hard for a programmer to make a surface, such as sand or grass similar to its real life couter-part? There is no advantage there, and if there is, then any race fan knows corners get cut all the time, even in F1. If they were authentic, they would have incorporated the actual sausage kerbs at the inside of most tight corners at Laguna Seca, the track the original poster described. The host is in charge, and he or she should have the option to kick. Or better yet, avoid the time-wasting pubic lobbies like any serious SIM racer does. It’s clear that T10 is, and always have been, more concerned with game-play than authenticity. If these tracks are laser scanned, they forgot everything but the asphalt. If it were not for their cozy relationship with Microsoft, I doubt even multiplayer would work, like the rest of the software companies have to deal with.
They need to just go to a penalty system that if you spend an amount of time off the track it either docks you credits, position or both. The sandpits and tire walls are a terrible idea, I’ve had driveatars hit the tire walls and bounce into me. Whatever the penalty is it needs to be severe, like you cut two corners you get nothing. It would cleanup online racing in a heartbeat.
A penalty system is the way to go, I hate the added walls, not only are they an eyesore that should not be there but you end up with tires in the track more often than not. I also hated the sticky grass, dirt, pavement, sand. Make the track and the surfaces like they really are and when someone cuts a corner impose a time penalty on them that adds to their total race time and is factored in when the winner is decided. If they do it repeatedly then give them a DQ
They are playing it like a pure arcade game, just trying to get the car to the finish whatever it takes. If it doesn’t work, they’ll just quit mid race and try in another race lobby.
I’m down for straight up glue. Stick them there for a certain time period. Like a few hours. I make mistakes, and things happen on track, but I’d like to think I can also improve and avoid mistakes.
Unfortunately the game makers end up pandering to the lowest common denominator, ie, people who have no intention of playing the game properly.
Those that do want to play properly have to put up with these type of game spoiling features because a small number of people want to ruin it for everyone else
Here’s an idea. Allow players to create events with varying sets of rules; Those that want to muck about with limos or Hummers can have all the track, grass, gravel etc… at their disposal to do whatever they feel like. Players who want a sensible race can then set rules that punish corner cutting in increasingly realistic ways (time penalties leading to disqualification, loss of grip when rejoining the track etc…). You could set varying levels of severity ending in a ‘Hardcore’ mode where the harshest penalties are dished out.
You could use the same range of difficulty settings in single player mode, awarding credit and XP boosts for going more hardcore, just like the game does already. All leaderboards can reflect what game mode you were using at the time. It would potentially place heavier emphasis in playing ‘hardcore’ mode as added kudos would be associated with stricter gameplay.
I’ll always take realism over arcadey nonsense, so tire barriers are at least plausible. I’ll take tire barriers over magical sticky grass/dirt any time. I’d prefer time penalties instead of walls everywhere, but walls are still more realistic than magic. (Sorry, Harry Potter fans and witches, but there’s no such thing as magic.)
I agree with this. To be honest I have now many times suggested “slippy grass” and “dirty tires” Get off from the track, you end up slipping and sliding on the grass, and let’s say 10-15% grip reduction for next 1.5 miles. due “dirty tires” and another 1.5 miles with 5% grip reduction. This means that if you cut Road Atlanta 2rd corner, you will next time have full grip back on next lap around corner 2-3
On the downside, bad drivers would cause more havoc on the track than they do now, so I can see why it isn’t implemented to the game.
Turn 10 has shown with the additional barrier at Lime Rock Park that things can be done to limit corner-cutting abuse.
I would like for more barriers to be installed at Le Mans Bugatti’s back straight chicane. Clean racers are actually punished on that circuit as those that willingly cut the corner gain so much time.
Normally I report persistent corner-cutters after each race but when half the field is cutting a particular corner it’s a bigger issue.
Why not just run continuous barriers around the edge of the track? That is bound to stop anyone cutting corners!
Seriously though, in a video game you have the opportunity to use an infinite number of creative ways to keep on top of cheats without having to resort to clumsy pretend barriers. Like I said before, its laziness.
Anyone remember when engine damage cost repair credits?
There should be a monetary fine on corner cutting, and make it cumulative. Do it five times in a race and you’re fined five times the prize credits you’ve won.
Run out of credits in the game? Too bad, you cannot race online until you earn enough to play nice and stop the cheating.
