Since I’ve started playing this game (started on launch, took long break and I’m back now) I’ve consistently gotten very small Horizon Life lobbies. There is almost always around 0-6 other players, never any more. I did read somewhere that the matchmaking system is different from FH4 which explains why we always get pretty dead lobbies. Not sure if it’s true but it may make sense to why Horizon Arcade (Forzathon Live) had its atrocious change of 3 events every 15 minutes, perhaps they made it more of a solo event since players wouldn’t get large lobbies like in FH4.
This change from FH4 is mind boggling truly, Forzathon Live was excellent. From arriving early and chilling with in some cases 15 other participants and then working together to get each round done, it was a big part of the online experience. Horizon Life lobbies in FH4 consistently had 50-70 players in them, it’s a disgraceful change that you cannot even get decently sized lobbies in FH5. What was broken about FH4’s Horizon Life matchmaking and Forzathon? A terrible unnecessary change.
I noticed there was an old thread of Horizon Arcade that hasn’t been bumped in months, but I still thought this post was worthy of creating as HL and Arcade are 2 extremely important features to the game.
I agree with all your points. Arcade and forzathon live have been one of my favourite features of the last couple horizon games.
The system seemed to be smarter about matching larger player groups together around launch last year, but that was quickly reworked because of all the connectivity issues that were present around the same time.
It’s a real shame the mode has been largely forgotten about by the developers.
All we can do is keep posting, submitting feedback and spreading the word that players actually enjoy it. Though I rarely see many people talking about the mode on the forums.
Matchmaking would solve all of our issues.
If you still have Horizon 4, I recommend reinstalling it and going back to that whenever you get the urge to play a fun coop mode. That’s what I do once or twice a week. It’s also fun to go back to old trials and help people get some exclusive prizes.
Another tip is that if there’s a daily challenge requiring you to play a specific arcade event, then arcades will be fairly well populated for a couple days, so keep your eye out for them.
Do you also get small Horizon Life lobbies/know if this is a common thing for players? I was thinking it may have something to do with my connection or NAT type, but again after experiencing it myself over and over, reading other players anecdotal evidence, and that the matchmaking is different in FH5 compared to 4, it really does seem like these small unpopulated lobbies is the norm for all players but I could be wrong. It really is a disgrace compared to 70 player lobbies in Fh4.
FH5 Horizon Life has been messed up since the start. I think they cheaped out on the servers or something. When we first got the game when it first came out multiplayer didn’t even work. Now if I see anyone it’s like you said maybe 6 people at a time in a lobby.
It depends on the time of day (your real time) and area of the map.
I believe areas like the desert and jungle were designed to be less populated for “realism”, but I think that hurts the game more than it helps. Especially when concerning arcades when they start in secluded areas of the map. I agree they should just go back to Horizon 4’s method where you can see all players in a session on the map.
If you go to the main festival site or Guanajuato you’re more likely to find it more populated than anywhere else. Though never more than 10 or so players. I assume that’s some kind of connection limitation.
I’m talking about the total list of online players in a Horizon Life lobby across the whole map obviously, not certain areas being populated or not. In the Menu > Online > Friends & Players list, there are always very little players compared to FH4 lobbies. I’ve recently seen about 10 other players in a Horizon Life lobby a couple times, but again in FH4 this number was consistently 50-70 or even more.
I remember on Fortune Island there were sometimes darn near 20 players doing that long drift zone at once. Lego and Island expansions had tons of Forzathon Live participants as well and it was always super fun seeing a bunch of players roaming around on those small maps.
I think that works in the same way as Horizon 4’s, it just doesn’t surface the total number of players in a lobby. I always try to find new sessions for arcades and find players where there weren’t any before.
I’ve always been a solo gamer who haaaated the idea of being forced into an open world with a bunch of people I didn’t know (though it was still better than constantly being assaulted by the solo mode drivatar goons.)
Having said this, the Forzathon Live events of FH4 were legitimately fun times for me. I loved how a bunch of people would all find somewhere to park and we’d have a pseudo car meet while waiting for the event to start. People would make use of parking lots, some would drift around, some would mess with traffic, it was a good time.
FH5 is a complete ghost town. I park as far on the edge as I can to get away from the annoying blimp sounds. If I want some quick and easy points I can always look for a drift event where I’ll be the only driver there, punch out all three challenges in five minutes or less and be on my way. It’s been months since I’ve been in one of these events with another person and as I recall the last time I was paired with a few other people all three of them sat around and did absolutely nothing to contribute, so I left.
FH4’s method of handling lobbies and Forzathon Live events was solid. Being able to have group only sessions was incredibly useful. FH5’s was dead on arrival and hasn’t gotten much better with age. This idea of a massive multiplayer racing world feels like nothing more than a poorly thought out plan in order to add another ‘feature’ to the game’s description while providing us with a worse experience than what it replaced.
Eww I think I’m actually going to stick up for PG and praise my most disliked game of the series in 1 hit here.
With how well Live was received in 4 (as shown in this very thread) I’m guessing they assumed people wanted more of it in the sequel and have just gone too far the other way with it, to the point that there’s so many of them that the novelty wears off quickly for everyone + you won’t ever find a big group in one particular one with them being so regular.
No excusing/rationalising the change in how lobbies work though, that’s just needless fiddling with something that did it’s job competently and giving us something worse as a result.