Why isn't there some type of penalty for assists?

Forza Motorsport Legacy Motorsport FM5 Discussion
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I have a question about something that I don’t understand at all.

Some background: My brother is pretty good at the game and has been teaching me how to play. I drive the Mini in D class and find it kind of easy. I can’t match my brother’s times, but I can break the top 100 fairly easy on a lot of tracks. Well, he told me last night that a friend of his talked him into driving the X-Bow in A class. He says assists are for wusses and refuses to even consider using TCS. He’s running laps that are ~#200 and better on the leaderboards with no assists in that car. Not too shabby for someone who hasn’t run A class until a few days ago. He talked me into giving it a try too. That car is really fast, but its insane. How in the world can a car with 6.3 handling be so prone to loss of grip? I don’t mean when you’re putting the power down, I get that part of it, I just mean going over a bump in the middle of a straight away will cause the car to spin. Its fun, but very frustrating.

What I don’t understand is why there is no negative side to using assists. Well, TCS specifically. My brother is 3 or 4 seconds behind the leaders on most tracks, but the vast majority of them are using TCS. Why does the game make it so much easier if you use TCS? There is no reward for driving without any assists and there should be. I drove a bunch of laps in the X-Bow with no assists and was somewhat getting the hang of it. Then my brother bailed and left me alone with the game. First thing I did was turn TCS on to see what the difference would be. Its night and day. That car is ten times easier to drive and is a lot faster with TCS turned on. I look at the leaderboards and I’m not impressed by any of the top times set using TCS. However, those that are high on the leaderboard without any assists in that car, I tip my hat to you big time. There should be a reward for using no assists, or possibly a penalty of some kind for turning the assists on. I get that they have a place in the game because they really help some players learn the game. However, when the leaderboards are dominated by assist users, its not fair IMO. My brother had a time yesterday that was something like #350, but it was a top 50 hardcore time. I’m sorry, but that’s just absurd.

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There is. You get a smaller credit payout for using them.

Either way, I think you are misunderstanding the purpose of assists; they aren’t there to punish players who use them, they are there to make the game either more playable or more enjoyable for some. Since when should either of those things (playability and the ability to enjoy) be used against a gamer?

As someone whose doesn’t use assists in Forza titles, I completely understand that I may be at a disadvantage in some instances not because of the configuration of my assists settings, but because my virtual driving skill does not match that of other users. For that reason, I firmly believe that if someone is faster than me with one assist on or another, they are simply faster than I am and that is all there is to it. Is this something you refuse to accept simply because you feel your in-game settings make you a better, more entitled gamer overall?

To be honest, saying that the leaderboard is dominated by assist users isn’t fair is much like saying “I am better than all of these people by virtue of not using assists … but, I can’t seem to find a way to beat their times”. Consequently, it is that kind of attitude that perpetuates an elitist mindset within the Forza community that is quite disgusting and, as you say, absurd.

Face it - your times have been bested not because someone enabled an assist, but because you are simply slower than they. What’s next? Do you start calling people out for using a car that tends to be quite prevalent on a specific PI class leaderboard? Those folks - the leaderboard car bashers - continuously use the same logic as the one you have put forth to make them seem more credible than those who use those particular vehicles. Has it helped their cause by doing so? I would like to think not.

Now, you say when you applied TCS to one of your runs, the results were “night and day” compared to your experience with TCS off. However, I must ask: how far up on the leaderboard did you climb? Did enabling the assist somehow make you a leaderboard brute? How did your time compare to your brother’s? Sure, the car may have become easier to drive, but did it actually improve your driving prowess or are you merely assuming that with TCS on you are that much more competitive on the leaderboard?

In conclusion, this is just another thread which vows to negate the skill of those who use assists while completely undermining the ability of those who do and overestimating the talent of those who do not. Trying to punish those who use assists simply because they are faster than you is the most unscrupulous way misidentifying the problem: you are slower than others on the leaderboard no matter the assists. In other words: find a way to best your opponent which fits your skill level, don’t just stand their trying to poke holes in their technique … it only makes you out to be a sore loser.

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Hello Lou

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