Initial Impressions & Opinions - Tips and Tricks

So I managed to play Forza 7 quite a bit over the weekend. I've got a few observations in no particular order. Overall I'm liking the new game so far. It's definitely an evolution much like we thought it would be but there are a couple of things which are long over due.

At this point I haven't done any multi-player so I don't have an opinion on that. If the lobby settings from free play are available in multi-player then that's probably a net win but it remains to be seen.

Over on Reddit and forzamotorsports.net apparently there's a lot of hair pulling about being "cheated" out of VIP benefits or something along those lines. It would have been nice to have the x2 credit status that we've seen in previous games but for the amount of time I tend to spend in game I don't think it's much of a thing, YMMV.

The menus and interface are really pretty. I'm not convinced they're a step up in usability but at least they aren't worse in that regard.

Driving suits are cool, I guess? There's some pretty questionable design choices when it comes to suits but I suppose there something to look at while a lobby is loading? It does feel pretty crappy to get a suit (or even worse a badge) in a crate you've spent a bunch of credits on.

Speaking of crates I'm not too concerned about them. It does seem strange that there are number of cars that are locked behind crates but I don't see it as a thing that's going to bother me too much.

Locked cars are a little annoying. Seems like the special cars you earn are a one time only thing? We'll have to confirm but because of that my plans for a fleet of racing Crown Vics has to be adjusted. After winning it in a horrible bowling showcase I think you're stuck with just the one and it doesn't unlock it in the dealership. In fact it looks like there are a lot of cars that don't show up in the dealership so that is a little annoying. You can rent those missing cars in freeplay and I assume multiplayer but it's kind of weird that you have to jump around the game just to see/purchase the entire car list.

I haven't dug into tuning that much but it does feel like there are some changes in how the cars handle so I imagine there might be some further tweaking to tunes. It looks like the min and max values for a lot of things are greater/different. Looks like more downforce is available for Forza aero parts? The race cars I've looked at start with much higher camber numbers (as do the widebody kits).

Tuning is a little more of a hassle. You need to create a freeplay session since you can't jump right from the tuning screen to the track. If you set the AI opponents to 0 it loads faster. From that screen you can then change cars tracks etc and once you're driving you can pause and tune like you've always been able to. Buying cars for a series will automatically equip them with parts just like in FM5 and 6 so you need to go to tuning and manually tweak them for best results. Kind of a pain sometimes since the price of those parts is factored in already when you by the cars, potentially wasting credits.

Regarding the Homologation thing. I like it so far. It seems to do a decent job of getting the cars pretty close. The addition of HP and tire limits really are something we've been needing for a long time. Doesn't look like you can spec tire limits inthe lobbies but you can build the cars to the various homologation specs so there's a lot of potential there to create class with pretty good parity, either for series of casual racing nights. You can still build to a class for a private or freeplay race if you want to, which I'm sure we will.

As far as the actual driving goes, the cars feel the best yet. You can argue whether it's more arcadey or whatever but from my perspective they feel better under braking and overall have a little more grip or perhaps more consistent grip. You will probably need to tweak your controller settings though I think it starts at a 25% deadzone for most inputs which is pretty horrible.

As I think of more things I'll add to this thread. Feel free to add your own thoughts, tips, and complaints as well.

Comments

  • Sounds good... thanks Reno!

    I haven't gotten a whole lot of time with it yet but it sure looks and sounds great. Mostly I've been trying to just a find a feel for my TX wheel and I think I have something I can work decently with as a starting point. The UI and overall mechanics of the game in the first few racing setup so far have been a nice upgrade. Worst part is the long load times and the abysmal AI drivatars. I'm trying to adjust to their asinine behaviors, as it's been awhile since I've raced against them.

    Overall I think it's going to be a good game for most of us.

    Painting tip - I noticed that the stick and d-pad work differently on the xb1 at least. D-Pad is full values only, where the stick you can use for half values. Hopefully I'll get a chance at some point to paint on the PC and see if it's any easier or not.
  • I've played around in the paint booth on PC. Lighting still looks like crap (seems like the cars don't have horrible shadows at least) but it's a lot easier to manage with the mouse. Quite a bit quicker to move things around. Some of the hotkeys are a little weird and the interface is kinda clunky but I suspect I'll probably spend most of my painting time on PC.
  • I've been switching between the controller and mouse/keyboard for painting and it seems to work fairly well.. Nice little touch with the control display changing with each input too, kinda slick. But yeah, use the controller for navigating without using the odd key binds, then use the mouse for positioning and such. It's faster than me having to hunt for keys at least for now.
  • Drafting-

    The vignette effect kicks in somewhere around 150mph+
    The actual “perfect draft” tags don’t kick in till you’re within a car length of the car ahead.
    The drafting “pull” seems minimal even at these high speeds,.... much like FM6.
  • I wasn't able to actually play until Oct. 5 so I haven't had too much actual seat time yet, but I like what I see so far.

    The whole "throw you involuntarily into game chat when you enter a multiplayer lobby" thing needs to be patched yesterday. And drafting does seem a little ineffective even compared to FM6.

    Also the UI and the text seems to be optimized for 4k, even some of the text at 1080p on a 26 inch LCD tv seems a little blurry. Kinda like the transition from SD to HD on the xbox 360.

    We did experience a pretty funny bug playing multiplayer last night where a few of us got a head start, usually leaving Pistol behind :p

    Overall I'm happy with the experience so far, time to chase a production #1 specialty dealer car lol
  • I switched to sim steering last night. Not sure that it's faster at this point. It does feel different and not quite as twitchy as FM5 or 6. I hesitate to call it more responsive but it does feel like there's more steering lock and it feels like you can carry more speed around certain corners.
  • I tried sim steering for a few single player races. I didn't notice a ton of difference, until I got out of shape.. good luck catching a big slide without tank slapping your way into a wall.
  • I played quite a bit of FM6 with sim steering,.... but I also ended up tuning around that response to manage the feel.

    Last night I got some chassis/telemetry observations done, and played with sim steering a bit. It was fine while you were in control,... but even a minor counter correction could devolve too easily to a spin if you weren’t flawless.
  • Yeah, saving a car is still some serious work with sim steering, though it doesn't feel as crazy as it used to.
  • As someone who missed out on FM5 and FM6, and don't remember if I played FM4, I have a lot of first impressions.

    - Tracks, tracks and more tracks. Holy crap! Daytona, Indianapolis, Lime Rock, Virginia International Raceway, Circuit of the Americas, Homestead, Watkins Glen, Spa, Monza, Brands Hatch, Yas Marina, Mount Panorama! Could do without Long Beach but since IndyCars are in the game I suppose that was a necessity. Silverstone is a meh too. I was never overly fond of that track because of how flat it is.

    The classics are still here too. Road Atlanta, Road America, Maple Valley, Laguna Seca, LeMans, Mugello. I haven't played around on Rio much, and I see there's also new Dubai and Prague tracks. I think the Bernese Alps were in a previous game too.

    They took out Motegi. Awesome! I hated that track. Flat and no flow. There's enough ovals with Homestead, Daytona, and Indianapolis in the game that the Motegi oval wasn't needed.

    Hey Turn 10, since you're adding so many tracks, get yer butts up to Canada. Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport) would be welcome additions.

    Some tracks are like riding a bike. I raced on Road Atlanta and Watkins Glen and knew exactly where I was going.

    - 24 cars on track at once? When did they add this? Last I remember it was 8 max!

    - Night racing and rain. Finally. Unfortunately with so many new tracks (to me) trying to learn a new track with reduced visibility is daunting. I'll admit I have turned the Line assist on in Single Player to help me learn some of them. I won't be using it in multiplayer. I promise.

    - Plenty of cars, but I'm disappointed that my Spark isn't in. I know it's a little econobox, but previous FM and Gran Turismo had little city cars to learn in. I was hoping to build it up and see how much I HP I could get out of it.
  • No doubt you have a bunch of catching up to do.
    I suggest just running through career, use the line as needed, but try and minimize the other assists. Set your AI difficulty to whatever you can easily handle, and run as many different specs as you can.
    The career won’t take you in every track variation though, so you may want to play around a bit.
    Once you have cars and some credits built up things will start falling easily back into place.
  • AI things to consider.....

    As you get to faster classes the AI get disproportionately stronger.

    The AI are bit better at night and in the rain.

    The stock homologation tunes are OK,.... but always consider reducing a little tire/grip to add power if possible.
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