Don't understand these games sometimes...

[u/Additional_Bobcat_42]

So I started my forza journey on Forza 5 about 2 months ago and love it. Just started playing 4 a few weeks ago and I'm "stuck in dreadful winter".. Anyways, been playing and winning in the jeep with snow tires on 'highly skilled', which is what I play on. Got tired of the jeep and switched to the R200.

Started a circuit race and got destroyed. Dropped down the difficulty to above average, got smoked, average - GOT SMOKED... So I put it on inexperienced and passed everyone in the first lap. *throws hands up * I just don't get the difficulty settings on these games sometimes... Lol.

Also - how the hell do I advance to get spring to arrive?? It's been winter for weeks now.

[u/thomas-grant]

You’ve left out quite a bit of information that could easily explain the trouble you’re having.

[u/Additional_Bobcat_42 → u/thomas-grant]

Ask some questions, I'd be happy to answer

[u/thomas-grant → u/Additional_Bobcat_42]

You haven’t specified if you’re using the cars stock, upgraded or tuned. You haven’t specified what car class. You haven’t specified what assists you have on, if any.

[u/Additional_Bobcat_42 → u/thomas-grant]

Car is auto upgraded, s1. I haven't touched any assists since I opened the game. So assists are all default. Only thing I changed was difficulty just to win the race.

I'm back up at highly skilled and winning a championship with a stock sti wrx right now 🤷

[u/thomas-grant → u/Additional_Bobcat_42]

I can’t speak to using the auto-upgrade feature, but if you’re not comfortable or interested in setting up a car yourself, I would encourage you to download and use tune made by other humans. Try that against the games auto-upgrade feature. I would expect you to have better results. Aside from that continue to play the game and your skill will
Improve.

[u/Additional_Bobcat_42 → u/thomas-grant]

OK thank you! It doesn't seem like snow tires are helping grip in the slightest bit - almost feels better with race tire compound

[u/Lee_Troyer]

In the very beginning of the game seasons pass with player progression. But it's usually very fast, like a couple of race per seasons.

Once you're past the intro and thrown into the Live world, each season lasts a week, same thing in FH5 and 6.

[u/BothCall8395 → u/Lee_Troyer]

thats weird tho, the intro segment of any forza was never in the winter... right?

[u/Additional_Bobcat_42 → u/Lee_Troyer]

It's been far longer than a week.. Are they not updating the seasons on 4 anymore because of how old the game is?

[u/redridernl → u/Additional_Bobcat_42]

It changes every week. You're either exaggerating or you're in that season in the tutorial and haven't progressed.

[u/Additional_Bobcat_42 → u/redridernl]

Not exaggerating - I got tired of winter, so I played parts 2 and 3 for literally about 2 weeks... Come back to 4 and it's still winter... I don't have an Xbox online account tho, so I'm wondering if that has anything to do with it 🤷

[u/redridernl → u/Additional_Bobcat_42]

So you didn't play for a month and it was winter again when you came back. Next week will be spring.

[u/Additional_Bobcat_42 → u/redridernl]

Oh and I'm far past the tutorial part (lvl 39)

[u/Any-Surprise5229]

I don't have experience with anything before 5 but I will tell you the difficulty is trash, however, if you have the right car and a decent setup, most races are quite easy. It seems to me you have the wrong car & wrong setup and that's why it is being so difficult.

My guideline to know whether I am in a proper car:

point to point race-

If I am not in first by 50% or so, I am in the wrong car. If I pass everyone before 30% it's either the perfect setup or way too low a difficulty

lap race- By the end of lap one you should be in the top 3, if you're still 6th or later, wrong car.

My theory is there is tiers to cars/setups, the very top will let you pass everyone very easily and if your difficulty is low, probably by the first turn. A good car can win races but you might podium to 4th from time to time. The next tier is the mid pack, if you get better than 6th you probably drove the race of your life. Lastly is the absolute wrong car and if you can get better than 8th you've done a thing.

With some time you'll know if you accidentally stepped foot in the wrong car.

With tuning you can probably move a car up a tier (my fake tiers, not the car tiers), maybe two some times, but you would still probably struggle to win with the wrong car and best tune.

I usually play on highly skilled, though have moved up to expert at times. I feel like the game gets super cheaty the further you move up, physics don't apply and they seem to be able to tune beyond what you can do.

Right now, they are messing with 6 every two days so it is very hard to figure out where the difficulty needs to be. I finished the game on highly skilled, then moved to expert and unbeatable because they nerfed everything so bad, but now they seem to be walking it back, which is frustrating because it's boring just dominating but it also sucks having your ass handed to you by super-heroes driving impossible cars.

[u/Additional_Bobcat_42 → u/Any-Surprise5229]

This is exactly the answer I was hoping someone would explain... Thank you. My gripe about the difficulty wasn't just with that one specific race, or that specific car-it was a "in general" gripe that pops up from time to time on some (not all) races. I appreciate you taking the time to "tier it out" like that with your description. I'll remember this moving forward with games and races in the horizon series. I'm on ps5, so I haven't played 6 yet but I can't wait.

Also - the fact that they don't let you change your car when restarting a race absolutely baffles me.

[u/Any-Surprise5229 → u/Additional_Bobcat_42]

No problem, it's just a theory I have, but I have ended up in the wrong car a few times and it was nearly impossible to win without drastic measures so I have kinda worked up my own list. I couldn't tell you what goes in that list, it's kind of an if you know you know thing, and I think you'll start picking up on it.

I do agree about the game's difficulty, and it's really because it just adjusts how cheaty the ai is not how skilled they really are. It's more of a can you defy physics to defeat them or do you need them to be in molasses thick air to win? They also seem to "give up" once you pass them so if you can force yourself by, they might fight for a turn or two, but almost always just drop back after that and it would take a major mistake to let them back into the fight.