Custom Public Lobbies and You. A Primer.

Forza Motorsport Forza Motorsport 7 FM7 Discussion
#1

Custom Public Lobbies are the number one feature request for Forza.
Custom Public Lobbies have been the number one feature request for Forza for five years now.
if you were to compile a list of feature requests by frequency, Custom Public Lobbies would not only be in first place, it would likely outnumber the next ten most popular requests combined.
If no one were to ever mention Custom Public Lobbies for the next five years, it would still top the list five years from now.
In fact, if Custom Public Lobbies were to return they would still be the top feature request regardless.
Such is the level of demand for Custom Public Lobbies.
Turn 10 are aware of the request and the level of demand.
Anyone that sincerely believes that Turn 10 are unaware of the demand for Custom Public Lobbies or the level of demand for same, please step forward so you can be slapped repeatedly with a wet trout.

All indications are that once again, Custom Public Lobbies will not be present for the next iteration of Fora Motorsport.
This could of course change but that does not seem at all likely at this point.

For the entirety of the past five years wherein Custom Public Lobbies have not been available, Turn 10 have remained silent on the subject of their omission.
This too could change but again, it does not seem very likely at this point.

So, given what we do know, that Turn 10 have omitted putting Custom Public Lobbies in the game and have remained shtum about any reason for doing so, what might we reasonably determine from this state of affairs?

That Turn 10, out of spite, simply refuses to recognize the demand and just couldn’t be bothered explaining why?

Or that, for reasons that cannot be divulged, they are unable to add them to the game or provide explanation?

Anyone opting for the first explanation, please step forward so you can be slapped repeatedly with a wet trout.

All that said, we will certainly have dozens more threads created on the subject prior to release and dozens more after, all treading the same ground and achieving the same end result.

Knock yourselves out I suppose.

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#2

Option 1, please!

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#3

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#4

This makes me happy.

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#5

Custom lobbies maybe for FM8? It seems right now putting astronauts in racing cars has a higher priority. :stuck_out_tongue:

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#6

Hopefully, you’ll have better luck grinding that axe in PCars 2 and maybe one day it will finally be sharp enough.

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#7

Yeah I’ve pretty much thrown in the towel for FM7 solely because of this feature being absent again.

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#8

I think if Turn 10 came out and said “Custom Public Lobbies are not returning to Forza because of ______”, more players would accept that view and make do with what they have.

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#9

Fair enough, it is regretfully a dealbreaker for many and has been for five years now. If I could change it, I would but it’s not within my purview sadly. All we can do is keep requesting it in the hopes that it can one day return.

Absolutely agreed. Arguendo, let’s stipulate that none of us knows the reason why they haven’t returned and why Turn 10 have steadfastly refused for five years to comment on the subject, what might we reasonably make of that? Consider perhaps that the decision is out of their hands and comes from somewhere Turn 10 cannot point to as a cause. For instance, my employer certainly would not take it well were I to try and publicly throw them under the bus (to be fair, I provide my employer with plenty of other causes for headaches).

I am in no way telling or suggesting anyone give up the cause of Custom Public Lobbies, by all means, keep it foremost amongst feature requests and keep that hope alive. What I would like to suggest is a little more pragmatism and a little less quixotic idealism might be in order after five years, but more importantly it would be nice to not have dozens of new threads on the same subject year after year.

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#10

That is my guess.

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#11

An idea to help prevent multiple threads popping up is to have a “Custom Public Lobbies: Should they Return?” thread set up that we can all post in. Yes this is something that should be in a wishlist thread but like you said, that hasn’t stopped dozens of threads showing up in the past.

Let’s wait and see what happens come launch day and whether or not an acceptable substitute has been implemented. If not, I don’t mind creating a thread (with as neutral an opening post as possible) that we can keep posting in for the next 2 years :wink:

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#12

Didn’t they try to push Leagues like that once for FM6?

No thanks, I’m pretty reluctant to accepting substitutes at this point.

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#13

We already have one of those, its called a wishlist.

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#14

Wishlists aren’t for discussion however.

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#15

I’ll take the wet trout daddy… Seriously though I could care less about custom public lobbies. That’s what groups are for. Custom lobbies would just end up with a whole ton of lobbies with one or two guys enforcing their rule set on everyone else and spreading the player base thinner. Not a popular opinion I know but it just created confusion in Horizon 1 in my opinion and those custom lobbies were a mess.

-k

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#16

My experience with Horizon 1 is quite different. Even today I can fire up that game, start a custom lobby and in 10 minutes the lobby is full. The issue with more advanced games like FM6 is that we now have even more customizable options (awesome) but no real way to get players into our lobbies to play the customized game we have created. The “looking for group” idea is a fail. No one has time or patience for that. As I stated previously I can fill a room in 10 minutes using a custom lobby. And its all players I have never met. Custom lobbies help to solve the paywall track problem and the mid PI car problem. Ex: I can set up a lobby to race P1 GTR vs FXXK. Custom lobbies need to return. One thing I loved back when xbox one was being announced is the community letting MS know that digital only games were not acceptable. MS listened and changed their ways quickly. Money talks. I would gladly join an FM7 boycott until this feature is added. There are so many good racing games releasing this year I can wait. Petition anyone?

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#17

Just waiting for that wet trout I guess…
The issue is that I see cutom puclic hopper as the absolutely best way of making friends in this game
Playing with 4 guys in private lobby is quite boring even if we are roughly on the same level as drivers.
Playing with those 4 guys in public hopper lobby is just about as enjoyable as taking a hike on glass shards barefooted, and doing it often and regulary. And on top of that it’s relatively unlikely to find anyone from those public hoppers.

If there would be any form of clear reason why they arent there, like “We are using servers provided by company X, and their system does not support such system which would make it possible.” I would gladly accept it and then deal with it.
How ever for past 5 years I’d say 60% of the possible enjoyment of the franchise has been gone due to not having one of the key features we had in the past, and so far we dont really know why it’s gone.

Because of that lack of that one certain feature I was thinking that “it cant be that bad” when I eventually bought new TV, X1 and FM5 Just to play 1 single game.
Well it was much worse than I thought, but it was pre lauch game for X1 so not having everything was to be expected.
I hoped for the best in FM6, and pre-ordered it, but eventually I hardly played it due lack of 1 certain feature, as it was not very enjoyable after 5-6 months.
Now I’m seriouly thinking should I even buy FM7, as the rumor has it that the key feature of my enjoyment is still gone, and there isnt any reason for it to be gone as far as I know.
But I most likely end up buying it anyway, even though I know that after couple months there is not much enjoyment to be had.

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#18

So much this, it just hurts. FM5 got a pass for being rushed to launch but FM6 got awfully stale pretty quick even with the vast improvements from FM5. This is just my opinion but apart from the general lack of replay value we enjoyed from FM4, the game itself was too rewarding with the Wheelspins and Mods and it felt like what took weeks of progress in FM4 would take days or less in FM6. Therefore you reach the climax of the game’s enjoyable spectrum much quicker and stay there a lot less longer without fun post-game features like CPLs.

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#19

I believe it as something to do with MS and not T10, pretty much every racing game I have on Xbox one has no custom lobbies except for Pcars, which were patched in a few months after launching with none. On PS4 those same racing games have custom lobby lists to join though.

Imo, searchable custom lobbies is one of the most basic things to have in a racing game, it sad that a 2017 game still doesn’t have this.

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#20

Wagging the finger at T10 is a pointless exercise. If they could have done it they would have after five years of haranguing on here. Despite the modern ‘gotta have it all now, gotta have it all for nothing’ mentality reality is still slightly more difficult.

If you consider that the open public hoppers will once again have no real penalty system as well as the absence of custom lobbies you are, perhaps, looking at two sides of the same coin. T10 is wholly owned by MS. They are based at MS head office. Forza Motorsport is a flag bearer for xbox/gaming development. As such it is pushed out as a launch title and promotional tool.

This then, will dictate a number of factors that T10 must adhere to. Lets say: promote the latest usp for the xbox, maximise new user conquest sales, encourage active participation in online gaming, get that customer spend up on xboX/MS products. Thus public hoppers will be a come-one-come-all free for all. Just let it rip. The Forza leagues etc allows T10 to control the aspects of gameplay they want you to use or experience.

T10, however worthy they are (and theres no disputing they seriously graft hard) exists for one reason: to make money. They will approach it in whatever way MS want them to. Sentiments on the forum are vocal but in truth represent the tiniest minority of FM players. Compare our desires with a deluge of market research by MS and you will see which way things will always go ( thats why coming third suddenly started getting you gold).

Whingeing is pointless and frustrating. Accept new versions for what they are and either buy it or don’t. That is the only way T10 and MS will change their views. Happy playing.

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