Yeah i think cross country events are harder than road racing and dirt racing (and i even set many top10 rivals time in fh3 cross country tracks). But i think street scene events ai drivers gets more boost than any other races. One thing what effects lots in cross country events is that ai drivers dont lose any speed in hills or fences etc.
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This is 100% about tuning and driving style. Yes there are the occasionally poorly designed jumps here and there (ones that if you hit a slightly wrong angle at high speed, you get sent outside of the checkpoint), but for the most part, if you’re having trouble racing Offroad™ then it’s a matter of vehicle tuning and driving style.
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I also find that cross country seems significantly more difficult than other event types. Cars are a lot more difficult to control when bouncing around offroad and many of the tracks have ridiculous jumps as well that can very easily ruin your race if not taken just right (I use rewind a lot). On top of that, the AI cheats and seems to be able to control their car in the air so they can almost always land jumps perfectly, has better handling on the bumps and better traction in general, and isn’t slowed down as much by smashing fences and driving through water/mud/snow.
Tearing across the countryside in an offroad vehicle is great fun, but the events themselves generally aren’t so much. One workaround to make them easier is to play them with a class that’s exclusively RWD road cars (like any of the muscle car classes) and tune yours with AWD and rally upgrades and the events will be significantly easier since the drivatars will now have completely unsuitable vehicles for the race to counteract their cheating ways. Lower PIs (A or lower) are also significantly easier since the car won’t go airborne quite so easily and will follow the terrain better.
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The AI has more assists in Cross Country. But you can make up for it by having a good build and honing your skills at such events.
I’m not sure if this is true, perhaps an expert can chime in and give their two cents, but IMO a heavier vehicle tends to do better in these races, because you’re less vulnerable to obstacles and the water slows you down less. Also, AI vehicles won’t bump you off the road as easily. It might be the opposite when doing time trials, as speed will be the only thing that matters, but Cross Country events are races of attrition and you’ll want to have a dependable vehicle that can take all the abuse thrown at it.
And I wouldn’t consider a flywheel upgrade to round off PI in these cars either.
I love cross country, but cross country is also more sensitive to poor tuning and upgrade choices.
PI things that hurt vs help. Comment above touches on one such.
A heavier flywheel and driveshaft is a huge benefit in cross country. It prevents the engine from suddenly peaking as you bounce and lose momentary traction. So heavier means better consistent power application.
Clutch as well. Heavier clutch can smooth out shifts, but not as much of an effect on traction, though still can a bit.
Try and avoid high boost turbocharging. The peaking as you off and on throttle or float the rev range can cause issues.
Tires. Low air pressure to suck up the rough stuff. Also try and avoid narrow sidewalls. One I need to test more is tire width. Usually narrow is nice for mud and to prevent scrub steer… Not sure how much forza simulates for that.
Springs. Softness matched to weight. A light vehicle bounces, heavier floats. Balance steering and braking with straight lines.
Jumps… with the engine smoothed in power application, most jump issues are hindered by the driver. Downshift to get speed appropriate for landing.
But with all that, at times the cross country can still be painfully brutal. The issues tend to come at start of race actually. The races are short, but the initial bump and rub can hold you off enough thast pole sitters are just gone without enough track to catch. AI cross country does take bad lines usually though.
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I got into CC most easily when I first started the game. Still the most fun I’ve had.
Like in other series, you really have to try different vehicles & tunes to find out what works best. Vehicles with similar stats & tunes can handle entirely differently.
That CC Lvl4 2016 Jeep Trailcat reward is among the first decently reliably beastly vehicles best suitable for use in CC & Dirt. I haven’t even tried user created tunes & I can easily get to and maintain first place.
More practice in CC & trying different vehicles has helped a lot. The more I’ve been acquainted with the tracks & vehicle handling, the less I’ve had to use rewind.
From time to time in all series, I do find a nice vehicle or 2 & enough familiarity with the track or area of the map where I can make it through races without using rewind.
I have found that when I don’t play one series or another for some time & come back, my skills are a bit rusty. When that occurs, I’ll warm up in a couple races before I raise the difficulty or hop into multiplayer.
I usually find Cross Country to be easier. Except for buggies.
I have no problem winning road races on pro. on cross country I set it to novice and finish 12th. I refuse to set it to new racer
note: I only race stock tunes and upgrades
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Cross Country feels designed around upgrades. It’s gonna be difficult to win in an International Scout with stock engine when the AI can cheat with speed and different builds.
However, running lower-class Cross Country still seems very fun. I just did a race with my Range Rover, C600 and offroad tires. It doesn’t even make it to 200 kph but, with all those bumps, there’s simply no need. It sticks to the course like glue anyway.
Trucks like the Raptor will always feel nice in stock form, though, as they have plenty of speed.
I’ve noticed the Drivatars cheat a lot in cross country events. They cut checkpoints, have odd speed boosts, they’re not slowed by water, they race like they’re on rails and they get a ridiculous launch off the line. It’s annoying because it’s unfair, i’ve also noticed weight doesn’t mean anything in this game because according the Playground a Dodge Ram can beat a Huracan off the line and keep up with it at top speed. It’s the most ridiculous, unbalanced Forza i’ve played so far.
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As true as most of this is, Drivatars get reset after they miss a checkpoint, just like players.
I love Cross Country, and I know it has flaws, but that complaint is just not valid anymore like it was in Forza Horizon 3.
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And they miss those checkpoints because while some of them stick to the line like glue, others seem to be DUI.
They’re also slowed by water, which is most noticeable when you have sufficient clearance and they don’t. Of course, if one is in, say, a Huracan while the AI is in a Dodge Ram then the AI will likely not be slowed as much as the player.
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The Huracan was in a road race where anything goes, it caught up with my car when it should have been miles behind. As for drivatars getting reset when they miss checkpoints, that doesn’t happen and if it does i haven’t seen it. Every time i’ve seen them skip a checkpoint they’ve carried on like nothing happened, it’s unfair and it needs to be fixed.
To answer your question. No, not more difficult than other disciplines, to me.
Cross Country difficulty will vary a lot depending on your car. You’ll find it much easier in Offroad/Extreme Offroad/Buggies that can handle the jumps. Anything else will be a potential struggle, especially at S-ranks.
As someone who normally wins every cross country race against “unbeatable” AI some advices:
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in general the higher and heavier your car the better it’ll perform. Height helps with low obstacles like the stone walls, helps with surfaces like snow, mud & water and absorbs bumps better. More weight greatly helps against obstacles. The Unimog for example doesn’t care at all.
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the driving style varies to road racing because on surfaces like snow or wet grass the car more or less “slides” through turns. So you need to know how your car behaves and get it into a correct slide for the upcoming turn. Once it slides there is not much you can do to correct the line - aside from breaking which costs a lot of time.
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tire width is king.
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Try to not fall too far behind the leading AI cars because above a certain distance the AI doesn’t care about obstacles or different surfaces anymore. Thus, making it impossible to catch up.
As seen here I lost too much ground to the leader because of a crash at the big jump. After that he completely ignored the snow or obstacles and just went off.
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I have Parkinson’s disease which makes all the racing difficult but cross country is just impossible even at the easiest settings.
I just take my loss and move on. I don’t think that the developers took people with disabilities into account when making this discipline
For me, the thing that makes CC so difficult is that the driving line disappears into the terrain. Smooth grass I am fine, but when going though brush, trees, fences, etc I have to glance at the mini-map to see where the course goes because the driving line is too obstructed to see. It would be nice if the line was elevated off the ground so it is still visible. As long as I can stay on a decent path and hit the checkpoints, I am usually on the podium with above average difficulty and sometimes highly skilled.
In my experience Cross Country are more difficult with the most AI problems. Rubber banding, 1st car running away with unrealistic speed, perfect grip and landing, etc. Additionally many of the races seem to favor specific cars. If for example for Offroad class if you do not use a Ford F-150 just don’t bother. The devs have been sold like a politician to a lobbyist and Ford must be giving them the best bribes to have the most cars in the game and to stack the deck to favor Fords for many of the races. Rally monsters, same thing, use a an RS200 or give up. Any race that a Ford is favored either use the Ford or set it to New Racer and still take the chance of losing.
I’m so glad that the franchise is over 10 years old and the AI still has the exact same issues it has had since day one, but we have hundreds of cars with 60fps at 4k and hundreds of players online and of course the auction house, so who really cares about, you know, actual game play? /sarcasm off.
Don’t get me wrong I love the game and the franchise, I just wish they would spend resources on actual game play improvements instead of catering to the crowd that thinks this is a business simulator for auctioning cars or a design studio that can’t update the painting tools because then old files wouldn’t be compatible.
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I play on pro and while it provides a significant challenge, i usually win. Sometimes it takes a restart or two by mistake or the AI ridiculous “dont care physics” the first 2-3 pulls away thus makes you impossible to catch up.
But the buggies, they are the plague of offroad for me. I’m considering myself an average driver, and i drive without any assists, the only thing that isn’t turned on is the clutch for manual. I suppose turning the handling from sim to normal would help to dampen some effects but the buggies feel very unpredictable. Bigger jumps are very dicey, even if you take it perfectly, you might spin out when you land.
The AI doesn’t make mistakes (not the first 2-3 at least), so its very frustrating when you leading the race in the last lap(s), you take that jump perfectly, crash and the AI just flies past you and you need to restart (again).
But to say something positive too, it doesn’t apply to every race. Many of them are actually easier because simply you can take some turns where the AI brakes with full throttle, cut corners, or if you are very frustrated take a different racing line and slam the AI on the side to take the corner (i don’t do the last one online :D).
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