New to Forza

I really like this Forza 4 racing game and would like to try racing online. My concern is that I crash into other cars a lot and believe that this will not be appreciated or tolerated with online racing.
Am I correct?

You are very correct that it will not be appreciated. If it happens often like you say, people are going to assume you are a wrecker (someone who purposely smashes other people) and chances are you will get voted out of the lobby. If you enjoy this game and want to continue playing it for awhile, you definitely don’t want to get a reputation as a wrecker. My advice would be to get better playing offline first until you can become a bit more consistent. Gradually increase the difficulty of the AI, gradually turn off the assists, play through the World Tour, etc. When you do feel comfortable enough to get through a race consistently without crashing into people and want to jump online, start out in the lower classes at first (S and below). These classes tend to have races that are a lot closer than the higher ones and you will have a lot better chance at finishing. Feel free to send me a friend request and I will gladly help you out with what I can if you ever have questions or anything. Happy racing!

Agree with SkyGod. Keep racing offline and just practice, practice, practice. Once you feel comfortable enough, then try your hand at online. Good luck!

Also, maybe it’s just from my experience, but if you run into something/someone, the resulting collision seems much more extreme/exaggerated that what would be expected. For instance, say you sideswipe someone - instead of slowing down and veering off course, your car will severely spin out to one side or another. Keep in mind, I don’t know if that’s normal or not, but the fact remains, it’s a much, much, MUCH better idea to try to drive cleanly and not be a jerk on the track. Another thing to keep in mind - the people online now, the majority of them have had this game for a couple years now. Expect tough competition. That said, I agree with everyone above me - simply practice a whole lot in single-player and once you feel comfortable, try your hand at a few races. Perhaps even start off at a lower car tier to get your bearings (like E, D, C, B). Oh, and it might not hurt to learn how to tune your car, or buy a recommended tuning kit (but you can wait till you’re more familiar with the game before worrying about that).

Best of luck out there!

Crashing into cars is a big no no. I actually feel like the “requirements” for racing online are actually pretty low. You don’t have to be a fast or even remotely competitive driver to participate… you DO have to be able to keep your car on the road and avoid hitting other players though.

Be patient, don’t try to win everytime, and just focus on staying clean. You’ll naturally get better, you can’t force it.

So on that note, keep it offline until you get a feel for how the cars / physics work and you have pretty good control over it. At that point you’ll be able to start some online races, you’ll find humans play very differently from AI so keep your eyes open and YIELD when they make a move. That last part can really only come from online experience.

You’ll find people can be VERY intolerant of wreckers or bashers… but they’ll also be able to recognize an honest mistakes too.

I agree wht everyone especially said all of it is true and if u do wrecks someone give then there spot back and send message saying sorry I been racing online a year I rank in x class at 327 and I practice everyday

I agree with everyone on here! There are other game formats online than just racing, like cat and mouse! It’s all about running in to someone if and when you are it. Maybe check in to that format!

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cum join nwbx we train u in getting faster we r rank 64 in x

I agree with what most have said here. With the exception of Khronokais’ last sentence. VERY FEW people recognize an honest mistake by another racer. If you just “rub” most players online, not even gaining a position, then cleanly passing that person half a lap later…9 times outta 10 that person you “rubbed” is going to blast you the first chance he gets, as if his car is not equipped with brakes AT ALL. AND 9 times outta 10 those people will continue to “wreck” you the remainder of the race. Even though you only “rubbed” him. My personal experience, the last few days online, 99 out of 100 people are like that. Other than that, these guys are spot-on. Also when ya do play online and someone wrecks you intentionally or just repeatedly, DO NOT retaliate. Report 'em, submit a negative review, and leave. Also, you being new here, if you need ANY help, hit me up. I have money that will never be spent.

Actually when you race Online in Public Lobbies, most of the crashing is done by other racers than yourself.

I do not race in Public Lobbies. I race in several racing leagues that use “Private” lobbies.

Going into a public lobby for the first time in a while yesterday was pretty shocking. My best advice for anyone ‘new’ wanting to race there is to be extremely careful. Do try to avoid body contact as it predominantly annoys people. It’s a shame that so many people in public racing have scant regard for ethics that we endorse here.

Equally you could avoid them altogether and as TomCat said above, try a racing series or league. I’d encourage this as the positive attitude of these leagues do make things more enjoyable. Most of the people there are good as gold and you’ll sure improve as a driver too, they definitely made me a better driver.

I would also like to add something. I’m learning how to not be a bruiser in World Tour and sometimes I fail. Of course the faster the cars are the more challenging this gets. Although a lot of the better cars have better brakes too. But regardless. But there have been a couple times in my World Tour that the computer seems to have hit me in the rear end. I don’t believe it was because I was doing something wrong, but I swear there were a few times that I got bumped by no other reason than bad driving on the AI. Is that possible?

I guess if it’s not possible it’s because I was taking a weird line. Sometimes though, these AI cars take a corner so slow it can be hard to AVOID contact. There have been numerous races where a hairpin has caused a few cars in front of me to be at a complete standstill for a moment. And I’m like, What the heck. I do my best to brake and avoid other cars. But it is not easy sometimes. I’m imagining if you get online, the other cars are going to be faster than the AI cars in the game and I may not bump as much. I don’t know. That could be a wrong assumption too.

Plus, when you’re racing, you have to take weird lines to actually pass the computer cars and sometimes that opens you up to being hit from behind from a car not taking a weird line. I do know that at times I’m at fault though and I need to get better. I’ve had a few races where I havehad no contact, but more times than not I’ve had some kind of contact in a race and I’m sure I need to be better.

The AIs are well documented to do stupid things, for sure! Sometimes if you hit an AI, rewind and try and get past cleanly, they randomly crash for no apparent reason!

Offline can be like that so no one can blame you if you occasionally bash the AIs! Sometimes it can be really good fun trying to make M Rossi last anyway!

It’s like that for all overtaking, and you have to make sure you have a viable chance of making it stick whilst not impeding other drivers. Some of my best overtakes have been in the most unorthodox places in awkward situations, I’m sure all of us here have stories to share. I wouldn’t fret about AIs, everyone here will have absolutely destroyed dozens of them in our Forza careers. It isn’t a big deal. We all know how to race so no one’s going to judge you if you kill some AIs :slight_smile:

That makes me feel better. I am trying really hard to not be a hack. Or “wrecker” and I know I have some skill. But part of all of that is just knowing the track, and how your car performs on the track. There are many times early in the game that I’d just go race without doing a hot lap or “preparing” mentally for a track. I eventually have started to try to figure out what car I want to use for the next race and practice with it. It helps a TON. I go blindly into the autocross set ups and the long winding road courses in Japan because I just don’t feel like trying to memorize 80 turns in one race. I don’t usually do real well in them either and I don’t really like them. There’s a reason Rally Racers take a passenger to tell them what’s up. I just don’t think I’m smart enough to memorize the curves on some of them longer rally type circuits.

Anyways… I’m glad to know that it might not just be me in the computer and that I might have a chance at clean racing online. I’m getting close to wanting to try. But I will most certainly start off in the slower cars.

It sounds like all you need is time. Time to learn the tracks, know how to tune and apply what you know to any given scenario, time driving and pushing yourself. It can take months or even years. It took me the best part of 3 and a half years to get where I am now and I consider myself lucky to meet who I’ve met and their wisdom certainly rubbed off on me!

After a while it all becomes second nature and you purely focus on how to go faster. How to gain that extra bit of time. You just analyse it and then execute your improvements.

I would go through the whole spectrum of cars because nothing will help ease the culture shock of making the jump to the R2/R1 class cars. I would encourage you to go for it. You could work your way up through S, R3 and R2 etc, or do what I did, threw caution to the wind and went in them as soon as I could! Whichever way you choose, you’ll have plenty of support from the community here. I can also give you plenty of help if you do decide to try higher classes.

thereafter, it’s just seat time.

in regards to the AI drivers, they have a contractual obligation to brake before any corner. If the suggested driving line goes red… THEY’RE BRAKING. I can be frustrating especially when M. Rossi tends to always get the faster car of the bunch and can run away from you on the straights. If you can anticipate their early braking, you can get some spectacular passes, and make it to the front pretty easily. Also, it’s been my experience that once you get out ahead of the AI, they don’t typically seem to come back to challenge you until midway through the last lap, that is if you’ve stayed out ahead.

As far as lobby racing, turn one is almost always a train wreck. For a few reasons too;

  1. Some yahoos just can’t believe that you can win a race if you don’t start on the pole position, so they try to steamroll their way to the front as soon as possible.
  2. Some yahoo say he has built his car for braking late and didn’t think others would need to brake so early.
  3. The guy who just picked the Audi Q5, Hummer H1, Jeep Cherokee … quite possibly were planning on wrecking the field as much as possible anyhow (<-- true wrecker).
  4. Because quite honestly, people are racing and the first turn is where everyone will clump up, thinking they probably see a hole through the mess, when suddenly there’s a car there.
  5. Lastly, people ‘avoiding’ accidents can cause bigger accidents. For example, you’ve built a car that has a good launch, AND you got lucky to be on the pole position. Light goes green everyone goes… the guy in second place had a better launch and gets out ahead of you. Turn one comes, he starts braking, you realize you need to brake so that you don’t bulldoze your way into him. So you stab your brakes… you didn’t/couldn’t see that there were two fellas at your back, each looking to try to cut to either side of you once the corner came. You stab your brakes to avoid plowing into 1st place, your car nose dives and decelerates faster than the two behind you can account for… WHAM WHAM, and mayhem ensues.

So how to avoid the bedlam of turn one? Two ways, either ensure that your first, or last. Ensuring your first is extremely difficult, A: the simple rule that there’s always someone faster, B: because if you tune every car for the mythic launch of the gods, the rest of the course you won’t be able to do much. After all you only launch at the beginning and after crashing. Making sure your last (or almost last) means that either you slow down WAY before the turn waiting for the shenanigans to take part and then find a way post them, or just hang back a turn or turn to let the crowd thin themselves out a bit. This might mean sidelining yourself if you land further up in the starting line up. There’s the racers whose names are almost household names (Groovier you may not know them yet, but you’ll soon start to notice who I’m talking about). It only takes 2-3 races to notice who the room savant is. They’re the one who is at the top of your distance behind list and is thousands of feet ahead of you and maybe can be seen waiting at the finish line being gracious to the slower chaps in the room. In a particularly full room, I’m watched “that guy” on the pole position immediately pull off into the grass the moment the light goes green. There’s different reasons that they might be doing that, but one easy one to guess is to avoid the mayhem at turn one. Another easy one, would be to give themselves more of a challenge. If they start on pole and know that they typically beat the whole pack, having to work their way through the pack is more difficult.

It’s something I’ve adopted, if I’m trying a car and don’t know how it’s going to work in a room, I’ll hang back at the beginning of a race. On occasion this has proven to be a spectacularly effective strategy. Turn one mayhem happens and on look that yahoo in the American muscle just bulldozed everyone off the course and I can take the turn cleanly all by myself.

If you have a mic, “I’m sorry, my bad” is far more immediate and (for the reasonable racer) more quickly forgiven. However, after 3-4 “I’m sorry’s” people will get tired of it anyways. So then there’s other non-verbal forsm of apology. If you bump someone and they go flying off course while you are able to stay on course, it’s nice to try to stop and wait for them to get back on their way. Two things can happen here, if you and another driver were having an intense battle for position and mid turn there was an accidental bump, pulling over and waiting for them allows the battle to continue. Continuing on makes the bump seem definitely malicious , “oh so he bumped me for position” the other driver says to himself. Some crashes are simply race ending, no the car isn’t demolished beyond use, but when you were already in the back half of the pack and now you’re out in left field, there’s absolutely no chance of finishing, much less of winning at all.

There are also rooms that are actually designed for more hitting… like the lobbies for Soccer, Tag, Virus, and the multi class lobbies. I personally haven’t raced in anything other than those events that are actually races, but the multiclass lobby ABCs… so long as there are at least 3-4 non-AI racers, the server fills the classes with AI racers. Will other drivers get upset with you for hitting them? Yeah maybe, but in my case the other night, there was a full field of 16 cars racing, and while I raced only 4-6 of them were real. So smashing into an AI driver wasn’t near as socially damning.

I personally wouldn’t suggest simply avoiding the lobbies. If for no other reason then if you want to become better, hang out with them who are. nice folks will aid you makes suggestions. If you have some people who are friends and who race online, make a private room with them. If they know that you’re just getting into it, they (hopefully) will be more understanding if you smash into them. Another thing they might do is something I do when I race with my sons. I’ll let them pick ANY CAR they want, F to R1 (and my one X-class car on occasion). I’ll pick a car that’s a couple classes below them. My older son is getting better and is starting to turn off assists, so instead I only pick a class below.

If nothing else, add me as a friend and we’ll do some private lobbying. msg’ing can be done over xbox glass is voice chat isn’t available.

Well i have about 3 years of Forza experience online and about 1 week offline. As soon as i started playing Forza in Forza 3 i new i wanted to be online straight away. I would strongly recommend you get yourself online and start learning. To get better you need competition. Competition drives us and gives us the determination to get better because, lets face it, nobody likes to lose. Even the very best players will get better through finding more intense competition. Don’t think about winning and losing just yet. Focus on improving your lap times but get online so you can see what’ll cut it. There’s nothing better than racing against real people.

everytime I race in public lobby I lost several races when I am leading a slower lap cars wrecks me and lose the race

I got FM4 at the beginning of 2012 and only have been online a couple of times (just recently and about a month or so ago). I mostly hot lap so I’m not use to sharing the track with others, which is one reason I have stayed offline for so long. I don’t want to accidentally crash into or run someone off the track. I also don’t have a mic for my wheel and I can’t drive worth a poo with a pad, but it was a lot of fun.

Deeps again, I might have to respond in the other thread but wouldn’t it be neat if we could set up some vintage racing events??? Can a person host a race? I don’t have servers and all that but I do have the 250 gig xbox.