I haven’t seen much discussion of this yet but in season 8 each week will see us using one car for each trial, which has to be stock. For instance, Season 8 Week 1 will see us all using a C579 RWD Merc 190E.
What do people think of this idea? Will it add some intrigue and difficulty to the trial? Is it going to prove too difficult if people are compelled to drive RWD?
I’m curious to see how well it works out. It could be fun. Will almost certainly be “interesting” lol…
Will the AI “play fair” or have “secret” PI boosts ? Will players be less “rammy” being forced to leave the rockets at home ? Will they remember how to brake and steer ?
I’m not opposed to RWD and sometimes prefer it but it will probably require some driving style changes. I kind of wish / wonder if we can “fine tune” stuff like tire pressure ? Might offer some small edge. Did I just spill a secret plan lol !
From memory, when they did the stock Caterham trial in FH4, you could change the settings which are adjustable with a stock build.
I like the idea but there are good odds that at least once I will forget to switch into MC 
Wish there was an opportunity to switch between races at least. There’s also a bug somewhat specific to my setup that causes clutch to open quick chat if I forget to do the workaround, which will probably also happen. These are usually not an issue since I’d typically bring AWD to the trial.
Hopefully the people who jump in without being able to drive RWD will leave during the first race. This might also feel like a step up in difficulty because the AI will be on the same PI, which hasn’t been the case since the last update.
It will definitely add a bit of intrigue and almost certainly a fair bit more difficulty.
My main worry is the AI going mad. These aren’t going to be fast cars so any AI speed boosts will be more problematic.
I like it. Used to do it for fun in old FM lobbies. It removes the mask of really good tunes and you get to appreciate the cars true intended characteristics in a competetive race.
Nice they picked a touring car legend too.
I like the idea too but can’t shake the feeling this is only happening because they knew they were going to ruin the difficulty of the usual Trials.
I’m all for it. I try to run stock as much as I can unless I’m forced into a tune, so this will be a nice change of pace.
Yeah, why not I say. It’s something a bit different at least. I can’t see how any racing game, even this anti-racing racing game, wouldn’t benefit from a series with homologation rules.
I will occasionally run a road Trial in a stock vehicle just to mix things up a bit, so I’m interested to see how it plays out.
(That wasn’t meant to be a direct reply to you Gilles)
I mostly like the idea. You’ll be able to see who on the team can actually drive and not just do well because they managed to snag a good tune.
But it could mean that the bad drivers who might normally show up in a stock car are able to keep up with the pack a little longer and cause even more havoc.
Even if you ‘snag a good tune’ you still need to have some skill in my experience. A good tune alone has not kept me from failing big time in cases where I wasn’t concentrated enough.
You need some skill. But with tunes being unequal, a worse driver can finish better than better driver.
In itself true. I do think however that the real better drivers are also the ones creating or finding the best tunes. I’m mediocre at both I guess.
I’m going to approach it with an open mind. Personally I don’t currently seeing any reason to be hopeful. I’ve run the trial a few times this season and had a couple of team losses. There’s been too many players not able to keep up even with a 45 point PI advantage. The rally trial was better but I still saw many not able to seemingly beat the drivatars well with the players’ PI advantage.
I won’t run the Caterham trial in FH4 again. It’s taken too many attempts so I stopped trying. Tuning the stock car even if only tire pressure is available will be a good idea. It did help me with the Caterham trial. I don’t think this is part of the racing knowledge base of most players. If it is “stock” cars how many will look for a tune? How will this advantage get to the trial players?
I don’t mean to only be negative but I can’t think of any actual in game experience that makes me expect anything different. I would love to hear positive experiences about the Caterham trial or other strictly stock Horizon trial running.
One of the issues I have with some of the lighter cars such as the Caterham (one of my favourite “real life” cars) is it is so easily knocked out of contention by some of the heavier cars that see the Caterham as a target and try to ram it off the road. I keep saying that FH5/4/3/2/1 are arcade games and should not be confused with racing simulator games. The type of track/road behaviour permitted in this game would see drivers banned for life in the real world and heavily penalised in racing simulators. It’s a pity that FH5 doesn’t impose simulated damage on vehicles once the player reaches a certain level of competency. Newbies should be allowed a grace period for excessive damage, but I think being able to smash cars beyond the point of destruction without penalty detracts from the game. More experienced players should be penalised for poor/bad driving by having damage imposed to level the playing field, so to speak. I know there’s an option to simulate damage, but I doubt if anyone uses it - I don’t for the very reason that others don’t. But I have to keep reminding myself that FH5 is just an arcade game and not a racing simulator. I have other games for that.
Sometimes the AI seems easier to beat when you go stock. In any case, this is a slightly more interesting restriction than the usual car and class and I don’t mind… but personally I’d like to see more involved restrictions like FWD cars with 4 cylinder engines.
I think they should use stock for the AI but let the players upgrade and tune as much as they want.
That’s what they’ve done the last few weeks and it’s obviously way too easy.
Making the ai easier makes up for the wasters you get for team mates so they can keep doing it as far as im concerned, i just want the 10 points for unlocking reward cars and the easier the better.
Some cars are quite manageable, others are virtually undriveable at stock.
I like it when alot of people have to do it a few times. That to me the test of a good challenge.