Compete in Featured Multiplayer or relax with your friends in Private Lobbies. This is how we’re approaching multiplayer in Forza Motorsport.
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New ML AI :
New Physics :
FEATURED MULTIPLAYER
For the next delivery in the Forza franchise, we have invested more in the multiplayer experience than in any other aspect of the game.
One of the biggest things we've added to multiplayer in Forza Motorsport is a live, real-world time-based mode of pre-defined live events we call Featured Multiplayer. It's designed to have the feel of a real-world race weekend, with races scheduled to begin at specific real-world times. This new online racing mode consolidates the Hoppers and Leagues modes from previous games.
Featured Multiplayer has spec events for different car divisions like GT cars, LMP1 cars and Touring cars, open class and spotlight events, as well as a qualifier series for our new players. Each event has an entry cut-off and official start time , running live on our servers, and before entering , you will see the track layout, number of laps, time-of-day, weather, and temperature.
We intend for Featured Multiplayer to bring a sense of anticipation and spectacle, just as we see for real life racing events. And as racing weekends tend to have, there will be an Open Practice stage and Qualifying rounds for races in Featured Multiplayer:
Open Practice:
Make the most out of your prep time here in Open Practice: get to know the car track combo and dial in your tire compound selection and fuel load. You will have anywhere between 5 and 20 minutes or more to get your practice laps in and Qualify depending upon when you joined the event.
Qualify:
At any time before the Featured Race you can jump into the Qualify session. You will have a limited number of laps to put in your best lap. Your best time will determine your starting position at the beginning of the Featured Race.
You can join an event anytime during Open Practice or Qualifying, up to 5 minutes prior to the Featured Race, and then entry for that event closes for new participants. When you join an event, you start in Open Practice with up to 23 other players.
Skip Lap will also be available in Featured Multiplayer in both the Open Practice and Qualifying phases of a scheduled event. In essence, when you think you messed up a lap, you can use Skip Lap to start it all over again. You can access this feature from the start menu.
Using Skip Lap during Qualifying will make your current lap void and you will have to start over with reduced number of laps you have to attempt your best time.
We'll generally have at least one event available to join in each series in Featured Multiplayer at any time with new events starting roughly every 30 minutes. Parameters for each event will be varied, with different tracks, weather, and time of day, and rotate through multiple series.
There are two different types of events in Featured Multiplayer –
Spec Series and Open Series.
Spec Series
Spec racing is fully homologated to ensure an even playing field. That means all the cars racing are identical and have been tuned by us to provide the fairest and most competitive experience possible.
You can still earn CarXP from Spec Series events to level up your car later, however for these events you will not be at a disadvantage if your car is Level 1 and an opponent car is at Level 50 – if you're playing in the Spec series, they will be set to a pre-defined build and tune to keep a completely even challenge.
Open Series
Open Series is where you can bring any car that meets the class restrictions. This series is about bringing your mild to wild creations to the competition and you'll never know what is going to be on the track with you. The Open Series will be rotating through the various car classes on a weekly basis.
Featured Multiplayer also includes a variety of pitting features, adding in the element of managing your tire compounds and fuel loads for optimal performance. In shorter races there is no need to pit, however in longer races it may be necessary to change tires or refuel, and we'll even have some races that require it.
While you're racing, we want to make sure our players are having a fun and fair experience, so we've massively overhauled Forza Race Regulations. FRR has evolved immensely since Forza Motorsport 7 thanks to machine learning. It now identifies track cutting, purposeful collisions and all-around dirty driving, going from being able to identify hundreds of potential infractions in Forza Motorport 7 to thousands in the new Forza Motorsport. Players will receive penalties and race disqualifications based on the severity of incidents.
Matchmaking in Featured Multiplayer uses both your Driver and Safety Rating to pair you with similar players. Driver Ratings are skill-based, while Safety Ratings are influenced by on-track behavior. With Safety Ratings, players are graded for clean racing from S to F, and it means clean, skilled racers play together, while racers with a history of unsportsmanlike conduct are kept isolated in their own pool.
PRIVATE MULTIPLAYER
For more custom races, compete in Private Multiplayer and choose from a variety of game modes like Circuit Race, Timed Race, Multi-Class and Meetups. The host can customize the race length, the car class and track selection, as well as the race rules.
Event rule presets are where you can choose the kind of racing you want to prioritize, from a relaxed race with limited penalties and no race strategy, to a competitive event with strict penalties, required pit-stops, and simulated damage.
Organizers can use Private Lobbies to host authentic endurance races with race strategy, Forza Race Regulations, 24-hour dynamic time-of-day with weather, track temperatures, and rubbering in, all of which can be customized. Other options include collisions on/off, ghosted back markers, disabled ghost effect, cosmetic or simulated damage, grid ordering, roll off delay, and so on. Assist overrides can be enabled to dial in the specific gameplay for your race.
Private multiplayer lobbies are not affected by Safety Ratings or by Driver Ratings; in the same way, matches in lobbies do not affect your overall Safety and Driver Ratings.
UPGRADED CARS IN MULTIPLAYER
We want players to feel more of a sense of pride of ownership or accomplishment in Forza Motorsport when they show up for a race with a specific car. So that's why we have our car upgrade system built into the entire game – you earn progression on your car when you play Builders Cup, Free Play, Rivals, and multiplayer. We also think this introduces an element that is like how real-life racing works – you spend time in research and development making your car better for the upcoming race.
We want you to have fun with this system, empower your fellow community members, and engage their creativity. For example, if your team is preparing for an upcoming league race organized by a community group, you can host a Private Meetup where everyone tries out specific cars and builds them together.
To assist with this, we've reduced the credit cost of acquiring cars – the most expensive car now is now in the hundreds of thousands instead of millions of credits as it was in Forza Motorsport 7.
We know this is a big change from how Forza Motorsport has been in the past, but we think it will bring more elements of real-world racing into the game experience overall and make it more impressive and noteworthy when someone shows up to a non-spec multiplayer race with a fully upgraded car.
RIVALS
Rivals in Forza Motorsport is where you're invited to really push yourself and the car to shave off every possible millisecond on a selected car and track combination.
Time Attack will be available at launch, where you can build a car to the best of your chosen PI class and attempt to set the fastest possible time. Just like Builders Cup, the cars you bring into Time Attack are always levelling up.
Rivals now includes a Skip Lap option for when you quickly wish to restart. You'll also be able to identify which corners and track segments you are losing the most time on with Track Mastery sector scoring.
HOW AI DRIVES FORZA MOTORSPORT
How do AI controlled cars get around a track in Forza Motorsport? There are two components at play; the AI controller and the driving line. The AI controller is how the game uses throttle, brake and steering inputs to move a car around the track. The driving line is the path that the AI controller follows.
To create AI opponents as fast as the fastest human drivers, we had to do it without any cheats, hacks, and rubber banding. These often cause racing incidents for players and unrealistic competition. We also needed to reduce aggressive driving behavior to ensure cleaner, more competitive racing. Therefore, in Forza Motorsport we have evolved the Drivatar system to use machine learning. It no longer replicates the driving behavior of your friends; however, it still pulls in their cars, drivers and customizations.
Our new AI controller has mastered every possible car and track combination with car upgrades and weather conditions factored in. New optimal driving lines define the desired path an AI car takes through the corner, ideal braking points, and target entry and exit speeds. The computer drives each track 26,000 times to achieve the fastest line through every layout! Just like actual players, the AI also uses a lot more of the track – pushing out to the track limits and even onto the curbs.
The new AI can make mistakes; however, these scenarios are not scripted. Instead, they will make natural mistakes like real humans do, such as braking too late and going wide or even off track. Players can scale the AI difficulty from 1-8 with 8 considered "unbeatable." Everyone can learn from the skills and driving professionalism of the AI to find the best driving lines and braking points.
These AI opponents lead to clean, tight and thrilling racing in Forza Motorsport. We will continue to fine-tune and improve the AI behavior overtime based on our data and player feedback.
MASTER THE CURBS WITH IMPROVED TIRE PHYSICS
We've already told you that the physics leap in Forza Motorsport is bigger than Forza Motorsport 5, 6 and 7 combined. This 48x improvement in tire fidelity results in a more fun and rewarding driving experience with how the car accelerates, corners, and brakes.
Previous Forza Motorsport games had only a single point of tire contact on the surface that moved at 60 cycles per second. This was problematic for curbs and rumble strips which could cause inconsistencies and unrealistic changes in suspension forces. This could also lead to tires briefly losing contact with the ground as they rolled over bumps resulting in unrealistic loss of traction.
Our new tire physics has 8 points of contact with the track surface running at 360 cycles per second. This allows tires to find grip on any type of uneven surface. The result is better drivability everywhere and realistic behavior on uneven surfaces like curbs.
CHOOSE YOUR TIRE COMPOUND
Forza Motorsport features a variety of tire compounds to support great racing and different types of competition across several decades of production cars and race cars.
Production cars will have the option to use Street, Performance, Race, or Drag tires along with the Wet tire. The Race tire is further broken into three separate compounds – Soft, Medium, and Hard. Each compound has different grip and wear characteristics. The Soft compound has the most grip, but wear out the fastest making it ideal for a Qualifying tire. The Hard compound has the least grip, but lasts the longest making it ideal for longer stints without having to pit for new tires.
There is also a Vintage tire that is used for classic cars, but it is not a selectable tire for other cars.
We've also dialed in the tire heat model. The biggest change is in the grip fall off at extreme tire temperatures. There is a much smoother fall off as tires reach higher temperatures, which allows for better drivability and predictability even when you are overdriving your tires.
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