amar212 said:
Stupid question, I'm sorry in advance:
So, there is NO WAY I can search other people Private Lobbies in order to find some Lobby that have races tailored to my taste?
Or?
Already been answered with "no" but I have to say that multiplayer was one area that I thought FM3 would have been at least as good as FM2 if not better.
Having just recently taken a look at the online modes and options I feel that they dropped the ball in this area.
Limited hoppers are one thing...not having B-F classes on the Circuit hoppers was one of the craziest things I could ever fathom happening. Whoever thought of that was probably drunk at the time. :lol
Not being able to search custom lobbies are another...especially when Cat & Mouse/Tag modes aren't part of any hoppers. How is a person supposed to enjoy these modes?
These hopper issues will be fixed but the lack of a custom lobby search was very shortsighted. I didn't think it was that big of a deal until I saw the level of customization allowed and I would have valued having a search ability. This likely will never be addressed in a patch.
This and unfortunately System Link/LAN play will probably won't be stuff high on T10's priority list I fear. When I think they should be very high.
In my eyes those things are as disappointing as how I'm disappointed that non-serious race modes were added at the expense of more serious race modes. Cat & Mouse and Tag might be great diversions but I'd rather that more relevant MP features like qualifying trials and better elimination modes be added instead.
I get the impression that T10 focused too much on "hoppers" and not innovating in this area.
I was expecting T10 to take their very competent online MP from FM3 and then just add more features that make it more worthwhile.
Qualifying would not only be more realistic but would also make races better. How? Well how many times are we seeing people online mess up on particular corners if not the first when they hop into a new car? Qualifying would allow players to get a handle of the car on the track. When it comes to the race itself people will drive better and it lends itself to a more competitive race. Not saying this should be mandatory but it should at least be an option for those who want a more authentic experience.
And it's not like that is unfeasible. It's like running a race with collisions off and with the opponents no longer being visible. No need for F1 level of rules here. Allow the host to set the max number of laps and when it's done report the results and start the real race with racers in the correct order. No extra loading involved. Even if the qualifying lap was just one lap with a rolling start it would have been an incredible addition to MP.
A "track day" feature could have made a great lobby. Friends can jump in and do laps while the host sets up what sort of race comes next. If you are waiting on people then you can just zip around the track rather than sit in a lobby. Che said that "hoppers are the future" and I'm not saying he's wrong but I think that this sort of interactive lobby is the future.
The elimination mode had potential. If elimination was based on time or distance behind the leader or the guy currently in 2nd last rather than simply knocking off the last guy in a race at each start/end it would be much more exciting. A race like that could last minutes or a half hour or more depending on the skills of the participants. It would be more like a street race. This is the bread and butter of some arcade games...who's to say that it won't be popular in Forza? It's still racing. Moreso than Cat & Mouse. I figured that this would have been possible but after looking at the options myself it doesn't seem to be. Could have been brilliant.
The lack of a rolling start option...not a deal breaker for me personally but the lack of it does show that maybe this multiplayer component was rushed. It's not in the single player either which is ironic because the whole standing start aspect of the game has suffered.
The lack of system link means that I won't be playing much multiplayer. The features I mentioned above like a better elimination mode and qualifying trials aren't deal breakers for me but they were the sorts of things that I was expecting to be built upon a pretty solid base that we saw in FM2. I don't think any of us expected this game to regress in this area.
This is from someone's sig on FM.net and it's just so apt for this discussion:
Being the huge PGR2 fan that I am I took it around the ring once and had a huge grin on my face the entire time. ILL AFFORD YOU ONE OF THESE DAYS... ONLY 1,1MILLION CREDITS TO GO.
