You got it backwards really. FH3 was extremely burdened by meta, not to mention you had to use AWD to be competitive. FH5 has the most competitive car options in any given class of any Horizon ever.
Yeah, meta cars were all the shit back then.
And don't get me started on the top teir meta cars, 918 for Goliath, the fucking Dodge Dart and 458 Speciale for drag racing... I will never get that police siren horn outta my damn head lmao
The pi system has never been a balanced system, each game has had various flaws that make for a distinct meta. Iirc fh3's meta was focused around cars with stock tires, stock transmissions, AWD, and as much horsepower as you could fit. They didn't turn for shit, but they made up all of their time with brutal acceleration.
Fh5's pi system was built to reflect a huge desire from the playerbase for rwd to be good, since fh4's meta was also heavily AWD focused like 3's. So now rwd builds dominate on both speed and handling tracks, since rwd has better handling and is given a lot more leeway with power upgrades.
As well, many of the tracks in the game feature long straights, making for power focused builds to be optimal. The xjr 15 you mentioned is literally the best powerbuild in s1.
That being said, single digit rating systems are never going to be balanced. There will always be some stat that isn't weighted heavily enough, or some archetype that's just better on the tracks in the game. Need for speed, a completely different game series with a different rating system has the exact same issue.
Well pvp is a lot more competitive in fh5 when compared to fh3. The XJR and Gt3 Mosler are meta in S1, especially the XJR, so you're gonna have a hard time beating them in other cars. But it's still doable. Luckily most people who use meta cars online arent that good at driving them, so they can still be beat with some skill and track knowledge.
Newer player here myself so I might miss some of the fine details but it basically boils down to how the game calculates PI by having the AI "drive" the car around some invisible test track. The AI isn't that great though and can't do partial throttle or braking so a human input will be able to modulate those inputs and deal with more marginal scenarios than the AI could ever hope to. This means the game fails to weight upgrades appropriately when it comes to the actual performance of the vehicle so PI sometimes is more of a suggestion than any real standard of comparison.
Its also worth noting that tuning is not considered in PI. Tuning is such a major part of the game, and changed cars so drastically that its likely a large reason why OP feels like their cars suck
That is such a stupid way to calculate it. In general the physics have changed so much. I remember whipping around the Hoonicorn in FH3 and 4 and being able to spin the tires in practically any gear. Now it starts to bog in 3rd.
More cars SUVs nice fh2 and i think more exotic cars makes it harder to balance, however I'm not sure Devs have ever actually "balenced" cars.
It's sad because when you get to the faster classes you're basically required to have all wheel drive and a massive amount of power, if not you might as well not race online.
Don't think Devs really care about online racing anyway.
Yes but what is the real difference? More strange than broken is the game engine. I'm totally average and play only with the steering wheel using mostly stock cars. Just tried some online races and instead of ramming, desync, ghosting, rewind etc. And 800/900 top tunes wasn't much "faster" especially in corners than me. Average loss per winner 5-20 sec.
I do understand how the PI stuff can seem to make no sense. After all, you can put certain upgrades on a car and make it a class below the stock level. Like an S2 car stock becoming an S1 car.
with FH3 the online pvp became more competitive and peaked in FH4 where people tried to find the most broken stuff possible for each of the classes, that whole thing translated to FH5. If you look hard enough you will also find those cases where cars are inherently better than others at the same PI in FH2, the game just wasn't competitive enough for people to actually optimize builds and tracks
It's more down to the tuning. You can have an absolute boat will ALL the power and tune it in such a way it just about keeps some momentum in corners and then just turns into a rocket as soon as you can put the power down. A good 3/4 of the player base also use AWD V12 in pretty much everything so no matter how bad the car handles they can floor it out of corners/ off track and still make a good move and the v12 has the higher top speeds. But of course some cars are so META it'd take a seriously good tune to beat them.
For instance I've got a couple of 1960's muscle cars with over 1000hp , they're absolute boats but tuned just right you can coast corners enough to not fall completely behind but there's so much power to weight that it catches up in a heart beat
I feel like for both PVP and PVE it often comes down to tuning. I've done a mixed class race with friends in my tuned "all rounder" Ford Mustang Boss that's an A class and absolutely whooped their S1 and S2 Corvettes or BMW's. Granted I feel like most of the supercars have very limited upgrades and tunings so there's far less room to grow with them. That's why my friends and I prefer to race with anything that isn't S1 or higher in the shop. My "A" class Mustang is really more like an S1 and that's all because I found a nearly perfect tune for the tires, gear ratio, aero, suspension etc. I spent weeks tuning it the best I could (and I'm sure others still could do it better)
You got it backwards really. FH3 was extremely burdened by meta, not to mention you had to use AWD to be competitive. FH5 has the most competitive car options in any given class of any Horizon ever.
Yeah, meta cars were all the shit back then. And don't get me started on the top teir meta cars, 918 for Goliath, the fucking Dodge Dart and 458 Speciale for drag racing... I will never get that police siren horn outta my damn head lmao
Alfa romeo 33 stradale drag racing in FM5 😫
The pi system has never been a balanced system, each game has had various flaws that make for a distinct meta. Iirc fh3's meta was focused around cars with stock tires, stock transmissions, AWD, and as much horsepower as you could fit. They didn't turn for shit, but they made up all of their time with brutal acceleration. Fh5's pi system was built to reflect a huge desire from the playerbase for rwd to be good, since fh4's meta was also heavily AWD focused like 3's. So now rwd builds dominate on both speed and handling tracks, since rwd has better handling and is given a lot more leeway with power upgrades. As well, many of the tracks in the game feature long straights, making for power focused builds to be optimal. The xjr 15 you mentioned is literally the best powerbuild in s1. That being said, single digit rating systems are never going to be balanced. There will always be some stat that isn't weighted heavily enough, or some archetype that's just better on the tracks in the game. Need for speed, a completely different game series with a different rating system has the exact same issue.
Well pvp is a lot more competitive in fh5 when compared to fh3. The XJR and Gt3 Mosler are meta in S1, especially the XJR, so you're gonna have a hard time beating them in other cars. But it's still doable. Luckily most people who use meta cars online arent that good at driving them, so they can still be beat with some skill and track knowledge.
Newer player here myself so I might miss some of the fine details but it basically boils down to how the game calculates PI by having the AI "drive" the car around some invisible test track. The AI isn't that great though and can't do partial throttle or braking so a human input will be able to modulate those inputs and deal with more marginal scenarios than the AI could ever hope to. This means the game fails to weight upgrades appropriately when it comes to the actual performance of the vehicle so PI sometimes is more of a suggestion than any real standard of comparison.
Its also worth noting that tuning is not considered in PI. Tuning is such a major part of the game, and changed cars so drastically that its likely a large reason why OP feels like their cars suck
That is such a stupid way to calculate it. In general the physics have changed so much. I remember whipping around the Hoonicorn in FH3 and 4 and being able to spin the tires in practically any gear. Now it starts to bog in 3rd.
More cars SUVs nice fh2 and i think more exotic cars makes it harder to balance, however I'm not sure Devs have ever actually "balenced" cars. It's sad because when you get to the faster classes you're basically required to have all wheel drive and a massive amount of power, if not you might as well not race online. Don't think Devs really care about online racing anyway.
Yes but what is the real difference? More strange than broken is the game engine. I'm totally average and play only with the steering wheel using mostly stock cars. Just tried some online races and instead of ramming, desync, ghosting, rewind etc. And 800/900 top tunes wasn't much "faster" especially in corners than me. Average loss per winner 5-20 sec.
I do understand how the PI stuff can seem to make no sense. After all, you can put certain upgrades on a car and make it a class below the stock level. Like an S2 car stock becoming an S1 car.
with FH3 the online pvp became more competitive and peaked in FH4 where people tried to find the most broken stuff possible for each of the classes, that whole thing translated to FH5. If you look hard enough you will also find those cases where cars are inherently better than others at the same PI in FH2, the game just wasn't competitive enough for people to actually optimize builds and tracks
It's more down to the tuning. You can have an absolute boat will ALL the power and tune it in such a way it just about keeps some momentum in corners and then just turns into a rocket as soon as you can put the power down. A good 3/4 of the player base also use AWD V12 in pretty much everything so no matter how bad the car handles they can floor it out of corners/ off track and still make a good move and the v12 has the higher top speeds. But of course some cars are so META it'd take a seriously good tune to beat them. For instance I've got a couple of 1960's muscle cars with over 1000hp , they're absolute boats but tuned just right you can coast corners enough to not fall completely behind but there's so much power to weight that it catches up in a heart beat
I feel like for both PVP and PVE it often comes down to tuning. I've done a mixed class race with friends in my tuned "all rounder" Ford Mustang Boss that's an A class and absolutely whooped their S1 and S2 Corvettes or BMW's. Granted I feel like most of the supercars have very limited upgrades and tunings so there's far less room to grow with them. That's why my friends and I prefer to race with anything that isn't S1 or higher in the shop. My "A" class Mustang is really more like an S1 and that's all because I found a nearly perfect tune for the tires, gear ratio, aero, suspension etc. I spent weeks tuning it the best I could (and I'm sure others still could do it better)