Forza Motorsport Update 14 Change Log
Game Content, Features and Events [All Platforms]
Gameplay Adjustments to Support NASCAR
November is NASCAR month! To celebrate, we’ve made global changes in both Updates 13 and 14 to improve the racing experience across the game, and to make oval racing especially shine:
- Tuned Drivatar AI on Ovals to have cleaner race starts, transition more smoothly after race start, and to trail more effectively.
- Tuned car-to-car collision response for more physically accurate energy dissipation. This reduces the impact of small collisions and allows for more stability and control.
- Downforce reduction for lead cars when drafting was reduced to make it easier to maintain position. (Update 13)
- Improved Drivatar AI trailing ability especially in braking zones, making Drivatars less prone to rear ending other cars. (Update 13)
- Updated the multi-car aero model to reduce downforce impact on leading cars, widen the aero wake near the car, smooth transitions near wake edges and reduce drafting induced aero balance changes. (Update 13)
- Additionally, we’ve added support for rolling starts in Featured Multiplayer. Rolling starts will be enabled for all events in the NASCAR Series in Featured Multiplayer in Update 14. Rolling starts will be added to additional events, where appropriate, starting in Update 15.
This update also refreshes Homestead-Miami Speedway track layouts with new NASCAR branding.
Forza Race Regulations
With Update 14, we’ve pushed a new Forza Race Regulations model with a slight reduction to false positive penalty assignments, and an improvement to severity assignment.
Advanced Ghosting in Multiplayer
Advanced Ghosting is a support mechanism for Multiplayer and Forza Race Regulations to help prevent some key collision or off-track situations from adversely affecting the online racing experience. Players will be ghosted in the following scenarios:
- Predicted high relative velocity collisions: when an imminent collision between two cars is detected while driving above the speed threshold, the car with the higher velocity will be ghosted. This does not include low-relative velocity collisions like small fender bumps.
- Returning to track: when a car goes off track, they will be ghosted to prevent collisions caused by unsafe re-entry until they have returned to track and reached a minimum speed threshold.
- Stopped on track or driving below a speed threshold: cars that are driving too slowly or are entirely stopped and blocking traffic will be ghosted to prevent risk to other cars.
- Driving the wrong way on track: cars driving the wrong direction on track will be ghosted until they are driving in the correct direction and meeting a minimum speed threshold. This is an existing behavior but has been expanded to include cars at extreme angles relative to track direction and speed.
Experientially, our goal was to use this system to safeguard against egregious collision and griefing behavior, while preserving the physical authenticity of racing where bumping and touching may occur when fighting for position.
Bug Fixes and Improvements
Stability and Performance [All Platforms]
- Fixed an issue where the game will sometimes crash when attempting to reset Free Play Setup settings to default after changing the Game Type to Multi-Class. [1869841]
- Improving loading time for vinyl groups on “My Vinyl Group” screen. [1745045]
- Improved performance when navigating between Vinyl Groups and Liveries menu. [1881236]
- Fixed an uncommon crash that could happen when loading liveries for AI Drivatars in Free Play events. [1720394]
- Fixed a possible game crash when pressing Confirm on Quick Upgrade. [1871855]
- Fixed an issue where the game could crash when accepting challenges. [1882995]
Rendering [All Platforms]
- The global reflection probe for the track is now captured at the camera location and includes the track itself. This allows reflections to appear more accurate and prevents visual pops in the reflections by smoothly fading over time.
Audio [All Platforms]
- Updated car audio for the following vehicles based on community feedback:
- 2010 Lamborghini Murciélago LP 670-4 SV
- 2019 Lamborghini Sian FKP 37
- 2013 McLaren P1
We recently shared details about how we updated our authoring techniques and pipelines so that we can fix as many car audio issues as possible. Please read this blog for additional details regarding our approach to future car audio updates in Forza Motorsport.
PC
- Fixed an issue that would cause the hint text “Camera” to appear during Photo Mode, while using mouse and keyboards controls. [1873842]
- Alt-tabbing out and back into the game while in the Driving Assists menu will no longer remove controller selection focus. [1855918]
Gameplay [All Platforms]
- Fixed an issue where a car’s upgrades would also be reset if the player reset its tuning. [1793493]
- Performance rating is now correctly synced with the server even if the player leaves the upgrade screen immediately after equipping the previous part back. [1834457]
- Players are now able to move AI Drivatars from one group to another and resort the grid. [1849430]
Career [All Platforms]
- Fixed an issue where certain cars would be ghosted in the First Cup race. [1878447]
- Fixed an issue where the player would become soft locked if they drove into the pit lane during the First Cup on Hakone. [1883718]
Featured Multiplayer [All Platforms]
- Fixed an issue where players with a warning or ban history could get their current session into a banned state by going into Photo Mode. [1865162]
- Fixed an issue where upcoming series were sorted above active series in the Featured Multiplayer Event Select UI. [1811224]
- Medium races in Featured Multiplayer events have been updated to target a 20-minute race length.
Spec Series Car Division Changes [All Platforms]
| Car |
Change Summary |
| 1988 Chevrolet #77 Beretta Trans Am |
Added to and balanced within the GTX Sportscar Series |
| 2010 Mazda #16 Mazda Racing B09/86 |
Added to and balanced within the Forza P2 Series |
Private Multiplayer [All Platforms]
- Fixed an issue where the mini leaderboard wasn’t sorting players correctly in Drift events. [1874885, 1874059]
- Fixed an issue where wet tires sometimes weren’t automatically applied in rainy weather events. [1889744]
- Fixed an issue where players could be disconnected for inactivity in post-race in Private Multiplayer events. [1873846]
- Fixed a bug which incorrectly calculated Drift Lap Score when spectating. [1835503]
- Fixed an issue where the car’s fuel level would not be correctly adjusted during Practice in Private Multiplayer. [1846275]
- Non-host players now have a UI element to convey information on whether the player’s ready to race, ready to spectate, or unready. [1874596]
- Fixed bug where selecting Spectate would not automatically register that player as ready on the Host’s game. [1874761]
- Fixed an issue where the Rivals Post Race menu would not be properly displayed, and the user would encounter a black screen. [1845974]
- Fixed a lobby disconnect which occurred when ending a Meetup with Drift scoring options on Sunset Peninsula. [1887663]
- Fixed an issue where accepting a Private Multiplayer invite while the livery save popup is displayed would cause game instability. [1880246]
- Fixed a crash which occurred when the player being spectated, or the host, quits the race. [1884897]
- Fixed an issue where the player would be locked in a loading screen while joining a Private Multiplayer lobby. [1873777]
Livery Editor & UGC [All Platforms]
- Autosaved tunes no longer apply to a player’s tune save limit. [1846128]
- Developers Note: Autosaved tunes still appear in the game menus, however they do not impact your tune save limit, which is currently 450 tunes. We are actively working on increasing save limits for a future release.
- Fixed an issue where livery changes would not be saved. [1885895]
- Fixed an issue where existing UGC could not be overwritten in Save Livery, Tuning, or Photo menus. [1887664]
- Fixed an issue where the VIP Driver Suit choice might be reset when restarting the game. [1739411]
- Fixed an issue in the Photo and Replay Gallery which caused the Search Results tab to appear twice after doing a search. [1825605]
- Fixed an issue where the player’s rims would incorrectly revert back to their default color when dismissing the color changing prompt. [1814663]
- Fixed an issue where cars placed in the Showcase Bay would show the incorrect livery. [1877349]
- Fixed an issue where the loading UI element would not disappear when an item has finished downloading. [1880229]
UI [All Platforms]
- Added a ‘Sort by Overall’ / ‘Sort by Group’ button to Event Results for Multi-Class Races allowing players to compare how they did against the overall driver list. [1797481]
- Fixed an issue where backing out of the Car Select Menu from an Open Class Tour will carry the same restrictions over to the Car Select Menus outside of the event. [1873066]
- Fixed an issue where the player loses HUD information when attempting to resume the game with a controller connected on PC, while focused on a second monitor. [1648491]
- Fixed a crash that occurred on PC when the file popup module for My Files is shown in a Community tab and the Share option is selected. Also, fixed the file options modal not opening in game options and while saving a UGC item. [1871675]
- Fixed an issue where the Start Race button was enabled too early after ending a Meetup, which could lead to unexpected behavior in pre-race scenarios. [1889096]
- Fixed an issue that resulted in an endless progress spinner on the info panel while attempting to save a tuning setup in the Upgrade & Tune menu. [1859128]
- Fixed an issue where a red gradient would appear over thumbnails while loading. [1883663]
- Fixed an issue where a random player-owned car would show up in the player’s Primary Car Bay. [1856582]
- Fixed an issue where the “Wet Tires Applied” notification was either not displaying when it should or was displaying when it should not. [1870270] [1812557]
- Fixed an issue where Best Drift value was not being calculated correctly when fast forwarding or rewinding a Drift Replay. [1877123]
Drivatar AI [All Platforms]
- Fixed a bug where tire wear was not correctly affecting grip of Drivatar AI opponents in races. [1820786]
- Improved Drivatar AI pitting logic, especially in Endurance Races. [1820786, 1884711]
Physics [All Platforms]
- Fixed an issue on Mugello and other tracks where hitting curbs could cause sporadic, uncontrollable spins. This would occasionally occur when one or more tires rapidly accelerated or decelerated while unloaded during cornering. While curbs can naturally affect car balance, this fix ensures more predictable handling in these scenarios. As in real life, drivers should still approach curbs with caution, as they can disrupt vehicle stability.
- Adjusted track wall friction on Eaglerock Speedway, Daytona, Homestead, and Indianapolis to more accurately reflect physical material properties. [1888599, 1890395]
Accessibility [All Platforms]
- Fixed an issue where the Drift UI would not meet high contrast mode standards. [1875857]
- Adjusted the drift HUD to improve contrast ratio. [1870244]
- Added screen narration to the event countdown timer displayed when UI overlaps occur with the regular timer. [1873944]
