How good is "Auto Upgrade"?

  • Thread starter tomcat66
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tomcat66

tomcat66

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Vienna, Austria
mr tomcat 66
I am not very good at upgrading / tuning. So in Forza 4 I did buy the tunes from the store most of the time. Unfortunately that is not possible in Horizon (I still dont understand that!). So I am using the "Auto Upgrade" function instead.

Now my question for those of you who do upgrading on your own: How much better is the same car when you upgarde yourself instead of using the auto upgrade function? Is it worth the time? Thanks for your help.
 
There is a previous thread here and I"m sure someone will find it.
This was addressed before about this very topic. Major tuners like to do their own upgrades. Yet a lot just let the auto upgrades take care of it all.

You certainly can fool with upgrades to get your PI closer to what you want, (350 as opposed to 349), but Auto upgrade for the most part is the best.

Or I may be all wet on this one....
 
tomcat66
I am not very good at upgrading / tuning. So in Forza 4 I did buy the tunes from the store most of the time. Unfortunately that is not possible in Horizon (I still dont understand that!). So I am using the "Auto Upgrade" function instead.

Now my question for those of you who do upgrading on your own: How much better is the same car when you upgrade yourself instead of using the auto upgrade function? Is it worth the time? Thanks for your help.
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There is not real "tuning" in Forza Horizon. There are no suspension, tire, and transmission settings to change so buying and selling tunes is irrelevant.

When I was grinding through the events, I didn't bother adding parts manually to reach performance levels to complete. I just used the auto upgrade and it worked fine every time. Usually put me withing 1 or 2 performance points from the max limit of whatever event I was trying to enter.
 
The only real benefit of manual tuning that I've found, is that you can improve the specs individually to your liking. For instance, I purchased two Trans Ams. The first I upgraded to level 400 with the auto upgrade. The car was fast, but it was loose in the corners and had low traction during launch.

For the second Trans Am I added parts manually. I also built this car up to level 400, but instead of having "well rounded" specs for speed, handling, launch, etc, I focused on improving the handling. As a result, the car is much easier to drive and can achieve similar top speeds.

However, I'm not a tuner and I know very little about improving the performance of a car. I just wanted to try manually upgrading a car and I was pleased with the results.
 
If you're just looking at winning an event I think auto upgrade is better because it takes less time, but if you're competing with rivals you'll want to try selecting your own parts by thinking about what kind of track it is (low speed with lots of twists, high speeds, off road) and then choose suitable upgrades. I still never really had much of a clue of what to buy when I first started but after a bit of experimenting I've found what works for me.
 
Forza 4's auto-upgrade was pretty dumb, so I haven't even tried Horizon's. Based on BaylorRae's description it sounds like it has the same dumb tendencies:
  1. Add power
  2. Skip tires
  3. Upgrade random minor things like the driveshaft and brakes to get near the PI limit
Like 2121 said, if you're gonna drive the car once for an event and then forget about it, auto-upgrade saves you time, but it would be worth your while to experiment with the cars you like to drive.

acascianelli
There is not real "tuning" in Forza Horizon. There are no suspension, tire, and transmission settings to change so buying and selling tunes is irrelevant.
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They could have added a way for us to share upgrade setups, beyond club cars.
 
This is my tuning method in Horizon to make balanced cars and I feel more comfortable with it than relying on the game to upgrade cars for me.

I prioritize my upgrades like this:

Tires/rims > Handling > Drivetrain > Power

Depending on how poweful I want the car to be, I either go with street, sport, or racing upgrades. So for example, if I want to bring a Class D car to the top of Class A, I stick only to racing upgrades until I get there, and I'll use engine swaps/aspiration conversions if I want to. If I were bringing a Class D car to Class B, I would stick to only sport upgrades. If I'm not at the top of Class B by the time I put in all sport upgrades, then I start using racing upgrades. Same thing applies for Class C and the street upgrades.

I'm testing this method with my Class D cars and it works well so far in keeping the cars balanced. They're fast in their classes but I don't have problems controlling them. Honestly, the only time I let the game upgrade the car for me is to optimize it for the class it's in when the car is stock.

I'm also doing this in FM4 to see how well it works there.
 
Never auto upgrade a front wheel drive car to A or even B class(you'll have to). That is the only advice I can give with Auto vs. Manual upgrades.
 
On the fly it works ok if you just use it for one race. Even on hard you can get 1st pretty handily with a auto set up car if you have some background in racing games. In FM4 its not so good because that game is less forgiving. Either way it seems like it aims to make you a 500hp boat instead of a 200hp lean cornering car. Obviously the latter of the two is preferable.
 
GTMail
Never auto upgrade a front wheel drive car to A or even B class(you'll have to). That is the only advice I can give with Auto vs. Manual upgrades.
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Oh yeah, you really need to go for maximum grip on the FWD cars. No other tuning strategy offers as much benefit there. 👍
 
recar deeps
Heres a link where some of us are posting build's for different cars. I never was much good at tuning in F4, But I am starting to get the hang of building in FH. It does make a difference how you build, parts used and is still a form of tuning in FH IMO.

http://forums.forzamotorsport.net/forums/thread/5809146.aspx
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Thank you very much for that link. I will try to manually upgrade some cars and then compare them to the auto upgrade cars I already have. I think it will be the same as in Forza 4: The handling of the manual upgrade will be much better.
 
Glad I could help. I've been experimenting with different builds trying to improve some of my Rival times. I've added some of the people on here & at FM.net to my favorites to see how I do against them, help with driving line and such. I seem to be holding my own in some events, but I have quite a few more to go thru. Rivals have really helped/forced me to improve my builds.
 
Wolfe
Oh yeah, you really need to go for maximum grip on the FWD cars. No other tuning strategy offers as much benefit there. 👍
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I can tune a guitar, but not a car. Can you explain to me about why it's not good to auto upgrade FWD in A and S classes.
 
I upgrade manually, and my purchases always start the same way. "Add lightness", purchase lighter rims, adjust tire width up to the point of diminishing returns, buy stickier rubber and race brakes. Then I look at other chassis upgrades and see if there are any obvious bang for the buck upgrades regarding suspension and bracing while keeping an eye on the performance numbers. If I'm down on power I then usually look at intake and exhaust as they can add a lot of HP and shave off more weight, as well as the camshaft upgrade (often paired with transmission upgrade) as it can really improve horsepower and top speed. Unfortunately there's no transmission tuning in Horizon, so you won't be able to completely optimize camshaft upgrades.
 
browneyedman
I can tune a guitar, but not a car. Can you explain to me about why it's not good to auto upgrade FWD in A and S classes.
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I've found that handling upgrades provide the best returns on investment on FWDs, because those cars tend to convert horsepower into tire smoke. Auto-Upgrade seems to favor power over handling, making it less than ideal.

The best tires you can buy and "race" weight reduction are a good place to start on any FWD, I think. 👍
 
Wolfe
I've found that handling upgrades provide the best returns on investment on FWDs, because those cars tend to convert horsepower into tire smoke. Auto-Upgrade seems to favor power over handling, making it less than ideal.

The best tires you can buy and "race" weight reduction are a good place to start on any FWD, I think. 👍
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I get that. I auto updated a Abarth. I can go fast, once you turn yourself around and leave the grassy knoll...;)
 

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