Rivals Mode Megathread!

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SlipZtrEm

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The Forza Planet
Rivals Mode Megathread
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April Rivals Races

Coming To America
Track: Road America Full Circuit
Car: 2011 #35 Black Falcon SLS AMG GT3
*Stock Only Override

VIP April Rivals
Track: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Restriction: S700 or lower
Restriction: Nissan only

Forza Tourenwagen
Track: Hockenheimring Full Circuit
Restriction: R2 Class
Restriction: German Touring Cars only

Rotary di Positano
Track: Rally di Positano Full Circuit
Restriction: 450hp or less
Restriction: RWD only
Restriction: Rotary engines only

Cone Killer Mugello
Track: Mugello Autodromo Internazionale Full Circuit
Restriction: S Class
Restriction: 3000lbs or greater

Suzuka Sportbacks
Bounty Hunter (04.24 @ 0800 PST): ABGRAPHICS (1:23.921), prize is Bounty Hunter themed BMW Z4 GT3
Track: Suzuka Circuit West Circuit
Restriction: A600 or lower
Restriction: Year 2000 or newer
Restriction: Hatchbacks only
Restriction: Production only
Restriction: European models only

Drive Like It's 1999
Track: Top Gear 1/2 Mile
Restriction: 500hp or less
Restriction: 1990-1999 models only
Restriction: RWD only
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Welcome to the repurposed Rivals thread! I'm going to be keeping the first post updated with the monthly challenges, but this definitely can be used to discuss the more permanent Rivals offerings as well. I'll be doing my best to keep on top of official Bounty Hunter challenges too - they will appear in green when active, and have the deadline date and time included, as well as the prize. Go forth!
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Original OP contents below:

Time will tell how necessary this particular thread is, but for now, I thought I'd touch on Rivals mode. I'm just doing some quick racing after coming home before bed (Chris, apologies for not responding on XBL!), but for people who are fairly high up in levels, and not particularly satisfied with World Tour grinding, Rivals is an absolute boatload of money. And you don't even need any friends to take advantage of it!

Once you start popping into the top 25% of a particular leaderboard, prize money is sitting around 100,000 to 150,000 (I haven't sorted out the exact line, yet). Dedicating a bit of time to a particular race is the best bet here, as you can learn from the slightly faster people on where to improve. For now, I've picked the Monthly Starter Car race, as it's quick at 40-some-odd seconds, and very simple, with essentially three turns.

Anywho, once you've got a pretty decent lap, and importantly, consistency, simply view the leaderboard before entering the race, and cycle through the options with the X button until you get to Near Me. Highlight the person directly above you on the boards, even if their time is identical to yours, and make them your Rival. As long as you beat their ghost cleanly, you've got a nice pile of cash. To make it even more credit-productive, don't try to smash that ghost, but instead, work out how to beat it on just the final corner, by a small margin. This makes it easier to do the next step...

Just rinse and repeat, really! After collecting your bounty, find the next of the closest people to your time, out of the entire leaderboard, and make them your rival. For example, I've made a solid 750,000 in 20min of work tonight. All with an Aygo.

As a bonus, XP is handed out based on circuit length and amount of laps completed, regardless of you beating your rival.

(I figure most everyone has realized this by now, but thought a thread specifically about it would be helpful for anybody looking, like me, to eventually own all the cars).
 
Rivals is great if you need money.

I did some a couple days ago and realised I've got over 6mill stacked up lol.
 
I've just barely tried out the Rivals Mode...

But now I definitely need to check out this mode some more :D
 
The Top Gear 'star in a reasonably priced car' event is great for earning money if you're a competent driver.

If I ever need money I just go and beat the ghost above me (I'm just outside the top 1000) as the bounty for beating the next fastest person is 250,000 :o making it an easy money maker.
 
Does anyone else have the problem not being able to turn off ghosts in rival mode ?
I set them to off in the menu but they are still there in rivals mode.
 
Oh yeah, I love rivals mode. I've picked up easily 1.5 mil so far and it is far more fun than career mode.
Last night I spent 15 laps in the Stratos rival challenge. It was a blast and by the time I was done I picked up a ton of experience driving cars, immediately rose to 3.5 affinity level, got a lot of cash and in 2nd place on friends leaderboard.
Can't wait to grind it some more.
 
I'm not even completely done with World Tour yet, and I'm basically drowning in credits already. I'm cllose to five million now... And once I've finished that, I'll use Rivals Mode to rake in the dough some more :lol:
 
Does anyone know if the amount of credits you earn when you get higher up the leaderboards is based on the amount of entrants in that particular race? The reason I say that is because if you go look at what you would get for beating the #1 guy some are 150k and some are 250. I won't ever beat them just kind of curious:)
 
I LOVE Rivals mode. My biggest gripe with FM3 was that it was a massive boring grind in order to make any money. Now that money is so easy to come by in FM4, I can buy and tune cars to my hearts content! :D
 
With my completed World Tour and my Rivals Mode escapades I'm sitting on over 9mil cr. and Driver Level 66.

My clubmate gets a little annoyed when I beat his times...mainly because he takes about 5 hours to beat mine and I can top his in about 20-25 minutes. The most trouble I've had was the Infineon Drag.
 
Speaking as a relatively crappy driver I'd like to thank all those people who've been posting dirty laps so I can crawl round after them for an easy cherrypicked bounty LOL.

Of course I don't expect this to be the case for long if indeed it is still the case.
 
So I'm the only person who's been operating on a steady cycle of fair amount of money, down to a few thousand, and back, over and over?

:D

I've got free upgrade parts on 20 different marques now, and own mostly every car that's interesting to me under 50k (and a good chunk of models worth more). I'm burning through money fast, even if the majority of it is just car purchases themselves. If I don't see myself wanting to drive a particular expensive car in any form other than stock though, I'm in no rush to buy it since I'd rather just use the Arcade Mode cars.
 
I had no idea it was so rewarding. I planned on eventually giving it a try, but after reading this, I'm off to try it right now!

Okay I've been playing with it for a while now, and it has been no where near as lucrative for me. I got into the top twenty percent of the audi s5 one on hockenheim. It took me 8 laps to beat the guy right above me after that, and I only won 55,000 dollars. A lot of that was just money from driving 8 laps. Now I'm in the top 19 percent, but it just takes too much time to do it again. Not to mention, half of those laps I beat his time, but it didn't register. I guess because I didn't race a clean lap? I am a clean racer, and I don't know what I did that could have been considered "dirty". Why wouldn't they have some sort of notification as to when you do something that isn't clean? Obviously when it displays the rewind option, you've done something bad, but several of those laps went by without me causing that option to appear. And now I'm trying it on the starter car top gear thing, and I just had the same problem. Its a runway, I dont know where I can and/or can't drive! This is so stupid.
 
Turn the racing line on to get around the Top Gear track. It's not even close to the ideal line, IMO, but it will keep you pointed in the right direction.
 
Apex
I had no idea it was so rewarding. I planned on eventually giving it a try, but after reading this, I'm off to try it right now!

Okay I've been playing with it for a while now, and it has been no where near as lucrative for me. I got into the top twenty percent of the audi s5 one on hockenheim. It took me 8 laps to beat the guy right above me after that, and I only won 55,000 dollars. A lot of that was just money from driving 8 laps. Now I'm in the top 19 percent, but it just takes too much time to do it again. Not to mention, half of those laps I beat his time, but it didn't register. I guess because I didn't race a clean lap? I am a clean racer, and I don't know what I did that could have been considered "dirty". Why wouldn't they have some sort of notification as to when you do something that isn't clean? Obviously when it displays the rewind option, you've done something bad, but several of those laps went by without me causing that option to appear. And now I'm trying it on the starter car top gear thing, and I just had the same problem. Its a runway, I dont know where I can and/or can't drive! This is so stupid.
Click to expand...

A little triangle warning sign appears by your current time if its dirty, and flashes the moment you make the lap dirty.
 
Apex
I had no idea it was so rewarding. I planned on eventually giving it a try, but after reading this, I'm off to try it right now!

Okay I've been playing with it for a while now, and it has been no where near as lucrative for me. I got into the top twenty percent of the audi s5 one on hockenheim. It took me 8 laps to beat the guy right above me after that, and I only won 55,000 dollars. A lot of that was just money from driving 8 laps. Now I'm in the top 19 percent, but it just takes too much time to do it again. Not to mention, half of those laps I beat his time, but it didn't register. I guess because I didn't race a clean lap? I am a clean racer, and I don't know what I did that could have been considered "dirty". Why wouldn't they have some sort of notification as to when you do something that isn't clean? Obviously when it displays the rewind option, you've done something bad, but several of those laps went by without me causing that option to appear. And now I'm trying it on the starter car top gear thing, and I just had the same problem. Its a runway, I dont know where I can and/or can't drive! This is so stupid.
Click to expand...

Admittedly, it only really gets lucrative once you're in the top 10-15%. But once you set a time, you can make your rival the very next person above you out of every entrant - even if they have the same time as you. If it's taking that many laps to do it though, that may be a problem. For me, I'm at a point where I can eke out about .300 on that Top Gear quasi-oval, but I'm trying to cross the line with as little of a gap as possible between the ghost and I, just so that I have more Rivals before I hit my personal ceiling.

Remember, a dirty lap is any lap where you've even slightly tapped a wall, or had an off (though like you said, the rewind message will pop up for those). In addition, if you cut any corners in the last sector of the previous lap, your current lap will be considered dirty right from the start. Oh, and even using Rewind once in the lap will disqualify it as well.
 
The F class partial Top Gear track is super lucrative. You can get 50k in about 2 minutes pretty easily, and if you coast to the line you can keep it going for a while. I topped out earning 100k in the Top 3%, but I think I could take more off the time with some suspension tuning.
 
Okay I gotcha. From what I've noticed, it automatically selects the person right above me anyway. I've checked several times. And I'll have another go at the top gear one. I may just not be good enough to get a time high enough for it to be worth while. And thanks Eric I never noticed that before.
 
Apex
Okay I gotcha. From what I've noticed, it automatically selects the person right above me anyway. I've checked several times. And I'll have another go at the top gear one. I may just not be good enough to get a time high enough for it to be worth while. And thanks Eric I never noticed that before.
Click to expand...

Then you've skipped an important part of the OP:

SlipZtrEm
Anywho, once you've got a pretty decent lap, and importantly, consistency, simply view the leaderboard before entering the race, and cycle through the options with the X button until you get to Near Me. Highlight the person directly above you on the boards, even if their time is identical to yours, and make them your Rival. As long as you beat their ghost cleanly, you've got a nice pile of cash.
Click to expand...

:)

Pressing Y on the event will bring up the leaderboards, then make sure to filter it to show Near Me instead of the default (Club and Friends). That way you don't have to worry about shaving vast amounts of time off the lap you just did; usually, just .005 is more than enough, but more likely, even less.
 
Lol, I didn't miss it, I'm just saying that with my experiences tonight, the person that it automatically selects to be my next rival is always the person directly above me on the near me leaderboard. As in, I'm number 33,968 and my new rival is 33,967. He has the same time as me at 52.329

Any tips though about how I can reduce my time? Im on the default "hard" setting, but I turned off the replay since it can't be used legally and it's just costing me money. Should I leave on ABS and TCS?
 
Oh. That's strange, my leaderboard always makes my next Rival the closest person of my Club or Friends. It'd be handy if it made it the next person in the unwashed masses, for the sake of the money grinding, though.

I run on the hardest difficulty setting, with two changes - I don't use a clutch, and I've left Rewind on. Mostly it's for when the AI decide to do stupid things in World Tour, but it is handy in Rivals, because while it invalidates a lap, it can be used if you have an off on the last sector of a lap, so you can save the next lap from being automatically invalidated. Or, if you screw up the very first turn of a lap, you can rewind past the start line (back onto the "old" lap) and start fresh. Handy for longer tracks, but not much use for the quick ones.

TCS almost always makes you slower - it cuts power pretty drastically to avoid wheelspin. Try driving with it off - in the lower classes, it shouldn't be that different, unless you're running an older car on stock tires. Some good throttle modulation will make you faster in the turns than any TCS might. As for ABS - same thing, really, but brake modulation instead. You'll have to experiment to find that sweet spot where you can brake the most effectively without locking the wheels, but once you do, you can stop in shorter distances than keeping ABS on.
 
Gotcha I didn't think about that use of the rewind. I figured it was pretty much useless in rivals but that makes sense. And yeah, I tried with no abs and I'm just so used to slamming the brakes, I'm not sure if I can get used to it. I can deal without the tcs though, hopefully that will help through the corners. Are you using a wheel or the controller?

Oh and it doesn't select the next person on my friends list or car club because I'm not in a car club, and I don't have any friends who have played Forza haha. Simply enough explanation right? :lol:

Thanks a lot for the help man. Btw, this is Dead_Poetic from GTP, not sure if you remember me or not.
 
Apex
Gotcha I didn't think about that use of the rewind. I figured it was pretty much useless in rivals but that makes sense. And yeah, I tried with no abs and I'm just so used to slamming the brakes, I'm not sure if I can get used to it. I can deal without the tcs though, hopefully that will help through the corners. Are you using a wheel or the controller?

Oh and it doesn't select the next person on my friends list or car club because I'm not in a car club, and I don't have any friends who have played Forza haha. Simply enough explanation right? :lol:

Thanks a lot for the help man. Btw, this is Dead_Poetic from GTP, not sure if you remember me or not.
Click to expand...

Download the replay from one of the top times and watch their line.
 
Okay, thats a good tip as well. But I just realized the problem.

I didn't know that I could use a car from my garage! That makes more sense now, I can tune it up to f 200. Please feel free to consider me the biggest idiot ever. Lets see how high I can get up in the leaderboards now, gradually of course, I need to make some money.
 
It automatically picked the next nearest person in rivals mode until I made a few in-game friends. Now it will immediately go to the lowest ranked friend and once I surpass all in game friends, it will go to the next nearest person.
What I do is go straight for the top friend in my list. What I have found is that I usually wind up there anyways after one run but since I was competing against the lowest ranked friend, I would only earn the $2,000 vs the $50,000 when I choose my highest ranked friend.
And yeah, I realize I can work the system and just post slightly higher lap times to keep cashing in but I like to give it my all every time. And well, right now I am at 2 mil and I don't know how to spend it. I want to buy up a bunch of cheaper cars and could probably buy every in game car I want with that money but I also want a few of those older race cars that cost millions apiece. And I am debating to save for one or just buy a few dozen cars I'd like to own. I am done with collecting them all. I did that in GT5 and that became work not fun. And I am playing this game to enjoy myself not spend hours grinding just to say I own every car in the game.

EDIT:
And SlipZtrEm is right. Traction control or TCS will slow you down. You won't have the wheel slip but you also lose a takeoff and acceleration. TCS systems use the brakes to slow down tires that don't have grip. Great if you want to catch some grip but if you are trying to accelerate, having a computer hold the brakes down won't help you improve lap times. Ease the throttle and you will watch seconds drop off your lap times. It takes practice if you are used to mashing the throttle out of a turn but once you get it, there will be no stopping you.
TCS almost always makes you slower - it cuts power pretty drastically to avoid wheelspin.
 
Yeah I finally got it figured out. I've managed to get up into the top 6 percent, and I'm still beating people somewhat easily. Usually takes about 4 laps to get it though. And Im driving with all aids off, except for ABS. I can't seem to get used to it.
 
Yeah, that will be a tough one, ABS i mean. I tried manual for the first time today and did pretty well though I did have trouble picking out the noise the LF-A makes near the redline. Otherwise, by lap two I have each up and downshift about right.
But ABS, I don't know about that. I just can't get past pushing the brakes down hard and locking them up. My car IRL doesn't have ABS but I have my foot to control a pedal for feel. Here I have a finger to push a trigger button with no direct feel or resistance.
 

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