Forza Horizon 4 Hero Card

  • Type: Scoring system
  • Where I Spotted: Forza Horizon 4
  • Features: Easy to understand. Supports unbalanced teams and has no ties.

This is a small post to spotlight a scoring mechanism I saw in a game that I really appreciate. It’s both simple and robust and a perfect fit for an online racing game. Forza Horizon 4 is probably not the first game to use this system, but it’s the first place I saw it.

The system works like this:

  • Players have individual scores.
  • Players get 100 points for each opposing player they beat to the finish line. Players don’t get points for finishing ahead of their teammates.
  • If the player got first place, they receive a 50 point bonus.
  • A team’s score is the sum of all player scores on that team.

Compared to real-world race scoring systems, this is extremely simple. In the real world, racing teams have players receive a set number of points per finishing position, and the amount of points is fixed based on the finishing position. In Formula 1 nowadays, 1st place receives 25 points, 2nd receives 18, 3rd receives 15, and so on. A complex system like that is a poor fit for an arcade-y racing game, and those point values can feel arbitrary.

Despite being simple, this system is effective and fair even in the imperfect world of online multiplayer games.

In real-world scoring systems, a team that is missing just one player is already at a severe disadvantage. The Forza team scoring system scales to even the most extreme unbalanced teams. Even a 1 vs 10 matchup can be a win for the solo player if they are better than half of the other team. This is possible because the scores scale based on the number of opponents present in a race. This system can even provide the matchmaking system another avenue for splitting lobbies into teams – maybe even making differently sized teams on purpose so the teams are more balanced.

Lastly, I’d like to touch on the 1st place bonus. It’s only worth half as much as beating an opposing playe, but it serves two purposes: rewarding the player who wins the race, and breaking team score ties. It makes sense that the 1st place finisher should receive a reward, and this method makes it both something to strive for and a tie-breaker.

The Forza team scoring system is both simple to explain and understand, and flexible for the messy “real world” of online multiplayer games. It’s a great fit for online racing games.