Boosting for Affinity & Wealth

Thanks to expenses like buying cars and the even more expensive proposition of collecting Mod Cards, you are going to need a LOT of Credits! Fortunately getting them is actually not that complicated.

On the one hand you can just race through the campaign, which will easily earn you a few million Cr. But that will not really give you the purchase power you will need. Happily there is a way to boost this so that you not only obtain Cr. from the boosting, but as a result of the boosting, you earn more from the campaign runs as well.

How does that work? Boosting Affinity, that's how!

Before we get into the refined elements of boosting Affinity, we should examine the most basic results. To do that we need to establish a baseline result. For that we are going to select a car manufacturer with whom we have no Affinity. We will then create a race in Free Play selecting the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with 10 Laps.

We then turn off anything that we can turn off that adds bonus multipliers to the game, which includes all of the Assists. That will obtain for us the baseline result.

Using no Mods, and turning off all of the Assists effectively removes any bonus we will receive in addition to any bonus' we cannot control (like the VIP Bonus).

First Test Run

To complete the setup for the first test run we need to pick a manufacturer with whom we have no Affinity, which could mean needing to purchase a new car. But thanks to the various reward cars and the like we actually have some we can choose from in our garage.

For this test we opted to go with our 1970 Chevrolet Camaro Z28, which is a rather sexy beast in the D344 Class.

First Run - No Bonuses

CREDITS = 12,000 Cr. + 12,000 Cr. VIP + 1,200 Difficulty = 25,200 Cr.

DRIVER LEVEL XP = 12,000 XP

AFFINITY = 12,000 XP (1 Level awarding 2,500)

Completing this baseline run reveals that boosting both XP and Affinity has great potential - and it also revealed something we should have expected but somehow forgot about - the extra bonuses that come from the actual boosting of both XP and Affinity!

In this case we obtained an additional 2,500 Cr. from the Affinity Level increase that resulted from the run. Had it contained more Laps we would doubtlessly also have obtained a Character Level, which would have resulted in a Bonus Wheel Spin.

Ford's 2017 GT Takes the Cover

Leveling your character and obtaining Wheel Spins is actually a pretty big deal in terms of boosting and over-all game play because you can win Mod Packs, Credits, and even very expensive cars. Having the prize be a Car pays multiple dividends since it gives you an expensive car you probably would have wanted to buy eventually anyway, but it does that without requiring you to use Cr. which is doubly valuable in the long run.

Another lesson that we learned was this: VIP Status in FM6 is a very good thing to have!

Second Test Run

For the second run we want to establish the relative value of the Assists settings, or more to the point, what we can gain by turning them off.

Assists are a touchy subject among the Forza Community. There is a very vocal minority of Forza Faithful that believe that Assists are to be used only for very specific purposes, and that they should not be used - or rather most of them should not be used - for MP play at all.

Another subset of that group believes that the Assists not only should not be used for MP play, but also that they should not be used for Story Mode Play.

One element that both camps agree on is that Assists are Training Aids, and should only be used for Training purposes. Period. The Driving Line, for example, should be used on practice runs to learn a circuit. Where to drive it, when to brake, that sort of training. But then it should be turned off for any competitive play, whether vs. gamers or AI.

The same seems to go with other settings. They also tend to agree that any racer worth his salt races with a Standard gear box. Not an Automatic. Heck there are even some who believe that using the Paddle-style system (a Standard gear box without the Clutch) that is found on many modern Supercars today is actually cheating as well.

We don't really have an opinion on this at all. Bottom line? When you race in FM6 with all Assists turned on what you get is an Arcade version of FM6. When you race with just the Assists you need, we feel like what you get is the simulation experience of Forza Motorsport 6 that you need, like, and want. Enough said!

For the purposes of this test run though, we have turned off ALL of the Assists. Before we start to sound like Ricky Racer though, we should point out that while we turn off all of the Assists, we ALSO chose to use the safest and easiest tracks in the venue list!

When you are running without Assists on there is a short list of tracks you will find are very VERY forgiving and very easy to race on sans-Assists: Daytona Tri-Oval (Day and Night), Indianapolis Brickyard Speedway, and Rio's Mountain Circuit. We're just saying, when you go Assist-free on those tracks it really has very little in terms of bragging rights for you.

Second Run - Assist Bonuses Turned On (+75%)

CREDITS = 12,000 Cr. + 12,000 Cr. VIP + 9,000 Cr. Assists + 1,300 Difficulties = 34,200 Cr.

DRIVER LEVEL XP = 12,000 XP

AFFINITY = 12,000 Affinity (1 Level awarding 3,000 Cr.)

The results of this test run are provocative. Getting rid of the Assists nearly doubles the take, and as this is all about making it as easy as possible to boost XP and Affinity, in order to obtain as much rewards in terms of Credits and Wheel Spins, the value here is obvious.

Third Test Run

For the final comparison run we are going to add some Mod Cards. As the point to this is just to demonstrate the effects, we can use Common Mod Cards but when you do a major run (50 Laps) you'll want to get the best result you can with the highest percentages. Just saying.

Blue Crew: Indianapolis Powertrain Specialist (+5% Power / +5% Extra Power on Indianapolis)

Green Boost: Improved Preparation (+20% XP Boost)

Green Boost: Improved Payout (+10% Credits)

Third Run - Assist Bonuses Turned On + Mod Cards

CREDITS = 12,000 Cr.. + 12,000 Cr. VIP + 9,000 Cr. Assists + 1,200 Cr. Difficulty + 1,200 Cr. MC = 35,400 Cr.

DRIVER LEVEL XP = 14,400 XP (+2,400 XP)

AFFINITY = 14,400 XP (+2,400XP)

As you can see the bonus chunk of XP and Cr. that is acquired via the combination of the different bonuses and the Mod Cards is sizable. It has the potential to be considerably more sizable and effective when it is applied to a 50 Lap Run, and higher rarity (and thus percentage and pay-out) Mod Cards are used!

Final Test Run (Four)

There really would be no point to all of this if we failed to do a final test run with the target settings. Basically that means a 50-Lap run with the game set up to maximize the returns for boosting.

To set up for this, we need to once again select a manufacturer with whom we have no previous relations so as to demonstrate the results in as impressive a manner as we can manage. Picking who to use means knowing who we already have Affinity with.

To determine that, we need to look at our Affinity List, which can be quickly found by opening the Main Menu and hitting 'Y' to open the "My Profile" Menu. Now just select the AFFINITY Tab and voila! Here is the list for us:

• 25 - Volkswagen (5 Cars Owned)

• 13 - Ford (10 Cars Owned)

• 06 - Lamborghini (5 Cars Owned)

• 05 - Bugatti (1 Car owned)

• 05 - Chevrolet (1 Car Owned)

• 03 - Lotus (1 Car Owned)

• 03 - Aston Martin (4 Cars Owned)

• 01 - Acura (1 Cars Owned)

• 01 - Lancia (0 Cars Owned)

• 01 - Audi (4 Cars Owned)

So yeah, pretty much ANY of the Manufacturers EXCEPT the ones above will do! When we examined our garage contents this is what we found:

• BMW - 4 Cars Owned

• Ferrari - 7 Cars Owned

• Formula E - 1 Car Owned

• Honda - 2 Cars Owned

• Jaguar - 2 Cars Owned

• Koenigsegg - 2 Cars Owned

• Maserati - 1 Car Owned

• Mazda - 1 Car Owned

• McLaren - 3 Cars Owned

• Mercedes-Benz - 2 Cars Owned

• Mitsubishi - 1 Car Owned

• Nissan - 5 Cars Owned

• Peugeot - 1 Car Owned

• Renault - 1 Car Owned

• SRT - 1 Car Owned

• Toyota - 1 Car Owned

From the list above it probably looks like we went on a car buying frenzy, but that is not actually what happened. On 1 October 2015 there was a missive SNAFU at the Microsoft Server Farm that in addition to containing the major part of LIVE also hosts the Turn 10 Forza Servers. While we do not know exactly what happened - MS is not saying - what we do know is that a major portion of the FM6 account flags got reset.

The upshot of this is that when players logged into their games on 1 October they were treated to a repeat of the Bonus, Loyalty, and Reward Cars delivery that they saw when they played the game for the first time. And it was not a Rickroll either - each of the cars were basically duplicated in your garage!

Which is why if you look in our garage you will see duplicates of the 2014 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S, 2014 #2 Audi Team Joest R18, and so on.

You cannot sell gift and reward cars, so it is not like the error granted us a big payday or anything, but on the other hand we can now have the cars set up for two different race classes, which if you think about it WILL save Credits you would have to spend converting. So yeah, bonus!

After a small argument we opted to go with the 2009 Ferrari Team Forza 458 Italia - which in its stock config is actually better over-all than the regular 2009 Ferrari 458 Italia! If you look at the specs, the regular one - which is an S713 - has better Speed (7.7) but compare its 5.3 handling , 8.8 Acceleration, and 5.3 Braking to the S800 Team Forza Editions 7.5 Speed, 6.0 Handling, 9.2 Acceleration, and 6.0 Braking and hey, big difference!

This race was set of 50 Laps at Indianapolis Brickyard with all Assists turned off.

Out-of-Band Percentages

• Assists: +63% Bonus

• Blue Crew: Grip Engineer (Super Rare) +12% Grip / -5% Weight.

• Green Boost: Manufacturer Mastery (Super Rare) +100% Affinity Level XP.

• Green Boost: Prodigy (Super Rare) +100% XP Boost.

  Assists Settings

• Suggestion Line: Off (12%)

• Braking: ABS Off (12%)

• Steering: Simulation (12%)

• Traction & Stability Control: STM Only (10%)

• Shifting: Manual with Clutch (7%)

• Damage, Fuel, & Tire Wear: Simulation (10%)

• Rewind: On (0%)

  Mod Card Impact

• -5% Weight = 2,611 Total LBS

• +12% Grip

• +100% XP = 60,000 XP

• +100% Affinity Level XP = 60,000 XP

At the start of the test run we really had no idea how this was going to end up. How much Cr. and XP we knew, but while we knew what the front-end would look like, the back-end bonus stuff? We could only guess.

CREDIT PAYOUT

• Base Credits = 60,000 Cr.

• VIP Bonus = 60,000 Cr.

• Mod Card Bonus = 60,000 Cr.

• Assists = 37,800 Cr.

• Difficulty = 6,000 Cr..

  DRIVER LEVEL XP

• Base XP = 60,000 XP

• Mod Card Bonus XP = 120,000 XP

  AFFINITY

• Base Affinity XP = 60,000 XP

• Mod Card Affinity XP = 120,000 XP

• Affinity Bonus Credits = 55,950 Cr.

• Prize Spin #1 = 50,000 Cr.

• Prize Spin #2 = Lotus E23 2,000,000 Cr. Whip.

• Prize Spin #3 = 25,000 Cr.

  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

  TOTAL Cr. EARNED = 354,750 Cr.

  TOTAL DRIVER XP EARNED = 180,000 XP

  TOTAL AFFINITY XP EARNED = 180,000 Ferrari Affinity Points

  TOTAL AFFINITY LEVELS = 12 Ferrari Manufacturer Affinity Levels

In the end the boosting gains obtained so far required an investment of just over 51 minutes (and we mean JUST over it - the actual race time was 51:01 - or 51m and 1s!) in our 2009 Ferrari Team Forza 458 Italia for a very sizable payoff indeed!

But where does that leave us? Well, it leaves us not having accomplished what we originally set out to accomplish -- which was to cap up the Affinity for the Manufacturer which, in this case, is Ferrari... So what else needs doing to make that happen?

The next stage of our adventure was to do what was required to hit the ultimate goal which was to Cap-Off the Ferrari Manufacturer Affinity, and along the way scrape up some odd bits of Credit and Driver Levels by searching the tight spots between the cushions...

With that in mind, Here are the results of this ongoing quest, with the application of fine-Tuning and the results of following Master Yoda's advice, which was dead simple: There is DO, and there is NOT DO. There is no TRY.

TEST RUN FIVE

For this run following the major 50-Lap for-the-record run an hour or so ago we set up with the same basic settings, though we did change a few minor details. With a snack plate placed conveniently at our elbow that contained delectable treats in the form of a small pile of thinly-sliced rectangles of a mature Alkmaar cheese, thickly sliced sandwich meats, and a pile of sweet walnut biscuits. On the side was a container filled with

With a nearly identical setup of the previous test run, another 50 Laps and just under 51 minutes the following results:

Credits Earned for Extra Run

• 60,000 Cr. Base Reward

• 60,000 Cr. VIP Reward

• 37,800 Cr. Assists Reward

• 6,000 Cr. Difficulty Reward

• 50,000 Cr. Bonus Wheel Spin (from DL 39)

  Manufacturer Affinity XP Earned for Extra Run

• 60,000 XP Driver Level XP

• 60,000 XP Affinity XP from Manufacturer Mastery Mod Card (Super Rare)

• 36,000 XP Affinity XP from Manufacturer Expertise Mod Card (Rare)

  TOTALS FOR EXTRA RUN

• 50m 32s Total Racing Time

• +1 Driver Level (Level 38 to 39) and just 3,150 XP to L40.

• +10 Affinity Levels (L12 thru L22 & just 6,001 Affinity XP to L23.

• 213,800 Credits Earned from Extra Run

• 155,999 Manufacturer Affinity XP Earned from Extra Run

Clearly in spite of our best efforts this did not secure the trick or get is to the conclusion being sought. That noted, what it DID do was to put us in a very firm and solid position for the end-run - so that this final run through will not require anywhere near the level of effort as the previous stages did!

At its very essence what remains is really just a matter of completing basic runs, using a very modest approach. In this instance we set up a 5-Lap run with the following configuration:

• Assists Bonus = 63%

• Experience Bonus MC (Rare / Single Use) +4,000 XP

• Experience Bonus MC (Rare / Single Use) +4,000 XP XP Boost-

• Manufacturer's Endorsement MC (Super Rare / Single Use) +7,000 XP Affinity Level XP

If you are not familiar with the way that these MCs work, the Experience Bonus Cards are actually rather special in that they boost BOTH Affinity AND Driver Level XPs. The only real question going in was the matter of the Base XPs and whether or not ten Laps was sufficient?

The Wrap-Up

The levels are closer but not so close as to not require some effort in terms of the base scores - so making the best guess that we could manage, we went with 10 Laps, and the same basic settings as previous runs used...

Drum roll please - and the results are that we gained a single Driver Level (which we knew we would as we planned out the MC for that express purpose) taking us to Driver Level 40 and obtaining a Wheel Spin, which resulted in another 50,000 Credits extra

On the Affinity side it turned out that the 10 Laps combined with the MC Bonuses was juuuussst not quite enough!

On the Affinity side we only managed to pick up a few levels taking us to Level 24 and leaving us with a gap of 13,001 required XP to actually finally Cap us out to Affinity Level 25!

That meant that we needed to do yet another quick run, only this time as all that we required was a FRCH over 13K we could do that with just a single Lap and the right MC.

CONCLUSIONS

What did we learn from this experiment? Well, in addition to learning what did not work, we actually acquired the proper formula for rapidly attaining capped Manufacturer Affinity with the least amount of effort possible! So hey! Sweet!

So here is what you need to do in numbered steps you can repeat with the manufacturer of your choosing:

1. A Fifity-Lap Free Race on the Brickyard with max density MCs (see details from each run) - 51m (51m)

2. A Fifity-Lap Free Race on the Brickyard with max density MCs (see details from each run) - 51m (102m)

3. A Fifteen-Lap Free Race on the Brickyard with max density MCs (see details from each run) - 13m (115m)

If you lack the really effective Affinity MCs (in particular the 100% bonus and 50% bonus MCs) you will need to add some extra Laps to the third run but other than that single caveat this is your Expressway Solution to capping Manufacturer Affinity and it is proven to work - so there you have it mates! The patented Ricky Racer 2-Hour Path to Manufacturer Affinity Capping Excellence!

That's right - Commander Rab could NOT have done it any better! Why we have serious doubts that Gibbs could not do it better OR more efficient, even WITH his sniper rifle and Ghillie Suit!

In just under two-hours (but possibly a smidgen more than 2h depending on your MC collection) you can Cap-off the Manufacturer Affinity of the Manufacturer of your choice!

In the process you'll also earn yourself a very nice pile of Credits so large you could Scrooge McDuck in it if you wanted to, and perhaps along the way a nice car or two from Wheel Spins, and most important of all, the Uber-Rare Crew MC for your selected Manufacturer!

Well done, you!