Ah, the truth is revealed at last as to what the mysterious "AB" is. For months now people have guessed around, throwing out guesses of VW Beetle, Fiat 500, MINI, or possibly Renault inspirations, but now we know for sure. The final AB car has elements of these, yes, but it also has more. The front end is distinctly inspired by the likes of the Tatra T87, with a large central headlight and a bumper. The front quarter-panel looks Daihatsu-like. The front-side windows look like they are carbon-copies of those from the VW typ 3, and the rear windows copies of the Renault Dauphine. In shape, it resembles a Fiat 600 multipla, but the gullwing doors are a custom touch by the BeamNG team, not matching any existing car of this stature. The rear quarter panel looks almost like that of a Citroen 2CV, and the b-pillar looks straight from a Trabant. We also see further that AB is not Italian, like the map, or German, like the engine design. AB is in fact a Norwegian car company, and "AB" stands for "Avskyelig Bil"
Just random theory: As Gabe could not make cars planned, new vehicle artist made new vehicles as they needed more vehicles, plans were changed and chance of Bluebuck coming any near future are slim as car content is covered by new plans. It would fit quite well, also game needs some euro vehicles. As game did grow, policy was also changed, new cars are not getting threads as there are no need for such and experience from SBR4 did show how poor reception can be, but when car comes as a surprise, reception is better. Of course this is just guessing and fitting facts to fiction mostly, but I'm quite certain that what they started 2013 and what they thought they will aim 2014 has changed quite a lot because of success that has allowed greater level of development they were hoping for. Vehicular systems are far more completely simulated that was originally thought and that has become one of the key advantages of this simulation over anything else there is, that will carry simulation far to research world and thus the future path of the BeamNG. It is very likely there are changes in planned cars too, perhaps much more cars than they originally thought that would be possible. I'm thinking that 2018 BeamNG plan is quite different from 2013 one and that we should not put too much weight on what were planned at 2013 when looking what will be there in future.
I'm not quite sure if other vehicle artists only started work on projects because Gabe was out, or if they were just coincidentally released because the artists finished some car(s) that they have always been working on. I personally think it's a mix of both.
I'm thinking mostly same, also Gabe don't necessarily need to make cars, as one of founding members he surely will provide input and guidance, but probably he don't need to finish some of the cars as they have now possibility to replace with some new designs, but of course if Gabe really wants some of cars into game, then that probably will happen, but it is not absolute must as there are alternatives. Game engine change was also probably not originally planned, but it was needed, there are always some of these adaptations to situation in development and that adaptation is what wins in evolution.
Maybe AB means Automation Based? It could have started life as an automation car and then was modded up to dev quality by the devs...
The automation models are nowhere near suitable for dev-quality cars. I'll be very surprised if that's the case
yeah it is a little far fetched to be fair, the exterior of Automation cars are noticeably different from BeamNG cars too.
usually 6pm GMT I wonder if tdev will do his countdown thing.. When he posts stuff about him writing the changelog, and the actual song "final countdown"
It amazes me how little people seem to care about this. Having the options for weather was something I've always wanted in BeamNG. You can finally change the weather without having to load a separate mod map. Curious if it affects the skybox, ground textures, or vehicle handling . --- Post updated --- The new beater configs in game
Update- wow 2 whole pages I gotta read hang tight before I can say anything relevant --- Post updated --- Oh man I hope it affects traction, dynamic weather support?