This game is still Early Access... and rather than mad, I'm happy.

I wanted to give a huge thank you of appreciation for the developers of the BeamNG team. You guys have done wonderful, and I can't wait to see what lies ahead in the future.

Now as for what I mentioned, this game is still Early Access. Most people are usually mad when a game is in Early Access for so long, but I'm rather excited and happy about this.

This game is still in early alpha stages. Think about that. This was made in 2013, and has been in development since then, and it's taken massive strides.

What gets me the most is that, apart from missing career mode, technically, this is in a stage where it could in a way be considered a finished game. But it's not.

Again, this is an early alpha. Can you believe it? It's so full of features and wondrous things, and it's still only early alpha?

This is why I'm happy. Because if this is still considered as early stages, then I'm really hyped for what will come by in the future. If we've come this far and we're nowhere near our goal, then it's just a matter of what we can expect. We've done so much with this game but we're only scratching the surface. I can only imagine what will happen in several years time. Imagine how much more advanced the game will be the time it even comes close to reaching just beta alone!

Thank you BeamNG, for filling our hearts with wondrous joy of a development team that shows no mercy, and will work hard to bring us something that will blow any and every competitor out of the water. Thank you for keeping us posted, and continuously providing updates for us (to be fair, updates have been a bit slow as of late, but considering current circumstances I'm glad you guys are still working hard to roll out more content), and being transparent with the community. Again, we've only scratched the surface. We've got so much content, so many features, and oh so much more, but this is considered alpha. What already feels like a fully finished game is still nowhere near completion and still has so much more to go. And I'm happy about that. I'm really excited to see what's next on the roadmap and just how much effort is still planned for this game.

Keep on driving, we've got a long way to go. Let's celebrate what we've achieved so far, both with the developers and our community as a whole. As BeamNG.drive once said back in 2014...

 

Yes, the devs really deserve our respect

 

I actually really like this situation and to be honest I don't even get why some people have a problem with the early access thing when BeamNG constantly delivers. It's the polar opposite of what many other software houses do (hyping up their game, throwing a half-assed product on the market, selling it as finalized release and then MAYBE fix stuff along the way later and/or abandon it all together shortly after).
With Drive it was always crystal clear what you get right from the beginning and not even once in all those years I got disappointed. It's like a journey you just really enjoy and I'm always looking forward to the next update, wondering what they'll come up with next.
So yeah, from me also a BIG thank you to the team!

 

I know. And going back to the 2013 tech demo really shows how much the game has changed. I mean think about it! That tech demo fucking blew my mind in 2013! Even that to this day is still pretty damn incredible. I loved Rigs of Rods but BeamNG.drive really blew my thoughts about RoR out of the water. What we have now is even better. Back in the day when even acknowledging the existence of a throttle on the Civetta Bolide was enough to send it flying. Back when there was that cool Cadillac car that had a collapsible soft-top. Back when the police car was a simple primitive Police livery, and it didn't even have sirens.

 

Technically, development started October 2011 (https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/10/01/the-most-impressive-physics-engine-youve-never-seen), and the first video of BeamNG was made on May 28, 2012. But the first public version was released August 3, 2013. 9 years of hard work, amazing job devs!

 

As I understand it when a project is in alpha phase it is still not feature complete.
In other words, to start the beta phase there needs to be a sort of feature freeze where no more features will be added (or rather planned) for the final release.
Once a project is in beta it really is all about squashing bugs and fixing crashes. However some development teams may feel inclined to add some minor features.

Seeing as how the developers for this game are pretty fast at fixing bugs, and crashes we might have a short beta phase when all the features are accounted for.
Also we might be closer to release than some of us realize. What's planned for the game after some old assets are touched up and career mode is finished?

Regardless, I am also excited for whatever the developers give us. I'm surprised that the price of the game hasn't increased lately to reflect all the hard work that went into it.

 

I’m not. I’ll be dead by the time it reaches beta, let alone final release which I’ll never see. I’m thinking some of the team came over from DCS.

 

This is a complicated physics simulator, not just a simple game. The developers need to implement way, way more features than just more maps, cars, and Career Mode. They've poured more than 8 years of effort into this game. Look at it now!

 

Well it's fun as it currently is right now, isn't it? Least they made a shit-ton of progress compared to some other titles that take this long to develop.

 

cough gta 6.

 

Now, I don't want to jinx anything, but we probably won't be seeing a 6th Grand Theft Auto game for at least another 5 years, or maybe never. GTA: Online has been such a big hit, and my predictions are that there will be a HUGGEEEEE revamp/overhaul for GTA: Online, and that update will have such a big impact on the game that it will basically be merged with the "GTA 6" title. But then again, that would mean they would have to overhaul story mode as well, which is unlikely. So I'm gonna say that when BeamNG hits it's final release, GTA 5 is still going to be around.

 

I think it’s coming 2023-2024 but most likely 2024

my question is, what does the dev team do after BeamNG releases? At that point it’ll probably be like 12 years old. So do they make a new BeamNG with the latest technology. Sort of like ror:beamng

 

I highly doubt there will be a new BeamNG, but my biggest hope is that by the time the game reaches the final release, the team will be big enough to add a few of the requests that all of us want, like certain types of cars, paint scratches, etc. Now this request is only from me (and it may be impossible) but I hope that one day the game will have some sort of mod support that somehow alters the files/lua/whatever/crap of outdated/unsupported mods so they will work with the most recent versions of the game.

 

Final release will have better graphics too, which will be nice. And since computers are getting a *lot* more powerful you can make the game better too

 

Except I'll be stuck with my heape of shite PC for the next 62 years.

 

Wait until prices drop on parts once they become "outdated" lol.

Well the PS5 only recently came out, and GTA V came out in 2013. If they had to stretch it from PS3 to PS4 to PS5, we'll be stuck with it for a long time. They've made so damn much off of Shark Cards and game sales, they won't be stopping anytime soon. Especially given that grinding is a pain in the ass in GTA, and everything is overpriced, you're forced to buy Shark Cards, especially as a new user. And for what? Only for you to get swarmed by 13-year-olds on Oppressor MKIIs.

Well if I can remember correctly they said "beta" phase will basically be around the time they get all of the core features they want into the game, so I'm sure we'll get paint scratches and proper dirt decals and the like by then. We'll have to see.

 

Agreed.

 

I`m really curious what is left for to add... Wendover for sure, few cars remaster...

 

There is a lot more than a few remasters and new cars. People want more modern cars in the game, and more brands, more customization, better looking cars, better maps, paint scratches, dirt decals, deformable terrain, more detail (I guess,) better mod support(?) possibly more collabs with other games(?) cars from the 40s-60s, more trucks, and so on.