Update Speculation thread

where?

 

I don’t really know how the materials system works but I hope they don’t get rid of materials.cs, mostly because there are some good mods that haven’t been updated in 2-3 plus years and still work perfectly, like the Satsuma 210 (little 50s car, not the hatchback mod) by mike94 and the Ibishu Kashira by Reazia. Since those mod makers left the forums years ago either because of personal reasons or toxic forum drama, or just simple lack of time because of real life stuff.

 

Well I use “perfectly” in a practical sense, considering the mods’ ages. I mean that they are still drivable without issues and are free of game breaking bugs and visible texture issues. Obviously they don’t have all the new game features, but they are still usable. I don’t get what people seem to have against the “backwards compatibility” for older mods.

 

If backward compatibility means also hold progression for the game I'm also against it. This game is still in development so it's rather obvious that old mods that aren't updated anymore won't work at some point.

 

Time to inject some actual speculation into this thread.

As said earlier by tdev, the next update has been delayed to November at the earliest because it's a far more substantial one and they need a lot of time to prepare it. Likely, this has to do with some larger thing. My guess is some very early form of Career Mode. It's been in development for years, there are unused UI settings for it recently, in 0.22 we got a ton of new gas stations, garages, and car dealers, and it's one of the last remaining items from "something is still on the horizon". However, I would not assume that this will be the whole mode. I suspect that it would be a relatively early version, lacking many features and pieces of content in order to judge community response and will be improved upon in future updates.

The Garage mode was removed a few updates ago because they wanted to redo and improve it. If some form of career mode gets released in the near future, a revamped garage map and mode would probably come alongside it.

On the vehicle content front, we really don't know anything yet, and I'm not gonna bother speculating about this until we actually have some teasers because any speculation is likely inaccurate.

On the level front, we have a few options for remasters and other level improvements:

1. Remastered ETK Driver Experience Center or a new German map with ETK DEC elements integrated into it. ETK DEC has been untouched for years, and it obviously needs a serious improvement pass. However, given its small size and relative simplicity, one would assume that it would have been updated already. However, as seen with Industrial Site absorbing the Port map, it's very possible for maps to be merged. They may have held off on ETK DEC because they wanted to make a new, larger German map and integrate ETK DEC elements, and the ETK map would be deprecated after this new map is released. Again, this is all just speculation, nothing here is confirmed.
   
2. Japanese re-theme for Jungle Rock island. See post here for more information and possible evidence pointing towards this. With some form of career mode possibly on the horizon, JRI completely lacks any important facilities likely needed for career mode (garages, dealers, gas stations), and without these it doesn't feel ready.
3. Remastered Cliff? I'm not sure what all could be done here but it also has been untouched for ages.
   
4. "Remastered" Grid, Small Pure. Why this still uses the old ground texture as opposed to the new one is really bothering me.
   
5. Remastered Template. Okay I'm clearly out of ideas. Ignore this one.

 

maybe an improvement on frames for career mode and hinted that they maybe Tyre thermals in the future

 

It could potentially have newer textures to make it look more withered/weathered or it could be even turned into an inactive volcano somewhere in the middle of an ocean which would make more sense than just a random hill sticking out of water

 

Not to mention that the UI development went completely radio silent.

 

they still revamped a few parts of the UI like the new world editor or the new console tho

 

I'm curious to know if they're able to do something about the fact that the UI is laggy to the point it's almost unusable and unresponsive. Is it a limitation of the game engine?

 

IMO thats the most likely Map i could imagine getting remastered in the next time

 

Considering the devs themselves said that the update was going to be larger than usual, hence the delay to the '3 month update cycle' - I would say that we will get at least two vehicle remasters (Bolide and Moonhawk) and possibly could see the long awaited Career mode being released. Also bug fixes too.

 

Or/and maybe a map remaster.

Anyway, I think (and I hope) that we'll see some teasers soon

 

If I'm not wrong they said that they are working on some sort of automated testing so "larger update" does not automatically mean more content.

 

new UI?