Update Speculation thread

even if they're not going to categorise the cars by brand, if they wanted to split the FCV into the vivace and tograc, or split the D-series into its weight categories, etc.
it would make sense to at least have them generally ordered by their brands, rather than having the "Charro" in one spot, and the "D45" somewhere completely separate in the main list, at least it's amongst the other gavrils.

 

If the D-Series were to be split into its weight categories, I feel like that would be done within the D-Series selector, instead of making multiple separate vehicles, so that there wouldn't be nearly as much stuff in the common folder (and thus, slowing the game down more). That's one reason why the Charro isn't its own vehicle.

As for the FCV platform, I think it'd suffer from a similar issue to splitting the Charro off, except the Tograc has even fewer differences to the Vivace. They're literally a front end, some trim pieces, and a couple inches in ride height apart.

I also found out earlier today that the new vehicle selection organization even works with modded vehicles - the Labrador Beaver and Procyon Centauri both slotted themselves between the Ibishus and the Wendover automatically - so that's very nice to see.

 

Well, I'm not surprised BeamNG scored a new peak right after the update, but reaching the 20000 concurrent milestone is pretty big. BeamNG at it's current stage is not the small 'car crash and not much more' game anymore and it makes me feel old having followed this story from almost the beginning.

 

This update has definitely gave us something new to speculate about.

Firstly...

It is rather intriguing to see a brand-new map mentioning the Burnside car brand, and it might be not be a coincidence, but a purposeful hinting of the developers towards potential revival or remaster of the brand's only vehicle, with a possibility of seeing more new vehicles designed with Burnside brand in mind. As some of you might know, the Burnside is technically a defunct brand according to the old lore, so it is interesting to see a brand that supposedly no longer exists, being a major sponsor alongside Ibishu on the "Start/Finish" line. It might mean that the previous lore is/was wrong, and we just have not seen any Burnside representation for over 70 years (since the 1950s), and it might suggests that Burnside still exists until the modern day, considering the fact that the logo design has been modernised and looks different from what appears on Burnside Special. After considering this, why would Burnside, a luxury subsidiary of Gavril, be involved in the motorsport, especially the off-roading competition? That's why we should look for the answers to Burnside and Gavril real-world equivalents.

Ford's luxury subsidiary, Lincoln, was mostly building more luxurious vehicles based on the Ford platform, and in the modern era (2000s-today) we see them manufacturing SUVs, such as Lincoln Navigator with 5.4L V8s, and later on, with 3.5L Twin-Turbo V6s. In fact, these engines are even more powerful than what Ford has put in their pickup trucks, so it would not be crazy to see such engines in the custom-built monsters or modified 4x4s and pickups. I'do believe that in terms of the lore in the Johnson Valley, Burnside is a major sponsor and supplier of engines (as the vehicles that Lincoln or Burnside have built so far, would never compete in such events). All of these points are pretty interesting to consider. Maybe we will see a modern Burnside, more specifically, a modern luxury SUV.

Secondly...

Developers seem to be more open to creating purpose-built vehicles that are really good for one thing, such as off-road racing or rock-crawling, unlike the D-series that can be an ambulance, police car, race car, off-road truck etc. I believe that we will start to see developers being more open to recreating other purpose-built vehicles, such as cranes and racing vehicles, like stock cars, open-wheelers, karts, sprint cars and others - the opportunities of this are endless, and could potentially pave the path for official licenses from specific racing series.

Thirdly...

From the lore, it sounds like a smaller company (that's how I perceived it from the devblog) that manufacturers mostly special and commercial utility vehicles, as the name of the company is Fabryka Pojazdów Użytkowych or Commercial (or Utility) Vehicles Factory. Such emphasis on the meaning of "FPU" could mean that they are planning more vehicles for it, such as weird special vehicles, for e.g. electric golf carts (see: Melex), trailers (see: Wielton and other smaller trailer manufacturers) and possibly others. Maybe even ATV is in the considerations?

Just wanted to share my thoughts into the possibilities of future updates.

 

You, @ManfredE3 , @McBeamer94 and @DriftinCovet1987 ‘s speculations are so interesting to read, and they make so much sense!

 

At this point we have a fair number of Burnside banners on maps set in the present day, which certainly suggests they internally have retconned the ROR era lore of Burnside going defunct. Honestly I'm not really sure I like that.

• First off, the name just doesn't sound like one that would survive to today. It sounds like something your grandfather drove in the 1950's and everyone has since largely forgotten.
• Secondly, mid-spec luxury marques have pretty much all gone defunct, with the exception of Buick (which isn't even relevant outside of the Chinese market anyway). The '53 Special certainly feels like it takes this mid-level marque slot, though I guess we have to wait and see what they do with it come the remaster.

I just can't imagine them surviving to the present day at all. We certainly do need more luxury marque content though, from Gavril, Bruckell, and Ibishu. It's a great way to get different flavors of existing content and introducing more quirky high performance cars to the market. Personally I'd prefer to see Burnside stay defunct though, with a separate top tier Gavril marque surviving to the present day. I could see Soliad surviving to today since the Wendover is both rather luxurious and performance oriented, which gives them more reason to survive through 2008 and into the current market.

 

Awww, thank you so much!

 

Very good points, but if Burnside is technically Gavril's Lincoln-esque brand, I could definitely believe that they have survived until the modern day, especially if Burnside built a luxury SUV that outsold their lineup, and in the 2000s/2010s had strong sales in the new emerging markets, especially the Middle East and China. This is considering the fact that Ford has a commercial success with Lincoln marque in China, that warrant the manufacturing of Lincoln vehicles in China. As you said, something similar has gone with Buick brand.

Stigma about Burnside being an "old people's car" or "grandparent's car" might be partially true and prevalent in the North American markets, where it is mostly driven by older folk, however, such stigma might not exist in other markets that never had such vehicle before, and could be a sign of success and the fact that "you made it".

Regarding the mid-spec of the Burnside - it might have survived due to going up the spec or merging with top-spec brand, and later replacing it, for e.g. how the Pontiac has practically replaced Oakland.

Lots of ifs, but it is a possibility and the path that I could see modern Gavril and Burnside going.

 

Although I do prefer the old 'production vehicle + a dozen variants' style of additions, the idea of purpose built vehicles such as cranes, forklifts, wheel loaders,... as well as vehicles that do not stick to roads would be very nice to see. Some months ago I outlined how there are already very nice mod examples of all kinds of vehicles which could also improve/contribute to career mode.

On the topic of official licenses, no thank you. Personally I prefer Beam's brands over real life vehicles, they're more interesting. But that's just my opinion.

 

yeah I feel like it could be too restrictive on the game

 

Indeed it has - so many new possibilities have been unlocked now that vehicles no longer have to be road-legal or based on road-legal vehicles - or go on roads at all, as evidenced by the Wydra.

It's not the first time that Burnside's been mentioned before as a current brand - I believe Utah has a dealership with a Burnside banner (the dealership near the broken bridge). It's also not entirely unreasonable for a luxury American brand to be competing or participating in motorsports - Cadillac's been doing that for over two decades with LMP cars, IMSA, and other forms of racing, and they've even been quite successful at it. However, Cadillac's a fair bit more upmarket than Burnside is - unless Burnside's planned to be moved up to Cadillac/Lincoln-level instead of luxury.

I've mentioned before in the Burnside thread that it's a rather oddly-proportioned vehicle - it's quite short and wide, and has quite a small wheelbase for being so expensive. One solution I proposed to solving this is by making the Burnside longer - as shown multiple times with the trucks, it's much easier to change a vehicle's length than its width. Perhaps the devs are going to make the Burnside much longer with its remaster?

However, as shown with all the other remasters, the devs tend to take rather...conservative approaches to them, only changing minor details and proportions here and there, so I don't think any of that's happening, unfortunately. The Burnside could definitely use more size to make it more different from the other old American cars - it's absolutely kneecapped by being the only one of the bunch to not have the option of coil springs all around. Even the Pigeon can get coils on the back.

A monster truck's been one of the most highly-requested vehicle archetypes for Beam for a long while - while the CRD monster truck mod exists, I don't think that's being updated anymore. A monster truck like that could happen, but an old-school truck based on the D/H/Roamer or Hopper is more likely, as Manfred's repeatedly said in his many wish-rants. It seems like the devs are certainly building up to that point, what with them making bigger and bigger tires.

We just got 44-inch tires in 0.27 - a new largest size for 5- and 6-lug wheels - but monster truck tires are usually at least 48 inches large, often around 66 inches. It'd probably be a while before we see an official monster truck, but it's certainly a new avenue for vehicle content if the team ever wants to make another tube-frame off-road special.

I know a while ago, someone offered to pay modders or maybe the devs to make an excavator for a gig. I don't think the excavator was ever made, but there are excavator models in-game, and the devs have been playing around with hydraulics lately, so driveable construction equipment isn't entirely impossible - and it'd be quite fun to smash people up with a big front-end loader.

And as for official licenses...yeah, I agree with Cyan here - that's not likely to happen, and I don't think it needs to happen. It'd be quite odd to have all these fictional vehicles and then have one or two real cars. Licenses can also expire or be revoked, and with how long it takes the team to make a vehicle, I doubt they'll be taking that kind of a risk.

FPU is certainly a very interesting brand to me - it could become the "Soviet/post-Soviet" brand for Beam. I know a while ago, Falkrum asked what non-Russians thought a Russian vehicle is to them - with predictable answers of "Lada, Lada, big barge, ZiL, Lada". Knowing that anything Russian is a bit...spicy right now, perhaps the devs decided to go Polish for their Eastern Bloc brand. That hypothesis certainly makes sense with the inclusion of a 4x4 version of the Wydra - that pretty much blocks out a not-SHERP from being made in Beam, as far as I can tell. Granted, a SHERP would be a fairly different vehicle from the 4x4 Wydra, but it's probably not different enough to make it worth the development time.

And yes, Melex-esque golf carts would be very neat to see. I'm not sure if we'll ever get a golf cart, or if that golf cart will be Polish, but FPU seems like the perfect brand for those kinds of small vehicles. ATVs, side-by-sides, and maybe even a cabover Euro semi could slot under the brand quite easily, too.

You're definitely not alone with that kind of thinking - the Stambecco's definitely been the star of 0.27, overshadowing all the other vehicles from this update (and even many older vehicles) for popularity. But I don't think that's going to discourage purpose-built vehicles from being made. Perhaps the team expected that, among an audience who tend to prefer highly-customizable street vehicles over purpose-built racers, a highly-customizable classic European van is going to be more popular than some tube-frame off-road racers and a little plastic XTV.

I've been thinking that this update was meant to be a sort of "test of the waters" for purpose-built vehicles. Perhaps they're easier to build than regular cars, so even though they might get only a few configurations, they can be made more quickly and be honed specifically towards an IRL class or set of classes instead of having to carry around 20-30 street configurations and all the parts that come with them. It's like they're being "compared" to the Stambecco as a question to the playerbase: "Can the novelty of being able to drive a specific non-street-legal vehicle overcome said vehicle's lack of customization and 'relatability' compared to a street car?"

So far, the answer to that question seems like a "maybe".

Thank you - I'm glad y'all appreciate me posting all the stuff I find from my searches around the forums and devblogs.

 

Oh yes, the beamng lore is actually so interesting, I don’t need any official vehicles. With every new vehicle, I love to see how the lore expands and it gives beamng this extra bit

 

then theres people like me, who’s best speculation was that time I drank a glass of water after 0.26 (think it was 0.26 at least)

 

The name "Burnside" definitely does seem a bit old-fashioned, but I could easily see the brand itself surviving to the present day by building luxury cars that ride and handle very well... for boring FWD family sedans and crossovers, because that's exactly what they are underneath. They blunder on with a festering reputation for being driven by old people and pretenders, while the marketing team is off in la la land struggling to figure out why they can't reliably steal sales from ETK.

 

My opinion:
I do not think the devs will make many more street/consumer/civilian vehicles
Reason?
Most every corner of the market is covered by cars in-game
Classic Italian city car? Autobello
General use semi? T-Series
Pickup? D-Series
I think they will still make a lot of cars, but more special use cars

 

I highly disagree

 

Frankly that's a ridiculous analysis in my opinion. The team has barely scratched the surface in terms of street car niches covered.

 

Pre-70s sports car?
Minivan?
Pre-60s truck?
1910s, 20s, 30s, or 40s anything
Light commercial van?
Euro premium pre-70s?
something with hydropneumatic or hydrolastic suspension?
something with a wankel engine?
a coupe utility?
That's barely scratching the surface, there are tons of fairly normal demographics still left open.

 

Oh, I absolutely think that street cars will still be a regular addition to Beam - they might be less frequent, but they'll still be added. There's still several types of road-legal vehicles and several nations yet to be represented - minivans, pre-war cars, a medium-duty truck, a cabover semi, a 2000s car, British vehicles, Swedish vehicles, Korean vehicles, among others.

Granted, many archetypes yet to be represented are non-road-legal vehicles - which seem to be faster to develop and build than street cars (for the most part - an F1 car would be a right pain in the ass to make, what with all the aero stuff).

New street cars tend to come out about once every 6 months - we just got the Stambecco in December of 2022, the Scintilla came out in June of 2022, the Bastion in December of 2021, the Wigeon in June of 2021, the Wendover in March of 2021, the FCV in April of 2020, the Bluebuck in July of 2019, and the Autobello in December of 2018.

That's a fair bit of time between new vehicles - not as much as between new maps (4 years per map is....quite a bit of time, and I have no idea how many maps will be coming in the full version), but if the devs want to stick to the 3-month release schedule, they might want to put in new non-road-legal vehicles between the street vehicles to show off or test new features.

I'm gonna put the following scenario in a spoiler, and say that almost nothing in this spoiler is confirmed or even teased of - it's just a scenario. The only thing known about below is that the K-Series is getting remastered next.

Spoiler: Scenario, yay

Let's say, for instance, there's a new cab-forward medium-duty truck in development set to release in June of 2023 in 0.29. On paper, that likely wouldn't be the hardest vehicle to make. The frames, suspensions, and the engines can probably be ripped and modified from the current Gavril trucks, and a new cab likely won't be terribly difficult to remodel. But it might also come with some new variants, like a garbage truck, that require a fair bit of research, engineering, modelling, and programming to make.

In this example, the ETK remasters are set to release in March of 2023 in 0.28. People are already very excited about that, and perhaps there's some new features coming along with those remasters, like tire thermals or better aero. However, the medium-duty truck's development time means that there won't be an all-new street vehicle that can make use of said features.

However, a go-kart would be quite easy to make and would fit the "race-car" theme of 0.28. It'd fill an archetype, give us a new vehicle to play with, and show off new features at the same time. This could play out for many other situations, too. New EV physics? Golf caddy. New aero physics? Stock car or low-end Formula car. Improved hydraulics? Forklift.

EDIT: My possible scenario might be more likely than I think it is.

 

We might be getting working excavators along with deformable terrain! Probably not next update but hopefully soon.
https://www.beamng.com/threads/excavator.89688/